Misfits Mid-Life Crisis Adventures in East, North London,  & Surrey (The NEXT Chapter).

Week 148 Saturday 15^thApril 2017 until Friday 21^stApril 2017.

Easter back holiday weekend is a glorious 4 day festival of chocolate.  The real joy of Easter as an adult is the extra days off work; any chance to bunk off is always a bonus.  However this Easter will be remembered for a different reason.  By the end of the bank holiday every muscle in my lardy body ached.

  Were on a road trip.

Aunty MOZ and myself took my 5 year old niece ice skating.  This was the first time I have taken her around London on trains, tubes and sitting on the top deck at the front of a London bus.  Believe it or not I can actually ice skate, I can’t do tricks, but I can stay standing on a couple of thin metal blades without breaking the ice.  In the early 80s my class of fellow thickos at school were taken weekly to Streatham Ice Rink.  I suspect this was a ploy to get us out of the way so that the clever kids could have the school to themselves.  One of my lasting memories has nothing to do with skating or ice.  Everyone was sat on the bus after a damn good skive which is really what the lesson was about.  The driver put his foot on the accelerator and the entire back window; the emergency exit fell out on to the road.  In the words of the great Shaggy “it wasn’t me“.

   Pre skating fun.

For 2 ½ hours Aunty MOZ and I dragged my niece round the ice as she clung onto what was called an “ice scooter”, which in my mind looked like a Dalek skirt (this might have been on my mind because Doctor Who returned that evening).  We took a risk before by filling her up with chips and a burger all washed down with a crushed frozen bright blue ice drink.  I was just as disappointed as my niece that her tongue didn’t turn blue, that’s what you expect when you drink a blue ice drink.  This is hopefully the first of many trips all over with my niece and eventually with my three nephews. Being an Aunty these last 5 years has been so much fun, but I feel the real adventure is only just beginning.  If every muscle in my body hurt every time I take her/them out then I won’t ever need to join a gym.

  “Best day ever”……

And Now For Something Completely Different……

 Round and round we go…..

I annoyed myself this week because of my poor judgment.  Weekdays I rush out of the front door early trying to get from East to North London as quickly as possible so I can sit in an airless office for the next 8hrs.  The journey consists of a couple of tubes and overground trains; I have a number of different routes that I can choose from.  There is one route however that I consider my main one, which I could probably do with my eyes closed if needed?

  Tweedledum and Tweedledee.

Wednesday I made a decision that had a domino effect on the rest of my trip to sunny Islington.  I don’t know why I stayed on the tube when I normally get off to change trains, this decision might have been made because I had a seat and was listening to a great podcast (there the future, you know).  Once I arrived at the London Overground platform at Whitechapel part of me wanted to cry, part of me wanted to throw my toys out of the pram, part of me wanted to turn round fight my way past the oncoming passengers and get back up the stairs go home and return to bed.  These were the emotions that were flowing through me, but of course I didn’t, I carried on with my journey from hell.

 This is a club i want to join.

It’s always the day I/you/we need to be somewhere in a hurry when the trains are screwed and the platform information system doesn’t tell you when the next train is due or where it’s going.  Everyone’s attention is not on their tablets or phones as they would normally be.  Instead all eyes are staring down the dark tunnel waiting to catch first glimpse of light of a train reflected against the curved wall.  You can feel the tension around you as with every passing second more and more people flood on to the platform all waiting impatiently to get to their destination.

 That festival feeling in the garden.

All of this will seem even stranger when I tell you I wasn’t late for work; I still had 35mins before I was due to start taking calls from the public.  As I mentioned last week I have a coffee based drink addiction and that’s the real reason I was annoyed with myself as I wasn’t going to have the normal 40 or 50 mins sitting watching the world go by, writing stories or this shiz.

 Writing this Shiz.

If you ever wanted a reason for this So-Called Blog to end you can blame the trains for being on time.

  What a cute Easter Bunny….

The Mid Life Crisis Conts……

 And now for some “Train Porn”, sorry about that.

This week I have mainly been watching:  “All Round To Mrs Brown’s”, (S1, ep 4).  “Better Call Saul”, (S1, ep 1).  “Birdman (The Unexpected Virtue Of Ignorance)”, (2014).  “Black Mirror”, (S3, ep 1).  “Blue Peter”, (TX 14/04/17).  “Boxtroll”, (2014).  “Bucket”, (S1, ep 2).  “CBeebies: Three Little Pigs”, (TX 21/04/14).  “Click”, (TX: 15/04/17).  “Climaxed”, (S1, ep 1 to ep 5).  “Doctor Who”, (S36/S10, ep 1).  “Eyewitness”, (S1, ep 3 to ep 6).  “Have I Got News For You”, (S53, ep 1).  “Happy Man”, (S1, ep 1 tp ep 3).  “Inside The Tube: Going Underground”, (S1, ep 3).  “Just A Couple”, (S1, ep 1).  “Murder In Successville”, (S3, ep 1).  “Nine Lifes”, (2016).  “Our Friend Victoria”, (ep 2).  “Peter Kay’s: Car Share”, (S1, ep 1 to 6) (S2, ep 1 to 4).  “Robot Wars”, (S6, ep 6).  “Springwatch In Japan: Cherry Blossom Time”.  “Tea With Mrs C”, (21/04/17).  “The Big Think: How To Live Longer”.  “The Graham Norton Show”, (S24, ep 2).  “The Last Kingdom”, (S2, ep x).  “The Last Leg”, (S10, ep 12).  “The Monkey Lab”.  “The Team”, (S1, ep x).  “Timewatch: Dial “B” For Britain: The Story Of The Landline”, (S17, ep 3).  “Top Gear”, (S24, ep 6).

  And finally some “Chocolate porn”…

This week I have mainly been listening to:  “Iain Lee: TalkRADIO (Bonus)”, (13/04, 15/04/17).  “Iain Lee: TalkRADIO (Highlights)”, (13/04, 14/04, 17/04, 18/04, 19/04/17).  “LBC Podcast: Mystery Hour”, (20/04/17).  “LBC Podcast: Nick Abbot (Whole Show)”, (14/04, 15/04, 16/04, 21/04/17).  “Scroobius Pip, Distraction Pieces”, (ep 20, 25/05/15) (ep 33, 29/04/15) (ep 95, 26/04/16) (ep 147, 19/04/17).  “Soundtracking With Edith Bowman”, (ep 37, 21/04/17).  “The Adam Buxton Podcast”, (ep 40, 20/04/17).  “The Nick Abbot Habit”, (ep 4, 21/04/17).  “The Rabbit Hole”, (ep 1 to ep 11) (ep 12, 20/04/17).  “These People Podcast”, (ep 19, 17/04/17).  “Morrissey”, “They Might Be Giants”,  “B*Witched”,  “R.E.M”,  “Fairground Attraction”,  ”Nena”, “Tinita Tikaram“,  “Sophie B Hawkins”,  “Radio X: Best Of British Top 100”.