All in all, it's been a pretty good week. Not only did I discover that Graham Norton is not doing his Saturday morning Radio 2 show until September (not funny, just plain rude), I also got my complaint off to the hospital. Amazingly I received an email AND postal acknowledgment from them within 3 days. Very impressive. Shame our Midwife wasn't so efficient. I'm not sure what good it will do but I'm glad I've done it. So, we'll just have to wait and see when they respond officially in 25 days as to what action, if any, will be taken.
There have also, however, been certain low points to the week. You may not believe this, and I'm not sure I would had I not seen it with my own eyes, but I saw yet another person urinating in public in broad daylight on Friday. That's 2 revolting beasts in one week. Unbelievable, but sadly true. This time, it was not a child, but a fully grown adult, relieving himself up against a fence while his female friend waited for him on the path in Hackney Downs park at 3pm in the afternoon. I was disgusted and the baby was not remotely amused. I was going to take a photo (I dont know why) but like most things these days, nothing seems to happen very quickly or spontaneously. By the time I had put the brake on the buggy, swatted a fly off the babies foot, untangled my hand from the safety strap of the buggy, rummaged around in my bag for the camera (underneath the muslins, to the left of the Infacol), the man had finished his dirty business. Drat
So alas, I have no urinating man to show you but I did take some pictures of the park.
Hackney Downs park is actually rather smart if you ignore the possible bullet hole in the sign. It has tennis courts, a bowling green, a children's play area, a children's only garden (thus no killer dogs allowed) and a basketball court. I think its just as nice as London Fields but a lot less busy / Nathan Barley-y. The reason for my walk through the park was not, however, to go bowling or attempt a game of tennis with the baby, but to meet the NCT maidens at The Russet.
The Russet is a fairly new cafe that has opened up next to the park. I've only been once before but I noticed it was quite popular with ladies with babies as it has quite a lot of space inside and out, bum changing facilites (babies only) and an area with toys. Perfect for an NCT hot chocolate date. The only problem was, I forgot which unsavoury underpass to go through to access it. I of course initially chose the wrong one, foolishly taking this dodgy underpass...
There have also, however, been certain low points to the week. You may not believe this, and I'm not sure I would had I not seen it with my own eyes, but I saw yet another person urinating in public in broad daylight on Friday. That's 2 revolting beasts in one week. Unbelievable, but sadly true. This time, it was not a child, but a fully grown adult, relieving himself up against a fence while his female friend waited for him on the path in Hackney Downs park at 3pm in the afternoon. I was disgusted and the baby was not remotely amused. I was going to take a photo (I dont know why) but like most things these days, nothing seems to happen very quickly or spontaneously. By the time I had put the brake on the buggy, swatted a fly off the babies foot, untangled my hand from the safety strap of the buggy, rummaged around in my bag for the camera (underneath the muslins, to the left of the Infacol), the man had finished his dirty business. Drat
So alas, I have no urinating man to show you but I did take some pictures of the park.
Hackney Downs Park sign.
If you look closely you can see what appears to be a bullet hole at the bottom of the map on this sign.
Tree with strange bulbous section. When you don't go out much, bulbous tree sections can appear quite fascinating.
Hackney Downs park is actually rather smart if you ignore the possible bullet hole in the sign. It has tennis courts, a bowling green, a children's play area, a children's only garden (thus no killer dogs allowed) and a basketball court. I think its just as nice as London Fields but a lot less busy / Nathan Barley-y. The reason for my walk through the park was not, however, to go bowling or attempt a game of tennis with the baby, but to meet the NCT maidens at The Russet.
The Russet is a fairly new cafe that has opened up next to the park. I've only been once before but I noticed it was quite popular with ladies with babies as it has quite a lot of space inside and out, bum changing facilites (babies only) and an area with toys. Perfect for an NCT hot chocolate date. The only problem was, I forgot which unsavoury underpass to go through to access it. I of course initially chose the wrong one, foolishly taking this dodgy underpass...
...when the one I actually needed was this dodgy underpass. The one with the homeless person living in it. You can't see it too clearly in the picture, but there is someone in a sleeping bag in here. I really don't know why I was surprised.
Unfortunately, I was so preoccupied with the baby that I forgot to take any pictures of The Russet but you can check out everything about them on their website here:
Also, this week, yesterday in fact, we continued our search for a new area to relocate to. We drove out of E8 and actually saw somewhere that ticks quite a few boxes for us. But probably the best and most exciting thing about the place we saw is that we can see my friends house from the bathroom window! We'll be able to pass bog rolls to each other via a crude bucket/pulley system if we so desired. If that's not reason enough for buying a house I don't know what is.
It was so nice getting out of London for the day that I was almost sad to go home, particularly as when we pulled into our street at the end of the day there were hundreds of Joe Publics milling around. My heart sank. "What's going on?" I thought. Where did all these people come from? Had they been evacuated from their homes due to a bomb scare? Was there rioting at the end of the road again? A flood? A plague of frogs? What were they all doing?? And why on earth were they all carrying union jack flags?! . . .Oh yes, the Olympic Flame. It had been to Hackney. And we had missed this momentous moment as we had been contemplating how long the rope would need to be between my friends bathroom window and our potential new one. Yay.
Yesterday - We missed this, and I'm not sure who this bloke is but hooray!
The flame comes to Hackney!
This morning - Hackney back to normal.
Actually, despite it being a great day for the wondrous (...) Hackney, I'm not that fussed by the flame to be honest, for I have touched it. Well one of the 8000 of them anyway. Before I stopped working we pitched on a job for Coca Cola and went to see it/one of them. I thought I might explode when I learnt I was going to see it, but then I discovered how many there are of them. Those new BoJo number 38 buses are rarer. Coincidentally, we also know 2 people who have carried it (my friends niece in Southend and a blind Hot Air Balloonist the Wig knows called 'Mike the Balloon' in Sussex). So, I don't know what the fuss was all about. Olympic Flame? Whatev's...
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