It's quite late, I'm not sleepy and I'm in the mood for a waffle so...
There comes a time in a mans life when certain items of his clothing need replacing. I had noticed that my two pairs of Levi 501 blue denims are getting somewhat threadbare, the cuffs of my sweatshirts are fraying and the necks of some of my shirts are wearing decidedly thin. So I headed up west and attempted to renew my wardrobe.
When it comes to clothing I am a man of simple needs, plaid shirts, levis or chinos and sweatshirts (all my footwear is ok – 3 pairs Dms, 1 pair black trainers and 1 pair purple baseball boots) and I’ve worn this stuff pretty much all my life. But I notice the quality of Levi jeans has deteriorated and the price has risen exponentially. In other words, the quality is mediocre and the price is exorbitant.
Today I managed to buy just one pair of black Levis and I think I won’t be buying any more, I’ll be looking for an alternative. I do actually favour M & S shirts (being of a certain age might influence this choice) but I looked in the Oxford street branch and they had not a single one shirt I liked. Nor did TK Maxx. Uh oh – where else do I look?
So my shopping trip was not successful despite traversing all of Oxford Street. And Jays at Rotherhithe now is no more, they recently went into liquidation as a result of SE16 becoming gentrified thanks to current government policy, I always used to buy me clobber there when I could.
Today (Friday December 30th) the tube trains and the West end were packed, it was hard to move. Trying to negotiate the pavement was hard work, I kept bumping into people. This started to annoy me after a while so I started saying ‘**** Off’ to anybody who blocked me or bumped into me.This was quite fun, watching their expression when they heard me.
When one is advanced in years and decidedly old and farty one can get away with this distinctly unsocial behaviour. Those folk that do hear my insulting request and want to start a ruck just take one look at me and think ‘old geezer’s off his head’. You see, old age can have advantages, you can insult every dumb **** and they think you’re senile and forgive you.
So you don’t get whacked and you can tell people to **** off to your hearts content. Good fun eh?
There were all kinds of people strolling Oxford Street, many of whom – shock horror – did not appear to be speaking English. My goodness, what is the world coming to? There was one old black gezer in a beige linen suit, bald head and beard who was standing in the middle of the pavement shouting very loudly ‘Zigga Zigga’ and I have no idea what he was on about unless he was practising his lines to the Spice Girls song and meant to say ‘Zigga Zig Ah’ in which case he hadn’t got it quite right.
All human life is there. I strolled down Berwick Street, popped in the record shops and didn’t buy a single thing. I seriously think I may now have all the vinyl LP’s I want, with the exception of those really stupidly expensive ones, the Brit band Nirvana’s late 60’s release ‘Local Anaesthetic’ for £200 anybody?
Strolled down through what’s left of Soho and noted with some sadness that this is also an area losing it’s character and becoming gentrified and whatever you may think of them, there’s very few strip clubs and dirty book shops left now. They may have been a bit naughty but they certainly did add to the character of the area.
Walked past St Martins In The Fields and noticed they were staging a concert this evening Handels Messiah, but you had to pay to get in. My local main church, St Alfeges, regularly host free lunchtime classical concerts but I suppose that’s Greenwich Vs Trafalgar Square for you.
Leicester Square was packed (oo look, a huge poster for Star Wars Rogue thingie), Charing Cross Station was relatively empty and I came home. London has changed and is changing but I still like it and as I stroll around I do still have a million memories leaping at me wherever I go.