Monday, January 24, 2005
It's a Mini Adventure
Because of this article, I went off in search of my nearest Matalan yesterday. I found it in Leytonstone. I caught the bus from home on a cold but sunny Sunday, the destination nearby Leyton, or so you'd think. An hour and a bit later, I finally arrived there, having been on a magical mystery tour around East London; during which I discovered the Lea Valley Ice Centre (Home of British Ice Skating), Whipps Cross roundabout, the Sir Alfred Hitchcock Hotel which overlooks a somewhat barren peice of land, albiet with a pond I might add and found myself at one point standing in the Borough of Waltham Abbey! I was bemused by the whole experience, I'd discovered parts of London I'd never seen before, some familiar, some less so and marvelled at size of the place. Remember, I still hadn't got out of zone 4 and quite frankly it felt like I'd gone on a little mini-break.
Matalan was a bitter disappointment. A tiny crappy homeware section but I was determined to buy something so I am now the proud owner of a quite nice white casserole dish and a vegetable steamer. All the way to Leytonstone for that! I hot-tailed it out of there sharpish, though not before signing up to be a Matalan club card holder. Unbenknowst to me you have to be a member to shop. Luckily it's free. Unluckily I'll now no doubt be bombarded with junk mail. The ridiculousness of it. I wandered lonely as a cloud before finding my way to the tube. I must have looked like a bit of a tourist as I gazed all around in wonder. So this was Leytonstone. There was all the same old shops and quite a nice church. I resisted the urge to both go into the church and take a photograph. The Tourist in me may never die.
Then when I got home I did something I rarely do, I watched a DVD. I know, who'd have thought it, I don't know why I don't watch them often but there is always a million other things I'm supposed to be doing that well slobbing on the sofa watching a film doesn't happen often. But boy oh boy is it blissful when it does. Big Fish, in case you're wondering, it was really good. Quite magical and I am putting Tim Burton right up there on my list of favourite film makers. The whole thing was slightly made more special owing to the hour and a half I spent trying to re-jig the leads on the dvd/tv and ended up not getting sound through one of the channels. Which made 8 Women, a musical in French, very interesting viewing when I was trying out other DVD's to see what the problem was.
I have had two text messages from friends (steady on) over the weekend which said respectively:
"We have had 6 inches of snow!" and "It's boiling and we're sat on the beach on bean bags drinking Kingfisher."
One from New York, one from Goa. I think you can work out which is which.
And there was me thinking my mini-adventure round East London worth blogging about.
Matalan was a bitter disappointment. A tiny crappy homeware section but I was determined to buy something so I am now the proud owner of a quite nice white casserole dish and a vegetable steamer. All the way to Leytonstone for that! I hot-tailed it out of there sharpish, though not before signing up to be a Matalan club card holder. Unbenknowst to me you have to be a member to shop. Luckily it's free. Unluckily I'll now no doubt be bombarded with junk mail. The ridiculousness of it. I wandered lonely as a cloud before finding my way to the tube. I must have looked like a bit of a tourist as I gazed all around in wonder. So this was Leytonstone. There was all the same old shops and quite a nice church. I resisted the urge to both go into the church and take a photograph. The Tourist in me may never die.
Then when I got home I did something I rarely do, I watched a DVD. I know, who'd have thought it, I don't know why I don't watch them often but there is always a million other things I'm supposed to be doing that well slobbing on the sofa watching a film doesn't happen often. But boy oh boy is it blissful when it does. Big Fish, in case you're wondering, it was really good. Quite magical and I am putting Tim Burton right up there on my list of favourite film makers. The whole thing was slightly made more special owing to the hour and a half I spent trying to re-jig the leads on the dvd/tv and ended up not getting sound through one of the channels. Which made 8 Women, a musical in French, very interesting viewing when I was trying out other DVD's to see what the problem was.
I have had two text messages from friends (steady on) over the weekend which said respectively:
"We have had 6 inches of snow!" and "It's boiling and we're sat on the beach on bean bags drinking Kingfisher."
One from New York, one from Goa. I think you can work out which is which.
And there was me thinking my mini-adventure round East London worth blogging about.
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