Look on the Bright Side

I try to be optimistic and banish the Eeyore side of my character even on wet days in January. So I like this northerly view from the kitchen window. I have even grown to like the council block.

But if I look a bit to the west this is the view and there’s another six or seven floors still to be added. The relatively low-rise terracotta clad blocks are a Premier Inn; already open, at least partially. The tower is student accommodation. I hear it has been pre-let to Imperial College so the developer has covered his bets.

Margravine Cemetery gives pleasure in all seasons and almost all weathers. The shops around the tube station are almost all useful: dress shop, chemist, convenience store, best butcher in London, estate agent, dry cleaner, French cafe, Polish cafe and Gail’s bakery. The pluses definitely out weigh the minor annoyance of a brutal development.

A small thing can give great pleasure. I am much too old either to give or get Christmas presents but I do like this tea towel that I was given this Christmas, designed by Muriel & Me in East London. There’s no Muriel, anymore than there’s a Thomas Pink. To digress, the Thomas Pink name derives from a long-gone tailor of that name famous for making well-cut hunting coats – it’s said it is the origination of the phrase “in the pink”. To slightly name drop I slightly knew the Mullen brothers who used the name for their shirt company – now sold to LVMH. So when I was in New York I went into their shop to buy a shirt. New York shop assistants are chatty, maybe my accent, so I asked if the proprietor had been over recently. I was assured that Mr Thomas does come over quite often.

“Muriel”, she deserves a new paragraph, is Briony MacQueen. She was art editor on fashion magazines and I commend her quirky collection. I nearly forgot to show you the tea towel.