london

finished ghost of chance by william burroughs last night in bed so i picked up capital by maureen duffy as i went about my day today.

i'd bought it awhile back but hadn't read it yet, somehow it didn't appeal to me before but then i was reading the london review of books and someone mentioned her name in an article and when i checked that the book had been written in the 70's somehow this appeased me... so anyway i'm reading it, and it seems appropriate to be reading it after ghost of chance, burroughs and duffy seem to share an experimental edge, also the way time is presented in both books...

capital published in '75, almost thirty years ago, walking around london today reading this...

ate in top nosh, absolutely my favourite falafel place in london... anywhere in fact, when i moved to holloway and started going to the amazon cafe i was struck by how good there falafel was, almost as good as top nosh, they being the bench mark.

as i came in the proprietor was looking at a copy of a student newspaper that had named his place as doing the best kebabs, the evening standard had named his falafels the best sometime before he told me.

he also told me that they would be shutting for december, maybe for good, depending on this deal he's working out with the landlord, he said he always wanted to reach 60, see his son through university, pay off the mortgage then he could retire, all these things have now happened so maybe this is good timing... he'd been there 14 years, half the time ago since the novel was published, similar amount of time for the other arabic restaurant that i have always called the lebanese bakery even though they are not lebanese (?) which is round the corner from top nosh.

then i went into regent street and bought a few warm clothes, then back up to home.

all this on this beautiful day, choosing ways around town that allowed me to walk through lovely streets, taking pictures, some of which i'm uploading here...

then tonight i went up to stansted airport to meet josiah & grace off their plane from ireland, nice to be able to take grace off her mum who obviously needs a cigarette and go change her nappy...

lovely to see them, i've missed them since thursday when they left, did i mention before that after spending so long trying to get her to say r.... she now calls me wa ha, uncle wa ha... me & josiah piss ourselves laughing...

x