doors that open beaux arts building goodge street tube

this is all about thursday, two days later, first the lovely afternoon, then the night...

i went over to manolis's to break my fast, early afternoon, took the guardian weekly with me and devoured it gradually, manolis had loufkia for once and as ever that lovely dish sorted me right out...

i left there and wandered up the holloway road, turning into manor gardens and on a whim into the public library there - with the amazing old school neon sign (i'm guessing neon - you know those 50's tubes that light up)... i didn't stay too long but i stumbled out into the garden which i didn't know existed, looking back at the building i'd just left i could see it's beautiful semicircular shape, invisible from the road... i came back out through the library and there's a sign at the front, not just a sign in fact it's the real thing... this first stone was laid by... la la la... in 1905 (i paraphrase), placing the library about 12 years after this street that i live on, and hence this house i live in...

so with this vague map of times and places i walked up the street, hoping to find out when the beaux arts building was built... now when i'd first moved to this area, 4 years ago, i'd walk up eburne road (which comes off seven sisters road perpendicularly) and see this building a few streets across with what looked like palm trees on top of it... this turned out to be the beaux arts building which i now walked up to and tried the expensive looking glass door...

and to my surprise it opened... so i walked in, and had a look around, who wouldn't?

i found my way up who knows how many floors and out onto the roof, saw the palm trees (not palm trees actually but some similar potted variety), the huge chimneys, some covered with ivy in the afternoon sunlight, looked out over london, great to see this area where i live and wander from this height...

such a beautiful day, such a lovely chance to explore, as i was leaving i passed a very pleasingly symmetrical ornamental garden... then just before i walked out into the world once more i asked a security guard when it was built and he told me 1909... i pushed the door to leave but it was now locked, had to push a button to get out, who knows when i'll go in there again..

that night i went out with my work because A is leaving, has left i suppose by now...

last year whilst observing the teaching of one of my students, this student told me he was glad it was me that was observing him because when he first started at my work i had interviewed him and i'd done the first workshop with the prospective students that day... somehow i was the face of my work for him... of course this pleased me... (flattering your assessing tutor during assessment)

now when i started @ my work - 8 years or so ago (when i was first a student there), A was the face of (her) work for me, she was the person who i met when i first walked into the door, i signed onto a series of workshops that she was running, that turned out to be search & reflect, which i now teach...

so it was quite an emotional night... we got drunk, i had asked my friend M to look after my keys (and my bicycle light, bicycle clips, plastic wallet travelcard thing)... and then completely forgotten about it... many people there to talk to, myworks past and present, spannaman may do a little saxing for me, me & P (mywork from years back) might get together to work on some gospel voicing (on the piano)... all kinds of good talk and plans, i got pretty drunk...

at a certain point M left, later still i remembered about my belongings in her bag... nothing i could do by then, she'd gone home, deep south, my bike would have to remain there and i'd have to get home by public transport, get into my house somehow, not enough to spoil the evening so i carried on...

got into a good conversation with D my boss, me & D haven't always been on the best of terms and it was good to have a drunken conversation with him for once... absurdity and humility, he had some great stories about random art events in london, a group called the welfare state who built a 60 foot model of the houses of parliament in front of the houses of parliament and then burnt it down... then lost their arts council funding... (he said you could see the flames from lewisham)...

we left there, the four old timers of mywork, one of whom was leaving, (B was the other, canadian, drumming, biking B) and staggered off into the night, i wandered for awhile thinking of how to get home, so unused to public transport these days, my bike locked up right there but no key... walked passed goodge street tube and on an offchance decided to try the gate, finsbury park has no barriers so if you can get onto the tube without paying then you can get off there easily...

and just like the door to the beaux arts building many hours before the gate swung noiselessly open, come aboard mr longcat, and i traveled home on our dirty, much maligned tube...

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