canals

so this is for 3 different occasions recently...

the 1st a couple of mondays ago, then the wednesday after that, then this thursday just gone...

1st & 3rd on foot, 2nd on the bike...

it started that monday, regretting not cycling in to KCC (by trellick tower), i got onto the grand union canal right there and wondered along it, at a very different pace to the cycling i generally do on it - although having said that, my quite impressive walking pace cycling technique does get employed with pockets of pedestrians on that canal from time to time -

little venice came along & i transferred onto the regents canal with a certain amount of street necessary... although less street than when i'm on my bike as feet can go back down to the canal earlier than wheels it turns out...

it was around 2 in the afternoon and on the two mondays previous to this i'd been to see the finches, 1stly with felinity on her birthday, then on my own (but seeing felinity's friend & goddaughter there)...

back to this monday i'm talking about i found my stone grand piano, under those rail bridges... place of homage for me...

i met a lovely young woman reading a huge textbook where the canal goes around the top of regents park... then floated off the canal and lay down in the park for a little while... reading proust...

i wanted to take the canal all the way to kings cross tube but i was kicked off it by some work happening (not happening in my sight but cutting off my progress),,, so i reluctantly made it back to street level and found the 29 bus home...

the following wednesday i had a meeting @ cm for an hour in the middle of the day, and afterwards i rolled a little jazz cigarette & stowed it away in my bag - i went in search of dilmah tea in the huge sainsburies in stepney... successful in my task i then headed north and when i hit the regents canal i got down onto it & headed west...

finding my progress cut short by another bit of work i stopped and smoked my JC... watching a man deal with his barge on his own...

when he started trying go through the lock that was just on the other side of the barrier blocking me & my bike i lent him a hand, squeezing through the barrier and assisting him with shutting the lock doors...

it turns out he possesses a sound system so we traded numbers, the idea that one day i might need a huge soundsystem seemed possible just then...

then finally this last thursday... again i hadn't cycled in to work over there (this time HWLC) and again after work i rolled myself a couple of JC's & i was drawn to the canals again... i got the train over to paddington and came out round the back by the canal... walked through the throngs of commuters up to little venice and onto the regents...

did that little bit of street, coming down just east of the maida vale tunnel... stepped off the path to right by the tunnel mouth and smoked the 1st of my two JC's...

saw a boat enter the tunnel and headed east... meeting a family of ducks, a couple of beautiful women & a travel writer on my way around regents park, through camdem and then eventually off the canal at the same point i'd been kicked off a couple of mondays earlier...

this time i tried to walk from there to where i could rejoin the canal but i got distracted on the way by st pancras graveyard... by st pancras old church (where R used to do those gigs, maybe still does)...

the graveyard suited me fine and i smoked the 2nd JC while looking @ hardy's tree... really enjoying the low angle that the sunlight was coming in @...

also really enjoyed soanes tomb for his wife (and eventually himself) which seemed to me to be like a really old rolls royce car...

eventually leaving there & walking down to st pancras station, through the eurostar bit (under that fantastic roof) and down finally to the tube @ kingscross and home...

many more canal days ahead i hope...

x