Tuesday 30 December 2014

Monopoly board in a day challenge .

So I finally found time to do the monopoly board in a day. It was a great adventure and  lots of fun. So on Sunday the 22nd of June me and my friend and fellow adventurer Helen set off . We left Euston at 10.25 am We d bought  a disposable camera so as to record our progress round London. Very old school I know.  We had a route map courtesy of a pack of girl guides who'd  done it and some background on the squares courtesy of some air scouts.

The Guides had set off from Paddington presumably that being the London terminus for where they were based. We on the other hand wanted to end up back at Euston. Given that the nice people from Waddingtons had included Euston Road we thought that was eminently achievable.  They were based in Leeds which might explain the random nature of sin of their choices of property.Allegealy they'd  Sat down in a pub in Angel and picked the properties over a pint or two.

Having reordered our route slightly we set off for Oxford Circus on the Victoria line.

Emerging into daylight we soon ticked off Oxford Street and Regent Street. Regent Street was closed to traffic and filled with old buses celebrating the year of the bus. After a quick consultation for directions we set off into the more prosperous part of London in search of the two Dark Blue properties. The streets of Mayfair were strangely quiet on a Sunday morning. The high end shops shuttered. We spotted several embassies and having traversed Mayfair successfully sadly with out spotting any Nightingales singing in Berkley Square. We reached Park Lane and pausing to admire the various psychedelically painted animals outside the Dorchester  Hotel including a Winnie the Pooh on Acid  we set off to track down Bond Street. En Route we passed through Grosvenor Square and in front of the American Embassy where we were probably bugged and tracked by snipers . We paused briefly to admire a statue of Eisenhower and a bijou Tardis complete with phone which appeared to be wired in still probably to the police but a very thick layer of grime suggested no one had used it to summon a police since around the time of Dixon of Dock Green.

We snapped a photo outside Bond Street tube thus completing the more expensive side of the board with 2 Dark blue and a Trio of green under our belt. Cutting slightly off the beaten track we discovered a charming snicket lined both sides with bistro tables with a very European feel.

We emerged from Maddox Street back onto Regents Street , and opposite our next target Greater Marlborough Street. The name perhaps shortened to fit into the square. All the Orange ones have a Law and Order connection and Marlborough street was apparently the site of a court.

We strolled down Regent Street and past Hamleys where we spotted a bus stop made entirely of lego. Admiring various buses on the way. We were looking for Swallow Street as theis would lead us to Vine Street. A rather unpreposessing  cul de sac of dubious merit and short length. Whose inclusion on the Monopoly board must be due to pagan sacrifices or masonic influence nothing else makes sense.

We exited swiftly onto Picadilly and picture snapped sauntered up to Eros and a stop at Boots for some Lunch. It was 12.20 and Boots wasnt open for another ten minutes so we made a quick detour to Macdonalds in order to use their facilities and get a McFlurry each.

We then wandered in the sunshine up Coventry Street that connects  Picadilly Circus to Leicester Square a Road that many have probably travelled without realising that it was from the monopoly board.

Moving swiftly to Leicester Square we admire the James Bond cars arrayed down one side as part of West End Live. Their representing the exhibition at London Film Museum. We cut across the square pausing for a moment to admire the Spiegeltent. Also part of West End Live and fullof theatrical memorabilia.

We  strolled down to Trafalgar Square and having established ourselves on a patch of greenery in front of the National Gallery we had  lunch while listening to the strains of Michael Jackson  songs from Thriller Live as West End Live continued.

After a well deserved rest we strolled down the far side of Trafalgar Square and quickly eliminated Pall Mall where we admired a vicious looking statue of a Kangaroo made from scrap , Whitehall, Northumberland Avenue and The Strand in short sucession

At this stage we had now added all the yellow and purple properties to our tally and one each left of the orange and yellow.

Hopping on a bus as instructed by our paperwork we shot up the Strand alighting at the Strand Palace Hotel. We then wandered up to the rear of Covent Garden area to tick off Bow Street. Stopping briefly to admire an old fashioned sweet shop on the way.  Continuing  the sweets and confectionery theme we walked along the side of  Theatre Royal which is currently showing Charlie and the Chocolate factory. Where a Oompa Loompa popped out and serenaded us.

Oompa loompa doompety doo
I've got a perfect puzzle for you
Oompa loompa doompety dee
If you are wise you'll listen to me

What do you get when you wander the streets
Trying to achieve a Monopoly  feat
What are you at, getting terribly sore 
As you struggle to complete your monopoly tourI don't like the look of that 

Or maybe not but wouldnt it have been cool if it had

We peeked in the door of Sarastro admiring the opulent and somewhat over the top operatic interior before cutting down the side of Drury lane. Sadly there was no sign of the Muffin Man


 Muffin man - Project Gutenberg eText 20338.png



Our next stop was Fleet Street which we decided to walk to rathe rthan get the bus as advised by our guide supplied paperwork .

We passed St Clement Danes church, adopted by the RAF as their church  and bombed severely a spart of the Blitz just as the campanolgist started practicing just before two . Either that or the clock had just struck 13 . The church is opposite the Royal Courts of Justice .

"It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen" is the opening line to George Orwell's 1984  

The novel Nineteen Eighty-Four has the protagonist encountering a picture of the church and is subsequently told how it once stood in the area in front of the Palace of Justice before being demolished in the revolution.

We wandered  out of the Strand and into Fleet Street home of Sweeney Todd and by doing so completed the properties on 3 sides of the board. All we now had to do was the brown and light blue , the utilities and the stations.

We were lucky enough to spot a heritage routemaster and hopped on enroute for st Paul's  where we disembarked and walked over the bridge the Tate modern being our "former" electricity works and we ambled towards London Bridge ticking off the site of a former water works represented by some "disco lights" under a bridge was the nearest to its site. Enter route we passed the Clink museum the former jail and generator of the slang name for prison as our Jail.

We hopped a bus to the old Kent road where we refuelled on lovely cakes at a algerian patisserie / cafe . We then hopped on another bus over tower bridge and  hopped off near tower of London so we could tick off Whitechapel and Fenchurch street.

We were now on the home straight   we hopped on the tube and ticked off Liverpool street and got off at Baker street and treked over to Marylebone. 

This left us the light blue and one station  which fortunately are very close to Euston where we started  and our final destination.

So it was bus to Angel and a picture of a suitably named pub. Then round the corner to Pentonville road and back on a bus and down the hill to Kings Cross station and Euston Road. Feeling satisfied we rounded off our set with a picture of an interesting looking branch of Barclays and a bike rack on the way back to Euston . The nearest you'll get to free parking in central London. 

The time was around 5.30  so satisfied with a successful and interesting day we treated ourselves with a visit to the" Cider tap."This square building is one of a pair on Euston station forecourt serving craft alcohol. The sister "Euston tap" serving beer and the "Cider tap" cider and Perry .

Having had a well deserved pint  we ambled slowly but contentedly into Euston station and thus home...

2014 a year in review

So my year in Meet Up  this year has definitely been an Angel year as I've been to various things throughout the year.

So January saw

1) Quiz night
2) Dirty Book club  Angel visit 1
3) Blitz Party
4) Science Museum lates
5) Final Friday drinks

February

1) Chinese New Year
2) Rumpus Angel trip 2
3) Dance walking
4)Art of Hearts Valentine's ball
5) TG
6) Quiz
7) Final Friday drinks

March

1) Carousel Angel trip 3
2)Once upon a grim Angel trip 4
3)Quiz
4)Dance walk
5) Watford social birthday
6) Hellfire comedy
7) Disco Inferno
8) Imaginarium

April

1)Rumpus Angel trip 5
2) 40s experience
3) 40s dance
4) Bon Jovi tribute band
5) Dance walking
6) quiz
7) AC

May

1) Sounds familiar
2) TG
3)Roller disco speed dating
4) canal festival
5)Dance dating
6) Blues night

June

1)Rumpus
2) Dance walking Angel trip 6
3) quiz
4)west end live
5) zoo lates

July

1)dance walking
2)Ac Angel trip 7
3) chap Olympiad
4) Yolo bingo
5) Dance walking
6)final Friday
7)al fresco cinema

August

1) Camden beach
2) Dance walking
3)Dance walking
4)Regression sessions Angel trip 8
5)morning glory
6)double denim

September

1)school disco
2) Dance walking
3)planet Angel
4) imaginarium
5)morning glory
6) dating in the dark
7) dark circus

October

1) dance walking
2)quiz
3)London decompression
4)dance walking
5)final Friday

November

1) AC Angel trip 9
2)final Friday social
3) burlesque

December

1) scandal
2)slaves
3) New year at Horns

So dance walking x 11
Rumpus x 3
Speed dating x 3
Opportunities for fancy dress through meet up x 24  of various  Times and motivations. Some more to add to th cctv footage at bushey station. God knows what the staff think.






Saturday 8 February 2014

Confidence

Ahh Valentine's day approaches. The time of year where shops and restaurants everywhere conspire. Even the group on holiday offers are mostly for 2. Sometimes I feel I am doomed to be permanently single .I am getting ever closer to becoming catman that most tragic of super heroes.


At 35  I am probably closer to death than birth.  How can I find someone to share this wonderful thing called life with.

I am working  on  losing weight but even if  looked like Leonardo de caption I'd still need  need confidence . The belief in myself to make that connection.

For years I gave up on the idea of ever finding someone . I automatically friend zoned every female I met  . If a female  we're to be interested shed need to make her intentions clear with the equivalent of a large flashing Sig to get through the filter that goes me she couldn't possibly want anything to do with me.

The first 2 people ever to kiss me did it for a dare and even now the women who approach me in nightspot are either doing it for a dare. There is a lot of pointing and whispering with their friends until one of them saunters over or so drunk that their friends decide they need rescuing rather than talk to me.Dancing with someone  and having them removed from Your vicinity and in one case the building is a wee bit of a blow to the ego.

I honestly don't know what to do about my confidence. Every week I go to ceroc class and worry if someone might want to dance with me and this for purely platonic reasons

As for internet dating  let's just say I have had lots of first dates but not many second and as of yet no 3rd

How do I switch off or overcome the voice that tells me   not even to try as there's no point



Saturday 11 January 2014

Railway Station list / adventure tracker 2014

As aconvert to the world of lists so in order
to track my adventures  in going to use stations as  way points to track my adventures in 2014

Bushey- platform 4 change from normal no 6 due to signalling problems  .Train10 minutes late
Euston
Charing cross-destination Whittards to resupply some chocolate chai.
Finsbury park- not taking an American to see a pantomime
St Paul's ,
Bond Street
Stanmore -all for BGP
Angel Dirty book club
Old Street Blitz party
South Kensington - science museum lates
Leicester Square - Chinese New year
Angel Rumpus
Lambeth h North Art of Hearts
,Elephant & Castle - TG
AngelCarousel
Angel vv vs ss



London Monopoly challenge

I have discovered that their is a route designed to allow you to  visit all the london monopoly spaces in one day .

So I have decided one day this year  to complete this challenge. Watch this space for more details.

Sunday 5 January 2014

Future cinema Ghostbusters 22nd

It was a grey and rainy night when  I set off for the Troxy Cinema limehouse to be immersed in the interactive cinema experience that is future cinema. Except it wasn't the tricky but the Sedgwick hotel ballroom and it was 1984 and I was attending an evening to celebrate a fashion icon.

One moment I was queuing in an alley down the side of the cinema next I saw a flash of light reflected from a building and I turned and there was a very familiar white Cadillac ambulance heading towards me complete with  crew of Ghostbusters and then their was a reporter and someone with a camcorder interviewing  the girls  in the queue behind me about their haute couture. The girls response was mango which prompted the reporter to say Maaan- goooo   in her best fake American accent . "Ain't that some kind of fruit."



The queue started moving forward and we edged round the corner  skirting a New York cop patrolling  the pavement. We plunged into the world of the Ghostbusters.

We were asked to hopscotch through the lobby and walked into the main cinema. The front was  an array of tables and acting on information from Naomi one of our party who had been before but hadn't been before Craig and I the first two to arrive headed for a table right at the front.
It turned out  to be a great choice although it turned out Naomi had meant a table at the front of the raised area rather than right near the stage but it did mean we were right in the thick of the action.

Craig and I settled in our table having saved various seats for members of our party by distributing scarves and coats.

Now there is a disadvantage in going to events with meetup where fancy dress is expected. So when someone dressed  as a Ghostbusters Sat at our table I wasn't sure whether it was a member of our party or an actor.  So when he accused me of looking at him funny I wasn't too sure what to do . However clued  up by the mango conversation I thought on my feet and said " I was looking at you with respect for the great job you re doing keeping the city free from ghosts" He then shook my hand. and we had a short chat.

The rest of the group drifted in and I could then explore. The back of the audiotorium was dressed with vintage desks with seriously retro gear  floppy disks , big computers , rotary phones. Their were microscopes to peer into. More desks, an evidence room with various props.

Their was some very  American food . Our table was wafted by the scent of popcorn and while we were waiting for rest of our party.

We had prime seat right at the front and once the film started we were  prime position for seeing all the shenanigans. Ranging from holographic ghosts getting zapped









Reenactments of parts of the film .

The grand finale was half the tables being stripped away in our section. Not ours to start with to allow for the inflating of a certain giant marshmallow sailor. Shortly afterwards when the film was over our tables were also spirited away and then it was time to dance like it was 1984 The only problem was that I had to leave early well about 10 30 for my traditional mad dash to Euston.. it was a great way to finish my Alternative nightlife adventure in2013  which had taken me from seedy Victorian glamour in a railway tunnel to  loud brash 1980s "glamour " in an art deco cinema pretending to be the ballroom of a new York hotel . What a journey :) Here's to 2014.



Lists and monopoly challenge 2014

Lists  a r e everywhere from the 12 days of Christmas to those lists of new year resolutions you make then throw aside.

When I go back to work  tomorrow I'll have a to do list . I'll have an inbox full of emails which is its own kind of list.

My discovery of meetup started with  a local listings leaflet and I went to a list making event last year. I attended 31 events last year due to a good friends list. Check it out at ginglelistseverything.

I run a prize for my doodling at a list making event.

Over Christmas we played monopoly  and while I was being thrashed by my sister I realised that over the last year I'd been to a lot of them.

I'd done ghost bus tours from Northumberland Avenue

-Gone to a work conference at whitehall
-SHambles through Leicester Square as a zombie
-Listened to West End show songs in Leicester Square
-Seen a Show on The Strand
-Gone to s pub on Oxford Street before going out at the katzenjammer club
- Been down Fleet Street on a ghost bus
-Got off at Kings Cross to go to a Steam punk Halloween Party
Walked down Euston Road on the way to a course induction
-Notched up Regents street and Piccadilly as a Zombie
-Been to Coventry Street to see the book of Mormon.


Not bad going  11out of 28 squares without trying so I half jokingly  said I'd try and visit them all in 2014 and promptly forgot about it .

This morning with a case of cabin fever I set off for london to track down a branch of shipyards and get some Chai. I decided on a branch on the Strand and it was only because I was convinced that Charing cross was one of the stations  t hat made me think of it.

However the Strand is one  as is Trafalgar Square which I walked past as I went up towards Charing cross road as is Oxford Street which I wandered along and as my bus went along Euston Road to get to Euston station address Euston Road.

So without trying I've racked up 4  of the 28 so I think it's worth giving it a go

So 4 down 24 to go . Suggestions for the waterworks and electricity company gratefully accepted.

One red and I can start building houses . So watch out Fleet Street.


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