blech

5.00

Woken up. Surface.

5.30

Simon + I get taxi to Muswell Hill. Celia to join us later.

5.40

Phone call from Robin. On his way.

5.45

Arrive. Wet.

5.50

Jo + Amanda arrive

5.55

Harl, Robin, Alex (Robinson), Celia arrive over next fifteen minutes. First group photos.

6.15

Leave SW in search of Column J

6.45

Reach column at Crouch End, stop at b2 for supplies.

7.00

Crest Crouch Hill, only sighting of Natwest Tower

7.30

Zigzag from Hornsey Road (erk) to Holloway Road, then past Holloway Prison

7.50

Caledonian Park: clocktower follies and burnt out cars

8.10

York Road: disused stations, golf drives and gasometers

8.30

Picnic at Platform 1. Amanda sadly leaves, Andy M plans to join.

9.15

Judd Road, Brunswick Centre and Russell Square tube. Andy arrives.

9.40

Great Court and breakfast. Memestreams, festivals and more discussed.

11.00

Tourist London: Covent Garden St Martins, Trafalgar Square, Whitehall and Westminster. Chasing cameras.

11.45

Tate Britain for The Art Of Money. No trading so plane arium (sic) not working but RTI superscreen nifty. Sleepy participants prodded out.

12.10

Cross Thames at Vauxhall Bridge. Risk death at evil junction. Decide to hunt pub on South Lambeth Road.

13.00

Find pub. Hole up for hour and a half; discussion still sprightly.

14.50

Jo leaves from Stockwell. Chips, cookies and sandwiches form lunch.

15.20

Bedford Avenue. Long strange walk. Lyham Road reveals Brixton Windmill and mural.

15.40

Long, long Streatham High Road has lots of bad shops and untested pubs and restaurants. Conversation drying up.

16.20

Fatefull decision at Streatham BR to plug on to Croydon Tramlink. Enter suburban cul-de-sac hell under railway bridge.

16.40

After much tooing and froing climb Pollards Hill. Great views over South London and the Croydon hinterlands.

16.50

Find preferred path blocked. Have to leave Column J to escape twisty turny paths.

17.20

Seem utterly lost in Croydon football team's private car park. Guided to a very muddy exit.

17.30

Regain concrete. Expedition getting weary. Realise we're going to be early.

17.45

Reach Talipia Lane tram stop. Head for West Croydon- moral victory assured, having reached planned destination.

18.00

Reach Croydon proper. Attempt to find The Ship Of Fools. Heh.

18.10

Sunset. Still walking. Muted cheers.

18.20

Find pub. Drink, rest, eat and review photos. Everyone quiet. Initial estimate is 20 miles walked.

20.20

Leave pub. Intrepid explorers depart via taxi and, stupidly, on foot.

20.40

East Croydon. Confused by non-London terminating expresses, get slow train- via Streatham Common. Heh.

21.20

London Bridge, finally. Realise I've *really* lost my hat this time, but decide to not risk returning to the train: after all, it may be in the pub. Whatever.

21.30

Canada Water.

21.45

Stratford.

22.05

Leave 25 bus at Manor Park.

22.15

Home

continued... below...

celia

Alarm goes at 4.30. Wake up. Pulled back to sleep. Alarm goes at 4.31. Wake up. Pulled back to sleep. Phone rings. It's Simon.

: what time is it?
: 5.30. The taxis's here.
: fuck.
: should we wait or will you catch us up later?
: um. um. i'll catch up.

Wash face pull on clothes check keys jumper phone wallet fags.

Down then up Holloway Road for a minicab office. Get one, call muttley again. Muswell Hill, please. Get there just after six. Four or five at the bus stop. Dark. Cold. Still drunk from last night

: margheritas seemed like a good idea at midnight.

Wait for davorg. He doesn't show, but Harl does.

Decide to go.

Walk down to Crouch End. 24 hour shop is closed. Bugger. We start to move on but they open, so we go in and get supplies.

God's Entrance, Crouch Hill, Ashley Road, Holloway Road.

Still drunk. Cold. Chatting.

York Way. Disused tube station. Scary estate with br0ken cars. Logic gates.

Kings Cross.

Tea!

Sit on the floor of platform one. Harl secretly emails (void). Simon plays with WAP. New euphemism: "he's gone to see bodicea". Cold and tired and dazed. Surprised no one's told us to move. It's about 9am.

Off again.

Brunswick Center. Russell Square to pick up Andy. He arrives, cheerily "Hi!". Vaguely register he's there.

British Museum. Forecourt. Wander around. Bright and big. Jo points out design flaws.

Caf over the road. Lots of breakfasts. More tea. Coffee for me.

Mum calls. I tell her what we're doing.

: that sounds wonderful!
: yeah, well it is 3 degrees here.
: it's 33 here... I hope you're wearing proper shoes.
: yes mum
: drink plenty of water
: yes mum

Covent Garden passes quickly. Telephone exchange box.

Whitehall. A bit of sunshine. Tourist dodging.

Tate Britain. Computers. Planet-arium. Blake. Sculptures. Sit on the floor again in the middle of the hall. Wouldn't be surprised if people came over and started contemplating us. Why aren't they telling us to move?

On again. Robin teases security cameras at Westminster.

Change blindness. Over bridge. Synaesthesia. Vauxhall. South from here on in. Interplanetary Society. Slight redirect, then pub.

Two hours chatting. Anticipatory plagiarism. Accent development and evolution. Steak steak. Lego. I challenge you to a google fight. Memestream sample. Jo's burp.

Get up and go further south. Recurring dreams. Jo leaves at Stockwell. Lego Mison, Inventor.

On to Streatham. Nostalgie de la boue. Second hand electrical stores. Squeak squeak dolphin talk. Streatham Common.

: I want to have kids so I can teach them to spit and swear and feed them too much and give them an earring and a rat's tail.

: there is no (void).

Sign says four miles to Croydon. Press on so that we can see the trams.

Trawl through suburban wilderness. A lesson in loft living. This doesn't feel like London anymore. Life is a toy. Abandoned PS2. Best keyboard in the world.

Up to hill above Croydon. The opposite of Primrose Hill. Down again, meandering. Simon's knee story for the third time.

Around football field and mud. Tracked paths looking out to fields and trees.

More south. Tram stop. No ticket. Fuck it, risk it.

West Croydon. We're done but we can't find the pub. Tired, goal achieved, just want to sit down and have a pint.

Find it. Evil Dave. Beers. We're shattered.

Cab home - out at London Bridge. 43 home. Third stop on the Holloway Road, yeah that's mine.

Almost fall asleep in the bath. Write. Food. Sleep.