Warm and windy and the conditions were similar as well…
London
I Don’t Kneed This
Leisurely 5km run-commute then a sharp pain in my left knee. 
Sunday Best
I don’t do morning running: this was supposed to be a 10k with Ali but I was knackered so I turned back early. Ali’s pace meant it ended as a PB though… And I clearly need to adjust the strap on my heart monitor as it keeps slipping down and hence gives me a super-low reading!
Back in the UK
Well I’m back from my blissful two weeks’ holiday in Hong Kong, Vietnam and Ko Samui, so here was my first run-commute since arriving back:
Ali Brooks and Her Mazda MX5: “Black Widow†Shoot
It took a couple of months, but I finally managed to grab a photoshoot with Ali Brooks and her new Mazda MX5 Sport Venture at the weekend.
We decided to make it a fashion shoot rather than a lingerie or nude one and our latest order of latex hasn’t yet arrived from Westward Bound or Pandora Deluxe Latex, so we ventured out – geddit? – on Sunday morning to a nearby location, bumped the MX5 up onto the pavement next to the “Curlicue” statue and shot away. Â Ali looked great in her LBD, Gio Manhattan fully fashioned nylons and her new Christian Louboutin “So Kate” heels, accessorised with a hat and satin opera gloves.
The results can be found in the Fashion portfolio.
Then back, quick change a few boudoir nudes, some involving those fabulous new Louboutins.
Protected: I Liked It, So I Put A Ring On It…
What an Epic Weekend!
Well then.
Saturday morning and after a little lie-in I was up to try to have a quick clean, change of bed linen and then off to GT’s. We then walked into Epsom where I got my hair cut whilst GT was having hers done. A quick snack lunch and then we headed back to London. And the pub near mine on the Thames for a couple of drinks and some snazzy chilli chips as a snack.
Then it was a quick change before grabbing a cab to take us to Le Pont de la Tour near Tower Bridge for dinner. As I mentioned in my last blog entry, I had decided to raise a glass to my old friend Mark, so I ordered a good bottle of champagne and regaled GT with some of Mark’s tales of derring-do before we toasted his memory.
The food was excellent again, as were the glasses of wine and the port we had with a tasty cheeseboard before heading home to mine.
This morning, we surfaced at a halfway decent time to head over to Frizzante Café at Surrey Docks Farm for a big breakfast as we had a busy day ahead. Yes. We were off to Greenwich’s Bunker 51 to save the world from a zombie apocalypse for my birthday treat. Oh yes! ZOMBIES! And great fun it was! Very hot and sweaty and a bit stinky with the added bonus of blue bogies afterwards :0
On our way to take GT over to Waterloo afterwards, we happened to be in London Bridge and we had both said what a lovely afternoon it had turned into … which gave me the idea to take GT up the Shard (oo-er, Missus!). A great view all around the capital, if expensive.
The Trouble with Traffic Planning…
…is that it’s an oxymoron, much like the old joke about “Military Intelligence”.
Transport for London, in its infinite wisdom, has decided to fix a problem that it thinks might exist (see the quote below) in the Rotherhithe Tunnel by adding more solid bollards to restrict the width of the approaches to the tunnel down to 6′ 6″, i.e. tighter than a gnat’s chuff.
What this means is that on the approaches to the tunnel, both northbound and southbound, traffic – understandably – slows to a snail’s pace at best to negotiate the width restrictions and this leads to long, long queues of traffic and not just at peak times.
“The narrowing of the width restrictions on both northbound and southbound approaches to the tunnel will significantly reduce the risk of vehicle collisions, spillage of flammable materials, and fires in the tunnel.”
So a complete lack of a quantitative analysis or justification. Are they saying that narrower vehicles don’t crash or spill flammable materials or catch fire? Evidence?
No.
And what is to become of the vehicles that cannot enter the Rotherhithe Tunnel? Well they are required to use either Tower Bridge or the Blackwall Tunnel, both of which are well-known for traffic queues, so they’re just creating more travel problems or adding to the severity of existing ones.
Utter fuckwittery!
Still, I suppose they need to justify their fake jobs by coming up with these ludicrous schemes…
I’ve written to TfL to ask them about this issue, copied to my MP, so we’ll see what, if anything, they have to say.
Reflective
Work’s been quite hectic of late, as has my social life (which is no bad thing, of course).
Friday and I was off up to Soho and the Jazz After Dark to catch up with a mate, the excellent James Gillespie, who was over in the UK from Fuerteventura to play a few gigs on a whirlwind visit. Really good to catch up with him and his partner Jess plus a few other people I’d met at the Rock Island Bar as well as a few of James’ family members. Lots of drinks as always – ciders, spirits and shots! It was a great night out and even being grabbed in the bits by a friendly transvestite on my way home didn’t faze me!
Saturday and I was up bright and early to go and look at a house in the next block from mine in the same Crescent: a fair sized house for me with an even nicer garage which has the potential to double as a photographic studio due to its size and the high ceiling height for backdrops, lighting rigs, etc. We’ll see.
The it was off to see GT for lunch and an afternoon watching three hours of “Django Unchained” – spaghetti westerns reinvented for the 21st Century. Then it was off for another excellent curry at Cinnamon Spice.
A nice lay-in on Sunday before heading to Covent Garden for more retail therapy at Dr Martens with GT before I made my way home to pack and change to get to Paris by Eurostar and my hideously expensive but comfortable hotel.
A long day Monday in meetings and giving presentations to the MD of one of our larger Clients, made more difficult by a streaming cold {sigh}. Drinks in the Eurostar Business Lounge obviously help you care less.
Finally back home; my cabbie is also riding down to the Pyrenees this summer, apparently…
Working from home today so that I didn’t spread the sniffles; I took the opportunity to cancel a couple of remaining credit cards having cleared all the balances over the past few months. There’s something cathartic about doing this and cutting up the old ones. They were a safety blanket for me at times over the past years but with the potential to bite back, so it was good to cut them up and cut off more past times. More ties with the past severed for good.
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