Still in my pyjamas

A very brief update, as I stayed at home for almost all of Christmas and so have very few Camberwell-related stories to tell.

First of all, as Ben Patio said in his comment, the Grove Lane development has been refused planning permission (in it’s current form) by Southwark Council. I don’t have the report to hand and I’m too lazy to look it up, but the essence of what they said is that it was just too ugly.

Camberwell has lost another of it’s great place names (after Bee’s Auto Bits) as the African restaurant, 4 Real We’re D Best, has been shut down by the bailiffs.

And that is all for now.

Birthday weekend

It was my birthday last Tuesday (I’m grown-up years old), so on Saturday I decided to drag all of my friends away from their comfortable North London existence to pay a visit to the South. I decided that a communal-style meal was the way to go, so booked a table in Rock‑8, the Tapas bar on Grove Lane.

The table was booked for 15 but a few stragglers were brought along, so we ended up with about 20. As the rest of the restaurant was full, the staff did an excellent job of digging out extra chairs from all over the place (cellar, outside, etc) and seating us all in the long extension at the rear of the restaurant.

We decided to order two dishes each and to let everyone tuck in, like a buffet. The food was generally very good (a few dishes arrived late, one or two arrived a little too cool) and the service was great. Between 20 people we ran up a bill of about £300; that sounds like a lot, but it meant about £10 each on food, plus another £5 on drink — and there was lots of wine.

We left at about 10.30pm and, wanting to keep the party going, trekked down (in the pouring rain) to The Castle. I really like this place, but this was only the second time I’ve been there. It’s 2am license is an obvious attraction, but also because it feels friendly and warm. The DJ played a good selection of music (rap, hip-hop, soul and electro classics) and we all got very hammered. I don’t know what time we left there; it wasn’t chucking-out time, but it was late.

The feedback from all of my friends has been extremely positive; they all enjoyed their brief time in SE5, and now I just have to persuade them to do it more often.

On Sunday we took a quick trip to Camberwell so I could get a phone unlocked at the phone shop (whose name escapes me) at 1–3 Camberwell Church Street, SE5 8TR. They did it for £10 and it works fine. We also looked for a dry cleaner, but all were closed. That’s how life goes sometimes.

A quick apology

I’m being plagued by persistent and unrelenting comment spam, and have to delete in excess of 50 per day. In my blind fury I occasionally end up deleting proper comments, so I apologise unreservedly if you’ve left a comment here and it’s now gone.

I may have to put some kind of authorisation procedure in place, because the level of spam is really getting me down.

The White Squirrel of Camberwell

No-one knows how he* came to be, but all who have seen him have been left touched by his amazing beauty.

I first saw The White Squirrel** about six or seven years ago, when I worked in Southwark Town Hall. He was gamboling in the gardens in front of the Sceaux Estate, eating a nut like a regular squirrel — except he was as white as the driven snow. I thought he was the most beautiful squirrel I’d ever seen***.

I saw him on the odd occasion after that, but when I moved away from Camberwell I assumed he had died. So it was a great and welcome shock when I saw him again a few months ago, this time in front of the estate near Vestry Mews. I pointed him out to my wife, and we marvelled at his sleek, colour-free fur.

It’s not every place that is fortunate to have a White Squirrel, so is yet another reason why Camberwell is blessed. Perhaps we should start a fund to build a statue to him.

There used to be a White Lady, but she was just a black lady who painted herself white and was a patient at The Maudsley, so she doesn’t hold the same prestige for me.
Continue reading “The White Squirrel of Camberwell”

Winter, feeling Autumnal

This morning I went to get my hair cut at Cube. I’ve been growing it for a while so it was a decent length on top, and I wanted just the sides and back cut short. The hairdresser cut it all short. It’s a nice cut, but it wasn’t what I wanted. But I actually really like it, so maybe she knows better than I do — but I’m still annoyed she didn’t listen to me. Confusing.

While out I took some pictures of a few places, which I’m storing in this Flickr set. My wife has gone to Barcelona with the good camera, so excuse the poor quality of some of these.

I went to Duraty to buy a beard trimmer/shaver, but they didn’t stock it so I bought one in the Butterfly Pharmacy (17 Butterfly Walk, SE5 8RP), then I dropped into Wordsworth Books to buy… um, some books. The girl behind the counter was saying to her colleague “I love this bookshop!”, and that made me love it too. Enthusiastic staff and good service is worth the couple of extra pounds I pay by not buying from Amazon.co.uk, or whatever.

St Giles church

On my way back I took a walk through St Giles churchyard (pictured) and Lucas Gardens to kick the leaves around and look at the squirrels. I’m sure they’d usually be hibernating by now, but this winter’s been really mild so far. They are all fat and fluffy. I looked for the white squirrel, but couldn’t see him. Oh, wait; I haven’t spoken about the white squirrel yet, have I?