Open Writing

The London I Love

By seeing London I have seen as much as the world can show.
Samuel Johnson

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Grant Wilkinson, aged 41, was found guilty at Reading Crown Court of running a machine gun factory used in 52 shootings in the South of England including nine murders, most of them in or around London. He was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum of 11 years. Wilkinson bought replica guns and converted them into lethal weapons. Some 20 to 30
weapons are still unaccounted for.

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Twenty three passengers were trapped in a lift for 1½ hours at the Elephant & Castle Underground Station, South-East London, and had to be freed by the London Fire Brigade. The mishap was caused by a faulty lock.

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Bomb squad experts blew up a World War II bomb found in a house in Whalebone Road North, Chadwell Heath, East London. No one was hurt.

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Two women were critically injured when a 17-seater minibus careered on to the pavement in South Lambeth Road, South-West London. early on Tuesday morning while carrying performers returning from the Notting Hill Festival.

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The Surrey branch of the University of London is sending a collection of 60 Victorian paintings on a two year tour of the United States.

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The Royal Mint is introducing a new £2 coin to mark the transfer of the Olympic Games from Beijing to London.

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Two armed men wearing helmets held up and robbed a branch of MacDonalds in Bromley, South-East London. And another armed gang robbed a supermarket in Tottenham, North London, and took cash, cigarettes and alcohol.

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Twelve recycling bins are to be installed next week at Euston Station, one of the busiest stations in London, in an experiment to see if travellers will use them instead of dropping newspapers and food packaging rubbish when they pass. If the experiment is successful bins will be installed in the rest of the London stations.

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Three hundred illegal squatters including 100 young Polish men took over four blocks of flats in Limerick Grove, Clapham, South-West London, that were being used as temporary accommodation and due to be returned to their owner. The squatters, who moved in before the return took place, held late night parties, played loud music, sang and threw rubbish into the streets. Local householders asked Lambeth Council to restore order and evict the intruders. The Council moved in quickly and removed the squatters. But 120 of them moved again and took over empty premises owned by the Ministry of Defence in William Gardens, Putney, South West London.

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A collection of 100 teacups by the famous ceramics designer Clarice Cliff is to go on auction in London on September 23 and each one is expected to fetch £600 or more. It took the owner more than 50 years to make the collection.

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About 500 Londoners took part in a world record attempt for the largest simultaneous game of Monopoly. The players were joined in the game by thousands of people from 24 different countries across the world. The attempt, which involved players from as far away as Tokyo and Atlantic City, was beamed live to fellow competitors in London’s Covent Garden.

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This Day in History

500AD. The Chinese invented toilet paper.

1770. Ludwig von Beethoven, the composer, was born in Bonn, Germany.

1875. Captain Matthew Webb became the first person to swim the English Channel---it took him 22 hours.

1944. Paris was liberated after four years of occupation by the Nazis.

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Famous quotes

One’s first love is always perfect until we meet our second love.
Elizabeth Aston

Adventure is just bad planning—Roald Amundsen

Vanity is the quicksand of reason---George Sand

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Poems for Posterity
Remember Me
by Henry Jackson

If you are in the air or on the sea
Please remember me,
If you are not where you want to be
Please remember me,
If you enjoy a G & T
Please remember me,
If you like old-fashioned biscuits and tea
Please remember me,
If you like Cheddar or Brie
Please remember me,
If you are married or are free
Please remember me, or
If you agree or disagree with me
Please remember me!

Because if you are in

East Ham, Norwood, Croydon, Totnes,
Bristol, Bournemouth, Tunbridge Wells,
Wales, Wokingham, Nunhead, Pinner,
Denmark Hill, Ross-on-Wye, Bristol,
Bournemouth, Farnham, Portugal,
Munich, Buhlertal, Mallorca,
` Palm Desert, Sherman Oaks, Westford,
Vancouver, Oregon, Hawaii, Culver City,
Dallas, Laguna Beach, Los Angeles.
Christchurch, Osaka, Tokyo

Or even Timbuktu

I will remember you!

April 8 2003

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The Women in My Life---8
(Thelma)

Thelma is Singapore Chinese and one of the most attractive women I have ever met. She came to England at the age of 18 and has lived here ever since. She is a friend of my friend Lisa and both live in Croydon, South-west London. At the age of 30 Thelma married a famous film poster artist and they had identical twin daughters.

Thelma was his second wife and is around 60 but looks 20 years younger. She is striking in appearance, dresses well and has a slightly Oriental accent calculated to knock most men off balance. She did so with me. In a crowd she would stand out and her slim and lithe body needs no support. Yoga every day keeps her in trim.

After our first meeting I saw her at irregular intervals. But when she became a widow she telephoned regularly mostly to tell me about her encounters with a Chinese actor who treated her with calculated cruelty and this only inflamed her desire for him. She told me in great detail that whenever she arrived in his apartment he took off his clothes a minute later and strode about naked and insisted that she do the same.

Her life ambition is to be a film star but she only managed to get minor parts in B movies except for one appearance in a James Bond epic. But she did appear in many commercials and this buoyed up her undiminished aspirations for stardom.

On the occasions we met she was impeccably dressed in Western style and brought flowers and many gifts. She apologised for her slightly mangled English but was not aware that this little defect made her more attractive.

On every visit she brought food and cooked it for me Chinese style and it was full of exotic taste. She drank little with the excuse that it made her too amorous and out of control. While she was giving me this explanation she looked me straight in the eyes to see what effects her words had on me. I always offered her a second drink and she always refused.

She told me that she is confused about finances but from what she said I am sure that she has the inherited Chinese gift for handling money. This is a good thing because her husband left her a rich woman and his poster originals that she stores carefully increase in value every day.

In recent years Thelma has drifted into a relationship with a garage proprietor and they meet once a week but it is not the high romance to which she aspires. But she still dreams about love and admits reluctantly that the prospects are dim.

She came to visit me recently in my new home, brought food and drinks and looked stunning. The cloud of perfume she left behind stayed with me for days.

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Buckingham Palace announced that this year’s Summer Show attracted 20,000 more visitors than ever before despite a 5% drop in the number of London tourists.

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London bus drivers working on routes East and West of the City went on a 24 hour strike over pay. The want a guaranteed £30,000 a year and rejected a 3% wage offer.

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Me

Ever since The Games started in China I have been puzzled by the name Beijing. It did not register with my knowledge of geography and I struggled for a long time to find an answer. Then I found it. Beijing is, of course, Peking, and the name goes right back to my schoolboy geography.

I attended an eye clinic in Newham Hospital where they confirmed that I have lost all sight m my left eye.

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Friends & Family

Paula (Palm Desert, Cal)
On holiday with Elmer in Quincy, Maryland.