A combination of kids' parties, sleep-overs and work committments (blimey yes I do have a job and how it distracts from the more important things in life like Fab Four sluething - urmmm....I mean looking after the Brilig clan) ..yes, yes all these things meant a trip to olde Londinium was out of the question (well I did actually ask the question and discovered that it was actually out of the question). So my mis-adventures were once again restricted to a couple of hours in the Olde Worlde Wells of ancient West Cantium. Ho hum Ho Hum Ho Hum. So what's happening here and what has these amateur Beatle Nut to report ? Ain't much I am afraid....Beatles never visited this place so really meagre pickings. Bored, bored zzz..
So, I walked into this tiny shop tucked into a corner of the majestic but rarely visited Corn Exhange. A place where the foot-fall (did I just say that ?) is quiet to the point of silent. A place where I feel so sorry for the little cafe in there that I have been known (Ok - always) to buy a coffee and a scone (that's scone ryhming with ....moan ?) having just had a coffee at Starbucks. I worry that they plan the number of scones they need to bake on a Friday night based on a view as to whether that strange chap with Beatle cufflinks might drop in. Do they ? I don't want to know. How do I get out of that committment ? Stop thinking about it. Anyway, very quiet. But this little place is great. A tiny space dripping with 60's and 70's nostalgia. Got chatting with owner and turns out he runs major nostalgia-fests all around Europe ! He tells me he used to be the football manager of a local non-league team and shows me a photo of himself back in the day with members of the '66 World Cup squad. Glad I made the effort to talk - that doesn't always happen. Note to self - be more sociable. It doesn't hurt does it for christsakes ! Anyhow....as I am leaving, I spot the paperback 'All You Needed was Love'. Read half of it straight off when I went back to Starbucks - why do I do that ?
Next stop - the multitude of chaaaarity shops on the off chance that someone may have dropped off a book, record or some other flotsum or jetsum since last visit (which was last week - gosh what a sad-o). It occurs to me that when you are that in-tune with the evolving itinary of such shops, you get a feeling about who may have 'passed-on' to other places. Don't wanna think about that one. Anyway, Twiggy autobiography catches my attention and I flick to index - as one does (from age about 14). She mentions that McCartney had a pyschedelic mural on his wall at Cavendish Rd painted with JL (check, check) and it is still there - re-decorations painting around it. Well he would, wouldn't he ?
And then the clock strikes and I am once again caught up in the wirrlygig of fantastic family committments which - thank God - draw me back to reality and purpose. The Briligs are home for tea and that is always good.
Our neighbours of ten years are moving on. This is not good news in the Brilig house and we shall miss them. They are having a sort-out and mindful of my interest (obsession ? No, no just a healthy interest surely ?) pass on to me a whole host of Beatle Stuff. I'm lovin' it as the kids never, ever, ever say...
