Barely back in UK time and still absentmindedly yassooing and efharistoing, and I find myself at 'Greece is Still the Word', a Skyros writers' lab reunion-cum-promo do at the Candid Cafe, Angel, on the last night of May. Candidly, the cafe decor did need a couple of glasses of wine before it could be described as charmingly bohemian, but happily wine was plentiful and it was great to meet up with some previous participants, share a few poems, and meet more of the Skyros London team - thanks for the sleepover, Lucy & Kate!
I love London streets. I couldn't eat a whole one, mind you, as the joke goes, though actually I felt as if I had by the time I reached the river at Charing Cross next day. I'd walked from Upper Holloway, probably only about 5 miles but the taste of exhaust fumes was congealed in my mouth like old egg and my throat felt kippered. Tried meditating on the train home. Can't do that, I just start making lists. Tried concentrating on not smoking - much more successful as I never smoke anyway. Here's the lists:
THINGS I LIKE about London:
- plane trees, clean streets
- hustlers, bustlers, big red buses
- city breakfast (cappuccino and sudoku)
- black cabs, bright costumes
- redheads, dreadheads, shavenheads
- diversity, history, poetry
- ships towers domes theatres and temples
- Sweet Thames flowing softly

THINGS I don't like about London
- tang of fumes on my tongue
- tension on faces, like they're afraid
of what I hide in my overnight bag