Drizzle

Today it drizzled lightly from the moment we left the house until I got back to Chateau Fruitbat. The day started with Les taking me on a slightly more extended tour of Brixton, which as well as taking me past the Post Office again for another "post office run" also included a comprehensive tour of the exotic Brixton Markets and a visit to Brixton Academy where Carter USM are playing live on November 2nd. As you can see from the picture, LCD Soundsystem just played there the other night and apparently it was a top notch gig. Whilst at the Post Office I managed to post a couple of postcards (just one to go).

Our trip rounded off at Rosie's, a little cafe in amongst the markets which Les sometimes uses as an offsite meeting room. We had coffee there and had a lovely chat about Brixton, London, Melbourne, family trees and all other manner of subjects. It was a nice little place with a whole lot of continental foods on offer, and the girl who worked there was very friendly. All too often people working here in London seem a little glum and don't smile, so it was a pleasant change. After Rosie's we went our separate ways, and I headed down to the tube station to trek out to Bethnal Green, home of the Friends Of The Western Buddhist Order (FWBO)'s London Buddhist Centre.
First stop was Wild Cherry, a small vegetarian restaurant which is a FWBO Right Livelihood business. Basically a Right Livelihood business is a co-operative which aims to help Buddhists who work there pay the bills, but also make sure that their work-life is in some way spiritual, and does not cause harm to others. The concept hasn't really taken off much in Australia, but I like the idea. As you can see here, I got the Arabic Casserole, and a mug of hot Apple and Cinnamon drink, both of which were most amenable. The hot drink felt like it was doing wonders for my throat and my chest. I wouldn't mind another one right now actually!

Wild Cherry is right next door to the actual London Buddhist Centre which is the spiritual home of the FWBO. I went in and it's quite a nice little place with a small bookshop, a couple of meeting rooms and a really nice shrine room, as pictured here. That Buddha rupa is pretty big too... certainly larger than life. The man staffing the bookshop was also an amenable fellow who was up for a little bit of a chat about my trip (he was a Carter fan once back in the day) and about the FWBO centres in Melbourne, plus here in London. After getting some photos of the garden area, I set off in the drizzle through the heart of Bethnal Green where there was a street market going on.
Eventually I got to Brick Lane which is a funky little strip. Just off Brick Lane is the famous Rough Trade Records. I had a good look around but left with only a couple of £2 CDs (Saloon and Broken Spindles) from the bargain bin. A little bit of trivia for you... Rough Trade also owns a record label by the same name and a couple of early Carter albums actually came out on Rough Trade Records prior to them being taken on by EMI/Chrysalis. Trekking along then towards Old Street, in search of Smallfish Records, only to find that the location I had for the shop is currently bordered up and says "For Lease". Evidently, I got there a little late! With a bit of spare time on my hands I boarded a train to Oxford Circus in search of Hamleys. One way to explain Hamleys is to imagine a Toys 'R' Us store... replace a lot of the American crap with quality English merchandise, then cut the store up into 6 segments, stack them on top of each other, and then hang crazy stuff all over the place. I was happy in amongst the crowds but I could see some people were getting a bit overwhelmed by it all. It must be madness in there in the lead up to Christmas. All that stock however, and nothing really appropriate for Bennett. I kept on walking to Green Park station and then came back to Brixton. Whilst Hamley's couldn't give me a suitable present for Bennett, the wonder of good old Woolworths shone through and I found Bennett a nifty little Charlie and Lola felt set (a bit like fuzzy felt) which is very flat, so it should fit in the suitcase quite nicely. Back now at Les' with a hot cup of cold weather tea, to fix me up after such a drizzly day. My original plans for tonight were to catch up with Ricardo Autobahn and go see Robots In Disguise and We Start Fires performing live, but he's having car issues and I suspect I won't get a chance to see him before I go. Les has told me about another band playing live within walking distance from the house, so it sounds like a good plan to me. Having lots of fun in London, though I can't believe I've only been here for two days.