Thursday, 24th of June, 2004

Well so after our not entirely satisfactory jacket potato, eaten half in the rain, we wandered northwards from Covent Garden and ended up at Neal's Yard, a cute tiny little square where the other Rough Trade shop is located under a skate shop. Didn't find anything there really that we hadn't seen at the other store… Also in Neal's Yard is the World Food Café, whose book Ange & I have used for a number of excellent recipes – a shame we'd already had lunch!
From there, we ventured across to Charing Cross Rd, where I reacquainted myself with New Worlds (science fiction specialist underneath/part of Murder One) – and I was a little chilled to discover that, just like all those bookstores in the USA, I couldn't find Ted Chiang's short story collection there! Argh. I did find the first issue of PS Publishing's new genre magazine, Postscripts, which looks very good.
Across the road at Borders I broke the Ted Chiang jinx, so that's a relief… Looking forward to re-reading the ones I've already come across and reading the rest, finally. We then proceeded to Soho, which I'd sortof been avoiding because it seemed like we'd exhaust all of London in one go. Past Soho Square we ran across the Blue Room, a very excellent café that I had spent some time at back in 1999 when staying with Kirra and Danae. Ange decided we had to go back for lunch another day, and we then caught the Music & Video Exchange on Berwick St (pretty crap) and Sister Ray next door, just before closing time. Dinner at Fakhreldine, and the New York schawarma was still the best (but did New York have za'atar pide? Of course not!)

On Tuesday we were due to meet up with a good friend from Brighton, Chris Cook (a mate of Henry Collins aka Shitmat), whom I'd never met in person. We decided to meet for lunch at the Blue Room, as Ange & I hadn't finished with Soho yet. First up it was time to visit some comics shops. Michael had told me that Forbidden Planet had moved and changed, and was worth visiting – and indeed despite the figurines and crap on the ground floor, below ground is a fairly decent collection of comics. But more impressive by far is the science fiction/fantasy section: a seemingly full run of PS books for a start, and plenty of other small-press titles and other good stuff. Probably at least as good as New Worlds down the road. I got a few things there and then headed up to Gosh!, one of the UK's best comics shops. There I was to meet a friend of Chris's called Adrian, who gave me a (fortunately fairly small) pile of stuff for Chris that he'd been holding off sending until it was large enough to warrant postal costs. Thanks guys – if I'm deemed overweight on the flight back, um, it's probably not your fault anyway. Damn.
Gosh also had some of Karl Wills's brilliant Jessica of the Schoolyard minicomics (I'd already picked up one at Lambiek) and plenty of other good stuff.
After meeting Adrian we met Chris Cook and his girlfriend Vicky, and I had a mushroom omelette at the Blue Room… Not much else of interest in Soho, but Selectadisc is still quite good. Looking forward to visiting the Selectadisc in Nottingham when we drive up with Michael on Friday, as well as Page 45 – indisputably Britain's best comics shop. Still, I think I've spent all my money already!
We had a very fine Chinese meal on Queensway that night, at a place that I'm pretty sure we visited with FourPlay in 2000. Roast duck, yum yum. More blogging in the evening as you may have noticed – found an internet café with WiFi.

On Wednesday we went to Tate Modern in the morning (well, I say morning – it took a little while to get going) – the one gallery I was definitely keen to see while in London. The weather was particularly crappy, and as we walked across the Millennium Bridge I was thankful that they closed it down in 2000 and made sure it wouldn't fall apart… The wind-chill factor was vicious (and to think that Tuesday (or Monday?) was summer solstice! Madness!) Saw some great stuff, and had to stop and stare at Dali's "Metamorphosis of Narcissus" as always. Also enjoyed a few Magrittes – still my favourite painter.
Stumbled home through the blizzard and had some delicious crispy roast port and rice from a different Chinese restaurant on Queensway. Then that evening we headed into town to have an Indian dinner with John Chantler, an Aussie electronic musician who I exchange a lot of emails with but haven't met properly before. He's been living in London for the last 8 months or so, and we had a great conversation about music, record stores (hello Norman!), cost of living, travelling and all that.

And that brings us, I do believe, to today. Camden Markets go from Thursday to Sunday, so today was Camden day. All in all, although it was enjoyable to head out there and remember our gigs at Bartok (just up Chalk Farm Rd) and all, the markets pretty much sucked. In addition, Rhythm Records has closed (and been replaced by a particularly uninspiring Music & Video Exchange – those places are spawning everywhere!) , and I think the interesting bookshop there has gone as well. So nothing much doing, had a banana & honey crepe and we headed back. I'm finishing my blog here and checking through a few emails, and will then do some hardcore packing because Mike's picking us up pretty early to go for a drive tomorrow. You should've seen Chris Cook & his girlfriend's mouths drop when we said we were just going to have a daytrip up to Nottingham – seems that the English sense of distance is still a bit different from us Aussies ;)
Given that I'm bringing a few odds & sods home for Ange and various other bits & pieces for other people, I'm going to have to fill my Sónar bag with CDs and/or books and take that on board along with my laptop backpack I think, in order to keep my suitcase under the weight limit. Yargh. All good though. Looking forward to my mighty return to Utility Fog – hope I don't fall asleep at the wheel, so to speak! Will miss Ange lots for the next three-and-a-bit weeks, but at least I'll have all my other friends :) [Except Mikey - come home soon!] Last update, I guess, will be from home in a few days.

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