Double Rainbow Back in London [Ice Cream Sundae]
Well this week was pretty full on with the move. I managed to get everything done and the flat all cleaned on time Wednesday night before hopping on the train Thursday so that’s all good.
That included recording a conversation for an upcoming podcast episode, editing another, and publishing a third. The conversation I had with John Griffiths about his experience as an advertising account planner and the book he’s writing about the origins of this discipline is live on iTunes, my website or wherever you typically listen to podcasts. If you’re interested in learning more about how advertising is made it’s definitely worth checking out. I said good-bye to everyone in Perpignan, including friends, family and to Mount Canigou from my sunny terrace I caught a cold in the process, which is annoying. I’m staying in this weekend at my brother’s place in London and resting to get over it.
It’s a little sad to have left Perpignan, and I’m also happy to be back in London. I wasn’t thinking of looking for a room straight away this weekend but then opened this marketing email from Spare Room. The website’s founder Rupert Hunt is running a promotional campaign and Youtube sponsored mini-series to find flatmates to share his house with in London on a pay what you can afford basis. Apparently already thousands of people have applied. I have too, why the hell not. His house seems pretty cool in a weird and either creepy or wonderful way, I’m not sure yet. I also asked to interview him for my podcast, he seems like an interesting guy and I haven’t interviewed a successful web start-up founder yet. I also found a lovely room in a shared house right round the corner from where my brother lives in De Beauvoir Town. It’s a great neighbourhood, green, quiet, nice bars and restaurants, near the canal and not too far from busy areas like Old Street or Angel. We’ll see what comes of it. I’ll keep you updated.
Coming back to live in London is bringing memories up. I have many stories to tell of the years I’ve lived here, though probably best to start with the very first time I visited. When I was a kid, at one point my father started a new job in London and he was coming back home on the weekends. It didn’t last for that long but we went to visit him with my mother on holidays that one time and I remember a few things from it. I think it was in 1990, or maybe the following year. I was 11 or 12 years old. He was working in the City and rented a flat in a brand new development overlooking the River Thames in Wapping. I think we could see Tower Bridge from the flat but I’m not certain. It was pretty close in any case.
I remember being impressed with the city and the sheer size of everything, the buildings seemed ostentatious. I think we mostly stayed in the area nearby; we’d walked across the River Thames towards London Bridge. We walked by the Tower of London, the HMS Belfast, Tower Bridge.
I remember wandering around Hay’s Galleria. In the 17th century the building was a brew house. It was changed into a warehouse and wharf (Hay’s Wharf) in the 19th century during the Industrial Revolution. It was redeveloped again in the 1980s and has been listed for its historic interest. I wasn’t sure if a wharf was distinct from a quay so I checked it, the words are synonyms, meaning the structure on the shore of a harbour where ships can dock.
The word wharf apparently comes the old English hwearf meaning “bank” or “shore” and definitely making me think of the sounds a British dog might make barking. In the case of the old Hay’s Wharf, it was apparently more of an enclosed dock and covered by a glass roof. They covered the water up and placed a steampunk-like bronze moving sculpture called “The Navigators” that also made me think of Captain Nemo’s Nautilus. Most of this information was shamelessly pulled from Wikipedia.
Before going to London, I’d heard of this amazingly terrifying attraction: The London Dungeon, the museum of torture and horror. It was much less of a themed attraction and more of a museum then. I’m not sure how I’d heard of it but I’m sure I really wanted to go, it sounded very cool to me. There was also a counterpart horror museum in Paris that closed since, called Les Martyrs de Paris. The logos were similar in style, I think it was the same company or the Parisians completely copied the London design.
I wanted to keep a brave face on when I finally convinced my mother it would be a good idea for me to visit this thing. The way I remember it, I ended up being on my own — at least I remember being alone in several parts of the museum. After walking in I went from feeling excited to shitting myself scared pretty quickly. If you’re not familiar with the idea, It was mostly wax exhibits representing medieval tortures and diseases used in England.
The attraction is set under the London Bridge railway arches, it was dark for atmosphere but also a warm and slightly damp under the brick arches, adding to the general creepiness. I particularly remember a big cauldron showing off people screaming in pain as they were boiled in the pot, with a dude holding a wooden perch to push the poor sods’ heads back in the big cauldron. Some of the exhibits showed torture implements and the tiny cages prisoners would be held in. I felt sick and afraid from the amount of misery and pain people could inflict on other people. I didn’t think it was cool at all any more, it was different from the pretend of some gore horror movies, to feel it’s fun to have goose bumps and frighten ourselves with ghost stories around a camp fire. These were historical accounts of real stuff, or at least that’s how I took it as a kid. I couldn’t sleep that night for fear of having nightmares.
Years later and after they made it into more of an interactive attraction with rides and more actors, I recognised a few of the old wax exhibits left and wondered how they could have made such a strong impression on me. They looked old, battered and plain silly. I guess I’d grown up. We forget how impressive things can be when it’s the first time we see them, particularly as children. I already mentioned childhood fears in a previous Sundae but this hadn’t come to mind at the time, another fun reason to keep writing these newsletters (hoping you’re enjoying some of my walks down memory lane and that it’s jogging some memories for you too).
We visited the HMS Belfast, the Royal Navy World War II light cruiser ship turned into a museum and moored on the River Thames. It was interesting to be on board a warship, I thought it looked grey, cold and pretty small. I preferred visiting the Tower of London, its freakishly giant ravens and the guards in funny looking uniforms that looked after them. I was looking forward to seeing the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom and particularly the big diamonds, the Cullinan and the Koh-i-Noor. It was amazing, though the process of being allowed to walk through the room is almost eclipsed the jewels themselves. I mostly remember many guards, not being to stop walking and a huge thick safe door as the entrance. I haven’t been back there since; it might be worth visiting the Tower of London again. It’s unfortunately similar to the Louvre in that sense: if you’re local there are too many tourists queuing to visit, it’s expensive and it takes all day. There are many reasons to procrastinate. I’m Parisian; I still haven’t visited the Louvre. The queue was too long every time I had the good intention of visiting and couldn’t be bothered. Mañana, mañana — to show off my Spanish roots a little. There’s always tomorrow, I’ll do it tomorrow.
I’ve been doing that a little too much for my liking with this newsletter too. Here we are Saturday night and it’s becoming slightly too frequent that I’m finishing this newsletter the night before it should be emailed. I still have good intentions of writing a few different ones in advance, but I’ve only got so far as creating the files and jotting down a few bullet points of ideas of what to write about. Now I can add procrastination to the list of topics but go figure when I’ll manage to write about it. I’ll probably find some time tomorrow. Or the day after.
I have a whole week until the next Sundae! See you then, have a great week!
All the best,
Willem
This newsletter was originally published via email on the 24th January 2016. You can also sign up to receive Ice Cream Sundae on the Ice Cream for Everyone website.
