chrishansenhome

It's not been a quiet week at the Elephant and Castle, except for Monday.

Tuesday Goliath had our Lodge of Instruction. Something that Freemasons have to do regularly is rehearse the ritual. In most Masonic jurisdictions the ritual must be memorised. One particular ceremony can take up to an hour, and may be conducted by one man. So, rehearsal is serious stuff indeed. My friend Nadeem, whom I nominated for the Lodge, picks me up at Northwick Park station on the Metropolitan line and we go to Harrow Masonic Centre and have a beverage in the bar while waiting for the meeting to start. The meeting was very emo as there was a bit of a dispute about some parts of the ritual. I thus proposed to make a leaflet detailing the differences between our Goliath ritual and the standard Taylor's Working. This I did, and we'll be publishing it in May after I assume the Mastership of the Lodge. Only problem was: Microsoft Publisher. The final leaflet came to 19 pages plus one blank page, and no matter what I did, I couldn't get page 18 to flow onto page 19. Whoever invented Microsoft Publisher needs to be corrected somehow. I suggest the cat o' nine tails, myself.

Wednesday was my swine flu vaccination. The good thing is that it was free. The bad thing was that the nurse was running 1/2 hour behind. I know that I shouldn't complain, but if I were 1/2 hour late for an appointment I'd get hell in a handbasket. My right arm ached for a couple of days afterward, and I had a very deep hypo on Thursday which I can't explain with what I was eating or the amount of insulin I was taking. I wonder whether the inoculation did something.

HWMBO was off Wednesday through Friday so on Wednesday afternoon we went to the Turner and the Masters exhibition at Tate Britain on Millbank. It closed today (Sunday January 31) so we thought we'd better go see it. Well, as it was the afternoon and a weekday we thought we'd have an easy time of it, but the exhibition was stuffed. Lots of people who wait until the end of an exhibition to see it were there, and many were elderly and had canes, just like me (I was using mine as my back was killing me…see Thursday for more informaiton on that). I felt that while it was slightly interesting, the Tate often has Turner exhibitions because it has most of the Turners that are extant, as Turner left most of his paintings that he had at his death to the nation and the nation gave most of them to the Tate. As it was kind of a comparison between Turner and other artists, if you weren't paying attention in Art History class (and I wasn't) much of the exhibition was not very illuminating.

Thursday I went to the Foot Clinic at Kings to be fitted for orthopedic shoes and insoles. I have been waiting for this for years (but didn't get on the official waiting list until December). The assessor (fancy name for the shoe fitter) was very nice, perhaps batting for Our Team, and sharing my first name as well. While he was measuring my feet for the shoes, he asked me how my back was faring because of the pressure boot—I told him that my back was killing me. Every time I got up from sitting on the bed while wearing the boot my back felt like someone had stabbed me in the kidney. He said, "Wait a minute!" and took my shoe (not the boot!) away. A minute later he returned with a device that raised the boot by about an inch. This instantly fixed my back problem and my gait is now normal, as both shoes are on a level. I was as delighted as a young kid on Christmas morning who got all the presents he asked for and no coal in his stocking. While measuring he rolled my trouserleg up and said, "It's like the Masons." and I replied, "Funny you should say that; I'm a Freemason." and we discussed that for a while. I shall bring a brochure when I take delivery of the shoes. They're black wingtips with laces.

Thursday night we went out with our friends Ard, Leslie, Eddie, and Christina to Belgo at Covent Garden. HWMBO tried a couple of Belgian beera, but I stuck to Diet Coke. The wait staff were all dressed in monk's robes, for some odd reason…perhaps because a lot of Belgian beer is brewed by monks. Lots of mussels were consumed (not by me), and I had a steak and frites, which were excellent. Then off for dessert. We walked from Belgo to Old Compton Street and Chinatown, and finally ended up at C&R Café and Restaurant for "dessert. As they have a £6 minimum per person, HWMBO and Leslie ordered some other stuff. The reviews are mixed, but we enjoyed what we had. I had an iced Milo and a sago pudding as dessert. One of the side dishes that Leslie ordered was a kind of meat loaf phyllo pastry spring roll…this was fantastic and I want to go back and have more.

Friday I returned to the Foot Clinic for the last appointment under the study I've been in. Well, I got in there and when the podiatrist came in I showed him the new device on my shoe and said, "Why didn't I get one of these when you gave me the boot?" He looked at the nurse and said, "I didn't know we had any in stock." The ulcer is still there, but much smaller. However, now that I'm out of the study I do not get free supplies from the clinic; I have to have them prescribed by my GP. That's a pain. Oh well, they are cautiously optimistic about it and I go back for a regular appointment in two weeks.

After the appointment I had to wait in the waiting area for a prescription. The usual doctor, Prof. Edmonds, wasn't there on Friday so I waited for 1/2 hour while they scraped up a doctor. Then the nurse came up to me with the prescription and said, "We forgot to do something for your last appointment." and I had to come back, take my boot and shoe off, and have her test the bottoms of my feet for feeling (I don't have any). The podiatrist just laughed and said to her, "I told you that we could just fill it in ourselves." but no dice. I was seriously late for lunch at the Drop-In.

Saturday morning I received something I'd bought from eBay in the US. Coffee connoiseurs among you will sneer at me, but I am now the proud possessor of a 6-cup Pyrex coffee percolator.

Now I realise that perked coffee tastes burnt and isn't the best quality according to coffee mavens. However, I have memories of my childhood, when we had instant coffee most of the time, but when company came my mother hiked out the Pyrex percolator and made REAL coffee, as opposed to instant. Now neither my brother nor my sister drinks coffee nowadays, but I'm seriously addicted. And when I fire up the percolator on Monday afternoon and have a cup of real perked coffee, I guarantee that I will be transported back to my childhood and I'll hear my mother say to me, while she poured me a cup of real perked coffee, "You really shouldn't be drinking this stuff; it'll stunt your growth." Would that it had.

Saturday afternoon we went to the Serpentine gallery via the 360 bus. This is a really great way for us to get to Museum Alley near South Kensington. No muss, no fuss, and a one-seat ride. Very convenient. I enjoy this bus route, which goes by the Imperial War Museum, through a housing estate and up to Albert Embankment, swings by the Vauxhall Bus Station and my gym, then crosses Vauxhall Bridge next to MI6 HQ. Then through Mayfair and along the river to the Royal Chelsea Hospital, the home of the Chelsea Pensioners. then down the road to Sloane Square and past Peter Jones, the quite posh store in the John Lewis family of shops which includes Waitrose. Then past the Conran Shop, with lots of merchandise we can't afford and the Michelin Building toward South Kensington Tube Station and the various museums in the area such as the Natural History Museum, the Science Museum, and the Royal Geographical Society next to Imperial College London, ending up in front of the Royal Albert Hall and the Albert Memorial, certainly one of the most garish and curious memorials to a lost love ever erected.

( Pictures behind a cut of some of the sights along the 360 bus route )

On the way to the Serpentine we stopped in the Gents' just beyond the Albert Memorial and interrupted what was probably a bit of the old slap and tickle between two guys at the urinals.

The Serpentine Gallery had an exhibition of modern design that was interesting; it including such things as the OLPC laptop and the bumper of a Lamborghini.

There was an area in the central gallery with Kindles, TV screens, and various displays. All the Kindles were occupied, and we didn't fancy waiting around. So back home to coffee and then dinner with our friend Mark at the Indian restaurant at the Elephant and Castle Shopping Centre. Mark was ogling the waiters, who were all Bangladeshi and very good-looking, especially Aziz.

This morning we had church as usual: it was the observance of Candlemas, and the major attraction of Candlemas is that I can put the candelabra away until Easter. The candles drip on the carpet and are a real nuisance: I refer to them as "the forest fire".

So that was my week.

I realise I haven't updated in a while...boo on me.

Monday through Wednesday at work were pretty forgettable. I cleaned up my email and basically waited to be released. Everyone was polite and some were very complimentary. Tuesday evening we went to Tate Britain to the private showing of the Camden Town Group exhibition. (Walter Sickert is probably the best known of the bunch). I enjoyed it--my criteria for an exhibitions I like is whether I find paintings I'd like to hang in our house. We had dinner beforehand at the local Witherspoon's pub--before the smoking ban we would not have even considered it. I had a steak (kind of tough) and HWMBO had salmon (which he liked). He had coffee and I had Diet Pepsi. So a very wholesome day indeed.

Wednesday night I had a disagreeable meeting at the Diocese--not because of the participants, because of the occasion. I was a panel member of an appeal tribunal against dismissal of an employee. I can't say anything about it, but I do hope that it doesn't happen very often or ever.

Yesterday and today I'm working at home. Last night we went to dinner with my former boss from the Big Investment Bank and his partner; they are also a mixed-race gay couple, Caucasian/Chinese. His partner is from Taiwan, and has been here a few years longer than I have. He is a musician and teacher, and all four of us had a rousing conversation that went on from about 7:30 until 10:30 at a Chinese restaurant on Gerrard Street in Chinatown. The food was good (I ordered stuffed tofu which was fabulous, along with hot and sour soup which was very good). We got through two bottles of Chateauneuf de Pape, which was surprising. We walked to Tottenham Court Road afterwards, us for the number 1 bus, they for the Central Line. We will be meeting again, and I think that out of the wreckage of our involvement with the BIB project, we have salvaged a new friendship, which is always a good thing.

Tonight we're going out with trawnapanda and dangtri, thus forming what soc.motsseurs will refer to as a "three Chris .con". Pictures will ensue. trawnapanda is visiting from Toronto; he participated in a meeting around detailing successful engagement between the Church and lesbian and gay organisations and people. He was accompanied by an archdeacon and an archbishop (retired). Such august company.

We went to a Members Private View of the Gilbert and George exhibition at Tate Modern this evening. What a wonderful exhibition! I enjoyed it thoroughly. Somehow, their art says something to me that I like. I don't know what it is, but I really enjoy it. The colours are so vibrant, their ideas so incisive, especially about subjects such as life, death, religion, and AIDS. I wish I had the money to buy one of their works. I'm going back to buy a poster, though...

If you're in London before the 7th of May, just go! It's the first exhibition I remember that had taken up all of the 4th floor.

Oh, and the slides were almost empty, but I didn't actually have the nerve to go. I probably won't have the opportunity now (I think they're being taken down sometime in April). Yes, I'm a wimp. But I went to the gym and exercised legs yesterday, and they are slightly achy. And I'm not a fan of heights. Oh, well.

I had a deep-tissue massage yesterday from Daz, a guy I met at my gym. He is a Sikh, very cute in a beary-sort-of-way, and a very good masseur. We bartered for it: I gave him an old hard drive and installed it in his computer as his own is crapping out. He gave me a very good deep-tissue massage. I really feel much better after these, and my back improves for days. Only problem is that he's located far south of here and it's a 1/2 hour trek to get there. This was my third, and I hope to have another after we get back from Singapore, if finances allow.

One of the things about being involved with the Church of England on a leadership level is that meetings are the bane of your existence. Someone once defined a Deanery Synod as "A group of Anglicans waiting to go home". Unfortunately, as Lay Chair of the Southwark and Newington Deanery, there are lots of meetings that I "ought" to go to. This morning's "ought" meeting was of the Anglican/Methodist group here in Southwark. A cooperation agreement has been signed nationally, and each diocese has to work out how it'll be implemented there. There is only one Methodist church in our deanery, and I know nothing about them, but I went anyway. A group of very well intentioned Anglicans and even more well intentioned Methodists spoke of how wonderful it was to be church together (one trendy statement). Several people misused the word "mission" as a verb: "We should mission together in the inner city" (for example). Argh. I wasn't very comfortable, as I'd neglected to go to the loo before entering the meeting room and I was on the inner end of a row. So I eschewed the coffee. The only redeeming factoid about the meeting is that I had a chance to buy a loaf of sourdough bread at Borough Market, next to the Cathedral. Sourdough bread always helps me remember and appreciate the year I lived in San Francisco.

This afternoon we went to the Serpentine Gallery to see an exhibition by an artist named Glenn Brown. His stuff is either very science fiction like (rocks floating around the canvas with cities built on them, always incorporating a sphere on a stalk in each city), or very surrealistic (he does faces with an odd swirling colour field on the face--the docent who was lecturing around us mentioned that it reminded him of decay--I'm glad we'd eaten before we went). HWMBO liked it a lot; I wouldn't mind the sci-fi pictures but you can keep the rest of them.

Patronal Festival at St. Matthew's at the Elephant tomorrow. Bishop Michael Doe, who is with the USPG will be celebrating and preaching. I didn't get to wash the altar linens, unfortunately. I hope we have a few lavabo towels to substitute for purificators. I hope he doesn't notice the wax stain on the altar cloth.

I realise that this livejournal sounds and reads a bit like Diary of a Nobody. I apologise for that. I suppose that settling into a routine and folowing it means that little or no exciting stuff happens to you. While I'm not eager for lots of exciting stuff to happen (plagues, pestilence, bad weather, and the like), it leaves me with mostly little events that no one else finds interesting or my own bloviation on the world at large. I suppose it's not as bad as that mega-multi-volume diary left by a gentleman in the US who did almost nothing during his life. Many entries had to do with the quality of his bowel movements and the amount of urine he produced.

If I get to that point, I shall stop wasting electrons.