Day 95: Waiting For Lunch

I have a choice of cycle routes to Paddington.  On autopilot I usually travel to Paddington via Ladbroke Grove and Westbourne Park.  It is not an onerous route, traffic is not too heavy or aggressive and for the most part I can avoid the arterial channels of fat bottomed trucks and arse sticking motorists but coming back the canal route appeals.  From St. Mary’s Hospital, where I had my physio review*, it is cobbly ride down to Paddington Basin to the unboxed cleanliness of the chrome and glass concourse of the Paddington Station entrance directly on to the Regent’s Canal.  There is the coffee barge and the book barge and ordinary common place live a board barges.  It is quaint.  Sheldon Square is a hive of activity behind mirrored windows, canal side dining and drinking gently bubbling before the 5 o’clock boil.

Then Little Venice the trefoyle junction where Paddington Basin, the Paddington Branch of the Grand Union Canal and Regent’s Canal intersect.  Picturesque London, a tear drop of Amsterdam, now there is a dutch barge, cosy clutters of barges side tied and one or two houseboats asserting dominance.  There is a ribbon settlement of barges end to end for a mile or two and cycling is theoretically forbidden so it is a judicious journey giving pedestrians priority.  Then the cosy domesticity falls away and it is quieter, an eye in the storm of London.  A breathe of fresh air and peace or a something more sinister depending on your perspective.  My nature tends towards the latter and I am glad to be cycling; two hedge haired hippies shake their skinny hips and twined tied trousers to some silent music bracketing the towpath, a glassy-eyed youth with a can of Kronenburg loiters listlessly.  And then Mr Grey Heron, teettering on this rock, struggling to remain motionless to catch his prey.  A ungainly bird when launching into langrous flight more suited to a wide expansive of water.  His wings seem to skitter each side of the canal as he flys away irritated by my attention.

*I fractured my hip 18 months ago which led to 4 months effectively bed bound.  Soft tissue healing is much slower.  All hail & glory to the UK National Health System (NHS) and its unfailing support.

100 Days of Awe is a playful project I set up to bring my attention to awe in my daily life. I see awe as wonder, a mixture of amazement and respect.  I expect the experience of awe to be about perception shifting awareness and that demands a reframing of some sort.  I am excited to see what will awe me on this journey.

Anne K. Scott is an imagination technologist, her work to teach, facilitate and deliver innovation for individuals and business.  She is the creator of FindYourMojo a FREE iPHone productivity app. If you are interested in what intuitive coaching can do for you or your business please do contact me.  I support clients all over the world.

Day 46: By The Old Gas Works Wall

The local super store is Sainsbury‘s at the top of Ladbroke Grove bounding the Grand Union Canal and looking over at Kensal Green’s All Soul’s cemetry.  I don’t often go there these days, it is easier to drop down the hill to Portobello Market than navigate the incline to the Barlby roundabout and peddle the hump of the iron railway bridge.  There is a deadend zone between the main line rail to Paddington and the canal, a elongated tapering strip of land, salted by death on both sides – this is the site of the 1999 Paddington Rail disaster and there is a plaque on the wall to the 21 victims.  The Western Gas Company built a gas works on the narrowest part land in 1845, and the ornate Victorian gasometers are still standing in studied silence a paen to a bygone age.  Despite their majesty you could be forgiven for not seeing them tucked away in obscurity at the very dead end of Canal Way and deflected by the hoarding of a new Crossrail site.  Twinned like Victoria & Albert a majestic sight against a surreal sky.  The security man in the Crossrail hut had a beady eye on me, a suspicious character on my rusty bike taking photos of god knows what.

100 Days of Awe is a playful project I set up to bring my attention to awe in my daily life. I see awe as wonder, a mixture of amazement and respect.  I expect the experience of awe to be about perception shifting awareness and that demands a reframing of some sort.  I am excited to see what will awe me on this journey.

Anne K. Scott is an imagination technologist, her work to teach, facilitate and deliver innovation for individuals and business.  She is the creator of FindYourMojo a FREE iPHone productivity app. If you are interested in what intuitive coaching can do for you please do contact me.  I support clients all over the world.