Day 91: Trellick Tower

Trellick Tower stretches 31 stories into the North Kensington skyline.  It is a fascinating building and long before I realised that this was a famous and listed building it captured my attention in a strange twisted way; it has an ugly beauty, a beautiful ugliness, proud and tall, imposing and belligerent, unapologetic against the horizon at the end of Golborne Road and an example of what is known as brutalist architecture by Erno Goldfinger who was immortalised by Ian Fleming in his James Bond series.

At the end of a muggy mixed day the sun called me down to the closing Saturday markets of Portobello where I followed the salty whisper of Georges to a hot, bag of fresh ripped chips.  In the bright blue evening the Tower didn’t look quite so imposing or brutal. There was a quiet huddle of police and ambulance that had a sense of permanence rather than drama, detached curiousity led me past to Meanwhile Gardens skirting the canal and into Kensal Road.  Here, between the canal and the main line rail into Paddington,  is a nest of roads that I had never wandered before; modern functional low rise architecture benign in contrast to Trellick Tower, mixed with older Victorian cottage style housing and a couple of big old corner pubs now defunct.  This area was first recorded as Kensal New Town in 1876.  It was occupied by Irish immigrants and home of the bulldog dealer Bill George.   The traditional starting point for the Notting Hill Carnival is also found here in the Emslie Horniman’s Pleasance Park with its arts and crafts style Voysey walled garden, a flood lit sports area and a rather space age children’s play ground. A little pocket of London to open up my eyes while I was eating my chips.  On the way back home the quiet huddle of emergency services was still in place under the canopy of the tower, strangely somnulent and inert.

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 76: Lost

A Rose Released

As I walk down Portobello Road I am noticing my heart opening to embrace this scuddy, electic, quirky, tie-dyed world of my neighbourhood.  It dawns on me how much and for what a long time I have been resisting London, desiring and yearning to be elsewhere than here.  It seems I am surrenduring to the Summer bouyancy of it, curious about the fedora with a feather, the decor of L’Epicerie, the possibility of a stall in the Portobello Arcade, sniffing at the La Cave a Fromage and making notes to self of the multitude of wine bars and cafes that have to be tried on.  Like yesterday there seems to be a different dawning, a drive to action, to stepping into life and experiencing it.  It seems like I have been stopped waiting for the green light to go for far too long.  I am not in a hurry but I notice that I am not in the effortless ease of the ebb and flow of Friday afternoon browsers, tourists and lackadasical locals.  Perhaps I am still crunching on my gears; out of sync I am clumsy.  I bump into and graze off crusing human beings and the subtle irritation builds as the opticians are closed before closing time, the dress I love is in every size but mine and there is no sign of mint in Tescos.

By the time I get home I am juice-day hungry.  And then I notice that I haven’t got my phone.  I have a grrrr in my gut now.  Back to Tescos but there is no sign of it.  The market stalls I stopped at are wrapped up and closed for the day.  We ring and ring my number and it just goes to voicemail.  The O2 chat agent bars the phone and reorders my SIM in no time at all. I am lucky it is only 3 weeks to my contract renewal date and I am already eligible for an upgrade but my plan to forego the cost of a new handset may well be scuppered unless, like Mary Ellen’s nose, my phone turns up.  Lost perhaps is really just waiting for me to come back.

Update:  Lost WAS just waiting for me to come back – what joy to release my photos.

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.

Day Seven: From Diamond Backs to Maseratis

T Bird In Hiding

I always like Friday down the market in Portobello Road; it is a cat stretch of a day after a quiet week of local trade things start to pick up for the weekend performance.  It is alive and vibrant, more local than international, more functional than ostenatious.  The regular fruit and veggie stalls are augmented, bread, pastries and olives an addition to loyal Tom with his exotic range of mushrooms and a pretty trickle of craft stalls are starting to emerge.  I like to stock up on my fruit and vegetables so after my Open Age pilates class (subject of a previous Days Of Awe blog) I head down on my trusty 1993 Diamond Back bicycle.  It is chipped and rusty, I notice moss growing in the wheel treads this morning and my saddle cover is a blue plastic bag.  I am dressed for stretching and comfort, electic casual blending into the raggy edges of the neighbourhood.

Despite my chosen mode of transport I am a fan of a good car with a preference for a unique design over a great engine but what I spotted looked like it had both; a vintage style, open topped cream sports car with a distinctive roundel.  I wasn’t quick enough to catch a picture of it or the sleek equally impressive leopard that purred out of sight before I extracted my Smart Phone (HTC One S if you are asking).  When I saw a third beast of magnificent engineering I thought this one was not going to get away.  Momentarily I thought I had lost sight of it but then spotted it expertly parked in an unprepossing spot between two vans and in front of a pile of rubbish.  This was going to be my awe moment for the day – this deep salmon red sinewy lustrous specimen of a T Bird.

Now I squirm at the idea of asking permission for a photograph so my idea was to coyly approach and take a quick snap.  I had not accounted for the fact that I might recognise the driver who was getting out of the car.  Jonathan Ross’ eponymous ITV Chat Show is one of my medicinal perscriptions for laughter.  Suddenly this person was no stranger to me – though obviously I was to him.  It was in this moment I became conscious that I may look more manic bag lady than quirky fashionista.  I was almost taken off target contemplating discarding the more comfortable garments in my wardrobe,buying a proper saddle cover for my bike and thinking it is definitely time to get my roots done.  I say almost but I have been down that road before favouring superficial over substance and this time  I will not be deflected from my adventure of capturing this beautiful specimen of car for my Days of Awe gallery.

My trusty 1993 vintage Diamond Back & bags

Now I spent a little trying to track down the first car I spotted.  The closest I got was a 1958 Maserati 300S but I find it hard to believe that there was a such a rare vehicle with a multi-million pount price tag poodling around my neighbourhood.  But you never know Portobello runs the whole gamut.

Courtesy of Simons Cars

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.