Washed Up, by Sarah Juggins, August 7, 2018
And so starts another sweltering week in London as the ladies hockey World Cup reaches its conclusion.
I have now been in the heat and the smog and the sheer incessant-ness of the capital for three and a bit weeks and I am tired of it.
The early buzz of adrenaline as you walk through the busy streets at 11pm or the vibrancy of the roadside crowds as they spill out of the city’s pubs and bars, have long lost their allure now.
What I now notice is the shrivelled woman dressed in a dirty shawl who sits outside the tube station every evening with a paper coffee cup for loose change besides her; or the man of indeterminate age who I have to step around to lock my bike in the high security parking compound of our apartment.
This is such a city of contrast.
From my East London apartment I can see the gleaming silhouettes of The Shard, The Gherkin and The Cheese Grater. That is the London that the rest of the world knows.
The five miles from here to there includes some of the most characterful streets that most people will never encounter. Intelligent and witty graffiti covers Victorian, soot-stained buildings; a community climbing wall and coffee shop nestles in an old warehouse between two half-built housing developments.
A vegetable patch is thriving on a piece of deserted land with the sign ‘help yourself and feel free to do some weed(ing) while you are here’.
Along the canal there is thriving canal boat community.
Their professions are signposted in hand-written signs in boat windows: guitar lessons, herbologist, bike repairs, carpenter, specialising in boat repairs.
My stint in London comes to an end soon and I will be back in West Norfolk.
As I take my third cold shower of the day and attempt to breathe clean air whenever there is a hint of a breeze, I can scarcely wait for the open fields, big skies and quiet evenings.
But, it won’t be long before the city beckons and I go running again.
For all its dirt and inequality and noise, it is like a habit you can never quite break.
