Art & crafts

First the crafts. This is very pretentious on my part but I like the title so if you're not happy sue me!

I was up before God had lit his first smoke of the day to go to that fancy London town. As we got closer to our country's capital the costermongers and flower-sellers and cheeky chimney-sweeps with whom I shared the train broke into song and danced the length of the carriage..................or I may have dreamt that bit.

Anyway, I headed over to Camden Town for a chat with some colleagues about what I do (and that's the "craft" link innt!). It's always nice to spend time with OU folk and I saw someone I've known online for years but never met. I also caught up with some guys I've not seen in ages so that was all good. I agreed to hang around after I'd done my session as there were some folk who couldn't come to it but who wanted to discuss their experiences of working in the places I visit.

I then headed back to the tube and enjoyed the 96-step spiral staircase to the platform at Camden High St station. It seems that on Saturdays they switch all the escalators to "Up" to clear the platforms quickly. I went all the way to Waterloo (Cue "Abba") and then to the Festival Hall to see the Strength and Vulnerability Bunker exhibition. All the artworks on display were created by people in prison, secure units or immigration centres, or being supervised by probation. I cannot do justice to the work on display but would urge anyone who can get there to do so before it closes. It's free and finishes on 1st December.

Then across the bouncy bridge to Embankment station to grab a train to Victoria and then home. My phone battery died so I wasn't able to catch up with blips and FB and Twitter but at least there were lots of people having conversations so important that they had to be heard by the rest of the train.

It's Saturday evening so I strongly recommend that you let your hair down mes amigos - Let's grip it and rip it! I'm off for a glass of Pinot with a chum :-)