White City

I had a meeting today with community leaders on the White City estate in West London to talk about a potential project which BBC Outreach look like they might want to fund. Everything seemed to go very well, so I have my fingers firmly crossed that my first project for 2013 is about to roll in...

The White City Estate feels like it might be the focus of a really beautiful film. It's got an incredibly interesting past; the area hosted events at the 1908 and 1948 Olympic games and a number of extraordinary exhibitions in a series of impossibly ornate white marble-fronted buildings built in an oriental style. There were huge fountains and glass roofed structures, and, of course, the Olympic stadium, which eventually became a grey hound track. It almost beggars belief that these remarkable stadia and exhibition halls no longer exist.

The community who live on the estate seem to be proud of their area, which is hugely multi-cultural and very well-kept. This is just the sort of community I enjoy working with.

As ever with these things, there's never a moment when I can crack open the champagne (or in my case, Ribena). I'm often mid-way through a job before I can relax in the knowledge that it's actually happening! 

Anyway, as a result of the meeting I've drunk far too many cups of tea and am buzzing like a bee on crack! 

On this date 350 years ago Samuel Pepys reset his no drinking, no theatre-going, no doing anything fun vows, after a Yuletide period spent over indulging on all fronts.

Perhaps the most outrageous statement came from his pen on January 6th, 1663;

"Myself somewhat vexed at my wife’s neglect in leaving of her scarf, waistcoat, and night- dressings in the coach today that brought us from Westminster, though, I confess, she did give them to me to look after, yet it was her fault not to see that I did take them out of the coach!"

It's always someone else's fault, isn't it?!