SomersTownLisa

London Life
2021-06-27 21:28:00 (UTC)

Powerplant, 'The Death Of A Black Man' (20th to 23rd June)

On Monday I went to do a new task at a community centre. I met Lieke at the park and when a few more arrived I joined in with the fitness session which wasn’t too taxing on my ankle – for the running part, I just jogged. I told Ivo I’d happened to see Will when I was cycling through Islington – I was able to mention his new baby as I’d seen it on Insta.

Seems there weren’t many kids in the centre – apparently the earlier rain had put them off. There were only four of them, of which two seemed at all interested. We had the usual founding story, then Laura told how she’d originally been a problem teenager from a broken home. She’s 47 but I don’t think she looks that old.

Others joined in about what they get from volunteering. Simon told how it could lead to showing your reliability and getting you a job, while Aine said she met people from “all walks of life”. We didn’t known what to do for a task, but decided to pull up long tufts of grass from the garden, with a woman over the fence thanking us.

I ignored Beth H but passed a few comments with Rebecca S, who I surely won’t forget again.

Afterwards I cycled the wrong way and got to Whitechapel Road rather than Bethnal Green, then turned left and was briefly heading East. Eventually I got on the train at Aldgate East. It was later than it seemed.

Went to an adventure playground in Hoxton on Tuesday, which I hadn’t visited before, close to where we went to the cinema last week. I was first there, Alison soon arrived and I got in a good chat-mood by talking to the task owner. It was really enjoyable because we were all working on one task and bouncing quips off each other – Emma R, Katriona and a new girl, Kim, who’d been in Liverpool but had returned to Hackney recently, as well as some quite amusing lads.
I hadn’t cycled there by the quickets route but hurried back quickly by heading straight for Sheperdess Walk along a recently-discovered route, and got home about halfway through the first half of England’s final group match against the Czechs. I missed the goal in a 1-0 win which saw them finish top of the group. Scotland lost 3-1 to Croatia and finished bottom.

On Wednesday I went with Jack to help at Alara. We’d signed up to help Pete, and two people had signed up after us – Beth from Hammersmith & Fulham and Caitlin, who I’d recently got to know, and who ran form Kentish Town via Elm Village. Beth was lively - I sent my love to the other Beth, formerly of Camden, who I haven't seen since the pandemic. In contrast to last night, I was left on my own to scythe some long grass, which I got stuck into. I don’t think my technique was as good as Alex’s, and he didn’t say “well done” afterwards, but I did make a big difference. I’d told him it’s a shame the Booker building isn’t being knocked down, but eh defended it and I had to concede his point.

Next day we tried the new vegan restaurant, Powerplant. We were going to cycle to Kentish Town, via Chalk Farm so I could show Jack all the changes there, and we decided to go into Powerplant rather than wait until Saturday. They did a decent meal though not large for £10. After work we went to see ‘The Death Of A Black Man’ at the Hampstead Theatre, which I thought would be interesting as it was originally performed there in the 1970s.

However it was extremely boring and didn’t really have a story – it was about a young lad who’d had a child with a woman in her 20s who returned from abroad, as well as the lad’s cheeky friend. We’ve not been very selective with plays lately, because we’ve been so keen to get back to the re-opened theatres. We had not-very-tasty snacks downstairs beforehand.




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