I was having dinner in Ladbroke Grove with a friend tonight and decided to cycle there as I hadn't managed to do any exercise today and in the hope that this would limit my consumption of alcohol. This would be good both for my diet (I have lost 1kg in the first week - FitDay Rocks!) but also I want to feel sharp and unhungover for my first show of the London run at the Arts Theatre (It is on at 9.30pm Tues-Sat for the next two weeks. Why not
book your tickets now. I have press in Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday this week, so be great if you could come on one of those days. It'll be really funny, you know, if I can remember it). Do you like the way I seamlessly got that plug in? It was good wasn't it?
I was going
to the Ruby and Sequoia restaurant if you're interested or if you want to copy me and try and be exactly like me. It's a bit too cool for me, but luckily it was Monday so hardly anyone was there to see me arrive in my cycle helmet and yellow flourescent coat.
I haven't been cycling that much recently and I hardly ever go out at night and I have to say it was quite an adventure, even if it is only two and a bit miles away. Negotiating Shepherd's Bush roundabout was a little hairy, given how little regard some car users seem to have for the traffic light system there. But after another slothful day it felt good to be out and about and dicing with death at every turn made me feel alive. Better to live one day as a lion than a lifetime as a lamb and if I were killed I would be remembered forever as a daredevil, cool, speedfreak, like James Dean, in a cycle helmet and flourescent yellow jacket. And if I was unlucky then I would die doing what I loved - crying out in agony as my chest was being crushed by a bus. I love that.
Incredibly I managed to get lost, thinking I had overshot and missed Ladbroke Grove, when in fact I hadn't, but I somehow managed to get there, and although I hadn't really thought about it before, I suddenly understood the Hill part of Notting Hill. I had always thought of it as just a name and not realised it was called that due to its hilly nature. Though the incline halfway up Ladbroke Grove is the real killer - though that probably is Notting Hill thinking about it. The actual hill, I mean, not the area made famous by that Hugh Grant film and carnivals.
Coming home after a light dinner of salmon and new potatoes and only two glasses of wine was a lot more fun and though there was one big climb back up Ladbroke Grove on the way back, the descent made the effort worthwhile. I whizzed back home, feeling invigorated, alive and healthy. I wondered to myself about the practicalities of cycling in to do my Arts Theatre gigs. It really isn't all that far into town and it would overcome that problem of getting home late at night. Of course I probably won't do that (well not more than once) as it will curtail my post show social activities, but it's nice to have the option. I have a dream that one day everyone will cycle round London and all environment destroying cars and buses will lie rusting in their garages. Though what might be good for the environment will probably make things more dangerous. For my money the most dangerous people on the road are the other cyclists.
Anyway, come to my show. It will be embarrassing if I am all on my own. I need this!
