Sunday in the Park in the Rain

Sunday morning started to look like we might miss the predicted rain. Not that I got out into the morning sun, I had a few hours of blog work to do, so I cracked on with it…well after BBC’s “Match of the Day” ended. I had to watch until the end because Fulham was the last match covered. I had been there and

wanted to see if I had made it on to the broadcast when one of the plays took place in front of my second-row seat. I did.

When I went outside, the rain had started and then stopped but I was glad to find friends Tom and Jacquie under the overhanging roof of Caffe Tropea in Russell Square Park. We were finally able to have a chat about the program I attended at the British Library about the anniversary of the coup in Chile; and to have a general catchup on what we had each been up to. We also had some fun with our neighbors at the next table who had a sweet Dalmatian puppy on his first outing after receiving all his shots.

Speaking of Shots

What a difference a year makes. Last year, getting my flu and Covid booster shots in London was something of a production. Two years ago, it had been pretty simple, a little pharmacy across the street from the barbershop I use on Lambs Conduit Street offered the flu to me for free. And, after signing up as a part year UK resident with the UK National Health Service, I made an appointment for my Covid booster at my local “GP Practice.” Last year, there were only a few pharmacies giving a limited supply of flu shots and I chased all over before finding one, virtually on my doorstep, at the Boots pharmacy branch at Saint Pancras Train Station. The Covid shots for part year residents, I learned, after many false starts on the phone and using the NHS app on the computer, were consolidated in an ancient Victorian hospital that was mostly closed. It did have a polio vaccination clinic too and a Senior Citizens facility. Oh, and it was surrounded by a high iron-barred fence, but I got the shots. This time, my GPs office told me I would have to call a special number, but the receptionist did not ask my age or really seem to know what was going on. So, once the vaccine campaign opened, I checked the NHS website and found that people “of a certain age” just had to input their NHS number and Post Code to make an appointment at the closest pharmacy. In my case that turned out to be the one on Lamb’s Condiuit Street again. So, the next day,, I was back with a bunch of folks who did the British queueing thing and got both shots.see if I had any messages on the NIH website and found that all I

Banksy!

Banksy is the well-known British street/graffiti artist and political activist who has been active since around1990. His identity has never been definitively confirmed. He seems to be more popular than ever at the moment. There are several exhibitions of his art on concurrently. The one I visited on Regents Street in London is showing mostly his political art. Walking into the exhibition space, and seeing the young staff, my immediate thought was, “punk lives.” The exhibition was well-curated and thought provoking. Banksie is not partisan in any discernable way. Clearly, his beliefs are with “the people,” but he is not blinded to any one side’s ideology. He abhors war and violence as well as the unfair distribution of wealth in the world, that is clear. But his art and his anarchic ideas together make statements that I believe make him a phenomenon unlike others who worked only in the graffiti or street art arenas. For instance, when socialite Paris Hilton recorded a CD of her music, Banksy, in collaboration with Danger Mouse, before the release of the CD, replaced about 500 copies of the CD, with one that included his rewrite of the booklet and insert and a Danger Mouse remix of the music. These were placed in music stores around the UK.

Below are a selection of the images shown at the exhibition.

Red Dragon Lunch

One of my great pleasures during my annual sojourn in the United Kingdom is meeting fellow alumni and sometimes current students from Oneonta University-State University of New York. One of the people I try to see when his busy schedule allows is Chairman of the Board of Frasers Group and Non-Executive Board Member of Fulham Football Club, David Daly. David was one of the players recruited by the legendary soccer coach Garth Stam to play at the then SUNY College at Oneonta during the golden era when the school played in NCAA Division I. I attended the college during those years, but Dave and I missed each other by about a year. I did have the chance to see other Stam recruits like English standouts Joe Howarth, David North, and North American Soccer League 1974 Number One Draft Pick, Farrukh Quraishi play. Dave introduced me to Fulham football several years ago and I have become a staunch fan ever since. Dave and I share a great appreciation for Oneonta University, our education and the particular character formation and life lessons we took away from that beautiful campus nestled in the upper Catskill Mountains.

We enjoyed an excellent lunch at Little Italy, a restaurant in London’s vibrant Soho neighborhood.

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