BELLE AND SEBASTIAN PICNIC PRIMROSE HILL/CAMDEN TOWN 4/5/98 Everyone gathered outside Camden Town Tube in the bright sunshine at 2.00pm, and after waiting a short while for latecomers, we headed off for Primrose Hill. As we made our way through the streets, it really became apparent how quickly London can change. We started off near Camden High Street, with its slightly trendy, 'sleazy' reputation, and as we travelled towards the Hill, the scenery changed to 'posher' more greeny resedential avenues. We walked along Regent's Park Road, past the English Folk Dance and Song School, which I thought was sort of fitting. We walked up to the top of the Hill, and made camp there. The view from the top of teh hill was very impressive, and it seemed to me like we were at the very top of the world. I could see for miles. I saw Canary Wharf and the Telecom Tower, and lots more besides, which I didn't recognise. Next came the food. John Johnston laid out his rug, and everyone piled on the assorted tucker they had brought along. We had a bit of everything, including such delights as a whole pineapple, mangoes and Rory's Birthday cake, which was shared out sort of equally. People started getting into games after the food, and we had Twister, Cards, Connect Four, Buckaroo which didn't Buck all day, and a classic game of "which side are you on?!" football. The weather started to get a little less perfect later on in the afternoon, so the renmaining crowd decamped to the Spread Eagle pub on Parkway. After deciding to sit outside the pub rather than inside it, we were happily filling the highway when the barman decided to take it upon himself to move us on, claiming that the local residents would call the rozzers on us if we didn't shift. A small group of us decided to revive our B+S tribute session from earlier in the day, so Mr. Axe, Rob B and the rest of us reeled off a selection of classics from 'Sinister', 'Tigermilk' and a few of the singles. With the threat of arrest semmingly subsided, we spent the rest of the day sitting outside the pub. Some played charades, while the rest of us sat around idly discussion nothing. The conversation turned to the Eurovision Song Contest through Elisabeth's job at the Travel Agents and this proved to be a hugely invigorating topic, providing a platform for Elisabeth's collosal knowledge of the subject to shine. Myself and many others, including Gary and Gerard from Glagow were frankly amazed. We all chipped (sorry) in for a poration of chips each, and David and Katrina proved just how lovely they are by going down the chippy to buy them all for us. My evening ended about 9.30, as I had to get a train back. It was the end of an absolutely fantastic day. It really was really enjoyable. All the people I met were so friendly. A huge thanks to David and Katrina for organising such a great day, and hello to John Johnston, Trousers (don't forget the Blue Soda social at the Poetry Cafe), Susannah (why she didn't buy the bike I'll never know-what a bargain, eh?), Rory, Joe, James, Stuart Tall Git, Steady Mike, the poor Everton supporter, Mr. Axe, Rob B (he of the church thing of his e-mails), Elisabeth, Gary and Gerard from Glasgow, Mel and Seb and everyone who was there. The total headcount by David was apparently 52, which was excellent. I had a really nice day, and I'm really loking forward to the next one, planned for Spring Bank Holiday, May 25th. Please come, everyone, please... Lots of love and hugs, GIDEONxxxx ----------------------------------------------------------------------- . This message was brought to you by the Sinister mailing list. . To send to the list please mail "sinister@majordomo.net". . For subscribing, unsubscribing and other list information please see . http://www.majordomo.net/sinister . For questions about how the list works mail owner-sinister@majordomo.net . Nee, nee mun pish, chan pai dee kwa -----------------------------------------------------------------------