Day 33: Hawksmoor 1: RBS 0

A cold day with a keen wind that plasters my hair into my mouth and blows my coat open.  I could do the buttons up, but I don't like the restriction.  To Spitalfields and old, dark streets overlaid with crude plate glass edifices of commerce.  I stand in the shadow of the hulking RBS building.  Facing it, Hawksmoor's incandescent Christ Church stares back boldly, straight down the barrel of Brushfield Street.  It has the edge - morally, aesthetically and historically.  Hawksmoor 1: RBS 0.

I wander into Spitalfield market for lunch.  A group of small children in Santa hats are jigging up and down, shouting a Christmas song.  What it lacks in musicality it makes up for in enthusiasm, as is evidenced in the rattled-bucket donations.  Spitalfield market is very sanitised now.  Expensive shops, and stalls that look like expensive shops.  It's nice enough - in an expensive way.  But I miss the raffish, hand-made, exciting vibe that it had in the early days.  Felt free and fluid and full of possibility.  Before the developers horned their way in, and set it solid in plans and blocks and leases.  Hooray for the Sunday Up Market at The Old Truman Brewery.  Keeping the flame burning.      

I stick my nose into Montezuma's, but retreat quickly - who knew a man with a plate of free chocolate could feel so aggressive?  Goes to show that anything shoved in your face without warning is disconcerting, however nice it may be (kittens, a hand-knitted scarf, scented candle, success etc). 

I have just looked for an accompanying image (settled on this - above right) but in my search for 'kittens candle' I was delighted to find this (see left).  Yes.  A limited edition Atomic Kitten 'Greatest Hits' devotional candle, to inspire prayer and deep thought.  (Hawksmoor 1: Atomic Kitten 1). 

Those of you not getting a yarn necklace (see Day Twenty-Nine) or a tractor cushion (Day Twenty-Four), strap in and prepare.  You know what's coming your way, and you'd better have a lighter ready.   

In a day of small irritations, these things have been my pleasures.  I feel 'Whole Again'.  Do you see what I did there?