Today I saw a man talking to himself. Young, tall, skinny, he was loping along the pavement, wearing tatty Converse and a Withnail-style greatcoat. He wasn't on the phone - unless we're talking astral connections, man. Speaking loudly, gesticulating boldly, moving at speed. More Camden than St Albans. Felt like a time traveller from 1974 here to deliver reportage back to the cosmos. I liked his coat, his energy and sense of purpose, although what fuelled it is another matter...
St Albans seems to have far fewer unusual people on the streets, compared to North London. Muswell Hill had some notable characters in addition to 'The Best of Luck' man (see Day Forty-Eight). My favourites were the Muswell Hill Jesus, the regimental baton twirler (dangerous in the aisles of Sainsbury's, where he and TBoL man were an in-supermarket tag-team of chance - luck or a blow to the head), and the vampire hunter (yes), arrested in the seventies for 'disturbing' a grave in Highgate Cemetery in the search for 'The Black Figure'. Every community needs a vampire hunter. St Albans doesn't appear to have one (internet search), but I'm hoping the man I saw this morning might take up the baton. And twirl it.
A visit to the gym has been my justification for frittering the rest of the day reading the papers and diddling around on the internet. A quick run down of recent searches yields the following:- gerybaboona, honkytonk, heraldic green, electrical units and vampire hunters st albans. Good that I'm kicking maximum New Year ass, squeezing the very last drop out of each day. I'm not unduly worried - this is my tried-and-tested ambient approach for the first week of January, when I traditionally enjoy hibernating.
It's all deliberate. What I'm actually doing is allowing my subconscious all-important space and time to come up with a brilliant plan. Tortoise not hare. So what may appear to be me TOTALLY wasting time is in fact me INVESTING in my future. All those New Year hares, rushing, rushing, rushing. Foolishness. May I present the New Year tortoise. Measured, ruminative, powerful. Not avoidant, frittering, irresponsible. Oh, no.
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