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| London's book-barge, Word on the Water |
I had a mixed day in London yesterday.....
First off I went to an induction day for my new legal studies; I have decided to get some law under my belt, and found a study programme that suits my needs. I can do one module at a time, on-line, with exams at the end, and do them as quickly or slowly as I please. If I do five modules I get a certificate, and if I do fifteen I get a diploma, and if I hang in there even longer I will end up as a legally qualified professional - highly unlikely, but you never know.
Anyway, yesterday was the day to find out all about it. My plan had been to mop up as much info as poss and get out of there armed with all and any knowledge necessary to start my studies. Unfortunately things didn't go as I had planned. Instead it was one of those socially heavy occasions, where one was expected to interact with others, and people asked intimate personal questions, like what my name was and where I was from - Oxford! I said. Yeah but where are you really from? - Oxford, I said, extremely strictly, so they flinched and backed off. Bloody nerve! Who are these people, immigration officers?
There were the usual group exercises and idiotic quizzes as well, and I was told to do an essay on-line, to check whether I could write a 500 word piece - just to make sure, like, that I was able to string a proper sentence together. There was even an induction manual, extremely confusing - I knew less when I left than when I arrived. On one page they wrote one thing, the next page the opposite. When I queried this, I was told that the second version was a test - without any sort of indication that this was the case. Basically, the entire day consisted of little team exercises, the teacher giving us some basic info, and then forcing us to do a test to check whether we had paid any attention.
I should have suspected this sort of thing right from the start of the day, when I noticed that all participants were women aged 25 to 35 - eager to please and easy to subdue. All the men and older women had skedaddled, presumably to watch the Olympics on the telly in the student area, having been tipped off by the chap at the info desk. Luckily at 11:30 there was a break, and I checked my mobile telephone, and found an urgent message, so had to make my excuses to the teacher and hopped it.
Having thus liberated myself, I nosed around Spitalfields Market a bit, and then tried to get to King's Cross, because I wanted to visit the famous floating bookshop in Granary Square. Sadly there were some roadworks or strikes or whatnot, and it took me four changes of transport to finally get there.
But all was forgotten when I finally arrived at the square, which is located just behind the Eurostar Terminal. It was lovely weather, sunny and warm, and there were loads of people out and about enjoying themselves.
The square has only recently been developed, every time I go by it looks a little more gentrified, and now that the book-barge is moored there it is definitely worth a visit. The book-barge used to be located in Paddington Basin, and almost had to lift anchor and float away, but in the nick of time was offered a permanent home at the Granary Square.
https://twitter.com/wordonthewater?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
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| Granary Square on a sunny Saturday afternoon |
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| The kids had a lot of fun with the multi fountain |
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| The book-barge is behind the railing |
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| When it is cold there is a fire |
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| Amazing how many books you can get in there |
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| Plenty of reading room to sample potential purchases |
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| A tranquil little place, despite lots of visitors |
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| Lots of quirky decorations |
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| There are other barges in the area, too |
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| I always like to have a look at the plants people keep on their boats |
