Categories: uncategorized
Date: 22 May 2005 19:40:25
Well yes, I know it's nearly the end of May - but I did start it in April! Life, the universe and everything have conspired against me and meant that it's taken ages to finish, but finish it at last I have - "it" being Do Not Pass Go by Tim Moore (who also wrote "Frost on my Moustache", just finished by Katie). It's a history of London courtesy of the streets and utilities of the Monopoly board, and I must admit I did rather enjoy it (although I still think I prefer "Frost on my Moustache"). Actually my main criticism is that the chapters are mostly too long - he groups the streets into their Monopoly colours rather than having a chapter per street; I can see the logic behind this but as I tend to read just before I go to sleep I prefer chapters to only have a few pages each! But let's face it, that's a pretty pedantic criticism!
Throughout the book I was surprised by the chapters and streets I enjoyed most, and was amazed at the interesting factoids that came out of looking at the utilities and stations! (in particular, having read the chapter on Water Works, I have to say that I'm never again going to be able to hear the phrase "going through the motions" without a particularly gross image coming to mind). I was really pleased that Stanley Green got a mention - he's the guy who used to stand on Oxford Street with a sandwich board covered in tiny writing denouncing the lust of the flesh caused by too much protein. It turns out he died in 1993 - I've thought more than once over the last few years that I hadn't seen him for a while. And I was very amused by the fact that in the Old Kent Road (the nearest Monopoly road to where I live, and also quite probably the grottiest - Moore sums it up thus: "I've never been to the outskirts of Bucharest, and now that I'd walked up the Old Kent Road I don't need to") local residents celebrated the Queen's Silver Jubilee in 1977 by covering the lampposts with tinfoil.
I particularly enjoyed the mentions of places that I knew or experiences I had had - very happy that Gracelands Palace Chinese Restaurant (run by the inimitable Paul Elvis Chan) on the Old Kent Road got a mention (by far the funniest works Christmas do I have ever been to - terrible food, hilarious Chinese Elvis impersonators); and Moore's description of the wonderful Routemaster buses ("brings out the Gene Kelly in us all") reminded me of my first ever attempt to board a Routemaster while it was still moving. I grabbed the pole with my left hand, and managed to get my left foot onto the platform, only to discover that it was going faster than I realised, and the momentum meant that I swung round to the right where I was basically splatted against the back of the bus like in the cartoons! Fortunately I hung on, and then got on the bus hoping that none of the other passengers had noticed! Ah, happy days - you couldn't do that with a bendy bus.
And did you know that more people shop in Selfridge's each year than live in Australia?