Change and changeabilidad

There is no real reason why ‘and changeabilidad’ needed to be tacked onto that title other than the fact that I saw the front cover of the Spanish version of ‘Sense and Sensibilidad’. That little ‘-ilidad’, which is the Spanish version of ‘-ility’, really tickles something and is another one of the many peculiar reasons why I find Spanish a much nicer and softer language than the sharp jerkiness of English. Meanwhile, I am choking on my own tongue as I try and squeeze out some Russian under my breath on the tubular commute. The anonymity of London allows me to entertain a new group of people every day with my gurgling Russian whispers.

The winds of change swept through during the week, no-one was hurt but it did blow some of the rain away. The gusts did however pick Lucas and I up, Wizard of Oz style, and relocate us in Kilburn. A nice little area, to the south is posh Maida Vale and to the north is suburban Cricklewood. To the west is trendy Willesden and Queen's Park and if you go east you will stumble upon smart West Hampstead. The centre of Kilburn is the Kilburn High Road, a section of ancient Roman Road . This road starts life at the north-east corner of Hyde Park as Edgware Road and continues through North-West London up to St Albans, which was a Roman settlement.

I’ve been doing a background check on our new area and have found these interesting titbits of information….

The name Kilburn comes from Kelebourne, a stream which flowed from Hampstead through Kilburn, and eventually into the Serpentine in Hyde Park.

Along the Kilburn High Road there is a pub or bar every forty yards. It is said that if you stroll along at 3am on any given morning you will hear the muffled sound of good cheer emanating from these numerous pubs with drawn curtains and closed doors. The Land of The Lock-In…..

The Kilburn Priory was established in 1130 and provided shelter and food for pilgrims on their way to the shrines at Willesden or St Albans, until the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII. On its site was built The Bell Inn in 1600, our new local with a mean sausage and Yorkshire pudding. The Bell became the scene for dog fighting and bare-knuckle bouts, as well as certain immoral activities connected with a house over the road. By the early 19th Century the place had also become a notorious duelling spot, sounds good to me.

Kilburn is home to London's largest Irish community. The first wave of Irish immigrants came in the mid-19th Century after the great potato famine. There was a second wave in the 1950s and 1960s. Why they settled in Kilburn, nobody quite knows.

The Borough of Brent is one of only two areas (the other is the London Borough of Newham) in the UK to have a non-white majority. Kilburn itself is an ethnic mix, with Afro-Caribbean, West African, Somali, Middle Eastern, Pakistani and Bangladeshi peoples in particular. The so-called white community is also diverse, with the large Irish contingent and a Polish faction now competing with a growing Russian enclave in the area.

Kilburn is still trying to shake off its rather unfortunate reputation. In decades gone by it was associated with the IRA and the republican cause, with collections for the 'boys back home' being a not uncommon activity in the Irish pubs.

We are currently sharing our flat with two nice Slovenian girls who also have a love of all things Walkabout. They are due to depart for Greece in a couple of weeks and have found substitutes in a pair of Canadian girls, fresh from Uni in Canada and looking for adventure in smoky London. Their Walkabout initiation is not far away, I promise.

Daylight saving has commenced and the weather is going crazy with max temps at a sweltering 14 degrees on some days, it could almost be that time of year to bring the knees and ankles out again.

Tomorrow (Friday) is my last day on my contract at work (end of work pics), and I’ve been wondering for a while what on earth I’ll do for work and money. Having registered for a clinical trial (£1,100 to take a trial anti-depressant for a week!!), I’ve just been offered and accepted a position in this same organisation, in the same building, on the same floor, and unfortunately, the same seat. So I’m going to have to give the trial a miss, I am disappointed. No longer a social policy officer, I will be known as National Development Officer. Sounds a bit more fancy and I’ll get an extra £3.85 an hour for it. So as some things change, some things stay (largely) the same.