clouds

The toilets in Kings Cross, and most other London Terminals, cost 30p.  The super dooper, shiny striped door toilets in St Pancras station are free, that is because St Pancras is the patron saint of weak bladders.

So St Pancras is a good place to go for a pee and to have a coffee when I am waiting for my train.  There is a new sculpture of clouds where last year the Olympic Rings were hung.  I’m sure anyone arriving at St Pancras will see plenty of clouds once they get outside the station and don’t need any inside the station.  Still it is a visibly pleasing installation and complements the endearing statue of John Betjeman and the large naff statue of a couple saying their farewells (the bronze frieze around the bottom is far better than the statue above).

I was watching the passengers disembarking from the Eurostar.  I am impressed by the size of the cases that they drag along.  What have they got in there?  I know our weather is variable but they must have a contingency outfit for every occasion to fill those suitcases.  If I put the entire contents of my wardrobe in a case that size I’d still have to add a couple of inflated life-jackets and some fenders to fill it to the top.  I’m not sure if I have pared down my possessions because I live on a boat or that anybody who would contemplate living on a boat isn’t the type of persons who gathers a lot of possessions in the first place. 

I might have carried the ‘get rid of things’ too far this week I was putting some things away in one of the bow lockers and found it almost empty.  After three years on the boat I discovered a large amount of storage space under the bed.  It still contained some filing boxes full of papers that belonged to the previous owner.  I was on the Grand Union at the time so I returned them to her. ‘I wondered where they had gone’ she said.  Of course I live by myself with not even a gerbil for company if I shared a boat with a partner or children or dogs I’m sure that every nook and cranny would be full to overflowing.