Monday 23 February 2009

"Spring is sprung, the grass is ris"

"I wonders where the birdies is." (Ogden Nash or 'Anonymous'... take your pick)

That was a particularly nice weekend! I got a fair amount of decorating done but still managed to get out and enjoy the sun on Saturday afternoon at Morden Hall where the snowdrops seemed to be convinced that spring had arrived.
What had actually arrived was a horde of people and the place was heaving with sun-starved Londoners making the most of the rays but I certainly couldn't blame them for that. The kids went to play in one of the several streams and we all chortled as somebody else's child tried and almost (but not quite)succeeded in their attempt, to cross it... Spectacular FAIL.

It was funny because it wasn't one of ours. It made me feel old and wise because a long time ago I was that child...

Like the biblical Jonah's whale the internet hath spewed up some Worcester Park items onto the muddy shores of Google. Firstly a visiting American lady has waxed lyrical about Broadway Bargains in a blog post:
"There is a shop called 'Broadway Bargains' which is like an old-fashioned version of a dollar store. It had a little bit of just about everything - buttons, fabric, toys, kitchen stuff, pencils, pens, paper, used paperback book, etc. Not like anything I've ever seen in the US."

Secondly, the News Of The World's "Fabulous Mag" came visiting the Rose Spa in Worcester Park recently when one male reporter had his legs waxed as part of his mission to understand what women have to go through, though arguably without the addition of a womb it was a token gesture.
"Being pampered sounds warm and cosy, and Samantha Harrison, owner of The Rose Spa in Worcester Park, Surrey, made me feel welcome and comfortable. Then she smeared hot wax on my leg and made me cry for my mummy. Leg waxing feels like you are being skinned alive. In salt water."

Lastly Worcester Park has been cited in no less an august journal than the Mormon Times where writer Kristine Frederickson discusses the artist Holman Hunt and the creation of his artwork "The Light of the World"
"By 1851 he was so discouraged that he decided he would give up art and become a farmer. However he persevered, working at night in an improvised ramshackle hut at Worcester Park Farm in Surry (sic) and in 1854 exhibited The Light of the World."

"Ramshackle"!? How rude. At least Wikipedia is polite enough to call it "makeshift".

2 comments:

Downwind of the Cock said...

I met my oldest friend in the world sitting on the kerb outside Broadway Bargains when I was 7 years old, I'm 42 now.

Anonymous said...

What has happened to the office furnature/supplies shop at the top end of the high street? It is empty!