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Yes, I could talk about all this.  But I'm only available for barmitzvahs and weddings from April 1st (not kidding) 2013 when this, my salaried, warm-office, non-costume job comes to an end.

 

If you put this in your 'blog' or something Sebastian, I will never speak to you again.

 

All the best,

Food

One of the many joys of hosting for AirBnb is learning about people who have been to stay after they have left and gone.

This week, it was Katie, who stayed four nights. Whilst I was busy at the bookshop rearranging the erotica

Katie was out and about, eating lovely food, photographing it

and finding time to write about it in my guest room.

http://www.parlafood.com/

It's extraordinary what happens under your nose.

I can't help but wonder how much else is going on that in a far too busy life escapes me.

Church eh?

Whilst the Bishop Dean and his Chapter have been fretting their pretty little heads at St Paul's Cathedral over some minor infraction of local authority by-laws, a mile or two to the east, the parish church of St John on Bethnal Green have tonight been demonstrating what civil disorder is really about.

In a bloody cold church, and with chattering bar staff to distract us, a woefully small, but dedicated audience, watched "The Battle of Algiers'.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2000/jul/20/artsfeatures

A film made in 1966, directed by Gillo Pontecorvo, and the winner of more awards I can be bothered to list here, it tells the tale, with brutal honesty, of the uprising in Algiers in the early 1950's.

This post is not a film review. If you want to see it then beg and plead with St John on Bethnal Green to show it again. It will reward your persistance.

The purpose of this post is to say:

Whatever the dipsticks down the road at the Cathedral are doing, the church in their shadow is alive and well. It blesses, supports, and stands alongside, the angry, the pissed off, and, indeed The Cross.

I hold no brief for St John on Bethnal Green (a liberation I'm learning to rejoice in ) but I commend them to you. They are working for the Kingdom.