waterside

That i should be made to feel like an alcoholic in this country where my weekly alcohol intake draws bemused looks even from my doctor is something i would have normally thought of as highly unlikely. And yet it's exactly what happened today at the Barbican Centre when i was told, at the Waterside Cafe, that alcohol could only be purchased as part of a meal and that if all i wanted was a drink i should use the bar in the foyer instead.

Now, that i should be subjected to such haughty remarks in a place where you carry your own tray is something i would have thought of as being even less likely than being made to feel like an alcoholic here in the UK. And yet, again, it's exactly what happened today at the Barbican Centre.

But as i was coming out of the Araki exhibition, having chosen to enjoy, rather than escape, the solitary simplicity of my own company, i had to offer myself one precious moment. When you're choosing to appreciate the closeness of such a loyal companion, you must stop to celebrate the moment. And after being faced with a few too many vaginas at the exhibition, i felt like a needed to give myself some quiet time. But since quitting smoking, precious moments are no longer imbued in the fragrant smell of tobacco so, sitting by the water on a nice evening like this, on such a clear october day, i must offer myself a drink. A drink and a song.

So the air was turning crisp, the water was flowing and in this quintessentially London place the drink was in my hand and the song, one of my L anthems, Nina Simone's Wild is the Wind, was playing in my earphones.