Tuesday 8 December 2009

You don't have to be crazy to live here ...

... but I'm starting to wonder if there is some sort of pre-requisite that no-one told me about. Or whether it's only a matter of time until I start to blend in. Or whether I already do ...

I am a lucky girl. I live in the rare thing, which is a neighbourhood in London. We have a proper community here, in this tiny unknown corner of South London. There are all sorts of social groups and networks that exist here, which are focused on creating a lovely place to live. It's almost a village, but that it's hemmed in by a large sprawling city. I know my neighbours and their neighbours and the people beyond them, which is something which I've never had in London before. It's quite, quite lovely.

But there is a thread of craziness running through it all.

Tonight I discovered that there is a big annual event coming up which is something of an institution, and which anyone who's anyone in the community gets involved with.

Yay! Count me in!

It's a carolling event. On the last Saturday before Christmas every year, people congregate on the street outside the shops in the middle of the neighbourhood, and, supported by a local band, sing carols in the street, fuelled by mince pies and mulled wine from the lovely lady who runs the cafe. Isn't that lovely? What a nice thing to be able to take part in.

But because this isn't any usual neck of the woods, this wonderful, family, community, festive event takes place, very specifically, in the presence of a life sized cardboard cut out of Captain Jack Sparrow, in a Santa hat.

Is it me ...?

Merry Christmas everyone, and shiver me timbers!

10 comments:

  1. Can people outside your community attend? That's the kind of Christmas weirdness that appeals to me on so many levels. A merry pirate Christmas to you too, may you be blessed with many bottle of rum and few scurvey dogs!

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  2. Hi there! Is that the Furzedown lot?- they're completely barking, always have been! ;-)..........No idea why Captain Jack Sparrow might be a local hero though and I was born in Tooting!!

    Liking your blog:)

    Rachelx
    www.rachel-nixon.blogspot.com

    PS I'm a friend of Amelia's (101birdtales)

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  3. RH - Of course! Come along. With a fa la la la laaaa, and an ooh arrgh Jim lad! See you near the treasure chest, next to the grotto.

    RN - Yes! What an odd lot they are! But entirely lovely! Perhaps Tooting has a pirate history that neither of us have picked up on.

    Must dash, and feed the parrot.

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  4. Words fail me but my sides are aching from all the laughter.

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  5. I love it too! Aren't we lucky x

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  6. Ha! Sounds brilliant. Love London in all its weird and wonderful randomness!

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  7. I an sure you are the final piece in their jigsaw - the Furzedown missing link. And of course you have a pirate outfit already.

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  8. I love carols - and pirates. But I've never discovered them together.

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  9. Hi I'm new. I've been blog hopping and have forgotten how I got here, but here I am to tell you that you simply must go and sing the carols because it sounds ever so lovely. You can all pretend to be Victorian people and call each other by the names of Dickens' characters. Or not. But do go and sing all the same.

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Toot me