Today was the day that I
rediscovered Sunday and I have to report that I rather enjoyed it. It was
almost as if I had forgotten what it was like to enjoy the day of rest, having
worked harder on a Sunday than the other six days of the week for quite a while.
As I said last week, The Sunday Alternative
isn’t dead and buried by any means, but it probably won’t be appearing on Trent
Sound again. Then again, never say never. On the other hand, the show has
always been a BBC 6Music show at heart, so maybe the network will finally wake
up and allow the show to appear in its natural and spiritual home.
When the show switched to
lunchtimes I was really pleased because it meant a slight change of direction,
only a slight one. As much as I enjoyed the idea of people listening to a radio
show while sitting around the family dinner table, on the other side of that is
someone who is working on a Sunday (and not getting double time for it like
everyone else) and arrives at the family Sunday dinner when everyone else is on
the coffee and newspapers stage. Today was the first time in weeks that I was
able to join in and it was lovely to have that back. Of course if another radio
opportunity came along I’d snap it up in a flash, Sunday lunch or no Sunday
lunch, but for the time being it is nice to be able to join in again round at
my dad’s at the same time as everyone else.
Another thing that we haven’t
done for ages, in fact I can’t remember the last time we did it even though I
could quite easily go through my blog and say for sure but that would be
cheating, is go for afternoon tea in Lee Rosy’s on a Sunday afternoon. The
thing about Lee Rosy’s is that it is always freakishly full and it is therefore
difficult to get a table. It used to be a place for creative people to hang out
but they have started letting ordinary members of the public in, or Nottingham
has more writers, filmmakers, artists, and musicians than it used to. We couldn’t
get a table, even me with my Sunday afternoon radio, oh. Maybe that’s why I
couldn’t get in? Maybe in Lee Rosy’s manifesto, a radio show in America doesn’t
count, it has to be in this country and by dumping my two English shows in one
week I have been blacklisted. Or maybe we couldn’t get a table simply because
it was full and we should have got there sooner.
When Hartley’s opened just up
the road from Lee Rosy’s, it was only ever used as a place to go when Lee Rosy’s
was full. I even suggested it as an advertising slogan along the same lines as Pepsi; when they don’t have Coke. We started going straight
to Hartley’s after a while and not even bothering to check Lee Rosy’s seating
availability, and grew to love the place. The owners are a lovely couple of
people who care a great deal about the Hockley community, and so deserve for
Hartley’s to be recognised on its own merits and not just as an annex of a shop
up the road. As time wore on we forgot about Lee Rosy’s altogether, safe in the
knowledge that after so long away we would have to sit in the basement now that
we had slipped far enough down the ladder to never be able to sit in the window
again. Mandi and I became full time members of Team Hartley’s, slightly cosier than Lee Rosy’s with less of the hipster element, and with bacon cobs.
I’m not sure who suggested it,
but the idea of going to Lee Rosy’s was on the table today. I picked it up off
the table with my wallet, phone, keys, and fags, and away we went.
It was full, so we went to
Hartley’s.
===
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