Monday Morning

It's twenty past nine.
This morning I have already:
Cut my hair,
Been to the doctor (repeat prescription)
Done some shopping
Ignored a phone call, and
Put the washing on.

It's a good start to the week.

:o)

Impressions of Belgium, i. Antwerpen Station.

Antwerp's main railway station is an object lesson in how to modernise and improve a fine Victorian building. At ground level is an uncluttered, clear area for passengers, well-signed and with few interruptions to a straight stroll across the platforms. The shops are information booths are arranged in the old arches around the periphery: a great contrast to the messy stalls and shops which clutter British stations making the places so difficult and unpleasant to navigate. High above the main entrance is a magnificent rose window set in a series of arches, a testament to imagination and appreciation of art and good architecture for the public’s sake.

What has been changed is below ground level: three layers of underground platforms taking the majority of trains through high halls of concrete and red-brick columns, retaining the light and spacious feel of the older constructions. The passengers have lots of space, there's no feeling of being crowded at all.

The contrast with any new British station is depressing: why can’t we manage to build something as good? St Pancras is vaunted as a trimph but it’s nothing in comparison to the job done in Antwerp.


:o)

As I Walked Out One Evening

As I Walked Out One Evening
WH Auden, 1937. 

As I walked out one evening,
Walking down Bristol Street,
The crowds upon the pavement
Were fields of harvest wheat.

And down by the brimming river
I heard a lover sing
Under an arch of the railway:
"Love has no ending.

"I'll love you, dear, I'll love you
Till China and Africa meet,
And the river jumps over the mountain
And the salmon sing in the street,

"I'll love you till the ocean
Is folded and hung up to dry
And the seven stars go squawking
Like geese about the sky.

"The years shall run like rabbits,
For in my arms I hold
The Flower of the Ages,
And the first love of the world."

But all the clocks in the city
Began to whirr and chime:
"O let not Time deceive you,
You cannot conquer Time.

"In the burrows of the Nightmare
Where Justice naked is,
Time watches from the shadow
And coughs when you would kiss.

"In headaches and in worry
Vaguely life leaks away,
And Time will have his fancy
To-morrow or to-day.

"Into many a green valley
Drifts the appalling snow;
Time breaks the threaded dances
And the diver's brilliant bow.

"O plunge your hands in water,
Plunge them in up to the wrist;
Stare, stare in the basin
And wonder what you've missed.

"The glacier knocks in the cupboard,
The desert sighs in the bed,
And the crack in the tea-cup opens
A lane to the land of the dead.

"Where the beggars raffle the banknotes
And the Giant is enchanting to Jack,
And the Lily-white Boy is a Roarer,
And Jill goes down on her back.

"O look, look in the mirror,
O look in your distress;
Life remains a blessing
Although you cannot bless.

"O stand, stand at the window
As the tears scald and start;
You shall love your crooked nelghbour
With your crooked heart."

It was late, late in the evening,
The lovers they were gone;
The clocks had ceased their chiming,
And the deep river ran on.

             1937