Qype: Clissold Park in London

London – Arts & Entertainment – Landmarks

Where is a bad park? I mean sure, some parks ARE better than others on many measurable scales. They can be bigger – have more trees – a nice cafe – great facilities. But if you live in a big city instead of somewhere out in the bush, anywhere set aside for green land has got to get five stars, I reckon.
Clissold park though is not just any old park.
This really is a park amongst parks. An example of how a green space can be very well developed for the whole community.
Ravers, dope heads, Carribean food connoisseurs and half naked tatooed people had a great time at the recent Stoke Fest.
Fitness freaks have the running track, the football pitch and the tennis courts. People scared of dogs and their excrement have their own area. There is a cafe, a little zoo, a wading pool and a little water way. There is boundless space with grass, lakes and chairs. There are ducks and other animals.
It’s truely a top spot.
My favourite part of it is that if you are walking towards Manor House tube from church st – then she shortest way is through the park. On top everything else, it gives us a short cut as well.

Check out my review of Clissold Park – I am gotiges7 – on Qype

Jane McGrath, Peter Brock, Steve Irwin and the weird thing Andrew Denton did.

I make a real point of not getting attached to the misfortunes of celebrities because I always feel there is something insincere about developing deep emotions towards someone you’ve never met or really know at all.

When I saw the smiling picture of Jane McGrath on the Age website with the news that she had died, I was very moved. I felt like someone I really liked was gone. I felt like I had had a significant loss.

I felt so strongly because I had seen her interviewed on the Australian ABC show Enough Rope, by the extraordinary Andrew Denton.

Like Peter Brock and Steve Irwin before her, Jane had opened up her heart to the Australian nation on Denton’s program and then gone on to die tragically.

These three deaths are a horrible coincidence and it’s an issue that should not be sensationalised.

To understand how affecting these deaths were for your average Australian though, particularly i think Jane McGrath’s, you need to understand the nature of the program “Enough Rope”.

For the last three years or so they were the highlight of my viewing week, whether watched live in Australia or on pod cast overseas. It was something that nearly everyone you spoke to had seen. Even right wing politicians and National Broadcast loathers appeared on and discussed it.

Andrew is a comedian, and a very funny and successful one.  He used that wit along with his undoubted intelligence and compassion, to inspire his guests to share their very intimate stories with him on camera. Often these people were very famous but then often they were quite ordinary. Their stories never were though. Guests regularly cried or were similarly affected. Of course they laughed a lot too.

Looking back to the moment that Jane McGrath disclosed she had secondary tumours is one of the starkest examples.

I feel that this form of television, the humorous and therapeutic show he presented during that period, brought us a little closer to caring for each other.

It’s very sad that I realise this now, through the death of Jane McGrath.

I never met you Jane, but I thought you were amazing.