Monday, 11 June 2007

South London Life

A man with a wild afro, unshaven, walks towards the shopping centre at Elephant and Castle with determination. He's carrying a red shopping bag and wearing a pleated summer print skirt that swings with his strides. Across the road 3 big women on their way to work talking in patois stop to look at him. Laughing. One of them hangs back and takes a sneaky picture on her phone camera.

In the bakers I wonder whether it is ok to wear a totally see-through shirt (albeit baggy with folds of cloth) as long as you are relatively flat chested. The builders behind her in their workboots and high-vis jackets watch her respectfully. She takes her bagel and struts out of there all sking tight jeans, high heeled boots and very see-through white blouse.

A man in a football kit walks along dancing, listening to headphones, his eyes rolled back in his head like a zombie from Shaun of the Dead.

Outside the side door of the office there's a dead baby blackbird. Probably not ready for his first flight. Head frozen up, legs disappeared under him.

On the way home an ambulance attends a man who may have been hit by a car near Dulwich Village. He's in the recovery position, blood all over the back of his head. Further on the journey towards Stockwell police interview both parties of a crash - the car has lost its front bumper and is crushed fairly badly, the post office van is crumpled all along its front and side.

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