My weekend runnings took me twice to east London, innit. On Saturday, I met Theo - the brand new son of two of my best friends. A fine name, though I’m still not sure if he was named after the jazz musician or the quick-as-mustard Arsenal winger. Either way, Theolonius Monk’s music is often described as being ‘childlike’, appropriately enough and while I love the cover of the ‘Underground’ album, this recording of Monk with John Coltrane, only very recently discovered in some (probably literally) dusty archives is the doozy. In the meantime, watch this.

Sunday saw me striding manfully down Columbia Road Flower Market, or as manfully as you can stride when you’re carrying two bunches of lilies. By coincidence, I’ve been reading a bit about east London recently. Firstly Ed Glinert ’s ‘East End Chronicles’ (though I would also recommend The London Compendium, fascinating stuff) and this weekend this book about organised crime in the East End. I’m not a fan of the true crime genre by any stretch of the imagination and so skipped most of the Robin Hood-esq nonsense about the Krays and the Richardsons, but I really enjoyed some of the vernacular and nicknames and especially the chapters on the 1920’s and 30’s. There is loads about the Italian Sabini family (who were based not that far from where I type these words) which is where Graham Greene apparently got the inspiration for the gangsters in Brighton Rock. Need to re-read that one thinking about it.

Finally, go Brian! If you’re not watching Big Brother then this won’t mean much to you but oh my goodness, that man is such a hoot. I placed a modest wager on him winning the series a few weeks ago and with the odds now at 8/11 or something, it’s looking like a very good move. My last successful bet involved the Pontiff, but I don’t think I’ll go into that now…