Simpsons jacket - me want!

The recent riots took me back to a moment in Birmingham city centre a few years ago.

I had just arrived by train from Norfolk, rushing to rejoin Granny, moored up in central Birmingham near the NIA for the week, and I was dashing past a boutique on my way to the boat, when I just happened to glance in the window. 

And there it was...

ME WANT!

I forget the price.  All I remember now is, I couldn't afford the price asked, modest as it arguably was (I think it was about £85).  I quickly took out my phone camera and made this photograph in lieu.  And I had a boat to get back to, one that had been moored unattended for the week.

So while I can understand the urges of the rioters last week, I know that I, myself, managed to resist the urge to smash the window and grab the jacket.

If I had succumbed to the temptation, it would have been quite reasonable for the authorities to have thrashed my life out of me.  But what a masochistic punishment, what a way to go, wearing that jacket, eh?

Ah yes, I remember it well. I wonder who's wearing it now.

And yet: Strange how memory plays tricks.  According to the data in the image, I took it on 7th Jan 2006 at 2:20pm in the afternoon.  According to other evidence, I was simply window shopping at the time. Heaven knows what evidence I could give the police on my movements at the time. 

My camera tells me that just a couple of hours before I took the picture above, I was photographing the IWA boat Jubilee, in winter sleet. 

At the time, IWA volunteers Mike Rolfe and Ivor  Caplan were bravely manning the boat at Birmingham's canalside Brindleyplace, hoping to tell passers-by about the wonders of Britain's waterways.

So I must have gone shopping - or window shopping - shortly afterwards.  Later on that day I took night time photos around the canals, and the following day I took Granny to Hockley Heath. It's amazing how much of a notebook a camera can be.

By the way, today I learned that canalside Birmingham was even emptier last weekend during the riots than it was on that lonely and frigid January weekend five years ago. 

But more about that later.

Comments

[Mick]

The Simpsons jacket would have a certain kind of sartorial elegance all of it's own. Yet at the same time, it would be a good jacket to wear during the riots. I would imagine that no one would remember your face for supplying the police with a description. doh!

Mick

[nbJubilee]

Super to see Jubilee in Jan 06. Today on the Grand Union Leic arm painting and derusting a little. Quiet spot near woodland trust. Ideal. Jubilee