Kings Cross Environment

David Ryan MBE brought the boys from the Times Amateur Boxing Club in central Kings Cross out into a specially constructed ring on the Cally.  Just as i finished interviewing him on what boxing does for young men, George picked up a loud hailer and jovially hailed a passing policeman with the classic phrase 'Come on PC George, get your gloves on, everyone wants to fight a copper'.  George was up for it and did some pad work.  All in the spirit of a lovely day.

I took up meditation when I got ill a few years ago and i can't recommend RIGPA on the Cally Road highly enough as a place to learn and practice meditation.  RIGPA practice a Tibetan tradition that includes meditating with your eyes open, which surprises some.  Alastair talks about a lovely interpretation of the Tibetan Prayer Flag tradition tying wishes to balloons instead.

It was wonderful to see Housmans certainly one of London's best bookshops and possibly one of Britain's best out at the Cally Festival. Albert Beale is a great Cally enthusiast and this website often benefits from his comments.

There's a huge team of people to credit, but Anya did a superb job in organising much of the Festival.  Here she is on Sunday afternoon 12 hours on from a 3AM start.  Here's to next year.

One of the lovely things about the festival was the way the organising team helped people with stalls for local good causes and initiatives.  Here's a few in their own words:

Josette from Parents4Parents based in the Jean Stokes Centre

Rebecca and Sue from Peabody Activate – herb planting

Carole from Breatheasy Islington on their work helping people who have lung disease

http://boos.audioboo.fm/swf/fullsize_player.swf

Stephen Griffiths from CYP on the importance of youth work

http://boos.audioboo.fm/swf/fullsize_player.swf

The festival was great today – huge thanks to Anya, Mohammed and the dozens of people who made it possible.  Plenty more to write about it later this week but if you didn't make it have a look at the crowds that did.  Never thought i would see this on the Cally.

We don’t normally do religion on this site but the prospect of two men of the cloth out at a Festival on a Sunday was too much to resist.  Michael Learmont of St Andrews in Thornhill Square and Ted Fell new incumbent at All Saints talk about the Cally Road in this video.

I helped local artist Cosmo Sarson and Tom(?) build some giant art boards from about 0830 on Sunday morning.  We made about 50 square metres of painting surface that got filled during the day as a live art exhibition. Here's Cosmo talking about it and what he did with one of the boards.  Good fun volunteer DIY.

http://boos.audioboo.fm/swf/fullsize_player.swf

And here's Andy Council talking about what he did with one of the boards: