A Token of a Time

During my last week in the tub, I said to myself I would try to make the most of the place whilst I was there. eg. flaneur around the beige city to soak up the hustle and bustle, go the The Little Theatre, take a boat trip, rinseeee the decent pubs and generally hang out with le Bath folk. But to my stupidity, I did not take into account the domestic deeds that needed attention.eg. cleaning our pit of a kitchen, cleaning MY pit of a room and packing fun. So my desired 'joyful-and-fun-filled' week turned out to be 'shit.-cleaning-is-tiring-and-i-can't-do-anything' week.

However, i did get the chance to indulge in one thing I will definitely miss about Bath. And that is the delightful little walk to the local supermarchee - NISA. I'd like to thank Caitlin Aston, Rebecca Wheelright and Tom Rees for introducing this wonderful place and location to me. It is so great on soo many levels. Nisa fm has to be mentioned. I really can't go too deep here as it would bode in a lengthy post that I didn't intend to write about, maybe save that for a rainy day. But here it is in short: take a left away from the hubbub of the city centre toward the slightly rougher area of Twerton (keep your sugar cubes on yer), cross the pedestrian bridge over the emerald river, and walk on up to a crossroads that separate off into clusters of small independent shops. Lead your eyes to the right of the uphill road and you will see the navy blue flag that is Nisa. (sometimes with a hench security guard outside, coz it's SO FUCKIN G LIKE THAT.)



Enough of Nisa (GASP), where I was going with this was to share a moment that seemed to have some poiencey. A moment where you think 'hey...this nicely sums up all the things that have been ticking over in my head all week'. Beside Nisa is a charity shop that has become a nice addition to the regular visits. Big room with rare generous spaceing between clothes racks. Full of junk, but good junk. And doesn't smell too bad. One day whilst cheakin' out the shiny section, a little mustard badge winked at me. (sorry if my liney palm distracts you slightly)


I haven't brought a badge in a long time. This is a shame really because badges are fantastic accessories. I have one bag which I have organised all my found badges, and for this reason, I’d say it is my favourite out of my larger bag accumulation. Handbags are for fancy times don't you know! So I was a little more than excited when I found this gem. For those who aren't familiar with Moles, it is cosy live music venue in Bath that has a reputation of nabbing bands before they get 'big'. They've (in my opinion) quite pretentiously exploited this by stencilling the band’s name and date they played over the walls upstairs. (I have hunted everywhere to find the photo that reads 'LUCY PARKER: 12/06/10' to share, unfortunatly the bad joke will have to remain unheard, gutted) Despite this, it's impressive who's played there, most of my favourite bands in fact, but I quite liked the rumoured talks and air of prestige that surrounded the venue.

The reason behind the rad deco is because of the new 'moles music cafe', which sadly meant the death of the luring upstairs floor - a floor basically full of sofas where'd you'd do the 'drunk slump' and ramble nonsense to the lucky person beside you. Ah good times. So the place had a little re-vamp, new wood block type logo, but my little badge is the OLD logo. And I’d call that vintage my friend. Which makes me well trendy now. So i feel kinda proud that i found a little slice of history.

I see the badge as a memoir, an item I can have with me that will remind me of a period of time in my life; the day I went to but G+T from Nisa, the week of strange contradictions, and the year away from home for the first time. It signifies good times, a place I went to seek familar faces, have little dance and generally enjoy myself. Yeah.