On my way into work yesterday morning I experience a HAPPENING that gladdened my heart for the rest of the day, so I thought I'd share it in order to spread some DELIGHT around.
I work just behind Kings Cross station, in Granary Square, which is very cool and fashionable, possibly even more so when I'm there. To get to Granary Square you cross over a canal, and the oppsite side as you cross has a row of big steps running down from the square to the water, all covered in plastic grass, which loads of people go and sit on in the summertime. There's usually a few people sat there in the morning as I walk towards it, but today there were HUNDREDS of people, who were SMALL. At first I thought it was just a school trip who had occupied the entire thing but as I got closer I noticed that each row had children of roughly the same size on it, with a TEACHER at either end, and that nearly everyone was looking across to the other side where there was a cameraman.
AHA! It was a SCHOOL PHOTOGRAPH being taken, most likely for an entire Primary School. We used to do these every three or four years at my Senior School, and it would involve the erection of a MASSIVE structure for people to stand on, and then one of those cameras that moved VERY SLOWLY along the line, enabling TYKES to run round the back and get in it twice (except at our school the STERNEST teachers were positioned at the end to stop this rebellious practice). It used to take FOREVER to set it all up, so it was clearly a GRATE idea for whatever school this was to take advantage of the pre-provided big steps, and I'm sure worth the hassle it must have taken to get FIVE HUNDRED TINIES along to the right place.
It was all very CHARMING and LOVELY, but then it got better because it was time to take the actual picture, which involved lots of adults saying "SHH!" and then small children saying "SHH!" and then everybody all saying "SHH!" to each other because they were all saying "SHH!" so loudly. Once that was done the cameraman shouted. "ALL RIGHT! NOW! EVERYONE SAY - CHEESE!" and then 500 tiny voices whispered "cheese" as one. It was LOVELY. Shortly after that I entered our building and heard a distant "LOUDER!" and the same 500 voices shouting "CHEESE!" and it was BRILLIANT.
I work in an ART COLLEGE and there are often HAPPENINGS and ART and CONCEPTS slathered about, but I don't think I've ever heard ot seen anything quite as moving as half a thousand human beings forming a moment they'll always remeber by shouting about dairy products. More of this sort of thing please!
