efog-blog
Recent outings and activities...
'Just a Minute' Game
When I was first introduced to this, it was called "Just a Minute", but it's not the same as the TV / radio show of that name and is probably more accurately described as "Who Is This?" or "The Name Game".
An email was sent out, a couple of weeks ago, asking for people to send me the names of two famous people; they could be dead or alive, recent or historical, but had to be real people. The responses were an eclectic mix of authors, actors, sportsmen, explorers and royalty amongst others, although musicians / singers and politicians dominated; there was only one duplicate (Beethoven). I added some scientists, chefs, fashion designers, artists, entertainers, TV personalities and historical figures, plus some more authors and actors, to the list, ensuring there were male and female names in each category where possible. Each was printed on individual squares of paper.
This evening - 31st August 2025 - the group divided into two teams, with each sat in a row, facing the other team. To determine which team would go first, I gave a clue to someone chosen by myself (cigar-smoking, p****, who was actively involved with Stoke Mandeville) - which was correctly guessed by the team on my left as Jimmy Saville. The first person in Team A was handed the first piece of paper and had to describe the named person so that their team guessed who it was. Saying "sounds like" or "rhymes with" isn't allowed and nor can you pass so, if you have no idea who the person is or what they did, you have to be creative with your clues to guide your team to the correct name. As soon as the correct answer was guessed, another piece of paper was handed over. After one minute, time was up and the unguessed name went to the bottom of the pile. The first person is Team B was given the next name to describe to their team. Again, one minute to successfully describe as many people as possible. We then came back to Team A and person two in the row, and so on until all 54 names had been correctly identified. Some were easy, but who knew that Steve Redgrave is a cyclist? (actually, Trevor did, as he guessed that his team mate knew nothing about sport and shouted out the sportsperson that he'd actually suggested) or that Stevie Nicks is male? or that Julius Caesar was Greek? Walter Raleigh also got the bicycle treatment, Princess Charlotte was linked to fruit with no-one thinking to say she's William and Kate's daughter, Ellen Terry was described using nappies and Billy Joel may now forever be associated with goats. It took a few rounds before Elon Musk was correctly identified, possibly because no-one mentioned Tesla.
For round two, the papers were shuffled and we continued down the line, alternating between Team A and Team B, for one minute each - but this time the person standing at the front could only use one word and their team was only allowed one guess. If they got it wrong, the piece of paper went back to the end of the pile and another name was passed over to describe in one word. It helps to have paid attention to the clues given (and the answers) in the first round, but at least you can pass in this round if you have no idea. In my example, I pointed out that 'cigar' for Jimmy Saville wouldn't help much as it could also apply to Groucho Marx so 'Mandeville' would be a better clue. Clearly my suggestion didn't sink in though, as 'author' gave the team a 1 in 5 chance, 'chef' didn't help narrow it down between Delia Smith or Gordon Ramsey (yet Norwich and 'swears' had both been mentioned in round one), 'clothing' could be Ralph Lauren or Coco Chanel (again, 'Polo' and 'dress' were mentioned in round one and that's how they were eventually identified), 'French' could be Claude Monet, Coco Chanel, Brigitte Bardot or Marie Antoinette and 'beheaded' applied to Anne Boleyn and Marie Antoinette. We also learned who hadn't paid attention in the first round when answers such as Charles Dickens and Vincent Van Gogh were shouted out - they weren't ever on the list.
In round three, you had to mime. Richard crawling on the floor, trying to be a 'cat in the hat' for Dr Seuss was hilarious, blowing the bl**dy doors off for Michael Caine was mistaken for Guy Fawkes, smoking a cigarette (tobacco) for Walter Raleigh was guessed as Groucho Marx (should have gone for the cycling action!), attempts at miming a crown on the head for Queen Elizabeth II and for Princess Charlotte might have worked if a similar headpiece mime wasn't also used for Mother Teresa, Mahatma Gandhi, Desmond Tutu, Julius Caesar and, oddly, Dawn French (presumably linked to the Vicar of Dibley). Miming writing was variously used for Dick Francis, Bill Bryson, Jane Austen, Agatha Christie, Alan Turing, Ada Lovelace and Carol Vorderman, so wasn't a huge help. An asp biting Cleopatra was well acted (if you knew the answer) but obviously wasn't clear the first time round - when it came round again and was mimed to the same team, the person who'd acted almost the exact same mime was able to guess it immediately. At least Lewis Hamilton was relatively easy, once Jeremy Clarkson had been discounted and so were Charles Darwin (ape to man), Bruce Lee (karate kick) and Martina Navratilova (I should have added a male tennis player to the list!).
We didn't quite get through them all - Michelle Obama, Tony Blair, Ellen Terry and Nelson Mandela proved too difficult to mime - before our evening had to be brought to an end, but it was good fun and I'd certainly like to thank all the participants for making me laugh so much, even if that wasn't the intent. One person's idea of 'famous' isn't the same as another's and there were a few names in the pile that were unknown to many in the group, which made it very interesting. However, I can't criticise as I had no idea who Ellen Terry was.
Jill S., 31st July 2025
Benfleet to Leigh-on-Sea Station
On a warm summer’s day, 10 EFOGers met at Benfleet Station at 11 am on Friday 18th July.
There was a short uphill stretch as we went up Station Road to turn right into Hadleigh Country Park and follow the gravel path heading towards Hadleigh Castle.
There were good views across the fields to East Haven Creek and the variety of boats moored there. There is The Hub Café in the country park, but that would have added a little to the walk so I’d phoned ahead to check that the Café at the Salvation Army Rare Breeds Farm could fit us in, which they could, so we followed the path uphill (steeper and longer than some would have liked) past Hadleigh Castle to the Café. Both the Café and Farm are staffed by trainees with special needs. The food was very well presented with generous portions for the Ploughmans.
Suitably refreshed we then moved on to the Rare Breeds Farm itself where we strolled leisurely round with some feeding the animals. After the long dry spell much of the grass in the enclosures was parched or virtually non-existent, but we saw that they did move the animals from time to time and let some into the wider fields with more abundant grass.
We then retraced our steps down to the Castle ruin from which there were views out to the Thames Estuary and Southend.
Passing through the Castle grounds we followed the footpath towards Leigh-on-Sea station. On the way we saw a large caterpillar on the path which was later determined to be an emperor moth.
After a 4 mile walk in total we reached Leigh-on-Sea Station at just after 4pm, having taken a little longer than anticipated at the café and elsewhere, to catch the train back to Benfleet and home.
Richard, 25th July 2025
Photos by Madeleine
Manor Park Circular Walk – Wanstead Flats and Park
Sunday 13th July 2025, and it’s a change from the walk originally planned due to the hot weather, and a slightly earlier start to avoid the hottest part of the day and so people can get back in time to watch the tennis final. I arrived at Manor Park station at 10.30 to find Fozi, Louise, Madeleine, Lynne and Jill S there and we were soon joined by Claire.
We exited the station turning left towards Wanstead Flats, and I wondered whether the grass fires earlier in the week might have any impact our route. Turning left into Capel Road we saw some police tape 
Wanstead Flats, looking east from Centre Roadalong the edge of the Flats, but we continued on the road along the edge of the Flats, which were sadly looking very dry and brown.
At the next road (Centre Road) we crossed over and continued around the edge of the Flats, with a couple of football games taking place at the other side of the Flats. We did very briefly take a wrong turn, but I realised that it was wrong within about 10 seconds, so that doesn’t count (my walk, my rules!).
We continued along the edge of the Flats, turning at Jubilee Pond and then crossing Lake House Road to head towards the high rise buildings at the edge of the grassland. and then we turned right along Evelyn's Avenue, a historic tree lined track heading towards Wanstead and Bush Wood. I had previously walked the route, but only in the opposite direction, so upon reaching a junction at Bush Wood, I needed to check whether it was the right track to take, leaving the ladies to have a drink break and natter.
Jubilee Pond, Wanstead FlatsFollowing the chosen route, it turned out to be right (blimey, that’s a rarity!) and we came out on Blake Hall Road, to cross over the road and enter into Wanstead Park We then walked through the park, shaded by the surrounding trees, past the ducklings at Shoulder of Mutton Pond, to the tea hut for well earned food and drinks. This was, in effect, the end of the walk, as for most people it was easier to get home from here rather than returning to Manor Park.
Suitably refreshed, we then headed homewards, some through the park to reach Wanstead and Redbridge, with a couple of us taking the short walk back to the start point, passing an area of grassland which had obviously been burnt in the recent fire. It had been a good walk, pleasantly warm rather than intensely hot, a leisurely 5 miles, and everyone should have been able to get back in time for the tennis - if you like Wimbledon that is.
Trev Eley
Photos by Jill and Trevor
Charing Cross Station to Fitzrovia
On one of the hottest days of the year, Sunday 29th June, four of us braved the heat for a Literary-themed walk from Charing Cross Station to Fitzrovia. We met at 10.00am and hoped to finish before the temperature became too unbearable. Our route took us to Trafalgar Square, up Charing Cross Road (with a couple of detours into Cecil Court and Litchfield Street) before zigzagging our way to Rathbone Place, Charlotte Street, the lovely Colville Place, Whitfield Street and then into Tottenham Street where we finished just round the corner from Goodge Street Station. The stops along our walk covered multiple subjects and points of interest, noted below.
In Colville PlaceTrafalgar Square: We learned of Charles Dickens' impressions when it was first laid out ('abortive ugliness'), heard about George Orwell sleeping rough here (documented in The Road to Wigan Pier) and also how Joe Simpson recovered sufficiently from the severe injuries sustained in the Andes (described in Touching the Void), to scale Nelson's Column on behalf of Greenpeace to protest about acid rain.
84 Charing Cross Road, which was once the offices of bookdealers Marks & Co; the address became well known due to the book of the same name and its subsequent radio, TV and film adaptations, all based on the correspondence between Helene Hanff (an early writer of television dramas in the US) and the shop's manager, Frank Doel, who was tasked with fulfilling her requests for obscure classics and British literature that she was unable to find in New York. A long-distance friendship developed between the two from 1949 until Doel's death in 1968. Hanff finally visited Charing Cross Road in the summer of 1971, but the bookshop had closed in December 1970. It is now a McDonalds.
On Charing Cross Road, we also talked at length about the renowned bookshops: Blackwell's (the first to offer online book purchasing), Foyles (the convoluted nature of finding or buying a book until they had a sensible re-org about 20 years ago, letters from Hitler, their literary luncheons), Dillons (who ran adverts, referencing the chaotic purchasing system at Foyles, that said "Foyled again? Try Dillons") and then about Waterstones (the rise, fall and rise of the eponymous ex-owner and how the chain that bears his name is intertwined with all of the aforementioned).
Tottenham Court Road was described by the British writer V S Pritchett as ‘the ugliest and most ludicrous street in London’, but that hasn't stopped it featuring in a number of literary works including Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Virginia Woolf's Mrs Dalloway, George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion, Ian McEwan's Saturday and several of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories. The ending of Charles Dickens' Little Dorrit, where Rigaud is killed by a falling house, was thought to have been inspired by a real-life disaster on Tottenham Court Road.
Bookshops (current): that have rare collectors' items and / or signed copies (Any Amount of Books and Henry Pordes), one specialising in first editions, old and rare children's books, particularly Alice in Wonderland (Marchpane) and another that deals in 'all things spiritual and esoteric' (Watkins Books).
Outside the now-closed Pollock's Toy MuseumBookshops (past): the art and design bookshop that once gave Charing Cross Road its character and whose owner had another shop round the corner where some of the first exhibitions of Miro and Dali were held in the UK (Zwemmer's), the left-wing booksellers, founded in 1933 to import communist and radical publications, that remained on Charing Cross Road until it went bankrupt in 1993 (Collets) and a first-edition specialists whose visitor's book had many distinguished signatures (Bell, Book and Radmall).
Locations for footage & plays linked to literature: Admiralty Arch (Howards End), The Garrick (Brighton Rock and An Inspector Calls), The Wyndham Theatre (The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie), St Martin's Theatre (Agatha Christie's unpublished short story The Mousetrap), an antiquarian map and book sellers that once stood in Cecil Court and is now an art gallery (the film 84 Charing Cross Road, the Beatrix Potter film Miss Potter and the ‘J.R.Hartley Fly-Fishing’ TV advert for Yellow Pages).
Outside Pollock's Toy MuseumPubs & restaurants associated with authors: The Ivy, where multiple noted authors have celebrated milestone birthdays, knighthoods and more, The Black Horse pub described by Anthony Burgess (author of A Clockwork Orange) as “too funereal to be convivial” and The Bricklayers Arms pub which he said “was quiet, small and a good place for assignations”, The Fitzroy pub where Dylan Thomas met the artist Augustus John plus The Wheatsheaf pub, nearby, where John introduced Thomas to his future wife. We also saw The Marquis of Granby that was 'the last pub of the night' for George Orwell and others in the 1930s as it was located in Marylebone whereas The Wheatsheaf and The Fitzroy were in Holborn and closed half an hour earlier. Further along the road, we stopped in front of The Lisboeta which stands on the site of L'Etoile, a French bistro which had been T S Eliot's favourite restaurant as it was a short stroll from where he worked at Faber's offices in Russell Square.
Sunday Roast at the Fitzrovia pubOther buildings associated with authors: where Ian Fleming once worked (Admiralty Arch), the home of the Beefsteak Club whose members have included Rudyard Kipling, Sir Harold Nicolson and Sir John Betjeman (facing Charing Cross Road), an art gallery that was once a tearoom where Edward Thomas, Walter de la Mare and Rupert Brooke used to congregate - it had previously been a barbers where Amadeus Mozart had his hair cut, aged 7, on a visit to London (Cecil Court), the picturesque 18th century passageway where a young George Gissing, considered one of the three greatest novelists in England by the 1890s and said to be George Orwell's favourite writer, lived in 1878 (Colville Place) as well as the street where Jerome K Jerome shared a cramped bedsit with George Wingrave, the future bank manager with whom he made the trip that was to become Three Men in a Boat (Whitfield Street).
Other mentions: inspiration for Diagon Alley in the Harry Potter books (Cecil Court), the 'Penguincubator' machine that was briefly installed on the pavement outside Collets to dispense Penguin paperbacks, until it was realised that customers could get more than one book out for their sixpence (Charing Cross Road), code poems written by the son of Marks & Co's founder that were used to encrypt messages in WW2 and were based on his father's use of book pricing codes (Charing Cross Road) and also Pollock's Toy Museum, now closed, that once also had a shop on the ground floor to contribute to its support and was written about by Robert Louis Stevenson in his essay A Penny Plain and Twopence Coloured and for which J B Priestly wrote a play The High Toby (Whitfield Street).
Afterwards, we retraced our steps a little to the The Fitzrovia pub, which has no literary connections that I'm aware of but does serve a good Sunday roast and had cold drinks.
Jill S, 30th June 2025
Hollow Ponds and Gilbert's Slade
On 21st June 2025, having decided to cancel the walk at Castle Hedingham due to the forecast of extreme heat, we had 7 members meet by the Eagle Pub in Snaresbrook at 10 am for a local stroll.
The group by the Hollow PondAt first there was a small amount of cloud, but also we knew we should be finished before the hottest part of the day.
Nigel mentioned there was a nice glade near Forest School known as Gilbert’s Slade so we headed for that first passing the numerous swans on Eagle Pond and also seeing some large carp on the way. It was a pleasant circular walk past another smaller pond and mainly under the shade of the trees.
When we returned to Snaresbrook Lane opposite the car park we decided to carry on and head round Hollow Pond. Walking round it we saw a couple of people braving the sun and heat rowing on the lake, we also saw a grey heron sat on a boat preening itself. After passing the café we headed away from the lake and came out again at the car park on Snaresbrook Lane. It was then just a stroll down to the Eagle for liquid refreshment.
The whole walk took roughly 2 hours, and was 3.65 miles.
Richard, 22nd June 2025
Photo by Madeleine