| London,
UK
16.4-18.4
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index |
| London,
UK
16.4-18.4
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index |
So fuckin' fast, we gonna make ya ears bleed
So fuckin' fast, so fuckin' fast...
-- DJ Criss, Finnmasterz
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I love takeoffs, all that accelerations and getting crushed into your seat... lovely. I'll probably wet my spacesuit if I ever end up in a Space Shuttle. Finland was looking atypically pretty for the season: it's early spring, so most of the snows are gone, but the trees are still leafless and the fields are gray. The sun was sitting over the rows of birch and pine, turning them a hazy purple, the sky lighting up red... wow. I've never seen Helsinki look so arctic, with the same desolate, cold beauty as Lapland in the summer. |
The pilot flew a wide U-turn to correct course after taking off heading east, allowing me to orient myself and trace the islands and roads to the little cape of Otaniemi. I imagined the people I know going about their lives, with me high up in the sky, looking down. It'll be nearly a month 'till I see you again... mwah!
Is it normal to write your diary in HTML?
Peace.
All through the night, the rain drummed quietly on the windowsill.
I've regained some of my lost faith in humanity, but lost some in my own ability to ever be content with what I have, here and now, extract some meaning from it all: 6 thousand thousand thousand beings, wending their way through their insignificant lives, always waiting for tomorrow, always pretending that tomorrow will always come...
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It was past 11 by the time we headed out to the City, E. pointing out the landmarks from the second story of a double-decker bus. We disembarked at Piccadilly Circus and, after a brief visit to the Chinese embassy, headed towards Soho and Covert Garden. We ate a delicious, if rather expensive, sushi lunch at a trendy little place called Yuzo. All too soon (but not before a visit to Cyberdog!) she had to head off to work, so I hopped on the Tube and headed to Oxford Street.
Record and clothes stores galore, it's just a pity that everything was so ludicrously priced even by Finnish standards (£14-15 for new CDs, £8-10 used). But books were cheap, especially after borrowing E.'s 33% employee discount... Berwick St. in particular stood out, packed solid from end to end with fruit and vegetable stalls out in the street and record stores on both sides. Just the same, in this day and age, it's the Internet stores that have both the widest selection and the lowest prices.
I remember disliking what I found to be a dusty, noisy, chaotic and ugly London the last time I came here, some 7-8 years ago as a hostage of my parents. Things have changed and so have I, with my low expectations London turned out to be a pleasant surprise. Parts of it -- especially here in the suburbs -- remind me quite a bit of New York, the same multicultural big-city feel with its crazy mix of West African barbers, Caribbean bakeries and Indian fast food joints selling chicken tikka and fish & chips, everything in various states of decay and renewal. But the center is unmistakably London, a truly peculiar combination of the oldest tradition ("est. 1690", proclaims every other pub, as if names like "Cockfosters" and "Harrow & Wealdstone" aren't enough to tip you off) together with the latest high-tech, my favorite being the "iO" electronic information boxes in the streets that bubble out spacey acid sounds 24 hours a day.
Top 10 Things About Living in an Old Victorian House:
An industrial nightmare in dirty brick and rusting pipe...
A group of schoolkids, dressed in green sweaters and tartan kilts...
Sakura (Japanese cherry trees) in bloom at St. James' Park near Buckingham Palace...
A demonstration by the National Pig Association. "Safe, healthy, assured humane!"
Another demonstration at 10 Downing St demands: "Stop starving Iraqi children!" ... from doing what?
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I'm not having much luck with my flights, now am I? My "Air 2000" (now there's a name to inspire confidence) flight is now 40 minutes late, again, before departure, again. The departure lounge's tax-free ain't bad, but the rest sucks -- I can't even get cold water in the bathroom and tea costs a truly ludicrous £1.45 a cup. I managed to resist the urge to buy a sheep gut stuffed full of haggis (a steal at £6.95, especially as the half-kilo serves 4), opting for a mini-case of Guinness and a pack of wine gums instead. I wonder how the mämmi packed in the depths of my rucksack is doing... |
Security through obscurity in action, as demonstrated by some kids playing hide-and-seek:
"OK, now you count down to 10, and we'll hide. And don't look under the bench!"
(Don't worry, non-CS people are not expected to understand this.)
But at least Butler's Bar is blasting out juicy techno beats. I missed "That's How It Is!" at Bar Rumba, I'll have to make up for lost time on the way back...
