The streets of London

2006-09-27T22:23:00.000+01:00

Captains Log; Star date 27092006

Lots of things have happened since I last posted so this is going to be quick run down. Maybe I'll write more if anybody cares to hear more about any of it.

I went into a primary school for a week and generally helped out by listening to readers and answering the kid's questions.

I started my course at uni. First two days was basically registering and getting introductions from everyone. I have lectures and seminars for three main bits. "Professional studies" is with all the PGCE students and it's abourt general being a teacher stuff. I have seminars with a class of mixed science PGCEers anout teaching science and then most of the seminars are just with chemistry PGCEers, who are like me. It's fun and not too pressurised at this point.

I bought a peugeot racing bike that was made in 1989, it's red and beautiful, I've been riding to uni through the centre of London every day. As well as the bike I bought locks, bike tools, new tire, helmet, lights & new mud guards. I just need water proofs and I'll be all set for the winter!

Been playing songs with spanish girl Marian. Hopefully we'll learn enough songs to get some gigs and some money!

Went rock climbing with some folks from uni, it was pretty fun, will be going again next week. Japanese course starts this coming Tuesday.

End Log

2006-09-10T22:16:00.000+01:00

From the BBC News website: The Japanese Jesus trail

Local legend says Mr Sawaguchi (r) is a living descendant of Jesus

A Japanese legend claims that Jesus escaped Jerusalem and made his way to Aomori in Japan where he became a rice farmer. Christians say the story is nonsense. However, a monument there known as the Grave of Christ attracts curious visitors from all over the world.

2006-09-06T18:19:00.000+01:00

I've been wataching, listening to and reading a lot of really interesting things recently so I thought I'd write about them here.

This book is a collection of essays by George Orwell. What is so brilliant is the same logical thinking and clarity of though which he uses to discuss anything from politics to boys' weeklys. I have to say that though I liked the essays 'The Spike'(about being a tramp), 'Shooting an Elephant' (about the madness of imperialism) and 'How the poor die' (about public health services) I most enjoyed it when he applied the same thinking to 'Books Vs Cigarettes', 'In defense of English cooking', 'Some thoughts on the common toad' and 'Confessions of a book reviewer'. It is clear that he thought any peice of writing should (and does) furthur some larger cause, but he also obviously believed that what you wrote should be very readable. I suppose his style of humour would be 'it's funny because it's true', rather like Alan Bennett (see below). Both men went form modest working / middle class homes into upper-class educational establishments. This give them both I suppose the wide-lense outlook on the world they used to comment on the situations both in the immediate surroundings and around the world.

I liked this bit at the end of 'Confessions of a Book Reviewer'. "However, everyone in this world has someone else he can look down on, and I must say, from experience of both trades, that the book reviewer is better off than the film critic, who cannot even do his work at home, but has to attend trade shows at eleven in the morning and, with one or two notable exceptions, is expected to sell his honour for a glass of inferior sherry".

2006-09-06T17:41:00.000+01:00

I listened to both part one and part two of this on Audio Book because anything written by Alan Bennett can only really be apprecieted by listening to his accent and intonation. The CD is abridged and I would have liked to have read the whole thing, but I know I wouldn't have enjoyed it as much. My dad says when he is reading the book (he bought it) he imagines Bennetts voice reading it to him.

In the first part he talks a little about his childhood in Leeds during the war but mostly about his mother's slow slide into depression, dementia and her eventual death. It's never light hearted but somehow it rides the balance of humour and tragedy brilliantly. Talking about his parents - "They stopped going to church because all to often the got roped in after the serviceto take part in a discussion group. "it was a discussion group on the 3rd world", dad wrote to me."well, yer mam and me don't even know where the 3rd world is! Next week it's Budism, we're going to give it a miss".

The second part is his diaries for the period 1997 to 2004. He is a self confessed luvie and he always drops names from theatre. You never think he is trying to show off though, merely that he likes speaking of the various characters he meets in the strange world of the theatre. The first entry is this "2nd January 1997: I'm sent a complementary copy of waterstones literary diary which records the birthdays of various contemperary figures from the world of letters......and so naturally I turn to my own birthday. May 9th is blank.Except for the note "the first British self-service launderette is opened on Queensway, London, 1949"".

Bennett lives in Camden, only a couple of miles from where I do now. I keep my eyes open at waitrose to see if I see him doing his shopping there. I often wonder what, if anything, I would say to famous people I admire if I ever met them. I'm sure I would make a complete arse of myself.

2006-09-06T17:14:00.000+01:00

This book is two hundred odd pages long and I read the whole thing from start to finish in one sitting. It's the first Haruki Murakami book I've ever read. It seems to me that there are two sides to this book. The standard fiction side of the book reminded me of Nick Hornby. His characters are real but easily definable because they have extreme personality traits. The main girl in the story is a typical bohemian taken straight out of the 60's and put in the 90's. The main guy is nice and easy to associate yourself with, but he's essentially a hanger-on. It also reminded me of Nick Hornby that what you like is more important than what you are like (though the character in High Fidelity who says that rejects the idea). So we can tell what the girl is like by the books she reads and how she dresses. We can tell about other characters by the cars they drive or the clothes they wear. The main girl even changes her clothes when she changes her character (or is it the other way round?). The weird part of the book reminds me of Roald Dahl because it's like he's sat down and wrote on a pad "I'll write a story about a man who learns to see through cards" or "a girl with a magic finger". Basically the change is so small that the rest of the book grounds it in reality and it therefore becomes semi-believeable and therefore weird. It was a really quick read and it was fun. I was worried about the ending, but he came good in the end.

I'm reading 'The Wind-up Bird Chronicle' now, it is slower going but his style is still easy and I'm in no rush. I liked this quote "It occurred to me that true believers in hard-driving jazz...could never become owners of cleaning shops in malls across from railroad stations." Is that true? You wouldn't have thought so but experience seems to suggest it. I guess it is the same question as above.

2006-09-06T16:24:00.000+01:00

A couple of days ago I happened to notice that 'Tales of the Unexpected' was on ITV3 one after the other. Each episode was orginally a short story by Roald Dahl. The TV series was first broadcast in the late 70's and early 80's. The first two series were all Roald Dahl stories but the third and final season was written by a variety of authors who wrote similar stories. The episode I watched was called 'The Fly Paper' and it was from the last season. The story is set in what looks like the yorkshire moors with the small town grim bordered by rolling heath which is it's self enclosed in fog. It opened with a news report about a local girl who had gone missing, who about half way though turns up dead in a pond behind the church. The majority of the story is about another girl who is followed around by a strange man. The tension of the program is kept by keeping us guessing as to whether the man will in the end get the girl or indeed if he is a bad guy at all. It's all a bit too realistic and the one word that springs to mind is Sinister. Somehow even the old film footage seems to lend authenticity to the story. With this tale of the unexpected all we really care about is whether the girl will be o.k, so the ending is not entirely unexpected as the answer can only be yes or no. However you really don't know which it will be until right at the end. It scared me a lot, and you can read the short story here (written by Elizabeth Taylor - not the actress).

2006-09-02T01:08:00.000+01:00

"insert artsy title here"

2006-09-02T00:55:00.000+01:00

This is a picture from my new webcam. I chatted to my sister using it today, it was cool. Pictured is Chris, Ruben & me. Ruben is going back home to Spain tomorrow via Italy due to girlfriend troubles. pinch, punch, first of the month.

2006-08-30T23:02:00.000+01:00

I`ve been making okonomiyaki all this week, I`ve had about a year`s worth of cabbage. This picture is probably the most asthetically pleasing creation yet. It tasted pretty good too. It`s really important to mix the water and the flour first before adding the egg. I learned that the hard way.

I decorated my walls. Now I feel like I actually live here rather than just staying somewhere I don`t live.

My sister and I went to see A Comedy of Errors this afternoon. It was very funny and they really knew how to interact with the audience. I think The Globe is the only proper place to see Skakespeare & so I won`t ever be going anywhere else hence forth.

2006-08-25T11:56:00.000+01:00

From the Japan Times:

Essay about tossing kittens off cliff sparks outcry

In the essay titled "Killing Kittens" in the newspaper's Aug. 18 evening edition, Bando, 48, wrote that she owns three pet cats and throws their litters off the cliff near her house on Tahiti.

"I am fully aware what severe criticism I may face if I write this," she says at the outset of the essay. "I will probably be condemned as a savage by animal lovers around the world, and people may say I am violating the animal protection law. Knowing this, I confess I am killing kittens."

2006-08-24T00:38:00.000+01:00

Whilst shopping this salad caught my attention and then my imagination. I was first lured by the prospect of buying 99p`s worth of salady goodness for a mere 79p by the flurescent orange sticker on it. Looking a bit closer I noticed that it said "product of more than on country" on the front. I know lots of things these days are made around the world, for example my new DMs were made especially for me by some hard working bootsmith in China, but somehow the contrast of something having travelled from many parts of the world and it costing 79p and it being salad seemed to bring the madness all home to me. That wasn`t all though, another label on the front said "washed in spring water". Obviously my imagination led be to believe that each tender leaf had been lovingly washed on the side of a mountain in a natural spring which rises clear and crisp from the rock face of a cliff. But seriously, how anal do you have to be to insist that all the salad you consume must be washed in spring water instead of regular old plain water? bizzare... I couldn`t detect any difference in taste anyway. You`d have thought that someone who was so particular about salad being washed in spring water would have something to say about it being processed and sold in a little plastic (non-degradable) bag.

On another note, this from the Japan Times website:

Japan has roughly 22,000 lawyers -- one for every 5,790 people, compared with one for every 268 in the United States. Under the old bar exam, to be scrapped in 2011, fewer than 1,500 people are allowed to pass every year. In the United States, with about twice Japan's population, the number is closer to 75,000.

2006-08-19T12:51:00.000+01:00

I`m back in London, and now with all my stuff. I have my PC (with cool flat screen and surround sound), my guitar amp (to annoy the neighbours) and lots of DVDs. I never really realised how much stuff I have, it`s because I don`t really throw anything away. I`ve been playing on `The Sims` a lot this week. I didn`t really like it the first time around but I thing I understand it better now. I didn`t like it last time because there is basically no winning, it just continues. I`m more relaxed now & I like it better.

I made myself into a Sim, I`m a bungee jump instructor at the moment. More Shakespeare next week as my sisters Emma & Hannah want to watch something at The Globe. I also brought my bilingual Japanese cookbook that I got from Kinokunya. I plan to get all the special Japanese ingredients I need from China town & try to cook something from it every weekend. I`ll be starting with Okonomiyaki, if I can get the special sauce.

2006-08-12T00:22:00.000+01:00

I`ve come back to Lyme Regis to get all my stuff because for the last couple of months I`ve been living out of the bag I took with me on the train. I got the notification that I will get money to study my course.

Check out my new boots. They are rubbing on my ankles at the moment but I am suffering the pain for the sake of fashion.

2006-07-31T15:15:00.001+01:00

Gemma has gone away for the summer so she has sub-let her room to Rueben who is here from Spain to study english for 6 weeks. Reuben`s sister, Lara, came to visit for his first week and I went out with them a couple of times. Me and Lara went to Oxford to do a bit of sight-seeing.

We bought a little booklet which had a little map and walking tour which we followed around the town centre. Oxford is a really pretty town, mostly because the college buildings haven`t been vandelised in the same way that the shops on the high street have. One of the first colleges on our little tour was Christchurch. Lara had heard that it was the most beautiful to look at inside so we paid the obligatory entrance charge (It`s best to go to Oxford with your wallet open) and had a look around. The chapel really was amazing, with the best stained glass I have ever seen by a long way. The priest was inside and he gave us a mini guided tour. The rest was o.k, but not worth the money. I think that you get the best of it just from looking at the outside. Anyway, we decided just to go into this one, it was nice to have a little rest inside.

This is quite a typical Oxford thing to do, punting on the Thames. It reminds me of Three Men in a Boat, which I would like to read soon.

Continuing with the buildings theme, this is part of the Bodelien (sp?) Library in Oxford. It is linked to the main building via an underground tunnel and it, like The British Library, recieves a copy of everything published in the UK.

After all that walking around and lying in the sun we retired to the pub. This place is day-light-robbery, they may as well have used a gun. Don`t ever come here if you are actually thirsty.

On Monday I went to watch a radio show being made. If you want to listen to the programme I went to see you can find it here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/personality_test/

2006-07-20T22:12:00.000+01:00

It has been really hot these last few days, I`ve just been reading whilst sitting on my bed beause that is about all I`ve had the energy to do. Well apart from Tuesday, I went and got myself a reader pass for the British Library so that I can read the books that are on my reading list for my course in Sept.

There has been quite a serious thing going on in the house. Some quite clearly in-humane creature has been acting so selfishly. It is no surprise that someone wrote this on the notice board:

To Lounge Dwellers,
Don`t forget to plump up the sofa cushions after you use them. Thx.

Well, I think if that is all we need to worry about then maybe things aren`t too bad...

2006-07-09T11:07:00.000+01:00

On Friday I saw a couple of bands. I had to walk a really long way though because the train station was closed due to a murder. Anyway, I got there in plenty of time, if a bit tired.

The first was Operation Wolf, which I liked a lot. Quite pop-y with some shouting. It was their last gig. About half way through their set a tiny little man in his late 30`s started randomly dancing on the stage, I think he was trying to impress the girl drummer.

The next band was Darren Hayman`s band. He was in a band called Hefner and he is a bit of a hero of mine, so it was good to see him. He was going to become a teacher but he said he gave it up and decided to try and make his living with his music again. His band were really good and tight but I got the feeling when I was talking to him that he is quite uncomfortable being a bit famous, I guess I might be like that if I were him too.

Yesterday I went to see Antony & Cleopatra at The Globe. It was a lot better than I thought it would be because last time I saw some Shakespeare it was supposed to be a comedy but it wasn`t funny. This time it was a tragedy so I think I had different expectations. It was much funnier than the other one I went to see, the actors were very good. (http://www.shakespeares-globe.org/navigation/framesetNS.htm)

Today is the Wimbledon men`s final and the final of the World Cup, so I will be being lazy and watching tv all day.

2006-06-28T13:39:00.000+01:00

I went for a walk yesterday from my house in Holloway to Camden Market, which is basically the most famous market in London. You can buy all kinds of things here, as long as it is some kind of clothing, preferably a comedy T-shirt. They also have stalls which sell different kinds of world food. I didn`t like how the people behind the stalls shouted at me to try to persuade me in. I just waved and kept on walking. I may have even bought something if they hadn`t all been shouting all the time.

At the risk of buildings becoming a theme in this blog I saw this one in Camden. I would have liked to have built that huge chair and taken a picture of me sitting in it. Alas, it shall ne`er be.

Walking home I took a different route and stubled across the famous Holloway Prison, for women. I had noticed that the ladies around these parts were quite tough looking.

The night before I went out for a walk and stumbled across a little venue just near my house. I saw This band which i rather liked. I shall certainly be frequenting that establishment again in the future.

2006-06-23T17:13:00.000+01:00

I bought a weeks worth of London travel for when I was working in Regents Park so on Monday I went to the British Museum for free. The British Museum is the best museum in the world, at least according to this book anyway. When you go into the main entrance you come to a massive doughnut shaped hall with the museum library in the centre. I`ve been here before but it`s too big to see all at once so this time I looked at some Korean and Japanese stuff, plus a couple of other things.

The British Museum is so cool because it has lot`s of things that have been plundered from around the world, like this guy who was taken from Egypt. Apparently it`s o.k because it was a long time ago, but I bet one day they`ll have to give it all back.

I always look twice at this building when I walk to and from the underground station. It`s part of London Metropolitan University. I think it is quite an impractical shape for a building.

I inherited this little guy with my new house key. I feel a bit sorry for him though, because the key is so big.

2006-06-18T22:31:00.000+01:00

This weekend I`ve been working as a steward at an event in Regents Park called "Taste of London". It was a food and drink exhibition where 40 of londons most famous restaraunts set-up stalls and served samples of their dishes. It was really busy and I had a lot of angry people to deal with. The good thing was that I got to eat lots of good food for free and I got to speak to or at least see some famous people (Grahame LeSauxe, AWT, Gordon Ramsey, the Master Chef winner). I`m glad it`s over though, it was tiring and I was getting quite sun burned.

We had a BBQ yesterday which was cool. Guitar was played and food was eaten. I was too tired to really get into it though.

2006-06-14T15:21:00.000+01:00

So, this is my new house. That is to say, the house I am living in, not the house I own or anything. It looks small from the outside but it`s really big inside. That`s a good thing because 8 people live here! Below are all my new housemates. I`ll be looking to discover new things about them all this week.

This is Sheridon, he`s a professional gambler, some kind of stock-market gambling at work then poker / sports bets on the side at home. I`m quite jelous of his talent because it looks like making money without actually working, but maybe I`m wrong. This week I`ll be trying find out if gambling really is easy if you know a lot about it.

This is Sarah, she works in an office somewhere but doesn`t like her job. She`s really freindly and interesting. I think she has some kind of secret second life because she comes and goes at strange times of the day and night. This week I`ll be trying to learn some more songs to play on guitar that Sarah knows and can sing along to.

This is Chris, who is a trainee solicitor. He is famously house-bound even though he is really funny. This week I`ll be trying to find out what the best kind of frozen pizza is.

This is Simone, I don`t know what she does yet. She`s a bit of a mystery to me as I haven`t really seen much of her. I think all Simones freinds are Australian girls. This week I`ll be trying to find out more in general about Simone.

This is Alex, I can`t remember what he does. Alex helped me with my internet connection so he`s my favorate person this week.

This is Gemma, she works in some kind of research. She is always happy and smiling and she is super clever too. I`ll be trying to find out how she is so happy all the time.

This is Waseem, who is a teacher. He has been around the world and is as cool as you like, though quite lacking in football know-how. I`ll be picking up some good teaching tips from Waseem this week.