Sunset

Yup. From my messy new flat.

View from the flat

This morning i realize my windows face west. Nice sunset from the balcony to look forward to!

London 0, Fog 2

It's only the second foggy day but I kind of like the sight of it. When I wake up in the morning, everything beyond the 3m mark is masked by a thick white fluffy cotton fog. It's refreshing to walk into, and the light does not hurt my puffy eyes. When I get to work, the view from the 7th floor is magnificent: nothing but white cotton through the glass window and I get this feeling I am in space, up in the clouds...very uplifting.

Even better this morning when the shuttle driver decides to change route and cut through some 'residential' area with litle parks. I missed my camera and was too sleepy and dreamy to take out my phone and snap away the shapes of tortured naked trees in the fog. That other route was rubbish too as it wasn't quite a shortcut with all the constructions along the road, and the traffic jams along the way. I felt completely lost until we ended up at the roundabout next to our building.


I hope the fog continues, it completely fits my mood right now...I am quite poor after paying my deposit and rent for the new flat. So to relax a bit, I paied £21 more to have my hair washed, my head massaged and my hair cut. Now all i need to do is finish whatever is in the fridge and freezer and hope I won't have leftovers to throw away or carry over East London....

All I need now is a facelift because as my colleagues say, 'I look like shit recently'...charming

Mai, Mitoko, and me

Sometimes falling asleep while watching movies in the early mornings makes me so nostalgic. I do love following stories, whether in books, movies, ballet, stage, music...So today apart from moving dust around and a lame attempt to clear the room, the agenda was to take catnaps and watch all the movies I can watch. They are meant to inspire and give me courage.

Something funny: a night out on Brick lane was suggested at work..after I move away from the area..so ironic. But I guess I will enjoy coming back.
Something to plan: maybe this year I will give a Valentine's day present, if I remember in time to find and get it. This would be a first.
Something to remember: to remember
Something kinda gross yet lifesaving: inactivated forms of a virus must be grown inside chicken eggs. DNA vaccines, on the other hand, can be grown in bacteria,

'Ave Caesar, ave moi'

really even with the subtitles it would have been quite difficult to understand the jokes and references to French films and songs. But it was a good laugh, with loads of sports stars and actors.

'Chasing Cars' - Snow Patrol

We'll do it all
Everything
On our own

We don't need
Anything
Or anyone

If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

I don't quite know
How to say
How I feel

Those three words
Are said too much
They're not enough

If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

Forget what we're told
Before we get too old
Show me a garden that's bursting into life



Let's waste time
Chasing cars
Around our heads

I need your grace
To remind me
To find my own

If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

Forget what we're told
Before we get too old
Show me a garden that's bursting into life

All that I am
All that I ever was
Is here in your perfect eyes, they're all I can see

I don't know where
Confused about how as well
Just know that these things will never change for us at all

If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?
------------------------------------------------------
Something that always brings tears to my eyes as I miss you

Bye bye 'twenies'

I love cartoons, I watch anime
I lick the Nutella pot clean with a finger, a spoon or a knife
I still bite my nails
I can't cook following a written recipe
I still cry loads when I like someone and I don't see why they don't like me
I am still not comfortable talking about sex in public
I can't drink more than 2 glasses of alcohol without being trashed
I still think I can do ballet with a 40kg buttock
I like fairy tales and read them from time to time.
My hair is till black and I haven't found a white hair yet but lots of split ends :(
I like sweet and candy, and carambar and malabar
I still hate waking up and going to work even if sometimes it's fun during the day
I like lego, a lot
And collage

Funny I got older supposedly!

Bears and bulls, rising prices etc...

Of course I now take some curious pleasure in reading some business section of some free newspapers. Having sat through a 2 hour introduction to financial data (which I requested), I should understand a bit more what those people in suit and ties are wasting lines and paper about. Well, it is still like chinese, but as exciting as learning a new language: as long as you know a little bit here and there, it is fun to recognize and understand words and concepts here and there. It is like grasping the 50% of a sentence, and the hilarious aprt is to try guessing what the real sentence was.

So sometimes I can make up a story and some reasoning or prediction, that eventually does not turn out to be real at all. The fact that it is usually in the morning, on my way to work does help a bit.

However, I first hand noticed the price rise i London: Yesterday on my way home I bought a kebab in r oll from the take away curry shop 'Sweet and Spicy' down Brick lane. I think it cost me £1.35. It was really nice, so this evening I got tempted again and ordered the same thing. He charged me £1.40 ! I was dressed exactly like yesterday so, with even the same hairdo.

So, either:
1- he really doesn't want me to eat that anymore, or eat there anymore, or
2- there is no fixed price and I should have bargained, or
3- this country has areally high inflation, or
4- he made a mistake, or
5- this time the spicy sauce was extra (and i got it for free ysterday), or
6- I should order the same thing tomorrow to confirm any theory above

Because really, if this price increase continues, I am better of going to the 'Lahore Express' on Bethnal Green where I can get a full wrap with veggies and meat and sauce and a smile, for like £1.50 instead of a spicy kebab in a pancake....

Moving pictures

Some may wonder why I watch anime so much. I don't watch the Powerpuff girls movies where everything is roundish and cute-ish. So far the ones I have been hooked on are very disturbing ones like 'Death note', sentimental and a bit girly (such as 'Nana'), or just adventurer type anime like 'Mushishi' or 'Claymore'.

I was blown away by all of them.

'Nana' dwelled so much into women feelings and friendships, as well as loneliness, it was quite refreshing to follow a storyline where things are not always happening according to a fairytale. 'Mushishi' on the other hand consists of tales that can only be possible because of the rich beliefs in spirits in the nippon culture. A bit like how a sorcerer or a traditional medicine man travelling around the country would encounter many strange cases that reveals some behavioural oddities (example the flower which blooms everyevening and makes you forget the previous day for the rest of your life once you inhale its scent: some people are better off forgetting and seeing a new day).
One of my favourites is 'Claymore', which follows the adventures of a girl named Claire who is 1/4 monster and 3/4 human (the other Claymores are traditionally half human half monster), and who exists to kill monsters that threaten the humans...a bit twisted really. However the Claymores get their strength from their monster side, but are trained to control the monster in them. I just found it very true as most humans are monsters and it's really our humanity that makes us 'civilized' or not eat each other's guts. This week though this anime came to mind when they granted 2 labs to start animal-human hybrid cells research. I am afraid it won't be long before a lab get broken and hybrid cells that are supposed to be destroyed after research get stolen and developed into chimeras: would it be or feel human or would it be animal? How would we judge? Not content with procreation, we human really are obsessed with creation.

'Death Note' is about a psychological chase and mystery between a bored brilliant student who found a strange diary and the police led by a genius teenager. The diary allows its owner to kill anyone by visualizing the face of its victim and writing his name in the diary. Armed with the death note, he becomes drunken with ambition to create a world free of criminals, and to become the god of that world. He is challenged by the other genius who also remains anonymous. Think 'The departed' where each one tries to unmask and kill the other. This anime actually springs from a novel or a manga apparently, and there are also movies made of it. However, the characters are not as cute and polished as in the manga or anime.

Happy new Year!

Ah yes the long awaited new year...now that it is here, nothing much has changed though, so it is up to me (and all of you there, yes you! you!) to make change happen.

I am sticking to my new resolutions (okay, the ones I had last year too). I have managed to stop eating between meals, and I don't jump on snacks or croissant or sugar fix like a famished beggar anymore. Instead I painfully peel an orange and feed myself with its sticky juice.

I also discovered the joys and pains of wii. Santa Claus managed to reward our office with a wii for Christmas, so in addition to the table football, we now can play tennis, bowling, golf and boxing in the comfort of our 7th floor kitchen. I was KO by my teammate yesterday and believe me, my arms are still sore from that 5 minute match!

I will keep on swiming, and eating healthy, and hopefully will stop eating my nails along the way....add in to that the fact that i am looking for a flat for mid-february!

St Sylvestre

Oh so cold

Greetings

A straight line to the holidays

London is pretty festive these days. There are lights everywhere, company Christmas parties, sales, and so many lights we forget about the daylight. Strolling on Oxford Street becomes unbearable, because half of London showed up to shop, and also because there are so many temptations in the shops. I am supposed to save some money!


Even bank was illuminated with pink spots as a party was starting inside the Royal Exchange building.

A stroll on Portobello Road revealed a very empty market, where only a few tourists dared to stroll because each side of the road was littered with shops that you can see anywhere else in the capital. My little jamaican snack shop dissapeared and was replaced by a tapas restaurant. GNN GNNN GNNN

And then it hit me. The ones staying in London for the holidays are the very rich who revels in their £400/week apartment, the very poor who cannot afford a holiday like me, and the tourists. Even my usually lively area has become quiet, only disturbed by drunken beggars and their dogs.

So this year, I will attempt to attend the midnight mass, because I rise when I am surrounded by belivers, singing in a beautiful cathedral, echoing all the heartfelt songs on the cold hard marble. It sends shivers to my spine and reminds me that there is some good in this life worth a little exploration.

whats the integral of 1/cabin?

...beach hut (log cabin plus c).


Do not forget you maths, you still use it everyday at the most random times!
It's finally the weekend again and am so glad. I am seriously looking at important decisions to make.
What school to start enrolling for Japanese? Where to move house to? What to do with my pension, cash it in or transfer it? Should I eat the last cookie even if I ran out of milk? What's the budget for tomorrow's flowers? What curse to put on the people downstairs who woke me up with their home improvement noises? Which show should I book for the end of year festivities?

I know now why some people have a PA or a secretary to do everything. All these decision making are absolutely time consuming. It's barely 11am and am already tired!

On the upside, I got lazy staying under my white fluffy covers while thinking about my friends. Ahh I like saturday mornings after all...let's procrastinate until sunday morning...

December blues

Yesterday morning I saw the dawn of the much anticipated end of the week. It was such an intense week as it is very busy at work. My mornings are cold out there, and this particular one was very windy. So windy in fact a mini tornado downed 2 lamp posts inches away in front of me as I walked to the station. It actually woke my sleepwalking head, and made me quite nervous. So I speedwalked the rest of the street, watching out for other lamp posts to fall noisily on the street...pheww..that was too close.

For a minute I was cheering myself up, with the 'I am alive' motto, but I still didn't manage to feel any urgency to skip and jump with my arms in the air.
Was it because I still had to go to work? (oh shoot, it's only my first week!), or was it because I was just tired? In any case, I mainly thought about my family. I have always prouded myself in being ready and not being too afraid of death, but am I being honest? I wasn't ready then. For a start, I didn't have breakfast, because I wanted to arrive early at work to clean up my act and plan my strategy for the day. And then I realize it is most difficult to be ready to say goodbye to your loved ones.

I still wished I heard the cool enthusiastic backround music and the rush of ' I'm gonna do all the crazy things on my list' kind of feelings. The adrenaline picked up at work, and I ended the day without a single minute for myself (just once to pee). I grabbed a Coke can for the bus.

Almost just another ordinary day. I still hadn't seen an Ed Norton movie where he ends up on top...why? why?why?

I think I still want to change the world, so I am not too depressed yet...It's just that people get on my nerves and in my way too often...not to mention lamp posts...grrrrr

Surfing in the meeting room

Live from London

Sumo at work

Another fun friday last week

'Cause it's the wild wild west

At work...sometimes we work too, but since we were still in training then, we took advantage of all the fun activities organized...

What I did last Autumn

Fudgemaking in Baltimore, MD:


Library of Congress and Arlington cemetery in Washington DC:


Crazy night out in Montreal:

Remembering my first week at work

Well, I was lucky enough to start the job on the week they had a team building activity scheduled. And it sat right with me as it involved food!


And this coming Monday I will finally work as such as I completed my training!