Oh No! Come on Pound!

Three Degree Maximum

Life is a Game

At the moment it feels like life is a series of puzzles to be solved, each one more challenging than the one before. I am presented with a lot of “Life Themes”: Finance, Adventure, Experience, Relationships, Self Development, Future Plans... and I have to make sense of it all and fit them all together in a way that works for me. Not too much or too little focus on any one element, a healthy balance where all the parts fit together to form a harmonious whole.

To do this you have to look at things from different angles, try out different possible solutions and be prepared to mess up sometimes, you very seldom get it right the first time. But that doesn't matter, who's keeping score anyway? You can try to think about it logically or just go with your gut feeling and hope for the best, but the best approach is usually a combination of both. Sometimes the solution is staring you in the face, but you're too blind to see it and the feeling of being stuck can become really frustrating before you finally "get it”. And even when you do “solve it” the feeling of accomplishment is short-lived: Just before you get bored or complacent with the solution you've created things change again and become more challenging and you start the process all over again on a higher level. Very much like this game (I'm currently stuck in Level 23...):



Oh, and of course then there's always the question of what comes after the last level...

Boxing Day Crowds

I don't regret not being there at all. Thanks TFL!

Don't Trust TFL

Today I'm breaking the silence to explain this little adventure in public transport.

I thought it might be interesting to go to Oxford Street for the Boxing Day Sales, but since there was no public transport a day earlier on Christmas Day, I first consulted the TFL (Transport for London) website to see what my options were. I entered my departure time, To and From Locations and was quite surprised when TFL suggested the following:



Options 4-7 are bus and tube routes with an expected travel time of around 50 minutes, reasonable for the 3-4 mile trip. Options 1, 2 and 3 left me a bit confused though. Three busses and a train, just to get to Oxford Street? Departure time 00:49? Thirty hours travel time? A flight from Johannesburg to London only takes about twelve hours!

I had to look into this suggestion and after I plotted the route on Google maps, it turned out to be this 36 mile epic journey via Heathrow Airport! (All the way to Heathrow by bus, back to Paddington Station by train and then a short 20 minute walk to Oxford Street...)



The Blue Line shows how to get from A to H (just North and South of Hyde Park) with a Great Western Detour via points B,C,D,E,F and G.

I decided Boxing Day wasn't a good time to trust TFL. On the BBC News I could watch from the comfort of my sofa how crowds of eager customers lined up in Oxford Street to spend their pounds .

I wonder how long they traveled to get there?

Sunrise from Putney Bridge

London - Closed for Christmas

Is this Christmas?

Christmas, one day Early

Bath

Christmas Plant

24 hours now - Should I be Worried?

Christmas Chocolates - Thanks Boss!

Dusting off the old Guitar

First bit of Sun this week (03h00PM)

Clockwise, Anti-Clockwise or Both?

Gyroscope - Good old-fashioned fun

Not quite Pap & Sous

London Congestion Zone Parking

YouTube - Cures Home Sickness

I will NOT get sick!

Our Christmas Tree

Tower of London

I Sleep Here

Beautiful Breakfast - I Love Sundays

Sunny Saturday

Busy Bus Stop!

"All Staff Please Read" - I Hate Policies and Procedures

Hat Shopping in Camden

District Line Music

Sunday Night Scrabble

Learning Russian

Missing the Bus

Thanks Ma!

Abyss in the Mirror

Lunch

Wimbledon Common

Temporary Flatmates

I need sleep...

The joys of sharing a flat

Right Brained Blogging

This will be my last written blog post. That's right, no more describing, no more labeling, no more interpretation of reality. I'm taking a virtual vow of silence. I'm turning off the running commentary. But don't worry, the blog continues. So how's this going to work then? Simple.

A titled souvenir from my day, each day. Yip, one souvenir a day, every day. No more, no less. Just that. That's it. Why? Because.

What's a souvenir? Tune in again tomorrow and every day after to see what I mean.

Chapter Two

It seems that nearly every blogger on the Internet at some stage apologises for neglecting his blog for a while. It's such a cliché that I'm not even going to do it. The reason for a shortage of new posts is usually one of two, either the blogger's life has become so boring that there really is nothing to write about or real life is keeping him/her so busy that spending time online to share his thoughts becomes less of a priority.

In my case it's currently a bit of both. I'm making a transition into what I call Chapter 2 of my London experience. I am now living in a completely different part of the City, getting used to new working conditions, enjoying having a bit more money and the changing of the season serves as a very visual metaphor for all the other changes taking place in my life. While flat-hunting, moving all my earthly possessions using public transport, learning new bus routes and getting lost on my way to the local supermarket is enough to keep me very busy, it's not necessarily interesting blogging material.

Also, going into this new phase makes one ask certain questions, like: “Where has the last 5 months gone?”, “What should I be doing with the next 5 months?” and “When my Visa runs out, will I be able to go home feeling that I have seen and done enough?”. I don't have answers to these questions, but at least I have pictures to show where I was while pondering all of this:



The sun broke through the clouds behind Lord Nelson on his Column. After a cloudy morning, Trafalgar Square was bathed in winter sun.



Everything had a fresh glow to it. I had to run up the steps of the National Gallery to find a spot to capture the almost surreal atmosphere. The unique colour of the light reminded me of the movie 300.



Click on this panorama picture to see more detail. The South African Embassy can be seen at the far left. I'm proud to say it's every bit as impressive as the Canadian Embassy on the right. This picture was taken around 13h00, but note how low on the horison the sun his hanging. Just about it's highest spot of the day...



The view towards Richmond Park from the balcony of my new flat, around 16h30. With a bit of imagination (or home-sickness) it almost looks like a winter sunset in the Bushveld back home...



Found in the garden of my old house-share home while visiting to watch the rugby over the weekend. Charming...



Autumn in Bishop's Park. Taking a walk after work early one morning.

Maia Hee

I know this is totally random and has nothing to do with anything, but lately real life has kept me so busy I haven't had time to stop and smell the roses, never mind blog about it. Fortunately for me, being back at work means a lot of lazy hours and Internet access, so I decided to take some time out to solve this little puzzle that's been bugging me. I have to make it very clear though, that I was motivated by pure curiosity, so please don't make the mistake of thinking I'm a fan of any of the “artists” featured here!

Most South Africans, whether they liked it or not, have heard this song (I really don't expect you to watch the whole thing, I know I couldn't):




I (and I suppose most other Nicholis Louw victims) always assumed it was a Nicholis Louw original. After all, it's so bad, why would he want to copy it from somebody else?

Imagine my surprise when I saw this on TV the other day:



What's going on here? The Nicholis Louw song came out before the T.I. Featuring Rihanna one, so it's not very likely that he copied them. But it's even less likely that they even know who he is, let alone use his song as a sample in their's. So, who copied who? After a bit of research I found this:



From what I understand, this song, Dragostea din Tei, is the original. It's sung by a Romanian group called O-Zone. Their music video is quite funny as well, for some reason it can't be embedded, but you can watch it directly on YouTube. It seems the O-Zone song was used as the foundation for both the Nicholis Louw and T.I. versions. But they were not the only ones! It has been covered in one form or another by a bunch of other people, including a guy called Haiducci:



But why? What is it about this silly song that people like so much? And who originally wrote it for O-Zone? Or did they copy it from somebody else as well? You have to wonder: "Is there no originality left in the world?" If there is, pop music is definitely the last place to look for it...

Halloween 2008

When under quarantine, you have to be creative to enjoy Halloween. To keep us entertained, the support staff arranged a little pumpkin carving competition. They supplied the pumpkins and we scavanged around for medical supplies and other useful stuff to produce "Billy", who obviously won first place.

Quarantine

I can now add Quarantine to my list of UK experiences. Don't ask me about the details, all I can tell you is:

1. It's not as bad as it sounds


2. I'm not really sick


3. I'm in good hands (mostly)


4. I volunteered for this


5. I'm getting paid for the whole thing

If you're ever in a similar situation, the following survival tips might come in handy:

1. Latex gloves make great balloons

2. Butterflies can sting

3. Whenever offered a cannula, politely say: “No bloody way!”

4. It's possible to lower Blood Pressure and Pulse with a bit of strategic Meditation

5. Good company and a sense of humour does wonders for the immune system

6. Eating lots of fruit keeps the body healthy, drawing them keeps the mind occupied

7. Online Flash games can keep you sane. When cabin fever sets in and you run out of things to do, you can always find a little time-waster online. These are a few of my favourites. Click on a picture to try the game. Unfortunately, it will not open in a new window, so once you've played one, hit the back button to try the rest.

A Moving Experience

Warning: Readers sensitive to sentimental, melodramatic nonsense may want to avoid this entry and wait for one with pretty pictures and videos.


Tonight our house feels a bit colder than usual and I don't think it's just winter setting in. I have cleared out the room myself, but suddenly it's emptiness strikes me as unexpected. The almost lonely atmosphere is enhanced by the fact that I know downstairs others are getting ready to leave as well.






I've never been a fan of long-term commitment. I have moved house five times in the last three years, it doesn't take me long to get tired of a job, adding a new employer to my ever expanding CV every now and then and my relationships rarely last more than a couple of months. It's easy to put my wanderlust down to just being a free spirit, but in truth I've never been able to figure out what exactly it is I'm chasing (or what's chasing me). All I know is that I've always felt there must be more out there, a life purpose to be discovered, a soul mate waiting to be found, a calling to accept rather than a job to apply for, potential to be realised, a destiny to be fulfilled. You might say I have unrealistic expectations, that I'm idealistic, a dreamer and even a little naïve. You may be right, but it's being all these things that keeps me going, keeps me young, makes me try harder, looking forward to tomorrow, keeps me alive and at the same time keeps me from ever being completely satisfied, always running, whether it's towards or away from something.


Growing up and living in a community where people lead relatively stable (one might even say boring) lives, my outlook on life has always made me feel like a bit of an outsider. It was relatively easy to leave behind that life and place that was all I knew since I can remember, because I knew that if I ever wanted to return, it will still be there, more or less unchanged. Ironically, it is considerably more difficult to leave behind my first London home, probably because I felt more at home in this messy, chaotic, temporary stop-over than in my so-called hometown. My housemates, who were strangers to me less than four months ago, may be following different paths from my own, some more sure of where they are going, some less, but at least they are all following some kind of path, going somewhere. Whether it be Amsterdam for a weekend, the Caribbean for a lifetime or the supermarket down the street, which is still halfway round the world from the hometown they started off in, they are going somewhere. And because they are going somewhere themselves, they can not be left behind by me, unlike the people back home. It also means they can not be returned to, because like me, they will not be here.


And yet, knowing all this, I am moving anyway, without any guarantee that were I might end up next will be better than here. Why? You might say it's just the rush of the unknown calling again, but it's more than that. It's because I know there is still more out there, more strangers who will become friends, more late night and early morning conversations around kitchen tables or on dirty sofas, more beers to be shared, more unplanned adventures to be had. And every time I move on I like to believe that I am getting a little closer to that illusive “something” that I am chasing, a life I may find worth settling for, a place worth staying in. But until I find that, leaving an empty house every now and then always outweighs the prospect of hanging around in one place indefinitely, wondering: “What if?”.


If following my path means meeting more temporary travelling companions than permanent neighbours, then so be it, because having to say farewell to people worth meeting still beats never meeting them in the first place.

Loch Ness or London?

There's been talk of strange sightings along the Thames at night. One rumour tells of a creature so far only labelled “Classification Pending”:

"Witness a new life form living in the Thames... Only appearing at dusk, they develop into an apparition – like creatures of folklore before them."

I had to investigate, so armed with my camera-phone and notebook I took to the streets of London at sunset. By the time I got to London Bridge, as guided by my "Here-be-Monsters"-Map, the almost-full moon was rising slowly over the skyline towards Tower Bridge in the East.



My search began on the south bank, moving north over the bridge, keeping a close eye on the water below. I arrived on the other side of the river without spotting anything exceptional, but wasn't discouraged and decided to get closer to the water level by going down the dark, deserted stairway leading to the Thamespath.



After a while the icy night wind turned my nose into a red, runny block of ice and the thought of abandoning the monster-hunt crossed my mind, but then I saw something gliding through the water without a sound, not far from the shore. It was only visible for a moment, but I instinctively knew that this is what I came to see and quickly went back up to street level on the bridge for a better view.



I joined a small group of people already hanging over the side of the bridge, watching the water attentively. The air was filled with a sense of wonder as they whispered to each other and then someone broke the silence: “Look at that!”, followed by cries of “There it is!” and “Cool...”. From the depths a creature emitting a faint white glow emerged, first only showing glimpses of itself, later swimming just below the surface for longer periods of time before vanishing again.
I activated the night mode setting on my camera and chose a high exposure to make sure I got evidence of what I just witnessing. I filmed the dark river for what felt like ages, hoping for another appearance, the cold numbing my fingers, making it hard to keep a firm grip on my camera. Sure enough, the waves were illuminated once more, this time by two of the mysterious animals. Later they were even joined by a smaller, playful little one and for a moment I was wondering if this was London or Loch Ness:



For related sightings seen around London, like the perpetually sinking sailboat or the ghostly green outline of the old Blackfriars Rail Bridge appearing on it's former posts after dark:




Visit http://www.drift.org.uk/ .

On a Lighter Note

Wow, that Nunhead story was deep, don't know where that came from... If you're looking for something a bit lighter, I fixed up this video that I've already posted earlier:




For the full story, check out the original post: The World is a Mirror . Back then I was still posting from my mobile phone. It feels like I've really come a long way since then, though it's less than 3 months ago...


If you like the cemetery stuff, these where taken a while back in Brompton Cemetery:






If you look closely you can actually see a copy of the A-Z London Map in my hand. Now I just use Google Maps on my phone (when I still need a map). I kinda miss the rush of being fresh of the plane, not knowing anything. I think it's time to get out of London for a while...