Liverpool Station

Damn. It's 7:10pm on Friday night, and I'm just leaving work. And I'll be working tomorrow.

Oh well, this was the price to pay for having them fly me to England. Next Saturday I'll be visiting Aunt Lynn and my cousins in Wakefield...

The Royal Exchange

Our office is next to the Royal Bank of Scotland branch, between the Royal Exchange and the Bank of England. So when someone parks their car on a double yellow line right outside our door, and then goes off for a couple of hours, it causes problems. When the owner returned to his car, the police had broken both triangular rear windows, forced the trunk open, investigated with robots, and shut down the entire financial district for a couple of hours.

We all wound up down in the building's basement, which is apparently very safe, and quite spacious. I bumped into my friend Anandha, whom I met in the Boston office a couple of years ago. One of his more enterprising teammates rustled up a couple of dozen Stella Artois which happened to be lying about in a fridge in the basement, and we settled down to swap stories and catch up. Somehow, we managed to endure the wait until the all-clear was given.

The really intriguing thing is that the guy who parked his car there was furious with the police for damaging it. I'm guessing he can't be held liable for the cost of shutting down England's economy for two hours - probably he'll just have to pay 100 pounds or so for parking illegally on a double line. Which in my opinion is probably worth the price of the answer he'll be able to give when asked, "So, what did you do today?"

Last night I went bowling with a group of folks from HTB Church at Queensway. It was the end-of-year bash for what they call their "pastorate" - which is made up of 3 or 4 small groups - and they were kind enough to invite me. I had a good time, although my final score was dismal! I'm looking forward to going to HTB on Sunday evening. Apparently the 5pm service is the cool one...

In other news - either my jacket from REI is something special, or Londoners are wimps. Everywhere I go, I hear people talking about how terribly cold it is. Sure, it's cold, but not that bad. Then again, it hasn't started raining yet...

London.

My body is still trying to figure out what's going on. It feels like today started sometime yesterday, and I've eaten the normal regular meals, except there have been five of them so far instead of three. I've talked with our team in India, and chatted with friends in the US, across three timezones and something like 10½ hours time difference!

The weather was gorgeous today, although I haven't been out much. The cab ride from Victoria Station took me past Buckingham Palace, a couple of asian tour groups, along the Thames for a while, past that big wheel thing, and countless double-decker buses, London cabs, and red telephone booths. London is pretty much just as I remembered it.

Sorry - no pictures yet. Soon, I promise!

Who knows what fridge magnet poetry ever means? Mostly it's just for the evocative sounding words. And sometimes by shuffling magnets you can figure out what you're feeling. This is almost three years old. I just saw it again the other day. I had to rescue "delicate" from another poem - I'm not sure whether one of my roommates or some passing friend wrote this one:

spring
delirious ly delicate
as a shadow y goddess
she rain ed like storm s mist
after winter was over

It's coming up on three years since the date our marriage was supposed to happen, and I've been thinking about it quite a bit. Not least of all because it feels like the three years are finally coming to a close - I can feel spring coming!

Okay, so I found out today that I'm going to London for a couple of weeks for work. Then, instead of flying back home for Christmas, I'm going to visit Aunt Lynn, and my cousins, whom I have not seen since 1996! Then, instead of coming back home before my trip to Chris and Andreja's wedding in January, I'm going to stay on the project in London. Crazy. I guess I need to buy a digital camera! Maybe this weblog will actually become interesting...

From		To		Date		Leave		Arrive		Via
Atlanta		London		8 Dec (Sunday)		8:35pm		9:30am		Paris
London		Zagreb		17 Jan (Friday)		7:30am		2:05pm
Zagreb		Sarajevo		18 or 19 Jan		?		?		Bus
Sarajevo		Zagreb		29 Jan		?		?		Bus
Zagreb		London		30 Jan (Thursday)		9:15am		2:35pm		Paris
London		Atlanta		31 Jan (Friday)		11:10am		3:40pm

Last night, I watched Chungking Express. 4½ stars. Although there isn't much of a story, the film is full of images, statements, and moments that will stay in your thoughts long after the movie is over.

I know it's just my ignorance, but I have a picture of old films as heavy-handed and over-acted, and expect Asian films to be farcical, full of kung-fu moves and wirework, or alien to my western way of thinking. Most of the last dozen movies I've watched have been either old or foreign (or both), and almost all of them have been deft, subtle, and altogether fabulous.

It's funny, even when you know your preconceptions are silly, they stick with you. A good remedial course of film-watching is in order.