Last night’s fourty minute trip meant I got to see a lot of faces as I headed from one side to another. Some of these people would be forgotten within a few seconds whilst others would be remembered slightly longer. One girl had a disarming stare, as I headed to my first destination of the night. She got off within a few stops and my journey continued. On the way back I was in good spirits after filming a few people perform their songs.
I’m on the second floor of a home which looks out onto a busy road which means there’s a lot of traffic passing by but wait there’s more. Road works are taking place. Traffic must stop. Stopped traffic means hours of entertainment from the comfort of your room.
So far I saw one van back into the car that was sticking to the back. The guy got out and started to yell whilst another was less annoyed.
Something you hardly ever think of when you’re in economically more developed countries is electricity because it’s always there for you to use. This was not the case yesterday afternoon when coming back from an interview. Due to some roadworks or the rain (not much but apparently poor maintenance makes things worse) the power down the whole street was shorted for at least six hours, which is a long time. A machine was digging up the road and a second worker was digging.
The problem with living in two countries is that the climate between the two homes may be very different. Whilst the weather in Switzerland is warm and sunny in England it’s cold and dreary. It’s gray. I was hoping that the weather in Switzerland would break the day I flew back to London so that the transition would not feel as bad but it backfired. What I had wanted is a cooler rainy day that would be enough to make me indifferent to the trip.
During a shoot a few years ago a person was speaking about human development and how an expert from an economically more developed country wanted to teach the person from an economically less developed country about the topic. The local told the economist “you want to teach me about the economy but whilst you took five steps to make it to this table I took two”. One thing you may take away from such a comment is that you’ve got to find more efficient methods by which to do daily tasks.
Since I finished my dissertation my biggest time sink has been listening to podcasts. For some reason, I download the entire series of podcasts and work through them one at a time until there are no more. It’s a way of relaxing. It’s also a way of getting information quite easily. In London, I hardly ever leave home without the iPod whilst in Switzerland due to my driving I can’t listen to podcasts when traveling by car.
There is such a large contrast between life in London and the village where I grew up in Switzerland. In one place you can walk for kilometers before getting to the shops whilst in the other going down the street is enough. In one place there is a 24hr a day life going on outside your window and in the other you hear children playing and you hear the birds tweeting whilst water flows in a river next door.
Last night was the first night of many that I will spend at my new flat. At the moment I’ve got two flats in London which is a luxury. I need to move in properly on Saturday morning after a heavy night of partying we’ll see how it is. What I’ve noticed so far is a fast internet connection ranging from 600 Kbs to slower speeds for extended periods of times and that’s even when I’m two floors above the hub.
Today I went down to see the East India ship sailing under Tower Bridge. First time in three years of living in London I see the draw bridges raised. Bands were playing and spectators were watching.
Here are the other pictures
Today is a day of rest for me. I caught the tube into central London and went for a nice hour long walk through the center of London. Starting from Oxford tube station I walked through the throngs of people, dodging them and trying to fray the quickest path through them as possible without having to cut down on speed. I passed by Pall Mall and the Cabinet War rooms before walking along the South Bank where all the entertainers were Masses of people were queing for the London eye whilst others were eating at Wagamama, strada and other restaurants.