complicated nonsensical thoughts are probably not very popular. so let’s talk about the british. well manchester united won the champions league. well chelsea lost, i’m glad, i don’t like their attitude, especially that drogba, haha nice red card. and i like giggs, there aren’t many nice guys in the world.
so i happened to be in london a week or so back. decent weather, surprisingly. did i like london, it’s nice, it’s got a nice life of its own, there are lots of things to see. do i prefer london or paris, paris is still my home. perhaps you might start to understand.
so you might prefer photos. this is Goodge Street station, near where i was camping out at my cousin’s.
surprisingly i found the Tube to be sufficiently functional. (drat i was thinking what’s “assez” in english, and then thereafter i started typing “fonc…” for functional)
london architecture, seems decent to me. not too old and shabby, not tumbling down like Porto, not villagey like morocco, not grand like paris, not lively like seville, not nhaughty like barcelona, but staid and proper and stately i guess. there is color aplenty, which is good, and bad. good that buildings look different, bad that it draws attention away from other things. again, you’ll see.
this is a typical englishman. ok seriously some countryside bums ppl were having a villagey dance session. norris dance or something, not sure. anyway they were dancing with kerchiefs and sticks and bells.
so that was the highlight of Trafalgar Sq for me. I did not particularly like Nelson on the column. Nor the falungong ppl celebrating their 16th anniversary. the National Gallery was not bad, would have been worth a token entry fee, could do with much better uniforms for their staff (looked like oversized ugly suits on boring english folks), but they have some nice works. pitifully, i dont see any English works, tsk. i guess the countryside and cityside are not very inspiring for painting. or perhaps too drunk to paint.
i would also like to gripe that the red buses are horribly ugly. because the red just overflows all over the streets, and there are lines of buses, and they are everywhere, and they are double-decked = block more views. secondly, if i were a royal guard, losers will have to take the guard post at the side of the street. it’s like i will go mental if guard duty = pose with silly tourists. i took a photo with a lonely guard. he looked lonely. he also looks white and chubby, i bet i can outrun him.
hm Leicester Sq is nice. it’s nice to see a crowded area with people and life. it’s also very absolutely stupid that they advertise heavily for half-price official theatre tickets when the entire world is selling at that price and it becomes a cheapo low-class entertainment. yawn. then again, much of it is. i need to read Victor Hugo proper. in unabridged french. it still beats wax statues and rotating hamster cages.
there sure seem to be more bars than any other commercial establishment, and they are well patronised. i think 3 euro grand crème is more chic. or chocolat chaud if you are anti-caffeine.
anything else in particular… there’s an organic food craze, which is pointless when you stir it with beer. there doesn’t seem to be a dress-code, it’s deplorable. man i must learn to criticise like this in french, it’s still beyond me. ah i saw a lovely commemoration ceremony for old army folks in Hyde Park. it was nice to see hats and umbrellas and pin-striped suits and medals.
cute no?
the best part of Buckingham Palace is this monument with an inscription “Our future is greater than our past” by Ben Okri. there were other words too. some war thing. they have too many war memorials.
and that is the change of guards = one hidden boring ceremony with no status at all. seriously, the swedes can do better. it’ll be more profitable to spend your time in Bond Street. and now if you’ve got time to shop, forget about Oxford Street, go to Bond Street, new or old bond street it doesn’t matter. all the proper shops are there, the couture the diamonds the cufflinks the suits the fluorescent handbag…
ok well you can stick to Oxford Street if you feel normal, but all they sell are 1. foreign currency 2. fast food 3. discount clothes/rags 4. made-in-sweatshop products 5. overpriced t-shirts. + it’s narrow, it’s noisy, it’s stuffy, it’s crowded.
Tate Modern was disappointing. perhaps i’ve seen better modern art collections and friendlier buildings. but british museums tend to be free. although they compromise on quality. sigh.
here’s a photo showing Barrel Distortion. woot. no, really that’s barrel distortion. when you don’t have enough money, or patience, to carry around a big expensive camera, you get a fishbowl world. anyway i hope you know what that is
this pic means that when i walked thru the area (at night), some flyer distributer asked me whether i was looking for men or women. right, thanks for making sure.
i also like this photo. evidently my inner ears are not functioning very well and my horizon is skewed.
and i liked shakespeare globe’s close-up-action-cheap-tickets. it’s exciting and fun. but too tiring.
this is also fantastic. found in the British Museum. such a thing of beauty, elegance and refined essence can only come from the country of my apparent origin: japan! but it sure is good porcelain. better than the junk that the chinese make. btw british museum is nice.
oh Harrod’s is nice. but me coming from Paris, it’s not amazing. nice food in there.
the other boring photos are here as usual: picasa
the Tube is not confusing. it sux because it is old, it is overpriced, the stops are few and far between, and the idiots do maintenance on sundays. ok im just spoilt by the convenience and accessibility of the paris metro. furthermore, the seats are constricting and the locals are horizontally-challenging.
[i shall like to take issue with the term horizontally-challenged because it doesnt seem to make sense at all to me. i prefer horizontally-challenging]
it was worth it.