kate larsen has a weblog...

kate's working for environmental rescource management in beijing, and she's got a blog!
she's also coming to london in may!

bleak UN assesment reports

Experts Warn Ecosystem Changes Will Continue to Worsen, Putting Global Development Goals At Risk

Wednesday, March 30, 2005 | London, UNITED KINGDOM

A landmark study released today reveals that approximately 60 percent of the ecosystem services that support life on Earth – such as fresh water, capture fisheries, air and water regulation, and the regulation of regional climate, natural hazards and pests – are being degraded or used unsustainably. Scientists warn that the harmful consequences of this degradation could grow significantly worse in the next 50 years.

perhaps its the gin

but a documentary on london's sewers has me entranced;
and billy elliott makes me cry.

perhaps it's that for the last month's i've avoided tv. and today, some 70s oldie with a peneople cruz look a like as the wife of el sid, who 'saved' spain from the moors, has me locked in, just waiting for another glimpse of those lips.

then london's sewers. engineering works politicians today wouldn't have even considered, the vision of one man held out for years, and all the cholera 'origins of disease' i learned in uni.
billy elliott. after living here for 18 months, the film has nuances i would have missed a year ago. my firm works in walker there, and the accents hit home. the snobbery of the dance instructors, the subsequent desire to smack anyone oxbridge sounding.

for the first time in months, i avoid thinking about the morrow. no, i dont know if i'm going to cycle through my shoulder pain in the morning, i flat out refuse to worry about the 'to do' list on tomorrows filofax and damn well i am not going to even consider going to bed before midnight. it's all in keeping with the easter weekend return to reality. 4 days without work, and my life is reduced to television, drinking and sex. do i like that? i really should have gone skiing this weekend.

gorgeous days

i missed spring last year, off in texas and cairo. not this time round, the 9 to 5 keeps me here to bear witness. we celebrated the sun and the green tree buds with champagne in bed yesterday, and then shisha outdoors on paddington street. today a bluer than blue skies jog though hyde park. to feel real heat again! to sweat from sun, not chill when it evaporates, and to laugh at all the children in shorts running across the green grass between the daisys and tulips. i run with my arms wide open, face and shades pointing skyward.

lamb, its gotta be lamb.

the stretching does seem to help a lot. my mother told me to eat bananas for the potassium.

drinks are more readily avaliable in this country than the us. my boss buys us beer when we have company lunches. .

university term ended here yesterday. the partying commenced last night. i was on a plane back from belfast and didn't attend, but i was quite happily drunk nonetheless.

as for the waking up - it's mildly annoying. i change my alarm clock every day based on weather/cycling/need to get to work early/whimsy and unfailingly, no matter if it's 5.30 or 9, i wake up several minutes before. it's not the little 'pre-beep', which always initaties a doomed scramble for the phone before the alarm actually starts. and if there's no alarm, i wake up at 6.30 on the dot, moan from a hangover, and go right back to sleep.

is it reallly the middle of march?

how does my body manage to wake up just before my alarm every day, no matter the time?
how many times did i press ctrl or shift with my pinkie finger yesterday? it hurts.
how do you get rid of shin splints?
why is karan coming to london on business?
what gave my cycle a flat tire yesterday?
how is melanie doing now that her siblings have scooted back off to texas?
will la contessa miss london when she goes home for term?
what should i do if my boss has completly changed my content on the tender?
why don't my clothes iron themselves?
what do i need to bring to belfast on thursday?
does cameron expect me to do his dishes?
when is austin's reception weekend?
who invented the 2 pence coin?
is it the little worries in life that carry you through time?

endurance

one of those things you never know you have until you need it.
sunday i climbed on the cycle at 8am and wheeled off south to meet the club
i dwadled a bit on the way there, subconciously willing them to leave without me. alas, 8 spandex clad gentlemen were standing on hampton court bridge, looking for other random strikers with funny shoes and helmets. it was then i decided to stop thinking about why i was doing this early on a weekend morning, or even how. i just started, tucked up in the group, got the legs going, and went.
and went.
and went.
out through the suburbs over the m25 and into the surrey hills. sleeply fog clad english villages across the valleys, cows and sheep reeking across mud flats, pines and ancient forests...a beautiful ride. through hills. 55 miles. did i mention hills? and we raced the last 8. well, they did. this was beyond no pain no gain, beyond any rational reasoning, beyond thought. the leg kept going automatically, and my brain may well have been on a beach in france. door to door: 80 miles, 6 hours in the saddle, one flapjack and one bannana.

and one giant organic beef steak for dinner.

march saturday sun

wonderwoman, relaxing
Originally uploaded by wonderwomanyank.

warmth. and a few freckles.

april is the cruellest month

throw open the windows, air the sheets and beat the rugs. it's spring, and the sun is here.
sunglasses, white linen trousers, blooms and green buds on the trees.

spring!

ok it's warm. really warm. at least 15. and i'm behind glass, in the sun, sweating.
wonderful. now back to squinting at the computer screen.

i have visitors! josi's here early april for a bit of london shopping and nights on the town, some fool named drake might be coming by later, and then the infamous rai, karan rai is supposedly in town on official business as well.

strange

ly at peace this week. busy, yes. manic, no. wrangling for control of big projects, yes. stress, no. i'm not maturing, i'm just detached. and tired. give me three seconds and my brain reverts to daydreaming about what qualities i want my future pa to have. self-centred, never.

playground

past one, past last call at the bar, and the patio gate was open. suddenly i'm 12, stealing from an open kitchen door and climbing the fire escape to the roof garden. are those lights motion sensors? they have magnolias growing in big plant boxes; the waxy leaves shining in london's ever present ambient night light. the wind was warm in our laughter. we're on cctv.

then through manchester circle - owned by shanghai conglomerate - with its gorgeous cherry blossoms and yellow tulips. it was dark, but i know the blooms are beautiful, i pass them every day on the commute. back alleys and my heels stumbling along uncertain cobblestones. the little stories associated with my neighbourhood buildings: the castle-like fire station, the ancient chemists and the basement bars. mr. biggles sausage on marylebone lane; the one crooked street in the area - it used to be a creek.

two drunk urbanists loose on a tuesday night in central london.

7. Sarchasm:

The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.
- some mensa joke forward my mom sent me

half days

if you think london staid, ride the night buses. after yesterday's late night absurdity i woke at 8 thinking in the frenchman's thick accent. "arrrgh, no! no! zis zun!" but even on 4 hours of sleep it was a glorious sunny morning, my room glowing in it's browns turquoises organges. i put on the sunglasses and went to work on the bike.

i had the afternoon off, and cycled my saturday errands through central london without a helmet. simply to feel the sun and wind course through my hair. the copper blonde is long now, and i grab every selfish opportunity to play with it. do you enjoy it when hairdressers wash your head? like having your makeup done, the pleasure of strange fingers lightly massaging your skin and scalp. the delicate touch weakens.

came across this quote today, and laughed in sympathy. " I need to get some love and affection soon. I am boiling over and getting urges that nothing but a good "shag" can cure." mother nature is absurd, not crazy.

i miss browsing in bookstores, miss the smell of binder glue the sound of crisp pages and the quiet background shuffle of other reverent customers paying homage to endless dark wook bookshelves. anyone know if iris murdoch's 'metaphysics as a guide to morals' is good?

simultaneously bracing myself 'a vivir sola' on one hand, and relishing the hours of friendship on the other. they're not contradictory thoughts, but they each make the other more poignant and relevant. i'll have more to say on this when i sort out my own thoughts, but i cannot help but share another quote i came across today -

"With the risk of actually concluding something about life – which I’ve decided is impossible, and so all of my “theories” are based on the assumption that no conclusion is possible or even necessary – with the risk of philosophizing about the reasons behind things, I offer this. We are everything and nothing at all – to ourselves and to each other. Our interaction with each other, and our analyses of such must include a level of absurdity that fluctuates according to our needs. But in the jungle of emotions and misunderstandings that compose my everyday life, it is the few but golden connections I have found with similar “lost souls” that makes it all bearable. The relationships that I vehemently guard from any form of harm – even from myself. Without such, there really wouldn’t be much to life worth experiencing." kiki

this evening i woke after the last rays of sun, the sky still royal vivid blue and the landmark's brown brick fading slowly. 3 lit windows glowed peach organge, portals into intimate warmth against the oncoming dark. i smiled.

location vs place

"Where you are will matter less and less because you can always go anywhere, work with anyone and settle at any place." dody

and consequently PLACES will matter more and more. the quality of the surrounding physical and social environment will become a driving factor in decisions about where to work. the society and culture of a place will come to drive it's economic sucess, as local attitudes to working hours, to creativity, to banking regulations, hierarchical structures..... either stimulate or depress the ability of businesses to function there. the avaliability of choice generates competition, and different places have different advantages.

also it is ironically the modern ability to move information and capital rapidly around the globe that increases the residual effect of 'running into people' that happens in clusters or cities.

"rapid flows of trade capital and information nullify the advantages that a firm gets from inputs sourced from elswehere. if X buys from germany, so can competitor y. the remaining sources of competitive advantage are increasingly local, including special supplier or customer relationships, unique insights about market needs gleaned from local customers, special access to technology and knowledge from local institutions, or production flexibity resulting from the use of a nearby supplier" - michael porter "culture matters 2000"

i work in a neighbourhood of architects, publishers and graphic designers. we give (and get) buisness to the printers down on the corner because it IS DOWN ON THE CORNER. i can run down and ask for something complicated, hand over the cd, and then run back 20 minutes later to pick it up. if the printers were in timbuktu, we'd do it in house.

international women's day

a holiday i had not heard of, but a reason to celebrate? i should be writing something provacative and derisatory here; the day as a call to action for the millions of women treated as second-class citizens rather than a celebratory day for those women who can read, have access to the internet and some likelyhood of doing at least as well as their male counterparts at work, if in status rather than pay. what do i think about the recent comments by Harvard president on women being suited to certain occupations? there is nature, and there is nuture.

instead of wishing me sardonically happy day, digs, i'd rather you spend 5 minutes browsing the internet to see how lucky you are for being born male. they may have stopped stoning women in iran recently, but women around the world still struggle to learn to read, to vote, to own property, to avoid legally sanctioned domestic violence.... even i admit one of the reasons i prefer the UK over other countries i've visited is because comparativly, i'm not disadvantaged or disregarded because of my sex.

tonight's networking event: "Chicks with Bricks," for women who work with the built environment.

glamour on whernside

bit more glamour on whernside
Originally uploaded by wonderwomanyank.

it was a sausage eating food drinking movie watching time hole of a weekend. now, back to reality

time is rushing....in that subjective way.

it's been a 6am to 12pm busy rush all this week; but i'm off to the yorkshire peaks to do a bit of hiking in the snow and rain this weekend. and to slow time. to compensate for the void of my thoughts in this blog (there's a corresponding void in my head) i'll contribute yet more quotes, this time from Vaclav Havel "The End of the Modern Era". 1992!

"The era of arrogant, absolutist reason is drawing to a close and that it is high time to draw conclusions from that fact.

We all know civilization is in danger. The population explosion and the greenhouse effect, holes in the ozone and AIDS, the threat of nuclear terrorism and the dramatically widening gap between the rich north and the poor south, the danger of famine, the depletion of the biosphere and the mineral resources of the planet, the expansion of commercial television culture and the growing threat of regional wars -- all these, combined with thousands of other factors, represent a general threat to mankind.

We treat the fatal consequences of technology as though they were a technical defect that could be remedied by technology alone. We are looking for an objective way out of the crisis of objectivism.

We must try harder to understand than to explain. The way forward is not in the mere construction of universal systemic solutions, to be applied to reality from the outside; it is also in seeking to get to the heart of reality through personal experience. Such an approach promotes an atmosphere of tolerant solidarity and unity in diversity based on mutual respect, genuine pluralism and parallelism. In a word, human uniqueness, human action and the human spirit must be rehabilitated.

The world today is a world in which generality, objectivity and universality are in crisis.

Soul, individual spirituality, first-hand personal insight into things; the courage to be himself and go the way his conscience points, humility in the face of the mysterious order of Being, confidence in its natural direction and, above all, trust in his own subjectivity as his principal link with the subjectivity of the world"