home alone

first moment since last tuesday i've had an hour awake, at home, alone...
but it's been a great weekend. drinks after work on friday went on till two am, saturday was an all-ages all-colours picnic in hyde park with kate. found the new americanadian in my office loves to cycle - and two spandex clad girls met at waterloo at 9 on sunday for 50 miles in surrey. then off to andrews for sauges, beer, and ice cream. slept for 14 hours, watched house of flying daggers, and after a bit of puttering round central london it's time to prepare for the week ahead in newcastle on work.

sunny, warm, bank holiday weekends with friends.

_

i feel like i continue to work while i'm asleep.

endless urbanism

no i'm not talking about american suburbs here, they are in not urban.
i'm talking about my dreams. every morning i stumble through a cup of tea and some online news, and then my dreams resurface in my concious brain. houses, masterplans, arguments on seaside vs kentlands style. connections between topology and neighbourhood design, and the fate of the scottish and newcastle brewery site. dreams of major workshop fuck ups and dreams of project sucess. i do love cities, and love working on (and in) them, but this is worse than finals.

the next two weeks are jam pack full for my company, faciliting workshops, site visits, leading sustainability conferences, and presenting at architectural tenders. london newcastle southlondon york cambridge london cambridge. and the deputy mayor's attending the event i'm organising in two weeks on energy policy.

nomad spirit

Maybe the road brings me my mental health, or maybe I have chosen and renounced, left and arrived enough that the road is the only place I am not haunted by the cruelness of modernity. Wherever I am, I am faced with the desperation of knowing that I will one day leave that place forever or leave every other place forever by not doing the former.I will one day reject my home or reject all other homes.The limbo is my only refuge. - jesse

bank holiday picnic

naptime
Originally uploaded by wonderwomanyank.

Saturday. Hyde Park. 13.00
south of the serpintine by the lido.
bring loved ones, children, friends, food and drink. weather

east west

July 21 31 Beijing, China (need visa)
November 22 28 Dallas, USA (need patience with immigration)

where to shop and how to negotiate contracts

my emotional rollercoaster has been on the upswing for the past week. i can't really put my finger on why - it's not the exercise, it's not the men, its' not the work; just the weather i guess.

kate's in town from beijing on work and babysitting duty. the twins are four now: piggyback rides and powerball, i wish my desires were so simple. in between job hours and family we find time to say hello, share our lives again.

friend of a friend transferred here for work, and i do london tour guide. it's an indulgence - walking round london explaining the city i love, and i talk the poor chicagoean's ear off. (she likes hip hop and softball - its got to be chicago). the luggage at petticoat lane market near spittalfields - bought among burkas cornrows spanish women and the latest top shop ripoffs - is cheaper than a hamburger in south kensington.

so essex, so austin, so south ken, so chicago, so yorkshire. at what point do reminisences and memories become personality characteristics. people embody places in London. but everyone from somewhere else; london's left without a face.

do not try this at home

local yobs stole a bike during the 'built environment young professionals network' event.
we were developing a response to the mayor's sustainable building and construction guidance, but it wasn't my bicycle. i drank on an empty stomach, and now everyone approves the mayors biodiversity guidance. there are some benifits of a UT semester on rhetoric.

cycle home in the dark on busy A roads (6 lanes) in the rain, in banana republic trousers, in a helmet, on the phone. did i mention drunk? the trousers now need dry cleaning.

josi sarah dresden

josi sarah dresden
Originally uploaded by wonderwomanyank.

we skipped the dixiland music festival in dresden to see rubens raffael rembrant lucas cranach der altere and titan. endless baroque churches, wind turbines, autobahns and romantic villas.

my weekend 'with family', of german bier and wine, salted with kierkegaard, political arguements and endless rounds of white asparagus. restorative, the rounds of churches lunches chats hugs and casual touristing.

young germans flee the small towns to berlin and frankfurt. they're running from high unemployment and boredom. the churches of dresden were only recently rebuilt from the wwII bombings.

new old photos

00340010
Originally uploaded by wonderwomanyank.

from austin trudy's. in december.

left it all behind

finished enough of everything at work today so that the weekend is worry free
finished androids and electric sheep so the ending wouldn't haunt me
finished eating pizza over jens LMVH explanation of baudrillaud
finished packing
finished the morning cup of tea
time for stansted. and dresden. and mainz.

what's yours?

I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix,
angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night -alan ginsburg

I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, paralyisingly digitally transfixed, high on lattes and celebrity gossip through cosmopolitan streets at dusk looking for spirit purpose, image conscious consumers searching for ancient groundings in a post-modern world lost in an ethical morass - me

to do

cleaners - check
gocery store/liquor run- check
laundry - going
tickets to germany next weekend - check

time to go see josi and markus. flying into dresden and out of mainz, with a lazy days car tour of central germany between.

election night

cycled up dalston road through bombed out victorian turned nasty 1960s, through the smells of paki, turki, gani, and finally indi.... into we only fuck through a sheet jewish and my boss's georgian townhouse tucked in among the random north eastern london early suburbs. chips, hommous, chicken and wine among the families and co workers. i am the only one who arrives alone, relegated to the lesbians who don't live in london corner. i won't admit the conversation was more interesting.

i confidentially predict labor will win. but the conservatives will gain in the country, and liberal democrats gain in the the uncontested cities even more. the next four years will be tough for labour - win the libs back, or win the 'no more taxes' conservatives back. i'll wake up tomorrow and see.

cycling back after 4 large glasses of wine at midnight - i got slightly lost. forgot to take a right turn somewhere. ahh well, i get to know new parts of north east london. really lost and i would have unclipped to slurr at a passerby which way to regents; but none of that drunken american cyclist aura needed tonight. and the police were out in full force, after the bombings in nyc, patrolling along to ensure i didn't run any empty red lights. ?what red light officer?

daily adventure

a dark suited young man, nervously waiting at the red phone booth outside our office. i'm watching from above, dreaming up reasons an awkward glasses wearing clark kent sort would hide behind a phone booth at 2 with flowers and an ipod. blind date? he looks worried, looking up and down all the streets - is he trying to guess if thats her? hoping someone he knows doesn't see him with flowers? well, he ran off down the street and i'll never know.

flights flights

drumming up a weekend somewhere i've never been before in europe,
and looking at flights to the states in the summer with dismay. parents in dallas (on the lake, drinking beer) or new york city with mel - either flight is $1000.
i can fly to shanghai for half that. sigh. i think it's time to go east.

the ghost of dead appliances

is haunting our kitchen. 3 in one day, that's pretty good i tell him. First the dryer, but it had been hobbling along on its last tumblers for some while, so we tested the fuses, and then shrugged. Then, a few hours later, the kettle refused to boil. No tea today, but no hard feelings. Finally, the cooker. In the middle of a four course meal, all hobs blazing and the oven grilling, he struck again. The frustrated frenchmen sighed at cold artichokes and half cooked pork, and left the room to family on the phone. I walked over the fire escape to our elderly neighbours for ideas, but they've upgraded their kitchen. Contessa and Andre arrived, laughed, and we all stood around looking at the fuse box for a while until the neighbour offered her cooker for the night. Pork a la the 5th floor fire escape. And ice cream for dessert.