Carl Sandburg (1878–1967). Chicago Poems. 1916.

55. Skyscraper

BY day the skyscraper looms in the smoke and sun and has a soul.
Prairie and valley, streets of the city, pour people into it and they mingle among its twenty floors and are poured out again back to the streets, prairies and valleys.
It is the men and women, boys and girls so poured in and out all day that give the building a soul of dreams and thoughts and memories.
(Dumped in the sea or fixed in a desert, who would care for the building or speak its name or ask a policeman the way to it?)
Elevators slide on their cables and tubes catch letters and parcels and iron pipes carry gas and water in and sewage out.	5
Wires climb with secrets, carry light and carry words, and tell terrors and profits and loves—curses of men grappling plans of business and questions of women in plots of love.
Hour by hour the caissons reach down to the rock of the earth and hold the building to a turning planet.
Hour by hour the girders play as ribs and reach out and hold together the stone walls and floors.
Hour by hour the hand of the mason and the stuff of the mortar clinch the pieces and parts to the shape an architect voted.
Hour by hour the sun and the rain, the air and the rust, and the press of time running into centuries, play on the building inside and out and use it.

it will be sparse, but worth the wait

new company's computer policies and blocking software are pretty tight.
so for a while, it'll be quieter, and comment less on nomadlife.

my own kind of celebration

last day at work - out for leaving do pints - and some rather wonderful presents
but best of all, home at nine to my formal letter of acceptance to UCL part time in sept!
well, that, crisps, the news on tv, and rain.

up early tomorrow for a cycle.

last afternoon

my goodbye to clerkenwell consisted of 2 halves of blonde leffe in the dovetail over a book. i thought of all the walks i could cover, all the places i could visit, and instead crossed the cobbled stones of st john's square to my favorite local pub. belgian, light blue and brick walls, with a sister locale in bethnal green, and the same red-headed aussie who runs both. and read about the suicide of stalin's wife in the weak light filtering though the clouds and the crooked streets.

goodbye, after a year. the summer drinks in clerkenwell green, the chilly picnics in late autumn behind the church, the endless street rebuilding still ongoing beneath the window. the odd mix of creative suits (pink shirts under the funky pinstripes), architects (all black), council estate locals (metal and purple) and butchers (white) from the smithfeilds meatmarket.

nothing like a little inspiration to get you motivated.

Rush in commercial deals to avoid crackdown
By Jim Pickard
Published: March 23 2006 02:00 FT.COM

Billions of pounds' worth of commercial property deals have been carried out in the past couple of weeks in an attempt to avoid yesterday's crackdown on stamp duty avoidance, according to real estate advisers.

The Treasury announced it was closing a loophole whereby property companies escaped the 4 per cent stamp duty levy by putting buildings into new offshore property unit trusts. The move was took effect at 2pm yesterday.

spring blues

the sunshine and the birds woke me at 6.30am. i swore, rolled over, pulled a pillow over my head, and tried to go back to sleep. chirp chirp chirrrrrp.... not much sleep happening and the fog of my half dreaming brain convinced me not to go cycling and instead to clean the kitchen. i always look forward to mopping up a dishwasher explosion and washing half the contents of kitchen cupboards before going to work.

tubed it across town because i have to clean out my desk this afternoon and carry everything back west. on the first calm, bright, sunny day in weeks i'm forced to leave the cycle at home and go underground, into a packed carriage, with the added bonus of 20 ukranian male teenagers joking and screaming. 40 minutes, and i'd forgotten my book. i don't think the sight of farringdon station has ever made me smile before.

my second to last day at current firm. the entire office is gone on work or training, literally leaving me with a floor to myself and the office manager downstairs. i feel a nap coming on.

lunchtime movies

my company had a showing of part of 'the end of suburbia' documentary today at lunch. mostly the chapters on peak oil, rather than on american suburbia's weakness in the face of rising oil prices.

nothing i hadn't heard, or didn't believe...but a really good reminder of how much the price of energy (and water, i believe) are going to affect the next twenty years.
local economies to global conflicts.
the flip side is, of course, the effect of all that energy use on the planet. we're kicking ourselves from both sides - a global economy dependent on cheap natural resources and petro/gas energy - and a planet whose weather and ecosytem crashes will hurt us just as bad.

i can't wait for the day that i have to hike to the ruins of my parents house, in the reclaimed wilderness of dallas suburbs.

warming up

i take that back. it's freeeeezing today. with a strong wind from the east.

semi-freedom

so i'm slaving at the computer. not skiing in france. all considered, it's warming up, and it's not a bad week. tonight - pub quiz with lucy. we (almost) won last place. but i'm warning west kensington, we're gathering a crowd for next monday. 8.30pm. bird in the hand. it's good, and it's worth the prize - a bottle of champers. we're good with americana, and history. we need...sports, music, and general knowledge.

tomorrow - ed's office improving

wednesday - dinner = camilla + work friends= wine + me = puddings. a promising combination.

friday - 'leaving do' ? + friends band at the spitz, in spittalfields.

extreme weather

during the rainy season of north texas, it doesn't rain for two months. and when it does, it pours. up to a foot (12 inches) of rain in 12 hours in some parts of dallas.

both of my parents cars' are ruined. insurance takes some of it...luckily the house is on top of a hill.

photos near my house
of downtown

10k

53 minutes. next goal: 14th of May: 48.

perfect saturdays

just finished stephenson's snow crash, ed's calling with food from the kitchen, listening to the 'la reine margot' soundtrack, and the sun is still streaming through the windows. the deer were running in the fields in richmond park this morning. my skin is warm.

spring is evading london

it's the middle of march. the easterly wind is harsh, and biting cold. it's below freezing after dark, and sleeting during my morning commute. the trees have not stated budding yet.

old Dallas acquaintances in town this weekend; I'm also supposed to fit in some cycling and I'm running the Clapham Common 10K on Sunday. i'm out of shape at the moment, and if I finish around 55 minutes I'll be very happy. very very happy.

route to work

route to work
Originally uploaded by wonderwomanyank.

i love the things you can do with google - like measure my route to work. 5.8 miles

monday nights

There is a point in every evening when it turns up or down, variously reliant up on the availability of alcohol and the companions bank balances. These two can overcome all takers – weather, music, lover’s fights, languages, age and religion.

I lived in Marylebone for 18 months, and was never recognised at the locals. Three months in Holland Park, and both Windsor Castle and the Scarsdale bartenders smile when I come in, and know my tap. Next up, it'll be the swedish staff at Kosmopol's brocade walls and red lights.

austrians v english

reticient v polite
odd taste in clothes v odd taste in clothes
pork and potatoes fried v pork and potatoes boiled
castles and forests v estates and feilds
heavy voices v light voices
co-ed saua and thermal bath v sunday pub lunches
the local orchestra's tschaikofsky v hmmm....robbie willams on the radio?
staid v eccentric
public art v new shopping centres

5 years of friendship

from SSC 2001 in Phoenix, to Ballets and Baths in Graz....

is it despite - or because of - our passions that we remain? our emotions express themselves in different ways, but this tempers - not weakens - the strength between us, forges it across oceans and men. or oceans of men, however you like.

i look back on us energetic and the driven university students, overworking ourselves and staying up late with the boys, and smile. that same spirit is still there today, wiser, and with a surer picture of our own futures. despite all the changes of years and continents, i'm still explaining catholic history and navigating the car ; she's still feeding me and doing my makeup.

playdough

hundertwasser church 6
Originally uploaded by wonderwomanyank.

afternoon laugh

15. Why is it that when someone tells you that there are over billion
stars in the universe, you believe them, but if they tell you there
is wet paint somewhere, you have to touch it to make sure?

peter kay, via kate

howies

check out the spring catalogue... you know you want it. and i want a cross jacket and a "aberteifi and fish" tshirt. ...must wait for the sales...must wait...

colour fills our lives....

even when there's not much to say.

for a few days, i thought i'd have a week between jobs.
shopping for a new suit? visit cairo? a weeks skiing in the alps alone?
but naaah,
i needed the salary, and agreed to stay another week in front of the computer.

it's just the weekend, then, between the small intellecutally fun and the large unknown . going back to uni, and i need the extra salary and the time that a large firm can bring.

rain rain go away

this week is deadly boring, then...
10-12: Graz, Austria :: melanie
13-17: Community Engagement Workshop + Giving 3 hour presentation at UCL
17-19: Old Dallas friends in Town, possibly running a 10K
27: Start new job
April 7-9: Glasgow (Guil in London)

weekend gone

friday i was in bed by 10.30, having enjoyed a long long ride home along the river and camilla's stir-fry, which nicely finished off all the remaining veg in the fridge.

saturday up early in the sun, and an 8 mile jog through the parks. signed my contracts, applied for credit cards, and then lunch with a lost american in Chelsea. wandering in west london in the sun, smiling, we hit the scarsdale at 2 with david, and 4 - or was it 6 - pints of erdinger later, off to PJs with andrew for late night caihperenas and the elusive sticky toffee pudding.

saturday i went east to work on a presentation with jen, but internet-less spent the afternoon dozing on her couch after some warm goat cheese and filo pastries from spitallfeilds. we're all grown up when we spend our chats on savings accounts and suits..and boys.

i'm pop culturally illiterate. there, i've said it. no more making fun of me for not knowing the tv jokes, the movie songs, the adam sandler sketches. but living with ed has boosted my movie watching recently, and the regular sunday night features on our home entertainment centre (aka high broadband) are slowing exposing me to film culture. the weekend ended on the proposition. and staring at the stars.

cafe del mar on the stereo

sury'a s post...and it's an austin morning

posting little, doing lots

cycling this moring, i flew past a white-haired man with two panniers. As i turned to look at the traffic, i caught his smile out of the corner of my eye.

it's been with me all day. in my hot shower at work, through the tedious recording of all my site visits, at ideo during a conversation about the most encouraging setup of recycling and trash separation, in the afternoon sun, and over a 1/2 pint of leffe at the after-work pub.

just enjoy life - that smile said, even if you're 65, in the freezing cold, and passed every second by younger more fashionable and fitter cyclists. do what you like, regardless of the traffic that surrounds, the life that flies by, and the chill eating through your tweed jacket into wrists.

friday afternoons

sunny, not too cold, abba blaring on the office speakers...and a relaxed weekend to look forward to.

newcastle

7am: gorgeous sunny - if freezing- mornings in the city, sun rising over the river
9.30am: running for shelter in a salmon fishery as a sudden snow and hail storm comes barreling over the hills while we're out on a site visit in a fishing town.