ahh, life.

weekly dinner party just kicking off,
cookies in the oven,
kitchen full of laughter,
rollerbladed through an august hyde park evening earlier,
bought fresh figs from the iranian men....

tagged

I am thinking about my own indecision. It is sunny but it has been raining and i cannot determine if it will be raining again by the time i have gathered the energy to get dressed and walk up the hill to the park. I said to myself that i would start on finishing the essays in one hour at 1, which still gives me time to print the questions and take the papers to the park if I want. I want to have radar weather forecasts online like in texas so i can tell how fast the clouds are moving and if i have time to go outside and enjoy watching the leaves move in the wind. I wish I could go into the garden outside my window and work on my laptop there, which would solve all the problems of today, including the big hurdle of dressing. I miss warm water. I hear the trees moving above the cafe del mar on the stero. I wonder if this is my last day of relaxation this month. I regret very little, but that is because i take so long to decide. I am lazy today.

I do not sing. I rarely cry. I am not always on a bicycle. I write when drunk. I need a faster metabolism. I should try to get out of this bed. I finish this post to stare out the window as the grey clouds approach and the sun fades away.

it is the end of summer

and it is not raining.
the green leaves are golden in the sunset, the sky still blue.
nothing like days of rain to turn the sun into gold

Some Convenient Truths

Runaway global warming looks all but unstoppable. Maybe that’s because we haven’t really tried to stop it...>by Gregg Easterbrook.

If there is now a scientific consensus that global warming must be taken seriously, there is also a related political consensus: that the issue is Gloom City. Here’s a different way of thinking about the greenhouse effect: that action to prevent runaway global warming may prove cheap, practical, effective, and totally consistent with economic growth. Which makes a body wonder: Why is such environmental optimism absent from American political debate?

(looks like the beginnings of a good article)

ut confirms we're melting

Satellite Gravity Measurements Confirm Accelerated Melting of Greenland Ice Sheet

J. L. Chen ^1*, C. R. Wilson ², B. D. Tapley ¹

Greenland is the location of the second largest ice cap on Earth, and contains about
2.5 million cubic kilometers (km3) or 10% of total global ice mass (Fig. 1). Complete melting of the Greenland cap would raise global mean sea level by about 6.5 m. Repeat-pass airbornelaser altimetry measurements indicate that Greenland lost ice at a significant rate ( - 80 ± 12 km3/year) during the period 1997 to 2003 (1). Most of the estimated loss comes from the periphery, while the interior appears to be in balance. A more recent study (2) based on satellite interferometry suggests that ice loss is accelerating in recent years and is near - 224
± 41 km3/year in 2005, significantly larger than the estimate (- 80 ± 12 km3/year) from airborne laser altimetry measurements (between 1997 and 2003), and also significantly larger than the estimate (- 91 ± 31 km3/year) from satellite interferometry observations in 1996 (2). Acceleration of mass loss over Greenland, if confirmed, would be consistent with proposed increased global warming in recent years, and would indicate additional polar ice sheet contributions to global sea level rise (3).

summer days are gone too soon..

under a reading lamp in the early night. the blues in an empty room.
a beautiful rainy grey evening.

the rest of the day =

a bit of cleaning + snacking + bottle of wine + sci-fi book + couch in sun + daydreaming about potential holiday fun

savor the taste

the hangover woke me early enough to get in a good jog before the rain. early morning bright crispness, before the humidity and the heat rises. early autumn, with the first brown tinging the plane trees in rotton row, and the grass green once again.

while sweating out the beer and watching my thighs pound the pavement, i reflected on the week. i've been offered a new job, and after my current firm offered to match the salary i had the luxury of choosing between two wonderful futures. i've decided to leave the clear, safe course and move to the unknown, but an unknown that has more potential in the long term. i've enjoyed the past five months, love the team, built myself a good role, done some amazing work. and now i'm off to generate work with clients who are enthusiastic about urban sustainability. the eye that looks ahead to the safe course is closed forever.

if i can swing the dates right, i'll have a few days free. should i go cycling in scotland? visit friends in europe? hang at ed's place in the alps? oh the fun of it. my collection of papers and books needs a reorganisation to make them useful, my body could use exercise, and my soul is in need of a few hours of peace.

V for Vendetta

why has nobody told me to see this yet? it is especially relevant now.

the human race is ugly

usually oxford street feels like entering the 4th circle of hell, up there on my list of things to do with spending a rain-soaked day at a heavy metal festival. i start to wonder where all these ugly people come from, and where they sleep, and why are they here, buying this gaudy bauble made in china, and what do they care about? it's a depressing circle of thoughts, especially on the first windy chilly rainy day of the end of summer.

but i was on a mission to replace a set of pearl earrings. and so jen and i started in the west, at the old standard selfridges, for a coffee in the food court. next to a mom of three young boys who stuidiously ingorned their antics. but she earned pity. any mom who has to take 3 boys under the age of 7 to selfridges by herself deserves a slice. then the old grandma, who stood directly behind jen for 10 minutes, checking her watch, hemming, hawing, coughing.... making it understood that we were at HER chair on the coffee/cake bar, and she was being held up by our selfishness. we asked if she was waiting for anything, pointed out the 10 other empty chairs, but no she was not satisfied until the mom looked at her, sighed, and left half the slice uneaten and took the boys off. being 65 does not excuse rudeness.

the unbridled consumerism, the flash and the sell, the smile and the tired shopgirls. the dance music in the makeup section. the streets throbbing, crowded, everyone walking at different pace and falling over and into one another. no rythm to the crowd, no way to chat and walk when you're navigating a course between the polish mothers with 10 bags and the west african ladies swaggering and the english couple dressed too nicely for a shopping trip up town. teenagers in hip skirts, knee high socks and cheap hose.

we hopped in and out of shoe stores, jen hunting for a frother, and i for the perfect pair of earrings. dodged down a few alleys to escape the crowds and catch a word or two. the enviornment is overwhelming after so many months of cycling, pubs, libraries and work. from friends, food and relaxing, this is- as far as the eye can see, people out to buy things, out to see and be seen, out to sell the goods.

and then later, watching crash with neel. six months of a normal american life condensed into an hour. the structural faults in society, the various forms of racism, the jokes that i laughed at - both because they're funny, and because they reflect the mindset. it was painful. reminded me of dirty pretty things. america's shambles of a health care system, the unending racism, the drugs, the politics, the attacks on immigrants, the guns and the daily struggles. yep, i'm looking forward to my trip in september. nothing like being depressed by the place you were raised in.

Beard Papas

Beard Papas
Originally uploaded by MelT..

this makes me smile. and i like the earring.

cities leading the way

UK's first combined photovoltaic and wind turbine system to be installed in central London

7 Aug 2006

Planning permission has been granted to the London Climate Change Agency for the first combined photovoltaic and wind turbine system in the UK.

Southwark Council granted permission this week to the Agency to install wind turbines to add to the photovoltaic cells on the roof of the new Palestra building, designed by architect Will Alsop, on Blackfriars Road in London. Three floors of the building will become the new headquarters of the London Development Agency and the London Climate Change Agency starting in September 2006. The renewable energy generated by the system will provide renewable electricity to these floors.

The £436,000 project comprises an 84kW renewable energy system - a combination of 63kWp of photovoltaic panels on the roof and 21kW of fourteen building-integrated wind turbines also on the roof. The combined renewable energy system will generate 3,397,000kWh of renewable electricity and reduce CO2 emissions by 3,300 tonnes during its lifetime. link

saga

apparently i've broken a rib. it hurts to cough, to roll in and out of bed, and to smack a tennis ball too close to my chest. i just move my body more to compensate. and take ibuprofen daily.

it's a full, full moon

and that explains it all. thursday evening was a gorgeous calm day, and a new canadian walked through the door. gillian cooked up salmon with maple syrup, and we snuck of to kosmopol for some late night watermelon martinis. take a chunk of watermelon, add to shaker with ice & vodka, shake, strain, drink. gillian and cj however, had canadian club whiskey sodas. and paid for it the next morning in headaches.

i was off early, racing the cyclists out to richmond and back along the river in the morning. collyn & i vs the orange mountian bike and a few other blokes struggling to keep up. (smirk). lunch at borough market with the lot, venison burgers and raspberry cupcakes. and some skinny kid trying to steal my phone. i ran after him in high heels, sprinting down borough high street screaming THEIF at the top of my lungs. (mental commentary while running, in slow mo: do i really want my phone this bad? yes. damn i'm not going to catch up. so let's scream. my voice sounds horrible echoing off the buildings. but now everyone is looking at me. there's cj passing me. stop! i can't run on cobblestones in heels!!!) skinny kid dodged into a yard, the cops arrived, and cj cornered him into a stairwell. then friday afternoon spent giving formal statements to the police, and one last cider before the office again. dinner with zoot as his local, where the gay chef came out to explain our pate and offer more toast, flirting with my date.

saturday we got round to music in the park, under the london summer sun, with neel, andre, and intelligent south africans. a chill group, dark and light laughing & eating together. all in sunglasses & smiling. more cider on the tube and then off to andrew's party, where the drinking went through the roof, and gillian and i ended up in the pool. several times.

the need for drunken late night crazy fun has washed away, leaving a few hangovers and taking my pearl earrings. this is good, as i've got some serious work coming up, and need all my powers of concentration clear. i've had my sunday night run under the moon, the sweat has dried, my head is clear and my soul is ready for tomorrow. night.

gillian (flatmate)

gillian
Originally uploaded by wonderwomanyank.

@ fruistock. weekends in the summer in london.....

An inconvient truth

good movie. a tad too much about gore's personal history, but very straightforward nonethe less

my thoughts:
1) international burning of forests (for fuel, for agriculture) isn't directly related to western lifestyles or economy. i needs structural change in the way the international economy, population control, and development aid is handled.
2) good call to political change & action, not just lifestyle change or awareness
3) must carbon offset this's septembers flights
4) who else can tell about this? how can i approach this topic with more people?

watch it.

harmonicas & curry

i don't do much noteworthy nomading these days, but some evenings your friends make killer guacamole while you rummage through the cupboards and throw spices into minced lamb, to make late night kebabs. your flatmate brings out his iranian cheese for the salad, and you leave some out for the party-goers when they come home late and hungry. in the morning the coffee's already brewing when i laze up, the windows wide open, and gillian's making pancakes with the cherry butter from my ruined thursday dessert.

my weekends smell of coffee and freshly baked bread, of bacon and gillian's cocobutter body cream.

they sound of veg's harmonica practice, ed blasting moulin rouge & cohen's halllelujah from the living room, gillian laughing and the giggles from my neighbours' children floating up on the breeze.

oh, and veg makes a tasty and spicy goat curry. i don't want to know where he buys goat in west london, but it's lip-smacking good.

back in the saddle

my body amazes me. i'm healing fast. every night i stop the painkillers at 8, and every morning the pain is less than half that of the day before. lots of long warm baths help the most, and there are still some funny sore spots hanging around (underneath my back left scapula anyone?), but the stiffness and pain and bruises are going fast. i've been watching the bruises on my shoulder flower in purple and green, then fade to yellow as the dead cells (the purple) migrate down my arms and pool just under my bicep. the road rash on my legs will just be scratches by tomorrow afternoon. i've gotten full flexibility back in the right arm, albeit trying to touch the ceiling makes me wince, and i can turn around to look behind me without every muscle in my upper body crying out.

which is good, as i got back on the bicycle this morning, and i need to see over my shoulder to merge lanes