after

after
Originally uploaded by wonderwomanyank.

wrist doctor tomorrow. hope the mri worked, and that the surgery is not going to be too serious.

perspective

sitting in my central london office, reading tom's blog on all the cairo election shenangains.

no work and no school weekends

took the weekend off from all the things in my life,
and made chocolate chip cookies.

and went to the orangery at kensington palace for tea, stayed up till 6am like old school, sold my night-crashing bookshelves on gumtree, and managed 2 10 minute miles before i gave up and basically walked another 2.

it's painful, getting back in shape to run again. i can barely manage 1 9 minute mile, and haven't even tried to jog past 5miles yet, it's just not happening. so days at the gym, rebuilding muscle, and long slow jogs.

will hear about the wrist surgery on thursday

curse round 2

last night, sleeping over at z's, someone ripped a house railing bar, smashed the windows of the cars on the street, and threw the bar through the front window of the house z lives in.

at least i slept through it.

cursed

so the hand has not healed, and has actually gotten worse.
i now have a 'non-union' displaced fracture to my scaphoid bone. and need surgery.
apparently the bone functions like a 'ball bearing' in your upper wrist, allowing the bones below your thumb to rotate in all directions the way they do. and if you don't fix it, it'll be painful for the rest of my lfie.
the surgery is probably going to be outpatient, won't be for a week or two, and in the meantime i've just got a soft splint on my hand.

i never though i'd enjoy showering with two hands so much. try shaving both armpits with one hand.

in other news, my bookshelves collapsed on top of me at 4am last night, and i jogged to work this morning. it's sunny today.

6 weeks

cast comes off today (20% chance a new one goes back on) but ohhhhh can't wait...3 hours to go

greenwash

spent most of yesterday and today greenwashing a rather un-green housing development in the south east of england.

good things ::: it's infill development in an existing, well serviced village. on the site of an old school. there's good bus routes to the nearest big town, which has great train links to london. it's not in a flood plain, and they've got good drainage/attenuation systems which won't increase flood risk downstream from the loss of green stuff on the site. they've done an ecological survey and the landscape architects are planting only natives and they're not being cheap about it. 30% of them are 'affordable'.

bad things:: 2 parking spaces per house/apartment. lack of quality street design. lots of concrete paving. cheap bricks. imported, non-certified wood (ie it could come from rainforests). no renewable energy, or even passive solar design. lots of pvc windows. the cycle racks are next to the trash storage. nothing to encourage composting or recycling.

walking to work

walking to work
Originally uploaded by wonderwomanyank.

spring! sun! blue skies!

walking to work

walking to work
Originally uploaded by wonderwomanyank.

monday, 7.20am

absentmindedness can kill

i've managed to throw away my oyster card with £ on it, while running down the street (oddly enough to CATCH a bus) as i binned the remains of a juicy early morning pear. and leave my mp3 player in the gym. i'll take special care when walking across the street today.

veg on harmonica

been to busy to charge my camera

i'm always out and about. but that's about to change. essay due in 10 days. time to buckle down and get some work done in the evenings. no more sushi tartare over sake in sochu, no more sunday local pub lunches with lucy, no more laughing with old work friends over greek on the southbank. the river glowing in londons nightlights. at least i'm stocked up now, after a night at the V&A and jucy steak fillets at l'etranger, and a day of reading and laughing with jen in the hyde park serpintine cafe. in the sun, glowing warm, munching on strawberries and riding on last night's buzz.

did i mention it's almost spring?

walking london

it's a new city. i'm forgetting where the potholes are, but i'm relearning the architecture and the residents.
chatting with the construction workers outside the whole foods site in kensington, watching the entire night shift of the hilton pile into the 49 bus at 7am. nice suits and red ties striding through mayfair, the randoms and the weird in Leicester square breakfast cafes at 8am.

i'm walking with my face up, looking above the glass modern shopfronts, the old facades remain. old georgian townhouses tucked among the victorian excesses of picadilly.

out and about

the sun comes up around 6 now, and when it's bright it wakes me. so by 10 at night, i'm delirious tired, needing to sleep. but it's just not happening.

monday, lecture means i got home at 10, bed by 12. tuesday it was home at 11, after tapas and wine with collyn at Fino, in Charlotte Street. another midnight sleep. wednesday i worked 11 hours to make up the lecture hours lost, walked up roseberry to the top of angel, stopped by the contessa for a bit, and then around the corner to z's by 10 to crash. thursday was another long working day, getting back west to 60a by 10 to join veg's birthday party in full swing. closed the door around midnight, and fell asleep against the wine fuelled laughter in the kitchen.

and now it's friday. up at 6 to the party remains. left the sleeping guests in peace and walked the 4 miles east to work this morning, under a sunny blue sky, my breath fogging as i watched the calvary regiments drill in the park. bannana and juice under my arm. i'm meeting an old high school friend after work (facebook reunions begin), and i'll trek west for a shower and a cleaning session before a late night outing with a and the bloomsbury crew.

looking forward to a quiet weekend