Starting out the window on a grey Thursday, and I see the lady from the cafe next to our office - she’s walking out onto the pavement with some bread in her hand, and proceeds to start crumbling it for the pigeons.
One of the nicest things that I have seen for ages. She’s been doing it now for about 5 minutes - it’s not often you see a restaurant do something like this.
Good on you!
(for those of you that think pigeons are flying rats, oh well!)
So what’s $3 trilion?
- 80% of the value of the whole of the UK housing market
- $500 per human on this planet
- If you were to stack the money in a single stack of $1 bills, your stack would be 189,400 miles tall, enough to wrap the Moon at its equator more than 25 times
Or, if you’re American, it’s the cost that you as a country have had to bear for the Iraq war so far. Today’s Guardian tells us “three trillion could have fixed America’s social security problem for half a century.”
There’s lots that could be said on this number - but suffice to say for now, we all should definitely question government spending on war.
Did you hear about the man who injected himself with curry?
Well, he fell into a korma.
Boom boom!
It all sounds a little “Love Actually” - but I was at the airport this morning, Terminal 3 LHR, and was waiting for a family member at the arrivals area. There was a flight from Iran, the requisite Nigerian flight, a few from the US (frat boys, don’t you feel cold in your shorts?), and one or two from South-East Asia. And of course the taxi drivers with their boards, waiting for people that they’ve never met to take them to hotels that they probably can’t afford.
My favourite today was the Iranian flight. There was a karate team from Tehran Univerity, a bunch of glamorous Tehran-Paris-LA types (baby), and a large smattering of people that clearly didn’t fly very often and weren’t used to arriving into London. It’s this third group that’s most fun to watch - seeing them find their loved ones in the crowd, three kisses on the cheeks for the men, somewhat less tactile hand-shaking for the ladies. And such joy in their smiles.
No, I don’t suggest that you go there to hang out to make you feel better about the world - really, Heathrow’s not that exciting. But spending an hour waiting for someone to come out - it’s way more interesting to spend the time people watching than reading the newspaper!
So I was on the tube today on my way to work, and there were delays (of course there were). And so standing up for the duration of the journey, squashed against all those other people that live between where I live and my destination, I got a real chance to think.
The tube was jam packed, so much so that I hardly needed to hold on to the rails to stand up straight. I’m a little taller than most, and thus get a good view at people.
And people are really strange. Whether those transfixed by their iPods, those elbowing their way into reading a few pages of their book (A Thousand Splendid Suns seemed to the Northern line book fave today - hey guys, set up a book club on the tube), or those that just make sure that they look at nothing.
Why don’t we talk to each other? Lots of these people that I am squashed up against live near me (those squeezed up against me all got on at the same stop), and I am sure are heading to work to do interesting jobs. We have lots in common. We’re all probably very nice people. And just standing there doing very little is a real waste of time. And opportunity.
I am as bad as everyone else. Inertia? Fear of being the weirdo? Fear of being accused of hitting on somone? I have no idea. But I know that it really is a lost opportunity.
The French Navy motto - “To the water! The time is right! “
“A l’eau! C’est l’heure!”
Miles Kington apparently. (Read it out loud if you don’t get it…)
Apologies to those who don’t like jazz, but I’m going to wax slightly lyrical for a bit.
There’s something incredibly evocative about an intense Miles Davis solo*. Or Chet Baker and Gerry Mulligan, their horns intertwined**. Or the mournful, smoky voice of Billie Holiday***.
There’s something equally evocative about a great Blue Note album cover. The moody blue tint, or the smoke rising in the background, or the intense expression of an artist through a slit screen photo. Clean and functional as an album cover, but striking and beautiful as a piece of art.
One of my favourites is Reid Miles’s cover for John Coltrane’s Blue Train. It perfectly captures the young John Coltrane, deeply pensive, completely focused on his music.
It’s a shame that CDs and MP3s have effectively declared the end of the the album cover as art. However, I guess there’s plenty in the back catalogue (Blue Note and others!) to enjoy and celebrate.
*Try the classic ‘Round Midnight on Round About Midnight by the Miles Davis Quintet (also a great album cover)
** Soft Shoe on the The Best of the GMQ with Chet Baker (Pacific Records) is great
***Listen to the all time classic Strange Fruit to hear Billie Holiday at her plaintive, sad best (on most Billie Holiday collections)
I love the idea that Barack or Hilary is being seen as a Mac vs PC battle. Got to make you laugh.
And as for Mike, Mitt or John - where are you viral videos?
Don’t care who you vote for, but for the Americans amongst us - go out and vote. Today (if appropriate), and please, for the sake of us non-Americans, please vote in November.
Traffic, computer virus, overcrowded buses / trains, photocopy machines / printers that just don’t want to work, cheap batteries, junk mail, telephone customer service, losing your bags when you fly, car alarms, missing someone’s birthday, people missing your birthday, too many cables, vomit, insomnia.
Yes, we’re aware that the list is not exactly deep and thoughtful, nor is it exhaustive. But it wasn’t the time or the place to be talking about child soldiers and global warming. Or was it?
Was thinking about all the stuff that I come across in my daily life that just makes me smile - and there’s a lot. TV screens in the back of plane seats, iPod, wireless internet, noise cancelling headphones, mozarella, auto-focus on my camera, Google Maps, Post-it notes, Last.fm, tap water, cheese and onion crisps, heated seats, ice cream.
It’s just really nice to know that there is a lot of stuff that just doesn’t suck!
