London 30/12/07

The second last day of the year.
The second movie was better than the first one, but it would be better the second time round.
Just like the second time round London is better than the first.
Leicester isn't the same shape the second time round, nor is Covent Garden linear.
Two shirts are better worn shared the second time round (like in the wild) and vintage stores visit new places with second-hand clothes.
A woman sings in absolute ecstacy on the tube and Luke wants to know what the song is, but the second time round we realise that her headphones aren't plugged into anything. She's just crazy.
London overloads itself with inspiration the second time round, flowing like matrix code. The streets split at the seems and old buildings well up in the eyes.
Though avenues are still muted the second time round, and the rain still mannered and on time.

On the second last day i knew more of myself, on the first day of the year i'll know less still.

World's most likeable person

In 1996 i was at a daylight-disco in Cuba where water is sprayed from the ceiling. I was drinking tequila from a water bottle when, on the other side of the room i spotted this beautiful woman sunk deep into a pile of Jim Morrison records.


They called her Ms. Space-face Galactica and she was Boston's hottest jungle DJ at the time.

We chatted, and let's just say it went well.

Second steps

So i'm in Austria, thanks to steve and Shez - kind enough to invite me to spend Christmas in Saalbach Hinterglemm - a ski resort just shy of two hours from Salzburg. There are Gingerbread houses, Ex-mafia mob taxi drivers, a lack of decent Parisian Chocolat, enormous glasses of beer and a national obsession with Bon Jovi (the early years).

My tiny little cousin James had his first real go at skiing today too. We're all very proud.

A moveable beast

Paris just appears like this every time you brush past the Seine.


Rue De Buci - The Taschen book store, free olives, giant glasses of Vin Chaud for 4 euro (thats cheap), small chairs, even smaller tables and bad french being practiced just loud loud enough for people to notice.





The Marais - Jewish quarter, amazing Isreali Kebab restaurant, tiny streets stalked by heavily bricked apartments not burnt down during the war, vintage stores,gay and lesbian meeting places and little bars so filled with smoke you can't see the fire exit signs.

A Tale of One City

Paris is like French language, as a relative beginner to it, it's a maze of misunderstood rituals, etiquette and savoir faire. In time though one can become attuned,as in language, to Paris.

I haven't seen everything in Paris, not the tour d'eiffel nor Versailles nor Le Sacre
Couer nor Le Moulin Rouge - but i'm not a tourist anymore. Few things please me more than to walk with my eyes to the pavement, not smile at strangers, refuse to give tourists directions and be rude to waiters (who are rude in return).

Cafe's spill out onto the promenade, enormous churches lurk around corners and museums outnumber metro stations. And like the French language, it reveals itself in time.

Bonjour de Paris, France.

I arrived yesterday, and as expected my luggage did not arrive. It didn't matter though because luckily i had some ski boots and spare bindings in my hand luggage to keep me warm. Still though, i managed to buy a baguettte, navigate le marche and take the metro, which i might add is amazing - fast and terribly easy to use. My knowledge and understanding of French is absolutely useless, and whatever i learned at home is too slow, too convoluted and too well, 4-year oldish.

I am staying in le Bois de Vincennes, and my hotel sits just, as in only just, outside Paris proper. In fact there is a sign that says 'Paris' as if you are about to enter. I can sit by my window, look at the sign and wonder what lays beyond it. There is a cemetery next door, and just beyond that an American style 4-lane expressway chocked with peugots and square-looking Renaults. Presumably the cemetery was designed for proximity, so anyone who tries to cross the road can be scraped up and deposited beneath the ground just in time for happy hour.