Unbalanced Vision

Today the Chinese celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival and Teacher's Day, so Happy Mooncake Day and Happy Teacher's Day to you all! Now you ask me the exotic story behind this tradition, well, hum... it involves a rabbit, a strong man with his axe, another stronger man with his bow and arrow, and then there's his beautiful and virtuous wife who somehow flew to the moon, don't ask me why. On this day when a full moon hangs in the sky like a big white plate, we gather together with our families and gobble down mooncakes and melons. I never particularly liked this dessert because it has too many crumbs, and thus I make a mess on the table. However, I do enjoy the getting together with relatives bit. As for the origin of Teacher's Day, it's the birthday of our great Confucius of course. Contrary to the Western saying, 'Those who can't, teach', the Chinese show great respect to teachers. In the past, they could be seen as the upper echelons of society, perhaps this view has not changed much--Mum gets pressies and thank you cards throughout the year.

In this sentiment of remembering good old days and old friends--Happy Birthday to you, Erik and Katrin.

The publication of this series sounds like a pretty interesting idea. I know it's just another edition of a thinker's formidable intellect in print, but carrying unwieldy anthologies around is rather silly, so I would certainly like to see a light weight set in the market. Yesterday I first saw the copy at Waterstone's, RHUL, and they looked very inviting, like dainty cupcakes you want to have a bite of. Each book has different simple designed covers, making me want to collect all twenty. I started with Hazlitt's The Pleasure of Hating.

As an avid theatre-goer may I just add one rule to the list: huge fellows are prohibited from sitting in front of R to block her view.

It looks like my best friend A has a blog of her own. A is a cat fanatic, ex-Michael Jackson fan (weirdo), and a lady of few words who is actually helping patients suffering from speech impediment. Cool, a new place where I can rant about the world.

My Japanese flatmate now has five of his Japanese mates crashing on his floor for a couple of days. After the first night, the three girls who came to visit from Paris apologised for using too much of our toilet paper, hence bought some more rolls for us. Today one of the lads said sorry for disturbing our quiet life, and bought me and S a cake from Paul bakery. My best friend SY lived in Japan for a year. One night when she took the trash out, SY saw her next door neighbour in slippers also on the same mission. The next morning, this neighbour knocked on SY's door and said that it was so rude of herself to show up in slippers. Jesus. Well, that's going a bit too far, yet I'm still very fond of courteous people. Besides his friend looks very cute, and owns a turntable.

By the way, who has spare tickets to Haruki Murakami's The Elephant Vanishes? They are all sold out!

Did a witch put a spell on the mushrooms I bought two weeks ago at Sainsbury's? My mushrooms are freaking me out. They don't seem to go bad, firm and unblemished as before. Damn those Frankenstein food.

Last weekend found myself in the least expected places--the Wales Rally GB 2004, wow! Can I sound more excited? First day: nothing much to say other than us setting up tents at a campside in Cardiff. I haven't been camping since when, high school, so was pretty up for the idea. Imagine snuggling up beside the campside fire, toasting marshmallows, hiding from bears and snakes... Well, part of it was true. HY was very proud of his vintage Indian tent, which created the illusion of him as a hardcore mountaineerer who challenged the Himalayas during the 1980's. In the end it proved to be a decent shelter against wind and rain. Indeed, bears and snakes we saw none, but on the second day it was pissing down like mad. I woke up early at 5a.m. just to stand in the middle of mud, wind and rain with a bunch of geeky blokes watching four wheels speeding by. I remember once visiting the Highgate Cemetary, when we came to a tomb of a Victorian horseman who once rode on his horse and carriage from London to Brighton with the fastest speed recorded. He was such a sensation that all the Victorian ladies and gents came to observe the spectacle. That was then and this is now. If being soaking wet is not my understanding of the definition for 'fun', then aiming to take awesome motion shots of fast moving objects is. As I realised later that most of my collection were pictures of half of the automobile--pooh. My presence there reminds me of my supervisor who had to take his 11-year-old son to the video arcade exhibition at Docklands. Whilst playing video games is not exactly a Renaissance researcher's idea of a fun day, he can still enjoy the novelty of the developing urbanity Docklands provides.

The One and Only Modern Indian Tent

Walking in the Rain

Too Slow

In Time

Darn. The world moves on so quickly when you're not noticing; it's September already!? Here's some pictures of summer love:

Thumbs Up: my favourite architect in the world is a qualified architect

There's Nothing Better Than Eating a Banana: weekend in Sweden/Denmark

Communist Sport: Erik playing ping-pong at Trocadero

Rola Is Back: on our way to Brighton

Amsterdam: architectural features abound

Funny Hat: Carrie at Notting Hill Festival

Yes, I'm still alive people--not that the world cares about my stories really. I feel like I've lost the desire to 'put thoughts to paper' recently, or that there's nothing interesting going on. Actually, from time to time I've had the honor of talking to some soulless creatures, and would like to describe them in the most cruel manner on my stomping ground, yet my kindness stops me from doing so. And as time goes by you don't feel that strongly anymore. But as days go by and the temperature drops, the desire to buy a green scarf and a red bath robe is very strong. Why red? I saw HY's colleague MC own one, and he looks like a king in it.

I have been jokingly called a Communist, what about you?

1) According to my coworker J, a mouse scampered into the shop on Saturday. The creature ran to the end of the store, went under the heater, and was not seen since. Presumably it is hiding under the cupboard--this can be a major strain on me using the computer beside it. Imagine it making squeaky noises, ahhhhhh! J wrote about the incident in such a casual manner, at first I thought it was merely a stuff animal, or a computer mouse. She courageously brought a broom upstairs attempting to chase it out once it reappears. Basically if the mouse shows up before my eyes, it would rather chase me out of the shop.
2) I've flipped through Martin Amis' autobiography and learnt about his missing cousin and the horrible serial killer well-known nationwide. More daunting is the fact that amongst the victims, she alone came from a decent middle-class family, but this just shows how naive I am. There's something really frightening yet at the same time highly intriguing about thrillers; I have the curiosity to find out more about the case. However, the more you read the more paranoid you get, especially knowing that the evil couple used their basement as a butcher house. The shop has a basement too you know, and it is freaking me out.

Last week an enthusiastic chap came into the shop to propose a scheme for a website of our street. It will contain information about the street's history, photos, and of course the quaint bookshops and print shops that line the court. Unfortunately, dot com has already been used by a hotel in central London, therefore we will settle with dot co dot uk. This might not be an absolutely innovative idea, for Carnaby Street has had their very own community website ages ago. And it even includes a section that introduces the people who either live or work in the area, with photos. We should have one too? I'm up for anything that can rocket us to fame, 15 seconds will be enough. Besides our picturesque court has just as much character as Carnaby.