making progress
We are still enjoying a late cold winter spell.
Nowadays whenever I walk to the BL, I never pause to take a good look at the Brunswick Centre. Covered in scaffolds, signs of warning, more cement, bricks, dust and safety paths, the fading concrete terrace is not an inviting sight. A flashing purple board claims that everything will be done by the summer of 2006, but in Britain construction deadlines are fantasy. This week the nice, clean white walls caught my attention; sooner or later all sides will be refurbished. The elegant queen of supermarkets, Waitrose, will be just around the corner, and Renoir still stands there to provide quality films. I am looking forward to its completion.
In the early evening I listened to Dr Frances Wood's brilliant talk on The Earliest Chinese Books in London. In our age when the West can't help but notice China's rapid development, it's interesting to find out how cultural exchange first started. There's a Chinese pamphlet that teaches the barbaric language, English, but the pronunciation is in Cantonese. Also, it was said that I Ching first arrived in England roughly at the same year when Newton was elected President of the Royal Society. Perhaps the English scientist, known for his emphasis on reason and logic, had a copy of the mysterious oriental cosmology and philiosophy in his hands.