Things that I have been typing about last year.
The perils of working from home
I have been working from home for the last month. I am developing some ideas and doing some writing. I have had a few accidents and mishaps since then. Hmm.
A few weeks ago, I was waiting to hear from a friend about a meeting; while I was waiting, I decided to do something about the ice in the fridge freezer. I have a small half height fridge under the kitchen counter. Well, being the great Wally that I can be, I used a knife to chip the ice away. There was a noise and then a stream of escaping gas. Quite a 'cartoon' moment. I opened the kitchen window and went out for a few hours. I learned my lesson. But in my defense, I was rented an apartment with a broken freezer door on the fridge which just aggravated the problem with the always ice building up. Suffice, to say, there is now a new fridge with a proper freezer compartment. And living without refrigeration for over a week was not great fun.
But, yesterday was something else. I did not have an accident but I was witness to something just outside the apartment. Around about 11:30 AM, I was getting some groceries delivered (the convenience of buying groceries over the Internet). My neighbour John was just arriving and someone from across the street said something to him like "John, doesn't that tree look like it is about to fall over?" I went inside and the two of them were talking,
December 2006
Finally, an update to my web-site.
I have been fairly busy the last few months with work on one project and doing some work on 2 new projects. It looks like 2007 will be busy for the first half of the year which is good. It was a calculated risk to leave my job at Sky Digital.
But is also has been weird; I have had the misfortune of having a nasty eye inflammation twice. I have been so unlucky with my health. It was bordering on farcical with missing work and visiting a GP and eye clinics and dermatologists about the things that were ailing me.
Here are some photo galleries
Summer in September
I have not typed anything for weeks; something funny just happened which has prompted me into action.
As, I don't have a car in London, in fact I have not driven in ten years , I will often get my groceries delivered. I go online and select what I want and so on. Often, some item will not be available and when the delivery arrives, you have the choice of taking a substitution. I had ordered some black pepper chicken escaplopes. They are sort of like Chicken Kiev's where the chicken is coated in bread crumbs with some sort of filling that acts like a sauce. The substitution they made was blue berry and Quorn escalopes. Blue berry! And Quorn is a vegetarian food made from a type of fungus. The delivery driver and I had a chuckle over that; I decided I would try them anyway.
It is a lovely day today; it is in the high twenties. I am going to Battersea Park later.
Next weekend, I could be travelling around London with a camera. It is the London Open House; for one weekend a year many of London's landmarks and famous buildings are open to the public. I need to plan it out; I am going to sit in the park and make a list of the places I want to visit. Photos from last year are on my web-site here.
Today in London
I have been having quite a good week recently; much of my work has been going well and there is a constant amount of interesting projects and opportunities coming my way.
I was watching the news this morning with the police arrests to thwart a major airplane bombing campaign. The death toll would have been incredible as stated on the news.
I am sitting outside in front of the National Theatre beside Waterloo bridge looking at the world around me and wondering what people are thinking as I type this.
Leaving aside the "causes" for this situation; is this the way civilized people act? I was having a discussion about this with a neighbor this morning before I made my way into the centre of London.
I think about the people in Lebanon and the people who lived through Bosnia.
I have not encountered much violence directly in my life. I did have a friend who was murdered years ago; thankfully, his killers were brought to justice. I have not thought about him in a long time.
I reflect on all of these things.
The New Piccadilly cafe
I had a meeting last week with Paul Noble. Paul and I are working on a "art" project; it is his original idea; he is designing it and I am doing the "coding". Stay tuned for when it will be properly announced; it will be sometime in 2007 when it goes on display as part of Paul's next gallery show. I live in Battersea, South West London and Paul lives in Hackney Wick in East London. He suggested we meet in town at a old style restaurant called the "New Piccadilly". It is formica-tastic as Paul was saying.
I had egg, beans and chips with some regular coke, the proprietor called it organic full fat cola as a joke when he took my order. Paul had an omelette with peas and chips.
It makes me hungry just thinking about it and I had dinner not too long ago.
It is funny to think that I have been passing near this place for ages; I had never ventured on to Denman street where it is before now. In fact, it is short distance from of my regular haunts for Japanese food Ten Ten Tei on Brewer street.
Summer in London
It has been a roasting summer in London. Too hot at times.
But I have been outdoors and enjoying some of London's parks with friends.
I recently went to Battersea park and yesterday I went to Hyde park.
Some Video clips
Game Play
Some friends and I checked out the game play exhibit in July 2006. Have you ever seen such a big joystick
Music from the Sultan's Elephant
From the street performance in May 2006
Modernism at the V&A
I went to Victoria & Albert museum during the exhibit on Modernism in 2006. Once a month on a Friday the museum puts on specials nights. On this occasion there was a troupe performing modern dance.
Here are 3 video clips from the past few months. They were shot with my mobile phone.
The links below are the events at which the clips were shot. Note: the video clips don't load into RSS readers; you need to visit my web-site proper to see them. Cheers.
By the way, that is Al masterfully vanquishing insects while playing centipede and my 'little sis' Karen in the V&A clip.
Just a rash
Our story begins a year ago. Warning if illnesses and this kind of talk make you gross out just stop now and look at some bunny rabbits and go back to what you were doing .
I had noticed I had some rashes on my arm on and on my lower back; some red blotches; they were not really uncomfortable and I would have hardly noticed the one on my back without seeing it in a mirror. I dilly dallied and did not see a doctor until sometime in September 2005.
I was wondering before seeing the general practitioner; what if I have something bad. What is going to happen next? I have never had a serious illness aside from a smashing my knee up, the occasional flu and chicken pox and the usual cuts and scrapes that are part of childhood.
So when I see the GP, he goes something like "looks like a fungal infection... here is prescription for some topical steroids to be applied as a cream." I joked about it with some friends later how I thought I had something more serious.
I get the prescription filled and sure enough the one rash on my arm goes away. The one on my back stays. It has been a year now; I cannot say if it has changed size but it is still there. I am not really aware of it aside from the slight itchy sometimes. But If there is something that can be done about it; well, let's get something done.
Accident Prone?
Since the incidents with the fridge and tree:
I almost cut my finger badly with a bread knife; I managed to saw almost completely through a finger nail.
I lost my iPod on the weekend in Brussels.
I woke up to no hot water today; I cannot get the boiler started.
Canada day in London
Signing the flag
I celebrated Canada day recently in Trafalgar Square. It was held a day early on June 30th. It was a fine and pleasant evening and I can easily say the music was fab. There a selection of musicians from all across "The Great White North".
I event met a fellow West Coaster from Kelowna, British Columbia. We talked about why we like living in London; culture is a big part of it.
I was born in the Big Smoke but I went to school and spent my childhood in Canada. I last lived in Lotusland when in Canada which has been over ten years ago now. Lotusland is Vancouver's nickname.
I even recorded, on my mobile phone, myself and everyone in the square singing "O' Canada". Dare I put it up on the web-site?
Comments
I was asked how do you post comments on this site. I said "ah, got me" (paraphrasing). But I have signed up to Haloscan and I am making the changes to 'link them to' my web-site.
Let's hope it works.
One of those days - up and down and around
I had a job interview this morning. The day provided to be full of little stops and starts.
About 5:30 AM, a pair of crows started cawing; it seemed like they were right outside my window.
About 7:15 AM, I started getting some text messages from a friend's new phone. I received the same message about twenty times at least; there was a constant sound effect of a new text message being received; I turned my phone off for a while. It turns out her phone was acting up; I knew it had to be something like that.
I get up and get ready for the job interview; I take the bus to the subway station; the subway line I was planning to take is out of service. I did make the point of being extra early today to get to the hotel where I was to meet the person interviewing me; I did still manage to the hotel with plenty of time. I go to concierge's desk and ask to speak to the person who I am to have the interview with; they don't have anyone there with that name. "Oh great; have gone to the wrong hotel, no", I ask myself. I did not have the office phone number for the company; I call directory assistance; they could not find the phone number. At the appointed interview time, I do get a phone call; the person I am meeting is staying at the hotel; he was checked in under a different company name. We chatted for bit; basically, I did not have the experience and skills for the job. C'est la vie.
Updated Portfolio
A fairly considerable update has been made to the "test lab" in my portfolio.
What do you think? I would really like some feedback.
Oops
Oops, I made some errors in my discussion of comic books artists in Brussels travelogue. I must have a word with my fact checker - wait there isn't one. I blame myself...
History
While on holiday in Span and Portugal, I became curious about the history of the world during the colonization of the new world. We know the Europeans were looking for a nautical route to India and at that time; but what has happening in India and Asia at that time? Were there explorers from India making the journey to England?
I want to look into this and report back.
Travel section updated
I have fixed up Edinburgh 2005 and added some more words and photos to Portgual 2006
http://www.manjitbedi.com/travel/
Travel section updated
I have been busily updating the travel section. Brussels and Barcelona are now there. I still have more work to do on Portugal.