Greece

I've been making myself a little crazy this week by watching the riot and protest footage from Athens. Here's another, in case you're interested. The coverage is finally starting to get beyond the police shooting, which is good.

I remember a conversation with my cousins about problems that she was having with renters (who weren't paying for months). Antigone explained that they can't kick them out because the police and local government won't do back them up because as a family, they don't have clout. With the economic downturn and the shooting to spark it all off, the riots and protests are not a surprise. I just wish that something would actually be done besides the opposition party forcing the conservatives out.

Press reset

Looking through some pictures that my students took during our trip, I think that I have to finally acknowledge that something in my head is stuck in high school. I used to wonder what happened to "old" people style-wise and now I'm one of them. :)

Every time I'm in between haircuts, I default back to a straight-cut with bangs (I'm still not ready to expose the fivehead to the world). It's not really a big deal except that looking at myself in the pics, it just looks like I'm trying to be younger than I am even though it's just plain neglect and lack of creativity. It's a good thing I'm visiting the States or I'd probably have the stuck-in-high-school hair until summer.

The funny pages

One of the first times my parents took all of us to Virginia for vacation (which I always want to spell like vaccination) it felt like we had stepped into a completely different world. Everyone said hello as we walked by tourists and were just generally really nice and welcoming. The gas station actually had attendants who cleaned the windscreen as a standard part of service. One attendant asked if I'd like a 'sucker', which just confused me until I found out that I was about to pass up a free lollipop. At home, the only time you got handed lollipops was at the doctor's office or on Halloween.

On another trip in Virginia, we were at the supermarket and had bought a paper. The checkout lady asked my sisters and I if we wanted the funnies. I'm sure the poor woman had no idea what she said that deserved the confused faces that greeted her friendly offer, but we had no idea what she was talking about until she started to explain how she and her brothers and sisters used to always pull out the funnies for the ride home from the grocery store. I still call them comics, but the term makes me smile.

A member of Aaron's Pompey message board posted this and it's the first joke type thing that I've uncontrollably laughed (and pounded the table) at for a while. It looks like it's making the rounds in all the newspapers, blogs, etc... I got the reprint below from here.

___________________________________________________________________

From: Jane Gilles
Date: Wednesday 8 Oct 2008 12.19pm
To: David Thorne
Subject: Overdue account

Dear David,
Our records indicate that your account is overdue by the amount of $233.95. If you have already made this payment please contact us within the next 7 days to confirm payment has been applied to your account and is no longer outstanding.

Yours sincerely, Jane Gilles

From: David Thorne
Date: Wednesday 8 Oct 2008 12.37pm
To: Jane Gilles
Subject: Re: Overdue account

Dear Jane,
I do not have any money so am sending you this drawing I did of a spider instead. I value the drawing at $233.95 so trust that this settles the matter.

Regards, David.

From: Jane Gilles
Date: Thursday 9 Oct 2008 10.07am
To: David Thorne
Subject: Overdue account

Dear David,
Thankyou for contacting us. Unfortunately we are unable to accept drawings as payment and your account remains in arrears of $233.95. Please contact us within the next 7 days to confirm payment has been applied to your account and is no longer outstanding.

Yours sincerely, Jane Gilles

From: David Thorne
Date: Thursday 9 Oct 2008 10.32am
To: Jane Gilles
Subject: Re: Overdue account

Dear Jane,
Can I have my drawing of a spider back then please.

Regards, David.

From: Jane Gilles
Date: Thursday 9 Oct 2008 11.42am
To: David Thorne
Subject: Re: Re: Overdue account

Dear David,
You emailed the drawing to me. Do you want me to email it back to you?

Yours sincerely, Jane Gilles

From: David Thorne
Date: Thursday 9 Oct 2008 11.56am
To: Jane Gilles
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Overdue account

Dear Jane,

Yes please.

Regards, David.

From: Jane Gilles
Date: Thursday 9 Oct 2008 12.14pm
To: David Thorne
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Overdue account

Attached

From: David Thorne
Date: Friday 10 Oct 2008 09.22am
To: Jane Gilles
Subject: Whose spider is that?

Dear Jane, Are you sure this drawing of a spider is the one I sent you? This spider only has seven legs and I do not feel I would have made such an elementary mistake when I drew it.

Regards, David.

From: Jane Gilles
Date: Friday 10 Oct 2008 11.03am
To: David Thorne
Subject: Re: Whose spider is that?

Dear David, Yes it is the same drawing. I copied and pasted it from the email you sent me on the 8th. David your account is still overdue by the amount of $233.95. Please make this payment as soon as possible.

Yours sincerely, Jane Gilles

From: David Thorne
Date: Friday 10 Oct 2008 11.05am
To: Jane Gilles
Subject: Automated Out of Office Response

Thankyou for contacting me. I am currently away on leave, traveling through time and will be returning last week.

Regards, David.

From: David Thorne
Date: Friday 10 Oct 2008 11.08am
To: Jane Gilles
Subject: Re: Re: Whose spider is that?

Hello, I am back and have read through your emails and accept that despite missing a leg, that drawing of a spider may indeed be the one I sent you. I realise with hindsight that it is possible you rejected the drawing of a spider due to this obvious limb ommission but did not point it out in an effort to avoid hurting my feelings. As such, I am sending you a revised drawing with the correct number of legs as full payment for any amount outstanding. I trust this will bring the matter to a conclusion.

Regards, David.

From: Jane Gilles
Date: Monday 13 Oct 2008 2.51pm
To: David Thorne
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Whose spider is that?

Dear David, As I have stated, we do not accept drawings in lei of money for accounts outstanding. We accept cheque, bank cheque, money order or cash. Please make a payment this week to avoid incurring any additional fees.

Yours sincerely, Jane Gilles

From: David Thorne
Date: Monday 13 Oct 2008 3.17pm
To: Jane Gilles
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Whose spider is that?

I understand and will definately make a payment this week if I remember. As you have not accepted my second drawing as payment, please return the drawing to me as soon as possible. It was silly of me to assume I could provide you with something of completely no value whatsoever, waste your time and then attach such a large amount to it.

Regards, David.

From: Jane Gilles
Date: Tuesday 14 Oct 2008 11.18am
To: David Thorne
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Whose spider is that?

Attached

____________________________________________________________________
Oh yeah, I don't think vacation/vaccination because vacations felt like getting shots. I just get brain farts when it comes to spelling.

Adventures of the Ginger Piglet

I think that it's time to make a concerted effort to stop feeling sorry for myself. Aaron has been putting up with a lot for a long time. And there's a lot of good stuff that has been going on lately!

On Friday, we went to Borough market for the first time in a long, long while in the hopes of getting some Italian sausage from the Ginger Pig. Aaron was getting ready to make his mom's spaghetti and meatballs and we were hoping to find some Italian sausage that's actually really Italian-American sausage to add in. After scouring the Net with my taste buds ready for a great sauce reminiscent of the one that my next-door-neighbor, Carol, used to make for family get-togethers and summer parties, the Ginger Pig looked like it was one of about three places in London that makes a sausage that at least approximates the taste that Aaron and I remember so fondly. After our traditional stop at Monmouth for the most amazing coffee where we resisted the temptation of a huge spread of bread, cheese and pastries, we buzzed over to the butcher expectantly and asked for our Italian sausage. And what was the reply when Aaron politely asked, "May we please have Italian sausages", money in hand and mouth salivating? "No." No? No, we may not have the sausages because...why? After a moment, we had an explanation. They were sold out. Fair enough, but what a weird way to reply. So, no Italian sausage in the sauce, but it turned out absolutely amazing anyway. I did get a great Chelsea bun at the market though-
Yum!!! It's kind of like a less sweet sticky bun (thirty-two cents please) with loads of wonderful currants swirled in. I could barely stop eating it long enough to take a picture. Mmmmm!

In other news, Aaron and I went to see Built to Spill play on election night at the Koko (such a great venue, but the link is of a YouTube recording of them on the same tour in Philly at the Troc, which Juan went to). It was, of course, amazing. Aside from being such a fantastic band anyway, I always get warm fuzzies when I listen to them. Aaron and I are together in part thanks to Juan persuading me to go and see them. :) I tried to take a picture, but stupid me hasn't figured out that light shining towards the camera means a dark picture. No big loss because it's not like we go there to look at Dough Martsch's pretty face. I thought I'd post this anyway, because this guy's expression is priceless.Yes, yes it rocked.

Other than that, I've been settling down at the new job (see exciting photo of my workspace below)
and after a tiny bit of snow that caused my journey to and from work to increase to a three hour trip (lucky it wasn't a tour, I guess) each way, it's been pretty warm around here with no sign of it getting cold yet. If there has to be global warming I'll be enjoying the effects while I can.

Uh-oh! Re-possessions up by 71%

As if it's not hard enough on a person to be possessed once! Loads of people are getting possessed again. This can only mean one thing - demons are real bastards.

Panic early, panic often (Exchange Rate Funtime)

Oh happy days! The pound (GBP) is dropping at an alarming rate against the dollar.

(GBP to USD - I created the graph above from the exchange rate info available at OANDA.)

How wonderful it was that the exchange rate was at $2 to £1 in the middle of July when Aaron and I needed to pull some money over from the States. It's even better that it's dropped now. We had been thinking about transferring some of our savings from our bank account here to our account in the States, but when I checked the exchange rate earlier today it looked like this

*blarf*

(Those things on the right are 20 pence pieces.)

Phew! Getting the upper hand every now and then is overrated anyway. Anybody know anything about whether or not the pound is likely to bottom out even more?

Ehh, it could be worse. We could be Australian.

In other news, I submitted my dissertation (as most of you already know) and it was actually over the recommended length, which is kind of crazy. Whenever I think about how big it ended up, I just get images of Sam from Cheers freaking out while screeching, "I touched the book and it got fat!" All I have to do now is try to stay calm while I wait for somebody to be bothered enough to read it...

...still waiting

Some things have been keeping me sane - how grateful I am that I didn't put myself in anything like this situation (link courtesy of my supervisor) andAaron's general goofiness :) This guy poked his head up over my computer when my eyeballs were bleeding toward the end of September. He sings.

No posts 'til D-day

I've already been away for a while and it's going to be a while yet before I pick up this little blog again - at least until the beginning of October. It is decidedly crunch time for the PhD. I'll be handing it in on the last day of September and starting a new job the very next day. (I hope they think the wild eyes and bad skin are a good look.) I am, of course, freaking out, but I think that I will actually finish it; even the weather's on my side.

Not exactly weather that makes me wish I could leave the flat. :-)

The Daily Distraction

Everyday there's a little something that sends me off into a mini-exploration that I shouldn't really be bothering with. Yesterday it was catching up on some video clips about the fracas between West Ham and Columbus Crew supporters (very funny).

Today, after retracing some familiar steps so I could remember exactly what my notes actually meant, I was distracted by this:

Click the pic for some much needed time wasting

Punk magazine has put up its back issues online. Good news for all of us that can't afford the now very collectible originals - bad news for anyone pressed for time.

Valley of the Rocks - Devon Trip (pt 1)

Well, it looks like I'm going to be going backwards chronologically to document our little trip. We visited the Valley of the Rocks on Saturday. (I've discovered that I can't wait to get a chance see more of England and that I actually really like hiking.)

After about an hour and a half of winding roads and an extraordinary amount of patience on Peter's part (the driver and of course friend), we arrived to a sight that really took my breath away.

Venturing up the footpath a little way, behind a great mass of rock (to the right of the picture above), we saw this!The view from the leftAnd to the right After a quick peak at the footpath and chatting to a couple who were sitting on a bench that asked us where the Valley of the Rocks was (duh!-there were rocks and a great valley...what else did they think they were looking at?), we decided to climb on the peaks as best we could . I'm so glad we did.Reaching the first peak of our trek

Aaron on top of the world

Goats!

Aaron tempting fate. Good thing the Fates were busy in Corinth that day.

You can see the footpath we bypassed in this one. Actually, we made our way back on the path later.

Pete's new Facebook picture (he doesn't know it yet) We were just about at the end of the road here. There was a sheer drop on the other side and we didn't have any rope...or actual climbing skill. We went down the side of the hill to go up the peak in the distance.

Where we were

My attempt at an artistic picture...way to make a beautiful day look dark!
Me as a druid and in one of the rare moments without a tissue on my nose.

If you look at the top of the hill on the left you might just make out a building.It looks like the ruins of an old castle. Would have been nice to be able to explore that direction, but it was pretty far away and we had to head back to Exeter.

What a great trip! More later.

Western Spaghetti

I love stop motion animation shorts. This one is great - the company that created it just made spaghetti out of my childhood.

Spec Wachovia Commercial

Here's a spec commercial that my friend Sean is in. EDIT- If the folks over at Wachovia like it, it will get used. Looks like companies are more and more looking to get in on the popularity of user generated content and it really is about time considering the typical bank commercial. I don't know if it's because I know someone in the commercial, but it actually does sound like something I'd like to sign up for.

I haven't seen or spoken to Sean in a while, but it looks like he's out in sunny California working hard towards his dream. One thing (among many) remarkable things about Sean was his flexibility. I think that he probably could have gotten into a sideshow as a contortionist with about a week's training. Seeing him fit comfortably in the trunk of a car just made me smile.

If you get a chance, follow this link and rate him up (you have to register, but I'm sure all two of you have a dummy email account that you use to sign up for things - yes?) and leave good comments.

Oops...

Today I thought I would demonstrate my gratitude to First Great Western for sending me that voucher.

The station at Reading is set up so that I can't see if there is a train on the track to Paddington until I go up an escalator and get to the middle of an enclosed bridge. Instead of waiting until I get to the midpoint of the bridge, I always run up the escalator...just in case I need to catch up to a train I missed really, really fast.

Today was a little different. I did my normal awkward run to find a train waiting on the track. I jumped on while scanning the departure board to make sure that the train was actually going to Paddington and not Bournemouth or some other place. Happy, I walked down the aisle of the first carriage when I noticed that one of the interior signs indicated that the train's destination was Oxford. I kept walking and saw another, and another. I started asking people who confirmed that the train was indeed going to Oxford. Ack! Since the train hadn't started moving, I launched myself at the nearest door to try and leave before the train started moving. The poor track attendant desperately tried to stop me, shouting "Noooooooo!" My head out the window, I kept (with clear panic in my voice) asking where the train was going.

I'm sure that I saw a few people nodding in their seats, secure in the knowledge that one of their stereotypes about Americans was actually true.

I scurried away to the furthest possible carriage from my shame, suitably red-cheeked, but still pretty happy that I was actually on the right train.

I found a seat and it took a little while before the train left because I had no doubt set off some safety mechanism by trying to open the door. As the train started moving I felt relieved...a little too quickly. As the train crept along the platform, I looked out of the window to see what appeared to be all of the track attendants in the station gathered in a little row to stare at me. When we finally went beyond the station, I thought the shaming must be over and then the conductor come over the tannoy to announce:

"Good afternoon and welcome to First Great Western. This is the blah blah train from Oxford to London Paddington. Our first stop is Slough. I would like to extend a special thank you to the person who tried to open the door during departure."

Argh.

Happy Birthday Mary!

Today is my sister Mary's birthday. It's also her first wedding anniversary.

This is one of the reasons that I love my sister----------------------------->

(The picture is kind of blurry because I cropped it out of a group shot.)

I have no idea who is on the receiving end of that expression, but I do know that she probably didn't even realize that she was giving it. I'm guessing that somebody was talking some kind of smack and that's the face that just came out. This is the kind of thing that used to get her in trouble at school.

I will always know where I stand with her because she'll always let me know.
Actually...you will too (whether she wants you to let you know or not) but it doesn't make you special.

Happy Birthday, happy Anniversary and thanks for being a great sister!

Yum!

I made a salady thing last night with some couscous that I've been meaning to use up and it was great. I had almost eaten the whole bowl when I thought to take a picture of it.

It's got tomatoes, cucumber, chick-peas, feta, green pepper, red onion, parsley, olive oil, lemon, garlic, a little cayenne and couscous in it. As you can see, there was a little too much liquid to it, but I think if I just pour the veg juice in with the couscous while it's absorbing water, it should be drier.

A little while ago, we had this too:
It's a tasty little fruit with a hint of strawberry about it, but we can't remember the name of it!

Happy 4th of July!

So weird that the English don't celebrate the 4th. I wonder why? Aaron found this little clip and I thought it was a suitably celebratory.

Anglican Primates

As the temperature soared to what should be a comfortable 25C outside today, I squirmed in the excessive heat after an accidental knock to one of our heater's switches two days ago turned our flat into more of a hotbox than it normally is. My thoughts wandered, influenced by the hellish heat, and I mused on the latest news about the Anglican church split.

Considering the fact that many of the Anglican church's members come from countries where homosexuality is either criminal or widely condemned it's hardly surprising that the church is splitting into what amounts to liberal and conservative factions. The fact that there is no separation of church and state in England has ultimately caused this problem (watch the 'Yes Minister' clip taken from the episode The Bishop's Gambit below). Leaders in the Anglican church have had connections and influence in politics; they bend and sway like all the rest of politicians. As a politician, this makes sense. As a religious leader, it scares people - especially when this bending comes in the form of ignoring gay bishops and same-sex marriages in the States to avoid political trouble in the UK.

Most of the Anglican church's members are actually located in South America and Africa, many of these countries either still have laws against homosexuality or there is severe social stigma. To them, a religion influenced by politics, especially when it's not their politics, is a disaster.

Religious Americans who complain about stupid things like the government hating Christmas should pay attention to this little lesson. It's a little silly to assume that if church and state were tied that religion would be the moral guide. (Is it really such a big deal that City Hall isn't allowed to display a nativity scene?) It's much easier for things to work the other way. Keep your religion separated if you want to influence government. This way you can maintain religion's strength and autonomy and use it to your advantage. Just look at the States.

On a less serious note, I couldn't help but be distracted by the intense effort of the BBC newscasters when discussing the primate's council to ensure that primate was pronounced with a soft 'a' to avoid confusing the listeners. Damned Latin. For me, Anglican primates may have just overtaken the 'papal bull' in the funny religious terminology front.

For those of you who are a little bit impatient - skip to around the fifth minute to get the point.

First Great Western did what?

As you all (two of you) know, I travel into Reading often. It really shouldn't be a big deal. The train journey is only scheduled to take 25 minutes and with the ridiculous cost of a saver return ticket (that's an off-peak return), the service should really be impeccable. But for some reason I have to allow myself at least two hours of travel time.

When the travel ended up taking over three hours door-to-door the other week, I decided to send a little note about it and...

TA-DA!

Never mind that the letter accompanying this voucher got my story wrong and gave the silly advice to avoid the ticket office (I really would if I could!) - this is a result. Now if I can only convince everybody who inconveniences me to do the same thing...

I Saw Three Ships...

...well, three buildings that are supposed to look like smokestacks at least. Aaron and I have been going into UEL to work in the library pretty often recently and I finally took some pictures today. The architecture looks impressive and plays on the campus' riverside location and the Docklands industrial past by giving off and industrial feel and drawing from ships for inspiration. The three smokestack buildings above are actually dorms - round, inefficiently designed dorms that are smack in the middle of campus. They sure look neat though.

Here's an actual London airport, not like the bastard Heathrow or Gatwick that aren't really located in London at all. The airport is directly across from UEL's campus, but this picture is taken from the DLR.

This is the view down from where I sit in the library, grafting away...

And the view diagonal from my seat. Seems a strange layout for a library - huh?


Remember how I said the architects have played on the riverside location? This is the view from the river side of the library. They did make an impressive illusion - it looks like you're on the first deck of a massive boat when you look out the window. Very serene.

It is a library though and as cool as the structure is, it's horribly impractical. The sound on each level of the library carries throughout the building and while the windows bring in a lot of light, I don't think they open and there's no air conditioning. Since there aren't many students around right now, it's definitely more quiet than our flat.

The most important building in the nautico-industrial themed campus - we get our coffee there.
I think that the library would be a neat place for some parkour - take a look at the video to see what I mean.

Cell Phone Safety

There was a big to do about cell phone masts and/or cell phones causing cancer up until about 2003. The debate still continues in sensationalized tabloid headlines but after reading a few articles and a book on the subject I thought that I had it figured out - it's really doubtful that cell phones or cell phone masts cause cancer or serious harm.



Does anybody know how this happens? Is it the vibrations that cause the kernels to pop? Or do I have to start reading tabloids for reliable information from now on?

Visitation

Rowan is in London for a two day conference and she came over last night to for a visit. She's connected in my mind with some of the best memories of my life. She and Angus hosted the New Year's party in Amsterdam 2000 (during the visit when Aaron and I got engaged). We all played games and ate until some of us decided to go out for a walk. It was pure madness outside with fireworks going off in every direction. We walked up the stairs of the NEMO museum (or the Scheepvaart - can only recognize the small area by sight!) on the edge of the water surrounded by different colored explosions. The next day the streets were covered in red paper dust.

Here's Rowan in a very familiar pose:

In our visits to Scotland Rowan would happily peel everyone's oranges for them and make sure the peels were in one piece. She'd put the peels on the wood burning stove and make the rooms would smell wonderful.

Tonight Aaron and I are going to take her out for a walk around the neighborhood - look out for more pictures!

Sweet and Sick

Sorry about that. I just couldn't help myself. I've been in the mood to look at cute stuff since getting the latest batch of niece pictures. Have I mentioned before that she's adorable?

Here's something that's sure to cleanse your palate of all that saccharin.

(Both sick and sweet courtesy of Aaron.)

Trick Building

An awful lot of building has been going on all around Bethnal Green in the past few years. There have been three buildings on our little stretch of terrace that have been completely razed and rebuilt...well, almost finished being rebuilt at least.

They've even been building up on little patches of land that you wouldn't think you could fit any property at all. Take this building that went up in the past year on Old Ford Road:
Something is still in the process of being built to the left, but just look at how narrow the building is! Aaron and I stood staring and speculating about how anyone would fit any thing in there at all. Maybe it was just a one bedroom house, split into multiple levels. On this level, a few chairs. On another level, a cooker. A bed would barely fit.

We walked by speculating on how much rent would need to be generated in order to justify land and building costs and wondered who would pay that much for a building that would have the majority of space taken up by stairs leading from one ridiculously sized room to the next.

I don't think that we bothered to turn around and look again the first time we passed by. If we did, we would have seen this:

How neat! The angle on the back of the building is really acute to give such an illusion. It's still a really small building, but somewhat normal for a London new build.

By the way, notice the sky? Clear and sunny. It's been a good few days.

Eating together miles apart.

Last night I made some pesto from a cookbook that my sister Mary got me a while back. She's gifted me two of the best cookbooks I own in terms of getting new ideas. Not that pesto is one of those - the book just happens to have the best pesto recipe I've come across. In any case, whenever I cook anything from either of those books or get an idea for something based on them - it makes me think of her. Other than the fact that I love the taste, this is probably the same reason why I cook Greek food so much.

Not to stop the family cooking, I finally got to make my sister Christina's bran muffins this morning. She sent the recipe ages ago in an email and I wanted to try it out but couldn't find a crucial ingredient. I finally came across it at the local Organic shop but then couldn't find any muffin trays anywhere. Nanson's, a local has-everything-shop that I've just discovered out has a completely different online face than they do in store, had tartlet trays and mini quiche trays (of all things) but no muffin trays. I decided to make them anyway.

I stuffed them in a regular tray and hoped that they would hold their shape a little bit. No such luck. They ended up square and wide (which meant that they overcooked a little) with leaky blueberries.
Aaron wants more.
:)

Art Car Boot Fair and Father's Day Forfeit

Today was supposed to be Father's Day, but nobody else knew about it except me. In fact, most other people think it's next week. Weird.

I spent a few hours up the road at Brick Lane soaking in the sun and looking at some art. I ended up ducking into the University of Middlesex and Brighton's final year shows that were going on in one of the buildings on the Lane. There were some displays that stood out but I didn't take any pictures of them, so you'll escape drawn out descriptions.

(A beehive modified for everyday life. Oh, and if you look at the cigarette containers bolted onto the wall you'll see the same model that is bolted onto the wall of the shop below our flat. I wish it wasn't.)

The reason I was at Brick Lane in the first place was to go to the Art Car Boot Fair. (A car boot sale is a flea market. Trunks are called boots here so selling something out the boot of your car, even when it's spread over a table, is a car boot sale.) It ended up being a really good time without any of the smug irony I expected to need in order to enjoy it.

It had the atmosphere of a fun fair except I was waiting for John Waters to be at one of the tables scattered around the lot with a human pincushion charging people £2 to play pin the steer on the queer.

Gavin Turk was there, but I couldn't see what he was displaying through the minions that surrounded him. I didn't really mind that I couldn't see.
This woman was watching a karaoke singer. (She was at a whole table of people with similar getup, but they all had their heads turned away so they got the crop.) These guys were great. Why? Because even though they were elevated on the odd human hamster wheel/tricycle a few feet above everyone else, they still caused a bottleneck in the crowd of people straining to see some average looking guys in their underwear. What a result. Men, did you know you can have this power? This is outside of the Fair, in Spitalfields. What was once the stomping grounds of Jack the Ripper and a lot of other people is now filled with graffiti art (art 'cause people pay an awful lot for it) on really expensive property. This guy looked a lot like Julian Barratt from the Mighty Boosh.

This is an "art". It's a wishing fountain that belches water in a raft with twigs in it.









This is Pam Hogg signing a poster for Russ, who was so excited to see her he forgot how to use that respiration organ he's got.







.
The devil was part of the "Evil Art Market". He was offering all the girls a 30 second lapdance at the mere cost of 2 quid as part of his patter. He was disarmed and actually at a loss for words at my response to him. All the people there seemed to just want to have a good time. They were selling other things too, most notably some prints, which I think were made using a carved "evil" tree trunk.

Making my way back to Liverpool Street, I saw this. There isn't much more to it than what you see. It's a pub that's made of a stand with some booze behind it, some linked metal gates and a few tables next to a busy street. Build it and they will come.