Journal Entries

The Londoners Go Tourist

My life has been quite startlingly cultured of late. I feel like a live yoghurt. On Friday, I wore my best silk jacket and sat in the drizzle watching 'Cosi Fan Tutte' being performed enthusiastically and occasionally inaudibly on a rather smart stage in a country house park. With swans. And midgies. And an audience of wall-to-wall pashmina.

On Saturday my Significant Other and I went to the Late Prom and stood in the Arena and danced to Jazz Jamaica All-Stars and a Macedonian Brass Band and sat down on the floor for a mad Scandinavian accordionist (sounded like an LSD flash-back in a Whurlitzer) and stood in reverential silence for a fusion of Swedish violin and Senegalese kora. And giggled nervously for Armenian, err, lunatic with a saucepan of water and a drum-kit. And swayed for a harp-and-guitar combo playing music from Guinea Bissau. The concert finally finished at 2:15 am, we went to catch the Night Bus home. The Night Bus was having a mythical night, and we reached home at 4:30 am.

On Sunday we eventually got up and went to Regents Park for an evening picnic and to see Fascinating Aida. Came away seriously considering setting up a Fascinating Aida Fan Page. Apparently there is an official one already. Ah.

Today Signif O and I have 'done' the Tate Modern (again) and the Tate Britain, and coughed up a spectacular amount of money to see the Bridget Riley retrospective, a good way as any of giving yourself the most godawful eyestrain, with the added bonus of feeling like a cultural giant. We sat in our local Thai restaurant later and drew wavy lines all over my note-book. My entire doodling repertoire has just pushed its envelope.

And tomorrow we are planning a double whammy of the Science Museum and the V&A. I might just burst. Spilling sheet music, top hats and bright lines of colour all over the volcanic samples, no doubt.

I wake up humming and can't tell if it's 'Batti Batti' or the Herpes Tango.

Ah, London.

Discuss this Journal entry [1]

Latest reply: Aug 4, 2003

First journal entry.

i apologize for that incredibly unimaginative title. I'm feeling a little rattled. But hey, look, I'm doing it! I'm writing! Look, Ma, no hands! Well, not literally. I am typing with hands. Both of them, and all my fingers. I'm quite good at it. I got a little carried away there. Sorry.

Anyway, thought for the day. I am in the slightly weird position of being a Wannabe Writer (oh, bless, she's come out of the closet at last) and having worked in Publishing, reading fellow Wannabes' manuscripts and deciding whether to wake the Editor up or return manuscript with politely brusque letter along the lines of 'Our list is full... work not suited to our list... we read with great interest...' (Translations 'eeek! what are you, human at all?... work not suited to any list until you learn English... we laughed and laughed/ we shuddered and paled...'). Am I therefore the worst sort of traitor to my fellow wrestlers with the muses, or am I now a great and precious friend and asset to them, in that I can tell them the secrets of impressing the Junior Editor's Junior?

Discuss this Journal entry [4]

Latest reply: Jul 24, 2003


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