eurostar clouds

eurostar have an advertising campaign at the moment with pictures of idyllic scenery and a tagline of ‘better than looking at clouds’ Well if they had been on my roof ‘terrace’ these past few evenings they may rassess this. Beautiful sunsets over south London with silver and rose lined clouds have made me long for my parents house with the sunsets over the mersey bay and a sun setting into the Irish Sea.

lovely al fresco evenings

I have been enjoying London and more specifically my flat these past few days as I have spent more and more time outdoors on the roof ‘terrace’. Saturday was very hot and sticky but the real selling point for me is dinner alfesco with a glass of wine watching life pass along the road and the commuters file out of the station like ants from an anthill. It’s amazing the view I get. I feel like a voyeur sometimes as no one glances up to see me looking and I feel like I have a one way mirror onto the world. The roof is not overlooked as all the other properties in the area have pitched rooves and mine is the only flat roof. Sometimes this means I sunbathe naked and sometimes this leads me to forget that whilst I stand at the front wall I too am visible to the top storey flats opposite. I realised this when, this evening as I glanced up to be confronted by a naked [and quite cute] man in a window opposite. I tried not to look but the voyeur in me was too strong and I watched as he slowly pulled on fresh underwear having obviously decided to change when he got home. At this point I felt embarrassed and looked away only to see directly opposite me a man stood looking out of his window down at the street whilst wearing only the skimpiest of briefs. He was rather overweight and his belly was overhanging quite a bit. Quite offputting when you are munching on salad. It reminded me of a friend in New York who has a telescope and swears that regardless of how high you are and how you think you are not overlooked there will always be someone who can see you.

bus this morning

I awoke this morning to the strange sensation of quiet. I live on a fairly busy road and my bedroom is at the front so if I sleep with the windows open I invariably awake to the sound of traffic noise. Cars beeping and screeching to a halt by the zebra crossing. Today however there was almost silence. Partly because I had the window closed for the first time in months [I had the ceiling fan set on high and it was still lovely and cool] but the main reason was the broken down bus right outside my window. Police had blocked off the road and were allowing traffic alternately in single file which meant none of the usual aggrivation for drivers impatiently honking to try and speed up their journey. As I stood looking out of the window at the man pouring diesel into a watering can I realised to my horror that not only was he decanting diesel into a watering can in order to pour it into the bus fuel tank but that he had a lit cigarette hanging out of his mouth. I could see the headlines forming in my mind. ‘Explosion in south London creates havoc’ ‘Mass destruction as bus explodes’ etc etc. Today I checked my house insurance was up to date.

hot and bothered

It is stupidly hot in our office today and I want to be at home sipping something cool on the roof ‘terrace’.

Wishin’ and Hopin’

With the advent of inventory software at work I’d like to get a PC at home and have been looking to buy a second hand G4 – so if you know anyone upgrading there’s when the new releases happen soon give me a yell!

Lazy Sunday

After the excitement of Sports and Shorts on Saturday night I awoke late and meandered [after feeding my guest brunch] to Clapham Common to meet some friends. It was a lovely and very hot day. Part way through I realised I was the only English person amongst a sea of Antipodeans. They all look so cute too – something in the breeding I think. After more bottles of wine than is good for you on a hot summers day and lots of ice cream and crisps I wandered home happy and content with that tingly feeling you get on holiday after a day at the beach. Did I mention I loved summer?

Fire Fire

Whilst having a barbeque this evening with the lovely DR David and also Andrew we noticed a fire around about the Mayday Hospital in Croydon. Thick black smoke was apparent in a few moments and lasted for no more than 5 minutes. Amazing to think how fire can spread so quickly. Earlier in the Day David and I had gotten excited by the firemen stopping in our street to extinguish a fire turn around and see the meat on the babreque had caught light.

Ironic

In today’s Metro there is a frontpage story highlighting the differences in famine in southern Africa and obesity in the USA. Some New Yorkers are suing fast food chains for making them obese. This isn’t the irony though. On the back page there is a half page advert for…
McDonalds. Now that is irony.

thanks spence

Remember the Kylie concert review where I was lusting after one of the dancers? Well thanks to Spence here are some pictures of the man in question!

the guardian weblogging competition

Seems to have a lot of people in a tizzy at the moment. Simple really either enter it or don’t. I personally am not entering [for reasons too numerous to mention here] but am not against others entering if they want.
I think though they ‘The Guardian’ are at a distinct advantage as they are getting paid to run their blog during work time – the rest of us fit it into breaks and out of office hours. I don’t think many of us need encouraging to spend more time online either.
People keep talking about the weblogging community but you know in real life communities people don’t always agree and not everyone enters competitions and not everyone shops in the same store…
Surely we can manage to cope with some people entering and others not entering. Besides I am fairly sure whoever wins will be buying a round at the next big blogmeet so in the end we will all get a share of the winnings.