i finished the book just before my train rolled into kings cross, so i was still thinking about it as the rafters of the train station appeared and floated past. i liked the last harry potter, although i confess i was a little sad the series ended. i started reading the books 7 years ago, after someone gave me a copy of the first one in the dorms of moscow university. when the 5th came out, i had friends of friends who happened to be flying through heathrow the day of the release bring me a copy in moscow. for the 6th i was actually in england, having come over to attend an interview for the programme i am now in. and for the last i was standing behind a till in central london, having my photograph taken by screaming mobs.
according to rumours floating around the staff room, JK rowlings is planning 2 more books for the near future: but they will not be about harry potter. that should be interesting, but not the same.
meanwhile i need to start working on the next chapter of my bloody thesis...
26.7.07
pottermania III
it was another long night in the bookshop.
things have been basically torn apart for the past several days due to the customers who come in to buy harry potter, but take 300 hundred books off the shelves (and put them on random tables)in the process. it is also july, which is to say stock take time. so the boss asked for volunteers to do an overnight shift of stock taking.
i really dont mind this sort of thing: we got free food and a cab home, plus double time for working aftr midnight, and the work was pretty mindless.
the shop closer at the usual time, and suddenly a mob of about 40 indian guys came pouring into the shop all dressed in identical shirts, trousers and ties, with these strange zapping machines. they then combed through the shop at lightening spped, zapping the barcode of every single book on the way. it was an incredible sight, i have never seen guys work so fast (and they were all guys, i noted, there was not a single girl among them). then my collegues and i went behind them, spot checking the shelves to make sure they got everything. they were pretty accurate, i only found about 5 mistakes the whole night, which considering the hundreds of books i checked isnt much.
it is strange being in the shop in the middle of the night with no customers. kind of spooky actually.
things have been basically torn apart for the past several days due to the customers who come in to buy harry potter, but take 300 hundred books off the shelves (and put them on random tables)in the process. it is also july, which is to say stock take time. so the boss asked for volunteers to do an overnight shift of stock taking.
i really dont mind this sort of thing: we got free food and a cab home, plus double time for working aftr midnight, and the work was pretty mindless.
the shop closer at the usual time, and suddenly a mob of about 40 indian guys came pouring into the shop all dressed in identical shirts, trousers and ties, with these strange zapping machines. they then combed through the shop at lightening spped, zapping the barcode of every single book on the way. it was an incredible sight, i have never seen guys work so fast (and they were all guys, i noted, there was not a single girl among them). then my collegues and i went behind them, spot checking the shelves to make sure they got everything. they were pretty accurate, i only found about 5 mistakes the whole night, which considering the hundreds of books i checked isnt much.
it is strange being in the shop in the middle of the night with no customers. kind of spooky actually.
25.7.07
death and the pigeon
somehow a dead pigeon with its head smashed in appeared on my front doorstep.
any theories as to how it got there? did he smash into the door? (my flatmate claims this doesnt happen) witchcraft perhaps? (maybe it is my fault? i havent sold enough harry potters? no, that its not possible, the computer tells me i have sold thousands)or good old east london hooliganism? (but what would be the logic behind that? "hhmmm, i am bored, i know! lets kill a pigeon and put it on someone's front step, YEAH!")
how strange.
any theories as to how it got there? did he smash into the door? (my flatmate claims this doesnt happen) witchcraft perhaps? (maybe it is my fault? i havent sold enough harry potters? no, that its not possible, the computer tells me i have sold thousands)or good old east london hooliganism? (but what would be the logic behind that? "hhmmm, i am bored, i know! lets kill a pigeon and put it on someone's front step, YEAH!")
how strange.
24.7.07
potter maddness, part II
this harry potter business doesnt stop. the past several days have been nothing but unpacking convoys of boxes and watching them sell within hours. sales are through the roof and apparently we will all get bonuses...i am certainly not complaining, i am always happy to get an extra 100 quid or whatever the amount will be!
yesterday we sold out too early on in the day, and i spent my whole shift telling the bad news to endless queues of kids, many of whom burst into tears, it was a dreadful scene. this is the first time i have ever thought of my job as remotely...cool? kids have run up and asked for my autograph, one little girl, who looked to be about 7, got it in her head that i not only look like, but actually WAS hermione, and insisted i sign her book. i found it a bit odd to be mistaken for a fictional 17 years old witch, but of course i signed the thing. tomarrow tonight i am doing another "anti social hours" night shift since the whole shop is a bit or a mess thanks to the huge crowds.
yesterday, apparently one of the managers of a nearby branch had some sort of potter-induced nervous breakdown and couldnt work anymore, after doing several double shifts in a row, so some people from my branch had to go cover.....amazing stuff, and all over a book! (which i might add i am now halfway through, and enjoying very much!)
yesterday we sold out too early on in the day, and i spent my whole shift telling the bad news to endless queues of kids, many of whom burst into tears, it was a dreadful scene. this is the first time i have ever thought of my job as remotely...cool? kids have run up and asked for my autograph, one little girl, who looked to be about 7, got it in her head that i not only look like, but actually WAS hermione, and insisted i sign her book. i found it a bit odd to be mistaken for a fictional 17 years old witch, but of course i signed the thing. tomarrow tonight i am doing another "anti social hours" night shift since the whole shop is a bit or a mess thanks to the huge crowds.
yesterday, apparently one of the managers of a nearby branch had some sort of potter-induced nervous breakdown and couldnt work anymore, after doing several double shifts in a row, so some people from my branch had to go cover.....amazing stuff, and all over a book! (which i might add i am now halfway through, and enjoying very much!)
22.7.07
potter maddness from the epicentre
the past 2 days have been crazy.
friday night, shortly after 9pm, i got on the eurostar to com back to london, for one reason: harry potter. from waterloo station, i grabbed the first cab i saw and headed straight for work. i knew when i arrived there would be a huge queue, i had seen images of it on french tv: the dutch teenagers who had waited for several days in the rain so they could be the very first to get the last ever potter book, the endless chains of people wrapping around street corners in central london, and so on. but i was still surprised by how excited people can get over a book. i arrived to a long chain of people who were clearly annoyed i could go inside the shop and they couldnt. inside, the shop lookied like something out of a war zone with boxes and wrappings all over the place. the management fed us pizza, sweets and coke to keep us as awake a hyper as possible, since every one knew it would be a very long night. we spent the hours before the opening setting things up, while the manager periodically shouted out the minutes until midnight. we practiced the till procedures and got paired in twos: one person to face the customers and push the buttons on the computers, and another to grab the books and bag them.
at midnight the crowds outside began screaming adn we turned of the lights, letting the first woman come running in, screaming, in the darkness. from then on the next several hours was total maddness. people came running in screaming. one girl grabbed the first copy of the book she saw and stood there screaming "i touched it, i touched it." a man fainted. other people cried. many took pictures of us, with the flashes of their cameras flashing in our faces annoyingly. the funniest was a group of 30 school children from india who showed up with their scary teacher. they were all dressed identically in uniforms that looked like people worn here when india was still part of the empire. each grabbed their book and went running off , jumping, while their teacher (a white lady, of course) tried to maintain control.
by 3 am i was zombie and the manager finnally locked the door, announcing no more copies would be given out that night. we straightened a little while the managers called for taxis to take us home.
i came back home at about 4am with my bags, and flopped into bed for a 4 hour nap...then i had to get up again to go back to the maddness. the shop was again like a war zone all saturday: people running every where trying to grab as many copies as they could get their hands on. by 7pm, the thousands of copies we had started with were all gone and crying children could be heard everywhere. scary stuff.
friday night, shortly after 9pm, i got on the eurostar to com back to london, for one reason: harry potter. from waterloo station, i grabbed the first cab i saw and headed straight for work. i knew when i arrived there would be a huge queue, i had seen images of it on french tv: the dutch teenagers who had waited for several days in the rain so they could be the very first to get the last ever potter book, the endless chains of people wrapping around street corners in central london, and so on. but i was still surprised by how excited people can get over a book. i arrived to a long chain of people who were clearly annoyed i could go inside the shop and they couldnt. inside, the shop lookied like something out of a war zone with boxes and wrappings all over the place. the management fed us pizza, sweets and coke to keep us as awake a hyper as possible, since every one knew it would be a very long night. we spent the hours before the opening setting things up, while the manager periodically shouted out the minutes until midnight. we practiced the till procedures and got paired in twos: one person to face the customers and push the buttons on the computers, and another to grab the books and bag them.
at midnight the crowds outside began screaming adn we turned of the lights, letting the first woman come running in, screaming, in the darkness. from then on the next several hours was total maddness. people came running in screaming. one girl grabbed the first copy of the book she saw and stood there screaming "i touched it, i touched it." a man fainted. other people cried. many took pictures of us, with the flashes of their cameras flashing in our faces annoyingly. the funniest was a group of 30 school children from india who showed up with their scary teacher. they were all dressed identically in uniforms that looked like people worn here when india was still part of the empire. each grabbed their book and went running off , jumping, while their teacher (a white lady, of course) tried to maintain control.
by 3 am i was zombie and the manager finnally locked the door, announcing no more copies would be given out that night. we straightened a little while the managers called for taxis to take us home.
i came back home at about 4am with my bags, and flopped into bed for a 4 hour nap...then i had to get up again to go back to the maddness. the shop was again like a war zone all saturday: people running every where trying to grab as many copies as they could get their hands on. by 7pm, the thousands of copies we had started with were all gone and crying children could be heard everywhere. scary stuff.
20.7.07
paris, 10 years later
yaelle, solenne, and i: the three musketeers.
we gathered tuesday night in a restaurant in the 6th to celebrate our "10th anniversary." it seems incredible, but it was exactly 10 years ago this coming month (august) that the three of us all decided to move en masse to montreal. we packed our bags and hauled ourselves off to that cold and far away city where we spent a year huddled in various bars and cafes pretending to study for our classes (we signed up for all the same ones, bien sur). it was good time. during the school breaks, we headed off to my parents house, since they lied the closest, except for the one massive and crazy trip we planned together to venezuela. we were teenagers then and busy plotting crazy adventures.....and it was all now 10 years ago. we gathered in the restaurant and noticed that we look more or less the same, although many things in our lives have changed. yaelle and solenne still live in permanantly in paris, which is where i always imagined they woudl end up....but i am now seperated and living elsewhere. funny how life sends us in different directions like that....
we gathered tuesday night in a restaurant in the 6th to celebrate our "10th anniversary." it seems incredible, but it was exactly 10 years ago this coming month (august) that the three of us all decided to move en masse to montreal. we packed our bags and hauled ourselves off to that cold and far away city where we spent a year huddled in various bars and cafes pretending to study for our classes (we signed up for all the same ones, bien sur). it was good time. during the school breaks, we headed off to my parents house, since they lied the closest, except for the one massive and crazy trip we planned together to venezuela. we were teenagers then and busy plotting crazy adventures.....and it was all now 10 years ago. we gathered in the restaurant and noticed that we look more or less the same, although many things in our lives have changed. yaelle and solenne still live in permanantly in paris, which is where i always imagined they woudl end up....but i am now seperated and living elsewhere. funny how life sends us in different directions like that....
paris
i was really happy to leave paris in 2005. if you go back to those blog entries, you see i was at the end of my patience with the city and myself in it. i had a rubbish job i hated and was going down a dead end road. i wasnt making enough money to live normally, i was sharing a too small flat out in notorious department 93, more than one hour from my job. a month after i left, my old neighbourhood erupted in flames: two boys died running away from the cops. it was he end of Ramadan and apparently they were afraid of being late getting home. after their death, people went a bit crazy and thousands of cars in my old neighbourhood were burned down in the weeks of riioting that followed. watching everything from london, i was glad i had left.
yet there are things about paris i like and i am glad to come back here to visit my friends and family here. i especially love paris at easter and in the summer, the two seasons i know paris best in. i have spent parts of 3 of the past 4 summers here and i love seeing my "summer friends" every time i come. some of these "summer friends" have become good friends i now see out of the context of either summer or paris. for example, i associate summer in paris with hanging out with aude, who is seemingly always here at that time visiting her huge family. over the years we have spent i dont know how many hours hanging out in cafes around the city (as well as on the couches of her aunt/grandparents house). she has tried to teach how to play settlers of catan, and introduced me to some cool people.
i also love hanging out with adam and audrey, catching up on the gossip of my former work place, and being filled in on the latest on the political and social scene in department 93, which is so far away in many aspects from the rest of paris.
i love heading to the different musuems, in particular the musee european de la photographie. i love going to the opera with my parents to see the ballet, and taking a walk along the promenade during intermission. i love having huge and ridiculous fights with tony and cam about world history and the future of technology. i like walking on the ile saint louis and eating berthillion ice cream with my mother and spending hours in gibert jeune hunting for books. i like having my hair cut by christophe and going to la ferme saint simon for lunch with my father. i miss these little traditions when i am not here...i just wish there were a way to combine them with decent employment and a better living condition than the one i had when i lived here. but no place can be perfect....
yet there are things about paris i like and i am glad to come back here to visit my friends and family here. i especially love paris at easter and in the summer, the two seasons i know paris best in. i have spent parts of 3 of the past 4 summers here and i love seeing my "summer friends" every time i come. some of these "summer friends" have become good friends i now see out of the context of either summer or paris. for example, i associate summer in paris with hanging out with aude, who is seemingly always here at that time visiting her huge family. over the years we have spent i dont know how many hours hanging out in cafes around the city (as well as on the couches of her aunt/grandparents house). she has tried to teach how to play settlers of catan, and introduced me to some cool people.
i also love hanging out with adam and audrey, catching up on the gossip of my former work place, and being filled in on the latest on the political and social scene in department 93, which is so far away in many aspects from the rest of paris.
i love heading to the different musuems, in particular the musee european de la photographie. i love going to the opera with my parents to see the ballet, and taking a walk along the promenade during intermission. i love having huge and ridiculous fights with tony and cam about world history and the future of technology. i like walking on the ile saint louis and eating berthillion ice cream with my mother and spending hours in gibert jeune hunting for books. i like having my hair cut by christophe and going to la ferme saint simon for lunch with my father. i miss these little traditions when i am not here...i just wish there were a way to combine them with decent employment and a better living condition than the one i had when i lived here. but no place can be perfect....
paris buda moscow london
i have spent the last 7 years moving back and forth between paris moscow budapest and london. i really dont know anymore which of them is meant to be my home. having visited all 4 in the last 2 months, i can see that it would be impossible for me ever to choose just one of them to live in. there are parts of all four that i need. there are things i do specifically in one of the 4, and i have some strange set of rituals that goes with each one of them. for example, my hairdresser is in paris and i buy my Cds and DVDs in moscow, at gorbushka. i buy my books in london and moscow and i go out most in buda and paris. with the eurostar, easy jet and ryan air these places (except moscow which remains a pain to get to) are not far away, and if i had the money i would visit them all even more often.
but alas, i am a poor student.
but alas, i am a poor student.
6.7.07
updates
i got this from maysambas blog. it seems our brains are in the same century, somewhat to my surprise
| Итак, вам лучше всего жить в России времен Екатерины Второй |
| «Век золотой Екатерины», как пел Игорь Тальков – это еще и Ваш век! Просвещение, стремление объять великую культуру Европы, познать ее, проникнуться и, быть может, самому создать произведение искусства. Вы цените интеллект, образованность, высокие идеалы просвещения. Невежество и пошлость вызывают у Вас отвращение. Массовая культура Вам чужда. По натуре Вы – современный аристократ, цените утонченный вкус, по-настоящему избранное общество. Возможно, Вы и есть интеллектуальная или научная элита нашей страны. Только все же не зазнавайетсь! Помните, что и среди народа попроще встречаются хорошие, добрые люди, а обладать блестящим умом и эрудицией может не только такой замечательный человек, как Вы, но и откровенный мерзавец :) |
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east london
my neighbours are having the most incredible house party imaginable. i can hear their music as clearly as if it were on my own computer. they have erected a huge tent structure with all kinds of exciting flashing lights.
then our next door neighbours, "the poles" are having their evening drinking and smoking chats on their back patio. these guys must be really homesick peasants as it seems they have endevoured to recreated village poland here in london. one of them is an incredibly skilled carpentor. he has put various quasi add-ons to the house, and a bit wood shed in the back. then he constructed a huge WIND MILL (yes, like the things holland is famous for) and put one of them on the patio. then an arch-like enterence to the patio was added. then last week a little waterfall appeared. i am waiting for the appearence of some pigs or cows, that is surely the logical next step. our downstairs neighbours are italians with drug habits. the other night they apparently had a massive fight, and i havent heard them since, which is unusual since they normally blast cheesy italian disco pop music every night, which i cant say i miss in this moment of silence.
it was a quiet day in the library, so many people are gone on holiday that it has become a bit depressing to sit there, especially on friday afternoons. so i finished the minimum i had to and left. i grabbed some films on the way home and came back to relax in the calm of my east london attic. i rewatched la historia official, which i hadnt seen in years. it remains as disturbing and powerful as ever. then i moved on to mne ni bolna, which is an incredibly light and funny film for the heavy topics it deals with (poverty, cancer). next up was edgardo cozarinsky's ronda nocturnal, about a (very good looking) buenos aires street hustler. the film was filled withr eally good looking gay guys, and some seriously odd scenes. i very rarely take evenings off like this, but i wish i could more often....
then our next door neighbours, "the poles" are having their evening drinking and smoking chats on their back patio. these guys must be really homesick peasants as it seems they have endevoured to recreated village poland here in london. one of them is an incredibly skilled carpentor. he has put various quasi add-ons to the house, and a bit wood shed in the back. then he constructed a huge WIND MILL (yes, like the things holland is famous for) and put one of them on the patio. then an arch-like enterence to the patio was added. then last week a little waterfall appeared. i am waiting for the appearence of some pigs or cows, that is surely the logical next step. our downstairs neighbours are italians with drug habits. the other night they apparently had a massive fight, and i havent heard them since, which is unusual since they normally blast cheesy italian disco pop music every night, which i cant say i miss in this moment of silence.
it was a quiet day in the library, so many people are gone on holiday that it has become a bit depressing to sit there, especially on friday afternoons. so i finished the minimum i had to and left. i grabbed some films on the way home and came back to relax in the calm of my east london attic. i rewatched la historia official, which i hadnt seen in years. it remains as disturbing and powerful as ever. then i moved on to mne ni bolna, which is an incredibly light and funny film for the heavy topics it deals with (poverty, cancer). next up was edgardo cozarinsky's ronda nocturnal, about a (very good looking) buenos aires street hustler. the film was filled withr eally good looking gay guys, and some seriously odd scenes. i very rarely take evenings off like this, but i wish i could more often....
1.7.07
the travel till
i spent the afternoon working in the travel department. all my collegues hate it there, but it is my favourite place to be: calm, quiet and surrounded by travel guides! while up there, observing the people around me, i came up with the following list.
the best places to people watch:
1. London, heathrow, terminal 4: all, and reall ALL, of humanity can be found here. i know, as i spent large chunks of my childhood rushing up and down that long hallway of shops. i once saw brad pitt shopping in the harrods. another time my mother ended up conversing with boy george (having no idea who he was). i think within one hour you could find every nationality, faith and colour of person in that terminal. but it has to be specifically terminal 4, the others dont compare.
2. laduree, the terrace, champs elysees, paris. ok les champs is tacky and i hate it, but the terrace at laduree is a great place to watch the oddest show of arabs and russians anywhere around. flashy vulgar wealth on display.
3. laduree, inside, place de la madeline. same place but totally opposite crowd, watch the dysfunctionality at work. also leads off onto faubourg-st honore, a great street worth of people watching.
4. the fountain at Ohotni riad shopping mall, moscow. i love just standing there and watching the dyevs go up to the fountain, pose absurdly, while their boyfriends/ fathers take photos. this is a strange russian habit i will never get.
5. sitting by the door at Leopolds, mumbai. india is a very odd mix, and you can see it all from one chair, if you choose correctly here. on the street outside you have guys hawking any type of merchandise imaginable, combined with beggers and petty theives. inside, you have somewhat wealthy indians, aussie tourists, lost souls, british backpackers, famous writers, and everything else that ever found its way to india, by what ever means.
6. the Malecon, havana. this street is know as havana's communal living room, and i would say with good reason. everyone takes an evening stroll down this street, stopping to smoke or make out half way down, sitting on the railing, before continuing...only to stop again a few moments later.
7.coffee bean, tverskaia, moscow, actually, it is not the watching so much as the listening in on other peoples conversations that makes this place such a good laugh.....just listen to them! (especially the woman!)
8 any cafe overlooking .the streets of phuket, watch the people, and then try to figure out the relationship behind THAT story. is he married back home? how old is he? how old is she? how many people are living off her earnings?
9. boulevard de sabana grande, caracas. same deal like szechenyi in pest: guys playing chess....but here there is alot more besides...
10 any rave-beach party on mykonos, greece. goa sucked by comparision. mykonos featured some of the most equisitedly beautiful and exotic people i have ever seen.....such a pity they were almost all GAY!!!
11. mall of america, minneapolis minnesota. this is the most stunning tribute to comercialism i have EVER seen. and watch the people. then guess what size they wear....
why do we people watch? of course this is a strange habit, but i think we all indulge in it to some degree. i dont know what exactly is the anthropological explanation for why we want to watch the lives of others. i have neer understood, for example, watching big brother (but then i dont have a tv) but i do admit that i sometimes watch other people in social settings. when i was young, at terminal 4, for example, i think it was out of sheer curiosity. there were so many different kinds of people from places i had barely heard of, and it was all quite thrilling. now, i think it is just about trying to understand. there are so many worlds out there, even within the boundaries of one city: how can we grasp it all? observation is the only tool.
the best places to people watch:
1. London, heathrow, terminal 4: all, and reall ALL, of humanity can be found here. i know, as i spent large chunks of my childhood rushing up and down that long hallway of shops. i once saw brad pitt shopping in the harrods. another time my mother ended up conversing with boy george (having no idea who he was). i think within one hour you could find every nationality, faith and colour of person in that terminal. but it has to be specifically terminal 4, the others dont compare.
2. laduree, the terrace, champs elysees, paris. ok les champs is tacky and i hate it, but the terrace at laduree is a great place to watch the oddest show of arabs and russians anywhere around. flashy vulgar wealth on display.
3. laduree, inside, place de la madeline. same place but totally opposite crowd, watch the dysfunctionality at work. also leads off onto faubourg-st honore, a great street worth of people watching.
4. the fountain at Ohotni riad shopping mall, moscow. i love just standing there and watching the dyevs go up to the fountain, pose absurdly, while their boyfriends/ fathers take photos. this is a strange russian habit i will never get.
5. sitting by the door at Leopolds, mumbai. india is a very odd mix, and you can see it all from one chair, if you choose correctly here. on the street outside you have guys hawking any type of merchandise imaginable, combined with beggers and petty theives. inside, you have somewhat wealthy indians, aussie tourists, lost souls, british backpackers, famous writers, and everything else that ever found its way to india, by what ever means.
6. the Malecon, havana. this street is know as havana's communal living room, and i would say with good reason. everyone takes an evening stroll down this street, stopping to smoke or make out half way down, sitting on the railing, before continuing...only to stop again a few moments later.
7.coffee bean, tverskaia, moscow, actually, it is not the watching so much as the listening in on other peoples conversations that makes this place such a good laugh.....just listen to them! (especially the woman!)
8 any cafe overlooking .the streets of phuket, watch the people, and then try to figure out the relationship behind THAT story. is he married back home? how old is he? how old is she? how many people are living off her earnings?
9. boulevard de sabana grande, caracas. same deal like szechenyi in pest: guys playing chess....but here there is alot more besides...
10 any rave-beach party on mykonos, greece. goa sucked by comparision. mykonos featured some of the most equisitedly beautiful and exotic people i have ever seen.....such a pity they were almost all GAY!!!
11. mall of america, minneapolis minnesota. this is the most stunning tribute to comercialism i have EVER seen. and watch the people. then guess what size they wear....
why do we people watch? of course this is a strange habit, but i think we all indulge in it to some degree. i dont know what exactly is the anthropological explanation for why we want to watch the lives of others. i have neer understood, for example, watching big brother (but then i dont have a tv) but i do admit that i sometimes watch other people in social settings. when i was young, at terminal 4, for example, i think it was out of sheer curiosity. there were so many different kinds of people from places i had barely heard of, and it was all quite thrilling. now, i think it is just about trying to understand. there are so many worlds out there, even within the boundaries of one city: how can we grasp it all? observation is the only tool.
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