i finished my chapter last night and sent it off to my supervisor. ok, i realise it is not FINISHED, but i reached the point where i had written what i had to say at leas for the moment, and now it can sit a bit before i go back to it and change things about again. so this morning, completely unaware that a major bomb had just been diffused by specialists in the very centre of the city, i decided to go for a walk.
i dont know london as well as i should given how much time i have been here. i know london, budapest and moscow much better. the fact that i spent 2 months unemployed in paris one summer helped, with nothing to do i walked all over the place. but here my life is about shuttling between the library and my job and i fear i dont see much of the city outside these two places. that is something i greatly regret though, and i dream of a time when deadlines arent on top of me and i can walk where and when i please. but today i felt that i had the right to do as i pleased, and so i headed for a stroll around mayfair, which according to the book i grabbed from work, is where the Queen buys her underwear (on Conduit street apparently) and where King Jefri, the sultan of Brunei's brother, has sex parties that feature up to 50 prostitutes. it is also a favourite haunt for wealthy russians. actually i would say the area is heavily russian and arab populated.....sort of like the area around les champs in paris. so i walked around the mansion blocks and the synagogue with the intention of getting to know the place better....but then i fear i got sidetracked by the 50% off sale going on selfidges, and it was there that my good intentions got sidetracked by my shopping demons....and into the place i went...
but my struggle to get to know london must continue, i am not yet satisfied with my ability to find things here!
29.6.07
25.6.07
more lists: cafes and bars
i have been yelled at via email for not writing enough lately. thing is, i have been a bit busy, but clearly that is no excuse, and i shall do my best to do better.
so while standing behind the till today at work, i started thinking of the best places where i like to hang out, and have a coffee or a glass of wine...and this is what i have come up with, but i suspect it is incomplete:
1> Freud, london. one of my favourite london hangout bars. they have really great cocktails. i sit on the stairs, no one else gets to sit there!
2.christophers martini bar, london. it is a bit ridiculous....but it is also near my job, and hence a regular pit stop.
3. szimpla/dupla, budapest: i have no idea how many nights of my life have been lost here, but more than i should be able to count. sadly, my other favourite budapest haunt, the goethe cafe, has now closed, and part of the building has been taken over by louis vuitton. it seems so wrong, goethe has the best tez cafe ever, and andrassy ut will never be the same again!
4.leopolds, mumbai. cmon, it is a classic. it has the best cheap food and drinks in the colaba, and the best atmosphere. if you dont believe me, read shantarum.
5.the bed, bangkok. this design of this place is wicked, adn the music is excellent as well.
6. random pit in prague. i cant remeber the name of the place where i spent so many evenings once upon a time in the mid 1990s. if was not far from the main square (and the national museum of rocks, as i called it) and it was undergrown in a wierd cave like construct. you had to climb up ladders to get into some of the rooms. i am sure it was an incredible fire hazard, which is probably why it is long gone, but it was truely spectacular.
7. plato, belgrade. no trip to serbia would be complete without spending hours gossiping with maysamba in plato....
8.the dome, mumbai. such an amazing view, and from the height of the top of the building, you cant smell the shit that fills the water below.
9. VIP room, paris. this place is also ridiculous, but for some reason it became a regular stop over place after work when i was working in paris. i cant even recall the number of times i missed that last metro because of the cocktails...
10. cafe delmas, paris. the location is perfect and they have outdoor heaters so you dont freeze in winter. excellent wine. and the food is good too. what i like about delmas is the odd variety of people: it is open all day and night and at any given time you can see everyone from pensioners to students sipping on coffee or munching a salad.
11. the eagle, cambridge. this place has the coolest ceiling ever, where american pilots carved stuff into the wood during the war. also something (DNA if i remember correctly) was discovered inside....definately my favourite cambridge spot, although the pickerel is a close second!
so while standing behind the till today at work, i started thinking of the best places where i like to hang out, and have a coffee or a glass of wine...and this is what i have come up with, but i suspect it is incomplete:
1> Freud, london. one of my favourite london hangout bars. they have really great cocktails. i sit on the stairs, no one else gets to sit there!
2.christophers martini bar, london. it is a bit ridiculous....but it is also near my job, and hence a regular pit stop.
3. szimpla/dupla, budapest: i have no idea how many nights of my life have been lost here, but more than i should be able to count. sadly, my other favourite budapest haunt, the goethe cafe, has now closed, and part of the building has been taken over by louis vuitton. it seems so wrong, goethe has the best tez cafe ever, and andrassy ut will never be the same again!
4.leopolds, mumbai. cmon, it is a classic. it has the best cheap food and drinks in the colaba, and the best atmosphere. if you dont believe me, read shantarum.
5.the bed, bangkok. this design of this place is wicked, adn the music is excellent as well.
6. random pit in prague. i cant remeber the name of the place where i spent so many evenings once upon a time in the mid 1990s. if was not far from the main square (and the national museum of rocks, as i called it) and it was undergrown in a wierd cave like construct. you had to climb up ladders to get into some of the rooms. i am sure it was an incredible fire hazard, which is probably why it is long gone, but it was truely spectacular.
7. plato, belgrade. no trip to serbia would be complete without spending hours gossiping with maysamba in plato....
8.the dome, mumbai. such an amazing view, and from the height of the top of the building, you cant smell the shit that fills the water below.
9. VIP room, paris. this place is also ridiculous, but for some reason it became a regular stop over place after work when i was working in paris. i cant even recall the number of times i missed that last metro because of the cocktails...
10. cafe delmas, paris. the location is perfect and they have outdoor heaters so you dont freeze in winter. excellent wine. and the food is good too. what i like about delmas is the odd variety of people: it is open all day and night and at any given time you can see everyone from pensioners to students sipping on coffee or munching a salad.
11. the eagle, cambridge. this place has the coolest ceiling ever, where american pilots carved stuff into the wood during the war. also something (DNA if i remember correctly) was discovered inside....definately my favourite cambridge spot, although the pickerel is a close second!
london
the weather in this place couldnt be worse. justin has tried to convince me that it actually doesnt rain much in england, but he is wrong: it rains all the bloody time. i cant remember the last day when it DIDNT rain, and the 5 days forcast only promises more of this misery. it is almost july and i cant wear any summer clothes yet, or if i try to i have to adapt them with various layers. my feet are cold all the time and i just want to curl up in bed with the cat...and this is summer?
the climate is most definately my biggest complaint about london, it would be a much more livable place other wise.
i need to finish my latest chapter, but it is going soooo slowly. i dont know why: i know what i need to say, but i am having trouble formulating it onto the paper somehow, it would almost be easier if the material i had were less, then i would not be bothered by the problems of selection. but in moscow i picted up tons of extra sources which are really useful, but sifting through them is incredibly time consuming....i just want it all to be over!!!
the climate is most definately my biggest complaint about london, it would be a much more livable place other wise.
i need to finish my latest chapter, but it is going soooo slowly. i dont know why: i know what i need to say, but i am having trouble formulating it onto the paper somehow, it would almost be easier if the material i had were less, then i would not be bothered by the problems of selection. but in moscow i picted up tons of extra sources which are really useful, but sifting through them is incredibly time consuming....i just want it all to be over!!!
20.6.07
moscow
i wish all libraries were as user friendly as the good old lenin library. i walk in with a list of things i want copied, give them to a babushka, along with some money, and one hour later i pick up all the materials freshly copied and organised for me. then i pay someone else to have them all neatly bound so they can be easily transported. no one lectures me about copyright laws or copyright infringement, and i get what i want. (not that i plan to circulate the copies, they are for strictly personal use, and no doubt of interest only to me.....i just dont have time to sit and read them all on the spot, and therefore find it easier to get them copied so i can read them elsewhere)
when i am not in the library, i get taken shopping to see all the places that have opened up in the 8 months since i was last here. russians have a talent for spending money. at least some do. and the fact that there is now plenty of money in the city, and plenty of places to spend it, adds to this tendancy. some of my friends find it normal to spend 100 pounds on lunch. every day. and even more on dinner. these same people find it normal that reserving a table for a birthday part at a cool nightclub can cost 30,000 euros or more, not includding the food. overnight, everyone i know has acquired a blackberry and a personal driver who appears at all hours, even in the middle of the night. and some of these people have relatives working in other parts of the country with no hot water, hospitals, or normal roads.
when i am not in the library, i get taken shopping to see all the places that have opened up in the 8 months since i was last here. russians have a talent for spending money. at least some do. and the fact that there is now plenty of money in the city, and plenty of places to spend it, adds to this tendancy. some of my friends find it normal to spend 100 pounds on lunch. every day. and even more on dinner. these same people find it normal that reserving a table for a birthday part at a cool nightclub can cost 30,000 euros or more, not includding the food. overnight, everyone i know has acquired a blackberry and a personal driver who appears at all hours, even in the middle of the night. and some of these people have relatives working in other parts of the country with no hot water, hospitals, or normal roads.
moscow
since i left moscow, my old supervisor got appointed director of a huge institute within the academy of science. this is a pretty important position, maybe even the most important position in the country in our field.
i have to say this about him, he takes care of his people and former students. lots of people, when they get appointed to such a position start ignoring the people they once talked to. in london, a professor whose class i went to out of pure interest also recently got made director of the school i go to. last year, he was and friendly, now that he is the director, he doesnt answer emails and doesnt recognise me in the hall any more. i have become invisible to his power. no so with my russian supervisor. since being elected director (which is often a position for life!) he has done everything possible to promote me, giving me my first book contract within months of getting his position.
and so i was in moscow to talk about my book and to pick up some free copies. it felt kind of wierd. i arrived at the academy of science and was greeted, by name, by a man who said he would be my guide. this guide gave me a complete tour of the place. we went all oer the (enormous) building so i could see everything from the bar to the museum. then we went into the "directors office" where my supervisor was giving instructions to everyone via telephone and a squad of not-so-young women who run around doing his bidding.
his office was amazing, it was huge and powerful looking with a massive desk and a conference table. it also had massive windows overlooking all of moscow. right below the window, he had put a picture of istambul. when i asked why, he explained that he wanted to be able to come into his office everyday and look down on the second rome, and then out at the third and final.......ooookaaaayyy.....
i doubt that someone with such a position in england would find the time to talk to a lowly phd student. but my russian supervisor found the time to listen to my questions, feed my Academy of Science chocolat (they have started producing their OWN chocolat bars!!!) and give me good recommendations. when i asked him if he knew where i could find some old books, he pressed the magic button on his desk and a little old lady came rushing in the room. he then rattle off the name of the books, and copies appeared within minutes.
"how could you ever bear to leave such a country?" asked my father on the telephone.
i have to say this about him, he takes care of his people and former students. lots of people, when they get appointed to such a position start ignoring the people they once talked to. in london, a professor whose class i went to out of pure interest also recently got made director of the school i go to. last year, he was and friendly, now that he is the director, he doesnt answer emails and doesnt recognise me in the hall any more. i have become invisible to his power. no so with my russian supervisor. since being elected director (which is often a position for life!) he has done everything possible to promote me, giving me my first book contract within months of getting his position.
and so i was in moscow to talk about my book and to pick up some free copies. it felt kind of wierd. i arrived at the academy of science and was greeted, by name, by a man who said he would be my guide. this guide gave me a complete tour of the place. we went all oer the (enormous) building so i could see everything from the bar to the museum. then we went into the "directors office" where my supervisor was giving instructions to everyone via telephone and a squad of not-so-young women who run around doing his bidding.
his office was amazing, it was huge and powerful looking with a massive desk and a conference table. it also had massive windows overlooking all of moscow. right below the window, he had put a picture of istambul. when i asked why, he explained that he wanted to be able to come into his office everyday and look down on the second rome, and then out at the third and final.......ooookaaaayyy.....
i doubt that someone with such a position in england would find the time to talk to a lowly phd student. but my russian supervisor found the time to listen to my questions, feed my Academy of Science chocolat (they have started producing their OWN chocolat bars!!!) and give me good recommendations. when i asked him if he knew where i could find some old books, he pressed the magic button on his desk and a little old lady came rushing in the room. he then rattle off the name of the books, and copies appeared within minutes.
"how could you ever bear to leave such a country?" asked my father on the telephone.
13.6.07
tallinn
i know i have written this before, but i really love tallinn. it is the ultimate anti moscow, it is little, cute and clean. (and after 3 days, boring) i wouldnt want to live there, but i am delighted to go there a couple of times a year and see my friends.
and so i arrived and oliver met me at the airport. tallinn international airport is the only airport in the world i have been to where you can WALK easily from the centre of town to the airport. it takes just under 30 minutes.as it was a sunny and warm day, oliver and i decided to walk. as we approached the new town, i could see that even in the year since i was last here, things have changed enormously, again. Tallinn seems to be constantly advancing, far more so than ant ex-socialist state i have been in. it is also the most high tech place i have been, anywhere in the world. there is wifi EVERYWHERE, and everything from taxes to bus passes are done on line. no one uses money, only cards, in all the shops and markets. you can even use your national ID card to pay for your bus ticket, if you want to. it is far ahead of england now in terms of high tech infrastructure.
we walked through the shiny glass new town to oliver's house so i could see where he lived and meet his little brother, and from there we went to a cafe for drinks. oliver is now working as a journalist in estonia's major daily newspaper and thus he had tone sof opinions of the latest (and TOTALLY stupid) scandal with russia. ever since the statue of the soviet soldier was removed from a random garden to a military cemetary, russians have been up in arms. they get bussed in with tourist visas by nashi (a russian vaguely facist youth organisation) in order to stand in soviet uniforms in the now statue-less garden, where they claim to be serving as "living statues." the locals generally ignore them, and the russian media show up to take pictures...for whose benefit? the whole thing is absurd, butfor oliver it is good for business....such is life.
and so i arrived and oliver met me at the airport. tallinn international airport is the only airport in the world i have been to where you can WALK easily from the centre of town to the airport. it takes just under 30 minutes.as it was a sunny and warm day, oliver and i decided to walk. as we approached the new town, i could see that even in the year since i was last here, things have changed enormously, again. Tallinn seems to be constantly advancing, far more so than ant ex-socialist state i have been in. it is also the most high tech place i have been, anywhere in the world. there is wifi EVERYWHERE, and everything from taxes to bus passes are done on line. no one uses money, only cards, in all the shops and markets. you can even use your national ID card to pay for your bus ticket, if you want to. it is far ahead of england now in terms of high tech infrastructure.
we walked through the shiny glass new town to oliver's house so i could see where he lived and meet his little brother, and from there we went to a cafe for drinks. oliver is now working as a journalist in estonia's major daily newspaper and thus he had tone sof opinions of the latest (and TOTALLY stupid) scandal with russia. ever since the statue of the soviet soldier was removed from a random garden to a military cemetary, russians have been up in arms. they get bussed in with tourist visas by nashi (a russian vaguely facist youth organisation) in order to stand in soviet uniforms in the now statue-less garden, where they claim to be serving as "living statues." the locals generally ignore them, and the russian media show up to take pictures...for whose benefit? the whole thing is absurd, butfor oliver it is good for business....such is life.
6.6.07
my lunch group
on the days i work, i spend every morning in the library before my shift. on my days off, i am in here until closing. sometimes i feel like i live in this building, but it is my decision. the problem is that if i stay at home, i get easily distracted by all my own stuff and i dont get so much done. here in the library i am forced to behave correctly (to sit up in my chair and not make any noise) and to work.
the whole process would be pretty intolerable if it were not for my lunch group. every day at about 2, i meet a group of friends and we go for lunch outside in the courtyard or on the terrace. there is a core group of four of us: me, dragana, zbig and uilleam, which gets at times supplemented by others. i spend the morning looking forward to 2, and i make all kinds of deals with myself (like 'i must have 1000 words by 2!'), which i tell myself will keep me going until the magic hour. part of my love of lunch is, i suspect, genetic. i love food and i can eat scary amounts of it. by 1:15, my stomach starts grumbling, sometimes so loudly that the people in seats nearby look at me funny, but i cant help it! but i also like the lunch group to relax brainlessly for an hour or so. joking mindlessly recharges my abused brain and enables me to reconcentrate when i go back into the reading rooms. well, provided i dont take advantage of the pimms bar that has recently emerged on the terrace....
the whole process would be pretty intolerable if it were not for my lunch group. every day at about 2, i meet a group of friends and we go for lunch outside in the courtyard or on the terrace. there is a core group of four of us: me, dragana, zbig and uilleam, which gets at times supplemented by others. i spend the morning looking forward to 2, and i make all kinds of deals with myself (like 'i must have 1000 words by 2!'), which i tell myself will keep me going until the magic hour. part of my love of lunch is, i suspect, genetic. i love food and i can eat scary amounts of it. by 1:15, my stomach starts grumbling, sometimes so loudly that the people in seats nearby look at me funny, but i cant help it! but i also like the lunch group to relax brainlessly for an hour or so. joking mindlessly recharges my abused brain and enables me to reconcentrate when i go back into the reading rooms. well, provided i dont take advantage of the pimms bar that has recently emerged on the terrace....
3.6.07
wish list
every time i work on the travel floor of the bookshop, i find myself mentally planning my holidays for the next decade. i devise complicaed plans i will probably never have the money to carry out, certainly if i stay in academia.
but planning is half of the fun, and i have long shifts to kill. so i go through the books and make my hypothetical plans for the future.
i have dont this since i was a kid, actually. i remember when i was about 10 going through my father's atlas and looking at all the places i felt i had to go. i made a list of my top 100 hundred to-go places and ticked them off with a highlighted whenever i got to one. if i managed to tick one of my top ten off, it was always a great moment. i remember landing in moscow for the first time and excitedly pulling out my list to tick it off (for it had been in the top ten). mexico city was another such great moment.
but i still have many places yet to go. and here is my revised top ten list:
1. iguazu falls (i have been to some of the countries, like brazil, that meet here, but i want to see this specific point, even if i do get drenched)
2. seoul. i spent 3 years working with korean people. i have heard everything imaginable about korea, and i have tried endless plates of korean dishes. i have to go there and check it out wiht my own eyes.
3. pyongyang. for the reasons mentioned above, with the addition that friends of mine have been and come back with stories bizarre enough to intrigue me.
4. sydney. australia is the only continent i have never been to, unless you count antartica. i will get to both sooner or later!
5. beriut. i want to go there and eat. and eat. and eat.
6. cape town and nature beyond.
7. hong kong. for similar reasons that i want to go to beriut, with the addition of supposeldy good shopping as well. this one frustrated me. it has been on my top ten list since i drafted it for the first time nearly 20 years ago, and still i have failed to get there. it is about time!
8. machiu picchiu. i am not much of a nature person, but i have to see it. even if just once in my lifetime. i am too much of a history geek not to want to see the old inca lands.
9. polynesia (various parts). my mother spent part of her childhood in these parts and yet she never took me. NOT FAIR. i am protesting that i am being deprived of part of my inheritance.
10. dubai. i never would have put this on my list until i went to oman this past april. i never expected such amazing geography and such a different-but-not culture. i have become curious and i want to see more of the gulf!
so now i just have to find the time and money to get to all of these places. should anyone kindly feel like donating a few hundred quid to my travel fund, please do not hesitate.
but planning is half of the fun, and i have long shifts to kill. so i go through the books and make my hypothetical plans for the future.
i have dont this since i was a kid, actually. i remember when i was about 10 going through my father's atlas and looking at all the places i felt i had to go. i made a list of my top 100 hundred to-go places and ticked them off with a highlighted whenever i got to one. if i managed to tick one of my top ten off, it was always a great moment. i remember landing in moscow for the first time and excitedly pulling out my list to tick it off (for it had been in the top ten). mexico city was another such great moment.
but i still have many places yet to go. and here is my revised top ten list:
1. iguazu falls (i have been to some of the countries, like brazil, that meet here, but i want to see this specific point, even if i do get drenched)
2. seoul. i spent 3 years working with korean people. i have heard everything imaginable about korea, and i have tried endless plates of korean dishes. i have to go there and check it out wiht my own eyes.
3. pyongyang. for the reasons mentioned above, with the addition that friends of mine have been and come back with stories bizarre enough to intrigue me.
4. sydney. australia is the only continent i have never been to, unless you count antartica. i will get to both sooner or later!
5. beriut. i want to go there and eat. and eat. and eat.
6. cape town and nature beyond.
7. hong kong. for similar reasons that i want to go to beriut, with the addition of supposeldy good shopping as well. this one frustrated me. it has been on my top ten list since i drafted it for the first time nearly 20 years ago, and still i have failed to get there. it is about time!
8. machiu picchiu. i am not much of a nature person, but i have to see it. even if just once in my lifetime. i am too much of a history geek not to want to see the old inca lands.
9. polynesia (various parts). my mother spent part of her childhood in these parts and yet she never took me. NOT FAIR. i am protesting that i am being deprived of part of my inheritance.
10. dubai. i never would have put this on my list until i went to oman this past april. i never expected such amazing geography and such a different-but-not culture. i have become curious and i want to see more of the gulf!
so now i just have to find the time and money to get to all of these places. should anyone kindly feel like donating a few hundred quid to my travel fund, please do not hesitate.
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