experiments in foreign language taxi instructions Part 3.

Tonight we had originally decided to go to a local restaurant in the downtown area, but our various business commitments went on somewhat longer than expected.

When our mid-evening taxi finally arrived, we asked the driver if she could take us to a typical restaurant in the centre. She asked us which particular part of the city but we said we didn't know. We suggested it should be something typical of the area.

As the car pulled away, the television on the driver's dashboard flipped back to radio and we chatted amongst ourselves as we headed for the centre. After around twenty minutes we pulled up outside a restaurant with suitably foreign writing, paid the taxi and headed inside.

The first thing I noticed were the saddles along the edge of the bar.

Then I spotted the sign.

"Rio Grande", it said.

"Somehow I don't think this is local", said Okke.

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another bar and another coincidence

Drove back to my temporary basecamp this evening and wandered into the nearby bar, mainly to check the food options.

There in the corner were two colleagues, from Denmark and Holland, halfway through a glass of beer.

I said 'Hi', arranged a time for a brief supper together and then headed out to the mysterious corner shop which seems to have very short opening hours and only one of its six doors open.

Later we met, along with another colleague from Finland as I shared my experiences of the rather arcane options available within the shop. Tomorrow we have decided to go further afield in the evening, assuming I can finish at a respectable time.

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new temporary domesticity in a foreign city

Only recently back to my apartment from the various meetings today that started very early and finished rather late.

I thought I'd try staying in an apartment instead of hotel this time because I'm here intermittently for a few days again and it gives me a bit more space. I seem to have cookers, washing machines and all kinds of temporary domesticity, although there's no wi-fi, but I've managed to get this connection working. Somewhat different from last month's faded hotel with only a single bed.

I considered blogging a picture of the melting snow, but its late and I have a stack of emails to answer before I go to bed. Oh, and my recent phone conversation tells me that the Oscar list I was sent was a hoax. Me and everyone else, then.

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there's always someone around you who will call

Sitting at home in strong yellow sunshine this morning, blissfully enjoying coffee and a croissant.

In the distance I can hear little musical box tings of Velvet Underground's 'Sunday Morning' playing somewhere on a distant radio.

Someone has good taste.

But next I must pack before heading to the airport to sit in seat 2F for a while.


And - just for fun - here's my (slightly cryptic) Oscar guesses: Ar i LR = MR; Ar i SR = HL; As i LR = KW; As i SR = AA(!); A F F = W-E; A D = T D K;B P = S M;C = S M;C D = T C C o B B; D = S M; D F = M o W;D S = T C o N E; F E = M; F L F = D; M = T C C o B B; M So = D t E (W-E); M Sc = D; S F A = P; S F L A = A d S; S E = W-E; S M = T D K; V E = I M (!); W A S = T R; W O S = I B; If I get them all right there has probably been a leak somewhere; otherwise its a good plant to raise viewing figures. We'll find out if my "!" are accurate.

The Great Hall

Dada cutup from PopCo. Page 61. Para 2. Play along?

ウォッチメン underground watchmen and the intrinsic field subtractor

Subterranean marketing for a superheroes?

I'll be interested to see how this looks as a movie, after 'Heroes' took some of the themes. I signed up for the secret screening, but have been exiled to Mars somewhere cold on the day of its preview.

I shall need to dodge the tachyons.


UPDATE: My surprise to see people searching for 'intrinsic field subtractor' and even more so that this post has been topping the search hitlist. I thought I would celebrate with a small animation of what the view of a particle moving faster than the speed of light would look like to a static observer.

the eyes have it

Another day running around office blocks and finishing in the early evening.

Back home, my frazzled brain briefly joined in with some soap watching, counting the number of 'meaningful looks' in the episode. It works for both Eastenders and Coronation Street, and I'm sure there must be eye auditions alongside the speeches.

The spotting rules are simple. It has to be a 'reaction shot'. No dialogue.
Some of the best sequences have two or three cutaways in a row.

canary wharf tube time

I know, but I still like it

sensory relief

I've spent most of the day chained to PowerPoint with just a few minutes of light relief when this arrived in the post. I'd already decided it was best to open it alone and after testing, I can say the giottos rocket works very well.

supporting bobkat's six from six meme

I was tagged by Bob-kat for this post and decided I'd give it a go. The instructions were to dip into the sixth photo folder and find the sixth picture. I use Aperture for stashing my pictures so this was pretty straightforward, although the pictures are from way back in 2001 on a Sony Cybershot 1.3 Megapixel camera.

Number six happens to be of the Hollywood sign, because I was around Los Angeles at the time, staying in a rather nice suite at Merv Griffith's Beverly Hills Hotel.

L.A. can be a fun place and in between Santa Monica beach, Mulholland Drive and Hollywood Boulevard, we also meandered along Rodeo Drive and had swished around using the free limo services between the "Pretty Woman" Wilshire and some of the other hotels.

We managed to see one of those hand-print ceremonies too, right outside the Graumann's Chinese Theatre, where Nick Cage was being 'printed', accompanied by Jim Carrey and with Jay Leno doing the speeches.

I've some video footage of some of this somewhere; maybe I should look it out for a whimsical post over the next few weeks. And because the area is close to Naomi's home, I've added a couple of other views, from the Griffith Park Observatory towards Vermont and Downtown.

I won't tag anyone else for this, although it is kinda fun. feel free to play along...

Vermont Ave, thanks Naomi. My guess at La Brea was a bit mis-placed!

Los Angeles Downtown

"Hooray for Hollywood"

UPDATE Just for fun, I found a picture I'd taken of Century City in 2001...and then one from Naomi's blog a few days ago!

mine above

Naomi's with the stunning sunset

jam busting hints needed for west london sundays

I was on the trail of missing identity cards yesterday. Not mine, but things needed early on Monday for a visit to a Notary related to some US-based matters. The administration of identity requires increasingly more documentation and some papers were in the wrong place.

I used the car but became stuck in Sunday's west London traffic between six and seven pm. My sat-nav gave a hint of the reason, because the little red traffic jam cars were flashing on most of the roads around Wood Lane, Shepherds Bush and heading back towards the central area. I have not checked what time the mega-mall Westfields closes on a Sunday, but assume there is some connection. I shall need to pay more attention in future.

Similarly, I noticed an abnormally large and steady flow of shoppers with 'out of area' carrier bags coming from Gloucester Road tube, so I'm wondering if the new mall is beginning to pick up some trade, even in these challenged economic times?

hotel moments

Its not fair for me to tell you the events I've been party to in the last little while. They wove separately around the distinct Valentine's fun but have an altogether different outlook.

Let's just say there were some macabre twists and if anything it is ratcheting up to be even more perverse.

I'm assuming that John will be checking up on Julia later and that maybe the old man and the noisy ones from the ad agency have gone away.

I'll be briefly flitting into craziequeen's blog party, which has a far more uplifting tone!