trying to decide whether jags, beemers or alfas best in car chases?

Back in the UK for a few hours, with a feeling that I'm in some kind of car chase, though not as good as the smokin' one developing with clarissa and petunia.

It started when I landed and got a lot of those little bleepy message on my phone, like the ones I'm always a bit scornful of when I hear everyone else switching on their phones. All those important messages - yeah right.

Zip through Heathrow using IRIS the eye scanner with my checked baggage arriving at the belt within about two minutes.

Pickup by the man with the card, except he knew me well enough to not need to hold it up, followed by a speedy ride home. But pretty much every minute has been filled and I've already had to tip out the case and refill it for my trip tomorrow. I'm sensing the helicopters circling again.

I shall try to pause for a moment now and savour this evening with all the systems unplugged.

improving my knowledge of the local transit systems

Today we decided to use the Temporary Apartment as a base for some of the work. I needed to go into the city centre later in the morning and instead of travelling to the western side of the city and back, it was easier to meet here.

My fleeting raid on The Nearby Shop That Never Opens yesterday meant I had secured some modest supplies; coffee, milk as well as the chocolate frogs, so I was able to entertain my co-worker visitor as we planned all manner of business in this impromptu meeting place.

I had also made a small separate excursion to the city centre on foot during yesterday afternoon, and found that a bus 26 also seems to pass quite close by. As we took a taxi to the centre for the meeting, I found out about the local clips of tickets, a kind of mechanical version of the Oyster card, which could be used to travel around on the transport system, with each click lasting for one hour. Sadly, another Local Shop With Mainly Cigarettes And Soda advertised them, but had run out of the much desired '3 zone' version of the tickets.

But by the evening I became the proud owner of 10 clicks worth of transit system tickets and already used it for my trip back to the airport.

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security lapse at TNSTNO

There was a brief security lapse this afternoon at The Nearby Shop That Never Opens. The gruff looking dog logo is emblematic of this retailer, which we have decided is a front for something altogether more sinister.

The shop isn't open in the morning or evening although it will sometimes have lights on inside, provoking us to wonder what they do in there. Today, I arrived back at the Temporary Apartment at an unexpected time and noticed a significant number of shadowy figures inside the shop.

Sure enough, they had accidentally broken protocol and left one of the doors unlocked so that a group of customers had rushed inside.

But the shop owners are good. True professionals, they were determined to prevent sales if at all possible.

Their plan was simple: tip cardboard boxes of random items onto the shelves, without labelling or pricing.

This went well beyond usual clever retailing (the virtuous household purchase next to the beer etc.) Pencil sharpeners next to washing up liquid and bars of apricot creme wafer biscuits. A television aerial and a selection of festive neon cup-cakes surrounded by a display of differing thickness clothes lines. Two six metre racks of brown and blue cardboard boxes containing wooden parrots and self assembly stacking tables.

But we all walked around excitedly trying to find things to put into the bright yellow baskets. It was too much of an occasion to be missed. The person in front of me bought milk, an eggcup shaped like a small elephant and a toy telephone. I couldn't resist the plum flavoured chocolate frogs.

Later this afternoon I noticed that TNSTNO was again in darkness. Maybe they are awaiting a fresh delivery of goldfish shaped flashlights.

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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.