flanerie

Which London Underground Line Are You?

Going Underground – which London Underground tube line are you?

I’m the DISTRICT line!

You run from exclusive, historic Richmond in the west to leafy, sub-suburban Upminster, in the East, and have pretty riverside views. There’s a cosy suburban feel to you, possibly fostered by the fact that so much of your track is above ground. You are the sort of Underground line that people associate with outings, rather than commuting, and you feature on many London Transport advertisements. You are open, outgoing and fun-loving, with a slightly pass

Too tired to think of a snappy title for this post

My third blogmeet happened on Saturday. Matt from Earth Info.net is as nice a chap as his blog would suggest. And no, Stuart, I didn’t have a headache the next day.

Just spent the afternoon doing the “pre-selection” test for an EU translation post. Finger’s crossed. The competition for translation jobs in the EU is tremendous, as you might expect, so my main plan remains based on a return to the UK and starting up as a freelance translator.

I’m very tired, so I shall leave you now with this hysterically funny link: Kokwee.net.

Michel Camilo

The new mp3 to download for your listening pleasure is From Within by Michel Camilo, taken from the excellent Calle 54 soundtrack album.

Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Displease

Colin Powell, the man I previously regarded as ‘the sane one’ in the US military junta government, has stated that France will “suffer the consequences” of her opposition to the America/UK invasion of Iraq. Rather sinister, wouldn’t you say? So not only does the US target it’s own citizens if they don’t dance to the Republican Party’s tune, foreign countries are threatened for having the temerity to disagree, too.

The alarming amount of “friendly fire” casualties are not going to be dignified with even an apology from the same Mr. Powell.

Is this the same division that attacked a British tank, even though it had a huge Union Jack displayed on it, or can there be two units in the US army that are so utterly incompetent?

Fisticuffs

I said I’d tell you about the fight I got into, didn’t I? Well – it wasn’t really a fight, per se. My parents and I were minding our own business on a busy metro train at the weekend. I noticed the guy standing next to me was already committing the offence of invading my personal space (already a cardinal crime, in my book). While the doors were open at a station, he tried to knock me off my feet and I felt a hand rummage around in my outside jacket pocket. Fortunately, I’ve lived in Paris long enough to know that you should never have anything more valuable than a packet of chewing gum in accessible pockets, and the guy didn’t find a nickable object, so he moved on to my dad. Now, I had taken a very dim view of him attacking me, but here he was having a go at my dad – a pensioner. I managed to grab him by the collar of his shirt and throw him out of the metro carriage. He turned round and tried to land a punch, but the metro doors were closing, so he had to content himself with spitting in my face. I can’t help but notice the lack of help I got from anybody else in the carriage – I had already decided I wanted to leave Paris. This reinforces that decision.

Health Drive

Right. That’s it. My health drive has started. For the first time in many years, I’m going to get some daily exercise, in an attempt to reduce the extra padding that has accumulated around my midriff in recent times. It’s quite a long way to the office from my place, but I’m going to cycle there and back most days. I did it for the first time today, and it’s actually a bit quicker than the metro (and much more picturesque, looking out from the top of the hill near where I live to the Eiffel Tower, ride down past the Louvre and along the Champs Elys

Nearly did it

Holy shit, that was a great match. Sorry to bore you all with football, but that was just fantastic. Apart from the fact that my team got knocked out of the European Cup. A pleasure to watch though. The best game I’ve seen for a very long time. Now why couldn’t United have played like that in the first leg? Time to steam ahead and win the league. There will be no more football related posts again for ages. I promise. And I still have to tell you about the fight I got into with a thief on the metro at the weekend. Tomorrow, maybe.

Paranoid Android

*Track taken off the server on 27/04/03*

Well, needless to say, I didn’t find an even remotely affordable flight to Barcelona, and all the trains were full. So I shall console myself with a long weekend in Turin next month, I reckon.

Mp3 change time again.

Paranoid Android, as I’m sure you’re aware, is a track by Radiohead. Here, however, is a very different version performed by Brad Mehldau. I’m saying no more than that. See what you think.

(It’s about 6.4 megs, and 9 minutes long)

Europanto

“Que would happen if, wenn Du open your computero, finde eine message in esta lingua? No est Englando, no est Germano, no est Espano, no est Franzo, no est keine known lingua aber Du understande! Wat happen zo! Habe your computero eine virus catched? Habe Du sudden BSE gedeveloped? No, Du esse lezendo la neue europese lingua: de Europanto! Europanto ist uno melangio van de meer importantes Europese linguas mit also eine poquito van andere europese linguas, sommige Latinus, sommige old grec. “

Que would gehappen if je scribirai tutto mi blog in Europanto? Ich would probablemente gelose todo mi piccolo readership. So you’ll hear no more about it from me.

Der linkensies can be gefounden here und here f

Let me fly, dammit

Just got an e-mail from some friends in Turin who are off to Barcelona for the weekend, inviting me down there. I’ve got zero plans for this (long) weekend, so I’m just so tempted, you wouldn’t believe it. The cheapest flight I can find is