Concerts were good. Kaiser Chiefs was mosh pit fun (got a spot right in the front of the stage!) nice nice nice – they are good in concert. Jumped, shoved, sang my brains out. Shoes totalled. Brilliant night. Turin Brakes was a more “mature” crowd so more karaoke session-ey.

Frost Festival was very good too. Best view just eating pie, (choc-covered) churros and mulled wine and looking at the river. Lots of little stalls, performances, stilt walkers, acrobats… Globe Theatre had an open day and that was fun too – actors running around everywhere overacting Shakespeare’s pieces.

Kew Gardens also had open night. Audience carolling, fun fair, carousel, snow dome (turned out to be foam) and Henry Moore sculptures. I lost a lot of feeling in my face, legs and toes that night.

Heliosphere at Covent Garden finally came out after 2 weekends of lousy weather. It’s an acrobatic performance involving a female acrobat attached to a big balloon and she flies around the square, occassionally touching people on the ground. Either thrilling or sappy, you decide.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=cQLOfAO1Upg

It’s getting pretty painful to stand outside for hours like I’ve been doing all weekend. According to BBC’s average temperature, it is actually now 3 celsius colder than last year. Not that I would know, because I wasn’t there last year so I’ll keep on trying to freeze my toes off every night.

Everyone has started leaving London for the hols…my turn next Sunday! woo!

ho ho ho
Shi

My goldfish bowl (london) is getting colder!

The new St. Pancreas train station opened few weeks ago and they had a performance/circus act/parade on Friday night called Estimated Time of Arrival (ETA). We started from a street off the main road near the station and followed this parade of lanterns and bands to a “secret spot” where there were 3-4 stages set up with tv screens, “wheel of death”, tight ropes with people abseiling in, acrobats, orchestra, breakdancing, rappers, singers, beatboxer, bollywood dancers…it was awesome!

Of course we couldn’t feel our feet or fingers afterwards but it was so worth it.

Checked out Somerset House (lots of bling bling), the ice rink there, hayward gallery, more London Jazz Week.

Today went to Hampton Court Palace where I got really excited in anticipation about getting lost in the garden maze! I didn’t get lost, but I tried my best and was very disappointed when I found the centre. Good fun though. The ticket guy suggested that I should walk through with my eyes closed next time. And there were a lot of excited children racing through with their disgruntled parents leading the rear.

Hampton Court Palace is best known for Richard VIII & his many wives. I’ve heard about him (not educated in Britain, thank you very much!) but still feels like a harsh way to break up with someone. He should have just converted to Islam that permits 4 wives at a time. Very plush interiors, but very spooky when it gets dark (sun starts setting at 330pm now).

Anyway on more important matters… Bel & Cheryl’s bro Nat supported a peaceful political demonstration in Kuala Lumpur city 2 weeks ago that resulted in them being tear gassed several times. It’s illegal to have mass gatherings or criticising the Malaysian government. Nat walked to support the rights of the economically disprivelledged Indians in Malaysia and how they are being ignored by the government. Financial & economic assistance from the government in Malaysia is racially legislated when it should be based on actual needs rather than racial terms.

Participation estimated to be up to 30,000 people. Nasty way that the government dealt with it : tear gas & riot soldiers.

Pics of the incident & Nat’s personal experience are at his webpage:

http://jelas.info/

Al Jazeera footage (1 1/2 mins long)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Q6558tY58E&feature=related

Kinda shocking for anyone who’s visited/lived in KL because it’s always been peaceful. Malaysian controlled media is doing a fine blanket job on the issue..

Life still goes on in KL I imagine. I was pretty surprised that John Howard’s finally going… Gordon Brown is doing ok so far. And England lost against Croatia?

Hope your part of the world or your gold fish bowl.. is good

Shi

Hullo..

It’s been another interesting weekend, but a little better this time because I got to sleep in sat and sun so got some rest instead of walking around all day on the weekends. Went to see the Yokohama International Ferry Terminal and it was AWESOME. It’s got to be the only large scale project that is so open to the public and so radical in design – subverting ideas of floor, wall, folding into each other, space and the natural and manmade – exciting and really inspiring. Especially when you see the freedom that people have to do on the roof garden and the level of interaction….a coffee cart and lounge chairs with stylish Japanese couples sipping lattes and enjoying the view of the bay, people on the roof garden watching a wedding on a docked yacht, dogs in hooded ensembles and stylish outfits chasing each other on the grass, Japanese couples making out on the lawn, a group of mates enjoying a carton of beer, 50Japanese students taking group photos, babies crawling on the paths and trying to push their strollers off the roof…

It is an awesome building and the roof garden is the best bit (best to go on a weekend evening). Again, too many pics to email out so check them out here.

www.flickr.com/photos/folio

And on Sunday went to Kamakura and visited a shrine, temple, temple in a cave and a giant Buddha. The temple was really cool, it had a huge golden buddha in it and there was a queue from the entrance to the top of the hill to see another Goddess on the top of the hill so I didn’t bother visiting that one. I also went to my first Japanese beach at Kamakura and immediately thought “No wonder Japanese go nuts when they get to Bali”. But gotta hand it to them, they are really stoked with whatever there is. Maybe 20 guys out on longboards surfing the knee high wind chop, it looked really fun but I don’t think I’ll be going surfing in Japan anytime soon, they’re still in steamers (3mm wetsuits) and I didn’t bring nuthin but a bikini. Whheee-ooo…I am tired.

I wonder where to go next weekend? I’m seriously considering…Tokyo Disneyland…I mean, why not? Happiest place on earth where Mickey and friends speak fluent Japanese.

Take care and talk soon,
Shi