More about the robots, less about the humans! If possible, cut the humans out completely, or kill them off early!
LOOK AT THE EVIL ROBOTS. I think I’ve just had a transformergasm. CANT WAIT. Will deffo go see this in the big cinema in town. Without a doubt. Even if I have to go on my own. I don’t watch movies normally, but this is just porn. Pure porn.
I found lots of videos of my capoeira group on youtube! Apparently they have lots of outside street performances in the summer. Here’s the example of one. It’s right outside my studio space in the centre of Bristol. I walk across that bridge in the background on almost a daily basis.
Also managed to stumble upon a (dark) video of maculele being performed in one of clubs in Bristol. This is the warrior dance with the sticks that I bruised my hand with. :D
Maculele during the Brazilian Beatz
And this one! This is in College Green (for mum and dad: Utanfor Marriott Hotellet och catedralen dar ni rokte nar ni var har :D). The topless curly brazilian is my teacher, Claudio. I’m not sure who he’s playing with, but it’s very cute. It was during batizado (huge gathering when you have like a week of Capoeira and teachers fly in from Brazil etc), so the guy he’s going against is not a local, that’s for sure.
The end bit when they chase eachother inside the ring is adorable. :D
Here’s another one of them playing. It’s just so clear that they are good friends.
And finally, this is a longer video (10 minutes) which is a part of something that looks like an “introduction video” for my strand of capoeira. It’s done by the Bristol/Cardiff group and Claudio appears in it, talking about capoeira (You’ll notice. He’s the curly guy with a Brazilian accent).
What I find interesting in that video is how they address the British people’s reluctance to show much emotion. Brits are considered to be very reserved and ‘proper’ and ‘polite’ people. In the 3 or so years I’ve been here, I’ve become very much like that in public as well (believe it or not!). And to be put into this group that is run by a Brazilian is like stepping into a completely different culture. I’m getting hugs and high fives and special handshakes that I dunno how to explain in English. People are spontaneously singing whilst we warm up. Whenever I play with someone they will help me and smile.
As a little example: During one training, I was on the floor doing situps while waiting for the group I was in to switch partners (it was a 3 person thing. Whoever was out had to keep busy with pushups etc). While I was on the floor, Claudio walks up to me and shakes my hand whilst smiling broadly. He exclaims that it’s good to see me again. Then he walks on.
Just a small gesture like that made me pause for a moment and blink.
Alright. Enough rambling. I need to get into bed…
… Somehow.
Okay. I’m about to have a shower. If I can actually GET IN to the shower. It sounds ridiculous, but I’ve never felt muscle strain like this in my life. It’s even worse than the first class of capoeira when I wasn’t able to walk properly for days (much to Tom’s amusement and worry :D).
I’ve got a bruised knuckle from Maculele (warrior dance with long sticks) training.
My foot was trodden on during a roda (the ring where the capoeiristas play).
I’ve got more blisters than before underneath my feet. The skin from the previous ones have fallen off.
I’ve had to cancel a meet with Tarrith tonight, because I can’t walk. If this doesn’t heal in one day, I am not sure I can do Fencing on Monday. Last time I did fencing with strained leg muscles I couldn’t walk up the stairs to my flat.
But ya know what! All these ramblings may seem like whining, but don’t be fooled! I’m enjoying capoeira so much, I just don’t want to stop at all. It’s addictive. After years of not exercising properly or regularly, I’ve thrown myself into something which is so physically demanding that even my abdomen muscles are screaming. I didn’t know I HAD any muscles there!
This is the life! It’s painful, but it’s so so so FUN.
Apologies about being so quiet here. I’ve started Uni, I’ve had Sami over, I’ve started exercising properly and so on. It’s all very busy at the moment.
It’s all going very well and I’m really enjoying myself :D
Left 4 Dead is amazingly fun too.
My feet are sore and starting to develop liquidfilled blisters.
My legs ache even when I sit down.
My face is probably still red.
But it was AMAZING. IT WAS SO MUCH FUN. Jeeeebus! I love it.
Look here for photos from the club.
Click me!
Me and Sami walking in town.
Approached by two clean-shaven men without nasal hair, wearing suits and badges proclaiming their love for Jesus. They step in front of us.
Clean jesus guy 1: “Hello! Have you ever thought about what will happen after your death?”
Clean jesus guy 2: “Have you thought about life after death?”
Sami: “Not really.”
Me: “I would assume we rot.”
We walk past. I say: “Have a good one though!” And smile in their faces.
I think it’s about time I buy a t-shirt (”I’m a happy atheist and not feeling vulnerable, so don’t waste your time on me”) . Is it because I’ve got poofy cheeks that Christians really want to convert me? Or do they see that I’m happy and thus must be sinful or something?
‘Hold on! That girl is HAPPY and CONTENT WITH HER LIFE! She’s probably not thinking about the hellfire that awaits her! We must warn her!’
Sigh. :)
I have registered these guys in my head now too as characters to be added to my stories. They are really digging their own grave, but at least it keeps me amused.
Stop forcing your fairies on me and just boogie!
FRIDAY
It was my first time going properly alone to London, so I was a little bit nervous to say the least. Normally I always have a friend or Tom with me who will help out with the navigation. Afterall, London is huuuge. Not to mention the confusion of the Underground. Me and logic tends to take a long time to develop bonds.
I went to London by train. Got a hot chocolate with marshmallows and thoroughly enjoyed it. Did a lot of sketching during my 2 hour journey.
Arriving at Paddington never ceases to amaze me. The arrivals hall is so impressive I always have to look up in awe. I also love the big scale of everything and the crowds of people with luggage walking away from the trains. It’s like a movie set to me.
Because I hadn’t really thought about the time it would take me to get into London, I actually arrived quite late and thus didn’t have much time to roam around before El finished Uni for the day. I was sure to buy a filled croissant from one of the bakers on Paddington though. I always do. They are DELICIOUS!
With instructions on where to meet El, I headed down to the Underground station. I was quite nervous at this point, but I tried to hide it by eating my warm croissant (getting crumbs everywhere). I had been instructed to meet her at Earls Court, so with butterflies in my tummy I boarded the first tube that would hopefully take me there.
After one switch I arrived. I know this is something most Londoners do on a daily basis and think nothing of, but at this point I was so so proud of myself I could almost explode.
I met up with El on the platform and went home with her to get rid of all my luggage.
Once we were at her place we realized that most shops were going to close soon, so instead of rushing back into town we relaxed and took a tube to a fantastic middle eastern restaurant that did takeaways. They cooked their food in a glass cube in front of you. The smell was just mouthwatering… The bread was made in stone ovens in the background. Gaaaah. London! Why do you have all of this!? Stop enticing me!
We went back to hers and ate our yummy food on the floor. The evening was spent planning the next day and what we wanted to do.
SATURDAY
We went on the tube in the morning. Ellen looked over my shoulder with widened eyes. She whispered (probably a bit loud) “Oh my god, It’s Dara O’Brien. Behind you. It’s Dara O’Brien.” I looked over my shoulder and saw the famous comedian sitting there, reading a book, looking stern as usual. I froze. At this point I really wanted to go up to him and say hi, but I was SO SCARED I didn’t. I’m a huge fan of Dara O’brien. For those of you who don’t know him, Here’s a pic:
And another:
I REALLY REGRET not saying anything. I was just so scared that he would be annoyed to be approached since he probably gets approached by fans all the time. *sigh* Oh well…. On we went to London central.
London is stupidly busy in the weekends, we both knew this, but what we didn’t expect was the Chinese New Year still being celebrated in China town. We had planned to have Dim Sum (which google images says looks like this:) for breakfast.
Ellen (being all chinese and stuff), is quite familiar with China Town and knows where to get the good stuff. When we arrived, we were both quite stunned by the huge mass of people crowding the streets. We could hear shaolin drums (I call them that, okay) playing really loudly (to the point of shaking your innards), so we decided to investigate by following the noise. Turns out there was a dragon dance going on, blessing all the shops one by one.
(The dragon was a small 2 person one, but manned by two shaolin people, it was impressive)
The dragon, accompanied by a group of shaolin doods playing the drums and other instruments (and a guy with a big flag), went around and threw lettuce(!) by the entrances of different shops. Ellen told me this is a blessing of good fortune for the year to come. Apparently each lettuce has a hidden message in it, or something like that.
The dragon was followed by a HUGE crowd of people with cameras and kids on their shoulders.
Market stalls were out everywhere in china town, selling everything from cheap plastic and paper new years stuff to chinese pancakes etc. At this point I am feeling very disappointed that the photos we took are corrupted and gone, because I would’ve loved to show you what it looked like.
We went to Ellens favourite dim sum place after fighting through the crowd. I had the most amazing meal. Never tried dim sum before and loved it. Especially the custard buns… Drool. The restaurant was packed and noisy. I loved it.
With our tummies filled we began our roaming of London city. During the day I got to touch expensive cloth, oogle at millions of buttons, go down a basement in a chinese store and buy cheap chinese school books with kanji in them, wander through soho and listen to proper London accents whilst on a lookout for prostitutes. It was bitterly cold outside, but I didn’t mind. I do think that I started getting ill at this point though, even though I couldn’t feel it at the time. :)
We went to art shops where I bought my first toolbox for puppet making. (waiting for my first stack of supplies to arrive so I can start making stuff!)
The entire day was FILLED with activity. What I love about London and the UK in general is the vast abundance of little shops. There are obviously big brands on Oxford Street and all that, but the small independent shops still survive. You don’t HAVE to buy brands. You have a choice.
In the evening Ellen had to work for a little bit as she didn’t have a break from Uni like I did. I felt a bit lazy, so I started sketching her while she worked.
In the evening I was beginning to feel a bit ill, but I just put it down to the low temperature outside and us having been exposed to it for an entire day. I thought it would just pass.
SUNDAY
I woke up feeling rubbish. Sneezing and coughing. The famous cold had grabbed me by the throat, but I shook it off, thinking that I could deal with it while I was home in Bristol. On this particular day Ellen had to leave me alone for a few hours to do some Uni work, which I didn’t mind at all. It would give me another opportunity to learn how to navigate London. I had decided that I wanted to go to the Natural History Museum after having watched some Darwin stuff on BBC Iplayer. Gotta love the man.
Ellen drew me a map of how to get there. Everything was set. But I felt so crap I told her I probably had to stay in her area until I felt better. I was really disappointed with myself. Ellen gave me the keys to her flat and told me about nice places in her neighbourhood that I could explore. So I did. I drew in coffee shops and had an English breakfast in an independent cafe (where the waiter guy wanted me to draw him). As I sat there, munching on the baked beans, I noticed white flakes of snow slowly falling down from the sky. People seemed to pause and look up as well. I immediately called Tom to tell him it was snowing in London!
Problem was… It didn’t stop snowing. And I was due to go back home the following day.
I went back to El’s flat and fell asleep in her bed (sorry El!). I just felt so ill at this point.
Finally, El came back with some chips and we munched on them together. We decided to make some food at home on this final evening, so headed out to the closest supermarket. When we opened the door we were met by snow everywhere. Everything was covered in a white blanket. Not many cars were on the roads. People were outdoors, laughing and making snowballs. Dogs were going absolutely mental. Again, at this point I would’ve LOVED to show you the pictures we took on our way to the supermarket.
London seemed to slow down.
Back at El’s again, Ellen made me some pancakes with blueberries and icecream and let me have a hot bath. What a great friend ;_; *cry*. We were not really prepared for the following day and the disruption that would be caused by the snow. I went to bed with a hot water bottle.
MONDAY
I woke up without a voice. As I walked in to Ellens room to wake her up too, I looked out through the window and saw more snow. Everything was eerily quiet. With a hot beverage, me and El looked at the news.
Snow Chaos in London! Disruption! Snow everywhere! Schools closed! Worst snow in 20 years! No London buses operating due to weather conditions! Tube lines suspended! People can’t get to work!
Oh noes!
At this point, I thought to myself: “Well, I did talk about having an adventure in London. I didn’t quite… Expect this. :D”
Ellen started checking all the travel routes to her University and my coach station. The information was confused and kept on changing. The Transport of London kept on advising people to walk. We were both in trouble. I phoned Tom to tell him of the worst case scenario: Me having to stay over again and take a coach another day. Me and El didn’t even know if the coaches were going. The innercity London buses were in a stand still. I was amazed. 10 cm of snow had made entire London ground to a halt.
Ellen got the fantastic news that University had been canceled, so she could focus entirely on getting me home. Finally, we decided to take a little risk and went to the tube station. Staff were at the doors, advising people on what to do. We found out that a tube was going in the direction of my coach, so we hopped on it and were on our way. On the over-ground track we both looked out at the neighbourhoods we passed. Everything was really quiet.
We arrived at a few stations before my coach. After confusion we managed to get on another tube that actually took us to the coach station. Success!
Ellens feet were soaked. This really wasn’t trainer weather. We found my coach and Ellen waited in the queue with me. A guy approached us and chatted with us until it was time to board the coach. Apparently he had been in a car crash due to the slippery roads and now had to go back home to get insurance sorted. He was smiling, but I could see that he was disappointed and needed to vent to someone.
Finally I got on my coach and El could go home. I noticed that a lot of people who didn’t have tickets wanted to get on the coach and were pestering the driver. Apparently the entire national express ticketing service had crashed and thus people were really upset. The driver could only take on people who had the exact money for a ticket since he didn’t have any change, but he had to repeat this fact about 30 times.
He dropped his bag on his drivers seat and exclaimed: “Jesus wept!”
Some people still tried to get on for free whilst he was standing in the isle of the coach (I was sitting just a few seats from the front). He looked at them and then straight at me with a resigned expression. I smiled back at him, attempting to be reassuring.
He nodded at me: “Cover your ears sweetheart, because I’m gonna start swearin’.”
Me: “oh oh.” I covered my ears.
The driver was absolutely hilarious. I loved him to bits. He was a big man with graying hair and reminded me of my dad.
Finally the near anarchy was settled and the people who had money got on the coach. They were all smiling. The mood in the coach was good all around. The driver began his safety talk. He made the people laugh many times while explaining the rules, for example the emergency exits, one being in the ceiling in case the bus were to roll over. I let out a little gasp when he mentioned this. He looked at me and said: “Don’t worry, we’re not gonna roll over today!” People giggled.
When the safety talk was finished, he exclaimed: “Lets get the heck outta here!”, while some of the passengers (including me) let out a little “Yaaay” :D
I think most people were just happy to find a working coach.
And so my journey home began. I slept and coughed most of the way. When I arrived in Bristol I took a taxi back to our flat. The taxidriver must’ve pitied me as he gave me a little discount. He also told me to drink a mixture of lemon and honey. :) What a sweet man.
The moment I came in through our front door, Tom handed me a newly bought mocha from the local coffee shop and let me have a hot bath.
And so my adventure ended. :)
RAMBLE RAMBLE. I doubt anyone but my parents are gonna bother reading all of that! Jesus! :D
Now I’m going out in the snow again!
Onos. Turns out that the photos taken during my visit in London have now corrupted El’s memory card. Normally this probably wouldn’t been a huge deal (just disappointing), but El also had actual Uni work on that same card which has vanished. I can only feel poo for her… :(
I will write about my time in London tomorrow, without the help of pictures.
… Here is something you perhaps didn’t know about batman.
