Third Eye Blind’s “Blinded (When I See You)” is starting to appear on radio station playlists… “Then when you believe that we are fixed now from our birth. And I’ve just fallen back to earth, still you know I’ll try again. ‘Cause I believe that we are lucky, we are golden, we are stolen manners in the days when we were one… So when I see you, despite all that we’ve become, I’m still blinded, but I’m still staring down the sun. When I see you, I’m blinded…”
The weather had been exceedingly good all week, to even Mr Kipling’s standards. The hot weather seems to have the effect of making people emerge into the open sunlight, especially the westerners. I don’t believe I’ve seen so much tanned flesh since last summer! The hot weather also has the unfortunate effect of bringing the freaks out into the open. I must have been stared at by around 20 people when I was out with Yogi and K on Thursday (and no, I did not have brocolli stuck in my teeth). I don’t mind the usual type of stare which is a non-threatening passive type of overpronounced glance. I dislike the types from tough-guy wannabes who stare at me as though they carry weight behind those eyeballs. I noticed one trying to stare me down as I approached him in the street. I looked at him and then away and then back again and he was still trying to staring at me, with monobrow arched. I stared at him all the way till I passed him and I don’t think he liked that one bit because I heard him mumble something as I passed. So it’s okay for him to stare at me but not okay for me to stare at him. Hmmm, how does that work? I don’t hate many things in the world but the thing I possibly hate the most is unprovoked attitude from bad boy wannabes. Too many of them have attitude and give attitude but can’t follow through when they receive attitude. Most of them know themselves that they only have enough backbone and brawn to lift up and drink from the almighty barrel of stupid.
One of the best publications in recent years is the freebie daily newspaper for the London Underground, Metro, which I usually pick up everytime I take a trip into central London. It contains a nice selection of news and one of my favourite sections is “The Think Tank” which I always have a shot at on during commute. On Thursday, it was the first time I can remember being able to answer everything correctly. I felt smart again.
Yesterday, for the first time in a while it rained. It’s nice when the umbrellas come out as a shield against the sun, but yesterday I think I saw parasols doubled as brollies. Yesterday was also a day of mistaken location and girly shopping. Had arranged to meet a tanned L and we ended up trying to meet on the correct platform, but at different train stations! This was the first time it’d happened to either of us and I had a weird feeling she was at the other station (which we had decided to meet at the last time we met up) when the time was 5 minutes over the set meeting time (she’s the most punctual person ever). I realised the situational incovenience of being in the London Underground with its null mobile phone reception setup, so had to run up to street level a few times to send and check my phone for messages. So after about 1.5 hours we managed to meet up and from then on I was treated to an enlightening few hours of girly shopping. The last time I went shopping with any femmes was a few weeks ago with H so hopefully at least another month will elapse before I am subjected to water torture it again. I actually don’t mind going girly shopping, but it has to be restricted to say once a month or once a fortnight. I don’t think there’s a man on this planet with enough energy to endure shopping as often as women could do it (i.e. every day). ^_^
{shudder}
Flashback to Bangkok, shopping for ~12 hours straight. Feet were destroyed.
{/shudder}
One of the highlights of the day was sinking 2 strawberries and cream iced Frappuccinos from Starbucks, courtesy of a “buy one, get one free” coupon. They’re awesome, especially with the magical whipped cream on top. I say “magical” because it seemingly has the power to make people forget about watching the calories in their diet; kind of like a “pleasure now, suffer later” devil’s deal. Anyway, all those blended fruit drinks make me want to go out and buy a whip to lash out at everyone out there who owns their own smoothie machine. Or go out an just buy my own smoothie machine. (How much do whips cost again?) I remembered H telling me of the time she was in New York and Starbucks were doing a Toffee Nut Frappuccino, which is allegedly the dripping dew of Heaven. So much so that it necessitated a cab ride into the city for the sole purpose of getting a fix. Twice! I do like blended coffee based beverages but I have no idea how some people can drink so much coffee in the space of 24 hours. I think the most I’ve personally seen was Sanje when we were on holiday. In just a single day he went through about 8 Frappuccino bottles and climbed another rung on the ladder of early caffeinated death. That was also the first day I found out what the term “bouncing off the walls” looked like.
I can’t believe how quickly the week has gone by. People usually ask me what I have planned for the week, but lately it feels more like they should be asking what the week has planned for me. Time really does seem to fly sometimes. I wish I knew the places it flew to.
