circumstance blog

like the weather

The weather is getting tiresome again. No hope in sight. I wanted to run but I was waiting for a break in the rain which never came, and now its dark. It is very warm and snugly inside, making it very hard to want to move at all. Just ask spike, he has become a permanent part of our bed:

I know I should be working on a million things, but I can't seem to tear myself away from the gas fire. Listening to some weird outake tracks of the beach boys, "wouldn't it be nice?" I can't help but think, yes, yes it would!

Posted by shannon at 05:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

set up, knock down

I rode my bike around Battersea and Clapham this afternoon. The street is bumpy and uneven, there are no bike paths. There are many planes circling overhead, always the planes. It used to be I could hear the jets flying over my house in Bernal Heights, but here they are not so much heard as they are seen. Big bloated birds, they make London seem so important, people coming and going, always coming and going, even if you can’t see them all from your seat at Fresh & Wild's juice bar on Lavender Hill. People want to be here. London is an important place, so the planes tell me.

I have been trying to get myself together. For many months now actually, but as some things are finally sorting themselves out, like a decent place to live, it becomes more pressing. It's just a coincidence that the New Year coincides with my need to get myself on some sort of path. I loathe the idea of making new year's resolutions, to come up with a list of self-improvements just because of the date on the calendar. Indeed, making resolutions seem destined for failure. People who tend to make them are the same people that clog up the gyms and yoga classes every January, only to abandon their plans a few weeks later. (Thank god for that, actually. Who likes crowds?) I prefer to set goals. (Which always brings to my mind the CIV song set your goals. Come on all you sXe's out there, sing along! Pump your fist in the air!) Anyway, although I mention that I am making some goals, I prefer to keep them to myself. Set your own!

I added another list to my lists page. It's an exercise from a self-help book (yeah, I know, groan all you want) that I found on my hard drive. The list is qualities of my dream job/hell job. I didn’t really find it helpful at all in finding a job, as most real jobs involve doing crap you hate. But it was fun to think about, maybe someday a reality. If you’re not doing your dream job right now, make up a list of your own whydontcha?

Another thing I wanted to post was the song that inspired the name for this site, Silkworm's Nerve's from their Firewater release. Its not a great song, but one day it just stuck in my head.

Posted by shannon at 08:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

merry christmas everyone! I upgraded

merry christmas everyone!

I upgraded my movable type so I have added a search feature. More changes to come.

I had a lovely mellow christmas in which Bill did most of the cooking. Hopefully we will be going out for new years, but I have no idea where. Anyone who lives in London, please send me suggestions!

Posted by shannon at 10:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Went to Wimbledon tonight for

Went to Wimbledon tonight for Bill's employers Christmas Party, which was at the dog track. Sometimes I feel like such a puritan here, as I found it amusing that not only could you place at bet at the track, but also down trackside with an independent bookie. Such a situation in the states is very much illegal.

Gambling is one of the many things I wouldn’t even think of doing, even though here it is second nature to most, along with smoking and drinking, of which I also don’t partake. I did have a good time making pound bets and yelling for my dog to win and I even came out a few ahead in the end. Don’t think I'll be making it a habit though. Also, I couldn't get the image of Blur's Parklife out of my head all night. I tried for some snaps, this was the best I could muster.

I spent the day cleaning up my files, and I found a few lists that I had made for various reasons, so I'm adding it to my site. Hopefully I will be adding a new list every now and again.

Lastly here is a photo of Chelsea Bridge taken at about 4:30 this afternoon, with the full moon rising. Can't wait for the winter solstice, when the days will finally be getting longer.

Posted by shannon at 12:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I must say that it

I must say that it feels great when people tell me that my photos remind them of the places where they were taken. It is one of the things I set out to do, to make someone feel like they want to be there, inside the picture. I want to create a sense of place because I enjoy photos that do that, whether I have been to that particular place or not. I walked around Chelsea today, and took a few photos which I won't be able to post for a while. Here's one of the Albert Bridge, which I took to get back home.

I got a free "always 2 shots tall" latte at Coffee Republic, yum freebie. It was free with the purchase of the Evening Standard, which I find funny because I have seen signs in some of their shops that offer a free Evening Standard with a cup of coffee. I think I got the better deal.

When you first move to a new place its nice to get something in the mail that’s actually for you in the slew of mail for the many previous tenants. Today I received a beautiful christmas card from a good friend, thanks jane!

I finished Neil Gaiman's American Gods today, and I must say I enjoyed it immensely. I haven’t read any of his comics, and I probably would never had read this novel if it had been a graphic novel. I dunno why but the artwork in comics has always turned me off, and the only comic I ever really liked is peter bagge's Hate, but last I heard he was doodling for some right wing rag now. lame.

I finally met Mike & Jess yesterday after having met Mike online through his amusing blog. They live close by so hopefully I will be seeing more of them. Yay internet, making me friends! Speaking of friends, without my DSL I really miss all my chat pals, so I want to shout out (in no particular order) to jane, ert, nicholas, mark, peter, xtian, leo and all the other pancakes and icbers out there. I MISS YOU! Instead of posting and chatting I will be trying to write email instead, since that can be done mostly offline. So expect something in your inbox, people. Who knows, if I have your real address, maybe I'll send you some REAL mail!

Posted by shannon at 11:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Location, Location, Location

The past few days have been busy ones, but now we're all moved in. We had to haul all our stuff up 5 flights of stairs. Thankfully we didn’t have too many boxes, having lived in furnished places for the past year. I'm so tired of moving around. At least this flat feels more like a home than the previous place, so much so that I've started unpacking for real, unwrapping things that I boxed up well over a year ago in San Francisco. The flat itself is a bit smaller, and it's not as nice, but man, the location is far superior. Misha has been enjoying Battersea Park, which is right across the street, and I have been enjoying walking along the Thames. It feels so nice to live near water again, even if the Thames is only about as wide as where the Lambertville bridge spans the Delaware between New Jersey and Pennsylvania (a bridge which I have walked over many many times, almost a decade ago). Now I will be crossing Chelsea bridge many many times.

Yesterday I walked west along the shore and saw house boats and Dutch barges docked across the river at Chelsea wharf. They reminded me of walking along the Amstel in Amsterdam. (Why is it that the things I find comfort in are things that remind me of things from my past?) There were so many runners in the park this morning, despite the rain. I am psyched to have a decent place to go running again. There is even a track in the park, which makes me want to work more on getting faster rather than going farther. That way whenever I do run my first marathon, maybe I can do it under 4 hours. Yeah, right! I'm not even planning on attempting such a thing for a while. I've been so off and on with my running this year I just don’t feel it would be right to take on such a huge task at this point in time, it would be doomed to fail.

I went up to Angel today and saw Christian off, back to America and eventually back to "the best place on earth". Relieved him of a few books. I was sad to see him go, but I can understand it. Today was a perfect day to escape London, it being a typical one in which the sun never even bothered to put in an appearance. To cheer myself I bought some fancy French verbena scented soap at a big mall near the station, which was crawling with Christmas shoppers scooping up strands of garland and pre-packaged gift sets of junk. Saw some kid on the tube with this tacky Nirvana/Cobain hoodie on, I can't understand why they are so much more of a big deal here than they are at home. No "cool" kid would be caught dead wearing a shirt like that, but then again maybe they weren't cool kids.

I have no DSL and limited dial-up access, but there's heat and hot water and an old colour tv, so I'm pretty glad to be here at the moment.

Posted by shannon at 09:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

off line

Just a quick post to say I won't have any internet connection for a while. Dunno how long. Be back soon!

Posted by shannon at 12:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

vickie and al

Ok, the museum pictures are up. I actually think its kind of silly to take photos in a museum, but since I was alone I didn’t have anyone else to share my thoughts with, so I shared them with my camera. I even added captions this time! (Sorry if you have a small screen resolution as you might have to scroll down to read them.)

Posted by shannon at 08:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

steppin' out

I went to the V&A museum today. I've been meaning to go for a while now. I was there all afternoon but I felt like I hardly made a dent in the huge collection. I saw the Bernard collection of photographs, which was ok. The bulk of the collection was more photographs as historical record, rather than art, although a few were indeed very beautiful. The modern documentary photography exhibit was far more interesting, and it included a Tina Barney photo that I actually liked (red sheath). Usually I find her work rather stiff and the subject matter of her well-to-do family rather soap opera-ish and cheap.

From there I moved through displays of miniatures, protest and propaganda posters, the Frank Llyod Wright room which included a reconstruction of an interior of Falling Water. I have a few photos which I will soon post. I also discovered the aperture/shutter speed priority modes on the digital camera, finally allowing me to take night photos! I wish I had figured this out sooner. Here is an arty photo I took heading back to the tube.

I am moving next week, and I have much packing to do. Goodbye Highgate, hello Battersea!

Posted by shannon at 09:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

twice a day

I would never leave the house if I didn’t have to walk the dog. That’s all I got.

Posted by shannon at 10:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)