shaunism

Sunday, 9 September 2012

[The Life of Shaun #453] Thanks for the Warm-Up

Apologies on the last TLOS about "Architecture's Ugly Ducklings May Not Get Time to Be Swans"; I meant to send that to my other group, which is for people who like receiving those sorts of things I come across. Sorry if you felt spammed.

I've been sad, but not totally surprised, to hear that the Paralympics have not been getting much air time or press in many parts of the world. Here in the UK, they have been nearly as big as the Olympics. Perhaps it's because the Paralympics started in London and so were "coming home", but for the first time ever, all the events of the Paralympics games have sold out. In fact, it was just as impossible to get tickets to these games as the main games. The opening ceremonies were lavish and start-studded (Stephen Hawking!), as will be tonight's closing ceremonies. I'm very proud of Britain for being as interested in and enthusiastic about the Paralympics as the Olympics; it should be that way everywhere, and I hope Rio will build on London's example.

The most amazing event I saw was blind football. I had no idea it existed (or was even possible), so I was blown away when I saw it on TV. It sounds cheesy, but seeing these blind guys running around the pitch, playing full-on football, I really felt small. I don't know the backstory to any of the players, but just seeing what they were doing, and on an Olympic level, was humbling. I have total respect.

The ad campaign for the Paralympics was inspired. As the main games began, signs were put up all over the UK to promote the Paralympics, and they simply read "Thanks for the warm-up." And on TV was this ad, whose starting point is meant to be the closing ceremonies of the Olympic games. Brilliant.

I will leave you now as I am heading up to Mary Keany's place to watch the closing ceremonies and, as she has a view of the Olympic stadium, the fireworks.

Shame about the blackout abroad - you've missed a great show.

Cheers,

Shaun

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Sunday, 29 July 2012

[The Life of Shaun #451] London Town

In the past several weekends, Rahul and I have taken to exploring London. It's amazing how much energy you have on a weekend day when you're not out until 4:00!

Today's destination was a dive deep into the depths of hipsterhood, Frank's Café atop the Peckham multistorey carpark. Like so many misjudged shopping centre schemes around the UK, this one is blighted, little used and crying out for redevelopment. So into this empty space has stepped a (very "modern") art space and café. Below are some pics from our jaunt SotR.

We also had a gathering Friday night to watch the Olympic opening ceremonies. I loved them, but know there's some disagreement and/or ambivalence for some, especially regarding the giant baby head. I didn't get the giant baby head either. Perhaps that section would've made more sense if I'd read all the books they were referencing.

I was afraid they might try to out-show Beijing, which would've been a massive fail. But they focused on what Britain has, its history, and all the influence it's had on modern culture. And I loved they threw humour into it.

All in all it makes up for the Olympic logo being Lisa Simpson giving a blowjob. Almost.

But whatever you thought of the ceremony, if you were based in the US, check out this link:

http://deadspin.com/5929778/heres-the-opening-ceremony-tribute-to-terrorism-victims-nbc-doesnt-want-you-to-see

NBC edited out one of the nicest moments of the event, a tribute to the victims of the 7/7 bombings in London, which happened the day after London was awarded the 2012 games (and just one month before I moved here). I have no idea what they were thinking, but they've supplied a statement that they were tailoring their editing for an American audience. Apparently, Americans know nothing about the scourge of terrorism.

Seeing empty seats in gymnastics on the TV has annoyed me, but still love the games being here. And seems most Londoners do, too. Londoners are great at pretending to hate their city, while secretly loving it. That façade's torn away a bit right now as we bask in the global spotlight (where, despite our complaints and naysaying, is where we all believe we belong). I know it's temporary, so I am enjoying it while it's here.

Proud Londoner,

Shaun

Rye Lane, one of Peckaham's high streets. Peckham is an African and Afro-Caribbean majority neighbourhood.

The Peckhamplex, with its multistorey carpark behind.

And, yes, the gallery and café were literally on the top floors of the carpark.

A bit of early 80s memorabilia.

The "sculpture" gallery.

Frank's Café, at the top of the carpark.

The view from Frank's is stunning, though!

We had a rare London thunderstorm while dining - St. Paul's and the Shard became silhouettes across the Thames.

But it cleared up quickly, so one more gratuitous shot for the Londonistas out there.

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Thursday, 21 June 2012

[The Life of Shaun #450] A plug, or, something to entice

Most of you probably know that I've been a keen Bill Bryson fan since happenstance led me to find one of his books, "Neither Here Nor There", on a shelf in my sister's chambre de bonne in Paris. In the nearly two decades since that chance meeting, I've read and often reread everything he's published. I've introduced him to many people, sometimes more successfully than others. I'll admit freely his more recent works are more mature than the first ones, but I matured along with his writing, and I love them all as they are.

Below is an excerpt I've just reread, the introduction from "A Short History of Nearly Everything". Even if you've no intention on delving into the Bryson oeuvre, these nine paragraphs capture a lot of the amazement that there is in just being us. No pressure to read, but hope you enjoy it if you do. If not, I know a cave with great algae on its walls.

Cheers,

Shaun

A Short History of Nearly Everything (Introduction)

Welcome. And congratulations. I am delighted that you could make it. Getting here wasn't easy, I know. In fact, I suspect it was a little tougher than you realize.

To begin with, for you to be here now trillions of drifting atoms had somehow to assemble in an intricate and intriguingly obliging manner to create you. It's an arrangement so specialized and particular that it has never been tried before and will only exist this once. For the next many years (we hope) these tiny particles will uncomplainingly engage in all the billions of deft, cooperative efforts necessary to keep you intact and let you experience the supremely agreeable but generally underappreciated state known as existence.

Why atoms take this trouble is a bit of a puzzle. Being you is not a gratifying experience at the atomic level. For all their devoted attention, your atoms don't actually care about you-indeed, don't even know that you are there. They don't even know that they are there. They are mindless particles, after all, and not even themselves alive. (It is a slightly arresting notion that if you were to pick yourself apart with tweezers, one atom at a time, you would produce a mound of fine atomic dust, none of which had ever been alive but all of which had once been you.) Yet somehow for the period of your existence they will answer to a single overarching impulse: to keep you you.

The bad news is that atoms are fickle and their time of devotion is fleeting-fleeting indeed. Even a long human life adds up to only about 650,000 hours. And when that modest milestone flashes past, or at some other point thereabouts, for reasons unknown your atoms will shut you down, silently disassemble, and go off to be other things. And that's it for you.

Still, you may rejoice that it happens at all. Generally speaking in the universe it doesn't, so far as we can tell. This is decidedly odd because the atoms that so liberally and congenially flock together to form living things on Earth are exactly the same atoms that decline to do it elsewhere. Whatever else it may be, at the level of chemistry life is curiously mundane: carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen, a little calcium, a dash of sulfur, a light dusting of other very ordinary elements-nothing you wouldn't find in any ordinary drugstore-and that's all you need. The only thing special about the atoms that make you is that they make you. That is of course the miracle of life.

Whether or not atoms make life in other corners of the universe, they make plenty else; indeed, they make everything else. Without them there would be no water or air or rocks, no stars and planets, no distant gassy clouds or swirling nebulae or any of the other things that make the universe so usefully material. Atoms are so numerous and necessary that we easily overlook that they needn't actually exist at all. There is no law that requires the universe to fill itself with small particles of matter or to produce light and gravity and the other physical properties on which our existence hinges. There needn't actually be a universe at all. For the longest time there wasn't. There were no atoms and no universe for them to float about in. There was nothing-nothing at all anywhere.

So thank goodness for atoms. But the fact that you have atoms and that they assemble in such a willing manner is only part of what got you here. To be here now, alive in the twenty-first century and smart enough to know it, you also had to be the beneficiary of an extraordinary string of biological good fortune. Survival on Earth is a surprisingly tricky business. Of the billions and billions of species of living thing that have existed since the dawn of time, most-99.99 percent-are no longer around. Life on Earth, you see, is not only brief but dismayingly tenuous. It is a curious feature of our existence that we come from a planet that is very good at promoting life but even better at extinguishing it.

The average species on Earth lasts for only about four million years, so if you wish to be around for billions of years, you must be as fickle as the atoms that made you. You must be prepared to change everything about yourself-shape, size, color, species affiliation, everything-and to do so repeatedly. That's much easier said than done, because the process of change is random. To get from "protoplasmal primordial atomic globule" (as the Gilbert and Sullivan song put it) to sentient upright modern human has required you to mutate new traits over and over in a precisely timely manner for an exceedingly long while. So at various periods over the last 3.8 billion years you have abhorred oxygen and then doted on it, grown fins and limbs and jaunty sails, laid eggs, flicked the air with a forked tongue, been sleek, been furry, lived underground, lived in trees, been as big as a deer and as small as a mouse, and a million things more. The tiniest deviation from any of these evolutionary shifts, and you might now be licking algae from cave walls or lolling walrus-like on some stony shore or disgorging air through a blowhole in the top of your head before diving sixty feet for a mouthful of delicious sandworms.

Not only have you been lucky enough to be attached since time immemorial to a favored evolutionary line, but you have also been extremely-make that miraculously-fortunate in your personal ancestry. Consider the fact that for 3.8 billion years, a period of time older than the Earth's mountains and rivers and oceans, every one of your forebears on both sides has been attractive enough to find a mate, healthy enough to reproduce, and sufficiently blessed by fate and circumstances to live long enough to do so. Not one of your pertinent ancestors was squashed, devoured, drowned, starved, stranded, stuck fast, untimely wounded, or otherwise deflected from its life's quest of delivering a tiny charge of genetic material to the right partner at the right moment in order to perpetuate the only possible sequence of hereditary combinations that could result-eventually, astoundingly, and all too briefly-in you.

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Tuesday, 19 June 2012

[The Life of Shaun #449] Berlin macht immer Spaß!

I went to Berlin the weekend before Norway with Rahul and his friend, Brent, who is visiting from Australia. No need to gush over the continent's greatest city yet again, but just thought I'd share two pics from the weekend.

Also, to the surprise of many, we had two kick-ass vegan dinners while there, one at Kopps, and one at La Mano Verde (have the chocolate cake if you ever go - phenomenal!). So contrarian to German stereotypes is my mistress.

Cheers,

Shaun

Only in Berlin: find you don't have that sling when you realise you need it? Just have one delivered!

This was taken on my way to the airport Sunday morning; these three old men were waiting at the gated door to the bar for it to open, which it was just starting to do as I passed. I think Berlin needs to move up my list of potential retirement locations!

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Sunday, 17 June 2012

[The Life of Shaun #448] Update on Mama - Post Party

Hi all,

Several people have asked after Mom, so thought I'd send an update.

I went back over to America last month for my Mom's and her twin sister's birthday party. Lara and Lisa put together an awesome party at an outdoor space in Peotone and, fantastically, surprised Mom by arranging for all her friends from her old volleyball team to show up to surprise her. The surprise happened before I arrived, but everyone said it was really touching and Mom was over the moon.

The party Lara and Lisa put together was perfect, despite cool weather. In addition to the volleyball team, friends and family came in from literally all over the world to see Mom. We had food and drinks, followed by drinks and drinks, gossip and storytelling, and a great montage of photographs and newspaper clippings from when the ladies played volleyball and their years immediately after. Mom was so pleased and seemed emotionally and physically recharged afterwards.

Mom always said she wouldn't do chemo if she ever got cancer. However, she decided to give it a go after her oncologist explained that newer chemo treatments aren't as harsh or taxing as the old. So earlier in May, she had the first of six scheduled rounds of chemo, each separated by three weeks. Despite the prediction of minimal side effects, Mom became very ill for several days and felt horrible. As a result, she's decided not to pursue chemo, but will continue to stick to her healthy anti-cancer diet. Between her first scan in January and pre-chemo scan last month, the tumours in her lungs didn't grow at all, so we're hoping the healthy lifestyle will keep Mom's body fighting the tumours.

I skype with her several times a week and she looks and sounds good, is active and feeling positive. Lara, Lisa and the grandkids are around often, as well as Mom's sisters, Dar and Judy, Mom's "third daughter" Janine, and other rotating family members and friends, all of which keeps Mom busy and happy.

So all-in-all, she is doing well and we're, cliché, taking things day by day. I'll be going back out this Summer and again in the Autumn. I never thought I'd spend so much time in Manteno, Illinois! <grin> I'll continue to keep you posted, but for now, send Mom thoughts, love and positive vibes - and eMails, phone calls and visits don't hurt either.

Cheers,

Shaun

Mom (in her sassy blonde wig) and the other hell-raisers.

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Wednesday, 13 June 2012

[The Life of Shaun #447] Caveat emptor

This past weekend, my boyfriend, Rahul, and I took a long weekend away to the Saudi Arabia of Scandinavia, Norway. With a population just under five million, and being the fifth largest oil exporter and third largest gas exporter in the world, there are plenty of petrodollars (or petrokroner, to be precise) floating around the economy, boosting wages and prices, both of which are heavily taxed, enriching anyone lucky enough to be Norwegian* and impoverishing anyone else foolish enough to go there.

The first thing anyone says when you tell them you're going to Norway is how expensive it is. As a Londoner, you take the warning in stride. And then you sit down at an average outside bar in this resource-rich country and order your first £10 ($16) pint of beer and officially and truly feel sticker shock. It actually feels novel and a bit decadent, and you delight in the absurdity of it all. But with each passing £7-10 ($11-16) pint and £90 ($140) dinner**, it grows tiresome. Eventually, you're just not having a good time, despite all Norway's potential, because you feel like you're being ripped off constantly.

But you do get what you pay for. Both of the cities we visited, the capital, Oslo, and Norway's second city, Bergen, were beautiful, clean and well-serviced by equally clean, efficient public services. And a benefit to the high prices is that neither of these cities has been overtaken by stag and hen does. The streets (heck, the bars!) are bereft of drunken Anglos and Eurotrash, despite their beguiling settings and being reachable by low-cost air carriers.

Oslo regularly ranks highly on the "Best Places to Live" list and it's easy to see why - it's pretty perfect on paper, and, with enough money, you could have a really nice life there (or in Bergen, which I preferred). Unfortunately, for those of us who need a little grit and friction in our lives, you'd also have a very dull life there. I will take the (less) overpriced maddening jumble that is London any day. But it was nice to see -- once.

Yours in post-Norwegian poverty,

Shaun

*An anecdote that illustrates the Norwegian phenomenon: all rich countries attract migrants from poorer ones to service its key cities; rarely are the staff of restaurants firms native-born, for example. In Norway, the poorer immigrants serving the diners at its restaurants are Swedish.

**Two curries, a shared appetiser and the cheapest bottle of white.

Oslo's main shopping street.

Oslo from the new opera house.

Me, counting the change and having a small seizure after paying for our first pints.

Typical Oslo streetscape.

Norway has not signed onto the whaling ban.

Vigeland Sculpture Park, a delightful (and free) diversion in Oslo.

The pinnacle at the centre of the park.

The Bergen Railway, connecting Oslo to Bergen, is called "Europe's greatest railway". Although it lacked what I imagine is the sudden dramatic landscapes of a similar journey through the alps, it is a fairly consistently beautiful ride once you're a bit outside of Oslo. The lands of Southern Norway, I have to say, reminded me very much of Alaska.

The city of Bergen is built between "seven mountains", providing a more dramatic setting.

Its streets are eminently beguiling (the exact streets that would swarm with tourists anywhere more economical).

Bergen was in the Hanseatic League and its portside buildings are a UNESCO World Heritage site.

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Sunday, 29 April 2012

[The Life of Shaun #446] Swimathon

Hi all,

This is off-topic, so apologies.

As many of you know, my Mom was diagnosed with lung and brain cancer in January. There are lots of events people do to raise money for cancer foundations, but you who know me, it's unlikely I will be running a 10k or doing a swimathon (see where this is going?) any time soon. (When are they going to have a "Pints for a Cure" event?!)

So I am going to take this chance to plug for my friend, Gerardo (CCed here), who is participating in the swimathon this week. He is donating all his contributions to Marie Curie Cancer Care, so if you'd like to donate to his swim in acknowledgement of my unlikelihood of doing similar, you can here:

http://my.artezglobal.com/personalPage.aspx?registrationID=380982&langPref=en-CA

(It's a UK event, but it generously accepts donations from anywhere.)

No pressure at all, but wanted to put it out there.

Hope it's nice where you are this weekend!

Cheers,

Shaun

From Gerardo's sponsorship page:

"Because I am a strong believer of supporting research for the advancement of science and because many dear relatives and friends have lost the battle against cancer I thought I should take active part and make my own contribution. I've decided to do a Swimathon on Sunday April 29th, 2012. I'll be swimming 2.5 km at the Porchester Centre to raise money for Marie Curie Cancer Care. So if you're feeling generous and want to support this cause please DONATE! And because I got in a massive row with Olly Murs for not supporting his charity, please donate generously.

Many, many thanks for your support!"

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Thursday, 5 April 2012

[The Life of Shaun #445] 100% Slumlord!

As many of you know, when I "bought" my flat, I only purchased a 35% share. Britain in general, and London specifically, is a very expensive place to buy a home. To help first-time and lower income buyers, the government has myriad shifting schemes that help you get on the housing ladder. In 2008, when I moved in, I bought on what was then called "Shared Ownership". With this I bought a 35% stake in the flat and then paid a subsidised rent to the housing association for the other 65%. The idea is that in the future you'll buy a bigger share as you can afford it.

Now, today, just short of four years later, I have completed on a re-mortgage to "staircase", in the vernacular, to 100% ownership. It meant I had to move to a brand new, 30-year mortgage to be able to afford the payments, but I am now officially and fully a slumlord.

Very happy to own my little piece of the East End (and get out of the ever-raising rent portion - was to be 7% this year!).

Cheers,

Shaun

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Thursday, 9 February 2012

[The Life of Shaun #444] Greetings from Manteno, IL!

Hi all,

Just wanted to send an update to let some of you know what's been up with me, and update some of you on the recent happenings.

Two weeks ago, my sisters flew to London for a long weekend city break. That same night, we learned that my Mom had been diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer that day. The three of us immediately booked a flight out to Chicago and left the next morning, my sisters with only their weekend carry-on bags in hand.

Fourteen temporal days and a lifetime later, I have a few moments alone at the Country Inn Suites off I-57. The first few days were traumatic, but eventually levelled off as we moved from despair to supporting roles. Mom's initial prognosis was better than first feared, which made everyone feel a little bit better. Also, my sisters and I pushed Mom to get another opinion with a doctor who's more tuned in than the sole oncologist at my Mom's rural hospital. She explained all the medical reports from the first day my Mom went into the hospital and connected all the dots for us. There are more treatments out there than the country doc advised, so we're laying foundations to get Mom the treatments she decides on.

I am heading back to London Saturday night. Lisa is returning to Greece on the same flight to pack up her house and move her daughter and herself to Naperville to be near Mom and guide her on her treatment. Lara won't be returning to Italy at all and instead will be setting up the Chicago area home for Lisa and her. Lara's children and husband arrive tomorrow, as does our Dad. So, as unlikely as it ever seemed, the Coley family will be reunited again in Illinois, in Winter*.

I will take a short moment here to segue into a rant: tomorrow I have to attend an interview with my Mom to decide whether or not she's eligible to enrol in a government programme to pay for the treatment she needs. My Mom has Medicare A, but B doesn't kick in until July, so she either has to politely ask the cancer not to progress for six months or she has to apply to other options. There is every real chance she may not be able to afford treatment to keep her alive. If I were a spiteful person, I would wish this situation on each and every person who is against universal health care in America. But I am kind and magnanimous, so I will wish it only on congressional Repugnicans instead. I am completely and fully baffled how anyone (other than the super rich) finds this system preferable to any of Europe's, Canada's, Australia's - basically every country of which America considers itself the 'leader'.

Cheers from the frozen prairie,

Shaun

*The fifth-warmest in Chicago's history, thankfully, but that relief is screeching to an end this weekend: Saturday's high will be -5°C.

Sunday, 22 January 2012

[The Life of Shaun #443] Dublin take two

In a case of history repeating itself, I found myself in Dublin again with Mary Keany six years after our first visit. Some things have changed - by all accounts, the Celtic Tiger is dead, or at best, meekly limping along, and some of the city's swagger is gone; everywhere there was talk about how bad things there were, whereas before there was endless optimism. Other things have not - it is still terribly expensive (especially with the diminished pound) and the people (and their accents) are just as lovely. Fortunately, this trip was scheduled to visit my friend Matt who's over from Seattle for work, so at least we escaped the hotel fleecing. I really enjoyed the city this time, saw a lot more of its charm and can say that I am now officially a fan.

The trip was subdued - nothing touristy at all, just dining, drinking and lounging - so I won't say much. But I will take a moment for a well-deserved plug for Siam Thai. Mary and I found it by chance in 2006 and it was so good we went back the next night. So this trip is was the only definite plan on the itinerary and it was amazing - the best Thai food I've had outside of Thailand. I would go back to Dublin if only to eat there again.

Slán,

Shaun

Some pics from our weekend:

Gaelic on top.

Thank goodness for these signs letting us know to walk on the left - I was going to try and jump over barriers!

Is it just me, or is this sports bar window dressing a wee bit camp?

Enda Kenny greeting the shoppers boosting the Irish economy.

Saw a great drag act at PantiBar (great name, eh?). This was the famous duet "Time to Say Good-Bye" by Sarah Brightman and Andrea Bocelli.

But Gatwick M&S welcomed me back to London gloriously!

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