Getting back to things

It's been about a week since my last post surprisingly enough with all my boredom over these holidays I have let the journal lay fallow. It's probably for the best anyways, no one wants to hear of my first lonely Christmas away from home. That said the Christmas cards and packages I recieved were incredibly lovely surprizes. Thank you all.

Slowly now my friends and flatmates are returning. Things are slowly getting back to some sense of normality but before that happens some of my folk are coming over. Dad and Barb should be arriving tomorrow at 9am GMT. This should prove interesting and give me something to do while I avoid work in my wait for Prague, which is steadily approaching. Too, it'll be nice to see some faces from home. Someone once told me that it's the three month mark that's the hardest, perhaps it's more accidental an observation and it's just because, at least for students, it lands so near the Christmas holidays, but it has been a hard time. But I said I wasn't going to dwell on that topic, so I won't.

I've been trying to figure out where to take Dad and Barb when they get here. It's far too short a time to do everything, really I'm not sure I could have done everything even if I weren't preoccupied with slacking off for school. It's an incredible city here with so much to see. I have a feeling that we're going to have to forego the museums, maybe hit one or two but there's no way to much more than that. I'd been thinking of a walking tour of the areas I know, as few as they are I think it could be interesting and even educational. I've been here about three-and-a-half months I should be able to come up with something better than that, even if given twenty years time people will come from all around to walk the Griffin Trail if only to catch a glimpse of what created the greatness that is me. I had had some ideas but aside from just seeing the sights and walking around I really don't have much. I have a feeling that the visit might involve a fair bit of the drink but I'm not sure why...

All this aside my time lately has been rather uneventful. I look forward to Prague, I haven't seen that city yet and I tend have more interesting things to say when I actually leave my apt for more than an hour.

An empty flat

Today the last of my flatmates went home.

Yesterday was a thematic day. You know those days which seem to hold together subcontiously by a common thread. Unfortunately the common thread happened to be Genocide.

I started the day slowly, relaxed. I eventually made my war to the Imperial War museum. The museum itself is quite something, it's pretty huge. I started with the main floor and looked around at all the war machines; tanks, subs, planes, rockets, missiles, and such, then went down stairs to the main exhibit. It was quite the aray of minor exhibits spanning every involvement of Britian in modern war. Now that I think about it, it seems that they really could have had more on the early periods of war, but really I doubt they would have room. I waltzed through the boer war, tangoed the First World war, and kept dancing up through the first Iraqi war and it hit me more that the museum might have been better titled 'Museum of The Fall of The British Empire.' It's a museum of blood for the glory of the british interest. I couldn't help but compaire it to what I know of Canadian War History and part of me(probably the niave part) seems to think that our history is more just. Even though most of the wars that we held our hands in were many of the same that as Brits they were not ones of aggretion, not trying to hold on to the last fading memories of the past. The for most of our wars we were barely a country and were more or less thrown in due our conections with Britian, or even just in defence. Mind you we are a product of the British and French ultimately... I don't know exactly where I was going with this but I was rather amazed at the number of wars that the Brits have had. My professors were right, the British people are a people of war.

An interesting thing I noticed perhaps it's just a maturation that I'm seeing or maybe it's just a change of view was a change in myself. Really I hadn't been that interested to go to the museum in the first place which should have been my first tip-off. Do you remember(at least the males in the audience, I can't quite speak for the women) when a trip to the war museum was an exciting event, to see guns and swords, shells and bullets, tanks and airplanes, was extacy? I can, and it wasn't really that long ago(then again I'm not much more beyond childhood). As I walked the exhibits there were families with children, just as I had mentioned gawking wide-eyed at the Soldiers and weapons, and even grown men with eyes not less wide than those children. As I walked among these squawking children with fathers misinforming them, I began to feel ill. The professional soldiers represented should not be role models. The child doesn't know the reality of things, neither do their parents, and certainly the five line blurb of how Sargent X got that medal doesn't tell you the realities or war. They had a mock great war trench for us to walk through but unless you knew what you were looking for you were still only seduced by the romance of the affair. Though perhaps that's all it can be. What if there is no real way of presenting the violent underbelly of humanity that we so quickly want to turn away from, in a manner that won't merely confirm what you already believe but point you in the direction that is closer to truth. This definitely isn't the opinion when it comes to pointing out the wars of the present.

After a walk through the British wars I continued up. I checked out the art gallery it was all PoW art, mostly from WW2 on the japanese side it was interesting though I've always seen a sort of short sightedness in military artists, it's hard to explain. I think it might come from a desire to show what was there and in that you're left with something that is possibly too life like or that doesn't say more than what you see. I skipped the T. E. Lawrence exhibit(it was 3 pounds). I continued on through the Holocaust exhibit, it was nothing you haven't seen before but not less powerful or disgusting. On the final Floor I found the Genocide exhibit which consisted of a thirty minute video. Everything that was left out of from the previous exhibits was then shown. Only it was shown being done by the hands of Serbians, Germans, and Africans. Maybe it's too our credit that we have some paintings in our war museum depicting the actions of the airborn in Bosnia, I don't know. I returned home rather drained after 3 hours.

I went to a movie that night with my flat mate. We were originally hoping to see the constant gardner but the last seats were in the front row. We decided on Lord of Wars. Nicholas Cage as an arms dealer. The movie itself wasn't very good. It lacked motion, and was too predictable at times, but the content was incredible. It's based on actual events. I'm sure that they're not all the same person but an amalgomation of a number of people. The main client for the character played by Nicholas Cage was Africa. What goes on in africa that people need weapons for you ask? Genocide. That was my yesterday. By the way never go see a movie at the Odeon Mezzanine at Leicester Square it's definitely not worth the 8.50 admitance. (that's right $17 canadian to see a film and there isn't much cheaper around)

Today was less interesting. I hung around with my flat mate for a while. Then I went to see two Bach Cantatas performed for advent vespers at a Lutherin Church. The performance was played live on BBC and you can find it on the web on BBC radio 3. It was a lovely performance, it seems that BBC radio 3 is playing nothing but Bach until 5pm Christmas day. I then came home with a short stop at the grocery store where I found Hot Dogs that didn't come in a can. I then had mashed potatoes, hotdogs, and beans for dinner. I over ate. Now I'm just burning time until I can go to sleep.

Oh how it flies

It's been a couple weeks since my last update and now I've been here three months. Things have been hectic, turbulent, unrestful, distresful, but not insurmountable. As with anythings daunting it's always harder to look forward and see that it will be done and to understand that it won't get done any otherway but by doing it. So that said, it's now done. I was able to pull it together and come up with hopefully something intellectual, barring that I could only hope for something coherent. Only time will tell.

I think a brief summary of the past weeks is in order. Really it hasn't been very exciting, although I always find my slowish decent into madness around paper time rather interesting. I've grown a Christmas beard, mostly on the pretext that I'm... too... tired... no time... to... shave[colapse] but it's all in good fun, well as much fun as watching my facial hair grow can be. I'm not sure how long I can keep it going, I think it depends rather on whether the mob of women out side my window are able to get a good enough grip to hold me down long enough put an end to it, but so far they haven't been too successful. I finally decided on where to go during my break. I booked my flight and accommodations last week. I'll be in Prague from the afternoon of the 2nd, until the afternoon of the 10th of January. I'm contiually hearing lovely things about the city and the anticipation has only been growing. I've been told that I should probably be able to get my fix of snow there, unlike in this pour excuse for a climate(High of 11'C yesterday). I don't know what else I've been up to really. I haven't gone out much at all, infact I'm getting quite anxious for a night on the town, or at least one not in my room at my computer collecting music and not writing my paper, I think I'm rather overdue in blowing off some steam.

The first of my flatmates left today, the rest will be following soon. She left me with her first season of Magnum P.I. so I have a feeling what I'll be doing come Chrismas eve. It's such a lovely mustache. She also left me with the second set of Agatha Christie's Miss Marple, so if I get through Magnum or just start getting upset that his mustache is so much better than mine I can shift gears and watch a wrinkled british broad solve mysteries in high society. I'm finding it hard to get into the season here, it's not nearly as saturated with Christmas here as it is at home that and the lack of cold I think are were my missing season has gone. The only really Christmassy place around is Oxford Street, that place is crazy. It's just a big mall but on the street, lights and people everywhere trying to get their shopping done. Maybe it's sad that I seem to associate Christmas with mass hordes of consumers, but I do. I think I just need to get out for a walk about. I've noticed now something that I took for grantit when living in London ON, I never really appreciated the fact that I knew people well enought that I could call up a couple people and get out of my apt. and not feel weird about it. But what you gonna do eh?

I've decided that over the break I'm going to hit up a few museums. I really haven't seen much of the city and what it has to offer, I've found little places I like but really I haven't seen the big things. Now that I think of it I really haven't found much in the way of little places either. I'm thinking this week I'll hit up the Imperial War museum, the National Gallery, and I don't know where else. I've run out of food and unless I just want to lick pesto right out of the jar I should probably get out and get some groceries. Unfortunately that would require me to put some pants on so like all things it'll have to wait.