London # 10

I shall soon be leaving London for a lengthy period of time to live a foreign land where I don't understand the language (see how I make Belgium sound exotic). At anyrate, I thought I'd have a few post about things I like and dislike about the city. So here's Things I like about London #10 - Signs telling you which way to look when you step off the pavement.

2nd Spot

I once explained to somebody that there is a bizarre rule of etiquette in professional cycling which mandates that even a severely injured challenger do his best to complete a race even if he comes second. This allows the winner to say that he was challenged by a genuine competitor. The idea being that a cyclist's greatness is measured only by the ability of the opposition he defeats.

The notion is of course not exclusive to cycling and today Andy Roddick showed us why. Someone who has lost in the 30th game of the fifth set in a Wimbledon final could only have been playing the very greatest. With Federer entering the Championships on the back of a French Open win and with no Nadal to thwart him, the general feeling was that barring a British miracle in the form of Andy Murray, Federer's march into the history books would be an unchallenged and uninspiring affair. Roddick made a mockery of this theroy and everything else that had been said about him being a has-been and, in doing so, confirmed Federer's status as the greatest ever.

I consider myself privileged to have been able to watch a game which overshadowed last years Wimbledon final.

An Email

Its not often that a work related email at circa 10 pm makes me smile but the one below did. It reminded me of a friend. Only a handful of my readers will know why. To you guys, I point you to the subject line.

"From: Associate
Sent: Wed 6/17/2009 9:51 PM
To: Rahul Saha
Subject: 2 things

1. we do need to do an authorities bundle tomorrow morning

2. i need a reference - pls could you call?

thanks"

Heatwave Warning

Saw this headline in the London Paper today. Made me laugh.
"Heatwave Warning Issued. Temperatures as high as 33 Degrees Predicted."

Overheard at Ascot

"ARREY KUTTI! DAUR, DAUR."

The Wilderness

I realize I haven't posted in a while. Thank you to those of you who asked why. Unfortunately, an explanation is too long winded. Suffice to say, I'm back from the wild.

Speaking of the wild, I came across these definitions of wilderness some time ago. The US Wilderness Act defines "wilderness" as "An area where the earth and its community of life are untramelled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain." In the UK, the John Muir trust defines wilderness as "Uninhabited land containing minimal evidence of human activity."

At the best of times, these "one size fits all" generalistic definitions get to me but to come across a definition of the wild was especially irritating. Sitting in my bathroom, reading this, I felt like saying, "you can't put boundaries on the 'wild' you cunts, that's why its called the wild." Idiots.

Awards

Yesterday's Evening Standard headlines read, "Star Wins Football Award". On further reading it transpired that the newspaper were reffering to Steven Gerrard winning the Football Writers' Association Player of the Year award.

It would have been weird if anyone other than a "Star" won such a prestigous award but I guess the paper just wanted to remind us that Gerrard was a star.