Morning at Earl's Court

I wake up every morning to a sight few student pads can boast of. My very first online purchase in the UK, a sybaritic luxury back in the early days when a sandwich from Benjy's was my idea of a meal, was my very own gyousho scroll (video, left). The artist's name is Ayako Kamura and she has her own e-bay store, so if you're jealous, give her a call. And be sure to mention my name. The song trying to make its way through the Samsung's microphone is Madrugada's "This old house", which I am terribly fond of.

That said, waking up in the morning is no glamorous afair. Yours truly has become used to late nights and later mornings in Athens. But some helpful routines help keep me in shape. This (photo, left) is what I look like most mornings when I'm checking my email. In the back one can make out my usual accessories, and the mess to the right which is quite obviously my bed. I'm currently checking it for bedbugs.

Outside is what one author has unkindly but accurately called "the thundering Warwick Road". It never fails to wake one up at eight o'clock. It gets so congested that Transport for London have really started to think outside the box, as evidenced by their newest campaign (photo, left). I'd like to see OASA try to come up with something like that. British humour, I suppose.

Another thing the British have that sets them apart, even at Earl's Court, is their love for (and tolerance of) public speakers, however deranged. This one (video, left) is the Tube Station Lunatic, or so I have decided to call him. Recently, I caught him ranting about Harry Potter and how children who read the books will go to hell. Well, at least my Potter fan friends are safe. They're all in their twenties. Embarrassingly enough, I think The Lunatic was on to me; he did turn my way in a rather menacing manner near the end. I did not stick around long enough to find out out.