Shantaram- peaceful one
Whatever the reason, I felt dishearteningly alone in the city. I’d lost my closest friends in the past week, and with them I’d lost the mark on the psychic map that says you are here. Personality and personal identity are in some ways like coordinates on the street map drawn by our intersecting relationships. We know who we are and we define what we are by references to the people we love and our reasons for loving them.
-Gregory David Roberts
Riots in London
I’ve been in London during some historical moments. The royal wedding, the preparation for the olympics, and now the London/England Riots.
I can’t believe what is happening here. I watch the news and see parts of town where I used to live and am reading stories about people in a 2 star michelin restaurant in nottinghill having their wallets and wedding rings ripped off their fingers as the kitchen staff try to fight off rioters with kitchen utensils.
This shit has got me on edge.
My colleague Nina went up to North England for a business meeting today. She was stopping over in Manchester on her way back to say hi to some college friends and found the train station closed when she tried to head back and was running from rioters as the police came after them. She’s now trapped in Manchester over night since the train station is no longer letting anyone come in or leave. This city is on lock down.
Its eerie in Putney tonight. All the stores and closed up and not a woman to be found on the street. I’m feeling very vulnerable.
dreams
There are dreams. No dreams that you have while you are sleeping. Dreams of your subconscious mind working with the reality of your life. While people have these dreams they become faint idea’s that some day we will get to our dreams and put them into the reality of our lives. To stop us from making these dreams a reality we create excuses or are prevented from trying to achieve them afraid that we will fail and not succeed in our accomplishment. Through strategic planning and an unrelenting perseverance the dreams we hope to someday reach can be made a reality.
During a summer holiday in England with family Morgan, at 12 years old began to think of the hotels her family was staying at as a business. How many rooms are in this hotel? how much does it cost a night? is a hotel not unlike an apartment building? How many rooms are in that apartment building? What a profit could be gained from such a business! Why doesn’t everyone become property owners?! Morgan wondered. I am going to own apartments one day… At 16 years old Morgan was still keen on the idea and now had learned more about retail, land, and industrial properties. In aide of encouraging her dreams her father gave her a budget and told her to find a deal. After researching properties Morgan and her father went to visit some properties. She received the same response of shock and skepticism from relators that she would be managing the property with the aide of her father. In the end, he confidence was knocked and her father decided it wasn’t a great idea, there werent any amazing deals to be had for the budget he was allowing her. The whole thing fell through.
5 Years later the property market soared sky high to record prices. The apartment she had wanted to make an offer on today would have been worth 4x’s what she could have bought it for and her father regretted that they hadn’t taken the deal while they had it.
At 19 Morgan worked as a PA for the VP of Coldwell Banker, but the company rules prohibited anyone without a real-estate license from working on the property. This prevented her from continuing her work with the VP and she instead went to a summer course of real-estate school at the scottsdale school of real estate and business. Morgan sat the exam and passed. But did not pay the extra couple hundred dollars to receive her license when she was heading back to university in LA. As the youngest person by far in her real-estate class Morgan felt like a child in an adults world and felt that the timing was not right. She did not have the confidence in herself she needed.
After graduating from University Morgan moved to London. Another one of those dreams she had that she felt she may do some day but the prospect of a foreign country on her own had always seemed to large a challenge to handle. She bit the bullet and moved to make her way in the world. Morgan found she was capable of providing for herself in the world 3rd most expensive city. She found a job, friends, and a place to call home. A year passed and Morgan needed another challenge. What have I not done that was a dream I never made a reality? I want a career I am passionate about and that I find challenging. Morgan always felt that she would end up in commercial property, but didn’t know where she’d fit or how she would get there, but the time had come to take on the new challenge and make her childhood dream a reality.
Royal Wedding 27th April 2011
or was it the 29th? either way it was a long weekend which meant less time at work, a nice way to soften up the anti-royals.
My Canadian friend Erin came over and we watched the Royal Wedding on tv. Why sit at home and watch it on tv when the wedding procession is happening 2 miles away? Because people are freaking nutso and I am not about to subject myself to the insane masses. After setting up an adorable tea party for two with scones, cream, jam, and fruit we did make our way out to burn off the indulgences by heading to Hyde Park in search of the royal wedding street parties. What we found was a few women dressed up in wedding dresses passed out in the lawn from drinking all day! hilarious, they are freaking out of their mind. but you have to appreciate their spirit… or desperation?
In March Mama and Papa came to visit!
After they went to Ireland to try the Whiskey and Scotland to try the Scotch, they made the journey to come see and stayed in Enfield with the Grumpy Grandma.
I took a day off work and went with ma and pa up to Oxford where it was blustery with wind and parking was difficult to find. We had lunch and walked around a tiny bit before we got in the car to find greener pastures. We then made our way to Stratford Upon Avon. If I were to have a family in this country Stratford upon avon would be in my top list of places to move to. It was so beautiful, the home of Shakespeare.
The photo of Ma and Pa outside by the stream is behind the Church where Shakespeare is buried.
long time old friend
I have been neglecting my poor tumblr!
I suppose you could say November is when the gloom hit London with grey skys and snow and my zest for London began to falter. Which is a bit sad because it would have been nice if I had put up some photos of the snow.
I am going to attempt to get back at it with the blogging. I now understand why people in London seemed unwelcoming and anti-social. Living in London is exhausted and a lot of work. Once you are done with work, commuting, and feeding yourself, you have just about enough energy to get into bed so you can do it all again the next day.
The beauty is all around. We just have to take the time to notice it. So often, myself included, people walk around with their heads down in a hurry with things on their mind and don’t acknowledge their surroundings. I went on a walk this Saturday afternoon in October to Kensington Park. I noticed a very british house w. a blue door and perfectly trimmed round bushes thats just 2 doors down from me yet I had never noticed it. When I was at the park I got to see how the leaves on the trees are changing color right now, something you don’t get on the West coast in the US.
I am thinking I need to take photos regularly in order for me to remember to see the beauty all around. When I have a camera in my hand I stop thinking about things and start focusing on the present and what is around me and it is a chance to take it all in. When viewing the world through a camera lens it can become a much more beautiful place than I ever realized.
Sometimes someone else can find the words for you
One night to be confused
One night to speed up truth
We had a promise made
Four hands and then away
Both under influence
We had divine sense
To know what to say
Mind is a razorblade
To call for hands of above to lean on
Wouldn’t be good enough for me, no
One night of magic rush
The start - a simple touch
One night to push and scream
And then relief
Ten days of perfect tunes
The colors red and blue
We had a promise made
We were in love
To call for hands of above to lean on
Wouldn’t be good enough for me, no
To call for hands of above to lean on
Wouldn’t be good enough for me, oh
And you, you knew the hand of a devil
And you kept us awake with wolves teeth
Sharing different heartbeats in one night
To call for hands of above to lean on
Wouldn’t be good enough for me, no
To call for hands of above to lean on
Wouldn’t be good enough for me, oh
lyrics- the knife, heartbeats
Don’t Quit
When things go wrong as they sometimes will,
when the road you’re trudging seems all uphill,
when the funds are low and the debts are high,
and you want to smile but you have to sigh,
when care is pressing you down a bit,
rest if you must but don’t you quit.
Life is queer with its twists and turns,
as every one of us sometimes learns,
and many a failure turns about,
when you might have won had you stuck it out.
Don’t give up, though the pace seems slow-
you may succeed with another blow.
Success is failure turned inside out-
the silver tint of the clouds of doubt.
And you never can tell how close you are;
It may be near when it seems so far.
So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit-
Its when things seem worst that you must not quit.
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