a poem

somebody wrote a poem. and then somehow found that I matched the description perfectly.

here.

though the photo came from photo.hawaga.org.uk, rw2 makes some claim for royalties.

T&D

wandered into this
Training and Development exhibition last night whilst out on a jetlagged walkabout in Chicago.

photo of the day

no more blogging here as I'm not travelling. however, I've set up a photo-of-the-day page, which should give you an exciting photo from my past, each and every day (until such time as I get bored of doing it). goto pdj.ben.clifford.org.uk. No RSS at the moment, but maybe eventually.

STOP.

made it to guildford, to my parents' house. end of trip.

lost on subway

went to 'Ciao!' vineria con cucina to meet forys.

This time, the barmaid (Влади) was from Bulgaria, instead of from New Hampshire (Noelle) and the third language of the bar was some eastern european babble instead of French. Other than that, the place was pretty much the same.

Then ended up tagging along with the bar staff to Le Souk, a night club with shisha pipes. Last time I'd been there, I'd got there the same way - following (a completely different set of) Ciao staff there. Much more empty this time (last time it was Christmas Eve or something crazy like that - this time it was Just Another Monday(?|)Tuesday night.

went home on subway. got on wrong line (that happened last time I tried to use the A,C,E lines too, I think). ended up in Queens or somewhere that was completely wrong. changed a few more times. got lost more. finally found myself at Times Square where I was able to get back on a line I knew. By the time I got home, it was morning and everyone was going to work.

slept 4h. now starbucks. soon JFK. then my trip is over. its been fun.

pics of last two nights of trip

Here are some pictures of my last two nights of my trip.

note especially the seamless transition from bar in IL to bar in NY with no intervening fuss.

final days

On thursday my trip will be over.

The plan from then to now is:

Friday 1645 chicago -> 1830 rockford van galder bus
Saturday 1200 rockford -> 1330ish madison van galder bus
monday afternoon -> chicago (bus or train)
tuesday 1300 chicago -> New York
wednesday New York -> LHR (arrives thursday)

then beers in guildford that night.

dump

slang made me search my jacket pockets for a key, and I revealed: pirate eye patch, lemonade-coloured crayola, 53 pesos, a cocktail umbrella, disposable chopsticks.

hawaga.org.uk partially offlined.

link upgrade elsewhere in the world means a bunch of hawaga.org.uk stuff isn't working :-(

nara!

I was reminded today of when I visited Nara.