opposite my apartment building there is an excuse for a park. in this 'park' there is a grocery cart/trolley. it has somehow gotten here from a sainsbury's supermarket, but i don't know which one. sometimes the kids who live around here push each other around the park in the trolley. sometimes i wonder if they know how really sad it is that they have nothing better to do with themselves at the age of 15. also, i wonder who brought the trolley here, and how.

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spent three lovely days in london. my new friend nate and i went to the body worlds exhibit and had indian food for lunch in a hole-in-the-wall in the east end. after i dropped him off, i walked around edgware road and stopped in a pub, where i am 80% certain i saw sharon from eastenders. ooh, minor celebrity! yay! then i camped out in my hotel room eating a lebanese takeaway and watching martin bashir's interview of michael jackson.

the next morning i walked around hyde park and kensington gardens. i ate lunch at a canteen in a vietnamese cultural centre in north london. late afternoon i took the slow bus from the marble arch across town to the tower of london, gawping at absolutely everything along the way...the regent street shops, trafalgar square, et cetera. the first time i've seen any of those things. then i stopped in a pub, talked to K on the phone, and set off for my "jack the ripper walking tour." really interesting tour guide...shame about my fellow tourists. a couple hours later, straggled home utterly exhausted. ate leftover vietnamese noodles while sitting in a hot bath, watching "pretty woman."

wednesday i spent all morning in the selfridge's food hall. i got a french cheese and a danish cheese for myself, and two rollmops and a smoked eel fillet for K. viewed some very famous and very expensive wines. then had coffee a few blocks away, somewhere more within my price range, while waiting for afternoon services at one of the two synagogues across the street from my hotel. i think i picked the wrong one...the men there didn't seem to want me in their little club. you know, in case i seduce one of them or pollute them or something. sigh. anyway, then went home to K and quiz night and all the regular fixtures.