quintessence of dust, scooters, autumn

hi! i'm lying in bed listening to radio 4. i know it's early but i've been feeling a little sick again, i think i overdid it on the weekend. but i don't feel too down because i've had a good day today - i got an internship! hurrah! i start on 19th october. i had the interview today just off the king's road. went with hannah, we had lunch in patisserie valerie beforehand. vegetable soup and half a millefeuille. not the most stomach-friendly combination, sadly.

so yesterday we had the party in our house. it was nice and went surprisingly quickly. and i got presents, hooray, including some beautiful books. my mum's friend honor got me the agnes b. collection book, almost a scrapbook of all the things that the designer had collected and that had influenced her throughout her life. honor suggested that i do the same thing. i suppose i do, though, partly through this blog, partly through the little basket that i keep in my bedside table full of all of the little notes and photographs that are special to me and that i look back on from time to time when i need reminding of the people that care about me. a couple of things in the book stood out, as they are things that i like too - a pierre et gilles photograph, and one by nan goldin of jimmy paulette (not this one, but this is the one that i have on my bedroom wall at home).

i ate too much cake though. as usual. hannah and i went to bed at 11 after falling asleep on the sofa about 10 minutes into Withnail & I (despite Paul McGann. also, he looks rather like alan rickman, i think)

on my way home on the number 40 (godsend) bus, i saw london as a jagged silhouette against a sea of pink, turquoise and lilac-infused clouds, most strikingly seen over the water under london bridge. no photograph could have done this justice - this glorious sky. i was astounded that so many people on the bus seemed not to notice.

this sunset was the main inspiration for this post. i feel that, apart from my health (which is still not brill), things are looking up. and i am starting to remember how great london is. though i still pine for Chicago. sigh.

a bientot...

oh. i forgot to say. i want to go to africa. and japan.
also i am engrossed in J.M. Roberts' History of the World. i am currently on The Eve of Civilisation. the book has 1109 pages. i intend to read every one - perhaps i will evolve with the book. it is in fact extremely refreshing to read some non-fiction. and of all subjects, what a fascinating one. it is about humanity but, on a meta-level, surely also about humanity's tireless attempt to make sense of itself. an increasingly difficult task. but to think - all that time ago - the coming of speech! the discovery of fire! the creation of art! the invention of agriculture!  we emerged slowly from some darkness; toward what are we heading? 

one thing i found particularly interesting - apparently there was a period of some five thousand years in which the methods for creating and the subjects of art stayed largely consistent. how could we imagine such continuity in a world that changes as quickly as ours? reading about these creatures that would become us is strange, but at the same time strangely comforting - to think of this line that stretches so far into the haze of the past, rooting us to our origins.  to think of evolution as a movement away from something but also as a sort of concatenation.

right, i need to either sleep or throw up. goodbye for now.