The Gaza Protests Were Outside My Window!

I was in the middle of doing a photo shoot in my flat (the first in months!), and we got a great view of a HUGE protest outside. At first we only saw police cars (loads of 'em!) followed by a couple dozen protesters. So upon first impression, I thought the police had seriously overestimated their numbers. But then a phalanx of marchers came into view, waving their flags/signs and chanting replies to a muffled chant-leader (it sounded something like "mmmffmm!!!" "PEACE!" "mmfffmrrrmm?!?!" "NOW!!!") and an endless tide of protesters and police followed for a good long time.

I took a lot of pictures, leaning out the window -- and jeeze, was it cold! It even started to snow at some point! (Note the snowfall in the third-from-the-last image.)

My Journalism background kicked in a little... My first reaction was to call up the London papers and see if I could sell some of my photos. So, while my model, make-up artist and her friend waited, I rang up some editors and got some email addresses. Chances are they won't be run (I think that's a certainty, as they would have responded back by now), especially since I didn't get any fire or violence in my photos. I found out about that stuff later. If it had all ended peacefully, my uniquely-vantaged photos might have had a better chance in print.

Snow!!!

‘Twas four in the morning, and all through the flat
Not a creature was stirring, ‘cept myself, as I sat.
Agneta was dozing, so deep in her sleep,
And I rose to the window, just for a peep.
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But fresh-fallen snow, the first of the year!

Random Days at Dusk

Back home, in California, dusk doesn’t really end the day. And at half-past four, as it is now, it’s certainly not this dark. I’ve missed an entire Saturday to sleep; we stayed up playing computer games, and I talked to Kim on MSN all the while till somewhere around 7:30 in the morning, when the sky looked pretty much as it does now. Parks, museums, and some stores are getting ready to close; some busses are finishing their run, and anyway, it’s not very interesting to explore in the dark. Back home, I might now consider still going to the beach, or going to a concert (maybe a free one at the Jimmy Kimmel show, or to the Troubadour), or just driving to some place at random; Kim, Lacy, and one or two of Kim’s friends would be there, and we’d be stuffing our faces with Hawaiian bread and listening to loud music. Or, if I were with Megan, we’d probably be going out for onion soup at the French Market while planning the next day in Disneyland.

Maybe it’s because I don’t know enough about London quite yet that I could be so bored at this moment. Maybe it’s because the only novel thing that I’d like to do at this moment is to finally visit Regent Park (and it must be closed by now). But at this moment, the reddening sky is a most depressing sight.