Guy Beres

This blog is somewhat involuntarily being put into hibernation. This coming weekend I am moving out of my apartment in London, and for the majority of August I will be abroad seeing as much of Europe as I can before returning home in early September. My access to the Internet will be itinerant and is unlikely to result in a discernable degree of productivity here. I may post the odd photo if I can.

I will be back with a vengeance online here and down under sometime in September. As much as it will be sad to leave London, it will be excellent to be back home. It is something like returning to the old life that I left behind; it really does feel a bit as though I have been living someone else’s life for the past year. In short, it has been a mesmerising experience!

Needless to say, the last year I have spent over here has been fantastic both from both a career perspective and a travel perspective; or should I say, an educational perspective. I have seen a whole bunch of places that ten years ago, I honestly never would have dreamed that I would ever visit. Cities like Rome or Stockholm are no longer just abstract concepts that I read about in the news or glance at idly on world maps. Great Britain, as it happens, amounts to more than just a useless cricket team, an idiosyncratic monarchy and a gaggle of perennial sporting underachievers. The world is truly alive for me now in a way that it never was before, and I am glad that I will be carrying some of the most special parts of it with me in my mind’s eye, whatever happens from here on in.

One of the delicious ironies of the fairly scathing Museum of Communism in Prague is that it is located above a McDonalds Restaurant, and on the same floor as a casino. To enter the museum you actually have to walk through a door embossed with the casino logo.

It’s hard to say if folks Vladimir Lenin would have appreciated the irony. I don’t suppose when I visit Russia in August I am going to encounter the same kind of irony, in any case.

Fascinating, and well worth the visit if you happen to be in Prague (it will probably take you around an hour). It’s probably worth noting that the Soviets did at least leave the capital of the Czech Republic with an excellent metro system, as some sort of consolation. I am sure to many (very likely most), that isn’t really any consolation at all.  

In recent months the British capital has been preoccupied with the issue of knife crime, and after several recent high profile attacks, this form of disgustingly petty crime has even superceded terrorism as Scotland Yard’s top law and order priority. It is tragic considering the circumstances, but also interesting that the global security bug-bear of the past five years has been so swiftly and so unceremoniously relegated to the backseat. One wonders if the global strategists and commentators who have gone dined out in recent years on the challenges posed by Islamic fundamentalism and Al’Qaeda will now turn their hands and minds to crime of a more conventional variety.

Although admittedly I have been lucky to have scarce exposure to it myself, recently I have been provided with direct cause for concern about crime levels in London. Walking home from work the other day I arrived on a street corner in just enough time to see a tall, muscular African man strike a woman with full-force in the face, knocking her to the ground. The man fled the scene with a companion, and myself and a group of startled onlookers approached the woman and called the police. It was unclear what the reason for the assault was, but the woman’s glasses had been shattered by the force of the man’s blow, sending shards of glass into the face and one of her eyes. Fortunately it was not too long before the police and an ambulance arrived, and we believe the attackers were apprehended.

It was a strange experience because it was both shocking and yet, scratching a little deeper, not too surprising. We all see the stories on the nightly news, and read about them in newspapers and magazines. When we are reminded that these stories are real and play havoc with real people’s lives, it disturbs us and provides some food for thought about the real state of society today. In the developed world at least, we may well be living in more civilised societies than ever before, but I sincerely doubt that thought provides any comfort to the random victims of modern society’s vices - who, let’s not kid ourselves - are still out there and all around us. Realistically, only lady luck excludes us from being part of the main story.

 

Really. 

 

Trivia fact: most people who know of the river Avon in Britain likely know of it in relation to Stratford-upon-Avon, famous as the birthplace of a little-known chap named William Shakespeare. In actual fact however, there are seven rivers Avon across the United Kingdom, and each is distinct and separate.

So why are they all called Avon? Avon is Celtic for river.

These photos from the streets of Copenhagen, the Danish capital. Such a simple idea, but such a good idea. The timed traffic lights tell pedestrians how long they have to wait to cross if the lights are red, and how much time they have left to cross if the lights are green. It’s predominantly the little clever touches like this that give the Scandinavians their well-deserved reputation as world leaders when it comes to common sense in urban planning and making life just that bit more livable.

This weekend I will be once again out of town and out of the Internet. Service will resume Tuesday morning AEST.

Until then, tips as to who will win Euro 2008 and guesses as to where the hell I am off to will be accepted.

 

This weekend is a long weekend in the fair United Kingdom, and hence for the first time in a little while at least I will be vacating the country. The destination this time around is Berlin, which should prove an interesting destination indeed. I am particularly enthused about just being there amongst all the tragic and dramatic history that has unfolded over the last century. The Jewish Museum and Checkpoint Charlie Haus should be fascinating, and I am also looking forward to getting out to Potsdam, of Potsdam Conference infamy.

I won’t have access to the Internet until Tuesday (when service will resume), but next week after I return I may deign to pose a few happy snaps. In the meantime, take care and do have a good weekend.

Some family have come to visit from Australia, and so for the next week, I am going to be out and about with them around these parts and will not be posting. Until then, take care and TTFN.