It’s been a bit of a slow weekend with some pretty terrible weather to compliment it. In between heavy rain and thunder storms I ventured out to the Global Cities exhibition at Tate Modern which despite not really being “art” per-say was actually quite good and informative. It looks at the changing faces of ten international cities, exploring each based on speed, size, density, diversity and form. Well worth a visit, if not in person then online.
The magnificent London Millennium Bridge leading to St. Paul’s Cathedral, formally known as the “Wobbly Bridge” before the spoil-sports retrofitted energy dissipating dampers.
Looks like the work of a certain Banksy (near Borough Market) - artist, vandal, or activist? I’ll let you decide!
In the UK you can be given an Anti-Social Behavior Order (ASBO) for being a social nuisance. I know a few people I wouldn’t mind awarding one 
That’s all for now… as ever more photos in my Flickr stream - sorry to readers in China, the CCP are blocking Flickr image servers so I’m afraid you may not be able to see much. However, if you’re feeling rebellious you could try this.
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This morning I went into town to watch the “Le Grand Depart” (the opening) of Le Tour de France which came to London this year for Stage 1 of the world’s best-known cycling race. Although it was predictably packed along the route in central London I managed to squeeze onto Tower Bridge and grab a few shots as the front pack went passed, somehow miraculously dodging each other and the hundreds of support vehicles.
Considering the terrible weather the UK has had the passed month it’s been quite an amazing day with bright skies and only the odd cloud.
That’s a lot of cyclists - how they manage to stay upright is beyond me!
There was a huge media and support presence but how many of them actually did anything more than get in the way of the riders I wonder… great spectacle anyway 
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You would have thought that designing the logo for the London Olympics would have been the easy bit but if this is the best they can come up with it’s a bit depressing. London may be a “cool and happening” city but this is just not doing it for me, nor most other people but the sound of things - in the papers, on the tube, and around the blogosphere the consensus seems to be that it’s pretty aweful. Personally I thought that the logo they used for the bid was a lot better, I guess we’ve got another 5 years for it to evolve.
In tenuously related but possibly less high-profile news I’m looking to re-design the look of randomwire.com so expect to see some changes around here. Whilst I think the current site looks good it’s not changed much over the last few years so I think it’s due a refresh.
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…would be the name of my book if I ever got round to writing it. Looking back three months doesn’t sound like an awfully long time but for a 22 year old who’s never been out of his home country for more than two weeks before, let alone to a vastly different culture, it felt like a lot longer. Dropping your life on a weeks notice to fly to the other side of the world isn’t something I’d recommend to everyone but there’s nothing like jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire to wake you up!
I’m not sure that I ever experienced so called “Culture Shock” as I had a pretty good idea what to expect - for sure there were high and low points but luckily the positives outweighed the negatives. About the only time I got close to loosing it was when I was jammed into a Beijing subway train and people point blank refused to move to let people on/off at each stop meaning you had to physically push your way through (10x worse than on the Tube). I don’t believe people were being malicious about it, just that what we would usually take for granted and good manners are not a part of Chinese social culture (yet). The same went for spitting, dropping litter, and queuing!
When it comes to exploring the wonders that China has to offer I’ve only just scratched the surface and barely that even. Every region of China’s vast geography is bristling with fascinating places to visit that I doubt any one person could ever do them justice. With this in mind it’s hard not to imagine a sequel to this story and I certainly intend to write one (in time!). Next on my hit list of places to visit would be Hong Kong, Shanghai, Xi’an, Guangzhou, Tibet, and the Bamboo Sea in South Sichuan. I’d love to get out of the mega-cities and also see some of rural China which I’m sure will present a huge dichotomy in comparison.
Having been back in London for nearly a month now I can truly say that I am missing being in China. Even though London is a great city it seems somewhat tame now - not much challenge living here for me! In many ways perhaps this reflects western attitudes of supposed superiority - we have become so accustomed to the standards of living we enjoy that perhaps younger generations have become complacent and lost some of the drive to continue the innovation which put us here (ignoring the exploitation side of it for a moment!). Be in no doubt that China is going to dominate the next century in a big way - like it or not.
If anyone is thinking about going to China go now. In a few years time China is going to be completely different, as the vestiges of yesterday are rapidly swept away to make way for a new form of modernity. Whether the Olympic games next year give China the positive exposure they are hoping for is yet to be determined however I doubt even London can beat the scale of what Beijing has planned. It should be quite a spectacle if they can pull it off!
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Well it’s been in the pipeline on and off for a good few months now but finally it’s confirmed; in around 10 days time I’ll be moving to Beijing for a few months to work on a project for my company!! I can’t say how excited and nervous about this but I’m really looking forward to the challenge. The next week is going to be a crazy scrabble to prepare everything, I already have a list as long as my arm to take care of!
Update (24/1): I’ll be leaving the UK this Sunday 28th, arriving in Beijing Monday morning. The office I’ll be working at is in the “Zhongguancun” region known as the Silicon Valley of China, north-east Beijing. Whilst I’m planning on posting here as often as possible things might be quiet for a couple of weeks whilst I acclimatise to the local conditions!
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