Just a Sketch

Wally and Maria, in Robin's class.

Walking Home

On the walk from Brunel to our apartment, we have to cross a busy intersection. Fortunately there are underground tunnels connecting the various sides of the intersection to a small plaza in the middle of the intersection.

I realized I'd never stopped here to take a photo so I decided to take one.


As soon as I lined up the shot, I thought "Good, there's people coming out of the tunnel on the other side and that will help show the scale of the plaza and it won't be an empty looking shot." The mates coming out of the tunnel, who obviously have very good eyesight and could tell I'm using a phone camera, start posing and yelling. As you can see, it sort of escalated from there.

Hey mate, wait for us!

Got it! OK, one more.

That should do it. Looks like the couple still in the tunnel have stopped, waiting to see what's going to happen next. 

Just another day in Uxbridge.

One World Week at Brunel University

This week is One World Week at Brunel. Events are scheduled to promote multi-cultural peace and understanding. Which is a really good idea, especially at Brunel where it seems most students are from everywhere except Britain and the Americas. It doesn't get much more multi-cultural than Brunel.

Robin went to the campus early this morning for an all-day seminar on thesis writing for doctoral students. I stayed at the apartment until noon because I had to wait for a repairman to fix the washing machine/dryer.

Repairman: "Be sure and only try to dry half-loads. It can't handle full loads. And don't ever push the pause button, it will burn the thermostat out."

Maria to the repairman "The owner of the apartment says it never did work right."

Repairman: "You're starting to sound like my wife now."

After the repairman standup comedy routine I left for the Brunel campus to meet Robin for lunch at The Hub, the campus pub. The campus was hopping with free food booths from lots of countries, a farmers market, and several religious venues (No thanks, don't want to take my shoes off and go in your tent. No thanks, not hungry even if it is free food). No one was too pushy. Pushier than I would ever be, but not as pushy as chess set salesmen in Kathmandu (that story some other time).

When Robin returned to her seminar after lunch, I gravitated toward music coming from the other side of the Quad (a big plaza on campus). The music was nice. The singer was good. I memorized the lyrics: "Hare krishna, hare krishna, hare krishna hare krishna hare krishna hare krishna... " I don't remember the rest of it.

I totally could be a cymbal player in a rock band like this. Will it be too weird if I use a chair? Do I have to have stripes on my pants?

The music stopped and a blue woman appeared. Now that's multi-cultural! She started dancing with a non-blue girl. 

Then, Envy, Jealousy, Intoxication, and Greed starting tempting the innocent, non-blue girl, right there in the Quad.

She struggled to escape the temptations that all university girls face, desperately trying not to smile, poor thing.

The blue woman returned and banished the temptation guys from the Quad. When a blue woman tells you to leave, it's best to just go.

As the non-blue girl recovered, the brave and virtuous blue woman gestured that she's in good blue hands now.

The two engage in a multi-cultural, blue-white thing. Right there in the Quad. 

I'm totally OK with this One World stuff.