10 February 2008

Year of the Rat

Thousands of Londoners and tourists have been milling around between Trafalgar Square, Leicester Square, and Chinatown to celebrate Chinese New Year. I walked through the masses (against my better judgment) for about forty minutes today, but couldn’t seem to see why everyone was milling around. Luckily it was a gorgeous day, so the fact that I didn’t find any particular reason to celebrate wasn’t too upsetting. It did feel great to walk across the closed-off roads without fear of being flattened by a big, red bus, and it was also great to see suburban housemums carrying giant dragons and wearing authentic garb.

Sunset is happening later and later as the days go by. After the sun set this evening (just before 18:00) I headed to the library to pick up a few books. There must be some kind of cloning machine operating near Aldwych. On my way to the library, I walked alongside 150 Mercedes-Benz automobiles, driven by 150 nearly-identical drivers, carrying 150 identical couples wearing tuxedos and evening gowns. As it turns out, there is no cloning machine in operation. Instead, the tuxedos and evening gowns can be explained by tonight’s BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) Awards. So, in addition to welcoming the Year of the Rat, central London also got to welcome Sylvester Stallone tonight.

No comments: