Things that have happened to me

[cosmolinguist]

There's a row of shops whose structures seem entirely made of glass. As you can imagine, this gives them really big display windows. But these clothing shops all choose to actually display only a couple of items each, making me wonder if they're going for some kind of stylish minimalist simplicity—which, of course, makes me wonder Why am I even thinking about this?!, a point even more worthy of reflection, really. Anyway, yesterday as I was walking past and thinking silly aesthetic things, I saw a woman in a long red coat smoking a cigarette and looking at the Calvin Klein "display" with the exact pose that museum patrons use when studying some piece of (so-called) art. It amused me greatly, and I really wanted to take a picture, but I knew that even if I could manage to fumble my camera out and put the new batteries in (I'd found some new ones since the old ones died, but not gotten around to installing them yet) in time, I probably wouldn't manage to do it surrepetitiously enough, so I just walked on.

On the way home yesterday I saw some pink blossoms that'd been blown off a tree onto some cars parked nearby. It'd been raining and the cars were wet, and I think that helped them stick better. I turned a corner and saw two or three cars in a line, with little pink dots all over them; it was great. I think it actually made me say "Oh!" out loud, in a tiny but delighted voice. I saw some more on the way to the tram station with Andrew this morning. "It's spring!" I said. "Be excited!" And, to my surprise, he responded with an actual "Yay!" But I think he was just trying to appease me so I'd buy him some comics; I know he doesn't like days like today, which he considers both too hot and too "shiny."

I saw a lot of old men using their folded-up umbrellas as walking sticks yesterday. Which, as I told Andrew, is something I thought only happened in movies. "You're in Britain now, love," he answered, which is true if not exactly earth-shattering.

One time when I walked past a jewelry (though it'd be "jewellery" here, wouldn't it? Have I got that right? It seems like so many letters!) shop I saw a couple huddled in to look at the wares, which seemed to be mostly rings. The only factor I found noteworthy about the scene was that the couple were older than my parents. Anyway, the next time I walked past that shop, I saw another couple of, I'd say, equal or greater oldness approaching it from a different direction, and I was just in time to catch the woman nudging the man with her elbow and saying, "Oh, let's have a look," in a voice that seemed exactly like what the movies teach you an old English lady should sound like.

I saw two policemen on horses on Market Street yesterday. This probably would've been an unusual sight* anyway; such a proliferation of police or equistrians is not exactly normal. But the thing about this I really liked is that they were sitting there, facing opposite directions, and talking with each other. It reminded me so much of the way some conversations are held in my quaint rural upbringing. Especially on the unfrequented gravel roads, if you ran into someone you wanted to talk to, you could just stop and roll down your window and they'd stop and roll down their window and you could talk. Thinking of dusty old farmers with their arms hanging out the windows of their pickups as I'm walking along a respectable shopping area in a big city amused me.

There's only one stop between Crumpsall, where I get on the tram, and Victoria, where I usually get off. But there's also a random not-real-stop that the tram sometimes stops at. I'm not quire sure why this is, though I think sometimes it functions as a place for baddies (i.e. ticket inspectors) to get on. Today I thought that must have happened because soon after we started moving again I heard a voice say "Thank you" a couple of times in the otherwise-quiet tram. So I dug through my bag for my ticket and thus had it ready when he got to me. Normally the inspectors just glance at the ticket, I imagine just long enough to ascertain that it's for the right day and somewhere between the two stops listed, but this guy was not a normal inspector. He didn't look like one, at least; he wasn't even wearing anything fluorescent. He didn't just look at my ticket but took it from me and scrutinized it and then I noticed the little gadget he had with him: a grey plastic box whose top seemed entirely composed of a touch screen. He looked at my ticket and carefully punched some things on the screen, and then handed it back to me. Then he did the same thing to the people ahead of me ... but not all of them.

The world is obviously more strange and full of wonders than I ever imagine it to be.

---

* I think opticians are likely to do harm concerning some already-confusing homophones, with their attempts to be clever. Go ahead, call your place "Eye Site" if you want to, put up signs proclaiming that your vision tests are "Free and On Sight," but when people become even more terminally confused concerning the proper use of these words (thereby missing your cleverness), don't say you weren't warned. Yes, this is something else I've noticed in the past few days.

Comments

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Jeweller's.

[cosmolinguist]

Yeah, I suppose. Still too many letters. I'll never get to be English, will I.

[kalieris.livejournal.com]

Yesterday I saw something that might amuse you. While waiting for the bus, I was watching pigeons. One of them seemed monstrously huge, and as I looked more carefully I realized that his neck feathers were all puffed up, and he was stretching his neck out and up to look taller. He was walking around this other pigeon, and making a weird noise. The other pigeon kept walking away from him, and he kept following. All of a sudden, he got distracted by something, and wasn't following along behind any more. The followee turned around and burbled at him, and he recalled himself and came running again. She (because by now it was obvious that he was trying to impress her) looked completely bored, but would slow down every time he seemed to fall behind her, so he could catch up. Several people in the bus kiosk looked at me funny when I burst out laughing.

[cosmolinguist]

If I'd been there with you I wouldn't have looked at you strangely; I would've burst out laughing too, probably.

::wanders away thinking randomly "It'd be nice to be in the same place as Helga some time, wouldn't it?"::

[ladyortyger.livejournal.com]

Speaking of homophones and such, I just picked up the (British) book "Eats, Shoots, and Leaves".

[cosmolinguist]

Ah, yes. I wrote about that book here.

[paper-crystals.livejournal.com]

I have added you on AIM so if you see a strange new person that is who it is.

[cosmolinguist]

I don't think I'll see you unless you send me a message first. But it's nice to know that people think I'm worth talking to. :-) I'm on fairly regularly now, but unfortunately a lot of that tends to be when my USian friends are still asleep.

[comradexavier.livejournal.com]

I don't think you're unbiased enough toward opticians to be allowed to comment disparagingly upon their collective sense of humor.

[cosmolinguist]

That's a good point; I thought it was the grammar geek in me that disliked it, but it's probably just my inner child, who hates eye doctors very much.

[ivana-duboise.livejournal.com]

Oh! Well I never!


P.S. You should be taking/posting more pictures!

[cosmolinguist]

I have taken several pictures, but I can't post them until I can find a computer on which I can install my camera's software, i.e. not the computers at the cybercafe. So you'll have to wait a little while. Mine aren't all cool and artistic like yours anyway; I try that sometimes but never like them much.