Subject: Within You Without You 8th August 1998 

Date: Sat, 16 Oct 1999 09:26:42 PDT 


Since writing the last entry detailing end of July 1998 here is the next entry detailing early August activities. 

Since writing the last entry, most of the french people had returned home 
to continue their studies. The 'compulsory' annual trip to England to brush 
up on their english safely under their belts and garters. Right now we are 
getting an influx of spaniards and italians whom I would get to know well... 

Saturday 8th August 1998 

On Friday I got talking to a blonde-haired chinese canadian called Arnold 
(he reminds me of a rentboy or toyboy so rib him plenty about this). He is 
here with his ex-girlfriend and now close friend Nicki. 

We chat about music and I surprise myself with my knowledge of shopping 
and general navigation skills around London and end up planning their day 
for them. I mention the Snowboard and Skateboard event happening on Saturday 
so they're keen to come. It's free ! 
Despite our heights we are all the same age and despite us talking about 
drum'n'bass initially we find we have quite a lot in common. 

Saturday rolls around and I roll out of bed at 9am for a little breakfast 
and get the guys to wake me up at 11am. We grab some lunch to be eaten 
later. The casualness of Vis has influenced me as I grab a baguette, 
camembert cheese and ham slices which actually fills me up for the day. We 
head out to Docklands which on the map looks larger than City of London.  On 
the docklands light rail there are two tracks, we took the wrong one and 
ended up at Canary Wharf. 

I learn a bit more about it as Arnold is studying architecture in 
Barcelona and we walk around the wharf and admire the modern buildings. 
There is a pedestrian suspension bridge which is closed due to some fault 
and Arnold takes a photo of it with the sign. We marvel at the tube station 
roof as well ! 

The sun is beating down so we sit down beside the water and eat lunch. 

We get back onto the rail line and head past the London Airport, the 
Millenium Dome and arrive at Victoria Dock. What is happening here is a snow 
and skatie event with demonstrations, and musical performers on a floating 
stage so there is a bit of a distance of water from the bands to us on dry 
land. Therein lies the problem. 

The event is populated by young guys and girls dressed in skatey ska/punk 
clothes but the performers with the exception of one or two are distinctly 
r'n'b. New Zealand's Ma-V-Elle (which was the main reason I was coming), Mos 
Def, Queen Pen, Lutricia McNeal etc. 

Nevertheless there were some of the crowd getting into the bands. The 
venue is basically a dust covered dock. There are carnival rides etc. We 
grab some beers and survey the situation. In places there are some 
skateboard ramps and a minicar circuit. On the water there is a large ski 
ramp and from here we see skiers come down and try to perform twists and 
turns in the air before hitting the water. At one point some parachutists 
come down while in the background we could see construction on the Millenium 
Dome. 

This would all be well and good except that it is @#!£$%^&* hot ! 
Shelter is a precious commodity. I'll check to check the photos which I 
haven't developed yet to see whether I joined Arnold and went bare-chested 
damning all modesty ;-) We only stay to see Ma-V-Elle perform, they do a 
half hour set, can't remember songs they sung but I'd heard them all before. 
We stayed for Mos Def to try to see them get the crowd excited, but not 
really, they are too far away off the dock to inspire any reaction from the 
crowd. 

Nicki is approached by an english guy and they walk around. Arnold gets a 
little jealous and it seems it is a regular occurence but normally blows 
over. (When I caught up with them some weeks/months later then had finally 
departed). I should also mention that Nicki has perhaps a scar or something 
on her left cheek under her eye, a slight perhaps blanching or 
discolorisation of skin. Can't stop looking at it wanting to touch it. I 
reckon it would've felt like plastic.  Arnold is pretty oblivious to it now 
so can't remember or doesn't want to remember how it happened. 

At every event/concert/club I go to, asians are very rare, sometimes I'm 
the only one. Here I spot three others. Since we're so close and not wanting 
to waste the a daily travelcard I suggest we head to Greenwich Village 
(whiere 0 degrees latitude is and hence the term Greenwich meantime, the 
time everywhere else in the world is calculated against, hope that makes 
sense. Also where you can stand on the dividing line between EAST and WEST.) 

We go and walk under the Thames river and thru the park. Nicki is beat so 
with the sun still up and plenty of people in the park a lie in the grass 
was inviting for her. Arnold and I dare each other and sprint up the hill to 
the observatory and get our photos taken on that East-West Line.  We then 
head back down and lie next to Nicki and in a rare moment I don't think 
about wasted time and I just close my eyes under a tree on fallen leaves 
while squirrels run around looking for nuts. 

Eventually we get up and head back home. I try to appeal to his 
architectural spirit to go to Liverpool Street but we are tired so head back 
home to eat and rest. But not before seeing a poster saying that two members 
of 808 State would be djing at a club that night. 

After much umming and arring, since Arnold and Nicki would be leaving with 
Busabout at 8am so we decide to maximise our time together, so us two guys 
took off to the club, while Nicki stayed back enjoying some bears with the 
spaniards. 

The club was right next to the Astoria on Charing Cross Road. It's been a 
...long time...since I've been to a club so soon both of us are on the 
dancefloor lost in our own little world. Great sound system and the music 
was good too. Lots of loungey lizardy people about. After 2 hours at about 
midnight Darren who I recognised from the band came on and straight you knew 
it was him as he started playing 808 state tracks or related remixes such as 
'Cubik' and 'Papua New Guinea'. At about 3am we decided to call it a night. 

And that was it !  Don't know how I survived such a packed day. 

Since then I've kept in touch Arnold and he comes back every now and then, 
though I think he's back in Canada now.