M. Willis Monroe

This afternoon our friends from Stanley Road dropped by unexpected. Josh, Anna and Lili came over with a scooter they had found in their shed. We then went over to Lordship Lane park and played some catch and spent a long time just hanging out in the playground watching the sunset. The weather was perfect just warm enough to enjoy being outside and a bright clear sky. After the park we walked back and Josh and Anna joined us for dinner.

Friday after my lecture met up with Josh and Sam at SOAS and we biked down to Waterloo bridge to meet up with Critical Mass. It was amazing. We biked all over central London. The guys from my bike shop rode up at one point and we chatted for a while, it was the first time they were doing it as well. After two hours we decided to break off from the group and head north to home. Definitely something I’m going to do every month.

Yesterday our neighbors on Stanley road and we went down to the BM. I gave a tour of the Ancient Near East section that lasted an hour and a half. We had a nice lunch/tea in gallery cafe and saw the special exhibition on Power & Taboo. Then Peter, Esther and I headed up north to meet Esther’s friend for some Ethiopian food at Fassika in Finsbury Park. The Owner kept giving us free things to try so we ended only spending 20 quid for four people including drinks.

Yesterday I was reading lifehacker and I came across a post with a video by some famous juggling guru. I watched the short video and was suitably inspired. So I collected some juggling materials and began. An hour or so later I was doing quite well; this morning even better. These three rogues pictured above helped me learn, and for that I’m indebted to them. I’ve tried to learn to juggle in the past but I’ve always given up. I think this time two factors changed that. One: the video was quite easy to understand and well made. And two: I practiced over my quite high bed. Everytime I dropped a fruit it was within easy reach and I could start again. Previous attempts had left me searching for balls that had rolled under pieces of furniture.

Last tuesday I biked into school and then headed down to the Tate Modern to meet Julie and her friend Marina we went to see the slides. They were quite cool. I didn’t have enough time to wait around for a ticket for the big ones but to be sure I’ll be back. Other news… we didn’t win the pub quiz this week. I did some fun research into sheep, goats and salt in ancient mesopotamia on wednesday.

Today I went to the Anarchist Book Fair with Georgia and Monica. It was actually really interesting. It’s more of a convention than a book fair. I went to a discussion group on residents groups, and later with Georgia and Monica to a forum on Ideology, Religion and the State in regards to Anarchism.

Now I’m by no means an Anarchist but I was very happy to be there and participating in the discussions. In the residents group meeting one of the speakers expressed frustration when members of the community come to complain about (for instance) an abandoned car on their road. He felt like he was selling out his ideals by calling the council to get it removed. Another participant told how her residents group in Glasgow was accused of “diluting anarchist ideals” by trying to move to a commitee structure when their meetings got to large to facilitate efficiently. I talked with Georgia a lot about Anarchism etc… In some ways I think the well meaning (and great) people there are working under sort of a misnomer. I think they’d do better to call themselves ultra-left. Attaching themself to anarchism in some ways hinders their range of action.

Also a side note, the only stereotypical punks I saw there weren’t looking at books for sale, weren’t in workshops, weren’t participating in forums. They were huddled around the one stall that sold black t-shirts and buttons. It points once again the book Nation Of Rebels. Anyway I very much enjoyed it, and would gladly go back again. There certainly is a lot going on there and some really great people trying to figure out what to do.

Biking is fun. I biked to and from Soas on Friday. On the way back I made a wrong turn and ended up riding Seven Sisters road between Holloway road and Finsbury Park. That was nuts! Tons of Busses, cars, other cyclists and pedestrians. I think when I’m feeling bored I might take that detour but for the most part I’ll stick with the quiter route.

This is my first time commuting by bike along with other bikers. Leaving SOAS I found my self queing at a red light behind two other bikes and in front of other bikes in the bike lane. That was pretty nice, you feel more like part of the traffic as opposed to an unwanted presence on the road. I’ve decided to go to the critical mass rides in London. Why not, I have a sweet bike and I like biking. I did Critical Mass once in Providence. It was a great deal of fun but very small, that was also the day I made it from home into the city in a little over twenty minutes; I was in a hurry.

I’ve just made myself a pot of Assam tea which I’m going to drink with loads of milk and sugar. I just started a loaf of brown bread (see above). I taught or stanley road co-patriots about the joys of baking this weekend. I also put my bike in for service (new wheels and two more brake levers for heavy traffic manevuers). I think I may keep this bike for a long time now. Depending on where I am next year I’ll get it shipped.

This week has been busy, lots of translating and reading of articles. Last weekend we went over to our friends at Stanley road for a house warming on Friday and a Cluedo evening on Sunday. This afternoon Peter and I went to the John Soane museum for a quick spell.

Tonight Esther, Peter and I did our pub quiz duties and won again(!) fifty quid this time. On the way home I bought a beautiful bike. I’m going to start commuting to SOAS via the bicycle.

Monday night I was sitting in the kitchen with Peter checking my e-mail when I got an message from Nils. He was stranded at Stansted for the night so I invited him over he arrived a few hours later. The next day we walked around London for a bit and met a friend of his at LSE. Then he headed back to Stansted for his flight. It was a very nice short visit, his travels sound really cool. Later that day I had my first class, Akkadian Texts II which went pretty well actually. We’re reading Old Babylonian Legal texts. Today I had Archaeology, after which I walked down to the Tate Modern to see some more of the galleries. The walk along the Thames was quite nice. I took a bit of a nap at one point.

After the Tate I walked back and met Esther in the SOAS Bar as we geared up for the Pub Quiz. Peter soon met us and our team was complete. We named ourselves “Coffe Milk (Smooth As Silk)”. And some how we managed to win, pocketed a nice sixty five quid. We’ll be sure to be there again next week.