Bad Night Out

Lost balance. Impact. Eyes closed. Down. Crack.

Opened eyes again. Legs, checked. Hands, checked. Mouth, tasted iron and strange. Blood. I allowed myself to swear once, under my breath. 'Fuck'. 

How bad? A gap where one tooth should be. Another tooth, a tender mess. I lost a tooth at least. Irrationally I tried looking for it, knowing that it will do me no good. There were no pain. Maybe everything will be fine if I find it. The lies I tell myself. 

Tooth found. It was a clean break. I heard myself identified 'Failure mechanism: fast fracture', while correcting myself when I noted there were smaller bits of it around the place. Shattered. Let myself swear another time. 'Fuck'.

I held on to the largest piece, which was clean and bloodless, and headed to the exit, quietly and alone. First I needed light. 

Out. A staff was at the desk. 'I hurt myself', I told him, 'lend me the toilet', giving him a bloody grin. Clearly not coached for emergencies and useless, he said there were no such facilities. He just sat there. Useless staff, just what I needed. 'You're on your own' I told myself, I'd let myself swear one more time, but only after I looked at myself. 

A slight check with the hand told me that it was still bleeding. I thought I would panic when I see my own blood. Useless staff was unable to procure me a mirror, or even tissue. By that time I was able to take a picture of myself. 'Fuck'. 

Diary entry, Jan 30, 2012

A swarm of school children taking the tube. Humans, as creatures, are pretty loud. Chirpy, not unlike those flock of birds you see in documentaries, perhaps brooding on cliffs or something.

Grown up humans, however, when compelled to use the tube on a Monday morning, are as quiet as the grave.

Regarding the differences in community between London and Hong Kong by looking at their McDonalds

In both places, the fast food chain is an import, but I feel that in either case they are well integrated, and different to the ones in America. 

 

I was in Hong Kong couple of weeks back, for a couple of weeks, lived near Sha Tin. Its McDonald's is in the mall that grew around the transport hub, between glassy retail units. Hong Kong is a land of malls with glassy retail units. I was there a few times, where the breakfasts are Fillet'O Fish and some sort of macaroni in soup. The restaurant is where kids study do their mountains of homework, and where the elderly read their morning papers. I saw a girl painting a card (Pink with Hello Kitty). 

 

Where do kids in London do their homework anyway? The underlying tone of the place seemed to be productivity and community.  

 

Last weekend, I was back to the McDonald's at Walthamstow, at the edge of London. It was a Sunday early noon, the place was still half empty. There were kids running around. Kids here appear in public to be either livelier or more feral to the kids in Hong Kong, depending. I was concerned with the family next to me: across them a strange elderly man splitting and making airplane noises. A lonely harmless crazy, something that tends to stay hidden in Hong Kong. 

Tube daydreams, alternate timelines

I'm wondering about time travel and alternate time lines, about how that time when I was in Elizebeth's room back in university. Is there a past where I kissed her, and is there a future we were together?