On Kitchen Fires and Busy Schedules

“Not I, nor anyone else can travel that road for you.
You must travel it by yourself.
It is not far. It is within reach.
Perhaps you have been on it since you were born, and did not know. 
Perhaps it is everywhere - on water and land.” 
-Walt Whitman, Leaves Of Grass

May has come and gone, and summer is in the air. London in the summer is quite the sight. I've never experienced a city with so much room for trees and open spaces, and I'm glad they laid things out this way. I've always been partial to both culture and green spaces, and The Big Smoke combines those two beautifully. Perhaps not as great as San Sebastian does it, but that city is not a global hub. All in all, there's plenty to like about this place.

The World Cup is nearly upon is, and as I work for one of the world's leading sports websites, you can imagine this is a busy time for us. June is going to be insane, but I can't wait to get started. I don't have many friends in this place and little to look forward to outside of work, so it's good to know my hands will be full. 

My fixation on having nothing but vegetables for lunch lasted about three days. Frankly I got hungy after a while, and when I saw a pack of 40 brownies for just two pounds I pounced. Living a healthy life is one thing, but life has to be fun. Not to sound gloomy, but we only have a short time on this rock-we might as well enjoy it. Right now I think I've found somewhat of a balance between sweets and veggies, and I think that's just fine.

I've always liked helping people, in one way or another. Helping others feels good, and it makes us feel better about ourselves. As much as we'd like to deny it, in the end we mainly help other people for our own selfish reasons, and that's fine. 

Several aspiring writers have approached me in these last few months, because for some reason they think I can help set them on their way. I've been editing and streamlining the work of a couple of guys and girls looking to follow the path I took, and I have to say I truly enjoy it. One of them is just 16 years old, but he has a good pen and an eye for news. His level of English may not be up to standard yet, but he's 16-he has time on his side. The progress he's made in the last two months is incredible, and in a way, his drive and enthusiasm are inspiring. And I truly enjoy the thought I've played my part in that.

I've been in London for nearly four months now, and it's odd how quickly you adapt to certain things. There are already a number of things I know I'd greatly miss should I leave this place, things I've grown so accustomed to it'd be hard to let go. Actually, it might be fun to list a handful, so here it goes:

Public Transport
This is a big one. Before I moved to London I lived in a place called Niel, and I would in no way be offended if you'd never heard of it. It's a small, quaint place that has a number of things going for it, but it's pretty much the middle of nowhere (although we did officially win the title of Smartest Town In Flandres, so you can all suck it). Public transport is limited to two trains and two busses every hour, none at night and none during the weekend. 
In London, we have the tube, night busses and cheap taxi's. As much as I enjoy driving, there's no reason to get a car in London. Public transportation is immaculate, and with night tubes promised in 2015, it'll only get better.

24/7 Supermarkets
Again, I lived in Niel. Good luck finding a shop that opens its doors on Sunday. I work plenty of late shifts, and the fact I can sign off at midnight, open the door and find a normal shop willing to sell me a bottle of wine and some microwave Mac and cheese on a Sunday is a blessing. 

Evening Papers
This is truly genius. You get off the tube at six in the evening and some bloke hands you a free copy of The London Evening Standard. It's 100% free, and I'm not talking about De Zondag here-this is a quality paper. Forget about reading the paper while you take breakfast, I'm all for having my news in the evening.

Now, on the fire in our apartment. Basically what happened is my flatmate smoked way too much pot and decided to make fries. Obviously, it didn't end well, and when the flame first sparked he panicked and grabbed the first bottle he could find to try and extinguish it. Which happened to be a bottle of tequila.

I saw a lot of smoke, which happens quite often in our flat because my Polish flatmates have no idea how to cook, so I jokingly updated my Facebook status by proclaiming to the world there was a fire in our apartment. About two seconds later I realised there was an actual fire, grabbed a towel, ran to the kitchen, soaked the towel and put it out. Maybe it was the tequila or maybe I was just way too late, but the fire had spread all over the cooker in a hurry, so when I first put the towel over it my sleeve briefly caught fire. Don't worry, my arm is fine, although my sweater is ruined. Anyway, we put out the fire and everyone lived. I started feeling the effects of the smoke about 30 minutes later and so did my flatmate, but we went outside for a while and everything was fine. Obviously the cooker is ruined, but so is pretty much everything in this apartment. Hell, I haven't been able to do laundry in three weeks.

I'm sorry this entry is relatively short and quite menial, but I'm sort of in a bit of a funk. The past few days haven't been easy and my notes are completely unusable. I'm guessing the updates in these next few weeks might be similar, with the World Cup and all. I promise I'll put in a good one as soon as I have the time :) For now, let me leave you with the words of one Charlie Chaplin:
"Nothing is permanent in this wicked world-not even our troubles."


Song of the day: The Ink Spots - I Don't Want To Set The World On Fire
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6l6vqPUM_FE