-one for the weekend!-

one hour away from the weekend. the trading floor is in its usual friday afternoon lull. the f/x people are still shouting out across the room but the sales team have gone to a presentation. the pile of work that i managed to accumulate over the days i have been away has been dealt with - and i don't mean by chucking the lot into the nearest bin, either.

the march sky is clear blue and glowingly beautiful. there is just a hint of white misty cloud on the horizon stretching out towards charing cross and beyond. i love this scene; a lot of people think working in the city is a chore and that it is dirty, horrible and all that. maybe i haven't seen enough beauty yet to identify what is truly beautiful, but i know that this is the landscape i will remember of london when i leave - the gold needles shining on the clock towers on top of st paul's cathedral, the heavy dome, and in my mind's eye i can see the whimsical stone pineapples (apparently a sign of affluence in those days when they were a rarity) surrounding the base, all set against a backdrop of perfect sky-blue. if i squint into the direction of the yellow sunlight i can see the cranes standing along the thames and the gleaming booths of the london eye. i reckon it's time to enjoy a chilled glass of chardonnay in the glorious, brilliant sunshine of a spring afternoon in london!

following on the finnish poem theme... here's one for the weekend!

- Almost without Noticing -
Eira Stenberg (b.1943) Finland, translated by Hervert Lomas

Almost without noticing,
without thinking, it seems,
you've arrived where you see far.
Thirty years back, more, the path vanishes,
thirty years ahead, more, the path vanishes:
and you're forced to sit down in your own shadow
to think.
Memory,
mother of truth and myth,
tell how the terrain divided the stream.

photos of london
poems on the underground