Reading: F I N A L L Y finished the Twilight books, what a drag, but felt like I had to slog through them since I’d started. Here’s hoping the rest of the movies are going to be better than the books, as the first film was. Now starting on A Thousand Splendid Suns, to be followed by something incredibly literary, just to clean my head of tacky teenage vampire novels.

Watching: Quantum of Solace (somebody finally released a decent screener version); The Birdcage / La Cage Aux Folles - that is, the French original (1978), the American remake (1996) starring Robin Williams and Gene Hackman, and a recent theatrical adaptation at the Playhouse in London; and Brick Lane, just to round off the London trip.

Hanging Around Lille

After my Toussaint travelling marathon (Paris, Limoges, Belgium, Ypres, Antwerpen … all in fourteen days), I’ve spent the last few weeks venturing no further than the Lille Metro will allow.

An interesting exhibition I attended was an art students market in Roubaix (a suburb of Lille):

There was plenty of general funkiness which Jodie would probably appreciate the most. It was all quite reasonably priced too. The exhibition was an interesting concept: 24 hours of non-stop art manufacture, with the artists camping out in their respective stalls, producing throughout the night. By the time I arrived, about hour 19, they were bleary eyed and sedated, but their stalls were full of interesting pieces. I was looking for Christmas presents, but really didn’t see anything that suited anyone; there was plenty I would’ve bought for myself if I were setting up house in France, but the shipping costs back home would’ve ruined the point of buying students work at bargain basement prices. Here’s hoping there’s similar events back home when I do have to set up house end of next year.

Banksy has clearly had a lot of influence on young urban artists: every second artist was doing Banksy-style stencil art.

London

Determined to do something more exciting with my last weekend before Christmas, I booked last minute tickets to London (as in, 11pm Thursday I decided to go, and 1pm Friday, after work, I was on a bus). God I love how you can just do that here.

After the hassle-free Schengen border crossings between France, Belgium and the Netherlands, I’d totally forgotten that the UK actually does customs and immigration before you can enter – luckily I remembered my ‘Titre de Sejour’ – my French residency card. I’d always wondered why these cards were such a hassle to organise, but now I understand: they are essentially one page passports, for use within the European Union.

On a side note, although it’s a four hour flight away, Iceland is a Schengen country, so I probably won’t need to take my passport for that either. I am intensely jealous of all you EU residents, you got it made.

I could’ve taken the train (1 1/2 hours) instead of the bus (6 hours) except the former cost 120euroes ONE WAY for a last-minute ticket and the bus was 60euroes RETURN. Quarter of the price, who cares about 3 times the time?

The extra time for the bus is due to the delays of customs/immigration, boarding/disboarding the P&O Ferry at Calais. Interesting experience, and a good oppourtunity to buy cheap alcohol before arriving in London:

I’d heard about this: the British come over on the ferry, stock up on cheap booze (no tax on French wine, hell yeah) and drive back again. This fella had every space in his hatch filled with cases, and no luggage. Planning a party?

It seems I can’t escape it … BANROCK! It’s here! Only it’s actually called Rose here instead of ‘White Shiraz’, seems they don’t bother with the toffee name. It was one of a few wines available (duty free, of course) on the ferry in boxes, so clearly it’s popular. They also had Penfolds, Hardys, Lindemans (no, not the guy from Heroes), and a few other South Australian wines. In fact, they dominated the selection. I bought a bottle of Hardys cab sav because it was the cheapest cab sav available – I know, Hardys is an American company now, but I couldn’t resist buying a bottle of alcohol that is marked ‘Reynella, South Australia’ while on board a boat crossing the English channel on the other side of the world. Oh, and just to piss you off just a little bit more: it’s cheaper here.

And, it appears, they save the best for the Brits: normally most Hardys reds are bloody awful, but perhaps because it was chilled, the bottle I bought was really rather nice. Either that or I was drunk too quickly to notice. Or I’m used to the somewhat more hideous French wines.

British Museum

Really, the only touristy thing I did was visit the British Museum. It’s one of the more important museums in the world, but I have overdosed on Egyptian and classical artwork at other museums, so I found the modern art and the non-European artefacts more interesting. It really is a must-see in London, however, if even only to see the Rosetta stone in person, or to see the huge Grand Court (the covered courtyard in the centre, a recent addition).

The British Museum is famous for being one of the largest collections of “borrowed” artefacts in the world (I think the Louvre would have to be the best). Very little of the collection are actually British – it’s mostly Egyptian and Middle Eastern artefacts somewhat controversially removed from Egypt during the 19th century.

There are better reliquaries (a gilded container designed to hold a relic, a religiously significant artefact, which is usually the body parts, or other pieces, associated with certain saints and religious figures) to be seen in Munich (skulls, finger bones, all gruesome and wonderful), the British Museum’s sole one is probably trumps in ’significance’ – supposedly it’s one of the thorns from Jesus’ Crown of Thorns. Wonderful Catholic twaddle, but the reliquary itself is pretty cool; check out the dead rising from their coffins in its base:

If you do visit, check out the North/South American, Pacific and African artefacts (particularly the African) as they’re much more fascinating and relevant (well, I found this to be so: I’ve been to the Pergammon in Berlin, the Vatican in Rome, the Louvre – of course – in Paris and the Museum of Natural History in New York: I am over Egyptian and Classical artefacts.)

My personal favourites at the museum where the following three turquoise pieces which I think were Mayan and the African pieces created out of decomissioned weapons.

My apologies if these are not Mayan but some other South American culture – I didn’t actually check, though I’m pretty sure the room they were in represented Mayan arts.

The African room also includes information and documentaries about the decommissioning of machine guns in certain African countries, where the materials for these pieces are derived from. I admired these works because they represent the feel and spirit of native African art, but incorporate the interference of Western culture onto their society, in the use of the decommissioned weapons. The most important thing I took away was that none of these weapons – which had each killed African civilians – were manufactured in Africa. It reminds us Westerners of our continued responsibility for the difficulties faced by Africa.

Statue Philia at the British Museum

However, at the moment, the main thing to check out at the British Museum are the incredible pieces of modern art that are dotted around the buildings. I’m not usually much of a fan of modern art, but sometimes there are things that are destined to be classics, the meanings and interpretations of which are enough to fascinate even ordinary people. I’ve always thought that a person shouldn’t need an arts degree to appreciate art, and if an arts degree is necessary, then it just isn’t great art. I had to fight through crowds of people to see these pieces, which held many transfixed.

They’re part of the British Museum’s Statue Philia exhibition which will run until the 25th of January.

‘Siren’ by Marc Quinn is the one gaining most media coverage. It’s a solid gold statue of Kate Moss, but intended to remind us of ancient Greek art, with Moss as a modern Aphrodite. Besides being genuinely confronting to look at initially, it’s fascinating to see the level of detail at different angles, much as you would at Michaelangelo’s David. It was positioned in comparison to Lely’s Venus (which I took a photo of above).

Then there’s Ron Mueck’s Mask II. This was the hardest to get a photo of, as every man, woman and child was clustered around it in wonder. Check it out, plopped next to the statue from Easter Island (Hoa Hakanai’a); gives you an idea of the scale. It’s his own face, by the way.

Tim Noble and Sue Webster’s Dark Stuff was my favourite piece from this group: in the Egyptian section, these silhouettes are constructed from bundles of mummified animals. When light is cast at a particular angle, we see they represent a man and a woman’s face (actually, the artist’s faces). It’s intended to be a reflection of attitudes to ‘life and death’ and ‘grotesque and beauty’, but really, it’s Noble and Webster’s connecting Egyptian mummification with the ‘presents’ their cat brought home. I loved it: how gruesome, yet so gorgeous!

Another Modern piece which I think is more permanent – and not part of the exhibition – is Cradle to The Grave by Pharmacopoeia. Basically, a doctor and a couple of artists calculated how many drugs the average man and woman takes in their life, then stitched them chronologically into netting, representing the dependence on medication of our culture. It was fascinating to start at one end, and try to identify the drugs taken at different ages – from aspirin to contraception to chemotherapy and blood pressure pills.

Fascinating concept. I recognised a couple of the pills ! I think that was the intended effect; I wonder how much Levlen has come and gone through my own body since I started on it in the late 90’s?

Other adventures in London.

I spent a bit of time wandering around: I knew I’d return to the UK at least once more during my trip here, so I wasn’t too worried about seeing ‘everything’.

You know I’m a musical buff, and I couldn’t go past seeing at least one show, so I saw La Cage Aux Folles (it’s based on the same stageplay which ‘The Birdcage‘ and the French ‘La Cage Aux Folles‘ films are based on.) It was funny, but as gay-themed musicals go, Priscilla kicks its arse (hey, this one didn’t have a huge bus that hangs out over the audience

It is rather overpriced and overtouristed, but Camden Market was excellent. I hadn’t see such wonderful general alternativeness since coming to France (even the Emos are conservative here), so I felt right at home amongst the punks and fat American tourists wandering around here. The stalls in the Stables Market were better than those on the main street, though my favourite was in the two storey building next to the lock (Spittlefields? I forget the name of the building). Something fun: a bunch of kids in an old boat came through the lock while I had my lunch, it was great watching them operate the seriously old skool lock: no electricity here, all levers and cogs.

I ate on the cheap, had a pub meal at my hostel that was rather decent, and had scones at the British Museum. The best though was the mulled wine and irish stew I had at a little booth in Camden Market. It was f u c k i n g freezing, but the wine warmed me up pretty quick.

There were some seriously original stuff here. In the end I only bought a bag (a red canvas one that is the right size for a teachers bag), but I had wanted to buy heaps more junk. I had to keep reminding myself I’m too old (and too teachery) to be a neo-punk.

I did do a free tour of old London, saw all the sites again, but to tell you the truth the photos I took on my one solitary day in transit back in 2005, when the sun was out, are far better, so I didn’t bother taking many.

So, the weather was pretty terrible, but considering I left Lille in -2degree weather and arrived in 5 degree weather, I thought I actually did pretty well (though I ended up being boiling in my snow jacket). It just rained heavily and was generally miserable.

So, back in Lille.

Riots at Baggio, continued.

I had thought that perhaps I would do a full 10 hour working week for my last of the year, but alas, due to the fiery temperament of some of Baggio’s students (see previous entry). The riots and demonstrations from Friday, Monday and Tuesday have continued all week. I had three classes today (Thursday) and not one student turned up to any one of them. Maybe tomorrow I’ll have some students in my one sole class.

Meanwhile, out the front this morning, I think the kids got cold and decided to sacrifice a wheelie bin:

And the poor troubled bus shelter from before had one more of its windows smashed. Oh well, at least there weren’t any riot police this time around.

Apparently there are similar – though less violent – demonstrations in Lens and Nantes. Meanwhile, the newspapers here are quite bored with it, and have moved on to panic about the latest foiled ‘terrorist’ attack in the Printemps department store in Paris. The first I heard about that was the Australian government’s smarttraveller bulletin warning us about increased terrorist activities in France. Riots, terrorist attacks, god what a dangerous country France is Anyway, it’s not as dangerous as Denmark at the moment, according to smarttraveller.

Movies, Books.

Haven’t bothered with too much of a social life here, so my spare time is mostly filled with travel, media and studying French. I’ve been watching a lot of films/tv shows and reading a lot of books I’ve been wanting to see but didn’t have time to during Uni. With books I usually listen to the audiobooks, originally because it gave my dodgy eyes a rest, but now because I can walk down a street effectively ‘reading’ a book without bumping into people. Walking the 40mins home from work, listening to my audiobooks, has become my main hobby (when it’s not raining, that is). In this way I suffered through the whole Twilight series – bizarrely engrossing and addictive but frustratingly impatiently dull. The movies are going to be better.

I can’t believe it – Survivor is heading into its 18th season. When did that happen? I still remember that fat Richard guy backstabbing his way to too much money.

Quantum of Solace was just incredibly dull. I’m so disappointed; loved Casino Royale. Daniel Craig’s still pretty decent despite the battering he takes, but there just wasn’t any story; it seemed like a collection of randomly ordered action sequences. I found myself going off to make a tea half way through, knitting my scarf, and doing some Iceland research, while it ran in the background. It’s not often a movie bores me that much. Oh well.

A Thousand Splendid Suns is shaping up to be a nice pleasant read, though compared with Persepolis and Osama, which explore similar concepts, it seems a little tame (well, Kite Runner was quite tame also). It will do well as a film though, so looking forward to that.

Just watched Wesele (‘The Wedding’) again: a Polish film I saw at a couchhost’s place. It’s the Polish The Castle, I swear, involving lots of sleaze, sarcasm and vodka. I love it. I’m sending it to everyone I think will like it. I cracked up all over again.

Wishing you all …

a joyeux noel. I’m heading out and about on Sunday, won’t be home till early January. Bizarrely for someone who doesn’t like the cold, and is complaining about Lille’s frosty weather, I’m heading to Iceland for New Years. Yeah, I know, incredibly bizarre. But hey, I get to see the Northern Lights and walk on a glacier. And maybe see an arctic fox, man are they cuties. And there will be plenty of alcohol invovled, no fear.

Speaking of alcohol, have a look at this bottle I bought from the local Hypermarche (super-supermarket):

Yes, it is a bottle of wine from the Lordship of Arse estate. You’d think that winemakers in a country where the English speaking rate is quite high, and which is right next to the UK, would know better. Actually, it was really nice wine for the price (about $7) so I’m going back to get more.

Mum, if you’re reading this, look after Lily, no matter how much she annoys you. Everyone else, have a good vacation, and think of me in subzero temperatures while you’re enjoying mild South Australian weather of around 30 degrees in shorts and t-shirts. Best wishes for a happy new year, see/hear from you soon.