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2016-12-21 04:39 am
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Flying back home for Christmas

We are flying back home to London for Christmas on Friday. Our Moldovan hosts are going to London for Christmas too, they lived and worked in London for four years a couple of years ago and will be spending this Christmas and the New Year with their friends in London.

Meanwhile we have been having a hard time trying to get our volunteers to leave. The core team is so awesome and people bonded so well that they do not want to split and leave. Three people (two Americans and a Dutch guy) who all came here separately and met each other while volunteering for us have now become Moldova's hottest interior designers to the stars (albeit Moldovan stars, which is rather low key) apparently and are swamped with the contracts from Moldova's upper class.

They designed and built the interior of our community house, the wife of a local MP saw it when they visited, liked it a lot and that was their breakthrough. They are quite excited about the money they can make here from those introductions and will be staying for at least a couple of months for which they already have contracts designing interiors of Moldovan MPs' hunting lodges apparently. Interestingly, not one of them actually is an interior designer. Well, they are now I guess. If there is a market with a low barrier to entry and not much competition when it comes to interior design, Moldova is that market apparently. This reminded me of Tony Hawks's "Big in Albania" a lot.

They want to continue living in the village at our place for volunteers though and are asking us to charge them rent because they won't be volunteers anymore. We agreed that they would just make a donation to the local art school instead to make it simpler now that we have closed the first phase of our project here.
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2016-12-20 11:24 pm
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London vs Paris

Water, boat, grabbing a bite.

In Paris:



In London:



It is Seine but it is not the Thames of course, just Regent's Canal.
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2016-12-17 07:28 pm
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The flag bearer with the best hearing

He heard my camera's button and turned around.

In London.

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2016-12-15 06:44 pm
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Four-armed and fuchsia

I would really start lifting more with that upper set of arms. And perhaps stop tanning them too.

London

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2016-12-09 05:54 am
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UK's National Wildflower Centre is no more

To all our wonderful followers,

With great sadness Trustees have decided to close the National Wildflower Centre and related businesses in February 2017.

After 16-years of being at the heart of the community, and 41-years since the charity was first established, Trustees have made the difficult decision to wind down all business operations.

Trustees, staff and volunteers would like to thank all our loyal, wonderful customers and visitors who have been part of our wildflower journey.

Trustees would also like to thank our fabulous dedicated staff and volunteers who have worked so hard over the years.

Official statement: http://www.nwc.org.uk/news&post=516

This was UK's main hoard of native wild flower seeds.

Established in 1975, the National Wildflower Centre is a pioneer of creative conservation with a great track record in establishing new wildflower meadows and landscapes for the benefit of people and wildlife, often in areas with the greatest social and environmental justice demands. The National Wildflower Centre’s approach has been highly innovative, its techniques delivering and informing the recreation of our wildlife through rewilding projects throughout the UK and beyond.
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2016-11-15 07:49 pm
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Three piano players at King's Cross

I was catching a train to Brussels.

Shades of blue improvisation. He was good.



He was just learning.



The red haired girl liked him and stole the show.

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2016-11-03 05:05 am
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Are you tired? Worn out?

The dude on the right actually looked a bit tired and worn out.

Camden, London

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2016-11-02 03:03 pm
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Blue hair and leopard print

Do they go well together?

In London

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2016-10-30 05:45 pm
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Slut

There was this girl at London pride parade with a "SLUT" tiara on her plastic head. And there were two guys taking pictures of each other. One of them saw the "slut" and started shouting to the other one who was posing next to some dog boys "Oh no, go there, next to the slut. No, no, there, there next to the slut. The sluuut!" The "slut" was well within the earshot but not one muscle on her face moved. Obviously.

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2016-10-27 10:04 pm

Fashion

I know nothing about fashion, do not care about it, almost never notice it and have zero fashion sense. In the last couple of months I spent most of my time (except meeting at the ministries and the embassy) in cargo shorts only (yeah, no shoes, no underwear) and it was awesome. Too bad it is too cold for it now.

When I saw this dress (yeah, failed to focus on it properly) in Camden Market though, I somehow immediately thought of [livejournal.com profile] usagi_moon and "saw" her face above it. I have no idea why, especially because based on what I know about her I could assume (probably ignorantly) that she likes to wear a lot of black stuff. Still, even when I saw this photo I immediately remembered about [livejournal.com profile] usagi_moon and thought that she would rock it. That was unusual.

If I remember correctly, the price tag was GBP 550 (USD 670).

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2016-10-25 11:55 pm
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Taking photos at London Gay Pride

No to islamophobia, no to racism and fascism, yes to equality and diversity.



NHS is taking a photo of the dog boys with the Metropolitan Police.



Vroom vroom.

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2016-10-24 04:58 pm
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The future of British politics

Interesting (and short) lecture on the future of British politics. Got the link from [livejournal.com profile] philmophlegm.