At the RIBA

Yesterday I went to a CDP thingy over at RIBA in central London. The thingy started at 9.30 in the morning. Which meant waking up early and enduring rush hour. I still haven't decided which one is worse.



Because I'm cheap and fares in this country are ridiculously high, I went the cheap way. By bus. Big big mistake! It was absolutely crowded with noisy screeching school girls. (Where were all the boys? Does segregation in the school in the UK extend to getting different buses in the morning too?) Oh god! The noise! In the half an hour I was on the bus I acquired a splitting headache. When I have money I will travel by train on rush hour!

By the way, what's with the short short skirts? I can see how the girls would like their skirts so short. (If I were a straight man I do not know how I would survive all that naked pubescent thigh flashed around. Thank god schools aren't co-ed, otherwise all the teenaged boys would be in a constant state of painful arousal!) But how exactly do the school authorities permit it? Aren't they any regulations about skirt lengths?

Anyway. I went to the CPD thingies. It was OK I guess. Some presentations interesting. Some not so much. I didn't meet anyone, but I did buy a nice big serious book on the British Building Code. Let's see when I read it!

While in the RIBA, I had all sorts of thinky thoughts. I even noted down some of them on this free notepad I was given. But I'm too lazy to transcribe today.

And then I went shopping. See, the RIBA is a short walk from Oxford Circus. And once there I couldn't resist the lure of Topshop. I know, I know, it's a teenagers shop. But I'm poor, ok? It's a dizzying confusing warren of a place. Perfect for the young I guess. Most of the clothes are cheap rubbish. (Their jumpers are atrocious! Not so much the designs as the syntheticness of the materials.) However I managed to score a pair of short black shorts (I know I'm too old, and I'm sure it was a trick of the mirrors, but I looked good in them and have wanted a pair for the past ten years, ok?) and one of those weird straight but sorta puffy skirts that seemed to be called paperback waist (what sort of name is that?)- also black. (I know the belt is awful, I will change it.)

Now I must not buy anything more. Ever! Because I can't spend all my money on clothes and books. Then how will I eat? (And even more importantly, how will I pay my public transport fares?)