London

The World’s “Biggest silent disco” was made up of only 200 people but they danced for over an hour to all the music they had on their ipods, mobile phones and other mp3 playing devices. It was very amusing. I arrived over an hour early and scouted out the area seeing where the event would be most likely to take place. As I did this I looked around, seeing which people were likely to participate. I saw two or three groups of friends, then some more. Around 1830 a lot of people were standing around and waiting. Within a few minutes more and more people were coming and you could see them all watching the clock. They saw the counter switch to 18:42 but it took ten to twenty seconds before people started dancing. My camera was ready and rolling as soon as 18:42 was on the clock. I was listening to my own music and was filming. I saw lot’s of people start dancing and laughing. I saw some individuals synchronise their music, others shared. Some came with only small earphones whilst others came with big headphones. Some of them danced in groups. Overs danced alone and many people took photographs and video. Conga lines and waves were formed as the individuals listening to their music formed into groups of people who danced the evening away under the arches of Paddington station. I filmed for fifty seven minutes and I’ve got over 300 individual shots of a variety of people dancing, interviews being carried out(I can’t be bothered with interviews and I didn’t have a mic anyway) and more. There was a small police presence but they did not intervene until the very end when some musicians started to play. The crowd loved it though. When I started editing last night was the first glimpse of how surreal the event must have been for the by-standers watching the dancers. I can hear lot’s of squeaking shoes and conversations can be heard loud and clear since there was no loud music. It’s hilarious to see such an event and when it happens again I’ll definitely participate in as many as I can. I’ve been looking at what people say about it on facebook and there are many people that I recognise from the video footage. Overall it’s a great bit of random fun at a random time on a random day and it’s great to see.

julia - Jan 4, 2007

The snow yesterday morning was lovely. Pity it didn’t last long. Bit disturbed by the fact there are different ‘premium’ and ‘standard’ halls at your uni - who says the class system is dead in Britain, eh?!

Snow began to fall this morning at 3 am and a group of those living in halls went out to enjoy the fresh snow. it was falling for several hours and everyone was enjoying it. There were snowball fights between the premiums and the standards. That’s Premium block and standard blocks. Some people were continuously pelted with snow whilst others simply enjoyed being out in the snow. A remote-controlled car was there driving around but struggling. The tires were skidding. When will these people learn that you accelerate slowly in snow and gradually build up speed? I’ve got a video of this morning but I still have to capture it.

If you’ve ever worked with students or you’ve ever had a few good nights in a row there’s a rule everyone lives by. That rule is that nothing shall be done before 5am, whether it’s consuming a good meal, putting on clothing other than pyjamas or other. It’s a time when everyone rests. Especially on a sunday. I was out by 930 today because I had to travel across London for a shoot with some students for the rag week. I don’t know much about the thing but it seems typical of pre 1970’s universities where they are bound by an extended legacy. My uni seems to lack this unfortunatly. I don’t often shoot and edit a piece on the same day. I usually take my time and eventually get round to it. At least today was different. It’s been a good weekend.

I’m back in the northwest of London waiting for Monday to come when I can fall asleep in the first lecture of the week… In reality that’s probably not going to happen. Instead, it’s going to be the final three modules before the course is over. It’s going to be fun since I love the modules I need to do. The flight was good, enjoyed watching a film on my i-pod, and finally getting a proper opportunity to check my noise-canceling headphones out. They make quite a difference.

Yesterday I made a phone call after writing an e-mail to see about getting cheaper accomodation through one method and it went well. I’m going to be back in London tomorrow, once I’ve finished packing all my stuff into a suitcase. It’s the usual good and bad. It’s good because although I’m leaving my skills are still in demand so there’s a chance I’ll be in demand when I get back. it’s It’s good because I’m looking forward to being back in England and getting this final year out of the way. It’s bad because I would prefer to do another year of uni rather than being a student. I met some interesting people and it’s a shame I’m leaving. Tomorrow is the moment when I put Geneva on hold and take my London life out of standby.