LONDON ARRIVALS, LAST YEAR

EXCERPTS FROM MY PERSONAL NEWSLETTER ON MY RETURN FROM LONDON TO SOUTH AFRICA MAY 2006



Today was a day of rain seeping between pavementcracks and my feet walking across rain, and me getting progressively wetter and wetter. London people can look lovely, but on the underground on a wet day they look like half-drowned rats. Late at night Londoners are usually very drunk and lurch around as if they are semi-comatose, which in fact they are, due to all thealcohol. London seems the same but not the same. A bit cleaner. There is less immediacy in people's faces here than in Cape Town, and less trauma; it is as if people arewrapped in insulating tissue paper you can't getthrough. On an individual level, they are very genuine, but busy. You won't meet them usually walking around but I joined a writing group and dance salsa, so am getting to meet them.

However, the Londoners I tend to meet may not be your typical 'English' as in the stereotypes, they are often from abroad, or haveat least one parent from abroad. I am rapidly coming to the conclusion I am just not made for grey weather and sitting on the London Underground waiting for the latest news on train signal failures. Nor for a nine-to-five job. So if anyone hears of an unorthodox job or project which involves a well-travelled creative artistic anthropologist who can write, do tell me - I'm off and away! It was a complete novelty to be able to walk around in the middle of the night and feel completely safe, and catch night buses any time I liked - at the moment Iam doing it because I can, and salsa ends late, but when sleeplessness takes over the novelty will no doubt wear off. I have been lost several times and taken the wrong underground train also in the wrong directon a couple of times.

A big change in London is that when I left seven years ago or so, people used tostand in the street and hold placards on sticks with the words 'THE END OF THE WORLD IS NIGH' written onthem, but now their placards say things like 'MCDONALDS THIS WAY'. London is also deadly expensive. 25 rand (for SouthAfricans) for a coffee in the centre of London and no free refills which is financial death for a writer wholived off refillable coffees in Mug and Bean in Cape Town while working on marking papers, writing, and at one time, my PhD.

DANCE AND MUSIC IN LONDON (FOR THE DANCE AND MUSICLOVERS)

There is no shortage of music and salsa here. At least 8-10 salsa clubs alone at night in London. The dancing is very different from South Africa - less dips, less improvisation I think. As people are from all over, the styles vary on the same dance floor from Colombian to Cuban to Puerto Rican to English versions of the same. In a funny way I think South African salsa in CapeTown is actually better now than in London. Maybe I have not as yet seen the best here, as I've only been here a short time. The styles are more traditional here, with more footwork, but there are a lot of people who dance it well but have little true rhythm or feeling for the dance. Of course the Cubans and Colombians have the feeling and rhythm but most are sticklers for the more traditional forms of salsa. I met a couple of people who probably have some dance training who are more experimental but I think the Jazz dancers in Cape Town who have learnt salsa are rapidly taking over in style. People here dress up much less too, (or maybe that's the British bad dress sense, and they are dressed up, need to work that one out).

I met a bunch of Colombians who took me to a completely Colombian salsa club - big containers of beer on each table with taps - which finished at six in the morning (they did not tell me this, so my intended 1 o'clock return was somewhat later). Apparently the whole of that particular area of South London (Elephant and Castle) is pretty much Latin America now. I had to quickly remember the Colombian dance styles I learnt so many years ago -footwork from Cali, cumbia, and some new styles. Reggaeton is also very popular but danced much more moderately in London than in SA from what I can see (this is what I thought until I saw Latin American teenagers dancing). Whole familes come; all the older generation hanging out till 6am. No-one is too old to dance here. I also went to another club where people were quite arrogant and very British and thought they were brilliant but actuallywere not that good. There is also a cuban festival here with some very famous bands coming to London on the weekend after next - people from los Van Van and Sur Caribe etc. It's completely free and runs for several days.

ART STUFF

I went to an exhibition on Surrealism (related to theSurrealist magazine publications) at the HaywardGallery, South Bank, and to get there walked across the bridge that is now enlarged from the Embankment,towards the big wheel on the other side that wasn't there when I left London. I descended in a lift that smelt of urine to the South Bank and walked to the Hayward Gallery in grey rain with an umbrella that kept blowing inside out. The exhibition was reasonable and included a few Picasso paintings, films and interestingly lots of artifacts from Africa, and beyond, described as 'primitive' artworks which apparently had inspired the surrealists. There was a drum, masks etc. It was wierd to see a trace of Africaness in a European exhibition on Surrealism, a strange sense of familiarity and groundedness in what was supposedly a fantastical exhibition.

ON WRITING

My last edit of my near-completed novel hasn't seen much lightbut now I'm attempting to get moving on it, sendingoff letters to agents etc. which I hope to do this week. Encouragement really appreciated as I'm totally isolated in my writing a book here - missing mywriting groups. Also, I went to a poetry slam (still not sure what that means) where poets performed their poetry - mostly crass humour stuff. I didn't understand a word of what the person who won said, but he performed it well. There isn't much mugging and murder or major political angst or HIV here so the poems were about - I think - dead cats, men who shout rude things at women, waiting for night buses (I mayhave this one wrong), racism (that one was very good), love, and worms.

After 3 hours of this I decided I will join a smaller writing group in future although I still may go read my poetryat another slam but it was a bit of a marathon. I've found out about one writing group and will go tomorrow, but am still looking around.

END COMMENTS

Having culture shock in what is meant to be your own country is quite bizarre. The main amusement of people who know me here is my ability to race across roads at full speed in fear of being run over due to my familiarity with Cape Town drivers. Oh, and there's a distinct lack of chillies in the supermarket here, the lack of which I am really suffering from...