MAPS
Russians to the right; Indians to the left. I go with the Indians. I follow the sign for Hind Street Community Centre. Outside my window there are Indians playing football. And Chinese playing basketball. The Chinese are well toned and strong. They do more than lay-ups. Their lay-ups are good but they can do more than that. The Indians sometimes play football with the Africans. It is a concrete pitch. Sometimes basketball court; sometimes football pitch.
At night, I sit on my balcony and listen to the ball bouncing on the court. I watch the teenagers sneak into the court for a cigarette and sometimes a joint. Yesterday there was a girl, maybe 14, who was mad at her friends for some reason. She told the boys: “I’m going home.” She was the only one smoking and she walked like a woman of 20 or more. Her 14 year old girlfriends chased after her. They consoled her by putting their arms around her and bringing her back to the concrete court/pitch. Then they all took out their smart phones and took pictures of each other. I am sure it went straight to Facebook. I am not sure what kind of smart phones they used. I don’t think they were Iphones. This is a Blackberry estate. The text messages are untraceable.
I don’t know what the Russians do in the other estate but they all blond. They are blond Russians. There might be some that are not blond. They are plenty of non-blond Russians. But I have only seen the blond ones. They talk on their smart phones very loudly. They all use iphones.
Down the road is Canary Wharf and that is a completely different world. Everything is swanky. It is a whole city of bankers and financial people. They have fancy restaurants and over-priced pints of beer. I like to go there to watch the bankers drinking after work. They are mostly fashionable people. I sit on the grass with my £1 pint of Stella and watch them. I am still learning about fashionable people. I am not sure if I can be a fashionable person. I don’t think I can learn the walk and talk of the bankers in Canary Wharf. But I am getting more comfortable sitting there watching them. I like watching everyone. Sometimes I like to join in. Not with the bankers but with other people, maybe. I think I will go to Canary Wharf and buy my first smart phone when I get a decent paycheck in October. I can wait three months. Three more months will be OK. I need to decide if I want an iphone or a Blackberry or something else altogether. I am leaning towards something else altogether. Then again I may not even need a smartphone. I can only think of getting a smartphone for the maps. I get lost easily.
Labels: dream window memoir, marcus slease, travel writing
