I saw half of this film last night, the middle bit, so a bit confusing, i thought it was lovely, very sweet!
much to my suprise i have a brief photo booth story ……..
Once I was in Victoria station, in the booth, perched on one of those swivel twizzle stools,
face contorted into a rictus grin, awaiting the permanent stasis of flash,
I hear some ferrety rustling outside, ‘oooh theres someone in there!’
Then the curtain is flung back and a beaming bewhiskered drunk announces ‘suprise!’
he shoves his face in, just as the blue light flashes. ha.
in a photo, trapped forever together
in the picture i’ve always liked the look of disdain and grumpiness on my face, apart from that i guess we could very well be brothers
whenever Finn is having his passport piccie taken, i always burst in for the last photo. fun!
………
I finally got around to watching amelie the other week, it’s brilliant, so sweet, gentle, playful and imaginative.
just how all films should be!
……………..
….. an excuse for another rambling travel shaggy dog tale about getting my passport photo taken in Kathmandu
On the way to the shop, jostling through the grubby, happy palaver of the streets I saw a beggar, fakir type.
Somehow he had dug a hole in the tarmac and had his head completely buried under the road. Just like an ostrich!
I’ve no idea how he managed to breathe.
The obvious drawback with this busking strategy being that there was no way he could see, if somebody ran off with all his cash?!
Next I met the ‘Official Nepalese Thriller era Michael Jackson Impersonator’, he was greeting people in the street, then periodically would give a Billie Jean Yelp, spin around, moonwalk then grab his crotch
Very impressive, I went over to greet him, he was wearing an alvin stardust glove. we shook hands.
he leaned in, stared into my eyes. ‘Black Hash? … Change Money… Good Rate’
Michael Jackson could have been my money changer!
The actual photo was taken by a man in a little shop, who held an old fashionned flash bulb above his head. look at the birdie.. 23 awww
anyway, the point of this tail, another amelie theme, missed letters
after having my photo taken i went to pick up my mail from poste restante.
This was yonks before the days of email and internet cafes.
You had to time your mail drops perfectly. Exciting! Often hadn’t heard from anyone in 3 months, then hopefully a big batch of letters.
crushing if there was nothing and you think checking your inbox every 2 mins is bad enough!
The post office in Kathmandu was very lax, you could just take anything away, i found a letter for Flaps and took that for him.
We had been travelling together for 3 months, but had separated in Maduraii, India i was always supposed to be catching up with him again, but in the end went a bit doolally in sumatra, what with the orangutangs and had to go home
Flaps ended up in Beijing leaving town on the trans-siberian 2 days before the army stormed Tiannamen square!
anyway i put the letter in my Rucksac, forgot about it, got back to England, letter migrated to a box and then up, up and away into my parents loft
….years later i found it
…. and presented it to him, unopened, an exact 10 years after he should have received it
he was very good about it. merely commenting that it was from a woman he’d fancied at the time, never seen again and that had he received it, it would possibly have changed the course of his life!
oh well
