The wall

On By Laura MorganIn Uncategorized

This panoramic view of the Great Wall of China (warning: it may make your browser behave oddly) is kind of beautiful, without being as breathtaking as I want it to be. There’s something unphotographable* about the Great Wall of China, I think, which is why all photos of it look kind of the same:

The Great Wall of China

Well, nearly all photos of it, anyway:

Great Wall of China - close-up with graffiti

* “unphotographable” is a word I know only from the lyrics of My Funny Valentine – I am very pleased to have an excuse to use it in real life.

You can see the rest of the set, most of which were taken in Beijing in June 2006, here.

I can’t explain it

On By Laura MorganIn Football

I don’t know how it happened: it crept up on me while I was looking in the other direction.  Believe me, I don’t feel good about it.  But there’s no denying it so I may as well come straight out and say it: I want Man Utd to win the Premier league title.

An oasis of hope in this sea of bewilderment is offered by the fact that I still want Liverpool to win the Champions’ League – roundly beating Chelsea on the way, as is becoming traditional.

The words

On By Laura MorganIn Uncategorized

I’ve just noticed somebody got sent here after searching for “Glad all over words”. And I felt bad, because they’ll have been disappointed, so in case it happens again, here they are, courtesey of the Lyrics Depot:

GLAD ALL OVER
The Dave Clark Five
(Dave Clark / Mike Smith)

You say that you love me (say you love me)
All of the time (all of the time)
You say that you need me (say you need me)
You’ll always be mine (always be mine)

I’m feelin’ glad all over
Yes I’m-a glad all over
Baby I’m glad all over
So glad you’re mine

I’ll make you happy (make you happy)
You’ll never be blue (never be blue)
You’ll have no sorrow (have no sorrow)
‘Cause I’ll always be true (always be true)

And I’m feelin’ glad all over
Yes I’m-a glad all over
Baby I’m-a glad all over
So glad you’re mine

Other girls may try to take me away (take me away)
But you know, it’s by your side I will stay
I’ll stay

Our love will last now (our love will last)
Till the end of time (end of time)
Because this love now (because this love)
Is gonna be yours and mine (yours and mine)

And I’m feelin’ glad all over
Yes I’m-a glad all over
Baby I’m glad all over
So glad you’re mine

Other girls may try to take me away (take me away)
But you know, it’s by your side I will stay
I’ll stay

All of our lives now (all of our lives)
Till the end of time (end of time)
Because this love now (because this love)
Is only yours and mine (yours and mine)

And I’m feelin’ glad all over
Yes I’m-a glad all over
Baby I’m-a glad all over
So glad you’re mine

I’m so glad you’re mine now
I’m so, I’m so glad you’re mine
I’m-a so glad you’re mine now
Whoa-whoa-whoa-whoa-whoa-whoa

Nausea-inducing videos

On By Laura MorganIn Other cities

Last week b3ta.com linked to a video of a horrifyingly steep and desperately unsafe-looking mountain path in Spain. Now Lloyd’s posted the videos, as well as some related pictures which are equally disturbing. Inspired by this, and by my successful posting of a video clip, which also made me think of Tokyo, I went looking for footage of the two rollercoasters that my intrepid siblings went on at Fuji-Q, the theme park outside Tokyo in the shadow of Mount Fuji.

The first, Dodonpa, is the world’s fastest-accelerating rollercoaster, taking you up to 107mph in two seconds. Apparently the moment it shoots out of the tunnel causes physical pain (there are so, so many reasons I don’t go on these things):

And then there’s Fujiyama, which when it was built was the world’s tallest roller coaster, and the POV footage genuinely makes me feel sick, and it’s definitely nothing to do with the amount of wine I drank last night, although the fact that I can’t embed the video may be. I’ll go old-tech and link to it.

If I’d seen that video in advance, I would have forbidden the whole thing. As it was, I let them go off to almost-certain death unknowingly, and spent a happy day by myself in Tokyo, climbing the Mori Tower, which is also quite tall, but which, happily, stays still:

The Mori Tower

No congestion charge for NYC

On By Laura MorganIn Language, Public transport3 Comments

Inhabitat carries the depressing news that the proposal to introduce congestion charging (or “congestion pricing”, as it seems to be called over there) in New York has been voted down. Their headline says all that need be said, I think.

Stupid car-driving voters. If ever a city was designed for walking, New York is it. But perhaps expecting brave and innovative steps from legislators in a country so wedded to car ownership was too much.

Still, I was mildly cheered by the reference in the article to “neigh sayers”. If they’re getting horses to vote on transport policy they’re in a bigger mess than I thought.