Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Funfair creepiness and Voyeurism

On the wikipedia page for Bogotá it euphemistically describes the weather as ´variable´. I would use the term ´insane´ - being 2600m closer to the stars than most, the weather can change extremely rapidly from a crisp sunny day to a thunderstorm to strike fear into even my heart (and I love storms). In spite of this, Karen, Sam and I decided to brave it all and have a picnic. If it rains, we can always sit in that weird carousel thing, I said.


Ten minutes into our gorgeous picnic - pizza, french bread, brie, tomatoes, nut cake and ginger ale - Sam leaps up and announces - in about ten minutes it is going to rain. Time to move!
Karen remains seated and says - what, it isn´t even raining...
Sam - Why do I always feel it first??
Because of Sam´s carrying-on, we grab our gears and head into the creepy safety of the old carousel, GOD ONLY KNOWS what it is doing in the park.

This is Karen, she is beautiful. When stupid men on bars hit on her (in Australia, her homeland) she tells them ¨Hello, I am Lina from Sweden¨ in a very stupid ´Swedish´ accent. She says ¨the problem is, I have no respect for any man who would believe me¨. She has a red heart around her neck, which is interesting because she wears her heart on her sleeve, metaphorically speaking. She enjoys baking, the 1950s and swing dancing, but she also makes obscenely offensive jokes about such topics as: dead koalas, refridgerators and most famously, aids.


This is Sam, he is a genius. He hails from Bristol and studied at St. Andrews college - the one Prince William went to - and got a first-class Masters in Spanish. He also speaks better German than me, just because he enjoys reading German poetry, like Rilke, and taught himself in his spare time. (WTF). Now, he is teaching himself Mandarin and finding it amazingly exciting. He also carries around a rubics cube in his bag, which he can solve remarkably fast, he says - it is the perfect accessory for an arrogant intellectual. He´s trying to teach me, but my patience is waning. He is obsessed with Jeff Buckley, John Stewart and Twin Peaks (no spoilers please - only part-way through).
While I was broke, he not only took me out for lunch, but he took me to a beautiful Italian boutiquey place with black and white floor tiles and made me laugh so hard I was crying, in the middle of quite a formal atmosphere of business lunches. His father is even more insane than mine. Our grandfathers were probably friends, actually.

Karen jumping. More than one person has told Karen that she reminds them of a psychotic bunny. Interesting. Massive breast-like dome in the background.

Sam landing and me assessing. His hair looks amazing like that. Shortly after this picnic we all went and got haircuts together, a la Sweet Valley High. It was magic.


The PDA situation in Bogotá is quite extreme, as everyone lives with their parents so they go into parks to make out and more. Above is one of about ten couples who were snuggling in the sunshine in our immediate vicinity. Who can blame them.

Best Day Ever.