It’s hard to count the exact number of diary entries I’ve posted, as some were only temporary announcements. But I’m going to say that this is the 800th.
Years ago, I was asked to teach a one-day workshop nearby Borough Market.
The students were from the American University in London, which used to spam the tube with adverts. I’d occasionally wondered why these had disappeared. Checking now, I find that it had its accreditation withdrawn.
What I remember most was from the workshop was how the students speed-typed on their Blackberries, held at lap level, without looking at the screens.
After a morning’s classroom stuff, these students went out into the Market, that place of mild to extreme sensory overload (not as crowded then as now). They were asked to observe. Then they were to come back and write.
So that they had an attitude toward their observation, a mission, I gave them the following handout.
I think, if you pick one of the POVs, it’s a good way of transforming your view of any place.
I have updated it a bit.
You are a rat looking for food.
(You are anything but an American exchange student who is extremely bored and would prefer to be anywhere but here.)
You are the husband or wife in a honeymooning couple who are staying in a hotel nearby and have decided to take a stroll.
You are a five-year-old child who has become separated from its parents.
You are a private detective who has been asked to follow a tall, dark man wherever he goes.
You are yourself, fifty years into the future, recalling this day in your memoirs.
You are playing hide and seek and are looking for somewhere you won’t be found.
You have very bad flu and need somewhere to sit down for a while.
You were told about this place before, by someone else, but they got a lot about it wrong. You are making a list of things on which to correct them.
You are a film director scouting for locations. Choose your own genre of film.
You are a blind flautist trying to find the best place to busk.
Have fun.
