The Opening Ceremony: You had to be there

Jul 30th, 2012 Personal, Society Janna Bastow 3 min read

I’m thankful to have lived in London for the last 3 years. Otherwise, like the rest of the world, I probably wouldn’t have understood most of the cultural references in the Olympic opening ceremony this past week… and probably wouldn’t have enjoyed it. For outsiders, anyone who hasn’t lived in Britain, I’m not entirely sure I disagree with their negative sentiments. While Britons laughed and…

Let’s watch people be awesome.

Aug 9th, 2011 Society Janna Bastow 1 min read

These rioters are getting me down. For absolutely no reason (I’m of the belief that these crowds care nothing about Mark Duggan, and more about getting their hands on free stuff), people are tearing down the city, looting shops, and generally causing mayhem. The media is going nuts over this, the cops are all over the streets (was just out in Tottenham Court Road area),…

The last of the longest

Jun 21st, 2011 Personal Janna Bastow 1 min read

With sunrise coming up at 4:43 this morning and setting at 9:21 in the evening, today marks the longest day of the year. Living at such a high latitude in London (yes, London is further north than both Toronto and Montreal, my previous bases), this day is essentially one of the longest of my life. With a critical bug swooping in by 10:30 this morning,…

BraveNewEra

May 31st, 2011 Personal Janna Bastow 3 min read

I stopped by the old BraveNewTalent offices today, partly to see if I could get my hands on an Amazon order that had been accidentally delivered there a day too late… and partly, I think, to say goodbye. I stood to admire the lovely door facing Beak Street (have I mentioned I’ve got a thing for old doors?), before punching in the familiar key code…

Oh, Canada

Dec 15th, 2010 Personal Janna Bastow 7 min read

I am psyched, seriously excited, to be heading back to Canada over the holidays.  The plan is to do a fly-by visit to both Toronto (2-3 days) and Montreal (3-4 days), followed by a very short stint in NYC (for just under 42 hours, by my calculation) just in time to ring in the new year. While I would have loved to have spent more…