Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.

Underground > Conversation >

Look outside

Page: (1)2

09:16 / 05.08.05

What can you see outside the window from where you're sitting? Assuming you have a window, that is.

I look out on a courtyard, two sides of which are traditional Edinburgh tenements, five storeys high, all reddish brown bricks and mullioned windows. (I think that's the right term? Windows with cross bars making lots of little windows.) The third side is the side of the festival theatre - an unattractive pink concrete block with air conditioning units on top.

However, what's really drawing my attention is the ledge outside my window. It's not very attractive at the best of times, being made of ridged metal and covered in poo from the pigeons who sit above me all day, but this morning I noticed an extra addition - a pigeon's leg and foot. Where's the rest of the pigeon?? I'm quite disturbed by that and purposely not looking out.

Any interesting view from where you're sitting?

09:21 / 05.08.05

From my desk in London Bridge, I too can see my little courtyard (only 3 stories though), including the little balcony gasrden of the only guy that lives in the development (the rest are all offices).

Over the top of the far wall I can see tower 42 and the gerkin, as well 6 cranes and a swan shaped wind direction thingy.

To the left I can see the hospital towering over all and to the right through a gap I can see the golden tops of tower bridge.

... and a very grey sky.

09:25 / 05.08.05

Oooh, well I have blue sky, with fluffy clouds. It looks lovely out there, actually. And I forgot to mention the big green tree in the courtyard, which is very pretty. I've no idea what kind of tree, though - I need olulabelle to come and tell me.

09:36 / 05.08.05

I can see a total empty courtyard which is a little bit sad in the same way that an abandoned house is, with it's cracked tarmac and wetness. It looks like it should have soliders marching up and down on it, or children playing and grazing their knees.

Scrambled Password Bogus Email

09:36 / 05.08.05

What window?

09:45 / 05.08.05

Ariadne - I wonder if the pigeon remains were the result of a glue trap? Could a pigeon peck of his/her leg in the same way foxes/wolves chew off limbs caught in traps???
Here's some grisly info:

An extremely inhumane method of pigeon control is the use of an adhesive substance or adhesive strips installed on ledges where pigeons like to roost. As with glueboards used for mice and rats, these devices cause tremendous suffering when the pigeons (or other birds) land on the strips and become more and more coated with glue as they struggle to free themselves. They will peck at the glue so their beaks will also become stuck and they will suffer a lingering death.

09:49 / 05.08.05

Yikes. I suppose it's possible.

09:53 / 05.08.05

That's gruesome about the pigeons.

My office taunts me with a whole row of windows over which the blinds are permanently closed. The brilliant architect put the windows up above head height so that the sun shines directly into our eyes and we can't ever open the blinds. Even if we did, all we'd see is sky because of the angle.

09:53 / 05.08.05

[off topic]And this thread is offering anti-roost pigeon spikes in its unsigned in version... nice[/off topic]

I'm on the ground floor, and can see trees, a few parked cars, and a pub. Every so often people walking past. Was raining but brightening now...

09:55 / 05.08.05

Are you kidding about those anti-roosting ads?? I'm off to log out and see.

09:55 / 05.08.05

Out of the two windows (one on the left & one on the right) I can see two sets of empty office buildings (one on each side) and on the left a corner of a multi-storey car-park. It's really very dull. If I get up and press my nose against the glass I can see the street, which is also quite dull and has the disadvantage of leaving smears.

09:56 / 05.08.05

*weeps*

10:00 / 05.08.05

blimey starting to feel guilty about view of garden, trees, baby birds frolicking, windowbox and faithful hound asleep at my feet..........

10:00 / 05.08.05

i can see my garden, and the houses across the street.
i can also see the flowers i got rid of earlier.
i stuck them in the hedge, and i think they look pretty.

10:48 / 05.08.05

I see a backyard throbbing with hydrangea, Mexican sunflower, and other tall, face-slapping plants. My stepfather makes these gardens that are almost impossible to walk through. Our brownstone in Brooklyn was written up in Casual Home & Gardens for its unbelievably dense growth.

Beyond the little patch of jungle is a funny little road. Across the funny little road is a garage so dilapidated that the neighbors park their expensive sportscar outside, under a little car cozy. It's a really fantastic looking garage, built back when garages looked like houses. It's a dark, moody green with lots of dusty little windows.

All Acting Regiment

11:31 / 05.08.05

I can see, at the risk of sounding terse, some cunt on a unicycle.

I should add that this guy is some college kid from over the way. There's a larg group, all males. Being pretentious dickheads, most of them are into "extreme" stuff. Hence BMX's, skateboards, etc, all ridiculously over-priced and probably paid for out of Daddy's pocket.

Once, one of them asked my mate to sell him some skag and then got incredibly annoyed at the incredibly reasonable price he was asked to pay. They don't like me.

Can I just reiterate that this cunt is riding a fucking unicycle?

Thanks.

11:37 / 05.08.05

Wow, I'd love to be able to ride a unicycle! Sorry, I know that's just going annoy you all the more, but it would be pretty cool.

11:53 / 05.08.05

I'm riding a unicycle right now! And it's fucking hard juggling this laptop, so lay off it, Legba.

11:54 / 05.08.05

[cough]Ariadne, how's your unicycling coming along?[cough]

Anyway, what can I see? The same I do every day, the other side of the Canongate, with nine windows that never have ANYONE in them. No wonder house prices are stupidly high here, they're all empty second houses. Grrr. Bring in the squatters. It's a lovely day, and I'm off for a walk with a plan to photograph as many of Edinburgh's TARDISes as I can find. I know where quite a few are, and I thought it would be a nice trainspottery thing to do, while also stretching legs cramped by a week of GTA:SA abuse.
Should I stand up I can see tourists looking in the window of a shop. Out the back I can see my car. Oh, hang on.
What I can see from where I am. I love Flickr.

11:55 / 05.08.05

I have a corner office (shared unfortunately) and have a choice of two windows.

The one immediately behind me has a view up what is known as Waverley Bridge, the road providing access to Edinburgh's Waverley train station, the saw-tooth rooftops of which I can also see. The Waverley car park is next door and the new Waverley Gate office development is close by. Beyond the station is the semi-subterranean and partially vacant shopping extravaganza known as The Waverley Centre and over the road is the fading grandeur of the Old Waverley Hotel. At this point I'm kinda thinking that Sir Walter Scott has a fuck of a lot to answer for!

The other window has an angled view out to one of Edinburgh's most famous pubs, The Malt Shovel, once a favourite of mine but no longer following the revamp sometime after 1998. The green leather banquette seats remain however and I once heard a very good jazz saxophonist plying his trade inside. Adjacent is an institution only frequented by hapless tourists and desperate City of Edinburgh Council employees: The Toddle-Inn. It's a bacon-buttie and sweet shop run by two gnarled smokaholic crones affectionately known as the Sisters of Mercy. It's a spartan establishment where manners are lacking and rudeness is positively encouraged. The sisters collective monicker is perhaps even more fitting as, this being the Cockburn Street, general pigeon latrine and sometime pissoir to slightly higher animals, I await the early afternoon arrival of the city's delinquent goth-kids who frequent the whacky clothes shops further up the hill. Presently, I can here many a language uttered as befuddled tourists, lost backpackers and vast swathes of identically clad European school children (and let's not forget the troop of American boyscouts) trudge up the street, drawn magnetically like blow flies to shit, towards Edinburgh's World-Heritage-Royal Mile, Castle, Palace (and Parliament) Theme Park Experience!

But oh no, this being Edinburgh Festival time, a song and dance act has now just started on the corner with a murderous version of Simon and Garfunkels "The Boxer" in the syle of an adenoidal and tone deaf Dylan impersonator. Complete with harmonica (and pretty girl on tambourine). I'm sorry, arggghhhhhhh, its just sooooooo bad....

12:00 / 05.08.05

Brunner, I am coming to find you and photograph you right now. Be at a window overlooking Cockburn Street at 2.20 and you can be Kiefer Sutherland to my Colin Farrell. (You might understand that better if you've seen Phone Booth)

12:01 / 05.08.05

Oooh, Cockburn Street, how I used to love its floaty skirts and velvet tops. Fair takes me back to my hippy youth.
So *that's* where you live, Cube! How cool. I know vaguely where it was but that's just fab.

12:30 / 05.08.05

Legba, your mate sells skag? Nice.

A fall of geckos

12:33 / 05.08.05

I'm currently sitting in the top floor of Centrepoint. North London stretches out before me. A quick trip across the office and I'm looking South towards the Thames...

I can see your house from here.

12:43 / 05.08.05

Mwah ha haaa... You can draw all the blinds you like to keep a stalker like me away:

King of stalkers

But it won't work.
Also, a quick excerpt of piss-poor buskers trying Sheelagh-Na-Gig. (Annoying MJPG format which needs Media Player.)

12:50 / 05.08.05

Ha ha Cube....wrong window!!!

12:52 / 05.08.05

AArgh! Why was somone else looking out the window at 2.20 for no good reason? Oh, the piss poor buskers. I had to keep walking away as they were making me laugh so much. You're not the old lady on the top floor?

12:55 / 05.08.05

They were probably looking to see this weirdo that was taking pictures of the building.

13:18 / 05.08.05

Well, I did look for you Cube but frankly, there are so many people wandering round with cameras you could have been anybody....

13:34 / 05.08.05

Well, when i look out the front windows, i see the South Quad of the university, it's quite lovely, lots of trees and grass, stone buildings, joggers and walkers. There's also a giant DiSuvero sculpture, a piece by Richard Hunt, and then we have a reflecting pool with a large bronze sculpture by Fletcher Benton. All quite nice.
When i look out the windows on the North side of the museum i see Western campus, which is the older part of campus and there's a frisby golf hole, a lovely little Swan pond, and again lots of trees and grass.
The back windows look out over a hill (wich is quite nice for sledding) and an earthworks sculpture by Nancy Holt (She was the wife of Smithson, the 'Spiral Jetty' guy)

I can't complain,
I think i would go insane if i had to work i a cubicle all day.

Tryphena Absent

13:34 / 05.08.05

From the bay window of my living room I can see the back of a line of four storey victorian terraced houses, some trees and trellising in people's garden (some in a fetching pastel blue-green). Directly outside the window on the sill I've got two pots, one growing pansies and the other containing a chamomile plant. If I look behind me there's a red brick church and a washing line that's attached to a window on one side and a tree on the other. The curtain in front of me is partially shut to block out the light so I can see my screen.

A fall of geckos

14:05 / 05.08.05

Looking out the window right now, I see a bunch of drunk girls. one of them's wearing pink rabbit ears and has just started having a swim in the Centrepoint fountain.

There are police coming now.

Regrettable Juvenilia

14:08 / 05.08.05

Shit! Do they have guns?

I can see a street and a square in Clerkenwell. The square contains a pub which has surprisingly few people sitting at the tables outside for this time on a Friday in summer, I guess because it keeps turning very grey and threatening rain, even though it's quite hot.

A fall of geckos

14:18 / 05.08.05

Shit! Do they have guns?

Nope, it was a couple of unarmed policemen. They've been hanging around the gates to Tottenham Court Road underground like teenagers.

They've moved the girls on and told them to put clothes back on/dry off.

14:21 / 05.08.05

I don't have a window.

They make me work in a basement. They don't let me write home or anything.

Tell me what it's like up there in the light...

Page: (1)2