toweringflat

I remember a few years ago working on the formidable Nike account with a small boutique advertising agency in Toronto Canada. The president of said agency had just seen my latest version of a client presentation for hockey, and he looked over at me quite seriously and asked, 'Francesca, where is the orgasm?'. Luckily I wasn't drinking or eating anything as I would have choked, at the time it struck me as the type of think you would only hear an ad exec utter aloud in the company of others. Brother, I remember thinking to myself, what am I doing here. I don't do orgasms or titillation during presentations. I just present the core ideas.

It is somewhat ironic to find myself today working within the foresight unit of a large engineering and design company, and to some extent be relied on to deliver against this same expectation. An engineer, let alone an English one, would never ask you point-blank to deliver an orgasm in your presentation, but they might replace such shock-factor words with 'buzz' or excitement, maybe even inspiration.

So while I would like to distance myself from the advertising community I left behind, I have to admit I am still peddling some of the same tricks. The mystique of what we do remains important to promote with our clients. To some extent clients don't want to believe they are only buying a steel bridge in Kansas, what they want to buy is a vital connection between the small farming communities and the thriving metropolis to the north.

 

There is a decidedly very gloomy tone to London these days. And I don't think it is just the usual grey weather. This week's newspapers are laced with the stench of financial crisis and Bush pleading for a substantial $700 billion bail-out. I am starting to wonder whether I should pack up and head to Cuba for those adventurous years I never lived out in my twenties.

I have never been as interested in the inner workings of banking institutions as I am now, which must make me a pretty typical Joe. The past two weeks have driven me to the business dailies trying to piece together what exactly a credit crisis means. My ability to recognize patterns is somewhat curtailed in this area, however from the little I have been able to understand is the fact that the current meltdown is not just the fault of greedy bankers (as much as we might relish the idea of hanging them by their suspenders from London Bridge and/or Brooklyn Bridge), our present financial turmoil is the responsibility of central bankers who took their eyes off of regulation and to a large extent allowed what we are experiencing to happen. Another piece that I have uncovered is that changes in the supply of money and credit have been the main driver of economic cycles and booms and busts. To a large extent, it is mistakes in monetary policy which have driven every major recession in 20th and 21st centuries.

I am not sure that understanding or knowing any of this relieves the current states of stress we are all undergoing, and that I am certainly feeling. As I travelled to work on the bus today, I could hear a Carribean accent explaining to his mate that Bush was begging for a bail-out when the Americans have all of the money they need in their pockets. The tone was not one of sympathy but of can-you-believe-the-hootzpah that Bush would expect to be saved by global bystanders struggling to feed their own families.

 

I've now been back just over a week. I'm still in the process of trying to figure out where I am mentally right now. There are atoms of me spread out all over the world holding conversations with people from my past and people I have not yet met. I guess this is what you call globalization, or some other form of human kind.

My brother Ryan has just arrived to start his one year masters at LSE on comparative politics. I am slightly jealous of his chance to start afresh this fall, but I also don't miss having the budget of a student or the open cupboard lifestyle that accompanies it. In the meantime, it is just fun to share with him the little I do know of London. He is a quick study and picks up on some of the nuances and contradictions of the stiff-upper lip country. He was picked up at Heathorw by an eastern cabbie who told him there was a difference between the English and Brits, and I couldn't help but smile. His cabbie was quick to point out that he was  Brit, and that is was most of us immigrants can dare to aspire to in this divided patch of the world.

Saturday night we hosted a mix of friends and acquaintances to celebrate Ryan's arrival. Ryan kindly prepared the score for the evening, and I now greedily carry it on my iPod. It is amazing how similar and dissimilar we are, despite coming from the same Canada. Our dreams are somewhat the same and not, misshapen by our own misperceptions of ourselves and what is desireable. Here is to continued dreaming even when it goes awry. It always makes for interesting dinner conversation...

 

My two-week stay in Montreal is now coming to an end. I was lucky enough to catch the last of the warm summer in Montreal and Stowe, Vermont. My one swim this summer was in our dark, bottomless-looking pond in Vermont. I couldn't believe it was the one time all summer that I spent in a body of water, but cool English weather doesn't inspire the desire for swimming even for a Canadian. 

Now is one of the best moments in north-eastern weather; the foliage shifts to reds and oranges and the air cools to autumn standards. You smell the leaves and the hint of winter. Autumn always used to be my favorite time of year. It meant the start of the school year and the possibility of new discoveries. New texts, new notebooks, new pens, new teachers.

The start of fall used to signify renewal; something more elusive once you graduate from academia and emerge in the adult nine-to-five world. A part of me wishes I could go back to that time, where there was always more to learn and more to discover. And another part me realizes while that is impossible, maybe there are other ways to continue to inspire renewal with the seasonal inspiration of transition.

I'm still looking...

A summary of one of the panels I chaired at the
9th International Ageing conference on Reshaping Environments to Enable Older People. The line-up included 6 different talks:

- Reshaping the Environment to Promote Seniors' Independence: Themes and Observations from the case management literature. Beverley Kelley spoke about the ability to meet the needs of the person through their environment and the imporatnce of positively influencing the health career of adults. What if we were to treat our healths as inidivual health careers? Would we be more diligent? Beverley Kelley also pointed out that much of the case management literature neglects to mention family members and their role as care givers.

- Refuge Island? Is it safe to cross? Yue Li with the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute spoke about pedestrian crossings and how something as simple as the design of a refuge island could prevent premature death and promote wellbeing and independence for the ageing. In 2004 37% of all pedestrian fatalities were among elders compared with 13.4% of the population. In the EU tje incidence is higher at 46%. Yue Li expressed the importance for universal design for all seasons and winters in particular in countries like Canada, where winters are often the toughest test. It was also interesting to hear that people's compliance to traffic rules is related to temperature with extreme cold often resulting in violation of pedestrian traffic law. 80% of people will try to make the double crossing when it is very cold, 73% when it is hot, and only 56% when it is fair.

- A study on the Solution for the Hearing Disabled Person's Behavior Limitation at Sandy Beach: Shimpei Kato has observed the physical barriers to those who are hearing impaired. Most environments only address mobility impairment. Shimpei Kato took a look at the ways in which visual cues could be set up to better alert both the hearing impairment and others within the vicinity that could be of help to them.

- Designing a Supportive Living Environment for Older People with Dementia and Thermal Comfort and HVAC Design for People with Dementia: Joost Van Hoof talked about prolonging the stay at home. Those who suffer from dementia are particularly sensitive to their environments. Research on dementia indicates that a person's perception of capability is more important than cognitive functioning. And while Joost did not imply that the home is the entire cure, he did show how design could prove a useful ally in the attempt to care for those suffering from dementia; something as simple as creating very clear sightlines could allow the carer to always keep tabs on their partner. Joost also showed some 3D visualizations of an ideal dementia environment to allow the audience to see the difference that design can make.

He also talked about temperature and thermal comfort and how dementia sufferers are particularly sensitive to temperature variation. He pointed out the need for nurses and engineers to work with each other to create better thermal comfort for demented patients.

- Accommodating Sensory Aspects of Ageing in the Design of Dwellings: An architect by training Camilla Ryhl addressed the importance of not only giving those suffering from sensory impairment access to fantastic spaces and architecture, but also giving them access to the amazing sensory experience. Moving beyond the need to satisfy functional requirements for the sensory impaired, Ryhl inspired her audience with the importance of making the sensory experience euqally accessible to all.

- Age-Friendly New York City: Findings and Lessons: Ruth Finkelstein shared her research findings of what it is like to grow old in New York City. Many of the older generation decide to stay and grow old in New York because they love the city. NYC is in the process of trying to implement the WHO Age-Friendly cities initiative and spoke of the need to plan for multiple identities and particularities of population. She reminded the audience that just because people get older does not mean they lose their identity as the public often assumes with older individuals. New York City plans to release their Age-Friendly NYC report on September 15th.

All in all the most important take-aways from the conference was the ability of environments and design to influence the experience of ageing, the potential for the grey and green agenda to be equally integrated in all future design and planning, and the need to make ageing a mainstream issue and not a sideline conversation. It was encouraging to hear at the senior officials meeting that there are governments making progressive decisions to enable better ageing of their societies, but as in most cases, for their policies to take real effect, the ageing discourse needs to move beyond government circles to the private sector.

On Sunday the BBC aired the official Olympic hand off between Beijing and London.  But before I can go into any brief recap of the closing ceremonies, let me begin with the tediousness of having to watch London Mayor, Boris Johnson, the IOC President Rogge, and his Chinese compatriot, Liu Qi's attempts to wave the flag without having the material wrap itself impotently and lifelessly around the staff.

And what of Liu Qi's speech, which I was very keen to get my hands on. The 2008 motto 'One dream one world' seems such a farce when we consider the source. Or perhaps it makes a lot of sense coming from a communist regime; when the Chinese government says one dream, then all of its’ people, and the rest of the world, should take note and line up to its' credo.

I had a very hard time not screeching every time I saw the official Olympic tag over the last two weeks. How can a country with so many human rights violations stand dead center on the global stage and proclaim with deadpan sincerity 'one dream one world'. Should China not get its own domestic affairs in order, before asking the global audience over for tea, let alone the Olympics.

A particular favorite passage in Liu Qi's speech was when he uttered that "The Beijing Olympic Games is a testimony of the fact that the world has its trust rested upon China". I am sorry, but I think this would be an oversimplification of the truth, or rather a gross misjudgement of individual sentiment. China should not misjudge the fact that Americans watched the 2008 Olympics in record numbers. Watching does not suggest an awareness of the host's political and social actions. Watching does not equate support, let alone trust. At this point in time, I would rather invest my trust in a dog than the Chinese governmen. China still has a lot more work to do, beyond Pyrotechics, cheerleaders, and lip synch to convince me that they are worthy of my trust.

It's officially taken two days for me to lose the afterglow of holiday. In fact, it took one day and one hour, but who's counting. Cornwall is a distant memory as I recalibrate myself to being stationary at a desk and breathing recycled air for ten hours. I can feel my neck and back slowly settling into a hunchback position, and I have to wonder why we do this to ourselves.

On Monday morning a ride with a philosophical Hungarian cabbie had me questioning my gnome-like working ways. He exited the corporate world and entered the less glam arena of cab driving, because he wanted to have full control of his working time. He told me he didn't envy me as all of my work is subject to the scrutiny of others, and ultimately has to satisfty another person's whimsical standard.

He went on to describe England as a country of Barbarians with an unofficial count of 30 million alcoholics. I can only imagine what cabbies see on late Friday and Saturday nights. He shared that he was amazed by some of the signts on public transport and that the appalling nose-digging he observed was a throw-back to his nursery school days. According to him continental Europe and the Mediterranean warranted our consideration. As we neared Paddington I came quite close to boarding the express train to Heathrow.

But instead I follow the listless wave of early morning commuters and got the tube to work. And I continue to master my 21st century labourer pose.

 

I cannot begin to describe my excitement at the notion of stepping away from work and London for ten days of blue seas, white sands and the lull of waves rolling in and out of the surf. That is at least my mental vision of Cornwall, which may be proved entirely wrong. Such is the desperation of Babylonbdon urbanitis.

So while I would like to sit here and write about my dream last night and walking along a corridor where each room revealed a different performance, all musicals but with different thematic variations, the ever so popular humans as barn animals wagging their tail at the audience, or a circle of people knitting as they sing hymns, and finally the ashen faced general and his soldiers singing quite somber-serious indie rock, I will have to excuse myself from the table for some serious dose of holiday pill. Toodles for now.

So much of my social calendar this week will have been dictated by the six degrees of Facebook. In less than a week I have already racked up (pardon my French) 5 different meetings with many more friends via Facebook. I feel like a kid on sugar speed wondering which wormhole I will fall into next.

Just last week I met up with Katie K.  one of my best friends from Brown. We walked through the park and to the Met accompanied by her lovely three-month old ball of joy. I had not seen her since her wedding five years ago. At least one divorce or too have transpired since amongst our acquaintances. On Sunday I met up with a theatre compadre also from Brown. We met at Blossom for vegetarian eats and she brought me up to speed on many of the thespians I have not seen in over ten years. Frightening. They included such eccentrics as Becky who now goes by the name of Lavender Diamond. Her story alone on the origin of the name is worth hearing on YouTube, as well as Katie Eastbourne who once sang with indie-rockers Young People and has since struck out on her own and can be heard on myspace.

Tonight I am meeting up with a former boarding schooler to catch a little round robyn of digital culture talks at the first ever Ignite NYC. It starts off with an NYC soldiering championship, but I think we will make it just in time for the talks. We will hopefully be joined by artist-collaborator-at-arms Milena (gmail and not Facebook coordinated), as she just happens to be in NYC tonight, and hopefully my colleague Karin.  Phew. It starts to sound like a towering social pisa delicately orchestrated and held up by the invisible mesh cables of the internet.

My last night will be dinner with another Brunonian and his wife in Brooklyn. The last time I saw them was when I was applying to MBA school in Chicago and they kindly hosted me on their couch. How time flies. The offer eventually came from another windy city, Toronto.

It is worth noting that my need for social speed is also met with some weariness (and the need to focus on work, my real reason (?) for being here) which strikes me as quite normal for any backpacking traveler of the web. Meetings with friends and acquaintances needs to be tempered with time for just myself and conversations with the person I live with on a day to day basis in London.

My question is, does Facebook increase the chances that individuals will meet up with long lost friends? And when I say Facebook, I am really talking about the Twitter feature and the live updates, which seem to capture more attention than any of my emails. There is something about updates which draws attention in such a way to illicit a response. I am just not sure why...

The airplane still amazes me. I wake up in one city one day only to wake up in a second the next day. Especially when my two sleeping companions are London and NYC. I landed to rainstorms and lightning, and I have to admit I was hoping that this visit would bring me sunshine, but I may have to wait a few days. Here for a week, and I only get to spend some of that with my family, but it's amazing how Facebook revolutionizes communication and creates instant contact across geographies. I heard back from at least 4 people when I mentioned I was headed this way. This is when I do appreciate Facebook...

On a side note, Rob and I attended the Future of London two weeks ago, where were told that 98% of the city is privatized. So don't be surprised as you stop to snap a picture of the Thames if an officer stops you. The view is apparently not public.