Welcome to Literatea, home of Nelly.
I’ve been a Boring Blogger of late so there’s nothing new but there are plans afoot for a new series, promise!
Take a look in the archive- October and September contain the “People you see in London” series and May is home to the famous “One A Day In May” Internet quiz month.
Ebay
Everyone in the Entire Known Universe knows about Ebay, right?
If not, the short history looks like this:
“eBay is another inspirational apartment story and got underway without infringing on founder Pierre Omidyar’s day job. eBay’s origins were the chance result of a conversation between Omidyar and his girlfriend, a collector of Pez dispensers, who asked him one evening at dinner if there was a way he could set up a website for collectors like her. eBay soon developed into a full-fledged eBusiness that went public with a market value of $1.88 billion, and unlike most dotcoms, has been profitable from the very start”
Ebay is the world’s largest personal online trading community. eBay created a new market: efficient one-to-one trading in an auction format on the Web.
The amount of things you can do on Ebay is fairly astonishing- ranging from the simple idea of having a place to sell your bike/old shoes/used tissues to promotion for stallholders who do tradeshows and fairs to an Ebay Universitywhich “offers classes across the country or in the comfort of your own home. Whether in person, or over the Internet, take a class from the eBay experts and you'll be buying and selling like a pro in no time at all.”
Thus far I’ve sent my beautiful Vespa to a fantastic new home and bought a pair of Adidas shell toe trainers through my Ebay account.
Cheap shopping! Window shopping in Windows! It’s not just a Webhead’s dream. It’s Bona Fide Genius.
Japanese Girls
Sometimes tourists, frequently students; always seem to be going somewhere and do so in chattering, girly groups. You can’t miss them- their fastidiously eclectic taste shines through in their hairstyles (assymetric/sixties classic puddin’ bowl/ highlighted mullet/ shiny and straight lengths), their clothes (a fusion of every style there is from vintage 50’s shoes paired with stripey rainbow-hued tights to Motorhead tee’s with organza skirts and orange tweed coats) and the way they carry themselves (in their confident and chattering groups, seemingly naively unaware of everyone else in town).
They have a love for all things Western but Home is still the East; London is probably one of the cities best suited to their exploration as its fusion of black-kohl chic and cultured climate (although obviously not the actual climate since no-one could honestly say they visit the place for that) reflects their own love of diversity in style and form.
Orson Welles
Laugh Out Loud Television Moment of the Day
A character advising another character (who owns the Queen Vic) on Eastenders not to sell the pub because “you know property prices around here- next thing you know they’ll close the pub down and turn it into luxury residences”.
Well, really. I know this is fiction but that’s taking it a bit far, isn’t it?
Spanish Teens. (Director’s cut*)
Spanish teenagers hang around London’s squares, circuses (Oxford and Piccadilly that is) and train stations in very large, moody groups looking rather like life-sized, unfeasibly good-looking Calvin Klein models.
To temper this jealousy-inducing concentration of youthful good looks, many of them wear bandanas and stonewashed jeans. Early 90’s Calvin Klein models, then.
Often spotted loitering near our capital’s tourist attractions, or wandering in and out of music stores, they are rarely, if ever, seen without a backpack.
*With thanks to Stickman_ben for the extended prose.