A Town full of Cassiuses

Let me have men about me that are fat;
Sleek-headed men and such as sleep o' nights;
Yond' Cassius has a lean and hungry look;
He thinks too much: such men are dangerous.

- William Shakespeare, Julius Caeser (1. 2. 192)

Things I've noted about London:

• Londoners seem quite thin. What is it about major metropolises that make its denizens so svelte? It's something I've observed in New York and Hong Kong as well. Is it the stress of the rat race? The expensive food? The constant walking? Or do places like this just attract thin people?
• Everyone seems to come from somewhere else. I get lonely by myself, and due to my lack of human contact, I've started chatting to random strangers. And I've only talked to one English person (a sweet old lady in front of Guild Hall). Everyone else seems German, French, Spanish, American, Scandanvian, or from some Eastern European country I've never heard of.
• If the above is valid, Arsenal really is a true representation of London, isn't it?
• It's easier (and cheaper) to buy a beer than it is to buy an apple. Around where I was staying, I circled for maybe twenty minutes before I found a Tesco that sold fresh fruit. I bumped into three, four pubs lining the road along St Paul's. Not that there's anything wrong with it, but I'm worried about scurvy.
• The British Museum should return all its foreign exhibits. ASAP. There's something creepy about wandering around the Elgin Marbles, the gates of Nimrud and a chamber full of mummies, knowing that they'd all been blasted out of some forgotten city many, many years ago.

I've had time to think about the Silvestre deal. It's not that bad, especially since Traore's going out on loan. We've an experienced back-up to Clichy and Gallas now. At 31, he's old, but he won't get in the way of Traore or Nordtveit's development. And you can't go wrong with 750,000 pounds. It also means that Senderos is on his way out, and Djourou is probably going to become a defensive midfielder.

That said, it's a worry we're getting him instead of someone like Kompany (heading for Man City). This means we really didn't have enough money to buy two experienced players. I'm presuming we're still going to spend 10 million on a Inler-type DM. If you add up all the sums this year, we broke even. Despite what the board's saying, we ain't got the money in the till.

Anyway, it's been two and a half days, and I'm beginning to smell. I'm going to wrap it up. The stench isn't pleasant.My socks, in particular, offend me greatly. Think I'll take a shower after I finish this post.

Actually, I started smelling two and a half days ago, courtesy of a 36 hour plane trip in a stuffy cabin, but I did take a shower when I got off the plane. My current funk is all English. If you rub off a bit of my skin and put it under the microscope, you'll find sweat, dead skin cells and bits of central London. In a couple of minutes, it'll be the first time ever I'll get to scrape London off my skin.

Which has its own kind of beauty, methinks.