fly tipping and other such nonsense

I saw some interesting things today walking to and from the library.

One guy rode by on what looked like a small trick bike. Either that or a bike he stole from a 9 year old. In any case it looked slightly ridiculous.

A kid also ran by carrying a large stick. I ran with a stick once. It resulted in a bloody, scraped up chin.

And then I saw a girl with neon pink dreadlocks! It was incredible. Women here, no matter what age, dye their hair all sorts of colors. Every other girl I see has some shade of red or super bleached or the occasional blue/green combo that always looks bad. But the bright pink dreads are so far the most outrageous.

One man also ripped the wrapper off a candy bar with his teeth, spit it out and took a bite. It was disgusting, and also frustrating. One of the complaints Lauren and I have here is Manchester's "fly tipping"/littering problem. Frankly, the streets can be pretty disgusting, mostly around the few trash cans and numerous bus stops. What with cigarette butts (everyone smokes), smashed beer bottles and glass, and just bits of litter, the ground can look pretty gross. I've seen a teenage girl grab her soda cup by the straw and let the cup just fall to the ground (although slightly stranger was that she kept the straw...). And one guy threw something on the ground...right next to the trash can. What is even the point of that?

In other news I had some delicious tea and a [lemon poppyseed!!!] muffin in Caffe Nero this morning and read one of the many articles that make up my homework. (In total, I've read 140 pages of articles, poems, and documents for next week. So far my highlighters are still going strong.) Anyway, although I know that Caffe Nero is actually "Italian," the banners of mob-esque men playing cards confuse me. Julie, please use your design class skills to explain this to me. Thank you.

I also discovered a new ridiculously awesome Fruit Winders cartoon, but I'll save that for tomorrow. Let's just say it involves an MP3 player and some seriously evil headphones.