East End, London (2011). Photo by Aki Kärkkäinen.
Maidenhead, England, summer 2000
This article is Part Four of the series. See the bottom of this article for the other parts in this series.
I worked 2-3 months at a hotel in Maidenhead with Erasmus exchange programme. I don't have any digital photos from the town - I need to find them old film photos some day. So here's a photo from London (East End, 2011) instead. London is quite close to Maidenhead, so I took the opportunity to explore the different areas of London several days each week. It's a fascinating city.
I remember one night in London in 2000 when I went to see Meshell Ndegeocello, a singer-songwriter and bassist, at Shepherd's Bush Empire. The concert was so amazing that I lost the sense of time, narrowly missing the last train back to Maidenhead. I was not even drunk, the music was just so immersive, so stylish and powerful. But I had no place to stay in London. Then I remembered that two of my South African ex-colleagues had mentioned that they'd move to the city. So I called them and took a taxi to their place to sleep a few hours, before taking the train the next morning. That gig was completely worth it!
Years later, in 2011, I had the pleasure to work in a big international web project that required week-long trips to London. Every night, after inspiring work sessions, you'd find me in one of the good value curry houses around Brick Lane in East London.