london heatwave

Tonight from the 23 bus moving through warm soup down the edgware road no relief 'cept the rare occasions when it makes over 15mph and the diagonal blades of the open windows cut through the viscous air with enough energy to approximate the ghost of a chill factor. These glass flaps much like the gills of a shark and like a shark i muse if we don't move forward we die. Suddenly I'm caught by a sight so incongruous i think its a mirage. A guy stands proudly outside his luggage emporium, suit and tie, moustache - but heres the bit that doesn't compute, his jacket his trouser legs his moustache even the awnings of his shop are flapping wildly in a refreshing breeze so powerful i swear hes leaning into it. Passers by stare amazed, the guys in the local cafe salute him with the mouthpieces of their pipes. i eventually see the big electric fan on its stand there right under the lea of the bus and the world becomes congruent again - for a nanosecond. then i see its plug and cable hanging loose - unconnected ..to anything. Then the bus moves off The whole scene extrudes into an elongated diamond then is lost to me - shuts like scissors. have i just witnessed the contemporary equivalent of the indian rope trick or was a disappointingly mundane solution just out of sight? i'll never know. More of these matters later.