Tooting on the Tube

I've noticed that some people think it's ok to toot on a full tube. It's not. It's not even a little ok. When like 100 people are packed into one compartment and no one can move and everyone is trying not to make eye contact with the person whose face is just inches from theirs, this is not the time to ADD to the extreme discomfort by tooting. Especially if you know your toots are deadly. Hold that shiz in!!!

This evening on the tube an older man was sitting next to me, though there was one empty seat between us and he was asleep. He was snoring a little and then he suddenly let our the Mother of All Toots. I'm talking loud and extended. I actually jumped then turned to stare as it went on and on and on. Seriously, with all that air inside of him, I'm surprised he wasn't floating. He continued to sleep, not knowing how he had shocked the other passengers so deeply. Luckily there was no scent, or at least it didn't reach me. But it was hilarious. I totally started laughing cause HOW FUNNY IS THAT?! You had to have heard it cause it went on forever. By far the highlight of my week.

My weekend plans? Nothing. This stupid freaking weather has ruined my plans way too many times. I'm not going to give it another chance. Instead I will plan to spend my weekends indoors and so no plans can be ruined. Ha! Take that weather!!! I will spend the next couple months' weekends catching up on my reading, seeing the occasional play or movie and trying out wondrous new recipes. This weekend I'm not sure what I'm making yet. I'm contemplating trying for some goat water or 'mannish water' as the Jamaicans call it. Also thinking I might do some fish. Mmmmm, fish. And I'm thinking wraps with chicken, goat's cheese and various pestos for my lunches next week. Tasty!!! I forgot how much I LOVE experimenting with wraps.

I'm also contemplating swimming as a fitness routine. Maybe an hour two or three times a week. I just need to buy one of those caps for my hair because we all know I will NOT be dunking my hair under water three times a week any time soon. Anways, apparently it's the best exercise there is because it literally works every single muscle in your body. So either I swim or I do the 'swimming' Pilates exercise on my mat for an hour. Either way, I will become more fit. Cause so far, I've miraculously managed not to put on weight, or at least only put on two or three pounds then drop it right away, but that luck may run out now that it's Christmas. Time to buckle down!!!

Scary Randomness

Had a nice week. Working and such. Went for Thai last night for my friend's birthday. I've been eating a lot of Thai food since I came here. Thai food is great. You should eat some soon.

I'm sick also. Stuffy nose and sore throat and slight cough. I don't think it's H1N1 cause there's no headache or fever so it's all good. Except it sucks cause I hate being sick. I'm very lazy already and the sickness makes me even more tired. Today it took me four hours to work up the energy to get out of bed, shower and go to the grocery store. And it started pouring, which was LOVELY. So I got drenched. If I wasn't sick before, I am definitely sick now. Anyways, I decided to cook so that I'll have food to eat this week. I made this lamb dish that I'd been thinking of. Basically lamp steaks with coconut milk, spices, garlic, onions and button mushrooms in a dish and stuck it in the oven. Turned out great! Then I also made what I call 'Asian chicken'. I call it that because I made a it in a bit of a tangy sesame sauce. It's really good too actually. Both from scratch. I really may have to start a cook book while I'm out here so I don't forget these recipes. I also fried some plantain because I've been craving it for a while.

Random sighting to share: today at the grocery store, I looked over and this tall old man had dried blood all down the side of this ear and neck. It was disgusting. I didn't know what to do. I wasn't sure if he was aware of the blood but he had to be because there was a lot. And how do you say that? 'Um excuse me sir, are you aware that you seem to be bleeding?' I was actually scared that he was crazy or had been in some kind of fight, or worse, was just bleeding from his ears. I didn't want to be around in case he went beserk or dropped dead so I quickly left the aisle. I'm still pretty shook up though cause it was REALLY gross. Eeewww.

Another random event: yesterday, took the tube home late, around 12:30 from my friend's bday dinner in the East end. At one stop, this young guy with a shaved head got on the tube and sat directly across from me and started staring at me. He was probably about 17 or 18 and had the creepiest green eyes. He was holding a beer and wearing all black. CREEPY. I wasn't certain he was starting at me but when I risked a quick glance at him, he definitley was. And he had this horrid little half smile on his face like he totally knew he was creeping me out and seemed to be enjoying it. At the next stop I practically ran off the tube, walked down and then got into another compartment. He did not follow me, thank God. But then when I got off the tube at my station, I noticed that he got off too, but I was behind him so he couldn't have seen me. I didn't know what to do so I walked slowly hoping he would be long gone by the time i got out of the station. But then he veered off to the right, into a corner, and opted to urinate. I pretty much ran past while his back was turned and got the hell out of the station. I kept looking back but thank God, if he came out of the station, he went the other way. Soooo creepy though. He just looked totally evil, you know? I've never met anyone who actually gave me a feeling like that from the moment I saw them.

So that was a lot of scary randomness between last night and today so I'm hoping that's my quota for the rest of...my life, maybe? Really hope so. I prefer the funny randomness to the scary randomness.

The Weather

I know that I was thoroughly warned about English weather before I came here but I must take a moment to rant.

First off, the weather was freaking fantastic for my first month here. Had a few cold days but mostly was really nice fall weather, sun shining, birds singing (actually it was the strange people that live across the street singing outside at all hours of the morning), you get my drift. Then there were a few days of crappy raininess which was alright. I could handle that. Then it was back to great, sunny gorgeous fall weather. This is what lead me to think that everyone was just exaggerating. Silly people, I thought, English weather is lovely. Maybe they have more grey days than us, but it's wonderful. La di da.

Now?!! Now it's like I live in hell's urinal and all day long we get pissed on. Sometimes it's just a little bit of pee, more of a tinkle than a stream, but that tinkle flows consistently through out the entire day. Throw in the insane wind and suddenly it becomes a lovely light urine blizzard. Other times it's like a stream of drunken pee that just won't stop. And of course, the thing that makes hell even worse: the wind. I think I could handle it if it were just raining or drizzling BUT when you add the wind into the equation it's like someone pinching you and you think 'ouch, ah well, that's not too bad', and then they STAB YOU IN THE EYE.

I have reached the stage where I delay going outside in the morning for as long as possible (making myself late for work regularly) just so that there are at least 15-20 minutes everyday when my hair looks like it's supposed to because AS SOON as I open the door, PFFFTTT, it dies and looks like shit. I spend pretty much every day looking like something that could have been fabulous died a slow and frizzy death on my head. Why not just wear a hat, you ask? Or use an umbrella? Well, I do both. BOTH. But the wind makes my umbrella and my hat useless because it just blows all the rain at me so I end up damp no matter what, except for the very very top of my head. I may just stop doing my hair altogether. Or maybe I'll buy one of those little pocket straighteners and carry it around with me because I just can not handle this any longer.

Last Saturday I ventured out to get my nails done because I had no other time I could go. It had been windy in the morning and rainy, but it seemed to have calmed down so I took my chance and went to catch the bus to Kilburn. As I waited for the bus, the wind picked up again. Not fun. When I got off the bus it started to rain. As I sat getting my nails done, I washed people walking past struggling against the rain, fighting with their umbrellas when they went inside out, holding on to their children and babies lest they fly away. It was insanity. I lingered in the nail shop as long as possible without seeming strange and then prepared myself to head back out. As I waited for the bus, I am fairly certain I saw a small child blow by in the wind calling for its mother. I attempted to use my umbrella but the wind was so strong it broke. So I stood there getting drenched, hanging on to the bus pole for dear life and cursing this blasted urinal in which I live.

My current prayer is that this so called 'winter' in England does not last as long as winter in Canada. I would trade some beautiful snow for this piss anyday. But at least it's not too cold, so I guess there's a 'brightside' to this urinal. Maybe not so much a 'brightside' as a 'less suicide-inducing' side.

Please do not comment on this post about how lovely the weather is in Winnipeg. I know. My mom showed me on Skype, despite my protests. No snow, sun shining, grass still green, all that crap. Lucky bums. Enjoy it while you can because soon you will happily trade your icebox for my urinal.

I'm baaa-aack

Hello people! Sorry for my unplanned absence from the blog. No excuse really aside from the fact that I've been living the boring life for the past two weeks with nothing interesting to report and I've been ashamed. Here I am in London, one of the most exciting cities in the world and I'm being boring! It's so shameful. But I've decided it's time to fess up and just admit that my natural tendency is to be boring. Can't help it. I like to read and watch movies, eat and cook. Not the thrilling stuff of must-read blogs sadly. And when I'm working full time, I become a bit of recluse during the week. My weekends haven't been exciting either. The weather's been terrible so I haven't really done anything much. Work is fun and good. Very busy with Open Evenings and Parents Evenings and such so I've been working late most days. I work, I go home, I eat, I read and I go to sleep. Some days I go shopping after work. Shopping has maybe been the highlight of the past few weeks for me. And this week my goal is to find a nice new winter coat. I want something either black or purple with a high collar and a belt and pockets. Very exciting for me, but for you, not so much.

I feel that since my life is quite boring, I shall start blogging more on the random things that I observe. Like the man on the tube the other day. He was black but his beard was orange. It looked like he may have dyed it but either way, there was just no reasonable explanation I could think of for his beard to be orange. I'm not going to lie, I did stare at him for a while before I realized I was staring and stopped. The tubes are full of strange and sometimes disturbing people. My coworker last week had a man in her tube pull down his pants and pleasure himself (wank off is the British term) on the full tube. He apparently finished, zipped up his pants and then got off the tube like a normal person when he was done. Yup, those are the pleasures of the tube. I have luckily not been scarred for life by witnessing something as horrifying as that but I did have a man stand in front of me, when I was sitting, and make pelvic thrusting movements. That was lovely. I was looking away actually and then noticed the rhythmic movement out of the corner of my eye and turned my head to confirm that yes, that was in fact what he was doing.

Aside from the joys of the tube, yesterday I got to experience another British or London tradition: the fancy dress party. Apparently fancy dress is what they refer to as dressing in costume. And apparently it's quite the normal thing to do. People either have fancy dress parties or they have a fancy dress night where everyone dresses up and then goes out. Fancy dress is generally themed. The fancy dress party I went to last night was Kung Fu themed and people went all out. I didn't know anyone so I didn't feel comfortable taking pictures but it was awesome. I didn't dress up because I only decided to go at the last minute but most people there were dressed up and most of the people dressed up had gone all out. Lots of Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat characters. People do fancy dress for birthdays, bachelor or bachelorette parties or just randomly for fun. I remember this guy at one of the temp jobs I did telling us how him and his friends did a fancy dress as priests in Poland for a bachelor party and then went out to a club and the police got called in and they had to take of their crosses and collars because it was too offensive. So funny but also totally offensive. Next time I get invited to a fancy dress party or night, I'm dressing up...unless it's something offensive.

So that was last night and then today I spent all day cooking. I made sweet&sour meatballs with pasta. And cheese tortellini with chicken in a basil pesto cream sauce. I made baked chicken with tomatoes and onions in a rose sauce and I made beef fried rice. I also bought all the fixings to make nachos for dinner tonight but then I snacked so much on the other foods that I wasn't hungry in the end. I've been trying to do all my cooking on Sundays so that I have food for lunch during the week and sometimes food for supper too. My mistake the past two weeks was to make just one dish for the whole week cause by Wednesday I don't want it anymore and end up eating take away for the rest of the week and throwing out the food I'd made. So this week I made myself a bunch of options to keep things exciting all week long. And I tossed some of the beef fried rice into the freezer so that when I'm lazy and don't cook, I can just heat it up for dinner.

Settling in Nicely

This was a nice week. Been working my bootay off but I feel good. I'm really starting to feel like I'm settling in, you know? I get along well with my team at work, I think the boss likes me (not certain, but I don't think she hates me, so that's good, right?). The only downside is I am FREAKING TIRED. Seriously, I get home from work and just end up collapsing onto my bed for as long as it takes to work up the energy to get up and change into my pjs, then I rest til I can work up the energy to rustle up some food. On Tuesday when my aunt offered me dinner, I seriously almost cried with gratitude cause I was standing in front of the fridge wondering how I was going to find the energy to make something to eat. She made chicken and chips and it was delicious. I have yet to try fish and chips but everyone keeps telling me that I should. But the only time I tried it at home, it was disgusting, too greasy. But clearly this is where it originated so they'll do it properly here, but I'm kinda scared that when done properly it's still super greasy. I'll try it eventually I'm sure.

Yesterday was the graduation ceremony at the College. I remember thinking at my U of W grad how organized it was and how much work must go into that. I had no idea. This was just a grad of 130 students and it was a ton of work, and that's just at the actual event. The work leading up to it started before my time at the college, long before my time. It went really well tho. I was a bit horrified at how idiotic and rude some grown ass people can be. There were grads running in at 7:05 when the ceremony started at 6:45 and grads were asked to be there between 5:30 and 6!!! They were rude, they wouldn't follow instructions, they took their cameras up on stage with them. It was unbeliveable. And these were higher education students, meaning they are adults, grown ass adults who should know better. They even got up and went to the washroom during the ceremony! I'm not gonna lie; I yelled at a few people and had to give a few people my look of death to get them to stop talking or to stop speaking rudely to me. But anyways it was a success so that's nice. And we got to come in later to work today because we were there until 10 last night.

As you've noticed, work has overtaken my life. But I still have weekends! I'm going out tomorrow night, should be fun. All my shopping in the past few weeks has left me with an abnormal problem: I have too many outfits to choose from. It's a problem I rarely have. I'm gonna see how I feel tomorrow night, see what my friend from work is wearing and see where we're going and then decide which outfit to where. They are both fabulous outfits, but in different ways :)

Winter is settling in here and it's cold and rainy. Not too cold, I just wear a fall jacket. But thank goodness my back is to the window cause it's not a fun sight to look out at all day long. But the fall colours are lovely with all the red, orange and yellow leaves everywhere. Yesterday was the offical start of winter--bonfire night/fireworks night. It's this strange British celebration that stems decades or centuries maybe to when this man tried to blow up parliament so that he could take over and enforce strict Catholic laws on the people. The man failed in his attempt and got caught. His punishment was to be hung, drawn and quartered. So first he was hung till he was close to dead. Then they stretched him ('drawn' apart by horses I assume) til he was closer to dead. Then they cut him open and pulled out his internal organs, while he was still alive. All this to send a message to the people that attempting to blow up parliament will be severely punished. So after that Brits celebrated the failure of this man's attempt at taking over Britain and enforcing strict Catholic rules by burning a bonfire of leaves on bonfire night and setting off fireworks. It's also the official start of winter cause they rake their yards and burn up all the fallen leaves. Apparently in the old days they also used to make scarecrow-like things and then the little kids would prop them up on the side of the street and when adults would walk by they would say 'penny for the fellah', or very similar to that, and they would collect all the change they got and use it to buy fireworks for the evening. I have no idea how fireworks or scarecrows fit into celebrating the 'burning of the catholic' but apparently they do.

It's funny cause my aunt was shocked at how horrified I was by this traditional celebration. She tried to say that thanksgiving is just as horrific if you go back far enough. I pointed out that no, that's not true, it's a celebration of the Indians and the pilgrims sitting down with one another and sharing and giving thanks together. But she pointed out that the pilgrims killed off most of the Indians, which is true. BUT that's not the part of our history that Thanksgiving celebrates. Their little bonfire night celebrates brutal public torture and punishment. Anyhoo, I was working so I missed out on the festivities and what I'm sure would have been a lively discussion as to which cultural celebration is more horrific.

An afternoon in Windsor

I went to Windsor on Saturday with one of my mom's cousin and his Italian lodger. It was nice cause the Queen has a castle there. It's insanely huge. Eton and Windsor are two small little towns that are right next to each other and connected by a little footbridge so we parked in Eton and then walked over into Windsor. Super pretty. We wandered around Windsor and then ate at a pub, which was interesting. I'm still not too excited about British food, to my cousin's disappointment but I did opt for a traditional English dessert: sticky toffee pudding. It was AMAZING. AMAZING. I can not stress this enough. Anyone who comes to visit must try it. AMAZING!!!

Sunday I went to this Thai place with a couple of friends. It's in Soho and called Ubasa or Abasa or something like that. It was fantastic. Red curry is one of the best things ever on Earth. Period. And I tried a lamb red curry which was even more spectacular.

Aside from eating, I've been working my butt off. So far this week I've worked 9hrs each day and I have at least one more 9hr day left. It's a lot of fun tho and I'm starting to really get into the swing of things, which is nice. And it's busy all day long which is also nice because the days just fly by.

Back to food for a minute: I made roasted veggies for the first time yesterday. I cut up zucchini, red onions, mushrooms, orange peppers, whole cloves of garlic in the skin, green onions and baby corn and put them in a casserole dish. Then I mixed olive oil with a ton of garlic, mixed herbs, a little brown sugar, a splash of seasoned rice vinegar and some sea salt and then poured the mixture over the veggies, covered it all with foil and put it in the oven. The result: DELICIOUS.

Anyhoo, below are the pics from Windsor...

Do you see how the castle extends out into the distance, nearly beyond the horizon!!!


That's me!



That's me again!

Trying to capture how gigantic the castle is up close. This is actually just one small tower.


This is the back of the castle...or actually maybe it's the side...



Look how high and far it goes!



The little bridge between Eton and Windsor




The main road in Eton..so quaint and sweet.

Soaking up the Art Culture

Went to the Tate Modern yesterday to view the new Pop Life: Art in a Material World exhibit. I was so excited! My aunt has a membership so I didn't have to pay to get into the exhibit. Most exhibits at the Tate are free but their feature exhibits cost money. It was honestly pretty crazy. I'm not sure I knew what I was getting into with Pop Art cause I didn't really know what Pop Art meant. I now know it refers to Popular or commercial art, similar to the way Pop Music refers to Popular or commercial music. So basically, the Pop Art movement is very modern, beginning with Mr. Andy Warhol in the late 50s and carrying on to now. There were four rooms devoted to Mr. Warhol, his stuff is insane. I really like it. I think my favourite was the Four Multicoloured Marilyns he did in the 60s. And I did not know he was shot by some woman, crazy! The other rooms were dedicated to a variety of pop artists and Pop Art in general. One room was devoted to Keith Haring, he is amazing. His art is everywhere and I had no idea it was all by one artist. I thought it was just an art style. Below is a pic of one of him and some of his pieces, he's even wearing one of his tshirts.

I must mention that a lot of Pop Art is what I, as an uncultured non-art-lover would refer to as 'porn'. That's because, to me, large close up shots of penetration and ejaculation and cunnilingus and masturbation is 'porn'. And when these images are featured in magazines, as many of them were in the exhibit, that definitely qualifies as 'porn' in my books. As do images of one woman and several men engaged in various acts. The rooms containing these pieces all had warnings as you enter saying that there was sexual content and that you needed to be 18+ to enter and they had staff at the entrance to watch out. One guy asked me if I was over 18 and then looked skeptical when I said yes (This was probably due to my gasp of horror/shock when I saw the first massive image in that particular room was an extreme close up of something that does not need to be viewed extremely close up, much less blown up and hung on a wall), he only relaxed when I offered to show him ID. That was the room for an artist with the last name Koon, just a heads up for any of you who might one day go see an exhibit featuring his work, 'Graphic' does not even begin to describe his images. One of these magical rooms in the exhibit was devoted to an artist (Andrea something) who's piece was a video of her (the artist) having sex with a collector. Apparently she contacted a bunch of galleries and asked them to get a list of collectors who would pay an undisclosed amount to have the privilege of getting a video of her having sex with them to add to their collection.....yep, that's porn to me. So the room just had the explanation of the piece and then the video shot from one mounted camera using existing lighting. There were tons of people standing around watching but I read the description and thought that maybe I misunderstood, watched the video for about 10 seconds and realized I understood perfectly and then left the room. The room right after the one with the video was one that had only one 'piece': a life-sized fake (God, I hope it was fake and not stuffed) dead horse sprawled on the ground with a wooden post stabbed in its flank that had a sign stuck to it that read 'Iniri' or 'Ingiri', something like that. It was by far the most disturbing thing I have seen in a long time. I wanted to vomit. But I guess that's what some art does to you. What boggles my mind is that there were some people standing around observing it. I just got the hell out of that room before my stomach could reject my lunch.

So I've noted my favourite piece, my least favourite piece, but the craziest piece was in a room dedicated to the young British artists who brought Pop Art to Britain, having been influenced by the Americans. I forget the name of the piece but on the wall, there were two identical squares made up of multicoloured polka dots. Beneath each of these squares was an identical chair and on the chair were two identical twin red-headed girls wearing identical outfits, right down to the shoes and bags and reading the same book. Did I mention these were ACTUAL PEOPLE. That's right, these two, live girls, were part of the exhibit, just sitting there reading and answering the occasional question. It was nuts!!! I wanted to ask if they moved around with the exhibit and if they went to school or how they knew the artist but I was kind of creeped out by the whole thing. And you're not allowed to take photographs so I'm not sure you're supposed to talk to the pieces either. Some people asked questions but I couldn't tell if they were actually answering the questions, I didn't want to get too close. So weird.

Pics below of Keith Haring and his work and also some pics I took outside the Tate Modern. Absolutely breathtaking view.

The view from the boardwalk thing outside the Tate Modern .



Close up.


The path leading to the Tate from the little boardwalk area.





This is a foot bridge that my uncle suggested I take to go to St. Paul's Cathedral after the Tate. I then had to explain my bridge phobia to him. When I actually saw the bridge I laughed out loud. There is no way in hell I would walk across that thing. Even if this side of the river was on fire, I would just jump in the water and try to swim as opposed to walking over that death-trap.


D-e-a-t-h-t-r-a-p



Keith Haring and some of his work, also wearing some of his work.


One of my favourite Keith Haring pieces.

Interview, successful!

I got a job! Well, I got a contract position, initially for three months but very likely to be extended. I am now the Communications Assistant at Ealing and West London College!! It's more of a Marketing assistant role because it's in the Marketing department. I am sooo excited!!! The job sounds fantastic and the team seems really creative and forward thinking so I am pumped!!! And the campus is huge. I've always thought it would be super fun to do marketing for a college or university so yay! I'll be doing everything from copywriting to press releases to updating the website to helping with the refresh of the college magazine to helping plan campaigns and stunts around campus geared at both the internal and external markets. YAY! Again: YAY! It's a new role so they're starting it off as a temporary contract for three months and then they will review in a month or two to see if it should be extended or maybe become permanent. I'm just happy to have some financial security for the next three months and have a job that actually excites me. Yay!

On a less happy note, today someone's leg somehow got underneath one of the trains at Oxford Circus and they shut the station down. There was no service on the Central Line for the majority of the afternoon. Apparently they had to saw the person's leg off to get them out from under the train. I don't really know what happened but I cannot imagine. I do not know if they were trying to kill themself or if they tripped and fell or got shoved. I shudder to think of what it would be like to get stuck under one of the massive tubes.

On the brighter side, I am getting to know my Greek roommate and he's really nice. He's a film maker, just finished school this spring and already won an award at the New York Film Festival! It's so strange listening to him and my aunt and uncle talk. I think it's so amazing that they actually work in this industry!!! Craziness.

Anyhoo, looking forward to starting work next Wednesday. Planning to make the most of my last few days without work and go see the new Pop Art exhibit at the Tate Modern. I will take pics if I'm allowed and post them up as soon as I can!

Fun British Facts

I've learned more about the Brits over the past few weeks, thought I'd share:

-There is no Thanksgiving in Britain. Makes sense I guess but it got me thinking: why is there Thanksgiving in Canada? Is it also to pay tribute to all that the Europeans stole from the natives? I can't remember. I was asked a lot and I gave very vague, wobbly answers but really I have no clue. Anyone?

-Women are expected to wear suits to interviews. Isn't that odd?? I met with a recruitment agent last week that asked if I owned a suit. I admitted no, cause I'm not a 45 year old business executive. But apparently, in Britain, every professional female should own a suit and is expected to wear it to interviews. Who knew?! I've worn fabulous dresses to the two interviews I've been to here so far and it seemed fine. I bought a suit last week anyways. From H&M. It was the least fun shopping trip I'd had in a while.

-There don't appear to be any Avenues in London. Only Streets and Roads and Lanes. I noticed this a while back. I think there might be a couple Broadways and there are tons of Squares, but no Avenues.

-'Slag' is a British term used to refer to what Canadians call 'sluts'. The worst of the 'slags' are referred to as 'slaggy slags'. Isn't that such a gross word?! I hated it on sound, it immediately filled me with distaste. It will not become a part of my vocabulary. **

-Brits really do all cigarettes 'fags'. I knew this already, as I'm sure you did too, but it's still quite jarring to hear that word used in everyday speech. Especially because 'fag' is not a word in my vocabulary. Last night my aunt was talking and was like 'I was having a fag in the garden' and thought 'what the?!' but then remembered.

-The little West Indian shop down the road from me is owned by an African. I thought this was hilarious. Good for him! It's a good shop too, they even sell roti shells.

-Brits automatically put milk in their tea. Even in restaurants, they just put milk in your tea automatically without asking. This has resulted in me having to send tea back several times and in dozens of cups of tea having to be poured out and remade. It's not just that I don't like milk, it just doesn't agree with me so if I'm going to have some, it'll be in cheese or ice cream, something worth it.

-I've found that Brits have weird pronunciation. Not just cause of their accents, but they do not say things how they're spelled. I think it's quite ironic since they're supposed to 'speak the most proper English' and supposedly we in North America have butchered the language, but at least we pronounce all syllables. Here, Leicester is pronounced 'Lester', Chiswick is pronounced 'Chisik', everything ending in 'shire' like 'Oxfordshire, Derbyshire, Notthinghamshire, Gloucestershire' atually ends in 'sure' so it's pronounced 'Oxfordsure, Derbysure, Nottinghamsure, Gloucestersure'.

-They have La Senza here. I actually thought that was really strange but apparently it's all over Europe.

-You can buy 2 bottles of Smirnoff vodka for £5.50...I didn't, but I'm just saying it's possible. If you're an alcoholic then London is the place for you!

-'Long' is used by Brits to refer to what we call 'tight' girls at home. You know what I mean. I don't really get why they call it being 'long' here. A opposed to 'short'??? At least when we say 'tight' at home, it makes sense as opposed to 'loose'. **

** I would like to take a moment to note that neither of these terms were used in reference to me...

I'm Back Baby!

So sorry about last week to any loyal readers that stuck with me through my bought of self-pity and lack of posts. To those who've left, I understand. I'm back now though! Chalk full of optimism and happy as a Santa Claus on crack at Disneyland getting laid (Friends reference). Had a nice, relaxing weekend and hit the ground running this morning. I've already set up two appointments with recruitment agencies for this week and actually heard back from an online application I just sent in this morning. Woot woot! Things are looking positive. I have resigned myself to temping over here and I am happy with that. There are much worse things I could be doing than temping in London for two years ;)

I actually had a moderately productive Sunday too, in that I actually got out of bed before 2 pm and managed to finally get to the store and pick up my microwave! I even went out again and bought a little table to put it on. Now I can cook as much as I like and then reheat my left over for days!! My aunt and uncle don't really do leftovers so they didn't use their old microwave and right now they don't have one at all. I've been dying for one for weeks now cause there are some things that you just can't reheat in the oven (like rice and stir fry) and there are times when I'm hungry now damnit! I want to pop my food in the mike and eat in the next 2-3 minutes. So now that I can, I've got cooking fever! On my list for the next week or two are: fried breadfruit with smoked fish (this is a Caribbean dish for any of you who might be disgusted or confused), roti and curry chick peas with chicken, a pilaf rice with smoked turkey and mushrooms and a coconut salmon. Mmmm mmm!! I may soon not be able to fit into any of my adorable, recently purchased dresses (I shop when I'm depressed) but I'll be well fed! I've just made myself quite hungry, I think I'm gonna go start my search for breadfruit. What the hell does a breadfruit actually look like, I've only seen it cooked?? Found a pic!


Also, one of my cousin's friends helped me stage the pic below at my cousin's party to prove that I was in the same room and venue as Mr. Rickman. I look hideous, please excuse that, but it is still proof that we were both there. He's in the background, leaning in to kiss my aunt (so jealous).


You can't fake this stuff people! Well, you can actually, but I didn't!

Unemployed Temp for Hire

So last week made me crazy and I opted not to return to the horrendous telephone temp work this week. Sad cause I really liked the people. I thought I would use these days to find a recruitment agency that specializes in media or communications or marketing. And I did find some, lots even. Sadly none of them seem interested in me and none of them have gotten back to me yet. Yes, I know that they all say they'll get back to you within 5 days and it's barely been one full day but so what?! I'm poor and bored damnit!!! I want a j-o-b. I didn't do much this morning but this afternoon was a bit better. Managed to work myself out of my sulk and apply for a few jobs then I even managed to get a recruitment agent to set up an appointment to meet with me tomorrow afternoon. I'm tentatively optimistic. We'll see how it goes I guess.

I was quite down and out this morning so I spent the morning and early afternoon watching SATC and a bootleg movie I purchased down in Peckham yesterday when I went to get my nails done. It was Tyler Perry's latest film titled I can Do Bad All By Myself, and it was alright. Had some of Perry's signature scenes that are so difficult to watch they make you cringe. But it also had his signature cheeseball ending that made me want to cover my eyes in horror. I don't want to ruin the movie for you but the following line was uttered: 'I don't know how to love like that but I want to learn, will you teach me?' and it was said tearfully and oh-so sincerely. I do not know why film makers love to throw cheese into the end of their movies and ruin them for any realists in the audience.

I went to see Love Happens on Monday. It wasn't my first choice but I was running behind so it was really just a mattering of timing. And it was my friend's first choice so I went with it. The film was mediocre as I expected. I mean mediocre isn't bad, but it's not good either. If you were contemplating it, hoping that maybe the trailers just didn't do it justice, I'm letting you know that the trailers were mediocre because the film is mediocre. I just didn't really care about either of the characters but it was a nice story and there were a few laughs so it wasn't a total waste. I would say rent it on a Wednesday night as opposed to go out to see it on a Friday or Saturday. Has anyone else seen it and liked it? Let me know.

I forgot to mention that I went to the famous Portabello Market on Saturday and it was AMAZING!!! Hellllooooo vintage shopping! I always thought these markets that everyone keeps talking about just sold food and scarves and jewelry but no, no. I was very mistaken. This is a massive market full of fabulous stalls selling great vintage clothing and new clothing as well, and purses and coats and shoes and jewelry and Mexican food. Everything!!! I loved it. I am addicted. For £30 I bought a pencil skirt, a fabulous short tweedish skirt (hard to describe but has a giant bow on it), a sweet dress, a tutu (my new thing by the way) and a belt!!! And the tutu and belt and the dress were all new! The market was seriously indescribable. I will be a weekly attendee for certain. In fact, I may never shop in an actual shop for anything besides jeans, undies and shoes again! And I have a feeling that I may eventually get into vintage shoes. Right now, it gives me an icky feeling but it just takes on cheap and fabulous pair and I know I'll be hooked. We all know I have issues with feet but that I have equally strong feelings about shoes so we'll see which one wins this battle. I will take pictures of the market next weekend and post them so you can all see the wonderfulness.

After the market shopping on Saturday we went for lunch at this wonderful conjoined Thai and sushi place on Portabello Road. After we'd finished up and were just hanging around chatting, I randomly noticed a tall man in a jean jacket walk by then stop then walk into the restaurant. I didn't really pay any attention. Then three minutes later we hear yelling and the man comes dashing out of the restaurant (we were on the patio) and the owner comes out after him saying 'stop! come back!' The tall man threw something from under jacket behind a large plant then turned and shrugged like 'what?' and then stalked off. Then the owner reached behind the plant and picked up a plastic bag!!! This blond girl in the restaurant was near the doorway of the restaurant looking confused and when the owner handed her the plastic bag she looked shocked and we realized what happened: apparently this man walked into the restaurant and just walked around, didn't sit down, then, unnoticed by anyone but the owner, snatched this woman's bag, stuck it under his jacket and tried to make his escape. But the owner saw and started yelling at him to stop and chased him out the door. Isn't that insane?!!The woman didn't even notice that he'd taken her bag, if it wasn't for the owner that man would have totally gotten away with it! The owner was like a little Japanese (or Thai) hero! We all applauded once we realized what had happened and he just shook it off and looked angrily down the street after the attempted thief. I even added an extra pound to my tip cause that is some good service! Fresh delicious sushi, rich flavourful Thai food AND heroic acts performed on the premises? Needless to say I put the take away number in my phone and will soon become one of their favourite and frequent customers :)

Mr. Rickman and Me

First off I must say that I was not actually introduced to him. It deeply saddened me but my aunt was quite tipsy and running about everywhere and I didn't want to ASK her so I just left it alone. Today she felt terrible and assured me that he would be around again and I'd be introduced then. But really it doesn't matter that I didn't shake his hand because I got to be around him for five hours!!!

In real life he looks quite different. He's not as thin as in Harry Potter and clearly he doesn't have shoulder length black hair. But THE VOICE!!! aaaahhhh!!!! Love it! He ended up reading the speech my uncle wrote for my cousin because my uncle got stuck in Kenya doing a commercial and couldn't make it back. So He read it!!!! So insane! Can you imagine having Snape read a speech to you at your birthday party??? I was also happy cause then I could freely photograph him instead of pretending to photograph the person next to him and actually taking a close up shot of him like I did when my aunt was talking (hehe). Also, at one point when I was helping out behind the bar, He came up and took a picture of me and another girl. So somewhere on his camera is a picture of me!!! I wanted to ask him for a picture in exchange for a picture but I felt that might be rude or forward.

Other highlights: when I felt someone brush against me from behind and turned to see Him retreating. I may never wash the back of my dress again!!! I also smiled at him SEVERAL times and he smiled back. And it was all done in a very natural way, generally as I was entering the room where he was sitting and we made eye contact. Honestly he seemed like the nicest man. Very chill, just hung out with his partner (female) all night and a chatted with all their friends, ate some chips, etc. He even tidied up the gift table so that nothing fell over or got lost. He got my cousin the most fabulous gift! It was huge and wrapped in matte pink wrapping paper and he dug up a pic of her at three and taped it to the bag, so cute! The huge bag turned out to be an actual giant purse that was SSOOO perfect for my cousin, her exact style. Then he bought her about 10 different things and wrapped them individually and put them in the bag. These items included two books on photography (my cousin is in school for photography), an eye palette by some crazy expensive designer, an FCUK belt, and....crap! I can't remember the rest, there were like 4 more things in there. I wasn't jealous so much as completely consumed with envy. Not so much for the gift as for what it must be like to receive a gift from him.

And apparently he had a great time cause he rang this morning to say so!!

Below are the pics. Sorry if this isn't as exciting as you'd hoped but I just couldn't bring myself to do anything more than admire him from afar and smile shyly when we made eye contact. Now that he's seen me once, I think next time I might just introduce myself! And there will be a next time. Even if I have to set it up myself.

Also, he's not holding a lightsaber, it's a lamp thing. We set them up all over the room. He was trying to give my aunt some light so that she could read the speech herself but she couldn't so he read it.



Him reading the speech.


My cousin is the one in the blue dress.


*sigh*

Boooorrrriiinnnggggg

So this was a very boring week. All I did was work really and see Fame. Went out for drinks last night to a place called Galaxy....or was it Gallery?? Something like that. It was nice, a great lounge with good drinks and atmosphere. But then around 10:45 a DJ appeared and started 'spinning' loud horrible music and we left shortly afterwards. Being driven around London really emphasizes how confusing this city is. The streets just do not make any sense whatsoever. There is no pattern, no grid, nothing. Just random roads and streets everywhere and the street signs are so small and poorly placed that it's almost like an afterthought. Like 'oh, you know, it might be nice to have the names of the streets somewhere. Let's put them up really small on the sides of the buildings on the corner.' Good plan.

The job this week was not great. Pretty horrible in fact. It was at the same place I was at last week but instead of doing research like I did last week, I was contacting hundreds of people across Europe asking them to be part of a database. Essentially telemarketing except I wasn't selling anything. I hated it. And the worst part is I'm apparently really good at it so they asked me to stay until next Wednesday but I had to turn it down. I've worked non-stop for the past three weeks and I haven't had anytime to put into tracking down marketing-related recruitment agencies much less time to go in during the day to register. So I'm hoping to make some headway in that area early next week. The people at this place were really nice though and they've asked me to stay in touch so I'm hoping their hiring freeze gets removed sometime soon so that they can hire me on to do some actual PR work which would be amazing.

Tomorrow is The Party. The Party where I will meet The Man who Killed Dumbledore!!! And it's confirmed that he will definitely be in attendance because he phoned tonight in a panic over what to get my cousin for her bday. Apparently he's going to get her a 'glamorous frock' from some designer and some makeup or something and make up a package for her. I'm trying hard not to be insanely jealous...trying very hard. Anyways, my aunt found out tonight just how excited I am to meet him and she thought it was really cute and said that she would introduce me to him!!!! AAAHHH!!!! Freaking out! And she pointed out that tons of my cousin's friend would probably be completely starstruck so I won't stand out for blatantly staring. Now here is the big question: what does one wear to such a fabulous event in the East End of London??? I don't know!!! I have one dress that's my back up but I feel like I need something crazier and poofier! I might actually get a tutu to wear under the dress to raise the poof level but tomorrow we're going to a retro shop that's apparently like a warehouse full of vintage dresses so I might find something there. So excited for my first vintage shopping experience. Woot woot!!!! I hope I find something massively poofy and purple...with sequins...and strapless...with a bow!!! There must be something like that waiting for me in a shop somewhere.

Anyhoo, that's the plan. Look forward to a full update on Sunday. Also, so jealous that you will all be enjoying a fabulous Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday and I will not because Brits don't have Thanksgiving. I might buy a smoked turkey leg and make my own version of my mom's stuffing!!!

Shame on Fame. Shame I say!

Went to see Fame last night and it was horrendous. What crap. Half way through I had to check my ticket stub to make sure we hadn't accidentally bought tickets to High School Musical VIII or whatever version they're on now. I was so disappointed. I LOVE musicals. LOVE THEM. Even the really cheasy happy musicals like Hairspray (which wasn't actually all that happy what with the whole racism plot line) but this was just pure shite. The movie actually had no point. I kept waiting for the climax and there wasn't one. Even when the credits started rolling, I sat there waiting thinking that there was something else that was going to happen but there wasn't. My aunt said that the original Fame was pretty gritty but this one was Disney....actually wait...was it Disney??? I don't think it was and I'm too lazy to check right now. They had a good lineup of actors playing instructors including the fabulous Debbie Allen and Mr. Kelsey Grammar and what's her face from Will and Grace (Karen), and this black guy who's good. Don't know his name, but he's good. But sadly the instructors were not at all the focus of the movie, it was the teens and they were horrible. Their acting felt like acting, no depth, the characters were poorly developed and it was therefore very difficult to feel any sympathy or empathy towards them. If you were planning on taking your hard earned money and spending it on this film, I recommend you spend it elsewhere. Even just going to McD's would probably be a better investment than wasting 2hrs of your life in a theatre waiting for a plot that will never really develop.

In the theme of movies and movie stars, guess which movie star will be present at my cousin's 21st birthday party on Saturday??!!!!! (hint: he killed one of the greatest wizards who ever lived). SO EXCITED. I've been trying to think of a way to play it supa-cool but still manage to get a pic with him. Even if I could get a pic of me where he's in the background or a pic of him where I'm lurking in the background. I dunno, but I'm gonna find a way to make it work somehow....maybe I'll ask if he's seen Fame and then he's say 'Yes...it was crap' in his voice that gives me haunting shivers and we'll laugh and chat together about how bad Fame was and form and instant and life-long bond. *sigh* And he'll invite me over for tea and we'll have crumpets and he'll introduce me to Emma Thompson cause I LOVE her and he'll also introduce me to Kate Winslet because she's an acting Goddess. And I'll be their token young black girl friend and we'll live happily ever after! Yes, that sounds like a swell plan! So excited! EEEEEEEEeeeeeeeee!

One Month Down, 23 to go!

It was my one month anniversary in London yesterday! I think it's nuts that I've been here for a month already, it still feels like I just got here but then I think back on everything that's happened and ya, it's definitely been a month. And a good month too!!! Can't wait for the next 23. Also can't wait to start travelingggggggg!!!!!! Once this job thing gets a bit more secure or at least once my bank account starts looking relatively healthy, I'm off!! In the meantime I think I'm gonna start doing some country weekend trips in England so I can get to see the British country side. My mom has a cousin that lives in Bath so I think I'll try to head there later this month and then start planning some other trips after that.

Last night I went to this club/lounge called Koko Bar. It started off not too fun cause I got there at the time I planned to meet with my friend and her boyfriend and then they ended up being an hour late because their ride was running late and the club had no coat check so I just sat there in my coat annoyed for an hour. But once they got there and I ditched my coat in their car, it got fun and then funner and then I ended up having a fantastic time! The music was non-stop great. Seriously, every time I sat down for a second to rest my feet, another great song would come on and I would have to get back up and dance. One really interesting thing about the bar is that they played a lot of Nigerian music. Sounds strange, I know, but they were essentially just catering to the audience and I think the DJ was Nigerian as well. I already love Nigerian music cause my dad loves it and used to play it non-stop on our road trips when I was younger. But this music was the more recent stuff from younger artists so it's quite contemporary and fun to dance to. Apparently more and more clubs here are playing Nigerian and African music because there are so many really good artists coming out. I loved it.

At the end of the night, I took the night bus home for the first time. I had considered taking it home last weekend but I just felt super uncomfortable with the idea and ended up cabbing it.This weekend tho, for some reason, I was certain the night bus was the way to go so I planned out my routes and put them in my phone before I went out. I brought along tights and flats to put on so as not to draw attention to what I might or might not be wearing under my coat and I was set. Of course, the stupid website gave me the wrong bus numbers but I've been here long enough now that I know which buses to look out for and which general direction I should be headed in. And the bus drivers and very nice out here (not like at home) so they're generally very helpful. One jolly old black bus driver gave me such precise details last night, I almost asked him for his number so I could phone him up whenever I get lost. Anyhoo, I found my way home without too much trouble, didn't even get on the wrong bus or anything! It took about an hour so I got off the bus just before 4 am and speed walked to my place. It was only about a 2 minute walk from the bus stop but at that hour, I didn't want to be strolling along at a leisurely pace, even though this is a good neighbourhood. I'm really proud of myself for my little nightbus adventure. And I'm excited to think of all the money I'll be saving by not cabbing it home all the time!

Also, great news: I found several brands of Caesar salad dressing AND two different kinds of croutons at Sainsbury's!!! I was thrilled and may or may not have done a little dance in the aisle when I found these items. And this little dance may or may not have caused several people to look at me like I was crazy and a child to hide behind his mother's legs and peer out at me frightened. Anyways, to hell with them, I've had two GIANT chicken Caesar salads in the past two days and they were both delicious!! And today, i just ate some croutons with Caesar dressing! Very delicious. Some of you might be disgusted, but then you must also not be aware of my love of croutons. Now you know. I am so happy I do not have to go another 23 months without a Caesar salad. It doesn't make up for the turkey bacon but I still have to go to that American grocery store to see if they have it. To be honest, I'm putting it off cause I'm scared they don't have it and I really won't have any turkey bacon until one of you nice people send me some (HINT HINT). So I figure if I wait long enough, one of you will have already put some in the post and then if the super market doesn't have any, I won't have to wait too long before my turkey bacon care package arrives :)

HINT HINT!!!!!

SERIOUSLY???!!!!!!

Today I came home from work and decided I would have a giant chicken Caesar salad for dinner with croutons and parm cheese and the works. So, I changed and off I went with my 'Don't think mean, think green' reusable shopping bag, happy as a clam. I stopped at the cheap grocery store to get my salad and then planned to go to the expensive grocery store for the fixings (chicken, dressing, croutons). Got my chicken, and I'm on the hunt for my croutons and dressing. I come to the dressing section first. After about 1 full minute of starting and the two small shelf areas with salad dressing, it slowly sinks in that they do not have Caesar dressing...I think I must have missed it, right? So I look again, deliberately reading each label. And still no Caesar dressing. Now I think back to the various menus I've seen over the past four weeks and like a black cloud, along comes the realization that they don't have Caesar salad OR Caesar dressing here!!!! SERIOUSLY???!!!!!! I am NOT impressed with this place. First turkey bacon, now Caesar salad dressing??? Two staples of my diet snatched out from my reach. I am thoroughly unhappy with this new development.

Stupid London, with their stupid 'Heinz Salad Cream' and fresh ham bacon. F%"*, F$%@ity, F$%! aRGh!

....

SERIOUSLY???!!!!!!

Researching, cooking and such

So I've been temping yesterday and today at this Communications Agency in Notting Hill. It's good, kinda boring, but nowhere near as horrific as that data formatting job last week. I am still in full possession of my will to live so that's a good sign. The only sucky part is that the hours at 9-6, which is very common here. It's really long so I take my lunch around 2 or 2:30 to help the time pass.

I must say that I had no idea my weirdo story would spark such interest. I will do my best to report further on the other weirdos I meet cause there are tons. Last weekend while waiting in Liverpool Station I saw some ridiculously strange things including a man who from the front looked bald but from the back had a little patch of unshaved hair so long he had it pulled into a ponytail. He was also wearing quite fitted capri pants. I stared at him long and hard trying to comprehend exactly what was going on. I also saw a girl in dress so short it and tight it rode up and showed her bum when she walked. I know I have been known to wear some pretty short things, but there is a limit to how short I will go and bum-bearing dresses is it.

Sidenote about short dresses/skirts: professional skirts and dresses go suprisingly short over here. Things that at home I would hem and haw trying to decide if it was too short for work (and then wear anyways) are totally fine over here. It's fantastic!!! I think it's cause everyone wears flats to work cause they have to take the tube.But really, it's nice :)

Anyways, I've posted a pic of my delicious afternoon snack I had at work today. It was a limonada or Italian lemon soda and a cinnabella (I think I made that up, but it was called something like that). It was a homemade doughnut. VERY similar to the ones I had in my cookbook. It's inspired me to make some cause they're delicious and easy to make. I had it at this little Italian cafe/restaurant in Notting Hill. I've walked past it a dozen times and never noticed it until today.

OH! And while on the topic of food, I made my own version of Moxie's Warm Mosaic Dip last night. It was delicious. The only difference between mine and Moxies was that I mixed the mushrooms with minced lamb which was amazing. It was lamb and mushrooms with a ton of garlic and red onions topped with diced tomatoes topped with seasoned goat cheese. I ate it with naan bread which was the closest thing I could find to flat bread. So delicious. I didn't take a pic cause it didn't actually look very appetizing, it just smelled and tasted amazing. I still have some left. So good. I wish I could share it with you all so that you could tell me what good cook I am ;)

Oh, and there's also a picture of Mabel the dog! Isn't she adorable??!!!




Mmmmm, homemade doughnut. It's just occurred to me that this may have been a Greek restaurant and not an Italian one.



Isn't she's sooo sweet??? Aaaaaawww Mabul Wabul!!!

And the Weirdo Award goes to...

Alright so that weekend was not that interesting. Did my hair Friday, as I've already reported. The puking girl was ok by the way. I've posted pics of the hair below for those of you who care to take a look, feedback is appreciated!

Sunday my bed got set up, which is nice. I enjoy it. Makes my room seem smaller but it's still a good size. I still need to buy a microwave and a full length mirror but I'm just too lazy to bring either item home on the bus. Maybe this weekend...

So on to the weirdo award. I've seen a lot of weirdos here but this one tops them all so far. This occurred Saturday night around 10:30 pm. I was in the tube station waiting for the tube to go meet my friends cause we were going to a 'black rave'. Essentially a social. I was scared when I heard the word 'rave' but that's just London speak for social. It wasn't good. I don't feel like elaborating cause it just reminds me that I wasted a fabulous outfit and £15 and did not enjoy myself. Anyways, back to the tube station. I have my fabulous outfit on beneath my long empire waist coat and flats. My shoes are in my bag. I'm waiting for the tube and I actually just missed it so I'm the only person standing on my side of the platform. I'm on the phone with friend. I notice a man walk by but I don't really pay any attention. I end the call and the following conversation ensues between me and the other man on the platform. This isn't word for word but it's pretty close having been imprinted in my memory as one of the strangest conversations ever:

Him: (really loud) Hey, are you American or something? (He was actually standing much closer to me than I expected)
Me: (at a normal level) No, I'm Canadian
Him: REally? Canadian. Wow. So what are you doing here?
Me: Just came to work and travel.
Him:Sure sure, you came to check out the London men.
Me: What?!
Him: I know, don't worry. How old are you?
Me: 23, how old are you? (I asked this because he looked about 35 and I was hoping my young age would bring him shame and scare him off)
Him: 27 (bullshitty!! He was definitely at least 35, he had grey hairs in his beard)
Me: 27, really? I see. (Here I tried to end the conversation by looking away in the direction of the train for a good 20 seconds)
Him: How long have you been here?
Me: 3 weeks
Him: REally? Wow. Then you need someone to show you around.
Me: No, I don't.
Him: Yes you do. I'll show you around. I'll show you a good time.
Me: No, really, I have plenty of people to show me around. I'm fine, thanks though.
Him: Do you live near here?
Me: Yes.
Him: Where?
Me: Near here.
Him: Do you have a man? (This was less of a question and more of a demand, I had barely finished responding to his previous question)
Me: Ummm...no. (As soon as I said no, I realized I should have said yes)
Him: WHAT?! (this was pretty much yelled and made the people on the other side of the platform look over)
Me: ......(silence and looking away again, praying for the train to come)
Him: How is is possible? (Still pretty much yelling)
Me: ......I'm not sure?
Him: New, Canadian and fine, how can you not have a man? (Still way too loud)
Me: (praying: Dear God, please let the train come, please, please, please)
Him: mmm mmm (still staring at me)
Me: Oh, thank God. (the train pulls up. I walk away from him and he follows. I stop near one door, he stops, then I walk on to another car, he follows. I sigh and get on. He follows me on and starts gesturing to one of the two-person seats at the back. I ignore him and go sit one seat away from a man and put my bag down beside me. He comes to stand beside where I'm sitting, I ignore him)
Him: (leaning over and into my face) How can you not have a man?
Me: I'm quite happy actually.
Him: You're happy without a man? (incredulously)
Me: Ya.
Him: What, are you celibate or something?
Me: What?!
Him: Are you celibate?
Me: How is that any of your business (I'm starting to be rude now)
Him: I asked you a question.
Me: Well the answer is none of your business.
Him: How come sexual questions are so prohibited in our society?
Me: Seriously?? Because of their nature (In retrospect I should have gotten up and moved away but I was so annoyed with this psycho, I couldn't help answering)
Him: No, really, why are sexual questions so prohibited? What is everyone afraid of? (He seemed to think he was being really philosophical and deep)
Me:....(silence)
Him: (after about 1 full minute of silence) Can I just ask you one more question that's been on my mind for a while now?
Me: (silence, looking straight ahead)
Him: Why don't you wear you natural hair? I see all these black women wearing white woman hair and it pisses me off. Are you ashamed? Why do you want to look like a white woman?
Me: I can't really answer on behalf of all black women.
Him: Well then answer on behalf of you.
Me: I just like my hair like this, alright?!! ( I was PISSED. He should know that you DO NOT ask a black woman why she wears weaves or imply that she shouldn't. You just don't.)
Him: Alright, alright, it was just a question.

I guess he saw how mad I was cause he didn't say anything else after that. And, thank God, he did not follow me off the tube when I got off. I was kinda scared he would. But I was prepared to go straight to the security guard if he did. So that guy wins the Weirdo Award of the week. I pray I do not meet anyone weirder than that this week. And that I don't ever run into him again. Below are the pics of my hair which apparently so offended the weirdo and yet is probably half the reason he noticed me in the first place. Dumbass.

New hair!

It's official: big curly hair has hit London!!! I went for the Vanessa Hudgens look but with more bangs and I am loving it!!

Today was the last day of The Job from Hell. The people were really nice but I didn't really fraternize much cause I hated the job so. It's funny, they kept apologizing to me for how terrible the work was and I kept saying 'no, it's fine!'. But in my head I was like 'Kill me, kill me now!'. They even invited me to come to the pub with them after work today but I said that I couldn't. I could have but they remind me of the work and I need to wipe this experience from my mind. And the recruitment agency asked me to come back next Mon-Wed and I said no thank you. I know I could use the money but if the choice is between money or my will to live, I choose my will to live.

My older cousins and their oldest daughter are all away for the weekend. It's just me and my 15 year old cousin here. I adore her, she's so fantastic. Very mature, very artsy/folky/rock. I actually wish I could have been like her when I was 15. She has a bunch of friends over right now and they're downstairs drinking and such. Very chill, very British. I kinda wanna go hang out but I don't wanna crash. I chatted for a bit, asked them not to smoke anything in the house and ensured the boys weren't spending the night. Holy crap! One of the girls is puking in the bathroom! Oh to be a teen again. Crap, that sounds bad. Better go make sure she's ok...

Boring Crap & More British Facts

The reason I've not been blogging this week is because it's been SUCH a boring week. Went from one dull temp job to another. This second job though is unbearable. I'm doing it until the end of the week. It's data formatting which is actually much much less interesting than it sounds (and I know it doesn't sound interesting in the first place).The only good part about the job is that it pays well and I get to listen to music in headphones all day long. I literally do the same thing over and over and over again all day long. The funny thing is there is no way in hell I can finish everything by Friday and when I mentioned that today they were like 'oh yes, we figured that it would take probably about two weeks but we wanted to start with these three days'. When I heard two weeks I started looking for the nearest window so that I could throw myself out of it and therefore be too injured to work. I think I'm just not going to say yes if the recruitment agency asks me to work there next week. I'll just explain that I can't continue unless they want to be responsible for me going berserk.

Anyways, here are some more Fun British Facts:

-Brits sign their text messages with either x or xo or xx. I like it and I've adopted it, as some of you may have noticed.

-British accents make cute children unbelievably adorable and obnoxious children seem like the spawn of Satan. It's shocking how much worse annoying children are when they have British accents! I've started just getting up and moving away from them when they sit down near me on the tube. I always look back after I've sat in my new seat and look right at the children then the parents to confirm what they have already started to guess: they are, in fact, the reason I've moved. I've done this three or four times so far. It sadly does not work during sardine can time or 'rush hour'. During those times I must endure the horrid 'children'(spawn) and exchange empathetic glances with the other people around me.

-Brits call crosswalks 'Zebra Crossings'. They don't have big overhead flashing signs like we do. In fact the crossings are quite inconspicuous. They're narrow and have a black and white striped pole with a light on top at either end and the asphalt is painted black and white as well. Sounds conspicuous, I know, but trust me, it's not.

- Fried chicken shacks are insanely popular here. They're normally called Chicken Cottage or Chicken Village or something along those lines (Chicken City) and I must say they're not too bad. I haven't tried a chicken Cottage but I've had Chicken Village and it was delicious. I will take all visitors there so I hope you like fried chicken!


-There are more Lebanese restaurants here than any other ethnic restaurant. And the vast majority of restaurants here are ethnic aside from the chains. Seriously, there is at least four Lebanese places for every one McD's or Burger King. It's unbelievable. Sometimes two or three in one block then two or three in the next block as well!! I asked the girls at my temp job what the hell was up with it and they said it's cause Londoners like 'Kabobs'. But not the kabobs like we have at home. What they described is like a giant piece of meat on a stick that twirls around and then pieces of meat are sliced off it as it turns. We have that at home but I can't remember what we call it. Anyone??? It's Greek I think. Not souvlaki but something else. Anyways, I haven't worked up my nerve to try a Lebanese restaurant yet, mainly cause there are so many I'm scared I will go to a bad one and get Salmonella and die.

-Here, 'public school' refers to what we call 'private schools' at home. Strange, no?

-The majority of schools are same sex. The few coed schools are apparently 'quite dodgy'

-Here they call eggplants 'aubergines'. I was out for dinner on Saturday and I was like 'What the hell is an aubergine?? Is that pork? Sausage??' Ya no, it's eggplant. There's another vegetable they call a weird name too but I've forgotten.

-My cousin is friends with Gary Oleman's son. ACK!

-This is less a fact and more an observation: there is a large amount of women in London who's chests are disproportionately large. I mean like a size 4 with D cups. It's weird. I would say about 1 in 5 women have giant gajungas for their size. It's so prevalent I've noticed it. My theory is that it has to do with all the whole cream and milk and the fresh cheese and yogurt. I plan to test this theory over the next two years on myself. I'll let you know how it turns out...

-Nottinghill is a predominantly black area. They 'whited it out' for the movie. Isn't that odd?? I thought it was full of rich white people but it's actually full of middle class/upper middle class black people.

That's all I can remember right now. I need to start writing them down when they come to me. Some pics below.



This is a theatre on Oxford street with an awesome sign. It's HUGE.



Went back to Haagen Daz on Monday. We're addicted! This is just one scoop of strawberry cheesecake topped with caramelized pecans. The caramelized hazelnuts are better but the ice cream was just as delicious as last time.



Can you see this?? I think if you double click on it you can see it bigger. This is Leicester Square at around 8 on a Monday night. Crazy crazy busy.

Another shot of the bustling square.



I am DYING to see The Lion King.




I don't know where this is or what it is. I think it's in Nottinghill actually. But I just thought it was a really nice British-looking building so I figured I'd share it with you all.