Mastermind

Congratulations Erica (F) on getting your Masters! Sorry I missed the festivities on Sunday.

Is it possible for you to officially diagnose me with something now? I'll tell you that I do not want to hear 'anal retentive' as the answer!

Current Music: Anna Nalick - Breathe (2 AM)

Mini Hiatus?

I'm guessing I'll be going on a brief hiatus from this thing for a few days (although I may write more than I anticipate, who knows), as Brother F is on his way to London, and I'll be on my way to Heathrow to pick him up in a few minutes. We don't have specific plans for the week yet, just have Dublin booked from Friday to Sunday, and then he's off to Italy the following Thursday to Sunday. I'd like my friends to come meet us for drinks at some point, so basically anyone in London who is reading this, I hope to see you maybe this Thursday or next week, maybe Mon/Tues/Wed if you are around? Anyway, if we go out I'll be in touch.

The past few days are too long to go into detail over right now, but they were very pleasant indeed. They consisted of things such as: a couple of brunches, a comedy show on a boat, Love Actually, me finally being rebellious and skipping some uni seminars, a trip up Primrose Hill, a trip through Primrose Hill, (but no trip down Primrose Hill), The Mean Fiddler, a Chinese buffet, some dissertation writing, some freak-outs over dissertation writing, and a lovely multi-day date. Like I said, a very pleasant few days.

Here's a photo I got from Mairead of Liz and I that was taken at Alex's birthday back in January (I kind of look like I'm on drugs, eh oh well)...

41 Prince of Wales Power!

Current Music: The Kooks - Naive

Who Gives a Damn About the Prophets of Tesco?

I went into Tesco the other day and I was asked to participate in a customer survey at the Holiday Inn next week. Instead of saying yes, I told the guy I have class on Tuesday so I couldn't make it (which is true, but I could obviously skip it.) I would have received a £30 food voucher for participating. Man I am stupid sometimes.

I was totally lame on St. Patrick's Day too. I got to Kilburn with John around 9:00 pm, and I caught the last train back to K-Town at 11:20 pm (literally caught it, like the conductor was nice enough to open the doors back up for me before driving away.) We'd gone to Powers with Laura, Mairead, and some of their friends. St. Patty's Day in London (well, at least in Kilburn where it's very Irish) was a lot like St. Patty's in NYC, basically lots of drunk people singing to the live musician, dancing, and falling over. I missed my Erin Go Bragh hat :(

I had my IR2 presentation on Thursday which I think went well. Some of it may have been a bit too specific in regards to the amount of time I had, but I didn't have any notes so I've given myself personal props for having memorized stuff in addition to the points that were on the transparency. I went for a drink at some pub afterwards with Ana and Maristela, then went out at night with Dave for some happy hour drinks at The Roxy, dinner at Pizza Express in Soho (we couldn't watch the downstairs live jazz though because you need a reservation? Who knew?) and then to The Social for more drinks.

It's only 10:45 am. I think I'll spend the morning thinking about ways to procrastinate, spend the afternoon doing whatever it was I decided on, then perhaps start my dissertation a bit later.

Current Music: House of Pain - Jump Around (I didn't plan that, it's playing on XFM)

Happy Ides of March!

Wow, who knew there was a fancy word for whipped?

Uxorious \uk-SOR-ee-us; ug-ZOR-\, adjective: Excessively fond of or submissive to a wife.

It is batty to suppose that the most uxorious of husbands will stop his wife's excessive shopping if an excessive shopper she has always been.

-- Angela Huth, "All you need is love," [1]Daily Telegraph, April 24, 1998

Spaces aren't working again, thanks Blogger.com!

That came from my Dictionary.com Word of the Day e-mail. I've also been signed up for the Italian Word of the Day for quite some time as well. I just found Urban Dictionary.com on the web, I'm so signing up for the Urban Word of the Day right now. Today's word is:

Get ready, this one's good

Goo-diligence: Using Google to mediate a dispute between two parties or to do appropriate research.

"What's the proper pronunciation of Cannes? Is it 'can' or 'con'?" "I dunno. Go do your Goo-diligence."

Goo

"Is it a blind date?" "Sort of, but I did my Goo-diligence on him, and he's okay."

Dilly

The intelligence in my head is spilling out of my ears with all of this useful knowledge.

Won't you come over and check up on it? I'm a letchoo work up on it.

Current Music: Beyonce feat. Slim Thug - Check On It

Clapham Your Hands Say Yeah!

I am overdue for a recap. Maybe I'll go backwards, how India episode of Seinfeld of me!

Tonight I had my dissertation colloquium at school where each person on my course (about 30 or so) had to talk for five minutes about their, well, dissertation. It was so much easier than I'd expected. All I did was pretty much rearrange my outline and read it to the class. The head dissertation supervisor said my presentation was "rather comprehensive." And then I realized that she totally looks like she could be on Sprockets. I had her as a professor last semester and I have no idea why it took me so long to make the connection, especially considering she usually wears all black, leather pants, and has a severly harsh Belgian accent.

This afternoon, Maristela and myself, as well as Oguz, Mehmet, and Omer (AKA the Turkish Mafia) went for coffee at Ha! Ha! to kill time. Prior to that I had a delicious salad of mozzarella, sun dried tomatoes, olives and couscous which will officially become my new uni-area deli lunchtime meal. Yum!

In the morning, we had class taught by not our usual professor, but by another lecturer from our program. She lives in Kentish Town (I know this as I saw her get on my bus yesterday, as I pretty much hid unsuccessfully behind a book that was written by one of my other professors) and she gave a shout-out to the class today about our local bookstore. The unfortunate response from basically everyone was "Where the hell is Kentish Town?"

Last night I finally made it to Clapham! And not just to Clapham Common, but to Clapham North too! I met Dave for drinks at the obviously named The Clapham North, then we went to The Fine Line (where for the first time ever I left my bag in a bar?! - luckily the waitress ran out after me), and we ended at So.UK. Those bars are definitely much trendier than ones I've generally seen in North London. Although I'd have to say that the council houses in North London are lot nicer than the scary ghetto ones in South London so take that!

Monday day was spent wasting a trip to Angel to buy gig tickets, as upon arrival I found out that the Delays/Bell X1 show was sold out (although thanks to Shiraz I am now going), as well as Embrace at Shepherd's Bush but I'll get over that. I then took the wrong bus to Marble Arch instead of Oxford Circus. I stopped for lunch at Subway (which by the way is now totally cut off for discontinuing their vinaigrette dressing) where I ended up staying for a ridiculously long time because I strangely got really into the library book I was on my way to return, Rogue State by William Blum (which I just now read that Osama himself recommended that Americans read?!)

On Sunday morning, after I'd slept at Laura's, we headed to Golders Green to Carmelli's, which was the best looking/smelling bakery I've been to in London so far. We got bagels with cream cheese and lox (strangely called "smoked salmon" here) and I bought a fresh rye bread while Laura bought a challah to bring home. We watched American Idol and I still can't believe that fucking Bucky is in the Top 12! I don't think I can peg her as my ultimate favorite, but my gut instinct is telling me to put the odds on Katharine as the future winner.

Saturday night started off crappy as the 168 pulled away right before my eyes, which was naturally and subsequently going to make me have to wait on the queue for Guanabara, as well as pay the cover charge. I was planning on giving up and going straight home after noting how said queue wrapped around the corner into the parking garage, until I spotted Dandan and Marc. Elliott showed up with a Scotch Egg (eew) and we braved the freezing cold for forty minutes until we made it inside. I don't really like that place, but I did have the best banana daquiri ever so I guess its actually okay there. Very randomly, myself, the previously mentioned boys, Laura, Zoe, and Louise then headed south to meet Ben at his friend's party in Lambeth North. That's right folks - I went out south of the river two times in three days. This was pretty miraculous considering I'd never been out south of the river before this weekend. We turned up and the party was French-themed, so the place was basically filled with French flags and photographs, guys with drawn-on squiggly moustaches, and girls in berets. Laura and I ended up staying after all the people we were with left, which made for some interesting conversations.

I'm so far behind, I don't even know what I did on Saturday. It probably wasn't schoolwork, that's for sure.

My Friday night ending at Highbury Garage was fucking awesome as I saw Alan McGee! It was his regular DJ night, but I didn't think that such a 'powerful' man would actually show up to it. I had to ask some young girl he was with for confirmation if it was him since he'd completely balded and gotten fat. After all, the Alan McGee of my 1990s britpop memories looked like this:

For nostalgia's sake, in the famous words of Noel Gallagher at the 1996 Brits, "There are seven people in this room tonight who are giving a little bit of hope to young people in this country. That is me, our kid, Bonehead, Guigsy, Alan White, Alan McGee, and Tony Blair." Too bad only three of them still matter today.

Anyway, enough Cool Britannia reminiscence; the girl confirmed my suspicion, but giggled profusely which was really strange. I felt the need to explain myself that I didn't know what he looked like now, and I thought the girl was going to roll into convulsions. No one else went up to her like I did, so I honestly don't understand what was so funny.

Prior to that, Laura and I had seen Haven. They were so great, it was even better than the last time we'd seen them. And the singer sang all of the high notes on 'Let It Live' which made me squeal internally with delight. I don't know if it was the order of the songs which made a difference, or that the new ones were amazing, but it really was even better than last time.

At the end of the gig, Haven were hanging out by the bar, and instead of Laura and I mustering up courage to talk to them, we instead compiled a Top 5 list regarding what not to do in this situation. And without further ado...

Meredith's and Laura's Top 5 Things Fans Should Not Say To Haven
5. I know I look young, but I'm actually a primary school teacher, not a primary school student!
4. Laura liked the lead guitarist and Meredith liked the bass player the first time we saw you guys, but blegh, our tastes changed and we've swapped who we want. Erm, wanna dance?
3. I took a chance on you guys after finding your first cd in the import clearance bin at HMV, and I'm so glad I bought it!
2. I'm drinking a double vodka and coke, not plain coke, and I swear I'm of age.
1. Two years after my first lucky discovery, I found multiple copies of your second release in the import clearance bin at HMV, and I was sure to snatch that baby up with some very affordable copies for my friends! Great tunes!

Laura and I finally got the balls to say to tell the guitarist happy birthday. He gave us each a hug and a kiss. Result!

Current Music: Oasis - Love Like A Bomb

Beni and the Jets

Guess who just booked a ticket to Benicassim and some flights to go along with it?

ME!!!

I'm going to Spain & you're not! Well, probably not!

¡Adios amigos!

All That Matters is the Music

I saw Delays at Shepherds Bush last night. I know I've said "they were sooo good" in like every gig post, but this was one of the best shows I've seen since I've been in London. And now for the review in brief:

Nightmare of You were the opening act. I have to say that they were pretty good (sorry Ryan.) The music was surprisingly much less emo than I'd expected, although the singer's voice kind of sounded like a cartoon character. Anway they hit the nail on the head with 'My Name Is Trouble' which worked for me since I am in deep love with that song.

As for Delays, Greg Gilbert's voice is amazing in that 'different' kind of way. If I had a voice like that I would sing all the time rather than speak to people. And the keyboardist shocked me, I didn't realize he had a voice like that too. They played a huge chunk of 'Faded Seaside Glamour' which made me happy, and they didn't even omit any of my favorite songs, which always tends to happen at shows. When I saw them open for Franz in 2004, I hadn't known their stuff and I loved them, they did that to me again with their new stuff, especially 'Hideaway' and one other song but I unfortunately don't remember the name of it. 'On' was really great too. Mr. Gilbert even made a 'Goodnight London London London' note sound amazing. Although I hate buying cds here because they're so expensive, I think I'm going to have to cave on this one.

In daily news, I felt like hardcore crap when I woke up today. On Monday night I had no sleep at all, partially due to the previous day's caffeine intake (which wasn't even that much), which in turn made me feel blah yesterday and even worse now. I think I was also anxious as I had to go to Earl's Court in the morning to finally get my pay from that horrible job I'd done about a month ago. I really thought they were going to screw me, but I actually got all the money I was owed (in cash too.) I'm waiting to see when this bites me in the ass after I register for a National Insurance Number. I am a student though, so technically I shouldn't have taxes taken out, I guess I'll see what happens. I also met with one of my professors to discuss an essay topic. For the second time he asked me in a roundabout way if my social life was more important than attending IR-related seminars. It's frustrating me that I'm getting shit about missing two optional things this week when I've never missed a class, and have attended almost all other afternoon seminars, as well as a few nightly ones. Do the people from my class who miss things all the time get the same speech?? Then today, the fact that I trekked to the library and searched for books, only to find out at the check-out desk that I'd already hit my book limit, and therefore wasn't allowed to take these books out (which I need for my presentation next week) did not make me feel better.

I just realized that I didn't write about last weekend. It was busy but not overly exciting. On Friday night I went with Laura, Heather, Dandan, et al to XFM's First Friday (we sailed right in with tickets this time.) It was fine except I almost died when 'Gay Bar' came on. Like, I literally got trampled 10x worse than during any Arctic Monkeys song. I didn't realize it had such an effect on people?

On Saturday night I went to Ben's (from my Latin America class) flat in Archway for a party in honor of a girl in my class who is seven months pregnant (which I didn't notice until 3 weeks ago!!) who is leaving to fly back to the States. It was meant to be a pot luck dinner (not sure everyone got the concept), but I made pasta with bolognese sauce. I also embarassed myself doing the dance game to 'Murder on the Dancefloor.' Thank god there were only about 10 people there. After that, I met up with everyone at Vibe Bar on Brick Lane for Dandan's birthday. I got there around 11:30 pm and the bar closed at 1:00 am, whoops.

On Sunday, Zoe and I went to Laura's to watch American Idol (of which I had correctly predicted all four booted out, thank you very much.) I checked out Zoe's new pad in West Hampstead as well, which is very nice indeed.

On Monday night I went to the Chinese buffet on Great Portland Street near school with John. Good beef but otherwise the Chinese food here still sucks!!!

Tonight I'm going out for happy hour drinks for Lucy's birthday. I'm meeting David there, the guy I'd met on Thursday night. We were supposed to meet up on Friday night since we were both going to Islington Academy, but I had bad phone service and we couldn't find each other. I guess a report on tonight will follow tomorrow.

Current Music: Orson - No Tomorrow (what's the deal, is this song popular in America?)

I've Just Seen A Face, I Can't Forget the Time or Place

This website is freaking me out. If you sign up, and then upload a photo of your face, it scans it and gives you the closest celebrity matches (again, that's just by face, not hair or anything, so you could even end up with someone of the opposite sex.) Also, there are quite a lot of photos of each celebrity, so it matches your photo up with the face scans of the particular photos it thinks you look like. I'm quite happy with my results based on this picture (mine came up with a lot of counterparts, my friend Henry only got two look-alikes.)

Disclaimer: I do not personally deem these face matches to be accurate.

I "supposedly" look like (in these particular photos) these actresses...

Either this website is trying to tell me I would look better as a blonde, or it's trying to tell me to get my friends to sign up because they'll give them lots of compliments. Either way I'll take it!

Current Music: Bloc Party - Two More Years

Recipe for Disaster

Kickass Bolognese Sauce (I learned this from Michaela but I tweaked it a bit)

Ingredients
Olive Oil
1 Onion (chopped)
1 Carrot (chopped)
1 Package Lean Mince Meat
2 Cans Peeled Tomatoes (to be chopped)
1 Can Tomato Paste
Salt
Pepper (though I didn't have any)
Oregano
Basil
Garlic (I used powder)
Sugar (I used 2 packets of sweetener)

Instructions:
Heat up olive oil in a large frying pan (enough to cover the bottom of the pan.) Add diced onion and carrot until slightly browned. Add mince meat and heat over a medium to high flame until thoroughly cooked.

Transfer this combination to a large pot. Add all other ingredients. Cover and simmer for a couple of hours, stirring once in a while. Serve with pasta al dente and parmesan cheese to top. Yum!

Would You Rather...?

Why is it that when I sleep till noon I always feel tired 5 hours later?

Last night I Roxyfied myself which was delightful as I hadn't been there in about 2 months (skipping dinner before the 2-for-1 Kronenbourg special was not delightful.) My company included Zoe, Sunil, Shiraz, Peter Sinclair, Shane, Krish, and his friend Dave (who I made out with, woot woot!) I went up to the DJ and confessed my love for him, and also made him play 'Daydreamer' by Menswe@r since he played it the last time I was there. A bit of randomness included 'Your Missus Is A Nutter' by GLC, which is the first time I think I've ever heard them played in a bar, as well as the Sugababes' version of 'I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor'...holy crossover!

Liz bought me one of the "Would You Rather...?" books from NY. Everytime I read these books I pee on myself from laughter. She bought me the Love & Sex one. Here are a couple that I thought were pretty funny:

Would you rather...

...attend an orgy with The Mclaughlin Group or The Fry Guys?










...have your wedding vows written by gangsta rappers OR by the author of one of those African spam money request e-mails?
Things to consider: "It is of the utmost Urgency with which I submit this plea for your sincerest Love and Trustworthness"?

...receive oral sex from the subject in Edvard Munch's "The Scream" OR commit lewd acts on Teddy Ruxpin?

...utter all exclamations during sex in Yiddish OR Chinese?

You are searching through your parent's closet. Would you rather find...
Nina Hartley's Guide to Anal Sex OR your adoption papers?

Happy Weekend everyone!

Current Music: Jimmy Cliff - Pressure Drop