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
5 comments:
Why is it strange that it's called 'smoked salmon'? Surely that's a more natural name for it than the New York 'lox'? After all, what they do is they take a salmon, and smoke it.
I agree Ben. You say tomaito, i say tomato!
Because you just don't ask for smoked salmon in NY, it's not slang enough!
And why do the English get to keep the spelling on tomato? Shouldn't it say tomahto?
AlanWatch: He was at the bowery last night for The Rakes gig.
We were both at the bar & very amused as the bartender was getting worked up about people not tipping (apparently Alan tips well).
That's funny about both things! The same bartender yelled at Liz once because he thought she wasn't tipping him, but she was really just getting money out of her bag.
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