We Drink on the Job

I'm just looking at some individual company websites (political-type ones at the moment), and under one particular think tank's description of the salary, the end part cracked me up:

"The starting salary for young and talented researchers is £22,000 with senior researchers starting at £33,000 and going up to £50,000. There is also a contributory pension scheme and free coffee."

I want that job!

I Think I'm Turning Japanese I Really Think So

Last night I did a random music/film quiz at The Warwick on Essex Road. After the first question was 'name five movies starring Cher', I thought we were doomed (got 3 right though), and by question number 50 that assumption proved to be correct.

As hard as it was, we did manage to get a bunch right (embarassing questions involving Wilson Phillips, Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch, and Sexxyback) and they had some really random rounds like the Kenny Loggins Footloose Challenge. What it was, was the MC playing Footloose on the turntables whilst spinning another record and you had to decipher what the other song/artist was. By the fourth one I was thinking gimmie a break this is impossible, I just wrote 'Footloose' as a joke. Turns out number 5 was actually 'Footloose' against 'Footloose'! (Liz was wondering why the beat sounded similar.) The other round that gets the award for best music pub quiz round ever was the translation round. They took a song title, translated it into Japanese, and then translated it back into English and it sounded totally different. Can someone please tell me why 'Permanently' translates from 'Back for Good' rather than 'Live Forever'?

Also, if anyone can tell me what 90s band was originally known as Ted Ed Fred I'll give you $94 because I couldn't believe the answer. Ok I'm lying, I'll just give you a high five.

I'm Not Working.

Now that I'm all moved into my flat (did I mention the clothes dryer?), if there are any job vacancies in your office, please let me know because I'm desperate to start working. If you want to know what I'm offering, I've got:

• A soon-to-be Masters degree in International Relations
• An honors B.A. in History with a 3.5 GPA
• I've been promoted from within in my previous company
• Experience as a meeting planner (or conference producer to those in England)
• I've also worked at places such as a museum, radio station, and mortgage company (and shot girl/salt beef slave most recently)

On the exciting news front, iTunes are offering free downloads of the season finales of Grey's Anatomy, Lost, and Desperate Housewives to the first million downloaders. I'm all off track with the American pace of shows, but this is excellent news for me as I had missed the final DH episode.

My landlord bought me a TV for my room today! Best landlord ever!! Although I've had to forfeit my freeview box (bye bye E4), I've got Sky, The History Channel, The Discovery Channel, and the Cartoon Network. Roll on Samurai Jack!

Also, HSBC is a horrible, horrible bank. Please don't do business with them.

Current Music: The Ordinary Boys - Boys Will Be Boys

Lil' Jon Says 'Happy New Year'

The Old Apartment

There's been closure on the old apartment. Liz and I called in all of our meter readings, shut down our utilities accounts, and scrubbed that mofo clean. I'm not kidding, the place is actually shimmering, you'd go blind if you saw it.

Example #527 of why my school is dumb:
Liz and I went to return our books to the school library the other day. I knew I had a bit of change left on my student card as I had originally planned to print my dissertation there so I told her she could use it to print out some documents. When I checked, I had a whopping £15.75 left?! There was no way I had put so much money on there and we stood there in shock at how dumb I must have been to have put that much on it. Then she checked hers and had £15 as well. Turns out the school gave us a 'gift' of £15 on our cards to start the new non-existent school year off with. As we had previously had our cards changed from expiring in June to expiring in September (the morons in the postgrad office thought they just wouldn't let us continue to be students throughout the dissertation writing period), the university now thinks we are starting another school year, hence the gift. Last year they only gave us £5 so I can't really complain, and it turns out that aside from printing myself a copy of my dissertation (cost me £10 per copy at my binding place, the school does it in a 'different' quality for £3 each) I have the option of using up the rest of my money on either purchasing blank DVDs, CDs, or a 512 gb memory key which I already have. Dumb school!!

I played 7 games of Sorry! in the pub today. And people wonder what I do while not attending university or working.

Current Music: Placebo - Meds

Something Moved Me

I'm writing this from my new bed in my new flat, woohoo! I am now living with four random girls (who seem nice so far) in between Kings Cross/Euston/Mornington Crescent. Though I'm right by the St. Pancras construction area near nothing, it's still so central that I couldn't give a crap about having to walk ten minutes to get things. I love my room too, I mean, I liked the one in Kentish Town but the ceilings were so high and it seemed so empty that it was a bit overwhelming. In this room I've even got a dresser and a bed with a headboard which I've never had, ever! There's no lounge in this joint but the kitchen has a microwave and a laundry dryer, holla! Me likes me new abode.

Friday was spent packing in unison with Liz. We listened to R. Kelly, had a nice last dinner with Iceland frozen breaded chicken breasts which are seriously the shit, and ended with me spilling celebratory champagne into her suitcase, whoops!

Yesterday was more packing, then Sunil's leaving for Brussels shindig at Hoxton Bar and Kitchen. He was wayyy drunk - dancing like crazy, making silly faces in every photo, and admitting that the girls in his office have the hots for my boyfriend after seeing his photo. Nice.

Splish Splash I Was Takin' a Bath

So many things have been going on with me lately that I've been unable to blog. But alas, I'm back. I was just busy with things like traveling, finishing my dissertation, job interviewing, looking for a flat, celebrating my birthday, going away for a few days, etc. Most worries are gone now, so here's a recap of what I've been doing as of late.

Monday was my 27th birthday. 27!!! I'm old. Dave and I went to Bath from Sunday-Tuesday. We ate delicious Italian food, toured the Roman baths, and saw British Sea Power. The coolest bit of the er, last bit, was randomly sitting next to the guitarist and drummer at a pub before the gig. After taking quite a while to say something to them (the drummer was sleeping on his hand after all), we finally came up with the ever so clever, "Hey, you guys are in British Sea Power right? What time do you go on?" Then I gayly asked if I could take a photo with them because it was my birthday, mentioning that last part multiple times like a bumbling idiot. It resulted with me on the guitarist's lap, so score!
Dave got me a hot air balloon ride for my birthday. I was so excited for it, but due to an imaginary thunderstorm, not once, but twice, we had to postpone it. Oh well, gives us an excuse to go away somewhere else and do it.

Saturday night was my birthday party at The Roxy. Although that's my favorite bar/club in London (primarily on Thursdays), I think The Borderline (last year's venue) was more conducive for mingling/dancing. Saturday was definitely fun and I'm happy that so many of my friends came out, but the music was a bit off at times (Rick Astley? Am I remembering that correctly or was I just drunk?) and the dancefloor was jam-packed but nonetheless it was a good celebration. Cheers guys!

Yeah, you know nothing else will upload.

Current Music: The Cure - Let's Go To Bed

Flat Wanted ASAP!!!

If you know of someone that is renting out a flat or needs replacements in their flat that suit the following requirements please let me know as the lease on my Kentish Town abode is running out shortly. Thanks!

• 2 twentysomething females looking to rent a flat in London (preferably Zones 1-2 either north or south - yes I'm desparate and will go south, I could also stretch to Zone 3 if absolutely necessary)
• Maximum rent £250/week unless it includes bills/council tax
• Six month contract or less
• Preferably available prior to September 18th
• Can live in a shared flat with others or in just a flat for two

Thanks much!

Adventures in Thailand (Final Part!!)

So I'm back in London, had an extremely busy weekend finishing up my dissertation and it's all over now, hooray! I hate writing vacation recaps once my trips are finished but Ko Phi Phi was one of the best places we went to so I'm gonna give that, Phucket, and Bangkok a go (that is if I can remember everything.)

So, I'm surprised we actually made it to Phi Phi on the day we planned. After flying Air Asia from Phnom Penh to Bangkok, it was meant to be a race to the domestic terminal. We had to pass through immigration, wait for my bag (which came out almost last, typical) and get our asses to the other end of the airport. We parted ways with Lucy and Mairead, pushed our trolley to the middle of arrivals, and asked a security guard if our departure area was upstairs to which he replied yes. We went three floors up only to find it was not the correct place, and we actually had to take a bus to another building. Keep in mind that we only had one hour and twenty minutes between the first flight landing and the second flight taking off (cutting it close, I know.) We found the correct bus, which waited another few minutes for other passengers before leaving, took it to domestic departures, and finally found Bangkok Airways (such a nice airline!!!) which was of course located on the other side of the terminal. With less than half an hour to check in and board, the woman at the desk luckily let us go through. By the time I got on the plane I was drenched from all the running around.

We arrived in Phucket, then dilly dallied a bit in the airport before realizing that the last ferry to Phi Phi was slowly creeping up and we still had to take a 45 minute taxi to get to the pier. In the end we made there, only to have to trek across the island to find suitable/available accommodation. Now that my photos are on my computer, here is one for ya:

Our Bungalow

(don't get too excited, it's the only photo that uploaded)

Most of our days were spent walking around the island, shopping (but not buying much), and eating seafood. We went to the main beach only one day as it was cloudy for most of the time. The water was comfortable to sit in as the tide went so far out, it was really beautiful (yeah, no photos like I said, try and imagine it.)

On our penultimate day we took a sunset tour of some local spots. First we went to "Monkey Beach" which was exactly what the name implies. We snorkeled to shore (I can't believe I swam all the way there, it was a big accomplishment for me being the sucky swimmer that I am.) The fish and coral were amazing! I'd never seen anything like that in my life. Unfortunately I've got a little problem breathing through the snorkel, between my asthma and my mental problem thinking no air was coming through, I had to take deep breaths, look into the sea for a bit, then struggle to swim to shore on repeat (as you can guess, I took a kayak back to the boat with some others afterwards.) Anyway, the island was so cool, monkeys just walked around everywhere and we took photos with them. I have a cute one of a monkey playing with a flipper, but of course blogger has stopped allowing me to post photos (I'll stop with the complaining in a bit.)

I almost forgot to mention my disembarkment from the kayak to the big boat. I was holding onto the rails of the big boat, and as I went to reach my leg across to climb over, the kayak began to drift away. I had either two choices: 1) fall backwards into the kayak, or 2) fall into the water. Without having much time to think, I fell right between the boats into the water, effectively having missed the ladder, causing all witnesses on the boat to laugh at me. It was pretty comical {this just reminded me of how I sat on one end of a wooden bench in Luang Prabang and I fell to the ground as the other side of the bench flew up. Which then also reminded me of one night in Phi Phi when I sat on a swing on the beach at the back of a bar and I fell off backwards into the sand as well. Hooray for klutziness!}

After that we drove past some cave and some beaches that were left all rocky due to the tsunami. Next up was Maya Beach. Once again I attempted to snorkel/swim my way over to the beach, which I did (just barely) successfully once again. We had to climb barefoot over rocks, which was the most painful thing ever, to get to the other side of this island. When we finally did, we ended up at the beach where they filmed the movie The Beach. We had some time to play there and take photos before walking over glass the rocks back to the boat.

Great tour overall, minus my accidental inhalation of chili sauce that I poured onto my fried rice (I thought it was soy sauce.) This led to a choking fit it was that hot!

We had low key nights mixed with nights where we stayed out until morning. Even the calmer nights were fun though as they included all you can eat sushi, the Man U. v Watford game on a big screen, lots of fruit shakes, and a couple of oil massages (heaven) and mani/pedicures for cheap.

The last night in Phi Phi was definitely the most random but probably the most fun of the trip for me. It started out with us drinking some buckets (that would be pails, like in a shovel and pail, full of alcohol and mixers; for us it was usually Thai whiskey, pineapple juice, and Sprite.) We were at The Reggae Bar which is an outdoor bar with multiple floors surrounding it containing pool tables. In the center are a huge screen (where we watched the football match previously) and a boxing ring. If you've read the following story via e-mail or MySpace bulletin then you can scroll down, but if you haven't, it's pretty good!

So every night in this bar, they alternate real Thai kickboxing matches with ones using volunteers from the crowd (generally guys fighting their friends.) Long story short, I decided to volunteer to fight another girl. The referee first brought me up in the ring in front of the crowd to try and get people to fight me since there was a lack of volunteers. After my soon-to-be component volunteered, a big Thai woman in the crowd was waving at me. I thought she was saying hi because she'd done Laura's nails the day before, but she didn't recognize me and was saying she wanted to fight me. I was like no way lady, umm also you did my friends nails yesterday, remember? She tried to be my friend after that which was really funny considering she looked like she wanted to beat the shit out of me in the ring before I'd told her I recognized her.

I actually went through with fighting the other girl, wearing headgear, chestgear, leg pads, boxing gloves, and Thai boxer shorts. The fight was 3 rounds total, a minute and a half each with a referee, bells signaling the start and end of each round, and Thai boxing music during the fight...wait for it...in front of about 200 people in the bar! I ended up losing but not by knockout which was good, she was just better overall. The other girl (lighter than me too which most annoys me that she won) knocked me down three times, and I think I knocked her down twice.
It didn't hurt too bad during the fight (though it was tiring as hell, actually one of the most exhausting things I've ever done), and I gradually developed bruises all over my body but I'm so glad I did it. After the fight I was the local celebrity getting slapped five by the crowd and getting asked to take photos. Laura videoed almost the whole fight so hopefully if blogger allows it, I'll post them when I get them.

The night turned even more random in our adventures with some guys from my autograph club post-boxing match. After bar hopping, we somehow ended up swimming in the sea at 4:00 am. I had a massive headache though after a while so I got out, and as it began to thunderstorm, ran back to the bungalow. They came out soon after, and my pounding headache made me pass out...next thing I knew there were 4 of us in the bed when I woke up?! Good night but it was difficult for us to pack our stuff up (especially after having finally stayed somewhere that it was possible to unpack) and we headed to the ferry. Oh yeah, and I threw up in the morning too, woohoo!

After landing in Phucket, we stayed in Patong Beach for the night. Laura and I went swimming at the hotel, then ate some good seafood (Laura had muscles and I had meat (beef/chicken/shrimp) fondue) by the water. This town reminded me of the Jersey shore - lots of lights and lots of trashy people. Oh and lots of ladyboys (not that they are necessarily all over Jersey.)

It was then back to Bangkok for our penultimate day. We landed in the early afternoon and it was a race to drop our stuff at the hostel and get ourselves over to MBK (the main shopping center.) Oh my god, this was the most overwhelming shopping trip of my life. With seven floors of shops I didn't know where to start. I still had to do a ton of souvenir shopping for family and friends, plus I'd hoped to buy myself a few things as all the fake name brand things are so cheap. After two days spent there, I managed to get myself Diesel jeans and a skirt, a fake Balenciaga bag, a blue hoodie, Sex and the City seasons 1-5, One Tree Hill season 3 (I also bought about 20 movies in other places as well), Sony earphones, and everyone's souvenirs just in time.

On our last night we walked around Khao San Road, and before going back to the hostel we randomly sat down at an internet cafe next to Steven, one of the guys we hung out with on the Slow Boat to Laos and in Luang Prabang. We met him for breakfast that morning and had gone to MBK together later on.

Wednesday night was our flight home. All I have to say about it is that I absolutely recommend everybody watch Lucky Number Slevin, I loved it. Oh yeah, and absolutely do not watch Thank You For Smoking, it was horrible!

Now back to our regularly scheduled blog.

Current Music: Delays - Nearer Than Heaven