Oh What A Beautiful Morning

Today was so great! I went to the bathroom early this morning and took a peak out the window at the Eye and realized that everything was covered in snow! I couldn't believe it, I haven't seen snow in probably about two years since my last New York winter. It wasn't a significant amount, but it was still a bit too much for my London co-workers to handle as a bunch of them called off sick...resulting in me being redirected to different buildings a couple of times in my half-awake state. No probs for me though, I love walking through snowy London (although everything has melted now.)

That's all for now!

Everyone's a Little Bit Racist Sometimes

Today is a very special day. Why you ask? Because it is the start of my penultimate week of work, hoorah! Just six more working days left until I go to Italy and don't have to be here at 8:00 am anymore. I will have to be more careful with money though which makes me sad. This weekend was pretty relaxed. On Friday I was tired so I elected to stay in. Saturday morning Dave and I headed to Kennington to have some brekkie with his fellow Clactonites. We spent the afternoon in The Porterhouse and Bok Bar killing time before seeing Avenue Q. I'd been waiting years to see this musical, although I wasn't as impressed as I'd expected to be, it was still funny and I'd recommend seeing it. We ate dinner in Chinatown. For the first time in the year and a half I've lived in London, I finally ate some good Chinese food. Miracle!!!

After that we headed to The Macbeth in Hoxton.
We'd gotten a tip that Pete Crackhead would be DJ'ing there. We arrived quite early though and had to sit through three crappy bands until Mr. D showed up, which he didn't (I can't completely blame him this time though as it was not confirmed in the first place.) Anyways the joint was packed with 18 year olds (plus Matt Bloc Party and Alex Arctic Monkeys look-alikes - I swear it was them!!) All the girls were dressed like it was 1985. I know this style is trendy but I really am not a fan. There was one guy who had hair like Faris Rotter and had white socks pulled up over his jeans with white buckle shoes. I felt like it was 1776 (just like the book I am reading) all over again. At least that guy wasn't as retro as the two dudes with Friar Tuck haircuts,

man was that a trip back to the old days! On Sunday I did successful shopping at Sainsburys,

and unsuccessful shopping at Primark. I need to (maybe) book my flight home now. Blah.

Harry Potter and the American Exchange Student

Weeee!

Sun Isn't In the Sky Oh Why Oh Why?

Dear London Weather God,

I am not sure why you have treated your residents so badly as of late. As you are very much aware, it has rained here for about three weeks straight with merely a one day break. My trousers have gotten soaked everyday, my hair looks a disaster, and it puts me in a terrible mood. You made things even worse yesterday with the horrible wind you inflicted upon us. I almost blew backwards down the escalator at Canary Wharf which really is not funny!

I am asking you kindly to rethink how you treat us Londoners or I will be forced to make a formal complaint to your superior.

Thank You,
Angry and Wet

Long, Long, Looong

This has possibly been the longest day of 2007 thusfar. And I'm in an office where I don't have to make bullshit conversation with the girl next to me PLUS I have an internet connection. Can you imagine how it usually is in the other offices?!

I've been terrible at blogging since I've been working and I always forget things I'd been meaning to mention. I can recap my weekend in Manchester though.

After work on Friday Laura and I took the Megabus (buckled up) to Manchester. We knew we'd have to book it to the hostel, change, and head out as we weren't supposed to arrive until about 11:00 pm. The driver got lost so we didn't get to the hostel till almost an hour after that. All was good though when it turned out a recommended bar Bluu (not sure if it's the same as the one in Hoxton) was 2 blocks from our place. We got free tequila shots from two greasy Greek guys who we didn't even have to figure out how to ditch when two 40-something year olds weedled their way into the conversation. Not sure why they didn't go for the gold as they obviously approached with an aim but it worked out for us when we said a normal goodbye at the end of the night.

On Saturday we toured the University of Manchester where Laura went to school. We even saw her old room in her 1st year dorm and chatted to the girls in there for a bit. After the reminiscing session we headed back to the center to do a lot of walking around and a bit of shopping. As you can guess, I was in the mood to buy tons but ended up with nothing.

We ate in Chinatown (thanks again for not bringing the prawn crackers out lady!) then went out to Deansgate locks via the tram (trams are fun, yeah!) We went to a couple of trendy bars and then back to the center. We then attepted to get into the Living Room but the bouncer refused as it was past 1:00 am (what the eff?) I asked two other bouncers what was open at that time but due to my delicious accent they let me in. Throughout this whole year and a half I've spent in England, that's the first time my supposed-to-be cute American-though-supposedly-Canadian accent has gotten me anything!! (The Brits get sooo much more attention in the States.)

At the night's end we got what was supposed to be a chicken doner kebab but was actually chicken tandoori with garlic sauce in a pita, eeewww!!!! Crazy notherners.

By the way the bus drivers in Manchester were so nice and helpful! They are 38923469 times better than the ones in London. They should send the TFL employees up there for a manners course.

After a disrupted sleep due to the crazy Norwegians in our room shining a flashlight in my face in the middle of the night, on Sunday we went on the Manchester version of the Eye. It was more like a ferris wheel which went around a few times in a mini capsule. We went to the Trafford Centre in the afternoon and it was so exciting because I felt like I was back in the States in a real mall! Of course it had all the usual high street stores but the inside (and outside) were beautifully designed and the food court looked like a cruise ship (photos to follow in an upcoming post.)

That's the end of my Manchester recap. I dropped some flakes from my chocolate croissant on the floor earlier and then stepped on them by accident. Now I have to scrub the chocolate off, appropriate though considering I look like a maid in my uniform.

Also, I just wanted to say thanks to the woman at Starbucks who served my toasted tuna melt to someone else. I only have a limited amount for time for lunch lady!!

Current Music: The Sound of my Head and Eyes Throbbing (that's not an actual song)

Footloose

For those who know, my support of League 2 team Barnet FC is somewhat of a joke. Last December when Erica and Heather visited, we wanted to see a professional football match for cheap. Barnet were playing that day, were located on the Northern Line, and tickets were inexpensive. Being that they are the only professional team I had seen since living in England, that was how they jokingly became my team to support.

Last night I went to watch Barnet v Colchester in their third round FA Cup match. Things looked very grim for the Bees after the first half when they were losing 0-1 to the team who sits 56 spots above them in the Championship. I was thinking how I could play for them, they were playing that poorly. Then by way of some miracle, things turned around in the second half, leading to a 2-1 victory, consequently sending Barnet into the 4th round for the first time in history. I couldn't cheer though because I'd bought £11 concession tickets in the opposition seats and thought if I did the Colchester fans would kick my ass.
So YIPPEE!!!!!!

Yeah Barnet!

Little House of Savages

I forgot to mention in my previous post that last Wednesday, Laura, Mairead, Tania, and I went to the premiere of Celebrity Big Brother. We queued for a few hours, had our bags sniffed by dogs, and braved the rain just to catch a glimpse at Davina and the Z-grade celebs that would enter the house.

The Lovely Davina Mccall

If you live under a rock, or in the United States, and haven't heard who the contestants are, let me tell you they are so non-celebrity that barely any of them even knew who each other were!!!
Here's some pics of the non-monumental but still exciting nonetheless event:

The Prison House

Braving the Rain

Jermaine "Germ-Free" Jackson - probably the biggest "celebrity" in the house.Danielle Lloyd - Shamed Miss Great Britain and WAG - got booed lots but she's cute.This filmmaker dude already left the house because when Jade's family moved in he thought it was gonna give him a stroke. I thought the walk up the steps was going to give him a strokeJo formerly of S Club 7, the cheesiest band that ever existedLeo "I Feel Thunder in My Heart" SayerShilpa Shetty - The Angelina Jolie of Bollywood. She is gorgeous!Donny "I'll do anything to be famous" TourretteSome dude from the A-Team. The whole audience wet themselves in excitement. I'm still confused.

Hello 2007!

Happy 2007! 2006 came to a lovely close.

I went to Dave's family's house in Essex for the Xmas holiday. The weekend started with his parents' Christmas Carol/Karaoke party. First we did the holiday songs and the kids got to request gifts from Dave's dad Santa.

During Karaoke I managed to not embarass myself too much (after a few drinks) by singing 'Angel of Harlem' in front of his whole family. We did a couple of other tunes as well, I was dead by the time the party ended at 3:00 am.

David doing Dylan

Me and Antony doing 'In the Morning' by The Coral

Dave and his mom doing the Zep

Post Xmas, we went ice skating at the Tower of London.

It was very windy!

Saturday was a Mountbatten convention. Ryan was in town from NY and Sunil was back from Brussels. We went to lunch also with Shiraz, Dave W., and Zoe & Hal. Later on I met Joy for a coffee and at night it felt like I had been shot in the right side of my face because my sinus was killing me. I watched The Devil Wears Prada which was completely unimpressive (the book was better) and Memoirs of a Geisha which I didn't finish yet (pretty good so far, the book is excellent.)

lhkgkuf

My New Year's Eve plans weren't decided until the last minute. I ended up in Balham but was in a bad mood, had a hissy fit (well, we were in the worst-rated Wetherspoons in the UK after all!!) and ended up watching the fireworks from Dave's bathroom at midnight which was very nice.

On New Year's Day I finally made it on the Eye!

I made it to the Sports Cafe to watch football which was really nice! I also went to Ana's newish flat in Highbury, and went to First Friday this week. Barnet v Colchester in the FA Cup got rained out yesterday so that's been rescheduled but instead we saw Perfume which was close to excellent. There's a cafe in Kings Cross which I think is new. It's called The Other Side and is cute and pretty good, I recommend it. Alex's birthday was last night and we went to Zebranos off Carnaby Street to celebrate. I didn't go to the Roxy after though because my sinus was attacking my face again and my shoes were crushing me almost as badly as my ice skates did last week.
kjgkufkjyf

Tonight I'm off to Bodeans (where I also ate BBQ the other day, yum) to watch some American football action with Ben, et al. Tomorrow I get to work 9-5 like normal people, I'm so excited!

khgkug

Current Music: Ash - Petrol