Burn Baby Burn

I <3 Fridays!
I really <3 Fridays that result in three day weekends!!
And I really really <3 Fridays that result in three day weekends when I've had a Texas-sized raspberry frozen margarita at an expensed lunch!!!

I have lots that I've been wanting to write about in this post. These topics include:
1) The Camden Fire
2) The Kentish Town bus accident
3) The Daily Show
4) iPod mindreading
5) I'm an awesome bowler
6) About seven more things which I can't think of at the moment

So, everyone in England should know about this but most likely everyone elsewhere has not. There was a huge fire in Camden Town last Saturday night. For those who have never been to my first apartment in London, I lived about a 5 minute walk from where this happened. I would turn right out of my flat, and make the first right onto Castlehaven Road, walk for five minutes and there was the Hawley Arms, with the market affected to the left of the Hawley, and the Stables Market directly across the street. I used to go down there several times a week, even if it was just for a walk and to browse the stalls in shops throughout Camden in my time off (or my time procrastinating instead of doing schoolwork.) Although this fire hit the more unpopular side of the market, I still felt awful when I heard about it. In addition to that, I was definitely not a regular at The Hawley Arms but I highly enjoyed their pie and have been there a decent amount of times. I always loved their witty comments on the portable chalkboard outside of the pub and thought that if I were to have a local bar, that would be it (I always went to a variety though so that never happened.) And that was before all of this celebrity business (aka "Amy Winehouse frequented the pub quite often" in every article about the fire) was going on (well as far as I was aware of at the time.) The funny thing is that the last time I went there, Kelly Osbourne and Amy Winehouse actually were there too (and that was before her presence in the tabloids had become an everyday affair.)

Turns out Dave was planning on going there that evening but changed his mind on the way over, opting for The Good Mixer instead. He said he saw the flames when he exited the tube. Some of my other friends went to Camden to check it out in person as well.

I'm so sorry Camden...
(All photos ripped from the BBC website w/some of my captions added in)

Okay so this happened right and I was all upset about it and in shock, then I hear about an accident in Kentish Town (where I used to live in that same apt.) Basically they rerouted the buses for the next few days as Camden High Street was closed off. So the 24 was going down Prince of Wales Road (my old street on which only single decker buses usually go down.) There is an archway right outside of my old place which the Silverlink (overground train - the one I cheated on and never paid for a single ticket the whole time I lived in London) runs on. There are signs blatantly posted on the arches saying that if your vehicle is tall, it needs to drive through the highest part of the arch (the middle.) So what does the driver of this bus do? Well, of course he drives by the side and RIPS THE ENTIRE ROOF OFF OF THE BUS (oh yeah, and there were passengers on it!!)

(Photos ripped again from the BBC)

So, I went to a taping of The Daily Show on Wednesday. I had VIP tickets since I work for MTV (this meant less time spent waiting around in the miserable rain, and front row seats about 10 feet from Jon Stewart.) It was funny, though I feel it could have been more witty given that it was the first day with the writers back. Also it was very short, but he was cool, answering audience questions and stuff beforehand. They had a comedian warm up before the start of the show and I've definitely seen him warm up the audience before either at Conan or Carson Daly. He was really funny, and he even shouted out that The Beach was a great book and the movie ruined it. I'm so glad someone agrees with me!!!

Remember when the iPod doctor put mindreading capabilities into my gadget when he fixed it? Well, it happened again, twice! I went to a bar crawl in Chinatown with Kat and her peeps on Saturday night (her friends made it up for Chinese New Year.) This was the map by the way:

We only lasted for about 30 minutes, went for dessert and then I headed home (I spent a whole hour and a half in the city - only a little more than what I spent on the subway!!) Anyways, at Clandestino, it was a restaurant rather than a bar (but I digress); they were playing good music, including "22 Grand Job" which I hadn't heard in ages, and never in a bar in New York. The next day, what do you think popped up in my 1600 song playlist as it shuffled? None other than "22 Grand Job" (in the city it's alright...)

And then, the next day, out of that same 1600 song playlist, Badly Drawn Boy's "Year of the Rat" randomly came on during Chinese New Year when it was in fact the Year of the Rat! How crazy is that!!!

Participating in this bar crawl forced me to do something that I have never done before - get off the F train at the East Broadway stop. Not really sure what to expect (well, to be honest I did anticipate walking into a block of welfare housing and deserted streets), I got out, became very discombobulated, and realized I was in total Flight of the Conchords territory. So weird that I had never been to this part of Manhattan before. It was so random, I'm still not sure what to think of it, I will have to inspect in the daytime at some point. Anyways, after Kat, her friend Bridget, and I punked out of the crawl and got some Chikalicious, I hopped on the 3rd avenue bus, got on the subway, and when I got out of the station, I received a text from Robyn asking if I had just been on that bus. Turns out she was on it too (in the back - it was a long, bendy one) and she saw me when I got off. Funny!

Last Friday night I went out with work peeps. Well, actually we played Rock Band in the office for about 2 hours, then went out. I'd never hung out with them before and it was fun (though I went back to being anti-social at work first thing on Monday, don't know what my problem is.) Did you know that there is a nice, new bowling alley in Manhattan? And did you know that it is located............




in the Port Authority?!




The biggest dump in Manhattan is the home of a nice new bowling alley, who knew?! They played music, served huge cylindars of beer, and even had a coat check. I bowled so well too (my scores were very unusual for me) - I bowled a 144 on the first game, and a 144 again on the second! And I had a 56 at the 4th frame of the third game but then our time ran out. I think I subconsciously felt like I had to impress my co-workers since I'm a big case of blah at work. I was very proud of myself!!!

Also, I decided to take the LIRR home, and for the first time in my life I passed out on the train and woke up in Plandome (three stops past mine.) I was the only person who got off the train, I didn't know where the hell Plandome was, and there was not a soul, nor even a sign of civilization in sight. Luckily my dad came to my rescue so I only had to wait about ten minutes but it was a slightly scary. I also just happened to be reading The Tender Bar, which is a memoir about a guy who actually grew up in Plandome and the book revolves around a bar there. That comforted me a bit while I cowered behind the ticket machine.


Oh man, 5:53 pm! Goodbye blog, hello three day weekend!