Hey Man Nice Shot

Tetanus/Diphtheria/Polio Vaccine........................................£30

Malaria Pills.............................................................................£60

Typhoid Fever/Hepatitis A Vaccine....................................£70

3 Sets of Rabies Injections....................................................£126

Telling the vaccination nurses that you need a toilet stat because you're about to be sick, returning and having to explain you are well enough to get the vaccinations, you just threw up earlier because of a hangover................................................................................Priceless

Boogaloo Blues

After Ben F.'s party on Friday night, David and I walked to The Boogaloo. It was only 1:30 am and there were people inside, yet the bouncer said it was closed. BOO. Last night Zoe and I were going to meet Sara there for a pub quiz. When we arrived there was an Irish folk band playing in the bar with only two people in the audience instead of the quiz. DOUBLE BOO. I'm getting what seems like 194,290 travel vaccinations tomorrow. That's unrelated but still sucks.

The OC season finale wasn't as dramatic as I'd hoped, probably because I'd heard what was going to happen and because I'd missed the last three episodes. Tasteful how they did the single flashback of Ryan seeing Marissa rather than a montage, although I'm a sucker for montages.

Current Music: Incubus - Stellar

I Know New York, I Need New York, I Know I Need Unique New York

I think the easiest thing to do to describe my trip is to add on to my previously posted scedule of events.

Schedule of Events
Wednesday: Dinner at home; Dessert/Drooling at salad bar of Ruby Tuesday in LI with Erica and Heather
Thursday: Haircut (I had 3 inches cut here in April which nobody noticed but just did another 3 so I think now you can tell); Roosevelt Field Shopping with Erica; Beer Pong at Off the Wagon with Meghan, Kat, Erica, Heather, & Amanda - very disappointing, I think we've finally grown up. I enjoyed the free-poured Stoli Raspberry and Sprites and the upstairs bartender still remembered me though, holla!; Mamoun's - VERY disappointing. I think that me stuffing my face with Dylan's Candy Bar earlier in the day definitely contributed to my lack of appetite; Slept at Erica's triplex (yes, TRIPLEX)
Friday: Diner breakfast with Er; Shopping in the East 60s; Face-rape at Stila counter of Bloomingdale's (yes, it looked good; yes, I now know how to do great eye-shadowing; yes, I spent $70 on make-up; yes, I got very mad at myself and retured $17 of it at the Bloomies in LI); Dinner at Cilantro with Vicki, Julie, Rachel, Robyn, & Sherri (the hostess accidentally gave our table to other people (including a Binghamton Pi Lam guy) but we got free margaritas and guacamole for the trouble); Drinks with the same + Erica at Stir; Erica, Vicki and I grabbed a drink at Brother Jimmy's = Awful; Slept at Vicki's
Saturday: I bought a digital camera (finally!!) I should probably get to hooking it up. Also destroyed my feet in my flip flops as we walked through Tribeca and Chinatown; Brunch at Cafe Mozart with Heather M., Marni, Julie, & Vicki; More shopping; Lauren & Cheryl's Graduation Party at PS 450 with Julie, Vicki, Debbie, etc.; Heather's Birthday/Faith's coming home thingy at Bar 13 where I got to see the usual suspects plus Feldstein, Jenn, my brother, etc.
Sunday: Manicure (thank god); Roland's Wedding
Monday: Dinner at Boca Chica with Ryan, Gareth, & Kim; Drinks at Welcome to the Johnsons, 151, & 2A; Slept at Erica's
Tuesday: Erica and I checked out our old apt. The outside of the building is all yellow and changed from Kyung's Garden into a Pax!!! There's a Pax on 55th and 3rd, why do they need another one 4 blocks away?! We had Ess-a-Bagel like in the old days and I finally got my iced coffee since they don't understand what that is in London, then I got a pedicure (hallelujah); Went to Feldstein and Damien's apt in Mineola which is tre nice, then to Cheesecake Factory but I forgot that my brother wasn't working; Heather's Birthday Dinner at Portofino with Erica, Susie, Jessica et al; Saw Gail at her apt. in Bay Terrace
Wednesday: Cheeseburger Deluxe at the New Hyde Park Diner with my mom; ran lots of errands; Heather and Erica took me to the airport

Not too much has changed since I'd last been home in Sept. although lots of peripheral friends have gotten engaged (Congratulations Susie, Tara, and Alexandra!)

The only things I didn't have time to eat were Tasti D-lite (I'm still crying over that one), a lunchtime salad put together with my usual ingredients of lettuce, tomato, carrots, cucumber, corn, chicken, and mozzarella balls with lite caesar dressing, and a feta and spinach omelette. I barely did any drunken eating too, hooray for that!

Current Music: Third Eye Blind - I Want You

You Can Run To That Statue With the Dictionary

Schedule of Events (so far)
Wednesday: TBD
Thursday: Roosevelt Field Shopping; Beer Pong at Off the Wagon with Meghan, Kat; Erica/Heather/Jenn/Jared (to be finalized)
Friday: Dinner/Drinks with Vicki, Julie, Rachel, Robyn, Sherri
Saturday: Brunch with Heather M./Marni; Lauren's Graduation Party at PS 450; Heather's Birthday/Faith's coming home thingy at Bar 13
Sunday: Father's Day; Roland's Wedding
Monday: Dinner/Drinks with Ryan, Gareth, & Kim
Tuesday: Heather's Birthday Dinner
Wednesday: TBD

Things to Bring Back to England for People
Liz: Ring Noodle/Giggle Noodle Soup; Chinatown flip flops
Laura: Chinatown flip flops
Mairead: Baby Ruth, Mounds, Almond Joy
James: Lucky Charms
E-mail me if you want me to bring back something!

Current Music: The Feeling - Fill My Little World

Little Miss More or Less

I'm trying to book travel insurance and I'm sorry but I think this selection is going a bit overboard:

Current Music: The Lightening Seeds - Change

Cause I Gotta Have Faith (A-Faith-A-Faith)

Been neglecting ye olde blog a bit since I've got my long lost apt-mate Faith from the good times of 835 Third Ave round to visit. She's been working in Australia for the past year and a half and is in the midst of her travels on her way back to NY for perms. Speaking of NY, I'll be home on Wednesday, landing at 2:45 pm at JFK, Swissair in case anyone wants to surprise me (hint hint.)

We've been doing the general sightseeing stuff, have gone out a bit, and engaged in World Cup madness (USA v Czech Republic tomorrow, fingers crossed?)

I had my International Student Valediction ceremony on Thursday and now I'm finally valedicted. God I've been waiting forever for that.

Today was Adam and Sara's engagement party. Lovely gathering and got myself a wee start of a tan as well.

Also managed to destroy my feet over the past three days between a pair of flip flops and my forbidden sandals which I decided to randomly wear after having had chucked them to the back of the closet which was intended to be a permanent move. Got some cuts on the left foot with a massive blister, same on the right side plus I sliced my 2nd toe and it's really gross.

Hopefully I'll write once more before my trip. Ok then, goodnight!

Nice Weather For Ducks

Go to www.weather.co.uk to check your local weather with impeccable accuracy.

(idiot website)

Primrose Hill is the New Sheep's Meadow

I just walked home from Rob & Simon's party in Belsize Park. My mom probably would have smacked me upside the head for doing that but as a native New Yorker I had no patience to wait for the night bus.

The only things I have to say are that 1) I can't believe Slezer got kicked off Big Brother, yahoo! 2) I got stood up by my Latin America & Globalization (former) peoples yesterday, grrrrr!!!! and 3) I did not think that nicoise salad came with giant globs of mayonnaise, anybody with me on this one?

Death By...Golf Cart?

Meredith: At age 72, you will die in a fiery golf-cart crash, alcohol will be involved.

Of course alcohol will be involved, would you expect anything less?

Predict your death here.

Current Music: The Academy Is...: The Phrase That Pays

Cosmic Rough Riders

There were some real crazies on the bus this past week.

Last Thursday, Ana and I were on one of the stretchy buses in the afternoon and a young guy, with what I thought sounded like an Albanian accent, got on at Elephant & Castle and sat across from her. We immediately thought he was drunk by the things he was saying but soon realized there was definitely something wrong with him. He was saying things like -
"I'm from fucking ALGERIA!!!"
"Nah, I'm from............fucking France MOTHAFUCKA!!!"
"I haven't seen my mother in ten years (shows photo of mother to everyone)"
"Tu-Pac is dead!!!!!!!!!!!!"
"I got no money, see? (Tears up American one dollar bill, shows what he claims to be Algerian money to us)"
"I hate Poland!"
"Next year, England (wipes hands clean)"
"My girlfriend is from fucking JAMAICA!"
Of all buses, the ticket inspector decided to get on ours and the guy hadn't paid. He was threatening to call the cops because the crazy guy kept cursing. Ana and I were in hysterics, literally with tears rolling down my face cause it was so funny. After he got off, he stood in the doorway and left us with some final words of wisdom -
"2003, 2004, 2005, 2006...I don't pay for TICKETS!!!!"

On Tuesday I was on the 214 in Camden and some woman was yelling at some guy saying that she was black too and she had a knife. That's all I heard but I kept my eye on her to make sure she didn't suddenly decide to stab me.

That same night in Brixton we got off the bus and walked past a guy who was yelling from outside the bus we'd just gotten off at the driver, saying he was the same height as him and that he was going to beat him up, all while banging on the bus with his fists. This guy was definitely drunk or on something. When the bus pulled away, he ran after it banging on the side as it drove...the bus consequently tripped the guy up, and basically ran over his foot with the back wheel. The guy fell right down and the ambulance came, I'm not sure what happened after.

By the way, none of these events took place on the night bus, although with the three neighborhoods I was in, I can see how this may have been normal.

Current Music: Spinto Band - So Kind, Stacy

Feeling Oblivion

Last Friday I went to Alton Towers with David, Krish and Toby. The first ride we went on, Oblivion, was most definitely one of the scariest rides I've ever been on. It's a roller coaster where you go up the hill, turn around the bend, it drops you a small bit over the edge (it's only 2 rows of 8 people, we were in the front row), and then it releases and drops you down (half the track is above ground, half is below, so you don't know how far down you are going.) Oh yeah, and it drops you face forward straight down. My eyes were tearing when it ended, which in retrospect is better than when snot was dripping down my face after Air (comparable to Superman at Great Adventure.) The best parts of the day were looking at our photos after the rides, soooo funny!

Saturday night started with predrinking at Rob and Simon's with Zoe, Louise, Kenny, and Jamie, then we went to the high cover-charged Electric Ballroom night called Shake which played too cheesy music (I'm talking Belinda Carlyle level here.) Some of it was okay since I hadn't heard that stuff in so long, but my attendance there shan't be repeated again.

Sunday was day o' TV fun. I watched the OC, all of the American Idol finale, and Lost which made me cry even though I knew what was gonna happen at the end of the episode. Kevin Covais so got laid after getting the boot from Idol, did anyone else notice how excited he looked? And what was the deal with Clay Aiken's hair?! He doesn't look like Thom Yorke anymore, now he looks like Pee Wee Herman.

That night was spent in similar company as the night before but it was more like + Laura - Louise/Kenny/Jamie. I didn't meet them in Camden till almost 1:00 am which I haven't done since living in NYC. Most things weren't open despite it being Bank Holiday weekend, so we went to Lock Tavern for a bit, then back to the boys' flat where Rob made the biggest 10-egg omelette I've ever seen. I stayed at Laura's and we ate some Peri Peri Chicken at Nando's for lunch the next day.

Monday was Memorial Day for me so I went to John's impromptu barbeque and snagged a hamburger before heading to Trash Palace with Ana and Fennse. The bar had a Lower East Side feel and played good music.

Tuesday was all about me scaring David's nephew Cameron into silence. Apparently he was excited and talkative at The Natural History Museum; when I got there he clammed right up. We went (with David's mom also) to The Rainforest Cafe, but poor Cameron was scared of the thunderstorm noises. We went to Build-a-Bear in Covent Garden after, which of course is AWESOME!!!!

Last night at about 9:00 pm, Dave's flatmate James's boss came over with free Editors tickets for Brixton Academy (score!) The new songs were better than the older ones, esp. the one that they dedicated to The National which I don't know the name of. I cooked a stir fry when we got back, and I had successfully managed to avoid watching the football, so overall it was a good day.

Zoe should be coming over later. I have about 4 Prison Breaks to catch up on, woohoo!

Current Music: The 88 - How Good It Can Be

Ticket to Ride

I have not yet heard who won Idol so pleeease don't tell me! I'm going to miss it tomorrow night which means I'll have to wait until Sunday, although I can pretty much guarantee I'll hear the winner by accident before then.

I'm going to see Bell X1 tonight. The only thing I remember about seeing them at Mercury Lounge was that they were the shortest band I've ever seen barring the extremely tall lead singer (who Alex just told me was gay, I had no idea?!)

Tomorrow is Alton Towers! Yeah! Its like my annual trip to Great Adventure, but English style.

I have nothing exciting to say.

Current Music: DNA feat. Suzanne Vega - Tom's Diner

There Is A Light That Never Goes Out

It's been another lovely week of putting off doing my dissertation. It went like this:

Tuesday
Miss Laura came over for a stir fry and The OC.

Wednesday
Ana and I went to Maristela's house in Greenwich. The day included shopping at Asda, kickass pasta, double kickass baklava, and the Barcelona v Arsenal game.

Thursday
Dave and I attempted to go on the Eye and of course ended up not because the weather turned to crap.

Laura and I got lost in Watford (shocker) but she finally managed to get tickets for today's playoff game in Cardiff (which Watford won, good job!)

Then we went for £3 pizza on Goodge Street, yum.

Friday
I had an interview to pull pints at concerts and festivals for a measly £5.20/hour. Who cares though, I'll hopefully be working at Take That and Robbie Williams shows!

I also said a sad goodbye to Elliott. Katherine's 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow' and Taylor's 'Try a Little Tenderness' were grrreat.

Saturday
I worked at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development Annual Conference at the Edgware Rd. Hilton. My job was to assist the Official Documents office with my friend (Argentinian/Italian Daniela) from uni and a French guy from LSE named Jerome. We have the most laid back boss ever. We collated folders by language and went home after 3 hours. Let's just say I wasn't paid £5.20/hr. for that; it was about 6x more.

An old man at the bus stop near the hotel asked me which bus he should take to some destination I didn't understand. Other people couldn't understand him either so he just waited. Then four nurses came down the street from St. Mary's hospital to retrieve him saying "I thought he was sleeping!"

I had the National Lottery on TV while I was making dinner. There was a guy running across the stage with a posterboard yelling something which I didn't catch. Then the lottery shut off its live feed saying they were sorry for the disruption which was pretty funny. The story is now mysteriously missing from the internet.

I stayed in and watched the Eurovision contest, which the ever so talented Maria Menounos co-hosted. I sat there in total shock and then giggles at how the countries are completely biased (ex: Norway giving Finland, Denmark and Sweden the top votes; Armenia giving Lithuania, Russia, and Latvia the top votes.) I am still surprised that Serbia gave the greatest points to Bosnia, does that seem weird to anyone else? Also, Finland won and they looked like monsters/boars/things nightmares are made of. The song was a bit soft for their heavy metal style, and it just looked weird when the lead monster, er singer, was holding their winning bouquet of flowers. The photo of them talking into mics during the press conference is priceless.

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Sunday
I worked again for the bank today. I arrived at 10:30 am, did a minimal amount of work, was told to go to lunch at 11:45 am and not to return until 2:00 pm! The three of us went all the way to the Tate Britain instead, which was, uh, really random. Phil Collins filmed a dance marathon of Palestinian teenagers (I heard some Smiths and dancy stuff) and showed what happened in that period (how there was a power outage due to local problems and unrest, etc.) It was one of those things you couldn't stop watching even though it was just people dancing. Upon our return to work, we did some more minimal things and left at 3:30 pm. Keep in mind that I have friends working 12 hour shifts on their feet giving directions to attendees from 5:00 am on. Suckers!!!

Then was the pub quiz at The Black Sheep. I quite often get 40-45 questions out of 50 wrong on this quiz. But did you know that Jimmy Page's band pre-Led Zeppelin was The Yardbirds? Because I actually did!

~Back to our regularly scheduled post~

I forgot to mention that Guiding Light won four Emmys for Lead Actress, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress, and Younger Actor which is unheard of for GL. Also, Sandy Foster fell off a cliff and died, which is too bad because I met him in Grand Central Station when I was in a drunken state, I told him this and then explained to him that I had to run because I was late for a Met game, as if he really cared. Who knew that in a year's time he'd be stalking Tammy and consequently fall to his death?

RIP Sandy Foster (2003-2006)

My old company's annual Spring Convention started this weekend in Las Vegas. This would have been my fourth year going if I had stayed with them. Which I should have done considering they've got Bill Clinton as the speaker for the opening session!!!! Makes my job as Melissa Rivers' agent's escort from the airport to the hotel last year seem pretty insignificant right about now.

Current Music: Snow Patrol - Hands Open

Deception At Its Worst (A Play in Three Parts)

I saw Noel Gallagher last night! I saw Noel Gallagher last night! OMG!!!!!!! OMG!!!!!!!

The anticipation for my story is probably killing you all, but unfortunately it was not as exciting as it sounds. Basically, I headed for the toilets after the Shack gig ended at King's College Student Union and I saw him standing at the back near the bar. There were a couple of people around him, and he was in quite a happy mood but as I passed I figured he would soon be moving himself through the venue towards either the band or the exit. Thinking that with my luck I would probably get shunned I just kept moving. I was right near him though, closer than I've ever been before so I was very thrilled anyway. I have to say, he's shockingly really good looking up close, and I'd expected him to look older than he did.

Shack were good, actually better than last time. I was a bit shocked and confused though when I saw them come onstage and the bass player was not the bass player who I'd met at The Social. I didn't understand how this had happened.

Deception At Its Worst

(A Play in Three Parts)

CAST

Shack - A band from Liverpool

Shack Roadies - Wannabe rock stars who assist the band with tour equipment

Meredith - 26 year old International Relations Student bumming around London

Brother (name has been removed for Googling reasons) - Aforementioned's brother visiting London

The Drella's - Opening act for second Shack gig

Jim Noir - Opening act for second Shack gig

Dave - Meredith's significant other in attendance at second Shack gig

Noel Gallagher - Mastermind of rock band Oasis

Annoying girl - Extra who dances in Meredith's way who she wants to punch in the face

Shack Gig-Goers

The Social Bar Patrons

Act 1
Setting: Post-secret Shack gig at The Social, April 2006
The Scene: Refer to script written on Saturday, April 08, 2006

Act 2
Setting: Shack gig at King's College Student Union, May 15, 2006
The Scene: Opening act The Drella's play. The band are listenable but not great.

Jim "I want to be in the key of C" Noir perform as well and thankfully are talented, stimulative, and melodically refreshing.

Shack enter from stage left. Bass player from Act 1 is mysteriously absent; a different bass player is in attendance (as well as a brass section that are fun but are irrelevant to the play at the current time.)

Meredith seems confused (not just by the different bass player, but also by the massive excitement factor of the crowd and constant song requests shouted out by the audience.)

The band plays, exits, returns for one encore, the gig ends.

Noel Gallagher is spotted followed by Meredith hyperactivity overload. Dave quite possibly thinks she is weird.

Intermission

Act 3
Setting: The day after the gig Meredith is still confused about events from the night before as she sits at her computer in her bedroom
The Scene: The heroine is left pondering post-gig how the so-called bass player from Act 1 could have deceived her in such a way (how could her excitement of the past two months based on this one meeting have come to such a crushing end?) The pieces just didn't fit. The "bass player" had introduced himself as such in front of the actual band. The "bass player" had introduced Meredith and Brother to the lead singer. The "bass player" had talked about bass guitars with Brother as well as his full experience with the band - including joining them and playing with them.

The protagonist figures there has to be an explanation for who this mysterious bass player was. She paces her room scratching her head in thought. (Could he be a replacement bass player? Could he be a guitar tech who made up lies to impress his fellow bar patrons? Could he be a drunk who had wormed his way into the Shack table via mysterious blackmail?) She knew there was only one way to solve the case.

This was naturally on MySpace.

The femme fatale (that's me bitches) heads over to Shack's MySpace page. After confirming the bass player is officially a one Pete Wilkinson who had performed the night before, she then searches the "Comments" section. It's there. In plain black writing. The imitation bass player from The Social . . . and what is he named? None other than Tufnell, as in Tufnell Park where he had told Meredith and Brother he lived!

Meredith reads the comment aloud in disbelief: "Legends. Can I just say that Butterfly is one of the most beautiful songs I have ever heard. Absolute genius. Cracking show tonight at King's College. Those stairs were shite though!"

Meredith's jaw drops - Shack's #1 groupie??

The star of the show has been duped (she displays her feelings of hurt at this betrayal by pouting for approximately 10 seconds.) She then resumes skipping around the flat at having had spotted Noel Gallagher the night before. (Spotlight dims, curtains close.)

(Cast bows.)

The End

I'm in the Mood for...Butt?

I went to the gym at 9:30 am this morning. I didn't do anything too strenuous, plus I had a roll with butter afterwards so I guess that kind of canceled it out, oh wells me.

Saturday night was Joy's birthday at The Winchester. They played hip hop and I was happy. The only bad thing was that the DJ started repeating songs later in the night. If you are going to repeat a song, don't make it O.P.P. for God's sake.

Yesterday I went to Tinseltown in Farringdon (which basically looks like the Meatpacking District.) I had the grossest hamburger in the history of ever. After contemplating what the lingering taste in my mouth reminded me of for the next 6 hours, I finally realized that the flavor was probably that of what it would taste like if I had went into the diner's kitchen and licked the grease off the grill with my tongue. My "Lost in Shake-lation" Snickers milkshake was good though.

I'm taking Liz for a belated birthday lunch at Bodean's today. It looks like it has Brother Jimmy's type food. And they have Boston Butt Sandwiches, hahaha!

Current Music: Better Than Ezra - Our Finest Year