Hello faithful reader… Been a busy week, so sorry if I’ve been a bit quiet. Work has been hectic, which is good, in that the week passes quickly, but bad in that it makes it harder to drag myself out of bed in the morning, overcome the dread, and get my ace to the office.

Things are pretty good. Had dinner with some saffa friends on Tuesday… I made some strawberry shortcake to bring along for dessert, and I don’t think I’ll foist it upon non-americans again. I’ve made it twice now, and I really think people just don’t get the whole biscuit with strawberries and cream concept – it’s just a foreign tastebud sensation, and everyone eats the berries and cream, and leaves the biscuits. Ah well.

Had drinks with another american ex-pat last night, which was really good, but always a strange sensation, like coming across a distant family relation. I am always struck by how much easier I find it to talk to Americans, and I’m not sure why that is, because it’s not even about sharing a common background – it just a different sensibility that somehow makes all the difference. IN any case, had a few pints and lots of enjoyable conversation in a chilled atmosphere – always a good recipe for an evening.

Got a busy weekend lined up… If the sun holds, we’re off to listen to some outdoor jazz tonight. Sat morning is Tri-nations rugby at the pub at 8:00 am (go springboks!) and I quite enjoy rugby now, but the bloody time difference is a killer. Sat evening, andy and kim are hosting a barbeque extravaganza, and if i know anything at all, i know that kim will be the hostess with the mostess (she and i share the same “going completely overboard” affliction!). Sunday being the lord’s (hangover) day we will rest (and probably puke). Monday evening we will worship at the feet of those priests of punk, “bad religion” at the temple astoria.

All in all, a rockin’ weekend. Will catch up with y’all on the other side… peace out, homies

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We may be five hours ahead, but we’re behind the times over here, which means jonno and i are just catching on to new hits like “arrested development” and catching up with old faves like “the sopranos”… so *no on tell me* what happens!

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okay, well I have a whole new appreciation for web developers.

in any case, finally sat down and made a few adjustments to this site in firefox. it’s still not pretty, but much better than it was. now *wordpress* doesn’t seem to want to deal with mozilla at all, and all i can get the site to look like is a gray page of blogs. sooo after all that work, I’m not sure if I’ll switch over to wordpress or not.

i am far too impatient for this shit!

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all my tender loving care pays off…

i grew a tomato!

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in celebration, a haiku:

happy and shiny
sweet delectable apple
red delicious love

finally found, of all places, at the shop across the street from our house.

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…spend a few hours trying to learn how to change from blogger, to a server-side open-source platform…

…set up php and SQL on host, download software, install…

…have the whole goddamn process hang up for an hour and a half while you figure out why it won’t connect to the database…

…finally realise that the sql database has a different password to your regular account…

…which is actually the random password they assign when the account was first set up…

…dig through old emails to find old password…

…finally log in, and realise…

…you’re now too fucking tired to even play around with your fancy new toy.

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this weekend in summary:
– bought 4 books. charity shops are da bomb.
– gave myself a pedicure. i am a foot snob, and crusty feet are a no-no.
– made a passing attempt at cleaning. this was a nominal effort, the kind where you just want the credit for trying.
– made a surprisingly tasty first attempt at chicken pot pie from scratch. i was inspired by some leftover corn on the cob and mushrooms that needed using. add
chicken and onions and gravy… voila! how did i get to this age without ever making a pot pie? i’ve also never made a meatloaf – the shame!
– watched Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (the original). every time i see it i am surprised by how adult a movie it is. plus, that’s just my dream-come-true – a candy factory. i could watch that movie every day just for the daydream factor.
– worked on the website – just for fun. do i really need a reason? spent ages trawling through great retro pictures of pinup girls.
– made zucchini bread (i just *can’t* call it courgette bread, that’s so wrong!), which would’ve come out perfect, if i hadn’t dropped it on the counter and shattered it into a million crumbly pieces. still tasted good though.
– drank way too much coffee.

i have come to the conclusion that i get bored far too easily. or rather, more accurately, i am unable to entertain myself on a budget. i’ve always had a fairly low threshold for boredom, but now that i can’t just go to the movies, or go shopping, or do crafts, or really anything that involves money, added to the “what do i do with my hands if i’m not smoking”… well, let’s just say my husband would be well within his rights to file for divorce by now. I get whingy, and cranky, and pretty much miserable to be around. usually i write, and mess around on the computer, and read and bake. but once i’ve done all that, i start bouncing off the walls and being insufferable. if we had any furniture, i would’ve rearranged it. poor, patient j!

last night the neighbours bbq’d and we ended up talking about tattoos. and i was telling stories about all my tattooist friends from that era, all my piercings, and wild hair, and give-a-fuck attitude. seems like a lifetime ago now, but sometimes i still really miss that girl that i was. more on that later.

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overall, a peculiar kind of weekend!

friday evening, j, k, t and i went to a local open-air jazz festival. we brought wine, cheese, olives and bread and enjoyed some bluesy music to unwind from the week. really nice.

saturday, the newly nicotine-free j woke up at 7:00. which meant that *I* woke up at 7:00. we headed up to woolworth’s to pick up the new harry potter, then did some grocery shopping for the bbq on sunday. i came home and scrubbed the bathroom like a madwoman, did mountains of dishes. after burning off some energy, i spent the day in the sun reading with cocktails at the ready, and then we decided to go have a meal and catch a movie in wimbledon. as we were getting ready to leave, a woman was hit by a car outside our front door.

we didn’t actually see the hit, but heard the unmistakable sound of human hitting car and ran out to the balcony see what had happened. it looked like the woman was walking out from behind a bus in the crosswalk, just as a car came flying around the corner. she was hit hard enough to be thrown over the roof of the car, and leave a skull size imprint in the windscreen.

i have been waiting for an accident like this to happen, as buses just come flying around that corner, barely even tapping the brakes, taking the curb edge with the tyre, and I’ve almost been hit several times myself. now that there’s scaffolding up for demolition, it’s even harder to see any pedestrians around the corner.

luckily the woman appeared to be relatively okay – there were some emts from the local hospital right there, and lots of witnesses. but it never fails that when there’s an accident, all my adrenaline and emergency training starts kicking in, even if other people are already involved. it took a few minutes to shake off the effects, and wait for the police to arrive.

after it was clear that all would be okay, we left for our dinner & movie date. we went to see “war of the worlds”, and as much as i hate tom cruise, I’m really glad I saw it. it’s the first movie i have actually been scared by in ages. in fact, i can’t remember the last movie where I was frightened, and this one definitely had my heart pounding. spielberg is a master of building tension and edgy atmosphere, and the scenes were creepily similar to my childhood nightmares. thoroughly enjoyable.

sunday i woke up and made some potato salad and pie for the bbq. read more harry potter. cleaned up beer (the plastic bag split just as j was putting the sixpack on the counter, smashing several coronas all over the kitchen floor), and fired up the grill. all the band was there (k, stef, alex, and marco) along with significant others and assorted children. we stuffed ourselves silly. Chris and ton brought by their 4 day old jude john, and I spent several hours monopolising the baby.

i will also mention (though it still seems a bit premature to boast) that i am currently on my 3rd non-smoking day. needless to say, i have been more than a tad bitchy this weekend, and this also explains my cleaning frenzy, and why I am updating my blog at work, rather than doing… you know, actual work. in 72 hours, I have worked my way through about a kilo of mint imperials (you can always get teeth fixed – you can’t grow new lungs!) also, saturday (the morning j woke up at 7) was perhaps the longest day of my life. i was up from 7 am to 2 am, and even when you’re not looking at the clock every 20 seconds, nicotine withdrawal warps your perception, and time just slows to a standstill. I was so disappointed in myself after last time – i’d done so well for a month, and one big trauma sent me scrambling back to the ciggies. really stupid. anyway, i’m pretty darn determined this time. my sense of smell is already returning – it’s rubbish collection day, so my morning walk to the tube was pretty ripe. the joys of london. also, i have become the most accident prone person on the planet – my co-ordination is pretty bad at the best of times, but after this weekend, i am just all kinds of discombobulated. i swear, sometime i feel so disoriented, it’s like i’m high.

finally, j’s sister carey had a baby girl on Friday! I am now auntie to Rachel, of whom i am awaiting pics. there’s just babies sprouting everywhere these days…

jude john w.

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the weekend started off with all good intentions. friday night we were going to go watch some live jazz at a marketplace near to us, but by the time j got home he was cranky as all get-out, tired, uninspired, and there were threatening clouds above. so jazz night was scrapped in favour of vegetating on the couch, doing our best imitation of laying like broccoli.

so saturday dawned, and we had plans to do a big giant shop. for weeks now we’ve been subsisting on what i can fashion out of flour, parsley, and an old tin of coconut milk. i swear, we’ll be the first couple in the world to get malnutrition from sheer laziness.

the day came and went, and neither of us made a move to indicate activity. it was like a silent standoff.

with shopping falling by the wayside through inertia, we made plans to go see a movie *in the theater*, a rare and notable occassion. but as we were stirring towards the door, the neighbours invited us next door for a bbq, and the lure of charred meat nearly at our doorstep proved too much. we feasted and drank until we rolled back home at 2am. all in all, we ventured about 50 feet from our lounge the entire day.

sunday was now designated for shopping. but as if on cue, the sun appeared bright and warm, and i took my book out onto the balcony, intending to catch just a few rays of sun. before I knew it, it was past noon. the neighbours offered up an invite to the park, so we packed up the rest of the bbq meat, a pack of cards, and some stray beers… and spent the rest of the day playing poker under a shady tree, eating cold ribs and wings.

as the sun started to set, our friend mentioned a tescos nearby which was open 24 hours. determined to accomplish *something*, we drove over… only to find the car park deserted and, beneath the big “24 hour” sign, a microscopic disclaimer… “open til 4:00 on sundays.”

taking it as a message from god that we were clearly not meant to shop this particular weekend, we picked up some ice cream from the nearby offie, and headed home with ben & jerry to drown our sorrows.

who am I to question god’s divine intervention? now if he’ll only tell me what to make for dinner…

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well the weekend flew by in a haze, landing me back at monday where it all begins again.

friday night, we hooked up with the neighbours and cracked open a bottle of champagne to celebrate jonno’s newly acquired british citizenship! his application has been approved, and his ceremony is on the 20th July. All together, it took ten working days for his approval (as part of a pilot scheme) as opposed to the 6 months it takes most other people. Hooray! So we popped some good bubbly, then took the party up the road to our local bar.

Amazingly, we were actually clearheaded enough to go rock-climbing the next day. Kerryn, tracey, chris, a heavily pregnant tonia, j and i headed out to harrison’s rocks in groombridge, kent, where we’d gone last year, so if some of the pics look a little familiar, that’s why. and though there are no pictures to prove it, i actually did do some climbing. we hadn’t been since about november last year, so there was more than a little rust on the muscles, but overall it felt good, and it was nice to spend the day outdoors. pics are here for your viewing pleasure.

sunday was the lord’s day of rest at our house. we chilled out, i did some cooking (traditional southafrican meal of bobotie,yellow rice, and tomato onion salad) and watched “assault on precinct 13″ (need i point out this was j’s choice of dvd?) in which the only redeeming feature was ethan hawke. followed by (you guessed it) “world’s wildest police videos”.

last week’s dialogue gem:

(police officer is testing a driver who is obviously dui, and upon closing his eyes to touch his finger to his nose, starts to fall. officer catches him before he goes down like a sack of potatos.)

DUI suspect (in a thick southern slur): “thanks man. that’s more than what catfish would do.”

this has become our catchphrase for the past fortnight, for obvious reasons…

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well I haven’t blogged in about a week,but I have a really really good excuse this time: sun. It has been *almost* hot for one full week – this is british summer. blink and you’ll miss it. this is the only week I will get to wear my sandals and linen shirts. you might think, that because it’s only june, there’s probably still plenty of chance of warm weather ahead. but you would be wrong. i’ll never forget my first summer here. about the middle of july, there were ten sunny days of 30C weather in a row. i put away my duvet and scarfs, broke out the sunglasses, and tidied the bikini line in preparation. then, just as suddenly, it got chilly and wet again. after a week or so, i was complaining to a co-worker, asking when it was going to get warm again, and when summer would return. she said, deadpan, “that was it!” I was so sure she was joking, i laughed out loud.

two full summers and no tan later, i understand. my bathing suit is rotting in the back of a drawer.

the worst thing about british summer is how much people moan about it. you’d think the entire nation had just been transported in a blazing fireball to the middle of the saharan desert, for all the bitching they do. like the wicked witch of the west, “i’m melting, i’m melllllllltinngggggg!!!!” these are the same people who start wearing tanktops and flipflops before the crocuses even break snow cover. then they like to go on holiday to places like morrocco and the french riviera, and *still* complain about the weather. it’s completely illogical.

and of course, no place here has air-conditioning, *proper* air-conditioning. they have chillers, which are basically just window fans blowing lukewarm air on you. you might as well leave your fridge door open to cool the house down – you’d be hard pressed to raise a goosepimple. because there is pretty much no need to invest sums of money in a real appliance which would get one week’s worth of use a year. and the tube is an oven – about 10C warmer below ground, stuck in a tin can on rails, which they cant do anything about, because the whole system is so antiquated. but again, it’s not exactly a funding priority, since the rest of the year, who cares? these days, by the time my 15 minute journey is over, i need a fresh pair of underwear.

but i will say that personally, for the most part, i like being hot. i pointed out to jonno that this is the first week in a year where I haven’t complained about being chilly. i’d also like to point out that about 3 weeks ago, i still had the heating on. i was still keeping my cardigan at work.

so, if I love sun and warmth so much, why the hell am i electively living in london, of all the godforsaken wet and dreary places?

damned if i know.

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So we went to see weezer on tue night.

the concert was at the brixton academy, and i was encouraged as we went in to see a decent sprinkling of the over-30s. before their modest fame, they were a college band, therefore, to my mind, if you aren’t actually old enough to have *been* to college yet, you should not be allowed to purchase concert tickets. but that’s just the grumpy curmudgeon in me talking.

the opening act was a canadian duo called teegan and sara. back when i was in boston, i used to hear them on my indie/folk morning radio station all the time, and *HATED* them. I found incredibly whiney and annoying. I am please to report that they appear to have matured quite a bit, and grown a few guitar riffs, and are (grudgingly) … not bad.

i adore weezer. i think they’re creative and playful and rockin’. so I was really looking forward to this concert. and the band delivered. they played most of the old faves, and a pleasant number of new songs. they played my all time favourite “say it ain’t so”, and my standby “i want a girl who laughs for no one else”. they skipped my other two songs (”Dope Nose” and El Scorcho”, which I was heartily disappointed in, since i’d practiced singing “I’ll bring home the turkey if you bring home the bacon!” at the top of my lungs all around the house). But it was hard to be upset. They sounded great, looked great (good god rivers cuomo is cute!), and put out a lot of energy.

but a few songs in, i observed something very curious – no one in the crowd was dancing. not only were they not dancing, they were *standing still*. everyone in the place was stock-still like a statue, with the exception of me and the wierdo chick in front of me (and what she was doing could not properly be called dancing, but more along the lines of full-body electroshock spasm.) I couldn’t get over it. the only time they did not have all the animation of lumps of clay, was when the band played “island in the sun” (imo, their *worst* song) but clearly all these people had paid nearly £30 a ticket just to hear this, because they began listlessly waving their fists in the air. even the encore applause was half-assed, and nearly petered out before the band came back on stage. what a bunch of sad wankers – it really put a damper on my enjoyment.

and now I read today that weezer and the foo fighters are touring together. *in the u.s.* why, god, why?

in other strange observations: there’s this girl I see on the tube fairly frequently. I leave my house at exactly 8:12, and stand at the same spot on the platform every day. she must do the same, since i see her about 2-3 times a week.

it’s odd enough that i see this stranger regularly enough to know her habits (and, by extension, she mine). but the wierdest bit is that every single time i see her, she is wearing the exact same outfit, without fail. olive shirt, black pants, black heels. and by the same oufit, i mean that she is wearing the exact same clothes every day. sometimes i see her a few days in a row, sometimes it’s several days in between. every time. the exact. same. thing.

i can’t figure out what her deal is. it’s not a uniform – it’s office style dress. and surely unless she works at a different place every single day (my original theory being that she was a temp who only had one suitable outfit), people must notice. and when does she wash them? and how is she not embarrassed and humiliated by the multitude of fashion faux pas she’s committed? not only is it the same exact outfit, but it’s not even a *nice* outfit at that. is she a superhero? or some sort of spy? maybe she’s spying on me?

one of these days, i am going to have to give in to the overwhelming temptation to ditch work and follow her to see where she goes. because this has been going on for months now, and i’m beginning to lose sleep. it’s a puzzlement, and i *must know*. i feel compelled to stalk her and unravel the mystery, and i’m fairly certain that no jury in the world would convict me.

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ick – the weekend is over and it’s back to work.

And as per usual, the weather was lousy all weekend, but Monday morning? bright and glorious. but of course.

can’t say we did a whole helluva lot this weekend. i did manage to catch up on some sleep a bit, which helped enormously. Saturday, i *think* we made it as far as the post office and the video store. watched “criminal” which was quite good. maggie gyllenhal is amazing. however, you’ll be shocked and astonished to hear that i fell asleep during the first viewing. yes, again. why my body decides movie time is nap time is a mystery for the ages.

sunday the ex flatmate came by to collect the *mountain of shit* she has left in our lounge for the past three weeks. hooray for that. booo for taking the muffin tins and ironing board with her. not that i use the ironing board, mind you. but it was nice to know it was there.

the moved *mountain of shit* also means we have massive voids in the living room where the telly and the beanbag used to be. we’re talking great prarie plains of space. if i still had the inner ear balance of a twelve year old, i could do cartwheels in there.

so we headed off to pick up the telly which my dear, sweet, thoroughly socialist colleague donated to me. being a socialist has nothing to do with it (after all she obviously has a television) but i find it endearing to debate with her and wind her up. anyway, she wouldn’t take any money for it, so i baked her a batch of cookies (cookies are the universal answer to every social situation, i’ve found) and bought a bouquet of flowers. the *free* telly now has pride of place in the lounge, but looks a little forlorn. the ex-flatmate’s telly was 840 feet across if it was an inch. and the free telly does not have a remote, so i am getting sooo much more exercise now! did i mention it was free?

after all the moving and wrangling and cleaning which ensued, we had a bbq in the rain. i like to call it “chickens in the mist”. the neighbours came and ate, and then we sacked out for the evening.

at this point, i am going to admit to j’s and my guilty sunday night pleasure. yes, well there is *that*. but also, there is “world’s wildest police videos”. now the international flavour of this show leaves a lot to be desired – either that or the whoppingly vast majority of the *WILDEST* police videos occur in Georgia and alabama, with a smattering of louisiana thrown in. if you believe this show, all we’d need to do to eradicate crime, would be to detach those states, float them out to sea and sink them with a giant bomb. (sorry you’re lumped in there with those bad boys as well, florida, but geographically, i can see no way around it. besides, there’s also the giant sin known as disneyworld.)

in any case, if you have not yet caught this compelling piece of television programming, i highly recommend it. not only is there the overwrought drama of the narrative dialogue (things such as “*these* criminals thought they were in for a funny joyride when they stole this car, but they won’t be laughing when they feel the long arm of the *law*”. i just made that bit up, but i swear to god, it’s so much more hilarious than that, and they really do say things like “long arm of the law”, although since it’s just a narrator’s voice, it’s impossible to tell if it’s with a straight face.) but there is *also* the host’s distinctly george plimpton-esque glow-in-the-dark teeth combined with orange tan, and the unbelievably d-grade re-enactments. it’s enough to inhibit bladder control.

so every sunday evening we watch this before going to bed, and it’s just our little weekly ritual. definitely takes the edge off the back-to-work blues.

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not-so-big news on the job front: i got a “promotion”. why is this only not-so-big news, one might very well ask? well in the first instance, i didn’t want the job to begin with. i was basically offered (dumped) a whole new workload, just before I went to south africa. i had two choices, namely a) say no (and you’ll just have to imagine the strikethrough on those words because i can’t seem to create that effect in blogger, and saying no was not an option) or b) agree to do the work and get a new job title. the fact is, i was gonna have to do the work anyway, so why not get the “promotion” that went with it?

why do i keep putting the word “promotion” in quotations? another fine question. well, dear reader, i don’t think it’s really a “promotion” if you have to apply for it. yes, the council can’t do something as simple as “promote” someone. they have to create a whole new job post, then advertise it, then make you apply for it, then make you interview for it (assuming you get shortlisted). did i mention i am already doing the work anyway? and have been for the past 2 months? now granted, i should take this all with a grain of salt, because i was, in fact, the only person stoopid enough to apply. so really, it was me vs. me. if, after jumpiong through all those hoops i *wasn’t offered the job*, or *didn’t take the job*, i would still have to do the work anyway. to compound the idiocy, I was supposed to take a test – luckily i was exempted from that somehow – and i was supposed to be formally escorted to the interview room.

i work on the fifth floor of the building. the interview room is on the seventh floor. i come in at 8:30. the interview was at 9:00. they wanted me to go downstairs to the reception on the main floor, so they could escort me back upstairs for the interview. if that doesn’t just beggar belief, i don’t know what does.

the council is *not* that formal. i basically show up at work wearing pyjamas most days. so i really have just *no* clue what this kind of rigamarole is supposed to accomplish.

the other reason it’s not a “promotion”, is that i get no real pay rise to go with it, as i am on the highest spinal point of my payscale, and the new post will start me out at the lowest spinal point on the scale directly above it. I think it works out to something like £50 per paycheque.

so, yep. i basically went through all this insane myriad nonsense, to get a job i don’t even want, for the princely sum of an extra £1.60 per day. not even enough for a stinkin cup of coffee.

Aside: when I was home, my sis gave me a pair of work pants that she doesn’t wear anymore. I’m wearing them today, and they smell like the Body Shop’s “White Musk”, which is what she bathes, shampoos and perfumes herself with. Everything she owns smells like it. It’s kind of comforting.

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it’s midday, and I am still in my pyjamas, drinking the last of the sweet dunkin donuts french vanilla coffee, and looking at the sunshine outside my window. i have nothing i have to do today except decide whether to play chess or watch a movie.

does it get any better than this? i think not.

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just watched this. it’s startling.

a movie which attempts to tackle existentialism, nihilism, the search for personal identity, the quest for connection, the tension between the need for belief in a larger purpose and the inability to reconcile that with the reality of the world, escapism and oblivion, and the unified theory of everything.

intelligent, charming, with a healthy dollop of surrealism thrown in for good measure.

does it have all the answers? of course not – it’s a movie. but it asks all the right questions.

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well it’s election day here in the uk, so j is off at the polls.

long, arduous day for me at work. we had a partnership board/bored meeting. which is 3 hours of discussion about learning disability issues, council budget problems, services falling apart (our day centre had to close suddenly this week, as the roof collapsed), family members who take turns roasting the senior management over the coals, etc. etc. etc. you get the picture. it usually follows a fairly standard format and every meeting the same issues get rehashed, yet again, the management repeat the same placating phrases, and there is generally nothing new under the sun. however there is sometimes high drama which adds interest, and today in particular was amusing as a service user, upset that the day centre which she’s been attending for over 30 years had to be closed (did i mention the roof collapsed?), went into a lengthy and tearful diatribe, calling management evil, wicked, and horrible. hard not to laugh at that. sadly, the distraught woman has a severe speech impediment, so not everyone got the joke.

some photos from arundel here. not very interesting, but then again, neither is arundel. I was way too smart, and packed away the camera before we got soused, so the drunken evening shall remain undocumented for posterity. you’ll just have to use your imagination…

whoa – j’s back already. that was fast.

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so the weekend is officially underway – and sometimes it just goes by so so fast, it’s all a big blur, and at the end of it, when someone asks you how it was, you find yourself grasping at straws to explain just how you managed to fritter away 36 whole hours of freedom with nothing to show for it.

last night was interesting. the neighbours cooked a lovely szechuan dinner of eggrolls, prawns and spinach and we sat in the kitchen having the most intellectually stimulating conversation i’ve been a part of for a long while. seriously – we talked about globalisation, and race relations, and the politics of china, and religion, and world bank debt. at times it was a tagteam effort, two against one (me being the one), and at times, there were about three different conversations going on, and they all diverged and re-merged, and we were at this for about 3 hours.

it was a great mental workout – which is good, because sometimes i can actually *feel* my brian atrophying.

anyway, after that, we unwound with a little chris rock – underneath the hysterical histrionics, there’s always a bit of a moral to the story, or a political nugget to impart. I’ve seen him interviewed, and he really is one smart cookie. As well as being one goddamn funny motherfucker.

okay, it’s later now – we just got back from seeing “the hitchhiker’s guide to the universe”. which was entertaining enough, but i suppose you had to have read the book. from what i can gather, it’s one of those novels which can leave a profound impact on your psyche, if you happen to read it at the right point in your life. everyone has one of those books. for me, it was “illusions: the adventures of a reluctant messiah” by richard bach, when i was 16. i won’t go too far into the storyline (because you really did have to read it) but it deals with the concept of the return of the messiah in modern times, yet at the same time, challenges the precepts and tenets which every major religion is founded on. i remember feeling like my brain had just exploded and expanded at the same time. it was a “big bang” effect. anyway, there’s no way a movie can live up to that.

tomorrow we’re off to bristol to visit some old friends of j’s who own an inn, so it should be fun. supposed to be nice weather as well, and i haven’t been to bristol yet, but i’ll tell ya all about it when i get back…

enjoy the rest of the weekend – and if you’re reading this and you can see sun out the window, for god’s sake get outside!

ciao, bella.

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had my second poi class on Monday. getting a bit better, but far from a natural at this. I defy you to get your brain around spinning two things backwards simultaneously, whilst alternating weaving your arms betwixt and under each other, not to mention fighting off a severe concussion. it’s *hard*.

having not cooked a blessed thing (I like to call it improvised grazing) or eaten meat for about two weeks, last night I was inspired to make red rice risotto with sauteed shallots and chestnut mushrooms, honey mustard pork chops with pan-fried apples, roasted butternut squash and caramelised onions, and a mixed salad. I have no idea why you might be interested in this, but I was just thinking about it, wishing we had leftovers. My tummy is growling.

j’s non-national letter from IND has still not arrived. neither has the west wing dvd they dispatched a week ago. methinks something is rotten in the postal service.

Work is…feh. Surprisingly productive, considering how little motivation I have.

But wednesday is over… and it’s all downhill from here.

of random interest:

A five minute test that tells you if you’re racist and here, what the test claims to tell you about yourself, and why you might be surprised at the results

what I’m not surprised at: newest pope, “god’s rottweiller”, was part of hitler youth

a reason to enjoy your second helping of pud: contrary to public perception, people who are overweight have a lower risk of death than “normal” people

is lasik cheating at sports?

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Been working at the council now for 2 years this week (umm, happy anniversary?) My building has about 400-500 people in it, 8 floors, 2 lifts and 17 toilets.

In the past two years:

– the building has been closed twice (once, no electricity, once flooding)
– the 4th and 3rd floors have been closed for a period of 4 weeks due to toilets flooding (separate incident. i know what you’re thinking, and no, our building is not, in fact, an ark)
– the phone system has gone out at least 6 times
– the computer network has gone down at least a dozen times
– one of the lifts has been out of order (for more than a day) at least 6 times (i work on the fifth floor and smoke. you do the stair math)
– 16 of the 17 toilets were not working until lunchtime one day (it’s like working in a camp with portaloos!)
– the windows in the entire building have had to be sealed due to threat of falling out (this should be fun, come about june, as the building heat only comes on when it exceeds at least 15 degrees outside)
– there is known asbestos in the walls
– there is a raging battle with mice
– there has been one documented case of tuberculosis
– there has been one genuine bomb scare (i was mostly annoyed that i couldn’t leave the building at my regular quitting time)

this is the pleasant and healthy environment that I so enjoy working in each day. aren’t you jealous?

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first of all, the pixies have apparent sold the use of “velouria” to wanadoo. how cheesy. i know their last tour was called “sellout”, but I didn’t take it literally.

second of all, I am looking for a job. A second job, that is (though would happily ditch my first if I came across something better). Anywhoo, I want something mindless that I can do on evenings or weekends for a few extra pounds – preferably something like data entry or admin. Actually, anythign which doesn’t involve pulling pints, accosting strangers on the street for money, or listing to people slam the phone down.

Any and all suggestions welcome – my overblown cv is here.

Lastly, Time Out London this week did a NYC edition – pulled directly from Time Out NY. And had the gall to suggest that you could get NY style bagels here. I’m not snobbish about most stuff, but that’s just taking the piss.

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