Well, the weekend is finally here! I'm doing several things this weekend. I'm going out tonight. Despite the fact that I frequently talk about alcohol on here I'm sure it'll be a comfort to all to hear that I don't actually drink that much, especially in excess. I'm going out in Clapham, which is awesome because it means I don't have to pay for a cab and I know how to get home. A very rare occurrence. Most importantly, I have to find a new church before Sunday. I tried another new one last Saturday and it was mind numbingly boring. I actually almost got up and left. If that wasn't enough there were only three people in the choir and about ten people (not an exaggeration) in the congregation. I'm not big on socializing, but this complete lack of parishioners means that my singing can actually be heard because apart from the choir I'm the only one singing. I'm awkward in the best of situations at church. In these conditions I'm a hot mess. I wanted to run away the whole time. Also, during the sermon the minister kept calling God the "King of the Universe". The whole time I was just picturing Jafar becoming a genie at the end of Aladdin. It was very disturbing. Anyway, the hunt is on. I want to find one before Christmas. If all else fails I'm going to becoming a parishioner at St. Paul's Cathedral and sound incredibly important and classy. After whatever service I choose to go to I might try to watch some football (American and/or British) in a pub with my friend. I think we're also visiting a toy store. I may come back with a Furby and Lego.
Oh yeah, I bought a book on grammar and one on writing by Stephen King. I figure if I'm going to continue with this blog I should probably learn proper grammar because otherwise half of what I'm writing won't make sense.
For those of you who want an update on work, it's going very well. Everyone's super nice and it's quite chill there. I now have a jar of peanut butter there so I can snack on it whenever I want and I think I've found my favourite coworker. She laughs at all my "jokes" about food. I don't have the heart to tell her that I really do eat candy and McDonald's as much as I say I do.
Friday 29 November 2013
Thursday 21 November 2013
My New Heroes
Women who walk in heels in London are like superheroes. All of London isn't cobblestoned, but for the most sidewalks consist of small bricks. I always wear flats and I roll my ankle on a daily basis. No joke. I either trip, get caught in a gap, or have my ankle do a full on roll every morning. So women who wear heels around here are amazing and I aspire to be as awesome as them one day.
On a total side note, I finally woke up to my alarm this morning instead of waking up a thousand times to make sure I haven't slept in. This means I've finally settled into a routine. Since I'm now in a routine I've decided it's finally time for me to stop eating a bag of candy everyday. I think both my teeth and body in general will appreciate this gesture. Besides, I can replace candy with coffee now that I'm not paying a fortune for it everyday. I haven't bought a coffee all week and this pleases me very much.
Monday 18 November 2013
Weekly Update
Alright, so I've been the laziest person when it comes to blogging. There's absolutely no reason for this. Although admittedly my life is significantly less interesting now that I'm working.
So, week one of the job is done. I don't have too much to report because it was really just an introductory week. I learned the databases and the kind of info I'll be gathering. More importantly I've confirmed that I get free coffee, my own desk, and occasionally free food. I also got to go to Faversham (aka Kent) for the first two days of my training. It was my first time being out of London since getting here, so it was nice seeing some of the countryside. Sutton (where I'm actually based) is also really cute and apparently has a good shopping mall.
In addition to the excitement of my job I solved a couple of questions I had about food. I'd been asking around a lot about the milk situation. Whenever I get coffee they only have skimmed and semi skimmed milk, which is weird. It turns out that semi skimmed is 2%. Word on the street is that 1% has been introduced and it has an orange cap. They allegedly also have whole milk, which might be 10%. I learned all of this from a bartender because as you all know I'm becoming an alcoholic. I actually asked around at work, but no one knew the answer to the percentage of semi skimmed milk and then I was asking my friend in a bar and the bartender magically had the answer. My other question was answered by my housemate. It was regarding bacon because they only ever seem to have peameal bacon here. Even on Egg McMuffins. Apparently they have "streaky bacon"....aka normal bacon, but it's fairly uncommon.
Now for an update on coffee. There are no cheap coffee places here. It's simply not a thing. However, Costa Coffee has some awesome cups on right now.
That was the large. The medium is a gingerbread theme and I don't know or care what the small is because I'll never get that size.
Now for the biggest news of all....I got an early Christmas gift....and it's a....
Ta da! A coffee maker! Up to this point I've been drinking instant coffee and I hate it a lot. It's not just that the taste is bad, but I can only make one cup at a time. For someone with a legitimate caffeine addiction this is a big problem. Now I can make a huge pot and I can program it to make coffee in the morning. Plus it has a built in filter so that I don't have to buy them. I have a feeling we're going to be best friends and spend many happy mornings together. Now I just need to explore what coffees I like. This time I got Waitrose coffee, which is a store brand. One pack is the equivalent of one coffee from any place that isn't Starbucks. By that I mean in cost. I just realized that I didn't explain that at all.
Oh, right. I found this place where you can do outdoor skating. I think it's called Somerset House. Before you get your hopes up I didn't go skating because you have to book tickets, I don't own skates, and there's the small issue of me being the worst skater to come out of Canada ever. Everyone here says "You must be so awesome at skating." I think someone's been spreading a rumor that we all either play hockey or take figure skating. I actually did take figure skating for a year, but that was a long time ago and since then I've lost every skating skill I once had, which was basically skating backwards and sliding on my knees. Anyway, it was a cool place and less blurry than my terrible shots make it seem. I wish I could blame this on being drunk, but I'm actually just a bad photographer.
And there you have it, my sporadic and largely uninformative weekly update.
So, week one of the job is done. I don't have too much to report because it was really just an introductory week. I learned the databases and the kind of info I'll be gathering. More importantly I've confirmed that I get free coffee, my own desk, and occasionally free food. I also got to go to Faversham (aka Kent) for the first two days of my training. It was my first time being out of London since getting here, so it was nice seeing some of the countryside. Sutton (where I'm actually based) is also really cute and apparently has a good shopping mall.
In addition to the excitement of my job I solved a couple of questions I had about food. I'd been asking around a lot about the milk situation. Whenever I get coffee they only have skimmed and semi skimmed milk, which is weird. It turns out that semi skimmed is 2%. Word on the street is that 1% has been introduced and it has an orange cap. They allegedly also have whole milk, which might be 10%. I learned all of this from a bartender because as you all know I'm becoming an alcoholic. I actually asked around at work, but no one knew the answer to the percentage of semi skimmed milk and then I was asking my friend in a bar and the bartender magically had the answer. My other question was answered by my housemate. It was regarding bacon because they only ever seem to have peameal bacon here. Even on Egg McMuffins. Apparently they have "streaky bacon"....aka normal bacon, but it's fairly uncommon.
Now for an update on coffee. There are no cheap coffee places here. It's simply not a thing. However, Costa Coffee has some awesome cups on right now.
That was the large. The medium is a gingerbread theme and I don't know or care what the small is because I'll never get that size.
Now for the biggest news of all....I got an early Christmas gift....and it's a....
Ta da! A coffee maker! Up to this point I've been drinking instant coffee and I hate it a lot. It's not just that the taste is bad, but I can only make one cup at a time. For someone with a legitimate caffeine addiction this is a big problem. Now I can make a huge pot and I can program it to make coffee in the morning. Plus it has a built in filter so that I don't have to buy them. I have a feeling we're going to be best friends and spend many happy mornings together. Now I just need to explore what coffees I like. This time I got Waitrose coffee, which is a store brand. One pack is the equivalent of one coffee from any place that isn't Starbucks. By that I mean in cost. I just realized that I didn't explain that at all.
Oh, right. I found this place where you can do outdoor skating. I think it's called Somerset House. Before you get your hopes up I didn't go skating because you have to book tickets, I don't own skates, and there's the small issue of me being the worst skater to come out of Canada ever. Everyone here says "You must be so awesome at skating." I think someone's been spreading a rumor that we all either play hockey or take figure skating. I actually did take figure skating for a year, but that was a long time ago and since then I've lost every skating skill I once had, which was basically skating backwards and sliding on my knees. Anyway, it was a cool place and less blurry than my terrible shots make it seem. I wish I could blame this on being drunk, but I'm actually just a bad photographer.
And there you have it, my sporadic and largely uninformative weekly update.
Friday 8 November 2013
The Mysteries of Laundry in the Winter
Since we're moving into winter I'm faced with the problem of laundry yet again. I was starting to get the hang of it because when it's summer it rains less and therefore your laundry dries quicker. My strategy is typically to do laundry when it's sunny out so that I can dry them outside and they take one day to dry instead of two. Now that it's winter it rains just about everyday. It doesn't necessarily rain for long, but a day can start out sunny and then suddenly it's pouring. Only for half an hour, but it's enough to soak your clothes, undoing all the dryness.
Just to give you an idea of my drying process I decided I'd post a couple of photos to demonstrate the thought and hard work that goes into laundry in the UK. I am currently drying my clothes in three separate places. My underwear I lovingly hang on my bed to spare my roommates from having to see it when they come into the living room. It's also to spare me embarrassment since I don't have the coolest underwear around. Of course now it's on the internet with a picture of my teddy bear, so that's probably more embarrassing.
Place #2: The living room. This is where I hang my clothes if the day takes a nasty turn from sunny to raining. It takes longer to dry, but it does the trick in the end. If I were a normal person I'd just buy a rack for my room so that I could hang my underwear on that and not have to wait for my roommates to be done drying their clothes. That would take all the challenge out of drying my clothes though. Plus none of my roommates do it, so I don't want to be the snob who's too good for the public drying racks.
Last but not least, there's the outdoors clothes line. If I'm home alone I admittedly hang my underwear out there because it dries a lot faster. Hanging my clothes outside is my favourite because it makes me feel like some old Italian woman who likes her clothes to smell like the fresh air. Also, I like my clothes to smell like fresh air....or gas since we live right by a major road.
Okay, so obviously this is taken post rainfall. I decided that I don't care enough about that sweatshirt to bring it back in. It already got soaked and it will take ages to dry regardless of where it is. Total side note, do you see that shed in the background? I tried all my keys on it and it's locked. I'm convinced there's a dead body in there. Or maybe somebody's super creepy doll collection.
Anyway, tomorrow is the Lord Mayor's Show. I might go check it out. There's a parade and fireworks. I've decided that the Brits really love their fireworks. Any sort of event they have ends in them. I think they like to have a steady stream of them just to keep things interesting.
http://www.lordmayorsshow.org/
To sum up this post, I have no idea how to do laundry in the winter here. It seems impossible since winter is filled with rain. You have to constantly plan two days in advance so you can have clean clothes. I'm still not sure why people don't have dryers here. I actually haven't met one person who owns a dryer. It's some kind of weird conspiracy.
Just to give you an idea of my drying process I decided I'd post a couple of photos to demonstrate the thought and hard work that goes into laundry in the UK. I am currently drying my clothes in three separate places. My underwear I lovingly hang on my bed to spare my roommates from having to see it when they come into the living room. It's also to spare me embarrassment since I don't have the coolest underwear around. Of course now it's on the internet with a picture of my teddy bear, so that's probably more embarrassing.
Place #2: The living room. This is where I hang my clothes if the day takes a nasty turn from sunny to raining. It takes longer to dry, but it does the trick in the end. If I were a normal person I'd just buy a rack for my room so that I could hang my underwear on that and not have to wait for my roommates to be done drying their clothes. That would take all the challenge out of drying my clothes though. Plus none of my roommates do it, so I don't want to be the snob who's too good for the public drying racks.
Last but not least, there's the outdoors clothes line. If I'm home alone I admittedly hang my underwear out there because it dries a lot faster. Hanging my clothes outside is my favourite because it makes me feel like some old Italian woman who likes her clothes to smell like the fresh air. Also, I like my clothes to smell like fresh air....or gas since we live right by a major road.
Okay, so obviously this is taken post rainfall. I decided that I don't care enough about that sweatshirt to bring it back in. It already got soaked and it will take ages to dry regardless of where it is. Total side note, do you see that shed in the background? I tried all my keys on it and it's locked. I'm convinced there's a dead body in there. Or maybe somebody's super creepy doll collection.
Anyway, tomorrow is the Lord Mayor's Show. I might go check it out. There's a parade and fireworks. I've decided that the Brits really love their fireworks. Any sort of event they have ends in them. I think they like to have a steady stream of them just to keep things interesting.
http://www.lordmayorsshow.org/
To sum up this post, I have no idea how to do laundry in the winter here. It seems impossible since winter is filled with rain. You have to constantly plan two days in advance so you can have clean clothes. I'm still not sure why people don't have dryers here. I actually haven't met one person who owns a dryer. It's some kind of weird conspiracy.
Tuesday 5 November 2013
Happy Guy Fawkes Day to One and All!!!
Today I had peanut butter toast for breakfast, Thai for lunch, and chicken enchiladas for dinner. So basically the perfect trifecta of meals. I'm saying that now because I'm on some weird Mexican kick. In reality I wish there was some All Lovin' No Oven ice cream sundae thrown in, but there was no room, plus they don't have Cold Stone Creamery here. Or if they do then the entire city is conspiring to hide it from me. Anyway, basically what I'm saying is that GFD rules. I had a lot of great food, I saw some fireworks (no burning effigy!), and.....
Is your mind blown??? I found a peanut butter supplier! Happy Guy Fawkes Day to me! As a side note, I can take pictures that aren't blurry. I just happen to look better in the blurry ones. I'm not sure what that says about my physical appearance, but I'm not going to over think it. Anyway, yeah, I have someone who just arrived from Canada and brought me peanut butter and he's going home at Christmas and already said he'd bring me some when he gets back. Speaking of Christmas.....
Happy Red Cup Day! They have finally arrived meaning that Christmas is around the corner. There are no holidays in the way and that means that if I want to be totally out of control I can start listening to the Christmas playlist that never left my iPod. Also, in case you're wondering I ordered a peppermint hot chocolate to christen the arrival of the red cups. They don't have peppermint mochas here, which is mildly disappointing. I'm secretly hoping that they're waiting until December to unveil it, but they already have gingerbread lattes and some kind of toffee one, so it's not looking good.
In case you haven't noticed, the absence of Thanksgiving in the UK has had a weird effect on me. I'm now throwing all of my love for Thanksgiving into the other holidays and it's making me a little overly keen. The good news is that my one roommate is equally as insane and is willing to watch Elf with me this weekend.
Is your mind blown??? I found a peanut butter supplier! Happy Guy Fawkes Day to me! As a side note, I can take pictures that aren't blurry. I just happen to look better in the blurry ones. I'm not sure what that says about my physical appearance, but I'm not going to over think it. Anyway, yeah, I have someone who just arrived from Canada and brought me peanut butter and he's going home at Christmas and already said he'd bring me some when he gets back. Speaking of Christmas.....
Happy Red Cup Day! They have finally arrived meaning that Christmas is around the corner. There are no holidays in the way and that means that if I want to be totally out of control I can start listening to the Christmas playlist that never left my iPod. Also, in case you're wondering I ordered a peppermint hot chocolate to christen the arrival of the red cups. They don't have peppermint mochas here, which is mildly disappointing. I'm secretly hoping that they're waiting until December to unveil it, but they already have gingerbread lattes and some kind of toffee one, so it's not looking good.
In case you haven't noticed, the absence of Thanksgiving in the UK has had a weird effect on me. I'm now throwing all of my love for Thanksgiving into the other holidays and it's making me a little overly keen. The good news is that my one roommate is equally as insane and is willing to watch Elf with me this weekend.
Sunday 3 November 2013
A jaunt to the heath.....
I've been a truly lazy blogger lately and I really have no excuse. I need to go sit in some more coffee shops because that way I don't get distracted by my housemates and/or the TV. Columbo and Murder, She Wrote are on everyday. Who can resist that? Only a monster.
So I went to Hampstead Heath twice this week because I'm super weird. I may even go next week. It's got great views of the city and beautiful trees everywhere. Plus there were loads of dogs and I was hoping I might be able to steal one. There was also a ferret on a leash. I'm not going to lie, I thought it was weird but also thought about having a pet ferret would be totally awesome. I'm actually considering trying to volunteer at an animal shelter because I'm starting to go through Bean withdrawal. I miss her face so much and I'm starting to become that creepy lady who pets every dog she passes. That was totally off topic. Hampstead Heath. Gorgeous. Go to Parliament Hill for some decent views or a sweet tobogganing hill if it's winter. There's also a place called Pergola, which is really cool. You get to walk through some stone building and there's this giant house with a tennis court. It's awesome.
Oh right. They also have random ponds and a women and men's swimming area. It's just a part of the pond sectioned off for you to swim in. Apparently it's been there for ages and that's why they still have men and women swimming in separate areas. I asked my friend if I would be zapped by an electrical fence if I tried to jump in the men's area. He assured me I wouldn't be so in the summer I'm going for it. For some reason I envision myself doing this with a swimming cap and one piece bathing suit on. Also, if you're in Hampstead go to the Spaniards Inn. It's super old and was mentioned by Dickens. It's got a bunch of rooms you can sit in and the food is decent.
http://www.thespaniardshampstead.co.uk/
I also went to see some fireworks on Friday. This Tuesday (November 5) is Guy Fawkes Day, aka Bonfire Night. Guy Fawkes is basically a guy who is known for being involved in the Gunpowder Plot, which was a plot to overthrow James I and restore Catholicism to England. He was captured on November 5th, so that's the link (I just want to note that I got this information from Wikipedia. I'd hate to be nailed for plagiarism on my blog.) Now every year Brits put on a fireworks show and burn an effigy of Guy Fawkes to commemorate it, which is oddly pagan and therefore very fun. I have yet to see a burning effigy go down, but the fireworks were phenomenal. They have some pyrotechnic geniuses in London. They had some cool swirly ones and ones that seemed like they were rebounding off each other. Visually stunning. My hats off to the man who put two weeks and thousands of dollars into his GF fireworks display. It was a masterpiece. I'm planning on seeing some on Tuesday as well since that is the official Guy Fawkes Day. If I don't get to see a burning effigy I'm going to be disappointed. I'll probably take matters into my own hand and perform the pagan ritual in my backyard. If I don't write another blog by next weekend it's because my computer and house were burned from a pagan ritual gone wrong.
Total side note: If you're reading this in North America (so everyone) you can watch V for Vendetta to commemorate Guy Fawkes Day. It serves the same purpose as burning an effigy. Although it's less fun, so you should probably just have a bonfire too.
So I went to Hampstead Heath twice this week because I'm super weird. I may even go next week. It's got great views of the city and beautiful trees everywhere. Plus there were loads of dogs and I was hoping I might be able to steal one. There was also a ferret on a leash. I'm not going to lie, I thought it was weird but also thought about having a pet ferret would be totally awesome. I'm actually considering trying to volunteer at an animal shelter because I'm starting to go through Bean withdrawal. I miss her face so much and I'm starting to become that creepy lady who pets every dog she passes. That was totally off topic. Hampstead Heath. Gorgeous. Go to Parliament Hill for some decent views or a sweet tobogganing hill if it's winter. There's also a place called Pergola, which is really cool. You get to walk through some stone building and there's this giant house with a tennis court. It's awesome.
Oh right. They also have random ponds and a women and men's swimming area. It's just a part of the pond sectioned off for you to swim in. Apparently it's been there for ages and that's why they still have men and women swimming in separate areas. I asked my friend if I would be zapped by an electrical fence if I tried to jump in the men's area. He assured me I wouldn't be so in the summer I'm going for it. For some reason I envision myself doing this with a swimming cap and one piece bathing suit on. Also, if you're in Hampstead go to the Spaniards Inn. It's super old and was mentioned by Dickens. It's got a bunch of rooms you can sit in and the food is decent.
http://www.thespaniardshampstead.co.uk/
I also went to see some fireworks on Friday. This Tuesday (November 5) is Guy Fawkes Day, aka Bonfire Night. Guy Fawkes is basically a guy who is known for being involved in the Gunpowder Plot, which was a plot to overthrow James I and restore Catholicism to England. He was captured on November 5th, so that's the link (I just want to note that I got this information from Wikipedia. I'd hate to be nailed for plagiarism on my blog.) Now every year Brits put on a fireworks show and burn an effigy of Guy Fawkes to commemorate it, which is oddly pagan and therefore very fun. I have yet to see a burning effigy go down, but the fireworks were phenomenal. They have some pyrotechnic geniuses in London. They had some cool swirly ones and ones that seemed like they were rebounding off each other. Visually stunning. My hats off to the man who put two weeks and thousands of dollars into his GF fireworks display. It was a masterpiece. I'm planning on seeing some on Tuesday as well since that is the official Guy Fawkes Day. If I don't get to see a burning effigy I'm going to be disappointed. I'll probably take matters into my own hand and perform the pagan ritual in my backyard. If I don't write another blog by next weekend it's because my computer and house were burned from a pagan ritual gone wrong.
Total side note: If you're reading this in North America (so everyone) you can watch V for Vendetta to commemorate Guy Fawkes Day. It serves the same purpose as burning an effigy. Although it's less fun, so you should probably just have a bonfire too.
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