Six Month Anniversary

Today is my six month anniversary in London. How am I spending it? By fleeing the city to head up to Leeds with my dad. My very first visitor had finally arrived. We thankfully had loads of sun and warmth on the Sunday because now he's forced to live in the cloudy, gloomy weather that often plagues England. Yesterday we went to the Natural History Museum and walked around Trafalgar Square. Today we're going to a Leeds United game and checking out the city in general. This is my first proper trip outside of London since October so I'm very excited. I've already seen horses and platform 9 3/4 today so I'm pretty much already having an amazing day.

I'm Still Alive

I'm pretty sure most people know I'm not dead, but it had been awhile since my last post. My Australian housemate had to move back home on Wednesday, which was really weird and sad. Now it's just me and one other housemate. It's crazy having so much space to ourselves, but we've made good use of it by lying on the couch and watching Dance Moms. Apart from that I've been very busy at work. Thankfully I have my dad visiting next weekend so I get a bit of a break. In case you're wondering what I'm doing on a Friday night, I'm watching Airplane and realizing that as an adult I'm far more aware of how bananas it is than when I was a kid.

Sunday Morninging It

Well, I finally made it to church this morning. Most Sundays I'm too lazy for it, but since I wasn't hungover and I went to bed at midnight I figured I'd go. The service was a bit boring and they tried to recruit me to the creepy night service again, but the weather is gorgeous today. The sun is shining, it's relatively warm out, and so I went for a walk through the Common and went grocery shopping. After a bleak couple of weeks it was a good reminder that spring is just around the corner, despite the groundhog's cruel prediction of six more weeks of winter. So, happy almost spring everyone!

Five Month Anniversary

Normally I'm terrible at anniversaries, but since I arrived on the ominous day of September 11 is an easy one to remember. I'm finding at this stage is weird to be here because I've forgotten that I sound different. It's not until I met someone new and have to one again explain where I'm from and why I'm here. Apart from that things are sinking into a normal routine of waiting for weekends, complaining about the weather, and constantly reminding myself that I desperately need rain boots. Oddly enough a chick on The Bachelor kind of summed it up best. She said something like the hardest part about moving was missing the culture of home. That was total paraphrasing, but you get the idea. I love it here and it's so amazing, but I'm always aware that nothing's as good as home. I also want to point out that The Bach chick was a Canadian living in Germany, so way more intense than my move. Anyway, happy anniversary to me. At this time next month I'll be hanging out with my first visitor!

Waitangi Day and McDonald's Brawls

I promise I'm not dead.  My lack of posting mainly has to do with the laziness that goes hand in hand with winter.  My motivation to do anything is at a low point.  It's not even cold here.  It's just raining constantly and that means that my main motivation is to stay warm and dry, which involves hanging out in my sweats and staying indoors as much as possible.  However, I went against this instinct on Saturday for a "pub crawl."  It turns out that Kiwis are the most outrageous of people and when it's Waitangi Day they go balls out and dress up in animal costumes or doctors (something to do with a TV program there).  What's Waitangi Day you ask?  That's a good question.  At the time I had no idea.  I actually didn't even know that the pub crawl was in honour of a New Zealand day.  I just showed up because I thought I should get out of the house.

Waitangi Day (/waɪˈtʌŋi/,^[1] named after Waitangi, where the Treaty of Waitangi was signed) commemorates a significant day in the history of New Zealand. It is a public holiday^[2] held each year on 6 February to celebrate the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, New Zealand's founding document, on that date in 1840.

Copied straight from Wikipedia, so you know it's true.  Anyway, the pub crawl is meant to go along the Central Line and you're supposed to hit up 28 pubs along the way.  Obviously going into this I had no intention of completing it because I would be dead by the end of it.  Thankfully the pub crawl was actually just going into off license shops and walking around with beer.  It was crazy though.  There were like thousands of people there and all so loud and so drunk.

The best part of my night was at the end when my housemate and I went to McDonald's (obviously).  Three girls were berating the workers at McDonald's because they were drunk and mean and my housemate ripped into them and because I'm afraid of confrontation I apologized and told them they should just leave, but.....WE GOT FREE FOOD!!!  That's right, free McDonald's.  Basically one of my dreams come true.  It was aamazing!!!!  Best part of the day for sure.

As a side note, just watched Charles Hamelin win the gold in speed skating!  I love the Olympics and I'm proud of Canada because we're currently in first place for medals.  It's weird watching the Olympics here because it's obviously British coverage and therefore they don't care as much about Canada, which is a shame because the Brits aren't great at winter sports.  Now on to the moguls!

How to Go to the Dentist: British Stylez

So about a week, maybe two weeks ago my gums started to hemorrhage blood when I brushed my teeth.  At first I wasn't stressed about it.  I figured that this was overdue since I've been eating loads of candy and never flossing.  Then I got a nasty toothache last Friday and acted as if it was the worst pain life had to offer.  I have a low pain threshold and I don't even pretend to be able to be able to handle pain.  I just whine about it until it goes away.  My poor coworker found this out the hard way.  Although this week she said I barely complained, so maybe I was having an internal conversation with myself.  Anyway, at this point I started to panic, especially since I could feel the swelling in my gums.  So I asked how to book a dentist appointment.  It's a magical experience.  You go on the NHS site and tell them to find locations near you.  Then you get to read up on reviews and pick your dentist based on what the site tells you they offer.  So I picked one and booked online....ONLINE!  Then I got an email reminder and then two days before a text asking me to confirm.  AMAZING!  So today I rock up and I'm like "Yo, I'm here for my appointment."  They handed me an easy form to fill out.  I didn't have to prove that I belong in this country or anything.  Then I saw the dentist.  She took some x-rays and was like "Don't sweat it.  It's just some gingivitis.  Just keep flossing.  Book an appointment with me in six months for a check up and a hygienist appointment in between to get the plaque build up off."  Then I went downstairs, paid my £18, and got out of there.  It was ridiculously easy and required very little human contact, which I loved.  I love my dentist in Canada.  Love him, which actually made me even more nervous for this experience because I thought there was no way they could beat Zietsma and they didn't.  I would pick Zietsma over this lady any day, but making everything happen was a breeze.  I'm usually terrible at this stuff, so if I can do it and find it easy then it is easy for all mankind.  Next time you're in England check it out.  It will be life altering.  Although I will say that I got no free toothbrush and floss.  What's that about?  Maybe when I go for my cleaning they'll spoil me with such luxuries.

Ashursting

I started my week off by going to Ashurst Forest for some training.  I'll admit that I was grumpy and horrible last week.  I was just not into the week and everything was just getting to me.  I'm amazed no one commented on my lack of enthusiasm since everyone here seems to think I'm the happiest person ever.  Thankfully this week started off better.  I had to catch a train at 7:45am, so that wasn't the best ever, but Ashurst Forest was beautiful.  To get to the office you have to go through a forest that actually looked like a swamp because of all the flooding.  I saw sheep and donkeys and horses and pigs and unicorns, okay that one was before the caffeine kicked in.  May not have been real.  It was a nice break though.

I've also gotten into a routine of watching The Simpsons and Geordie Shore everyday after work, which is basically the best combo ever.  I just spend my evenings laughing and being happy I don't live in Newcastle where people are slutty and overly tanned despite the fact that it rains all the time there.  Today I've just been wasting time on Buzz Feed, which led me to this.........

http://www.buzzfeed.com/tabathaleggett/the-harry-potter-guide-to-the-u-k

Needless to say this is my new UK goal.  I want to see every place on here.  I don't care how long it takes or how in debt I get doing it.  It's happening.   

Weekend

Well, this weekend was surprisingly eventful.  On Friday I went to Ice Bar, which is an actual ice bar.  I got to wear a very sexy parka and drank out of glasses made of ice.  I felt like we were all part of some weird ice cult since everyone was walking around slowly with their hoods up.  For all I know we actually were gate crashing a cult gathering.

After that we went to the M&M's shop, which was actually so fun and I'm pretty sure I was the oldest person there.  There's definitely a chance that I'll return there to get an M&M's t-shirt.  They had so much cool stuff.  Thankfully I kept my dignity and didn't get into the photos with all of the M&M's, but I don't doubt it will happen one day.  I just felt weird about pushing kids out of the way so I could beat them to photos with the yellow M&M.

Last night I went to my friend's birthday party and it was a fondue party, so that was obviously awesome.  We went to a bar called 151 which my friend described as an overly expensive basement bar where posh people go to hang out.  His friends are from Chelsea so they're all quite fancy.  Today was glorious.  I spent the day in my sweatpants just watching Reese Witherspoon movies with my housemate.  Overall it was a good weekend.  I wasn't entirely unproductive and I got to see some cool places.

It's Time for the Winter Blues

This weekend my housemate told me she thinks I'm going to go through a quarter life crisis soon because I'm too happy.  A very important thing to note about London is that people are very suspicious of happy people.  No matter how good your life is you should be complaining.  Thankfully this week hasn't been my favourite and so I've followed suit with the rest of Londoners and started to complain.  I'm blaming this mainly on my winter blues finally settling in and the fact that all the rain has made me slightly sick.  I also started off the week going to Winnersh.  I'm always excited to check out new places, but I suddenly realized at midnight (day of) that I didn't really know how to get to the office I was meant to visit for training.  I ended up waiting around for an hour because allegedly someone was picking me up, but I'm pretty sure they didn't know that.  It wasn't super annoying, but it's not the best way to start the week.  

That's basically the downtown of....not Winnersh, but some place slightly outside of Winnersh.  It was a gorgeous day out and I had a good sandwich, so in the end it was a decent day.

Yesterday also ended well, but work was a bit hectic and a lady accused me of stealing a letter off her desk.  This is weird and frustrating in itself, but what bothered me more was the poor logic of coming to this conclusion.  This lady came in and asked if I'd stolen some letter off of her desk before she'd even been upstairs meaning she'd noticed it was missing on Monday, so she thought I went in after hours specifically to steal mail off of people's desks.  This makes me wonder if there's a rumour going around my office that I'm a sociopath.  

The good news is that it was Two for Tuesdays, so my housemate and I got a large pizza each.  Thank you Domino's for making my life complete.

Tonight we're going to see American Hustle, so my week is getting better as it goes on, but I'm still looking forward to the weekend so that I can hibernate and embrace my winter blues.

The ever so exciting town of Wendover

So on Friday I went to Wendover, which is in Buckinghamshire.  I took a fairly sketchy train and when I got there it was two platforms (one for each way) and a really tiny station.  I was taken through the downtown and to the office, which is on a dirt country road that leads to a dead end.  It was a surprisingly beautiful trek out there and actually nice to be out in some nature.  Plus I got free lunch that included cake, so that alone was worth the trip.  I took some photos, but seeing as I was taking them on the train they weren't the greatest.  

This is the booming downtown of Wendover.  A place that no one seems to have heard of.

And, last but not least, the very exciting platform I stood on going home.

After a day of uncomfortably personal stories I'm officially qualified to perform First Aid.  Of course if I'm ever put into a position where I have to use it I'll most likely be too terrified because the success rate is 2%, so I'd basically have to feel like I've let a person die.

On a more positive note, today I'm being sent out into the middle of nowhere for some software training.  When I Google mapped it it showed a house on a residential street.  I'm slightly convinced that this is a practical joke that I'm taking dead seriously.  If it is the company is willing to spend a lot on my train ticket to make it believable.  I'll keep you posted as to how this turns out.  Or if no post is created in the next 7 days please file a missing person's report.

2014 so far....

Alright, so obviously New Year's Eve involved copious amounts of drinking and obviously New Year's Day involved lying on the couch with McDonald's.  Now that that's out of the way, update on my resolutions.  Basically I've only stuck to going to church because so far that just means I went last Sunday.  I went to the 6pm service at my church, which is the "new age" one.  I find singing songs about how God is awesome a bit unsettling and there's too much talk about feelings and emotions and reconnecting with God.  I'm not into it, but I thought it might be a good opportunity to meet new people.  I did go for a drink with everyone, but it was a bit weird.  In true hypocritical fashion I'm not sure how keen I am on church people.  I just find them to be a bit intense.  I told them that I'll go back this week, but I'm not sure I'll follow through.  That being said, I might be sent straight to hell for lying to church people.  Tough call.

Apart from that I've basically done nothing good with this year so far.  I've been quite lazy and eating like crap.  I start everyday with good intentions.  I pack soup everyday for lunch and avoid the candy.  Then I go out and find candy or grab a pizza on my way home.  So, that's not great.  Tomorrow I have soup and salad, so hopefully the extra food of salad will help me stick to eating healthier.  In other good news, my job is suddenly sending me all over the place (aka to all the boring places of England) for training.  I'm going to Wendover (middle of nowhere) for First Aid training on Friday, Reading on Monday, and Bromsgrove at the end of the month.  Bromsgrove will actually be fun because I get to go in a car and spend the night there.  I'm excited to have a couple of days out of London and see some of the countryside.  My new TV obsession here is Geordie Shore.  I know it's so bad and trashy, but I love it anyway.  It's hilarious and they've got the weirdest accents.  I think that's it for an update.  I've been quite boring since the new year began.  I think my body is just detoxing from what I put it through during that week.  It doesn't know what to do anymore.  Oh, right, and I went to the theatre last Saturday.  Just a small play called 39 Steps.  It had a cast of four and was pretty funny.  I went to go to a proper West End show sometime soon though.  Okay, that's officially all of my updates.  On Saturday I'll update all of you on the exciting town of Wendover and what I learned in First Aid training.  Try not to get too excited.  If you can't wait until Saturday you can Google Wendover and get an idea of all the fun I'll be having.

Farewell 2013!!!

Since it's the last day of the year I figured I'd post something.  I'm not going to get all sappy because I'm a robot and sort of hate that kind of thing.  All things considered I think 2013 was a pretty awesome year.  I got a lot of free food, I finally moved to England, and I got a sweet coffee machine.  Of course with the number 13 in it I always knew it would be a banner year.  13 is an awesome number and it was always going to bring me some luck.  And let's face it, most of what has happened to me so far this year has been pure luck.  There is no way I should have found a job and amazing housemates almost as soon as I got here.  I never have that kind of good fortune and it certainly had nothing to do with me, except for the fact that I was on almost every job and roommate finder website out there, but that doesn't mean you're going to get anything good.  So if nothing else I will consider 2013 an anomaly and be thankful for it.  Towards the end I've been a bit crazy and not really taking care of myself from a physical point of view.  I'm pretty sure all of my organs are set to fail on me, so in 2014 I really am going to aim to be better.  I already have several cans of soup in my cupboard ready for my lunches.  Aside from that I'm trying to keep expectations low for 2014, despite what my resolutions indicate.  Overall I just hope that things continue to go well and I don't give myself diabetes.  If you keep your expectations low chances are at some point you'll be surprised.  That's my motto going into 2014.  On that note, I hope you all had a wonderful year and best of luck in 2014!

2014 Here I Come.....

Well, the new year is almost here, so naturally I'm making some resolutions for myself.  I make this every year fully knowing that I will achieve none of them, but I figure it doesn't hurt to start the year off with some goals.  So, here they are.

1.  Tough Mudder.

My friend mentioned that he's putting together a Tough Mudder team and asked if I wanted to join.  I said yes, but with the warning that I would most likely back down because I'm lazy and lack determination.  However, as of right now I'm keyed up to train for it because it will help me with my two other goals to eat better and exercise more.

2.  Eat better and exercise more.

For lunch today I had Pringles and Lamington, so I think it's safe to say that eating better is almost a necessity.  I think I'm a borderline diabetic at risk of having a heart attack at this point.  As for my exercise....it's equally as bad.  I'm lucky that I'm still walking to and from work everyday.

3.  Get out of London.

This sounds really bad.  I don't mean it in an "I hate London and can't wait to escape it" kind of way.  I just figure that since I'm here I should take the opportunity to see more of England, especially since it's so easy to get everywhere.  I love London, but I don't want to be one of those people who becomes a London hermit and refuses to ever go anywhere else in the UK.

4.  Learn how to cook.

This is a resolution of mine every year.  It never happens because I don't actually enjoy cooking.  If I win the lottery the first thing I'm doing is hiring a chef.  I'll get them to make me everything in pie form because it's such an amazing and efficient way of eating a bunch of different foods.

5.  Go to see a football and rugby game.

Most weeks I say I'm going to go to a pub and watch either a football or a rugby game and so far I've only done this twice (one match of each sport).  Now that American football is coming to an end I need to make the transition into European sports.

6.  Go to church more.

This may seem like a weird one, but realistically I've been terrible about going to church.  I was going to go today at 6pm and then decided to watch the Dolphins last game instead (they lost to the Jets and it totally wasn't worth watching), so in the new year I'm going to try and be better about this because I think it helps me to be a better person.

7.  Take a class.

Okay, I haven't talked about this with anyone.  It's coming out of nowhere, but I sort of want to take a class in something.  Somewhat to meet new people and somewhat just because I feel like my brain is atrophying and I think learning new things will help to focus my brain.  I've considered language classes, but I'm pretty bad at learning new languages and get discouraged easily, so I might do something else instead.

8.  Volunteer.

Now that I'm making this list I'm realizing how ambitious it is.  I guess the key is to not do it all at once and overwhelm myself.  I'm trying to be a better person because I think these first three months in London have been fairly selfish, so I think I should try to get back on track and volunteer.  It's a big city and I'm sure there are lots of opportunities to do this.

9.  Go to Greece and Russia.

I guess one of my other goals was to get out of London and technically this is out of London, but whatever.  If you're being that technical then you're crazy.  I thought I'd point it out before anyone beat me to it.  Anyway, these are the two places I want to visit most while here.  That and Norway, but apparently Norway is very expensive, so it's not good enough to make it into my goal list.  Only an honourable mention.

10.  Find a boy who's sole purpose in life is to cook for me and pay for the dog I will one day own.

This is more of a dream than a goal.  I'm thinking of putting an ad in the paper.  Someone's bound to go for it.  Maybe I can bribe them with candy and beer.

Okay, that's it.  Ten is a nice round number.  Realistically we're flipping into an even numbered year, so the chances of it being good or productive are slim, but you never know.  Aim high and all that.  I think there's a saying that fits in there, but I'm not good with inspirational quotes.  Basically I'm hoping that if I have ten resolutions I might get lucky and achieve two of them and that's enough for me.

British Style Christmas!!!

Alright, so first Christmas in England basically involved a lot of Skyping and a lot of drinking.  It was surprisingly fun though.  We had a proper dinner.  Entirely cooked by Steve because I can't cook to save my life.  We had turkey, pork, roasted potatoes, vegetables, and dessert, which we actually didn't make it to because we were so stuffed.  We also forgot the stuffing, but we still have it to make for later.  In case you're wondering about that table in the picture it's patio furniture from our backyard.

  

After that we went to the orphans Christmas, but it was really just a lot of people sitting around in groups of people they knew and it was kind of weird.  So instead we went to Brewers, which is a gay bar.  There was a drag queen in a Santa dress and I got a free Santa hat, so it was obviously a good time.  I admittedly drank way too much though because as it turns out trying to keep on pace with three Aussies is very difficult.  I don't recommend it if you're a lightweight.

To sum up, the only bit about this Christmas that resembled my Christmas back in Canada was going to midnight mass, but this was a good alternative.  It wasn't as sad or lonely as I expected it to be, but maybe that's because I was drunk for the last half of it.  I think mainly it had to do with the fact that I spent it with three other orphans who made it really fun.

It's a Christmas Miracle!!!

Well, yesterday it was super windy and raining, so naturally I got today off.  I woke up today at my normal time and showered and everything and then it dawned on me that I should check the trains.  Turns out they were all cancelled.  So I called my office to tell the one other person who would be working that I couldn't make it in only to be diverted to the other office where they told me that apparently no one made it into my office.  Thank you, Santa!  Now I've been sitting around all day with my housemate watching Veep and catching up on a Christmas Carol, which I'm not reading at a good clip.  I've also downed a pot of coffee because that's what days off are all about.  I wasn't that bothered about going in today since I have a week off, but starting Christmas break early is always amazeballs.  I cleaned my room and the kitchen, so now I feel like I can relax for two months.  Seriously, now that it's winter, despite the balmy weather, I'm basically in my hibernation mode.  And by basically I mean I'm fully immersed in it.  I actually cancelled a dinner with someone last week so I could watch Dance Moms with my housemate.  I faked food poisoning so that I could come home and wrap myself up in a warm blanket and veg in front of the TV.  If that's not the beginning of winter hibernation I don't know what is.  It's just so dark and cold outside and no one around here is teaching me how to be a bitchy and crazy dance mom, so I'm better off indoors.

On that note, I am about to head outside.  I don't especially want to, but there's food involved and apart from church it will be my only time out of the house, so I can't really get out of it.  Besides, I just bought an 18 pack of beer and my housemate and I have already decided that Boxing Day will consist of drinking and movies because going shopping on Boxing Day around here is basically a death wish for me.  I would undoubtedly get trampled by the hoards of people who have lost their decency and have no problem elbowing a scrawny, small chick in the face.  Speaking of which, I was ID'd at our corner store yesterday.  The girl looked at my ID and went "Oh my gosh.  86?"  Obviously my response was, "You got it.  Don't let me fool you.  I'm an old lady."  In her defense, I was wearing a black toque and a hoodie, so I looked a bit shady.  Okay, I'm already late for this lunch.  I'll probably write on here again later because I won't be able to sleep knowing that Santa's coming.

Christmas is coming....

So, I started this yesterday and then never posted it because I actually got too lazy.

Well, it's Saturday afternoon and all I've done today is drink a pot of coffee and watch the X Factor USA finale.  I have no investment in either contestant and I think they both suck, but I must know who wins.  When this is your Saturday you know that you're winning at life.  Nothing beats a Saturday of pure indulgence.  Just relaxing and knowing that it's completely justified because all the sights and malls are insanely packed plus it's raining outside.  The world wants me to be doing nothing indoors all day.

Anyway, I'm now preparing for Christmas and by that I mean I stole some decorations from work and I'm about to read A Christmas Carol.  I sort of OD on Christmas spirit when we come to the Christmas home stretch.  Christmas movies, A Christmas Carol, Christmas beats on my iPod.  I love it.  Of course I'm also the laziest person ever when it comes to actually coming through with presents at Christmas because malls are filled with youth and they scare me.  So this year I'm aiming for the Polish Christmas on January 6th because I've only sent out Christmas cards.  I've learned that shopping for presents is much harder without a car and no major mall nearby.  I have some presents and wrapping paper, so it's just a matter of actually sending stuff back home.  My defense will be that I'm trying to extend the time of Christmas joy by getting them sent over late.

Keeping on the Christmas theme, my housemate and I have found an orphans Christmas in the Clapham area.  I'm actually very excited for it.  I think it'll be fun to just have a chill Christmas that's pretty much just drinking and listening to Christmas music.  Although I will admit that I'll miss my family.  My Portuguese coworker said that she found it liberating when she spent her first Christmas away from home, but she went to her boyfriend's, so I don't think that's that liberating.  You're still having a family Christmas.  I think she's just pitying me and trying to pump me up for my impending orphans Christmas.

http://www.theclaphamnorth.co.uk/read-me/entry/christmas-is-coming

It's now Sunday and I'm watching a behind the scenes of Vicar of Dibley.  British people are hilarious and geniuses.  Anyone who can make the story of a vicar in a small village seem funny is phenomenal in my books.  I always love behind the scenes because you learn all the thought and work that goes into a program and it's amazing how the smallest thing will be so planned out.  Apparently the aim of the show initially was to push the Church of England to allow women to be ordained because the creator went to a wedding that a woman performed and he found it to be a lot more personal and well performed than when male ministers did it.  There's your fun fact for the day!

Get me to the church on time....

That title makes no sense.  I just couldn't think of anything else with church in it and I have no creativity.  I found a church!  I was a bit unsure at first because it had a screen in it and was a bit empty when I first arrived, but it filled up a bit and the screen was only used to exploit the cuteness of children by making them sing some song they learned, so I accept it.  The church is called Holy Trinity and it's located in Clapham Common, which is pretty cool.  It was a bit of a weird service, not majorly traditional and they do the new Lord's Prayer, but they don't sing it and I can still say the traditional one, so I won't hold that against them.  They offered me coffee, the main minister is a bit awkward, and the sermon was good, so I'm sold.  Plus they have a "younger" service at 6pm on Sundays, which I would normally be totally against because I'm secretly 95, but they go to the pub after, so I'm willing to give it a shot.  I've said "so" a lot in this post already.  Anyway, it was a decent service.  A little long, but I have yet to be at a service that is only an hour.  I think long services are just a way of life here.  As long as they give me coffee afterwards I'm on board.  I also found out that there's a church right across the street from me, so I may try that one day, but I don't know if I'd like going to a church that's so close to me.  There's no reason for this.  The proximity is just a bit weird.  What if the minister catches me stumbling home from the bar one night?  I don't know why the minister would be at the church on a Saturday night, but you never know.  These are the things I worry about when picking a church, which may be why it's taken me so long to find one.

Just to make me seem slightly cooler by now going on and on about church, I also went to a Christmas party last night.  It was at my cousin's house and I was naturally nervous because I didn't know anyone there and I'm socially awkward.  There were only about ten people at the party, which made it even weirder, but eventually I got into a groove and it was okay.  That may have been because I'd had three mugs of mulled wine, but that's really not that much, so my awkwardness should have been worse.  It was nice being in a different part of London and at a bit of a different party.  So far most weekends I've just gone out and gotten drunk or lounged around my house, so it was nice going to a house party.  I did leave with the following awkward send off, "I'll probably never see any of you again, but it was nice meeting you."  I have no idea why I said this.  I'm not good at goodbyes.  I'll put it on my long list of New Year Resolutions.  Tonight I'm going to watch X Factor with my housemates and gear up for my final full week of work before the Christmas break.

1,2,3 Train With Me....

Since I have yet to see a single snowflake here I thought I'd share this Buzzfeed article with you.  Vintage Christmas in London.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/ailbhemalone/16-magical-photos-of-old-time-festive-london

I have to admit that I'm really looking forward to Christmas here.  I'll miss my family of course, but it will be interesting to see what Christmas will be like as an adult orphan who still has family.  Plus, for the first time ever I have a week off at Christmas.  My brain might get overwhelmed with so much time off, but probably not because I've only been working for a month.

My train was delayed by a solid twenty minutes this morning because the headlights were flickering or something.  While we were stopped at a station I attempted to snap some pics.  This was a pretty big fail since I was in a train and only half a coffee in, but the results are displayed for you below.  I also attempted to get some fog shots, but the train was moving and they just ended up being crazy blurry.  Anyway, it was a beautiful morning and despite having to wake up earlier than usual I was still able to appreciate it.  I know eventually I'll become a jaded train rider, but so far I love it.  It's calming, I get to read the paper and drink my coffee, and if I'm lucky I get to listen in on teenage girls gush about boys and how far they've gone with them.  Living the dream.

Just to add to my train joy I will say that I'm insanely grateful that I take the train and not the tube.  Even though some people at Clapham Junction can be rude and push you out of the way the tube is far more volatile.  I think grown men would be willing to shove me on the tracks to get a spot on the tube.  This may be way stabbings are so high in London.  I bet 80% of them take place in the tube during rush hour.  Male train riders are far more gentlemanly.  And obviously the girls who ride trains are way cooler and prettier than the ones on the tube.

Weekend Update: Doing it up Clapham style

Once again laziness has taken over me.  I should really start blogging on the train because I'm on it for about half an hour each way, so it would be a good use of my time.  Instead I read the Metro and then bring up the day's topics to my coworkers so they think I'm smart.  Unfortunately I usually only read about half the article and so I don't have much to contribute.  I can have one good comment and then I'm done because I have no idea what I'm talking about.  My favourite part of the paper is actually the good deeds and love section.  People write things like "To the guy with the hot bod that gets on at Embankment everyday.  I think you're totally gorg and we should go for a drink. - The Girl Wearing a Hideous Jumper."  Do these things ever result in a date?  They're always signed off in the weirdest way and just make you seem like a stalker.  Half the time they'll say something like "We made brief eye contact and I think it's love."  I smile at almost everyone I pass because my awkwardness doesn't know what else to do.  Now I'm nervous this is being misconstrued.  Thankfully no one is going to fall in love with me at my train station because I always look disheveled and under caffeinated in the morning.  The good deeds portion of the section is far less creepy.  It always makes me happy because it shows you that even in a city where grown men push you out of the way to get a spot on the tube there are still good people out there.  It's comforting, especially the ones where kind citizens help drunk people get home.  I suspect one day this may apply to me and I'll have to write into the Metro thanking them.

Anyway, this weekend I planned on staying in and being lazy, but I got dragged out on both Friday and Saturday.  Thankfully both times were within Clapham and therefore required little energy or planning on my part.  Friday I came home from dinner with my friend and my housemate goes "I want to get drunk and dance."  I asked if she meant in the living room, but obviously this wasn't the case.  I guess that was just wishful thinking on my part.  We ended up having a lot of fun and I had an amazing sub before coming home.  The best part was having half of it left over for the next day.  Then on Saturday I was full out asleep on the couch while watching X Factor and a different housemate came home and told me we were going out.  I was in my pajamas, but I figured I'd already been sleeping for two hours so why not.  We ended up going to a pub down the road called Pensbury Arms.  We were expecting it to be a cool local pub, but when we went inside there were about five people and a bunch of laser lights and a DJ.  We got one beer, which oddly enough lasted us until closing time at 11.  We considered ourselves lucky for making it out alive because the place was insanely sketchy.  In the back room there was a chick completely passed out on the table and there was some guy carrying around a mic singing Paradise by Coldplay.  They had karaoke, but this guy seemed to be the only one doing it.  Needless to say, we will be returning just to see if it's always like that.  I figure if nothing else it's a good place to predrink because the drinks were cheap and you consider it a good night when you make it out in one piece.

There's not much else to report.  I've only taken about two photos recently and these are them.

This is a photo of a tree at my local grocery store.  I'm very happy every time I go in because I get to know how many sleeps there are until Christmas.  It's hard to keep track without an Advent Calendar.

This is an extremely blurry photo of Harrods.  I can tell you right now that you should avoid Central London at all costs during the Christmas season.  I was so excited going out earlier in the day because Harrods has Christmas stuff and there are lights everywhere, but by the time I was heading home I was just pure cranky from all the people.  It was insane trying to get anywhere.   

Work is going well.  I'm getting free food on a regular basis and one of my coworkers is my train buddy on the way home.  I also learned something new this week.  Squash is juice.  My coworker kept mentioning how we had a ton of squash and the whole time I was thinking that I hadn't seen any squash in the entire building.  I didn't want to show my ignorance so I just agreed.  Then later in the grocery store I saw juice on the shelves and it was called squash.  Very strange.  This week the head of the company is coming in, which is a bit daunting because he apparently likes people to be very professional and I have a tendency to make awkward and inappropriate jokes when I'm nervous.  Hopefully he just chalks this up to me being a crazy Canadian.  I'll just say the heatwave they're having here is effecting my social skills.

Just Because It's Christmas.....

Of course since I said I'm not drinking all the time I now have to admit that I didn't go to church today because I was too hungover.  In my defense I had no intention of going out on both Friday and Saturday, but my housemate basically bullied me into it.  The good thing is that both nights were in Clapham, so I got to walk home at the end of the night and not spend any money on a cab.  Thankfully I did have some productivity this weekend.  I managed to get a couple of Christmas presents and I saw some cool stuff downtown.  Please do your best to appreciate the pictures I'm about to show you.  I had to force my friend to stop every five minutes while I took lame touristy shots of all this stuff.

 

They are loving Christmas over here.  The decorations are all over the city and they're crazy.  I'm constantly like a little kid screaming stuff like "Oh my gosh, it's so pretty."  If all of that wasn't enough excitement I also went into a toy store.

In case you're wondering, I have no idea who that child is, but after about ten minutes of standing around waiting for parents to acknowledge my presence and allow me one small photo I finally just took the creepy route and snapped a photo of some unknown child.  In all fairness, had I been in the photo I would have been similarly creepy and respectful of the Lego Queen.  This store was overwhelmingly fun.  There were people screaming and throwing airplanes at my head.  Kids were everywhere and I learned that Furbys cost £80, which is absolutely bonkers.  Now that I'm older I feel so bad for putting my parents through the stress at finding money for a ridiculous toy I would only use for a month.  I had no idea that Lego and Ninja Turtles figurines were so expensive.  I feel like I've lived a very sheltered life.

In other news, I'm actually reaching a ridiculous point with missing my dog.  I saw a dog on the tube today and I was smiling like a psychopath the whole time.  Despite this the owner allowed me to pet her.  Apparently she didn't realize that I was one second away from kidnapping her dog and renaming it Beneficent Benson.  Her real name was Jesse (although she totally looked like a Beneficent) and she was some sort of black dog.  Not a lab.  Anyway, I've actually started to research getting some other kind of pet, like a ferret or a hamster.  I don't need a pet, but I'm having some sort of weird maternal instinct without Bean around.  I just want to look after something.  The only thing holding me back is that my housemates may not enjoy the smell of a ferret and might actually find it repulsive.  

As a final thought on the weekend, it's now December, so this is just a reminder to you all that "Just because it's Christmas and at Christmas you tell the truth."  That sounds weird out of context, but you should all watch Love Actually and bask in the amazingness that is the Christmas season.  The end.