26 August 2009

new quest

I think I am going to start delving into the film noir genre. I have always enjoyed it, actually own a few (though not here I don't think. That reminds me, have to replace my Brick DVD, as I have absolutely no idea where it went....), but as of yet have not really gotten to know it fully.

I think the start of this experiment may have to wait until Ben and I have moved into and are settled in our new flat, but I am anticipating it already.

25 August 2009

24 August 2009

oh, and one more thing

Ben and I need to get the sky sports channel so I can watch American sports

I miss football (american football that is) like crazy


go Pats!

moving tomorrow!

Really excited. both for the new place and to get out of the old place. (landlady was psycho...)

Unfortunately, Ben and I are not going to be able to move into our new flat for a couple weeks while the guy who is living there now waits for the flat he just bought to close, but we have awesome friends and we are crashing with Dani and Lenka and helping them out of their rent while they wait for their other roommates to arrive in the country. Kinda excited about that, and can't wait to see their new place. I have heard descriptions and it sounds amazing!

But it is kinda strange to be packing up the only life I have really known in London. Granted I am only moving about a half hour away, and am still very much in London, but its a bit surreal none the less. Added to the fact that Justine is now going to be living in Amsterdam and Dani, though only about 10 minutes down the road, will not just be across the hall anymore. Complete the whole thing with the new job I just started and my life is definitely starting to head in a slightly new direction.

I am looking forward to the change though. And I can't wait to move in to our new flat!

18 August 2009

Garfield hated mondays...

...I hate tuesdays.

Don't know why, but things always seem to go wrong on tuesdays.

17 August 2009

great birthday :)

Ben let me sleep in for one, with was appreciated considering how late we were all out the night before...
And when I work up I went downstairs to an entire army of origami hedgehogs! Ben had been practicing. He also gave me a couple really nice and comfy jumper wraps, a kick-ass card, a bag so we can tote our camera around the city and a book I have been wanting to read ever since I heard it was published: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. VERY excited bout that one. And Dani got me a beautiful scarf and necklace.

And then we finally got the Wii working (borrowed Alex's power cord) and so played a few rounds of golf, and then people came over for a birthday BBQ! It was great, we got veggies, halloumi cheese (how I never knew about this cheese in the States, I do not know, it is delicious), and B made some fantastic lime, garlic and coriander chicken. Add it all in a wrap and presto! yummy BBQ! They even got me a cake!

It was laid back, casual and as people tell it to me, the best saturday anybody has had in a while.
And later that night I got to talk to the family back home.

It was the best :)

14 August 2009

April Fool's, everyday...

Every year on April Fool's day, gmail puts out a notice about some sort of new ridiculous feature is going to start including in the email service, to see how many people believe it (a surprisingly large amount). I think 2 years ago their joke was that they would now be offering something called "Gmail Paper", where you could order hard paper copies of your emails and they would be delivered to your door.

Sounds really silly, right? This firm literally does that. They print out all the emails received by and sent from every person in the office via the Outlook server and John reads every single one. Then they get stored in binders, sent on one colour paper, received on another. I have seen the binders in the basement, they go back to like 2002 or something utterly fantastic like that. And the strangest point is, they do this besides having digital copies of all the emails stored in meticulously arranged folders on the main server.

I am working in a joke...

12 August 2009

dentists over here are EVIL!

First, you make an appointment (asking for a morning off from the job you have been at less than two weeks), thinking you will get something done at that point in time. But alas, that is not the case.

Nope, they just prod at your mouth, call off a bunch of numbers to another dentist, tell you you need to snack less, poke at your gums with a sharp pointy thing, tell you there is some bleeding (that is because you poked at them with a sharp pointy thing!), then tell you to come back tomorrow morning for a filling and to remove the leftover of a brace, which is the sole reason you made the appointment in the first place. Oh, and you can't get a teeth cleaning till september cause apparently those two things are separate in this country and the hygienist is only in like 4 hours a week.

So then you have to go into the job you have been at for less than two weeks to ask for another morning off to go back to the dentist (luckily you stayed absurdly late last week and they kinda owe you, in your mind anyway).

Back to the dentist you go! You sit down in the chair knowing this is gonna hurt. You are correct. No 'Hello', no 'Good morning', no 'How are you doing?', just 'Open wide' and bam!, you have a needle in your gums. 5 minutes and another novocaine shot later (because the first one was not working quickly enough for the dentist) and you have drills in your mouth. Thankfully, because of the double shot of novocaine that was ordered, you can't feel anything, but the noise alone is enough to drive the sanest person crazy.

Everything fixed, yay! But now the two needles full of numbing agent are really kicking in and the entire right side of your face is left derived of any sort of feeling. It feels roughly 5,000 times bigger than it is and you can't drink water without dribbling it down your chin (so you decided to stop trying). And now you have to go to work!

Needless to say, looking forward to 6pm and my preferred method of painkilling, the pub.

11 August 2009

it'll be september in 3 weeks...

...that is almost to much to wrap my mind around at the moment. where does the time go? I ask you.

ah well, things are good for the most part. the flat will be splitting up in a couple of weeks, which I am very sad about, but we are going out with a bang! had one last awesome party, had some fabulous house guests (hi Evan, Pat, Scott and Genevieve!) and Justine, Dani, Ben and I are planning lots of things to do with each other before Justine moves to Amsterdam (where we are all totally going to visit her) and Dani moves in with Lenka, Lenka's boy and hopefully Mike, and Ben and I go back to living alone. Excited about the move (and the decorating, IKEA here we come!) but this past year with the girls has been awesome, best flatmates/roommates I have ever had, and I kinda didn't want to see it change.

But things must move on. onto new jobs (more an that later), onto new flats and eventually onto whole new unknown things. scary, but exhilarating. at least I am staying in London, Bethania moved to Edinburgh a couple of weeks ago (totally going to go visit her too), and if she can make it work, we can make it work.

new job is meh. not bad per say, but not exciting, and not doing anything like the work I want to be doing. pulled a 14 hour day half-way through my first week (and missed a kick ass night with Dani, Justine, Ben, Scott, Alex and Genevieve, and still wicked bummed about that), but I am not going to make a trend of that (or let them make me). I have been leaving at 6pm every night (when office hours are up, 30 minutes later than leaving time at the Foundation, even though both days start at 9am), and I feel oddly guilty about it, as I am the only one leaving the office. I swear, all these people do is work and sleep, and occasionally eat when they are not skipping their lunch break to work...Ben hopes I get over the guilty feeling soon, and I do as well. Not a good precedent to set, but at least I am kindly but firmly letting the office know I will not be working insane hours all the time. I am more than willing to stay late the night before a deadline, have done that at all my offices and that is part of the job, but not every single day.

so that's the new job in a nutshell. We shall see how this progresses...

it is the end of summer (or what London calls a summer) and inching (centimetreing?) its way towards my favourite (sorry, automatic by now...) season, autumn, which I have to say I absolutely adore in this city. I am excited to have Ben see it. little less foliage than back in New England (tho I suppose you could say that for most any place outside of those 6 states), but still lovely. and by then I will be writing from a new flat! we have one that we have our eye on, just waiting to hear back about it. wish us luck!