last day at the Foundation

...its weird....

still not entirely convinced about my new placement, but will update after my first day on monday...

Manikin has been getting a lot of attention lately

today was his pink phase

here comes the bride...

the addition of the white napkin dress cleared up Nisha's artistic fashion intentions

we have all decided that it is actually a guy in drag, much more fun that way

arabian niiiiiights.....like arabian daaaaaaaays

Manikin is dressed up like an Arab sheik

Although apparently he (she in this case) was supposed to be another thing, as Nisha informs me. As soon as I figure out a way to get those pictures off the camera, those will be up as well!

phone number thoughts

Phone numbers are a whopping 11 digits long over here, making it quite difficult to retain any of them, even your own...

Also, there seems to be no set way to write them. for example, in the States it is standard to write it as 3 digits, then the remaining 4. Here, how ever many ways there are to write 11 digits, that's how many ways I have seen it written.

Strange country

concert thoughts

NIN rocks! one of the best gigs I've been to in a while. I thought it was awesome when they started playing David Bowie songs, but then Gary Newman came out on stage and they jammed a bit, finishing off by playing Cars. awesome. (tho I don't think Justine and Harold knew the song, as they were not rocking out and singing along like Ben and I were....guess that song didn't get playing in France and the Netherlands...hmmm)

but oh my gosh, tube queue after the show. the O2 centre can probably hold about 50,000 people, and it was 95% full. and then all those people had to get home...we took one look at the queue 6 wide and about 300 metres long. and that was only to get into the structure housing the tube station. that was not through the lobby, down the escalator, through ticketing and onto the platform, and decided bus it was! the queue was long for that as well, but not as much. Harold and Justine managed to get on the first bus (and we saw Carla!) but Ben and I did not. however, while waiting for the next 188 we noticed that the queue for the tube had disappeared. went through and didn't even have to wait for another train. got home about 40 minutes before Harold and Justine.

mid-week musings

- So, had a nice chat with the Prince yesterday. Gotta say, I like the guy. Easy to talk to, really seems to care about what you are saying. Good guy.

- You have to be made out of stone if you don't cry at the end of The Notebook. Stone I tell you.

- To zone 4 or not to zone 4, that is the question...would hate to move out of the city, but at this point that doesn't seem to be an option. Now it is just teeny studio in zone 2 or slightly bigger 1 bedroom flat in zone 4. And so far, neither of those options has really fit into our budget...being poor in a very expensive city is difficult.

monday observations

It's a good morning when you can cross all three pedestrian crossings in a row.

Sure, you have to do a little illegal crossing....but ultimately worth it when you are not stuck on a traffic island for 5 minutes...

(plus I have the Blackadder theme song in my head)

rice cakes!

My new food obsession is Snack a Jacks Sweet Chili flavour mini rice cakes.

Ask Ben or Dani.

I've got 'em stashed in the pantry at the flat, in the bottom drawer of my desk, everywhere.

They are delicious.

They were on sale at Waitrose for 46p each, I bought 10 bags....

I may have a problem, but I don't think so.

mid-afternoon observation

I am a fiend for iced tea

Sam and I gave up trying to find some in London, so got all the fixins to make our own: pitcher to keep the brewed tea in the fridge, ice cube bags, lemon, etc

in the past week, Sam has prolly had 4 glasses of office-brewed iced tea. I think I have had upwards of 12

I have a problem...

(ps, earl grey makes a kick-ass iced tea)

theatre thoughts

I have got to be more pro-active about my theatre going habits.

Ben and I got an awesome engagement present of two tickets to Tom Stoppard's Arcadia from Dani, loved it and got the bug.

We then made a long list of all the shows we wanted to see, and then didn't act on it, forgetting that the shows do have time limits.

We most likely have already missed out on seeing Rowen Atkinson in Oliver! (his run ends 18 July, I called the box office yesterday and they are sold out through the 20th. Ben is going to see if we can get day of tickets just in case, but I do not think our chances are very high), and have yet to make a dent into any other part of our list.

But the reformation has started! Spurred on by Sam, we have booked tickets to go see Waiting for Godot with Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart. And good thing too, as that show's run ends 8 August (the earliest tickets we could find were 28 July...almost missed out on that one too).

But now I am determined. We will go to the theatre much more often! It seems ridiculous to be living in London and not take advantage of the West End.

Will keep you updated on my new quest...

badges? we don't need no stinkin badges!

this country goes on strikes a lot

first the tube workers strike (that was a fun 3 days....) and now the postal workers are striking


also, the more you type the word strike, the funnier it looks/sounds

memorial thoughts

Today was the 4 year anniversary of the London Underground bombings. In remembrance of the victims, a Memorial in Hyde Park was erected.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8137265.stm

This is a beautiful memorial, and truly a touching tribute, but the cost of these memorials has always befuddled me. The 52 3.5m (11.5') steel pillars cost £1 million. And as far as memorial pricetags go, that is fairly low. Some budgets reach into the 100 millions.

I have always wondered if somehow, a smaller, much more simpler physical memorial was built, and the remainder of the funds allocated and established some sort of foundation or charity or the like for the victims families to help get them through what they have just experienced would be more appropriate. I do not deny the importance of something you can touch and look at and is understandable to other people, but I suppose the comfort that you can get out of a physical memorial always seemed out of proportion to the cost of erecting it. A elaborate mausoleum does not comfort the grieving widow anymore than a simple tombstone does.

I have never had to go through anything like the families and friends of tragedy victims have had to, so I cannot pretend to thoroughly understand. However, it has always seemed to me that those people would not care how much money was spent of a memorial to their loved ones, only that they were recognized and appreciated at all. And that the poignancy of the tribute would not be halved if the budget was.

Again, mostly just conjecture on my part, but with the cost of dealing with a loved one's death, it almost seems more befitting to help out with the little things that can cause so much more grief and agony in the daily lives of the survivors (like organizing funerals, paying for them, supporting family that was left behind), than to make a huge expensive grand public gesture.

If the public gesture was a bit less extravagant (cost-wise, not talking about design here at all), maybe a bit of that money could be put pointed in a more useful direction. Just some thoughts.

(some post-posting thoughts to add. I realize as I re-read this that what I have just typed does not necessarily, or cannot, apply to war memorials, or where the death toll number is far greater. At least in the thoughts on reallocation of funds.

But I do believe that parts of my argument still stand. I have seen war memorials that are elaborate [the new WWII memorial in DC for example], and I have seen war memorials that are as simple as a tank pulled out of the water and preserved with a plaque dedication [the memorial to British and American soldiers who were killed practicing for D-Day at Slapton Sands on the southern coast of England]. Both stirring, both silence inducing, both bringing up appreciativeness for the sacrifices made for our countries. One at considerable less cost.

At the same time I do not think I would like to see all grand memorials go. I am a huge fan of Maya Lin's Vietnam Memorial, and think it is one of the best of its kind. I am just proposing not all memorials have to carry the price tag of the gross national income of most African countries. [I didn't mean for that to sound sarcastic....])

buggy hell

here are no window screens here

none

which means when we leave our windows open at night to get some air flow so we don't roast in our blankets, thousands of bugs fly in the window and then do not leave

I noticed when I was living in Italy that they didn't have window screens either, maybe it is just an American thing? I mean, granted, there are a lot more bugs in the States. I practically got eaten alive when I went back for Molly's graduation. But you would still think that there would be a system in place in the UK to keep the bugs they do have out of people's bedrooms/living rooms/kitchens.

strange...