11/27/2008
Back in Edmonton
Ok, so I promised that I'd write a blog post explaining my being back in Edmonton almost a month sooner than planned. There really isn't much to explain, but here you go:
I was going stir crazy. Not having a job or much else to do was getting to me. I tried to go out every day, but there wasn't always something for me to do. Plus, if there was maintenance work being done at the train station near my house, it was a long walk to the next one, which was less than pleasant when carrying things like groceries, so I just went to the supermarket down the street instead of going out into civilization. There was no point in me getting a job a month before leaving for Christmas, so I just kind of sat around not doing much. It was boring and depressing. Coming back to Canada, where there are people I know and I have more mobility, thanks to cars, was the best thing for me to do for now, I think. My grumpiness was starting to make me difficult to get along with, and the last thing I wanted was to strain the relationships I had over there. Plus, my dog was at home, and I missed him.
I fully plan to go back in January and get a job. I'm not entirely certain what kind of job, but having something to do and a way to meet people (plus earning money) should make things much easier for me. I took only a little bit of my stuff home with me, since I have to go back to England with all the stuff my mom couldn't ship. I'm sad to be away from Peter for our five-year anniversary, but the date's not the important thing, so it'll be okay. He and Chris are both coming home for Christmas, so I'll get to see him then.
So, yeah, nobody died or got seriously sick or injured. I just came home for the sake of my own sanity, and I'll be going back in the new year. =)
I was going stir crazy. Not having a job or much else to do was getting to me. I tried to go out every day, but there wasn't always something for me to do. Plus, if there was maintenance work being done at the train station near my house, it was a long walk to the next one, which was less than pleasant when carrying things like groceries, so I just went to the supermarket down the street instead of going out into civilization. There was no point in me getting a job a month before leaving for Christmas, so I just kind of sat around not doing much. It was boring and depressing. Coming back to Canada, where there are people I know and I have more mobility, thanks to cars, was the best thing for me to do for now, I think. My grumpiness was starting to make me difficult to get along with, and the last thing I wanted was to strain the relationships I had over there. Plus, my dog was at home, and I missed him.
I fully plan to go back in January and get a job. I'm not entirely certain what kind of job, but having something to do and a way to meet people (plus earning money) should make things much easier for me. I took only a little bit of my stuff home with me, since I have to go back to England with all the stuff my mom couldn't ship. I'm sad to be away from Peter for our five-year anniversary, but the date's not the important thing, so it'll be okay. He and Chris are both coming home for Christmas, so I'll get to see him then.
So, yeah, nobody died or got seriously sick or injured. I just came home for the sake of my own sanity, and I'll be going back in the new year. =)
11/12/2008
Wednesday!
I have remarkably little to do right now. I've checked out the websites I regularly read, I've dealt with my e-mail for now, and World of Warcraft is having technical issues, so there's nothing much for me to do on the computer (except blog). I was going to go out and buy something for dinner tonight, maybe get a coffee, but then Peter called and said that he was going to pick something up on his way back from class, so there's no need to do that. And, besides, my outing yesterday was unpleasant enough that I don't particularly want to repeat it today.
It wasn't that bad, really, but there were a bunch of little things that I didn't like. For instance, despite having a lid on my coffee, some of it managed to jump out through the little sipping hole and burn my thumb. The clock in the kitchen died yesterday, so I was mistaken about what time it was when I left, and I wound up getting caught in rush hour "traffic" on the tube. Holborn station was so busy and full that they had to stop letting people in for a while (this is common during rush hour), so I had to stand outside in the cold with my heavy grocery bags in the middle of a very large crowd that was doing its best to contain itself to the sidewalk (i.e., it was very cramped). Also, there was a panhandler next to the ATM when I stopped to get cash before grocery shopping, and, despite being rather poor myself, I felt bad. He didn't bug me, though, so points for him. I can just see people rolling their eyes at me for my bleeding heart. ^_^
But, yeah, not doing that today would be a good thing. ^_^
Despite yesterday being actually a rather unpleasant day, today is looking to be rather nice. I slept in, which was nice, since I didn't get to sleep until about 5am last night. When I woke up, I noticed that I seem to have lost some weight lately, which is always nice. I have a very tasty glass of Coke Zero with ice on the table next to me (I figure diet pop isn't that bad of a weakness in terms of health and cost, so I'm allowing myself if ^_^). I suspect that Peter will be making dinner tonight, which, according to the system we've set up, means that he's also going to clean (I got annoyed at cleaning up his sometimes excessive messes, so we instituted a "clean up your own mess" rule). World of Warcraft should be back up and running within the next hour or so, which is nice because it was down all day yesterday. So, yeah, everything's more or less good on this side of the pond.
Oh, and, just in case any of you were waiting for a description of the Robin Williams talk show thing, I didn't go. I felt too crappy. Oh, well. I'm sure there will be other opportunities to do interesting things. Yay, optimism! ^_^
It wasn't that bad, really, but there were a bunch of little things that I didn't like. For instance, despite having a lid on my coffee, some of it managed to jump out through the little sipping hole and burn my thumb. The clock in the kitchen died yesterday, so I was mistaken about what time it was when I left, and I wound up getting caught in rush hour "traffic" on the tube. Holborn station was so busy and full that they had to stop letting people in for a while (this is common during rush hour), so I had to stand outside in the cold with my heavy grocery bags in the middle of a very large crowd that was doing its best to contain itself to the sidewalk (i.e., it was very cramped). Also, there was a panhandler next to the ATM when I stopped to get cash before grocery shopping, and, despite being rather poor myself, I felt bad. He didn't bug me, though, so points for him. I can just see people rolling their eyes at me for my bleeding heart. ^_^
But, yeah, not doing that today would be a good thing. ^_^
Despite yesterday being actually a rather unpleasant day, today is looking to be rather nice. I slept in, which was nice, since I didn't get to sleep until about 5am last night. When I woke up, I noticed that I seem to have lost some weight lately, which is always nice. I have a very tasty glass of Coke Zero with ice on the table next to me (I figure diet pop isn't that bad of a weakness in terms of health and cost, so I'm allowing myself if ^_^). I suspect that Peter will be making dinner tonight, which, according to the system we've set up, means that he's also going to clean (I got annoyed at cleaning up his sometimes excessive messes, so we instituted a "clean up your own mess" rule). World of Warcraft should be back up and running within the next hour or so, which is nice because it was down all day yesterday. So, yeah, everything's more or less good on this side of the pond.
Oh, and, just in case any of you were waiting for a description of the Robin Williams talk show thing, I didn't go. I felt too crappy. Oh, well. I'm sure there will be other opportunities to do interesting things. Yay, optimism! ^_^
11/10/2008
Tea and Its Various Associations
Hello, fine people! Life in London continues to be a mixture of interesting, mundane and bizarre things. Or, well, something like that. Peter is currently talking to himself, wondering where Old Man Barlowe went. If you don't know what that means, then don't talk to him when he's wondering about it--all you'll get is a very ditracted half explanation with at least five seconds of silence in between each spoken word. It's kind of amusing, but kind of not...
I broke a plate cleaning up after dinner tonight. We have a broom, so we were able to sweep up all the shards and dust and whatnot, but we don't have a dustpan or vaccuum or anything like that. So I picked up the tiny little shards and dust with scotch tape. I thought it was a rather resourceful idea. :-)
On Saturday, Chris and I went to meet with a couple of his friends in town. They had 2 for 1 coupons for an IMAX movie at the science museum, so we went and saw a film about the international space station. It was narrated by Tom Cruise, and, despite being half price, not that interesting. Peter, who stayed home to work on a paper, had seen it before and absolutely loved it, but that's because he has a weird affection for the Russian space program, as well as space exploration in general. Afterwards, we went to Harrod's and wandered through the food halls. That place is crazy. In a good way. It has many wonderful foods, but I still couldn't find Orange Pekoe tea. *sigh* Oh, well. It's not like we actually own a kettle or anything.
This reminds me of two things. The first thing is that I had tea last night because I had extra boiled water from making Jell-o! It was a different brand, but it was still very tasty. Also, it didn't come in a powder, but intstead in gelatinous cubes, like very dense Jell-o. I took a nibble of the corner to see what it tasted like; it was slippery and not worth eating straight. ^_^ But, yeah, strawberry Jell-o for desert last night made me happy. :-D
The second thing is the escapades my mother has been having trying to ship the stuff that didn't fit in my suitcases. Long story short, she's not going to be shipping anything. Instead, I'm going to bring two more or less empty suitcases home with me at Christmas and bring my stuff to England that way. But, yeah, at first, when I left, all of my stuff was in boxes with packing peanuts and all that jazz. My mom went to ship it and discovered that she needed a copy of my passport main page and of my visa, as well as itemized lists of what was being shipped with values of everything. Cue my search for a scanner. A few weeks later, I *finally* manage to find one, and I send my the scans to my mom. My mom then spends an hour at the UPS store talking to them. In addition to all the stuff my mom got together (she even repacked my stuff so that there were fewer boxes), they needed a form for me to fill out and fax back. That was more or less ignored, though, since the shipping would cost $530. Even if she only shipped a quarter of what she was planning on, it would have cost hundreds of dollars. So, yeah, no shipping.
The reason tea reminded me of this is because my mom was going to ship me a box of Red Rose (Orange Pekoe) tea, but now I don't get any until Christmas. :-(
However, on the bright side of things, tomorrow, I am going to a taping of a talk show where the guest is Robin Williams. Chris puts his name in draws for tickets to television show tapings, and he "won" four tickets to this, so he invited Peter and I to come along with him. I've never seen Robin Williams without editing before, so it should be fun. :-) I wonder if they do an audience warm-up thing like some talk shows do. Those kind of rub me the wrong way. Oh, well. It'll be a new experience, regardless. I shall inform you all of it at a later date. :-)
I broke a plate cleaning up after dinner tonight. We have a broom, so we were able to sweep up all the shards and dust and whatnot, but we don't have a dustpan or vaccuum or anything like that. So I picked up the tiny little shards and dust with scotch tape. I thought it was a rather resourceful idea. :-)
On Saturday, Chris and I went to meet with a couple of his friends in town. They had 2 for 1 coupons for an IMAX movie at the science museum, so we went and saw a film about the international space station. It was narrated by Tom Cruise, and, despite being half price, not that interesting. Peter, who stayed home to work on a paper, had seen it before and absolutely loved it, but that's because he has a weird affection for the Russian space program, as well as space exploration in general. Afterwards, we went to Harrod's and wandered through the food halls. That place is crazy. In a good way. It has many wonderful foods, but I still couldn't find Orange Pekoe tea. *sigh* Oh, well. It's not like we actually own a kettle or anything.
This reminds me of two things. The first thing is that I had tea last night because I had extra boiled water from making Jell-o! It was a different brand, but it was still very tasty. Also, it didn't come in a powder, but intstead in gelatinous cubes, like very dense Jell-o. I took a nibble of the corner to see what it tasted like; it was slippery and not worth eating straight. ^_^ But, yeah, strawberry Jell-o for desert last night made me happy. :-D
The second thing is the escapades my mother has been having trying to ship the stuff that didn't fit in my suitcases. Long story short, she's not going to be shipping anything. Instead, I'm going to bring two more or less empty suitcases home with me at Christmas and bring my stuff to England that way. But, yeah, at first, when I left, all of my stuff was in boxes with packing peanuts and all that jazz. My mom went to ship it and discovered that she needed a copy of my passport main page and of my visa, as well as itemized lists of what was being shipped with values of everything. Cue my search for a scanner. A few weeks later, I *finally* manage to find one, and I send my the scans to my mom. My mom then spends an hour at the UPS store talking to them. In addition to all the stuff my mom got together (she even repacked my stuff so that there were fewer boxes), they needed a form for me to fill out and fax back. That was more or less ignored, though, since the shipping would cost $530. Even if she only shipped a quarter of what she was planning on, it would have cost hundreds of dollars. So, yeah, no shipping.
The reason tea reminded me of this is because my mom was going to ship me a box of Red Rose (Orange Pekoe) tea, but now I don't get any until Christmas. :-(
However, on the bright side of things, tomorrow, I am going to a taping of a talk show where the guest is Robin Williams. Chris puts his name in draws for tickets to television show tapings, and he "won" four tickets to this, so he invited Peter and I to come along with him. I've never seen Robin Williams without editing before, so it should be fun. :-) I wonder if they do an audience warm-up thing like some talk shows do. Those kind of rub me the wrong way. Oh, well. It'll be a new experience, regardless. I shall inform you all of it at a later date. :-)
11/04/2008
Post 410
Peter's cooking dinner (I'm not even sure what, exactly), and it smells delicious. Mmmm... shallots, garlic and butter in a frying pan. =) I think ground beef in some form, as well as bell peppers, will be added. I'm hungry. ^_^
Not much going on lately. Unless you've been hiding under a rock for the past two years, you know that today is the US preseidential election. I want it to be over, one way or the other. Peter's going to an all-night party at the LSE to watch the results come in. It starts at 11pm, and he has a presentation to give in one of his classes at 10am the next day. I hope he's not hungover for that. =p
I was poking around in stores (excuse me, shops) today to see if I could find a knee-length coat that I liked for cheap. I found one that may have fit the bill for 25 pounds, but I decided not to buy it. I basically want a coat that I can wear over my long cardigan--it looks weird to wear it with either of my "normal"-length coats. I was at Primark while shopping, and I considered buying imitation Uggs for 6 pounds, but that store is crazy busy, and I didn't feel like standing in line to pay for shoes. I could have spent more money to make the wait feel more "worth it," but that didn't seem terribly smart to me (though they did have these cute pants for 6 pounds, and I would have bought a gloves/scarf set for 3 pounds).
Tuesdays are less fun for me than other days because World of Warcraft is down from 1pm to 7pm for maintenance. This would be 6am to 12pm in Edmonton, but, alas, time differences make things less convenient over here. That's actually what got me to decide to update my blog, was that I had nothing to do for a while before dinner because WoW is still down. ^_^
I can smell the red wine Peter's added to our dinner. He's bought a fair amount of alcohol lately, but it's been cheap. Three little bottles of wine for 10 pounds, and 8 big cans of Strongbow for 4 pounds. That's even cheaper than the 67 pence cans of beer that I've seen littered around here on Sundays. >.<
Speaking of people being stupidly celebratory, Guy Fawkes Day/Bonfire Night is soon, and people have been letting off fireworks in anticipation. They're loud and annoying and have startled the hell out of me when I've been outside and able to hear their full impact. The dogs in the neighborhood don't like them, either.
I have "official" dates for when I'll be in Canada over Christmas. Peter and I arrive at about 2pm on the 20th of December. Peter hopes to leave on the 8th of January, and I hope to leave on the 15th. The departure dates aren't set in stone, since Air Canada no longer does an Edmonton-London direct flight ever day, but only 3 days a week now, I believe, but that's more or less when we'll be around. Peter has to get back in time for term to start on the 12th, but I want to spend a bit more time at home, so I'm leaving later. Yay for being unemployed! ^_^ It gives you so much more flexibility with your schedule.
Okay, I'm now paying more attention to the smell of dinner than to writing this blog entry, so I'm going to stop writing and go poke my nose into the kitchen. Mmm... =)
Not much going on lately. Unless you've been hiding under a rock for the past two years, you know that today is the US preseidential election. I want it to be over, one way or the other. Peter's going to an all-night party at the LSE to watch the results come in. It starts at 11pm, and he has a presentation to give in one of his classes at 10am the next day. I hope he's not hungover for that. =p
I was poking around in stores (excuse me, shops) today to see if I could find a knee-length coat that I liked for cheap. I found one that may have fit the bill for 25 pounds, but I decided not to buy it. I basically want a coat that I can wear over my long cardigan--it looks weird to wear it with either of my "normal"-length coats. I was at Primark while shopping, and I considered buying imitation Uggs for 6 pounds, but that store is crazy busy, and I didn't feel like standing in line to pay for shoes. I could have spent more money to make the wait feel more "worth it," but that didn't seem terribly smart to me (though they did have these cute pants for 6 pounds, and I would have bought a gloves/scarf set for 3 pounds).
Tuesdays are less fun for me than other days because World of Warcraft is down from 1pm to 7pm for maintenance. This would be 6am to 12pm in Edmonton, but, alas, time differences make things less convenient over here. That's actually what got me to decide to update my blog, was that I had nothing to do for a while before dinner because WoW is still down. ^_^
I can smell the red wine Peter's added to our dinner. He's bought a fair amount of alcohol lately, but it's been cheap. Three little bottles of wine for 10 pounds, and 8 big cans of Strongbow for 4 pounds. That's even cheaper than the 67 pence cans of beer that I've seen littered around here on Sundays. >.<
Speaking of people being stupidly celebratory, Guy Fawkes Day/Bonfire Night is soon, and people have been letting off fireworks in anticipation. They're loud and annoying and have startled the hell out of me when I've been outside and able to hear their full impact. The dogs in the neighborhood don't like them, either.
I have "official" dates for when I'll be in Canada over Christmas. Peter and I arrive at about 2pm on the 20th of December. Peter hopes to leave on the 8th of January, and I hope to leave on the 15th. The departure dates aren't set in stone, since Air Canada no longer does an Edmonton-London direct flight ever day, but only 3 days a week now, I believe, but that's more or less when we'll be around. Peter has to get back in time for term to start on the 12th, but I want to spend a bit more time at home, so I'm leaving later. Yay for being unemployed! ^_^ It gives you so much more flexibility with your schedule.
Okay, I'm now paying more attention to the smell of dinner than to writing this blog entry, so I'm going to stop writing and go poke my nose into the kitchen. Mmm... =)
10/30/2008
Long, Random Post
It is the day before Hallowe'en. I should buy a bag of candy in case we get any trick or treaters, though I suspect we won't. Oh, well. More candy for us. ^_^
Things have been puttering along over here. I have signed up for National Novel Writing Month. I have no idea why it's called "National," since it has a very obvious internation focus. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this, it is an event where, during the month of November, you write a 50'000-word novel. According to the welcome e-mail they sent me, I'm supposed to tell everybody that I signed up for this so that the fear of public humiliation will keep me from quitting in the second week. I have a rough idea of what I'm going to write about--who knows, I may even put it up for download if it ever reaches the stage of "readable."
I went and bought a toque today. I couldn't find gloves that I liked for a reasonable price, though, so I think I'll go to other places next week and poke around. I also bought a new mouse for my computer because the one I add was finally starting to give up the ghost after more than three years. The new one is rather small (though not the smallest the store had, by far), and has a rather short cord, but all that really means for me is that there's no long cord to get tangled in, so yay for that. ^_^
Peter had his first big presentation on Tuesday. He says it went well. I don't particularly want to know what it was about. It seems that his introduction to Economic History is very heavily weighted towards the Economics end of things, and everything he's talked about reading so far has been horrifically boring to me, so I kind of try to avoid it when I can.
I found my watch today, much to my surprise. I thought I'd left it at an internet cafe, but I found it under the cushions of the couch. Figures. ^_^
I think we finally have more or less everything we need in terms of housewares. There are a coouple of things that we could use, like another pot and some more dishes, but the basics are covered. This is partly due to the trip I took to Ikea on Saturday. That trip was quite an adventure, but many things were accomplished, so I'm okay with getting lost repeatedly and walking a rather long ways lugging a big bag full of rather heavy stuff.
I called to set up online banking yesterday. I set it up maybe two years ago and then never used it, so I had to set it up again. It was an 800 number, but you pay for those the same as any long distance number from the UK, so the phone call cost me a small fortune. :-( The end result was that I realized just how much money I've spent in the last two months. Initial expenses suck. I have enough money to cover past Christmas, but, after that, I really need to get a job. That was the plan, though, so it's not like I'm shocked or disappointed or anything.
I continue to discover things about London/Britain that I find odd. Of course, now that I'm writing a blog entry, I can't think of any, but I assure you they exist. >.< Okay, here's one: Every shop has a security guard. Like, I walked past The Body Shop today, and the security guard (who looked very bored) was straightening one of the displays a bit. I've accidentally asked security guards for help finding an item in the store. I don't get why they're all over the place. I remember once, when I was working at A&B Sound, a co-worker paged security. I knew the procedure ("Mr. Black to [department]."), but I'd never actually seen it done before. I was floored to see a security guard come upstairs. I'd worked there for months and had never seen a security guard in the building. I wondered where he hid. I still have no idea. But, yeah, security guards in every shop make me vaguely uncomfortable. At least they're unarmed (or they appear to be) unlike some I've seen in South America. :-S
I'm waiting for Peter to get home. He should be home any minute. He has a seminar at 5 (or is it 6?) in the evening every Thursday, and they'll often go out afterwards, so he's usually home around 8 or 8:30. He doesn't have classes on Fridays, though, so maybe I'll get him to go out for lunch with me or something similarly fun and financially irresponsible. ^_^
It's started getting cold overe here. There was sleet/snow on Tuesday night. Hence why I bought the toque today. It's a good toque, from H&M, and it very closely resembles one that Joyce tried to get me to buy (also from H&M) a year or two ago, except it has a more solid knit and no sparkles. ^_^ Peter and Chris both got caught in the bad weather on Tuesday. I was out earlier in the day, and while it was raining, it wasn't nearly as bad as it got later that evening. Peter had to wait for a stalled train to get cleared off the tracks for half an hour in the nasty weather.
Peter and I are going to buy an esspresso machine machine soon, courtesy of his very generous father. I was joking yesterday that owning such a machine would give me one less reason to leave the house, but I greatly look forward to having easy access to caffeine that isn't ludicrously expensive. For example, they sell refrigeratable lattes and mochas at the supermarket, but they're very pricey. Same with the chillable drinks from Starbucks or other cafes. Speaking of cafes, I've discovered a place that I like better than Starbucks. It's called Caffe Nero. For some reason, the British spell it "caffe," with two fs and a downward-pointing accent (accent grave, for those of us who speak French) over the e. It looks so... wrong. But, anyway, Caffe Nero does superlative espresso. I go there when I want a treat, because they don't have the option anywhere on their menu for anything but whole milk. ^_^ I assume you could ask for low-fat milk, but they'd probably give you a disappointed look if you did.
Oh! That's another thing I find odd over here. There's no such thing as 1% milk. You can either get 2% or skimmed. Or whole, of course. And cream comes in containers like yogurt. The milk thing had Peter and I at odds for a while, but I relented and now we buy 2%. Which we need more of, come to think of it. And jam. I should write this down on an actual piece of paper. ^_^
We finally sorted out all of the money stuff from our initial expenses and groceries and stuff, so Peter and I are square, except for the fact that rent is due today. It's direct debit from his account, but I still have to pay him my share, of course. My third of the rent is 404 pounds per month, roughly $800 Canadian. Despite the fact that this place is within the budget we decided on, that number seems high to me. London is expensive. :-(
Another thing I find odd: Counsel tax (basically municipal tax, paid to the borough you live in for infrastructure) is assessed for six-month periods, and you pay for those six months with four monthly payments. So, basically, you pay every month for four months, then they leave you alone for two months. Rinse, repeat. *shakes head* Only the British...
I think I've rambled enough for now. Peter still isn't home, so I think I'll go read. Hope everybody at home is doing well. I miss you guys!
Things have been puttering along over here. I have signed up for National Novel Writing Month. I have no idea why it's called "National," since it has a very obvious internation focus. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this, it is an event where, during the month of November, you write a 50'000-word novel. According to the welcome e-mail they sent me, I'm supposed to tell everybody that I signed up for this so that the fear of public humiliation will keep me from quitting in the second week. I have a rough idea of what I'm going to write about--who knows, I may even put it up for download if it ever reaches the stage of "readable."
I went and bought a toque today. I couldn't find gloves that I liked for a reasonable price, though, so I think I'll go to other places next week and poke around. I also bought a new mouse for my computer because the one I add was finally starting to give up the ghost after more than three years. The new one is rather small (though not the smallest the store had, by far), and has a rather short cord, but all that really means for me is that there's no long cord to get tangled in, so yay for that. ^_^
Peter had his first big presentation on Tuesday. He says it went well. I don't particularly want to know what it was about. It seems that his introduction to Economic History is very heavily weighted towards the Economics end of things, and everything he's talked about reading so far has been horrifically boring to me, so I kind of try to avoid it when I can.
I found my watch today, much to my surprise. I thought I'd left it at an internet cafe, but I found it under the cushions of the couch. Figures. ^_^
I think we finally have more or less everything we need in terms of housewares. There are a coouple of things that we could use, like another pot and some more dishes, but the basics are covered. This is partly due to the trip I took to Ikea on Saturday. That trip was quite an adventure, but many things were accomplished, so I'm okay with getting lost repeatedly and walking a rather long ways lugging a big bag full of rather heavy stuff.
I called to set up online banking yesterday. I set it up maybe two years ago and then never used it, so I had to set it up again. It was an 800 number, but you pay for those the same as any long distance number from the UK, so the phone call cost me a small fortune. :-( The end result was that I realized just how much money I've spent in the last two months. Initial expenses suck. I have enough money to cover past Christmas, but, after that, I really need to get a job. That was the plan, though, so it's not like I'm shocked or disappointed or anything.
I continue to discover things about London/Britain that I find odd. Of course, now that I'm writing a blog entry, I can't think of any, but I assure you they exist. >.< Okay, here's one: Every shop has a security guard. Like, I walked past The Body Shop today, and the security guard (who looked very bored) was straightening one of the displays a bit. I've accidentally asked security guards for help finding an item in the store. I don't get why they're all over the place. I remember once, when I was working at A&B Sound, a co-worker paged security. I knew the procedure ("Mr. Black to [department]."), but I'd never actually seen it done before. I was floored to see a security guard come upstairs. I'd worked there for months and had never seen a security guard in the building. I wondered where he hid. I still have no idea. But, yeah, security guards in every shop make me vaguely uncomfortable. At least they're unarmed (or they appear to be) unlike some I've seen in South America. :-S
I'm waiting for Peter to get home. He should be home any minute. He has a seminar at 5 (or is it 6?) in the evening every Thursday, and they'll often go out afterwards, so he's usually home around 8 or 8:30. He doesn't have classes on Fridays, though, so maybe I'll get him to go out for lunch with me or something similarly fun and financially irresponsible. ^_^
It's started getting cold overe here. There was sleet/snow on Tuesday night. Hence why I bought the toque today. It's a good toque, from H&M, and it very closely resembles one that Joyce tried to get me to buy (also from H&M) a year or two ago, except it has a more solid knit and no sparkles. ^_^ Peter and Chris both got caught in the bad weather on Tuesday. I was out earlier in the day, and while it was raining, it wasn't nearly as bad as it got later that evening. Peter had to wait for a stalled train to get cleared off the tracks for half an hour in the nasty weather.
Peter and I are going to buy an esspresso machine machine soon, courtesy of his very generous father. I was joking yesterday that owning such a machine would give me one less reason to leave the house, but I greatly look forward to having easy access to caffeine that isn't ludicrously expensive. For example, they sell refrigeratable lattes and mochas at the supermarket, but they're very pricey. Same with the chillable drinks from Starbucks or other cafes. Speaking of cafes, I've discovered a place that I like better than Starbucks. It's called Caffe Nero. For some reason, the British spell it "caffe," with two fs and a downward-pointing accent (accent grave, for those of us who speak French) over the e. It looks so... wrong. But, anyway, Caffe Nero does superlative espresso. I go there when I want a treat, because they don't have the option anywhere on their menu for anything but whole milk. ^_^ I assume you could ask for low-fat milk, but they'd probably give you a disappointed look if you did.
Oh! That's another thing I find odd over here. There's no such thing as 1% milk. You can either get 2% or skimmed. Or whole, of course. And cream comes in containers like yogurt. The milk thing had Peter and I at odds for a while, but I relented and now we buy 2%. Which we need more of, come to think of it. And jam. I should write this down on an actual piece of paper. ^_^
We finally sorted out all of the money stuff from our initial expenses and groceries and stuff, so Peter and I are square, except for the fact that rent is due today. It's direct debit from his account, but I still have to pay him my share, of course. My third of the rent is 404 pounds per month, roughly $800 Canadian. Despite the fact that this place is within the budget we decided on, that number seems high to me. London is expensive. :-(
Another thing I find odd: Counsel tax (basically municipal tax, paid to the borough you live in for infrastructure) is assessed for six-month periods, and you pay for those six months with four monthly payments. So, basically, you pay every month for four months, then they leave you alone for two months. Rinse, repeat. *shakes head* Only the British...
I think I've rambled enough for now. Peter still isn't home, so I think I'll go read. Hope everybody at home is doing well. I miss you guys!
10/22/2008
A List of Things I Find Odd About London
There are pigeons without any green on their necks (or anywhere else). In fact, there are many pigeons that have a great deal of white feathers. I wasn't sure they were pigeons at first.
The fine for taking public transport without a valid pass/ticket is twenty pounds. The fine for spitting your gum on the sidewalk is eighty pounds. Priorities much?
The street signs are large (about 2 feet by 1 foot) and posted on the sides of buildings. The signs that look like street signs in Canada are direction signs telling you which way to go to get certain places. For a while, before I found the street signs, I knew where I was going, but never where I was. It was confusing.
There are many places that seem to do two kinds of business: sell souvenirs and unlock cell phones. I have no idea why these two things go together so often. Also, I'm not entirely sure why networks lock cell phones to start with when it's so easy to unlock them, especially when it comes to pay as you go phones.
Speaking of phones, the cell phones here are much cooler than in North America. You'd think that the states, at least, would be gadget-crazed enough to sell more of these, but it's not the case.
Some people don't understand my accent. I called to register my phone with Orange, and the guy I was talking to had to have me spell out my post code using the "Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, etc" alphabet. There are some people I don't understand, but that's largely because they omit half the syllables in what they're saying--I'm not entirely sure how someone who's fluent in English wouldn't be able to understand me.
All of the service vehicles and garbage trucks and the like are Mercedes Benz. I knew this before coming here, but there's still a little moment of cognitive dissonance every now and then when I see one.
Considering how much you hear about "Tandoori takeaway," I was surprised to find out that the chain called "Curry's" is an electronic store, much like Radio Shack or The Source. (They have really nice power adapters that are more compact than the ones I bought at home, in addition to not buzzing and being cheaper.)
People here love musicals. Like, cheesy musicals, like Andrew Lloyd Webber. If everybody who went to a musical more than three times per year changed one of those trips to the opera, I suspect the income of the opera would more than double.
I think that is all for now. I'll actually tell you what's been going on in my life in a couple of days, when there'll hopefully be something of substance to share. ^_^
The fine for taking public transport without a valid pass/ticket is twenty pounds. The fine for spitting your gum on the sidewalk is eighty pounds. Priorities much?
The street signs are large (about 2 feet by 1 foot) and posted on the sides of buildings. The signs that look like street signs in Canada are direction signs telling you which way to go to get certain places. For a while, before I found the street signs, I knew where I was going, but never where I was. It was confusing.
There are many places that seem to do two kinds of business: sell souvenirs and unlock cell phones. I have no idea why these two things go together so often. Also, I'm not entirely sure why networks lock cell phones to start with when it's so easy to unlock them, especially when it comes to pay as you go phones.
Speaking of phones, the cell phones here are much cooler than in North America. You'd think that the states, at least, would be gadget-crazed enough to sell more of these, but it's not the case.
Some people don't understand my accent. I called to register my phone with Orange, and the guy I was talking to had to have me spell out my post code using the "Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, etc" alphabet. There are some people I don't understand, but that's largely because they omit half the syllables in what they're saying--I'm not entirely sure how someone who's fluent in English wouldn't be able to understand me.
All of the service vehicles and garbage trucks and the like are Mercedes Benz. I knew this before coming here, but there's still a little moment of cognitive dissonance every now and then when I see one.
Considering how much you hear about "Tandoori takeaway," I was surprised to find out that the chain called "Curry's" is an electronic store, much like Radio Shack or The Source. (They have really nice power adapters that are more compact than the ones I bought at home, in addition to not buzzing and being cheaper.)
People here love musicals. Like, cheesy musicals, like Andrew Lloyd Webber. If everybody who went to a musical more than three times per year changed one of those trips to the opera, I suspect the income of the opera would more than double.
I think that is all for now. I'll actually tell you what's been going on in my life in a couple of days, when there'll hopefully be something of substance to share. ^_^
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