i'm feeling a bit frustrated. i'd really like to work my blog a bit more, but i just can't get these to work. meaning, i want my links to work and my pictures to go up correctly. i look at the help bits and think i'm doing everything right and then the internet goes out or something like that. i just can't get it to work.
toby's away tonight and it the first time i've spent an evening in the flat by myself. i watched a show on bbc2 about illegal chinese immigrants. the aliens they were filming seemed to live down in 'the gate' and the elephant and castle. just like i did. i thought it was a bit odd to see the old neighborhood in a show like this just because, well, the area is really more populated with africans and jamicians. i never noticed a chinese population in the area. the show talked a lot about how necessary it is for them to come to england to make money for their families. the only jobs they can find here are selling illegal dvd's on the streets. i know that life is tough for them and they are just looking for ways to make money, but it really bothers me that they are selling these dvds. i could care less that they are taking money away from the big studios and all that, but in the end it screws with me because then ticket prices go up and i'll never get to see a movie in a cinema again. did you follow my logic there? it's hidden, but it's there.
now i'm on to a cooking show called 'the hairy bikers cookbook.' much better.
tomorrow, i'm heading to time warner to begin learning about my new job.
keep well.
Tuesday, January 31, 2006
Saturday, January 28, 2006
bargains and guitars
Greetings,
Toby likes guitars as much as he likes bowling in wisconsin, so today we went looking at guitars around tottenham court rd. there's an area around there know as "tin pan alley", mainly denmark st. area, and there are loads of music shops there. he liked a few, played a couple, and i looked at the pretty guitars while he did so. apparently, i have a thing for gretsch guitars. they're so pretty.
anyway, after that we headed over to the portabello market. we almost got ourselves a free ride on the bus, but there was a checky-person thingy there, so we had to use our cards before he gave us fines. we got these card things called 'oyster cards'. so, we're walking around the market and i make the comment of how it feels like we should be on bargain hunt. you guys know the show, right? sometimes they show it on the good old PBS. they've got two teams looking for antique treasures and then they take it off to auction and see how well they do. a very short amount of time goes by and what do we see? the blue team with a camera crew! really! we eventually found the red team too. all very exciting. here's a bit about bargain hunt for you to enjoy!
so that was our saturday. very nice in my opinion.
keep well.
Toby likes guitars as much as he likes bowling in wisconsin, so today we went looking at guitars around tottenham court rd. there's an area around there know as "tin pan alley", mainly denmark st. area, and there are loads of music shops there. he liked a few, played a couple, and i looked at the pretty guitars while he did so. apparently, i have a thing for gretsch guitars. they're so pretty.
anyway, after that we headed over to the portabello market. we almost got ourselves a free ride on the bus, but there was a checky-person thingy there, so we had to use our cards before he gave us fines. we got these card things called 'oyster cards'. so, we're walking around the market and i make the comment of how it feels like we should be on bargain hunt. you guys know the show, right? sometimes they show it on the good old PBS. they've got two teams looking for antique treasures and then they take it off to auction and see how well they do. a very short amount of time goes by and what do we see? the blue team with a camera crew! really! we eventually found the red team too. all very exciting. here's a bit about bargain hunt for you to enjoy!
so that was our saturday. very nice in my opinion.
keep well.
Saturday, January 21, 2006
Snooker and Russians
Greetings you lovely people.
Today started out beaUtifully. Toby and I took a walk around Regent's Park and down to Baker St. and back. Lots of comments on the fancy cars (and the noises they make...examples: Mercedes Mclaren SLR (Toby got excited when he saw this one), Bentley Contential GT (x)5 and a very cool Aston Martin DB9 etc...) He's still mentioning cars that we saw, but I think you get the picture: there a lot of nice cars in the area.
The park itself is really nice and because it was such a blue sky sort of day, there were a lot of people walking about with their dogs and small child people. Naturally, there were loads of people to comment about. We also think we've found the American ambassador's home. It looks very fancy and there's an American flag out on their property. So it's either that or some weird rich person that really likes America.
When we got back to our flat we made some lunch and sat on our little couch (which there will someday be a picture of up here on the blog, I know you're all excited). We've been watching snooker and playing on the internet ever since. It's now 5 o'clock and getting dark outside. Among the things we've been looking at on the web....mail order russian brides and a website for "bored people who type st. john's wood into google". Both have been entertaining. Let me know if you want the link for the russians.
Hope your saturday was as nice as ours! :)
Today started out beaUtifully. Toby and I took a walk around Regent's Park and down to Baker St. and back. Lots of comments on the fancy cars (and the noises they make...examples: Mercedes Mclaren SLR (Toby got excited when he saw this one), Bentley Contential GT (x)5 and a very cool Aston Martin DB9 etc...) He's still mentioning cars that we saw, but I think you get the picture: there a lot of nice cars in the area.
The park itself is really nice and because it was such a blue sky sort of day, there were a lot of people walking about with their dogs and small child people. Naturally, there were loads of people to comment about. We also think we've found the American ambassador's home. It looks very fancy and there's an American flag out on their property. So it's either that or some weird rich person that really likes America.
When we got back to our flat we made some lunch and sat on our little couch (which there will someday be a picture of up here on the blog, I know you're all excited). We've been watching snooker and playing on the internet ever since. It's now 5 o'clock and getting dark outside. Among the things we've been looking at on the web....mail order russian brides and a website for "bored people who type st. john's wood into google". Both have been entertaining. Let me know if you want the link for the russians.
Hope your saturday was as nice as ours! :)
Tuesday, January 17, 2006
shocker: i'm easily annoyed
so, this post was going to be about my frustrations so far, but i took a walk and am feeling a bit better about things.
i think i'm just feeling frustrated really easily because
1. i'm not here for school. this means that i don't get the feeling that i can slack off whenever i want to (you know what i mean, it's the nicest day in weeks and you feel that it's okay to skip class type of thing), also it means that i don't have the same type of funds that i did during the school days. no more student loans to lean back on.
and 2. i don't have a job and i can't work. i can still look for jobs and stuff, but it's a little annoying that i'm not entirely sure i can apply because i don't know when exactly i can start working.
there you go. i get very easily miffed.
yesterday, toby and i went to go get a second set of keys for the flat. there are two of us living here, so obviously we both need keys, right? the landlord told us to go to this estate agent and they'd have an extra set for us, but they didn't, so now we have to go get a second set cut. meaning that we have to pay for it. what is rent for anyway? i really feel like this is an expense that the landlord needs to take care of but there you go. apparently that isn't how things like that work around here. something i need to get used to.
then today i went to the doctor's to sign up with a gp. there was someone at the reception desk, so i waited a little ways behind him. you can't just stand right up against the guy, right? so, i'm waiting patiently and this other lady comes in and what does she do? just goes right up between me and the guy at the reception. how in the hell did she not see me? it was OBVIOUS!! that i was waiting in line. i mean, she was practically touching the guy in front of her. i just stood there annoyed because that sort of thing happens all of the time and i had nothing else to do today, so i waited. finally, i get up to the desk and tell the lady that i've moved to the area and want to sign up. see asks where i live and if i have a letter that confirms my address. i figured something like that would happen, so i told her that my fiance has the mail come to us in his name, but this will be changed soon. anyway, it went on like that for a few moments and finally i just repeated what she said to confirm that that was all i would need to bring in the next time i was there. she said "yeah" and immediately looked away and started talking to her colleague while i stood there waiting for some sort of polite response. you know a social signal that the conversation ended correctly. but nope. people are really frickin' short and rude and annoying around here. GRRRR...
anyway, i thought i'd take a walk to make myself feel better. and it helped. i found a little wine/bar type place with wireless called 'the elgin'. i think i might check it out next week. get a little sloshed and do a little typing. who knows what'll come out.
also, we'll be picking up toby's digital camera this weekend so i'll be able to take some pics of the neighborhood. there is this great house on the corner that is super skinny and tall and call 12 1/2 or something like that. really odd.
till then.
i think i'm just feeling frustrated really easily because
1. i'm not here for school. this means that i don't get the feeling that i can slack off whenever i want to (you know what i mean, it's the nicest day in weeks and you feel that it's okay to skip class type of thing), also it means that i don't have the same type of funds that i did during the school days. no more student loans to lean back on.
and 2. i don't have a job and i can't work. i can still look for jobs and stuff, but it's a little annoying that i'm not entirely sure i can apply because i don't know when exactly i can start working.
there you go. i get very easily miffed.
yesterday, toby and i went to go get a second set of keys for the flat. there are two of us living here, so obviously we both need keys, right? the landlord told us to go to this estate agent and they'd have an extra set for us, but they didn't, so now we have to go get a second set cut. meaning that we have to pay for it. what is rent for anyway? i really feel like this is an expense that the landlord needs to take care of but there you go. apparently that isn't how things like that work around here. something i need to get used to.
then today i went to the doctor's to sign up with a gp. there was someone at the reception desk, so i waited a little ways behind him. you can't just stand right up against the guy, right? so, i'm waiting patiently and this other lady comes in and what does she do? just goes right up between me and the guy at the reception. how in the hell did she not see me? it was OBVIOUS!! that i was waiting in line. i mean, she was practically touching the guy in front of her. i just stood there annoyed because that sort of thing happens all of the time and i had nothing else to do today, so i waited. finally, i get up to the desk and tell the lady that i've moved to the area and want to sign up. see asks where i live and if i have a letter that confirms my address. i figured something like that would happen, so i told her that my fiance has the mail come to us in his name, but this will be changed soon. anyway, it went on like that for a few moments and finally i just repeated what she said to confirm that that was all i would need to bring in the next time i was there. she said "yeah" and immediately looked away and started talking to her colleague while i stood there waiting for some sort of polite response. you know a social signal that the conversation ended correctly. but nope. people are really frickin' short and rude and annoying around here. GRRRR...
anyway, i thought i'd take a walk to make myself feel better. and it helped. i found a little wine/bar type place with wireless called 'the elgin'. i think i might check it out next week. get a little sloshed and do a little typing. who knows what'll come out.
also, we'll be picking up toby's digital camera this weekend so i'll be able to take some pics of the neighborhood. there is this great house on the corner that is super skinny and tall and call 12 1/2 or something like that. really odd.
till then.
Monday, January 16, 2006
back in london
abby's blog
i'm back in london, england. first, i thought i'd post a few pictures from toby's american adventure.
toby really, REALLY wanted a hot dog. for some reason, he thinks these are very american things to eat. maybe so. they are in a lot of movies anyway. we didnt' go for the streetside variety, but instead went to the doghouse in janesville. any type of hot dog you could imagine there. what did we get? a corndog for me and a basic ketchup hotdog for toby.
another adorable picture of toby:
another thing we had on our american "to do" list was to go find a typical diner type place. there was talk of going to the truckstop just outside of janesville. you know, the one with all of the guns on the wall...well, we didn't get a chance, but before we left chicago we found this place. it was perfect.
we did pancakes a lot while he was here. made two trips down to the ihop (international house of pancakes for those of you not in the know). pigs in a blanket was the choice breakfast.
let's see...a couple more pictures. random ones that filled the memory of toby's camera.
why are they tied to the tree? i mean, was someone afraid they would be stolen? it's mary and joseph! how pathetic does someone have to be to steal them. maybe they're trying to make some sort of political statement. boo to that.
this is just good fun. who wouldn't want a fiesta in their mouths?
and finally, a nice time out at the bar with lisa, cheripaul (as toby loves to call her now), megan, and i. the pub crawl didn't get as howdy as thought, but heck, i still had a great time. and we found out that toby likes the lite american beer. someone is going to have to send some over. miller or bud lite is preferred :)
i'm back in london, england. first, i thought i'd post a few pictures from toby's american adventure.
toby really, REALLY wanted a hot dog. for some reason, he thinks these are very american things to eat. maybe so. they are in a lot of movies anyway. we didnt' go for the streetside variety, but instead went to the doghouse in janesville. any type of hot dog you could imagine there. what did we get? a corndog for me and a basic ketchup hotdog for toby.
another adorable picture of toby:
another thing we had on our american "to do" list was to go find a typical diner type place. there was talk of going to the truckstop just outside of janesville. you know, the one with all of the guns on the wall...well, we didn't get a chance, but before we left chicago we found this place. it was perfect.
we did pancakes a lot while he was here. made two trips down to the ihop (international house of pancakes for those of you not in the know). pigs in a blanket was the choice breakfast.
let's see...a couple more pictures. random ones that filled the memory of toby's camera.
why are they tied to the tree? i mean, was someone afraid they would be stolen? it's mary and joseph! how pathetic does someone have to be to steal them. maybe they're trying to make some sort of political statement. boo to that.
this is just good fun. who wouldn't want a fiesta in their mouths?
and finally, a nice time out at the bar with lisa, cheripaul (as toby loves to call her now), megan, and i. the pub crawl didn't get as howdy as thought, but heck, i still had a great time. and we found out that toby likes the lite american beer. someone is going to have to send some over. miller or bud lite is preferred :)
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