the first signs of spring

that is the wisconsin state bird. also known as a robin. the only robin i thought ever existed.

my married an english chap has taught me that there are other robins too. and apparently the robin is the national bird of britain. doesn't look quite the same though...

so, instead of calling these birds completely different names (which maybe there is some sort of scientific name for them), they are called 'american robin' and 'european robin'.

just thought i'd share.

warning: mentions icky stuff in my nose

it's about 9.30 in the morning and i'm wide awake. you can certainly tell that i've been getting up early for work every day. i normally get up around 7.30 and leave at 8.30 and get to work around 9.15. it feels like the world's longest bus journey.

plus, i've been sick lately, so a crowded bus doesn't ever help. yesterday i thought i was getting better. i just had this fake sounding cough, but my throat was tickling all the time. well, this morning i'm blowing out blood into the tissue. eeewww, abby, we didn't need to know. i know. but now that i've told you, do you think it's one of those 'it's got to get better before it gets worse' things and because they is now blood involved, it's obviously getting worse and therefore you'll be better before you know it. i hope so. it started last sunday and i'm still not feeling perky. now, i've always had sinus/nose problems. you people know this. and never in my 25 (almost 26 years) has any doctor prescribed me with a nasal spray (well, not that i know of, maybe when i was a baby or something). but a doctor here did. i don't really think it's helping so maybe i'll have to give the dr's surgery another shoutout on monday. *sigh* anyway.

toby and i have been married for 2 weeks now! good job for us! unfortunately, we are both working now and don't get to see each other too much. but we've made the most of our weekends. mainly, we like to feed birds in regent's park. we've only does this twice so far, but want to make a habit of it. though, toby's informed me that because of the possibility of bird flu, he thinks we should stop. i think that's a little more than cautious, though they have found it in france and it's only a matter of time before it hits here. here are a couple of pictures from last saturday.





i'm enjoy having the digital camera around, but i get really frustrated with it. there's too much of a time delay for me and i'm always making the pictures look a little blurry. i guess i'll get used to it though.

we have also got ourselves a new sofa addition. went to the ikea and purchased a brown three-seat "leather" sofa. it's much more comfortable and now we've got seats for 7! not much moving around space but it's great.

oh, before i forget. here's a photo of my wedding bouquet.



and here are some pics i've been meaning to show y'all of this great example of quirky london. there's a house around!





and now. about my job. well, it's a production assistant with the time warner book group. though they've just been bought by the french company hachette and by the end of march should have new name. hachette are now the 3rd largest publisher in the uk. but really, my office only has about 100 people, so it feels really small. the production dept. has 4 people (including me). they have the following imprints: little, brown; atom and orbit; abacus; virago; and warner books. the office is in an amazing location. right after waterloo bridge on the strand. so, it's super near covent garden, trafalgar square...etc. really nice and tempting at lunchtime. right now i don't have full responsiblities, so i'm not doing much. but soon i'll be working on the reprints and they have loads of those, so i should be busy all the time. on thursday night week i'm going to visit 'clays' one of our printers. staying over in their cottage in bunyard (what a name) on thurs and getting a tour on friday. they are the printers that do the harry potter books. so, yep. i'm FINALLY WORKING!! and a real publishing job, so good job abby.

things are finally starting to settle down. once the sinus/cold fiasco is over, everything should be fairly normal.

oh. and toby. well, he's doing well too. he just received his first copy of a guitar magazine subscription that he got for his birthday, so he's pretty absorbed in that right now and he made a down payment on a rickenbacher (sp?) bass, which i'll admit looks really beautiful.

now. i'm going to go back to eating my hot cross bun and enjoying my lowkey saturday morning.

keep well y'all, i think of you often
abs

update

i'm going to post something this weekend (internet permitting). so, if anyone is watching this, it'd be best to watch it then. (this possibly means YOU amie, good job on the knitting!! i've got some pretty yarn, but not sure what to use it on, as there's only one ball of each color).

what a knob

the man simply had a thing for doorknobs and now....well, a lesson to you all

i've got pictures!

this is our living room and our little brown couch. it looks comfortable, but once you've sat in it as long as i have it becomes really UNcomfortable. at least we have a couch though! and the dinner in front is one of toby's instant classics : chicken wrapped in bacon. tasty!



and this is the view from our front door. i wish that place was still a pub. i've only found one local pub in the area. it's called 'the star'. there are a couple of pub/restaurants though. which means, a fancier pub with over priced food. we'll be hitting one of those up tomorrow night when my mom's in town :)

keep well.

groundhog day

it's cold. it's so cold here in london and it just keeps getting colder and colder. we're talking 0 folks. we're talking 1 folks. brrrr.

right. i'm going to go be domestic some more and clean the kitchen.

d'oh, what?

this isn't what i was going to write about, but as it just happened to spark my interest i will.

i'm watching countdown and that chick carol does on to explain to everyone what 'doughnut' means in america. and she ain't talking about that lovely treat that homer and the cops are known to eat. SHE says that 'doughnut' refers to when people wave hello and say 'hi ma' when they are in the background of a live news broadcast. i'm american. i've never heard of this before in my life. am i just slow on the pickup or is this a real term that people use?

now. what i was going to write about was just to let you know what interesting little streets i've been down today. i'm trying to be ultra-cheap and only take as little public transport as i can. this means that i walk. A LOT. during my journey from the strand to brick lane, i passed down 'poultry street' and 'frying pan alley' and also a great looking pub on the tiniest of streets called 'grapeshots'.

isn't london quaint?