happy halloween!

sweet procrastination

i had a lot of plans for tonight.

i wanted to finish sewing the felt to the baby hat. i wanted to get going on my scarf. i wanted to do some cleaning. it's getting desperately untidy around here. i mean, you can see a layer of grime on the floor and the shower. sigh...the real cleaning, not just picking the clothes off the floor or washing the dishes, but scrubbing.

instead i was tempted to a free movie. a co-worker won 2 tickets to In Memory of Me (it was an italian film, so that's the english name). it was a film at the London Film Fest and the director was going to be there. how could i say no?

well, it wasn't completely free. i ended up spending £6.50 on a bottle of water and a "small" popcorn. seriously, cinemas don't know what small is. EVERYTHING is getting so expensive. i dont' know how i missed it. a slice of pizza in leicester square is no longer £1 a piece. oh no friends, we're talking £2!! and last wednesday toby and i went to see a film (ratatouille). we went on 2 for 1 orange wednesday. do you know how much one ticket was?

£9.90! can you believe it? who are they kidding? just make it £10 if you're going to do that!!

In Memory of Me....well, i don't think i'd recommend it. not that it'll probably be in cinema near you soon. it was supposed to be a spiritual thriller. a man's quest for religion and himself. before the film started, the director came out to say a little something. he certainly said little. he told us to be patient...it would reveal itself. i was patient. i didn't know what was going on, but i waited. i thought, boy, this is long, but i was patient because i knew there was going to be an answer at the end. and a question too. but you know what? there was nothing. as soon as it ended, i turned to viki and said "i think i missed something" she said i didn't. we didn't stick around for the Q&A with the director. i mean, yes, maybe he would have revealed it for us, but really....if we couldn't figure it out for ourselves, why did it matter? the film didn't speak to us and i wasn't going to force it. just because a film is in a film fest, doesn't mean it is good.

ps. i passed my test!!! bring on the visa application!!

the new look

okay, i got my haircut on friday. a salon near brick lane called "taylor taylor". i was super-duper excited about the experience it was supposed to be. it was not the experience that i wanted. this picture was taken a day after. my hair had settled down a lot and i was able to make a bit of a swooop on the bangs. when i walked out of the salon, i swear i had julianne moore hair from the big lebowski. i swear. that or the hair of a monk without the bald spot in the middle.

pedros

i've mentioned this cafe before....pedros. it sits about 2 mintues down the road from our home. it's never empty, but it's never too full for us to find a table. often, pedros is full of old men. when we went stopped by yesterday, there was a lovely man in a thick sweater and a tweed coat enjoying his boiled potato meal. on the day we had the breakfast shown in the picture, we saw a santa claus looking man parking his bike outside. he wore suspenders.

normally we'd just have tea with our breakfast, but the tea is seriously hot. like, so hot that we don't attempt to drink it until after we've had our food. so, we've taken to ordering a bottle of orange juice.

a pint of orange juice rather. isn't it cute? toby says that his family used to have their milk delivered in pints like that. how quaint. another reason to LOVE pedros.

busy bee

i just put some apple cider in the microwave. i left it a bit too long and now i have solid chunks of apple in my mug. how strange is that?

i've been a pretty busy girl over the weekend. toby and i did a lot of things that needed to get done. like i went to the yarn shop and bought some yarn and we watched a football match in a pub. ate at pedro's again. you know, the important stuff!

we also went to the b&q (which is like not menards, but that other place. you know, there is one next to rainbow in the quarry...what's it called...i hate when that happens). anyway. we went to the b&q and bought some dirt/compost and some plants for me to plant the windowboxes. see my handiwork below. i've gotta say that i'm pretty pleased with myself. i hope that they grow all big and bushy so they will show from the street.




i ALSO got a very important book in the mail last week. it's the "life in the uk" book that i have to study (chapters 2-6). basically, anyone wishing to become a uk citizen or intending to become a fulltime/permanent resident must take this 24 mutlichoice test. i have to get 18 right and it costs money each time i take the test. i HAVE to pass this test or will not be able to get another visa, which as you can understand, i HAVE to have. the pressure is on a bit. the test is on oct 27th. wish me lots of luck.

right. i better go start that studying!