Invasion highlights and wrap ups.. potentially with pictures!

So the girls have come and gone leaving behind a room that begs to be vacuumed and now feels far too big to be lived in by a single person. If either of you three are reading, thanks for coming and I'm going to miss the company. Now stop reading, because you guys were here for everything that I'm going to type and you should instead use this time to keep my horse from killing herself in the remaining month.

I dragged The Girls(tm) to various London landmarks, many on their first day while they were still trying to process that they were in another country. We did a fast tour of Trafalgar down to Westminster and Big Ben and ended up at the Red Lion pub for a delicious dinner where The Girls (or at least 2 of them) learned that lasagna (or any Italian dish for that matter) is not going to be decent in an old English pub.

Other London sights- the B.M. (patented "that's a fake, that's a fake, that's stolen tour) where we got to hang out in the Parthenon Gallery after it was closed because we asked nicely, the Royal Mews (missed it), Picadilly (also not there for it), and Hyde Park (rode a punk horse and had a blast). We also saw the Tower of London (rained, Shira got her coffee late, giant effing ravens) and Camden Market (punks, hugging saltshakers, Stacey found her holy grail- a toy smart car).

Every night we ate delicious food, and while I'd like to take credit for it, my town boasts a ridiculous amount of good restaurants. The big hit seemed to be the Thai place because of its yummy fried rice and pretty Thai Ladyboys.

Shira's quest for a good cup of coffee in town was finally ended when we stumbled into the healthy food/free interwebs cafe. This also ended Stacey's quest for free Wi-Fi for her everpresent PalmPilot (it had solitaire.. I bet it could have minesweeper installed which means I want 4). Jaime's quest for beer ended the night before they left when she was introduced to the joy that is the Jerusalem Tavern. We all became better people that night for learning about the delicious drink that is a half pint of Guinness and a shot of Tia Maria. I know you have those ingredients handy, Mom..

We went on two daytrips- one to the incredibly beautiful Leeds Castle where the guides were friendly (chatted up a retiree that volunteers.. me talk to an old man???!!! noooo). They took every chance to tell us that we could rent it out for weddings and parties. We got lost in the hedgemaze, talked to a parrot in the aviary, and got to watch a birds of prey demonstration that involved the castle peacocks chasing around the performing owl. If it doesn't make sense I'll put the video up on youtube.

And for the highlight- Cheeserolling in Gloucester. For those who haven't been privy to the joy that is double Gloucester cheese, let me tell you, it is the finest of cheeses for use in the grilled cheese sandwich.

The festival involves a steep hill and people racing to the bottom after a cheesewheel. One would think that the contestants in the race were the heroes of the day, but I beg to differ. The heroes of the day were the spectators, specifically the one that was kind enough to step in a ditch of water and throw the 4 of us over the barbed wire/hedgerow keeping us from the cow pasture full of cows. That man has so much good karma coming to him..

After the efforts put into getting to the base of the hill, I think we were all at the stage where if the cheeserolling was anything short of spectacular we would have rioted and stolen the beloved cheesewheel. Thankfully it was nothing short of amazing and this did not happen (and I say thankfully because from our original viewpoint we couldn't see the "catchers" at the base of the hill that were rugby tackling the runners to stop them from hitting the crowd- they would have messed us up had we got anywhere near the cheese).

Some pictures from the carnage:



For some reason I can't add more photos but I'll post them on facebook and maybe in another post later. I'll also try and add the videos to youtube with varying levels of success. They're worth it, way better than the photos.

Invasion of the horseback riders!

The girls come tomorrow to hang out for a week, and not a moment too soon as Mike started his new job and is in no mood to be pestered/harassed/nagged by me. Which basically means we won't talk as that is what I'm good at. :)

I had all great intentions of coming to school today to get a bunch of work done on my thesis before they got here. Let me walk you through my day:

Wake up on the couch at 10:30. This is bad because if I'm not awake before 9, chances are today is a wash. Also, my bed is super uncomfortable, so sometimes I sleep on the couch.

Do my patented Soup Can Arm Workout (tm). Don't judge- my arms look less like sausage rolls.

Make a veggie burger and put on as many perishable ingredients as possible in an attempt to clean the fridge.

Listen to the radio. Take a shower.

It is now 12:30 and I'm not at school. Contemplate not going to school because I owe the library money. Read a book about Queen Isabella which has absolutely nothing to do with my thesis but she's really interesting (I will regale you all with facts when I come home until you buy me chicken wings to shut me up).

Talk myself into going to school. 40 minute busride where I stare at the two fat chihuahuas sitting on their owners lap. One growls at me when I walked by. It knew I wanted to pet it..

Arrive at school, take out money from the ATM to bribe the library into allowing me to take out books. You all know I'm going to library school, right?

Go to the masters room where its a bazillion degrees. Go up to the library instead. Proceed to use the internet for two hours.

Have a moment of brilliance (about 45 mins) where I crack a book and write 2 single spaced pages of my thesis (it has to be about 50ish). I am well on my way!

Congratulate self by playing on the internet until about 5:30.

Pay library my fines and take out a load of books I won't read at home.

Go to the cafe and buy a chocolate croissant and tea for my efforts. Eat in the masters room while playing on the internet some more.

It's now 8. I got here at 2:30. I have done 45 minutes worth of real work. The upside is if I continue at this pace, it will take me 25 days to write my thesis.

An email I sent..

The only thing you need to know before reading the following is that I've been bitching nonstop about the babies in my local free wireless, healthy food cafe.

So I decided to fart about town before I went to school. I'm in the
healthy food cafe. I now know what happens when there are no babies.

The guy sitting next to me won't stop talking to me. And he keeps
adjusting himself.

There's this woman across from me from Long Island that sounds like
the nanny. She is talking to her two Long Island friends and it's
seriously like being transported back to Suny Albany, land of the
downstate transplants. She has covered: her friend Tina, antisemitism,
how when they were looking for place to live she didn't like the idea
of a flat and made her husband buy the whole house, the fact that they
have a spiritual entity in her house called the green man, and she is
now reading from an inspirational book.

I throw up my hands. Give me screaming babies. Anything but Long
Island women of a certain age talking about their spiritual paths.

Oh god she's talking about crystals and going to see the "Indians" to
get turqoise. I am not sure if she means American Indians or the
people of India.

People that live on my street that are cool

The guy that dresses like he's one of the 3 Musketeers. I don't know if he's a reenactor or just likes the clothes but his hat has a feather in it and he has one of those skinny swords.

Old man that lives across the street. We don't know his name but he always waves to us from the window when he sees us and talks to us on the street about places we should visit. The apartments he lived in were bombed in WW2 (one of 2 that fell on the town). He lived there before the bomb and moved in afterwards. He also has a really neat hole in his skull (it looks like a meteor crater and isn't gross I promise.).

Old man that walks down the street with a cane. He always stops and lets me pass (which is really an excuse to stop and take a breather) and I always smile and say good afternoon (Grampa said it never hurts to say hello!). We talked a bit today and he used to be in the navy. Which you can totally picture because he has kind of a navy hat on and looks like he should have a peg leg.

People that aren't cool

Whoever it is that insists on playing motown really late at night at high volume. I think it comes from the YMCA across the street.

Things this country can't do

Milkshakes, level sidewalks, and thunderstorms.

More will be added when I think of... more. Yeah.

colors

I haven't posted in awhile and I don't really have an excuse other than I've been lazy and boring. I've been doing things, sure, but nothing seemingly worth writing about. Even the Gumball 3000 party didn't really lend itself to writing about.

So, anyway, sorry and moving on!

This has not been the week for sleep. I've been out 4 nights in a row until very late (or early depending on how you view it) because of birthdays and the notre dame people trying to get in all their partying before they leave in 3 or 4 weeks. South Bend is looking pretty small to them after being in London. I've gotten to be good friends with a lot of them and it's going to be weird when I'm in London without them.

But it won't be long because I'm going to Turkey to work after they leave! Only for 3 weeks, but at an important pre-ceramic neolithic site that has wall paintings of human figures (Catal Hoyuk if you want to look it up). It's an amazing opportunity and I'm really excited.

And for something completely different..

Jen and I have been walking the two miles between our apartment and Finsbury Park everytime we take the tube. It's a nice walk and easy exercise, plus the weather has been more or less on our side for the past month.

While we were about halfway home the other day, I noticed a fence painted the prettiest shade of blue. Jen and I started talking about colors and how they make you feel, and I was saying that I always get this satisfied feeling when I see supersaturated colors. Especially jewel tones.

When I was contemplating painting the apartment above the garage (think it'll happen this year? HA!) all the colors I picked out were supersaturated, rich colors. They just make me happy and want to touch things. But not in a creepy way.

I've done a terrible job explaining myself but the point is, those are the types of colors I like to look at. Jen likes to look at certain shades of orange (made funnier by the fact that Jen has 10 black sweaters).

London is not really a place for supersaturated colors. There's lots of greys (but not as bad as at Suny Albany- they have the market covered) with the color coming from splashes of gardens and flowering plants. Brits love to garden and I envy that ability as a notorious plant neglecter.

Cyprus has some great colors (blue doors or crazy bright flowers on stucco walls) and I'm told Santorini is similar. Everyplace has them (except for Suny Albany and most prisons..), really, but some places are harder to find them in than others.

Anyway, the point is, the next time you see me stop and stare at something all blanklike, I'm not having a fit. A color probably just caught my eye and I had to look at it for a little bit.

Or I saw a chocolate muffin. In which case, buy it for me.