At Last
Mood:  hungry
Now Playing: Some pretentious Shakespearean actor name-dropping and going bla, bla, bla on the radio
New gallery added:

Englefield Green Fair

And with that, the photo galleries of year 1 of Stephen & Elisabeth in England come to a close. There are a bunch of pictures that I wish I could have put up from John & Sean's visit but they've got them on their own pages and, best of all, my snide commentary is absent from them so I won't bother.

Time for breakfast.

Light blogging
Mood:  caffeinated
Now Playing: BBC News - the Today show
For the forseeable future. Elisabeth's got tons of work to do at the office, I'm looking for work (And not being driven insane) and things are pretty quiet ie, uninteresting. I imagine that later this month, once Ms. Allin arrives, things worthy of blogging may transpire.

In the meantime, there are a couple of photo albums I've been meaning to put up for a while so this place won't go completely dead.

PS- Whenever I say there won't be much blogging, somethig usually comes up, so yeah, I'm stacking the deck in my favour.

PPS- 3000+ hits on our web site. I would say "cool" but I'm also aware that 2647 of those hits are from JC so I can't get too excited about it. [evil smiley goes here]

Welcome to the 20th century
Elisabeth now has a cell/mobile phone that I may occasionally have on me to help with the job hunt. I'll get my own phone when I receive my 1st pay cheque. She can be reached at:

0787-666-1252

Our contact details will be updated on the main page.

3rd anniversary
Mood:  celebratory
Today celebrates the occasion where, three years ago, Elisabeth and I got hammered and made out at a party for the first time. >sigh< So romantic, these things.

(Mind you, things don't get any more romantic from there - especially considering that after talking to her a few days later, I said that I'd call her the next day and we'd organise a date... on September 11th. I'm sure there are certain family member who could see some kind of symbolism in that. Oops. Shouldn't have written that. [Smiley face goes here])

How to utterly embarrass your wife
Mood:  cheeky
Now Playing: Neko Case (Blacklisted)
1)Get her liquored up on 14% rose wine.
2)Get her singing a medley of her favorite songs. (Patsy Cline, Fats Waller, etc.)so that
3)As she finishes Manhattan Transfer's 'Operator' the cute blonde guy from downstairs applaudes her.

Ha Ha.

Oh well, I've never seen her so embarrassed. Ever. And that's saying something.

Other news: I'm still unemployed and will be off to the temping agency on Monday. Sigh. Sucks being over-educated and over-skilled for all the jobs you want.

Other news: I forgot to pick up Papillon from the library so I'm reading Sonny Barger's biography instead. He's the dude that, basically, made the Hell's Angels what it is today.

Other news: Elisabeth and I are reading Keats and will be going for a picnic and frisbee in the park tomorrow. How freakin' British is that? Maybe we'll even wath those guys play cricket.

What to do once you've handed in your dissertation:
Mood:  chillin'
Now Playing: ANDREW W.K. - I GET WET
1) Ignore all the things that you did wrong. Deal with it tomorrow.

2) Ignore all the mistakes you made. If you fail, you get to re-do it and chance are, doing that you'll get a better grade than on the first draft you did. Whatever. You get the point.

3) Drink alcohol. Eat food. Drink more alcohol. This is best done with those folks from your programme who also realize what a waste of a university your school was and are all equally disinfranchized. (However the hell you spell disinfran-whatever) You can ignore this point if you actually had a positive experience with your school.

4) Most importantly: Rock out to Andrew W.K.!! This dude is what Rock'n Roll (NOTE: That's 'rock'n roll with Capitals) is all about.

5) Drink some 13.5% Australian wine.

6) Repeat steps 4 & 5 until you wake up the next morning.

No Longer a US Alien!
Mood:  celebratory
Now Playing: The clickity Clack of the Train Tacks
I, Elisabeth Rachel Westberg, do hereby revoke most publicly my claim to be a US Citizen, resident, and alien. In 1 hour I will no longer be tied to a country I do not believe in.

I have waited for this day since 1990, when my family moved to the United States. I HATED it. For years I have fantasized about cutting up my green card and mailing it to the US Immigration Bureau accompanied by a disagreeable essay, because "gasp" who wouldn't want to live in America?

But today, my Greencard expires. I refuse to renew or apply for citizenship. With the choice of living in either Canada or England, why the hell would I choose to live in the States instead?

The United States is a quagmire of ignorance. Yet, it is hard to blame the majority of Americans for this state of affairs. I believe they have been engineered to be isolated and uneducated, so that they will function more efficiently as consumers.

I am a direct product of the American education system. I lenrt to spel and reed and rite. I lived in Virginia, in a town 1/2 black, 1/2 white. The city lived in segregation. The high school, almost exactly 1/2 black, 1/2 white, learned in segregation. There were 2 cafeterias, and though there were no signs of obvious aggression, it was clear where people belonged. Forget individuality, forget personal rights and freedoms. You learn early how the country prefers to operate.

In grade 4, when I entered into US schools, they had already begun to separate the "gifted" students from the "average" students. TRANSLATE: "white/middle-class+" and "black or white-trash" As a Canadian, I was considered a minority, and held back. For five years, until my parents fought enough times to put me in more challenging classes, I witnessed the silent hand engineering American society. On days where the "gifted" students left class to be challenged, the few of us left behind were not given any new work to do.

In the end, my graduating class certainly did not reflect the 50-50 ratio.

Did you know that over 50% of the US population is non-white? And how is this represented in the media? In advertising? In movies? In books? In newspaper columns? In businessmen on the street? In Congress? On TV shows?

What is clear to me, is that America is engineered by and for a small percentage of white people who have most of the money, because they are the only ones qualified for the jobs, or know someone who will give them a job, and therefore the target audience for businesses is the people with the money: white-middle-class+.

This is just my personal story. Imagine the story of someone who is really involved in the system. Secrets and lies, secrets and lies, and a lot of racism.

It is a sick sick country. The public services are falling apart. Christian fundamentalism spreads more hate than love. Most Americans cannot afford health care, because you must have a good job with benefits to be insured. The beautiful land is being polluted. And the whole world is laughing at how ignorant the Americans are.

But really, it is those who are in power: the lawyers, the politicians, the businessmen, who are ignorant. In order to have this money and power, they have sacrificed not only the integrity of the country, but their own.

I do not care for this kind of country, this mecca of opportunity. I don't care about SUVs, fast food, or big gooey chocolate-chip cookies. I don't need to keep my options open, I don't need lots of choice, because the answer is clear to me: The United States is not for everyone.

So goodbye Resident Alien card: and hello freedom!

One final dissertation rant
Mood:  don't ask
Because all these rants are tedious but, I suppose, it's one of the reasons Elisabeth and I are in England.

Re-drafting your dissertation is just as tedious as writing it in the first place.
Only different.

England, 1 year on.
(Well, a little more than one year, actually.)

Elisabeth and I wanted to do this thing a while ago and analyze everything that?s transpired in the last year and how it?s changed us but as I?m feeling pretty melancholy this evening, now?s as good as ever.

It?s been a strange year, that?s for sure. Egham was a major let-down. Probably the biggest of my life. We were unaware of Britain?s different standard of living and the vague warnings that preceded our arrival did nothing to help us with regard to specifics and, once we had moved into our 1st house, the reality soon set in. Economic reality, that is. I don?t think anyone truly realizes the degree of monotonous poverty we lived in, those first few months and even now, the degree of debt we?ve built up is quite ridiculous. Even if we?d have had twice the amount that we?d brought over, we would have struggled. The simple fact is that one person cannot support two people in England. Hell, two people can barely support two people. While in Canada, living with your parents until you?re 25 carries a certain stigma, it?s expected over here; if not sensible. Things are damn expensive and living in such a posh area didn?t help.

I?m not going into too much detail about the rich assholes that permeated the area where we lived. Nor the pikey locals who, though poorer were just as exclusive and snobby in their own way. Royal Holloway is the country club of universities in Britain and was as exclusive as ever. If it weren?t for my classmates, many of whom are utterly fabulous people, it would have been a complete waste of a year. The closed-minded, inherently conservative nature of the college wasted my time and money and the sole fact that it made me a better writer (courtesy of someone who wasn?t, technically, a teacher there) is its only saving grace as a so-called academic institution.

That said, the good thing is that, while it?s tested Elisabeth and I, the love that we feel for one another has in no way lessened and has grown in ways I?d never imagined. It?s also made me value my friends and family back home more than I?ve shown. Those who have come to visit have made us happy and sad and homesick and made me realize what a great place Canada is. And for that I?m grateful.

God only knows what this year will bring. Hopefully more security and laughs. We?ve moved to an area that?s more our pace, style and, sadly, (Because these things are so 19th century) social and economic class and are starting to get on our feet. With school ending for me, I?ll be able to pull my weight and hopefully start to get us out of all the debt we?ve incurred. We?ve also started to make friends in the sense that we won?t have to keep on calling those people we get together with ?class-mates? or ?co-workers? and this will help. We?re also looking forward to more people visiting and, of course, traveling and having that mythological thing called a honeymoon sometime soon! Yes, all this sounds pessimistic, I suppose, but, having now lived through it, I wouldn?t have traded it in for anything (Except for Egham & Englefield Green ? that cesspool could be razed with napalm and all I would do is change the channel to something more interesting; say, Police Academy 4: Operation Miami Beach) as it?s made me a stronger person and affirmed the bond that Elisabeth and I made before we left.

-Stephen the melancholy blogger out!

Writing a dissertation doesn't change you except...