Return to England
Mood:  crushed out
Now Playing: Quiet Rainy Streets of Toronto
Topic: Elisabeth's Entries
It is past midnight and we are drinking our last beers & eating our last pile of junk food before we fly back to England and undertake a massive detox health-kick.

We arrive at Gatwick at 4:15 am on Friday...so hopefully will be functional enough to post a safe & sound blog on Sat.

For all of you who we have had the fortune of seeing here in Canada for however brief a time, it has been so good to catch up & remind us of why we will be moving back to Canada in a few years.

We have relatively quiet times ahead, with me looking for work & Stephen continuing at the Crazy House. Maybe yet another visit from Tim & Vickie in Nov, but otherwise, all quiet.

Till next time...Turrah!

hung over
Mood:  don't ask
Now Playing: why is there no emoticon for hung over?
Topic: Stephen Says
Hi folks, Stephen here from rainy, wet England. Or Canada. Woteva! Just spent the night living it up, etc, getting aquainted with old places, etc, eating food that we haven't eaten in a long time, being generally loud & obnoxious, etc. I.e., same shit, different place.

Elisabeth, do you have anything to say?

E says: I passed out last night with my clothes on n everything. My breath stinks. Montreal is one hec of a cool city. People don't blink an I at us when we're throwing beer at each other or humping parking meters, C'est cool. Today to the mountain and the plateau. Hopefully fit some Santropol goodness somewhere in mah beer belly. OUT...

S says: We have set a bad precident that involves throwing glasses of beer at each other. I have been thugoughly wetted. Do not do this in the company of adults. It is very bad news.

Stephen & Elisabeth ... in Canaduh?
Mood:  lazy
Now Playing: rain, & Tim & Vicki snoring
Topic: Stephen Says
It's going to be a bit of the Dead Zone over in Stephen & Elisabeth land until the end of the month as we'll be in Canada with, probably, a limited access to computers. At least for a bit, anyway.

Lots of pictures to put up, shit to say but over here we're running ourselves a bit ragged what with E quitting her job, me working at my job & general funness. Did Karaoke last night but it was kinda good and also kinda sucky. Stole some desperately neded shot glasses for the flat, though. And talked to a hurly burly limo driver which was interesting and dumb all at the same time - He was more interested in picking up Elisabeth, anyway.

Will be spending the night in Stanstead airport to catch our early morning flight. Looking forward to seeing you all soon.

PS- Pictures to make you excited:
Me at my job:

E enjoying some fireworks:

Tim & Vicki all excited by the dodgems:

Serious Sunday Blogging
Mood:  incredulous
Now Playing: The sounds of exhaustion after a night of at Carter's Steam fair
Topic: Stephen Says
Elisabeth will kill me for putting this in and knocking her pictures down a notch but you all should definitely, with out a doubt, read this so that you can get a full scale grasp on what kind of a crappy, half assed show Chimpy is running. Oh yeah, it relates to Hurrican Katrina. Or, as Laura Bush would call it, Hurricane Corrina. She really did, I swear. Twice. Only I can't find a link in an ultra easy kind of way. so, folks, your misson is to Google it for me.

Cheerio!

It Happened in London
Mood:  chillin'
Now Playing: ZZzzzss
Topic: Elisabeth's Entries
Yup---Tim & Vicki(e)? and I saw Knightsbridge & Chelsea, Westminister, Camden Town, Trafalgar Square, Leicester Square, Soho, Regent & Oxford Streets, Savile Row, Piccadilly Circus & then capped the evening with a stroll along the South Bank of the Thames to Waterloo Bridge to see Parliament. I think it's safe to say they'll be back to London soon.

A quickie
Mood:  cool
Now Playing: and you will know us by the trail of dead - source tags & codes
Topic: Stephen Says
Gotta make this a quick one; while E, Tim & Vicki are heading off to Camden market to do some serious Londoneering, I'm waiting for the laundry to finish so that I can work 'till 9:30PM tonight. And then tomorrow morning as well.

Tim and Vicki are doing well. They brought over a bottle of mescal and we drank the whole damn thing. Elisabeth ate the worm and then we were like 'oh, we're not very drunk - let's go into town.' Except we were actually pretty ripped and generally made asses out of ourselves on the mean streets of Woking, arguing with bouncers & chatting up random strangers. No, wait, that was Vicki. I just meandered into Subways for a sandwich. And talked like an American really lound. And tried to talk in rap like Grandmaster Flash.

And all 4 of us pissed in new & surprising places. Someof which you would think that you couldn't actually piss in.

I am also ill. (Not alcohol related) Which sucks.

Oh, and HOLY COW, less than a week until we arrive in Canada! Yikes! Gotta say, I'm looking forward to it.

Damn. Laundry's done.

The Personality Disorder Test
...Just because it's strangely appropriate.

September Song
Mood:  spacey
Topic: Stephen Says
My God, it's September already! All the little chavs & chavettes will be going back to school soon, praise the Lord. No more England jerseys & ra-ra skirts polluting my beautiful town.

Ok, so we're definitely catching the train out of Dorval Friday morning for T-dot - that way we do 7 days in each place. And on the travel front, Tim & Vicki will be arriving on Wednesday so yikes! I've been the mad cleaner, making the flat look presentable so that we can at least appear (at the start) tidy and normal people. We've also bought a little cabinet so that, unlike as my mother had to do, they can unpack some of their clothes and store things.

We've had a pretty relaxing weekend all told. The weather's been ludicrus - Even Montreal doesn't get this hot & humid. Plus no one here has A/C so we just have to slug it out. Boo.

Interestingly, Canada's too tough for Scots. On their recent trip to the Great White North, my manager's partner passed out from the heat and had to get seven stitches in his chin. Heh.

Otherwise, nothing new. E's boss is asking, no, begging her to stay on after October and she has wisely said no. We're just sitting back and watching the news of disaster after disaster in New Orleans come in. Hopefully the one good thing that will come out of this is Bush's impeachment.

There's this weird thing on BBC2 on Thursday nights where they play the BBC world service t 1AM and then at 2AM turn over to ABC World News for some reason. God, it's shocking, disturbing and downright fascinating to see all the things that Americans aren't told by their so-called free speaking media.

Like how many Americans know that Fidel Castro on Thursday held a minute of silence for all the victims of the hurricane and spoke of his grief for their loss because most of the victims were blacks, hispanics & poor white people? Or that America has turned down Canada's (And Germany's) offers to send aid. Anyway, Americablog (Link over there on the right) has got tons of info for you to check out. So do so.

Hey, look at that! I was able to avoid going on a tyrade! I didn't even mention "Dr." Rice's 7000$ shoe shopping spree & night out on broadway (to see 'Spamalot') while thousands of Americanss were dying. Or "Mr." Cheney staying on holiday until when, Thursday? Friday? Or "president" Bush being an arrogant prick playing a guitar on fundraising stops instead of arranging a rescue plan as the hurricane hit land. Mind you, if I was on a 5 week vacation (Longest presidential vacation ever), I wouldn't want to cut it short for a bunch of dying black, hispanic and (eew) poor white people.

As Barbara Bush would say, I don't want to pollute my beautiful mind with such horrific images. Just like I don't want my beautiful Woking populated by ra-ra skirts & England jerseys. It's just a thought but, since we're innundated with chavs & chavettes, maybe we can ship them to Louisiana - strap some chains to them and they could fill in the holes in the dykes quite nicely...

Woteva!
Mood:  caffeinated
Now Playing: The news
Topic: Stephen Says
Rightie ho, it's been a while since I blogged. Why, you ask. Good question, I reply. Will you tell us, you ask (slightly irritated). I will, I reply (slighlty aloof). Right now!

There was some residential kicking off last week that I alluded to last time and there was some mild excitment and she is now back at the hospital. Elisabeth thinks that I'm burning out at work; I think that my brain is morphing into something superhuman by the need to be alert all the time. I'm hoping that, in a few weeks time, I'll be fully capable on mind reading. At the moment, all I'm getting is a smoky grey shifting coloury foggy thingy.

It's also pretty busy because our annual review is coming up next week and I'm supposed to be co-ordinating with a co-worker. This is, aparantly, the single most important day of the year for the residence and they're put me in charge. With the co-worker who is 'destructive to my focus.' O what a glorious day it will be. I'm looking forward to, at long last, meeting the mayor and our local MP. Sorry, I mean the duke & Dutchess of God.

Summer is back in England - it's shorts weather and the nights aren't so bad because it cools off very, very nicely. Hopefully I'll have a nice tan for when we arrive in Canada.

Oh, Canada, you say. Sorry for my lameness - here's a rough plan of our itinary while we're visiting. Thank you Sean, for reminding me how I said I'd post this weeks and weeks ago.

September
16 - Arrive in the A.M. Chill out.
17 - In the evening; pub crawl: Foufs, a single shot at Fats, Brutopia, Brutopia, Brutopia. Maybe a nightcap at Buster Harveys. Sean, Joanna, we will require the use of your house.
18 - Breakfast at the Oxford, Tams in the afternoon, lunch at Cafe Santropol and a nightcap at Cafe la Nuit on Prince Arthur.
19 - Shopping for E, lunch/diner with my dad
20/21 - Relaxo.
22/23 - Train to T-Dot (E- When are we going? We need to book train tickets!)
23 or 24 - Toronto 'party' chez Mark & Jenn. And by "'party'" I mean 'get together'. E realizes that we don't know enough people in the T-Dot to have enough people over for a 'party' per say, so we'll have a fun 'get together.' See my Sister these days, hopefully.
25-29 - Westberg family visits, Toronto exploration, possible day trip to Ottawa to see Stephen W.
30 - Return to England.

Rightie-ho, folks. Please comment & amend and give us your opinions so that we can improve this list.

Trinkets
Mood:  smelly
Now Playing: The Beeb
Topic: Elisabeth's Entries
Back to work today...Ok.

I really like Jarlsberg cheese.

Had a Quorn (tm) peppercorn steak, mashed potatoes & steamed broccoli for din dins.

Stephen's working late. Still reading Watching the English...

Blooby bloo