Bleah
Topic: Stephen Says
Elisabeth's in Sweden this weekend visiting her mom and friend so I'm on my own. And what do I do on my day off?

Why work, of course!

But I've wrangled Saturday off (I remember a time when I naively assumed that the average person would expect to have 2 days off a week. I also assumed that it was a cruel and inhuman thing to work 40+ hours over a 4 day period but that was before I worked for a charity...) anyway, I've given myself a fulfilling evening of drinking German beer and watching crap horror films (Land of the Dead [VERY good] and the original The Hills have Eyes [Not so good. I don't think I'm into Wes Craven's style of horror. I've tried to like his politics and nihilism but his execution just doesn't work for me. Romero's everything Craven wants to be and more. Want an example? Try comparing, I don't know, The Hills have Eyes to Land of the Dead.]

Tomorrow I'll watch Infernal Affairs. It's the original Hong Kong version of that new film that's come out wih Jack Nicholson, Leonardo DeCaprio (The guy from Titanic, not the Ninja Turtle) and Marky Mark (No word if his Funky Bunch is also in it). I've been trying to see it for over a year but stupid Blockbuster never has it in.

The end.

PS - I'm reading the Left Behind series on a dare with a mate of mine. Her dad believes in the rapture and is using them to try to stop her being a lesbian and to see the light. I'm reading them because I'm a masochist and they provide bizarre insight into the mind of the evangelical and all the ways that they misinterpret the world. The books are craptastic and I reccomend them to no one.
***
EDIT:
And just becasue I'm a Youtube junkie, here are the trailers for the movies.
The Hills Have Eyes:

Land of the Dead:

...my how trailers have changed...

G'night, folks!

Is this how far I've sunk?
Topic: Stephen Says
Last night in our apartment:

Elisabeth: I'm making a shoppong list. Is there anything you want me to add?
Stephen: Bananas and berries.
Elisabeth: You always say that. Is there anything else?
Stephen: Bananas and berries bananas and berries!
Elisabeth: No beer? Pretzels?
Stephen: Bananas and berries!
Elisabeth: You know, I'm getting a little worried about your concern about your health...

My turn to bla bla bla
Now Playing: The Streets - A Grand Don't come for Free
Topic: Stephen Says
Really, Elisabeth should be used to my long shifts by now. I don't know what she's thinking. Mind you, I'm not going to push the topic since I got supper cooked for me.

It was worst case scenario at work today - no new manager was hired including the fellow currently acting as manager. This basically puts his and my jobs in limbo as we'll be demoted as soon as a new manager is found. Only thing is, that won't be until January at the earliest.

Ah well, at least I'm still the Greatest Deputy
Manager in the World.

And so that's basically it. There was a modicum of excitement today at work when we thought Tony Blair had resigned. Except he didn't; he was getting all teary-eyed because he was making his last speech at his party conference. Aww, poor old Tony. At least We now know he is capable of experiencing at least 1 emotion, even if it is only self-pity.

The real horror-show was Cherie Blair clapping and crying and generally looking like that killer doll from the Childs Play movies Chucky.

Top Gear
Mood:  lucky
Now Playing: BBC 4 (too lame, I know)
Topic: Elisabeth's Entries
Last night we had the South African queen's son over to help him wade through his Romeo & Juliet assignment. The teacher asked him to write an essay on how the two characters, Romeo & Juliet mature throughout the play, and who matured more. Then, she proceeded to not only provide an example of the essay, but also gave a list of examples of how Romeo matured, including quotes, and then gave a list for Juliet. But he is penalized if he uses any of this work. Thanks very much teacher for using the best answers, and forcing the student to look for the second best examples? Weird. So I'm going to read the play over the weekend (while travelling to Vaxjo) so that I can help him out of this horrible situation. We ended up have a very intelligent conversation about the characters & themes that was worthy of a college level class. High school sucks. Basically.

Anyway, this morning Stephen took off with the garbage & recycling, I wrote some emails, rode my loveley bike to work, worked until 5pm, went straight down town, bought a Boots lunch/dinner (yay for Boots lunch!), and stayed at the YMCA until 8pm. I'm just one small step away from supervising Tues. nights- it's fun.

But I've come back home, and Stephen's still at work. Poor sod. Still at work. It's 8:30pm!

Tomorrow's busy as well-driving lesson and an alpha course (part of the YMCA thing). Looking forward to talking Xtianity!

On a Happier Note...
Mood:  lyrical
Topic: Elisabeth's Entries
Stephen has started to recover now...I don't envy him to be sure.

Saturday was a more pleasant day for the both of us. I had a driving lesson at 10am, followed by a trip to Weybridge to have lunch with an old co-worker, followed by a hair cut in Woking, followed by picking up MY NEW HYBRID BICYCLE! Stephen had a chilled out day, went into town, grocies, read the paper, and managed to avoid sewage for a whole 24 hours. We had pita pizzas for dinner-yum. Then we watched Clue -which was my first time- and I love Tim Curry. Who doesn't?

Today is Sunday, I think it will be remarkably similar to the day Stephen had yesterday.

Over and out...

I bathed in human waste today
Mood:  smelly
Now Playing: Ministry - Rio Grande Blood
Topic: Stephen Says
Woking got hit by a flash flood and our drainage system failed so the basement at work got flooded by raw sewage (It was up to the door handles). I had to use plastic garbage bins to scoop out the 'water.' We used long sticks to un-block the drains. We lost a bedroom, bathroom and a large section of hallway. We had to cut apart copious amounts of carpet to stop the rot from setting in. We went to the pub.

I am exhausted. I didn't go to bed 'till 1AM last night and had to be up and at work at 6:30AM to set up for these managerial interviews. All I've eaten today is a cheese sandwitch.

I dry heaved for 5 minutes.
I am not happy.
I used my Amazing Managerial Ability to pay myself and my collegue who helped me time and a half because no one should have to go to the pub covered in other peoples piss and shit.
My converse are in the washing machine.
I think I've lost a good pair of Levis, shirt, and other things.
I assert: I am not happy.

I don't know if I want to drink myself silly or just go to bed because a couple of pints and double Jack's and cokes barely had an effect.

Bleah.

2 crap videos of Rome
Topic: Roma 2006
1) Walking up the Spanish Steps at about 1:30AM during La Notte Bianca. Basically I was trying to caputre the sheer amount of people but I was moving my phone around too much:


2) This is outside the bar where we were drinking. Oe guy's playing the accordian, the other the plates (And a wooden spoon). I couldn't get too close to them because of the volume of people going past me, unfortunately:


Anyway, the quality's crap but I'm working on it. This technological stuff is beyond me. If you can make the videos smaller, they're more fluid.

Stuff
Topic: Stephen Says
I've been meaning to blog about a bunch of things but haven't gotten around to doing it for a while. And then other stuff happens and I want to blog about that but there's the previous thing to blog about and so I don't and the viscious cycle continues in a never ending cycle. Visciously.

One thing I wanted to blog about was the sheer crap that was the Vatican but Sean summed it up better than I could in his comment. Basically, I couldn't bother to get pissed off by the sheer over-abundance of wealth that directly goes against what Jesus said he wanted. But I suppose that to care too much about it either way is to care more than its worth. After all, what does the Catholic church do now-a-days other than stoke Christian/Muslem tension? Thank you very much, The New Pope.

One look at the cardinals/bishops/priests during the service I saw pretty much exposes them for being snotty elitists with their heads so far up their asses that they may as well be left in their imaginary world where tourists come to bask in their glory and all the women have their shoulders covered.

In some ways the Vatican is a little like London - A stomping ground for tourists where the locals are the main attraction only they don't realise it.

Over the past weekend I pretty much overdid it. I'm 30 now and am not allowed to have fun. At least the kind of fun I used to have. Fun for me now is sitting in Stabucks sipping an espresso discussing the political merits of the latest George Clooney movie.

I had a mildly surreal evperience at Waterloo station at 7:30 Sunday morning where I wound up in a music video. My attenton was caught by a tall Asian man with a double guitar, big floppy leather hat and wearing a technicolour dream coat who was surrounded by young, beautiful people. 'Ooh, clubbers,' I thought and went over to bask in their youthful exuberance when music started suddenly and everyone formed lines and started dancing and clapping.

I tried to ake a video but a 7 foot tall, 6 foot wide bouncer got in my face and started shouting at me. I kind of wish i'd gotten that on video as well.

Anyway, let me know if you see the video. That's me standing off to one side drunk, confused and eating a roasted vegetable & brie sandwich with a newspaper under one arm.

I've also been trying to upload some videos of Rome but Youtube's being fiddley and irritating.

Anyway, I suffered through a couple of days of zombie-hood and am back at work. Tomorrow are the interviews for a new manager which is weird because I've got to informally interview people who, if they get hired, will cause me to lose my 'promotion.'

One candidate rang up yesterday to ask if she needed any mental health knowledge so I feel that my position may be quite safe.

Wacky Wednesday
Mood:  hungry
Now Playing: Neko Case- Fox Confessor...
Topic: Elisabeth's Entries
Stephen's just finished making a tortellini bake for the South African queen and her son who are coming over this evening. Back in January for her birthday I pledged a free piano lesson to her (on request). And only now, have we managed to arrange one.

Last night I had my second volunteering session at the YPOD. I'm being trained up to be the shift manager on Tues. evenings. This will be in conjunction with the hour of theatre on Fridays which I hope will start beginning of Oct. I imagine it will take a few weeks to get its feet off the ground.

The YPOD has a cafe, and therefore I've learned how to make espresso on the 10K GBP machine, make lattes, cappucinos, and iced coffee (it's not just cold coffee with milk, like I had always thought).

There's a recording studio at the YPOD and a small stage for gig nights, open mike nights, and hmmm, maybe variety shows?

I'm looking forward to dinner the most at the moment...

Elisabeth claims that it wasn't her
Naked man attacked in Woking town centre