Karaoke Heck!
We're dragging more people into this, the most mysterious 13th circle of Heck:
Stephen sings: 7 Nation Army - White Stripes
Elisabeth sings: Yakkedy Yack - ???(Don't think I even spelled it right) and Walkin' After Midnight - Patsy Cline
Inga sings: Stronger - Britney Spears
Stephen & Inga sing: Summer Nights.

Drank too much, stayed up 'till 2 and I don't know how Elisabeth got up at 5 to go to Weybridge to go up north to the warehouse with some co-workers.

Doin' laundry over here, gotta go shopping, tidy up, maybe do that dissertation thingy.

S.

Walk in the park
A quiet Sunday coming to an end. Pretty much all we did was pick up a paper and head out to the park to read it, have a picnic & try not to let the cricket match being played over yonder put us to sleep. A quick pint at the pub and home again, home again.

Our Monopoly games are becoming pretty intense. We've been to Monopoly's web site and have picked up some useful tips & hints, Elisabeth's shouted at me for not 'following strategy' after I bitch about losing to her all the time, and we've downloaded a certificate that the Monopoly champion can carry around sort of like the World Heavyweight Wrestling belt. (Is 'belt' capitalised?)

Nothing else is going on. We ate like pigs yesterday and let me tell you, Chinese honey roasted chicken is not a good flavour of potato chip.

Sink or Swim?
Well ladies and gents, did she actually make it to the pool today? The answer is: yes...but it was closed. So she ran back home from the pool at a hefty pace with her pack on her back. A suitable replacement, but not a complete-body, impact-free workout that a pool would have provided. Maybe next time.

E-

One Fine Day
Saturday morning. Wow what a breakfast! 6 Quorn sausages (3 each) 4 pancakes (each) with Canadian maple syrup, and a pile of potatos (each), coffee and OJ. MMMmmm! I guess it should really qualify as a brunch...in any case, we won't need to eat for a few hours. And the occassion for such decadence? It's Saturday!

You know, going back to work after a vacation can be a bit dull, but I'm glad to have structure in my days again. Up at 7am, home at 6pm. Even though I now have more time when I get home, I only managed to go running once this week. But I plan to make up for it today (yeah right) and go swimming.

And for those who care, I had a dentist appointment, my teeth were fine. The dentist didn't even bother to clean them (he was busy) and sent me away (and charged me 6 pounds). The dentist I go to is in Weybridge, across from a bakery that makes "bread for the upper crust". No joke intended :(

Today we do chores: clean house, buy food, update blog...and tomorrow we will be off to London to have another exciting adventure. Stay tuned!

=E=

Yet another good reason
You get so frustrated that the burgers are falling apart that you drink your wine too fast, shout at your wife for no reason, spill wine all over yourself while watching Band of Brothers and don't appreciate why your wife keeps laughing at you.

Dumb
In an attempt to "try something new," I picked up a new flavour of squash - Dandelion & Burdock flavour. I don't even know what burdock is, but one thing I do know is that it's going to be one of those things that's going to hang around our kitchen untouched for the next 4 years.

Another good reason:
They fall apart when you try to fry them so all you're left with are bits and pieces of fried bean burger all over your kitchen that you have to clean up the next morning.

One good reason NOT to cook black-eye bean burgers:

Laying Low
Things are pretty much back to normal over here and I won't be doing any substantial blogging for the next little while but will be on Elisabeth's case to keep it up.

The colour of Rose
It is the final few hours of mon vacation. I am doing my best not to get sloshed, because I do care about my comportment at work. In fact, I was telling Stephen not too long ago that I am actually looking forward to returning to work tomorrow as some kind of structure will return to life. I have very much enjoyed erasing my inner clock, and sleeping in until 10am. My biggest challenge this week though, will be keeping up the jogging, as I have been running at least every other day for over a week. Hopefully the benefits will keep my motivation up.

Today was a lovely last day of vacation though. Stephen and I got dressed and jumped on a train to Clapham Junction...where contrary to popular believe, we did not pick up any STDs (or STIs as they're called in England). We walked down to Battersea Park where we experienced our first taste of London without tourists. It was lovely: large green spaces, trees, a pond with paddle boats and boats with real paddles, there was a tiny art gallery called the Pump House Gallery which housed an unimpressive exhibit, and there was a large Thai Festival underway with scores of people queued up for some dancing and delicious food. We will definetly visit there again (and maybe take pictures: stay tuned!).

Once we'd seen what we wanted to, we headed to the local pub, The Latchmere, which was very beautiful with old wooden tables, and a mahogany mirrored bar unit.

After devouring deep-fried brie and cranberry wraps, with chips and beer, we read the Independent on Sunday and chilled out in the very informal and welcoming atmostphere.

We peeled our refreshed and sweaty bodies off the heavy wooden chairs and walked up to Lavender Road to the Battersea Arts Centre, and saw Attemps on her Life by Martin Crimp. An absurdist/postmodern drama/comedy/musical (how can it be all these things, Stephen's professors might wonder - the small minded idiots). It was most enjoyable and we headed home.

Now we have eaten our leftovers and are sipping (or gulping in my case) some cheap Rose. Mmmmmmmm

--E--