Slooww Dowwwn Weekend!
Mood:  lazy
Now Playing: BBC Radio 4
My how gray (or is it grey?) the sky is today. HEY, can anybody tell me why there are 2 spellings of GRE/AY?

Stephen is playing stack attack on the mobile phone waiting for the clock to tick down to "must go to work now" time. Poor guys must spend the day with irritated x-mas shoppers. :(

On the other hand I am going to take the Choo-train to Guildford this morning, where I will look for a dress for the Christmas do. (for the non-Brits reading, a "do" is a party or event. Go figure).

On the radio, they are talking of how Britian is turning into a "Nanny State", as there a motions to ban fox-hunting, ban smoking, ban junk food, and force schools to accept a certain number of "problem students." Oh Woe! Maybe Prince Charles is right: the country will eventually see the merits of the class system, and return to the old-way of life. One mustn't rise above their station.

Stephen's going now...and so am I.

E

Where did all the blogging go?
Mood:  spacey
Now Playing: BBC 4's Today programme
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You should also click on it because you're supporting a regular contributer to our web page.

Protestant Work Ethic Day
Mood:  caffeinated
Now Playing: Public Enemy - Fear of a Black Planet
After two days of celebratory boozing, it's time to get down to work. Me: 1.5 hours in the kitchen spic'n spanning it and Elisabeth has, for the first time, opened the iron that mom bought us while she was over & now all our clothes look nice. We're going to have to find a new look now that it's physically impossible for us to do 'shabby slacker' any more.

Last night a group of teens drinking beer at the train station showed us how to ride the rails with a child's ticket. Then they tried to steal 10 pounds from us but Elisabeth was on to their scam and they had to give her back the money.

We were in Richmond to attend a party and took the time to walk around it, admiring it's beauty. Imagine old montreal but the size of a whole town with a river running through it and an old, old bridge spanning it. Elisabeth drank way too much and we had to run for the last train or face 7 hours in the cold at Clapham Junction. ...Mind you, we still spent over an hour sitting on the platform and I realized that we'd spent more time in transit that evening than t the party. Yikes!

Catching the last train to Woking's a pain but not as bad as Montreal's night bus. Yeah, there's lots of waiting around in the cold but it's not -30, there aren't dozens of homeless people hanging around, there's no snow and, in this case, it was Elisabeth who was the one everyone was wary of in case she suddenly started puking. As a result of this, we had to beat a hasty retreat from the 1st class carriage we'd snuck into. We also got to be the loud, obnoxious people who provided the valuable service of allowing all the other passangers an opportunity to make their voyage home a little more enjoyable by eves-dropping (How do you spell that?) in on our converstaion.

PS- R.I.P. O.D.B. Rap music will never be as weird.

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
I just got a letter saying I passed my dissertation.
Which means I got my MA.
Suckers.

All Work No Play
Urf! No updates, no news, just work, work, work, etc... And the crappy thing is that once we've become accustomed to this, I'll be unemployed/changing jobs. Ah well, there's a party this Saturday which will be fun, as well as the fabled BIG NEWS from Elisabeth's job coming soon.

My book of the moment: 'The Men Who Stare at Goats' by Jon Ronson. I don't know where to begin - it's about all the insane 'intelligence' gathering the U.S. military has been carrying out to fight the war on terror. It involves Jedi warrior monks, mind reading and Barny the Dinosaur. It's alteratively hilarious and terrifying and ALL REAL. Hopefully this will get some coverage outside the UK - I guarantee that YOU WILL NOT sleep well after reading this.

The end of the Empire is upon us.

Umm... Elisabeth's making banananananana muffins and (Jenn) if anyone's feeling depressed about Bush's re-"election" then I suggest you click on the Ted Rall link over on the right. And then click on his editorial page and read his last 3 or 4 editorials. He's the only left-wing Yank I trust any more because he was right all along. (Damn him!)

Er...Never eat bananananana muffins fresh out of the oven. Your mouth is too busy being burned to taste their yummy goodness.

Elisabeth's old job is being advertized in the paper. Pretty crazy stuff; for lack of having a life, here's the shoes a new applicant will have to fill:

"I-- E-- is the UK's leading supplier of photo albums, photo frames and home decoration products. In addition to our home market, we export to over 40 countries worldwide, operating in a multilingual and multicultural market.

"We are seeking to appoint an ambitious and well organized full-time Sales Admin Assistant. Resposibilities include: order and invoice processing, organizing and dealing with customer and distribution queries; filing etc. Good communication skills and service minedness essential.

Etc... I'm getting bored writing it all down and there's 2 more paragraphs. I didn't realize there was so much. Must go now; the muffins have cooled off.

OFFICIALLY: This is the stupidest customer
So this guy and his girlfriend come up to me and ask if I know about this book called the Da Vinci Code and where I can find it. I point to it in the fiction section and the guy asks me why it isn't in the 'true crime' section, to which I reply "Because... it's a work of fiction." He gets angry at me and shouts "Naw, mate! It's just one guys opinion on what really happened, yeah?"

However disdainful I am of people who read Maeve Binchy, whenever someone approaches me to ask a question and they're holding a book by her, I know that it'll be a sensible question because people who read Maeve's (Yes, I'm on 1st name besis with her) books are almost always well read and know their way around a bookstore. People who approach me to ask a question who happen to be holding a copy of the Da Vinci Code are always the dumbest in the store because if they're asking me a question, it's because they've never been in a book store before and are only buying the book because it's trendy.

New Picture Alert!
Mood:  happy
Now Playing: Love
I added some pictures; more to come ... slowly, of course. Click on 'Photo album year 2' and then on either 'return of the blog pics' of 'Order of the Reindeer - year 2.' I know some are old; I'm doing some tidying up on the web page. At least the new ones are somewhat, kinda Hallowe'en/ Guy Fawlks oriented. Sorta.

A Typical Day
Mood:  hug me
Now Playing: BBC- Talking, talking, talking
Today is Saturday. We woke up at 7:30am. Stephen showered, I cooked him 2 scrabled eggs & toast with coffee.

We walked to the mall together because Stephen is working today, and we basked in our typically British behaviour. Up and at 'em!

I kissed Stephen good-day, and sat outside the hairdressers, and waited for them to open.

While waiting, I flippd through a free catalogue for a German furntiure company that sells Ikea-type furniture, but the good quality version, and very expensive. I have taken it home with me, to cut up and paste in one of my many discarded photoalbums for future reference.

I had my hair cleaned up by a friendly local lady, and then made my way to the local market. After buying a pound of mushrooms, and 6 peppers (the market stall workers are starting to reconize me which is nice...I'm starting to be local!), I made my way to the hellish superstore, Morrisons.

They don't have cocoa powder. They don't have sponges. They don't have scouring pads. And according to Stephen's colleague, they don't even pay their workers! It's a shit superstore. I will boycott them as soon as I can!

Oh, and that goes for everybody out there....BOYCOTT AMERICA, BOYCOTT AMERICA! The way to really affect change in that country, is to cut down its consumer base.

Do you realize that Canada has the capabilities to be a self-sustaining country? It doesn't need the States!

And the rest of the world can do without America too! It's just a question of excommunicating corrupt political practices and erradicating middle-management.

But really, the best way to make your voice heard, is to be a selective consumer. I am actively boycotting America when I can, and do my best to live an un-American lifestyle.

[This means, I don't own an SUV (or a car), I don't have satelite (or cable, or a TV), I read books, newspapers, and on-line newsources (and not FOX or CNN), I don't buy Disney, I don't drink Coca-Cola, or Pepsi, or eat at McDonlands, Subway, or any fast food establishment, I don't eat steak (or any meat excluding fish), I look at maps and try to learn other languages, I try to buy as little plastic as possible, and would sign the Kyoto Treaty if I could, and most of all, I do NOT mow the lawn sitting on my John Deer lawn-mowing machine drinking beer, and shooting at squirrels (I don't have a lawn.)

Right, well I've got the second load of laundry going, and am about to make a Rich Chocolate Cake (slurrrp!) and stuffed peppers for dinner. Ain't Stephen lucky---I even bought him cider.

And I am planning on tackling my letters/emails this weekend, but so far I have done nothing. If you are reading this, and you havn't heard from me in a while, remember this lovely British saying:

"You are held in a queue. Your call is very important to us. Please stay on the line, and the next available person with be with you as soon as possible."

--E.

HAPPY HALLOWE'EN!

And now we are British
Mood:  hungry
Now Playing: the Japanese Chamisan(?) man being really amazing on our radio
I blame the time change but at 8 o'clock we'd put in our 1st load of laundry, I'd done the dishes and was preparing breakfast, and Elisabeth was itemizing our bills and re-drafting our monthly budget. Amlmost but not quite up to the British standard of industriousness.

"Remember, by 9.30, the morning's 2/3's over."
-The League of Gentlemen

Random spooky Halloween happening: The right-most dial on our washing machine turned 360 degrees unprompted. Elisabeth witnessed it, so I'm not making it up. Any explanations???

Mmmm... gearing up for our favorite Sunday morning breakfast: Pancakes & maple syrup with spicy garlic potatos & mayonnaise; coffee, OJ & V8 with a shot of tabasco to kick us in the arse.

What with yesterday being Protestant work ethic day; today's lounge about get a haircut and pop by the pub day followed by see what the free Halloween heavy metal concert is like evening. And pita pizzas somewhere along the way. Always the pita pizzas.