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Stephen & Elisabeth in England
Tuesday, 14 December 2004
Who are those sexy people?
Mood:
hungry
![](innova2004.JPG) Why us at the office party, of course! The Christmas shopping insanity has kicked into 5th gear and, luckily, I got off 1/2 an hour early. ... Of course that's because I couldn't take any breaks today. Elisabeth's still at work and it's a quarter to seven. Yikes! Thank god for BRRREETO dinners! I got shouted at today by a customer (whose name, though it's spelled differently, is pronounced 'heiny'. Haha) because the Frank Sinatra song book she'd ordered hadn't come in. Customer queries are becoming increasingly obscure and, strangely, they're increasigly assuming I know what the fuck they're talking about when they ask for the book that explains the origin of the word 'shag' and how it's come from refering to a rug in the 1970's to slang for sex in the new millenium. Ah yes, that one's on my reading list right next to Fuck Off and Get a Life. (Ahem, rant over.) Book I'm seriously reccomending: Philip Pullan's His Dark Materials trilogy. The first book's Northern Lights. It's for tenagers but, whereas J.K. Rowling has to warn people two years ahead of time that she's going to painlessly kill off a supporting character, this series is about the Christian Chruch kidnapping and torturing children. It's a massive runaway hit over here with adults & children alike; there's been a stage adapation of it (That takes place over two days) and a movie adaptation coming up. I gained interest in it because the BBC had a story about how the U.S. is pressuring for all references to 'The Church' being removed from the movie. ... Which is kind of like removing all mention of wizardry from Harry Potter. Anyway, I don't often reccomend books here and I reccomend it. Elisabeth's waiting for me to finish the damn series so she can have her husband back.
Thursday, 9 December 2004
Sorry for the lack of updates
Mood:
chillin'
Now Playing: The fat blow-hard on the radio going on about yobs
Jeeze, the blog's been pretty dead. Elisabeth and I have been awfully busy and, frankly, talking about our jobs is kinda boring. I cannot stress the insanity of the questions & attitudes of some of my customers but everytime I try to comment on it, it gets turned into a rant and becomes one of those 'you had to be there' situations. I don't start until 1.30 today but I'm getting to work 'till 9pm so this should be interesting. Aparently the evenings are very, very busy. Elisabeth's big Christmas office party is tomorrow night & we'll bring the camera so that y'all can see us dressed up all fancy-like and lookin' purdy at the golf club. I still can't get over how mild the weather is over here - not at all condusive to getting into the Christmas spirit. I'm also still amazed at how much people complain about how bitterly cold it it when the temperatures hovering around just under 10 degrees celsius. We still haven't turned on our heat.
Saturday, 4 December 2004
Picture Time
Mood:
rushed
Now Playing: BBC Radio 2
Here's where Stephen is going to be working on this dreary Saturday: ![](138_3853_1.JPG) And it is located above this monstrosaty: ![](138_3854_1.JPG) And I will be going to the market: ![](138_3870_1.JPG) So we don't have to eat the Local cuisine:
Monday, 29 November 2004
Kinda pooped, bored & lookin' forward to dinner
Mood:
lazy
Now Playing: Some ridiculous Israeli woman on the radio saying that everything wrong with Israel is wholly the Palestinians fault. Yikes!
Ahh, a quiet Monday; the sizzle of Persian rice with a tahdeeg on the oven and Brit?s and Germans arguing about who goes on more about war (?Don?t mention the War?) on the radio. The calm before the retail storm, I suspect. I?ve voluntarily agreed to work at the bookstore ?till 9pm on Dec 21, 22, & 23rd (On top of the Christmas eve marathon) so that I can get the full impact of Xmas-retail-mania. E&I have bought puppets and are preparing for the Christmas puppet show we?ve been asked to put on for her friends children on Christmas day. Me: a hippo and her: a rather worried looking tiger named ?Eugene?. (After Eugene Levy ? he and the tiger possess similarly triangular eyebrows.) The bookstore job goes on and stupid customers continue to come by in droves (?I?m looking for a children?s book ? how is your section organized?? ?0-5 years, 6-11, young adult.? ?How do I find a book by a specific author?? ?They?re listed in alphabetical order.? ?Silence? ?In what order?? ?Alphabetically. ? By last name.? As if let into the world biggest secret: ?Oooohhhh.?) (?Do you sell movies?? ?No but the HMV next door does, so does the Virgin Mega-store downstairs.? ?Ok. Can you look something up for me on your computer?? ?Sure. [title is given] It?s not coming up on the computer. Was this book published recently?? Incredulously: ?It?s not a book it?s the movie I want to buy.? ?Um, this is a bookstore. Our computer can only look up books.? Customer huffs and storms out of the shop.) and I?m going to miss having access to unlimited free books come January. Hopefully my next job will carry similar benefits, though I doubt it. The big benefit will be that it?ll allow us to not be poor. There?s something a little bit discouraging seeing 500 pounds of your pay cheque being used to pay off less that half of the credit card. Yikes! Otherwise all is quiet. We took a bunch of silly pictures of Woking on Saturday and we?ll get around to putting them up soon. There are some charming ones of the mall I?m working at in all its zany Christmas glory. No, scratch that; grotesque Christmas gaudy is more like it. So to speak.
Saturday, 27 November 2004
Countin' Down...
Mood:
hungry
Now Playing: Bob & Doug's Mackenzie's Great White North
![](Scarybluedoll_1.jpg)
(Above is something we saw at a steam-fair...digitally re-mastered for full effect)
It's Saturday, and we've both gotten paid! Wooo-hooo! We've paid a large chunk off the credeit card and are off to spend the day in town.
This last week has been chock-a-block with happenstances:
-Monday: Our phone died! Late one evening whilst Stephen was playing D & D in Camberley, Elisabeth picked up the phone to call the mobile, and alack, the thing was unresponsive. The next day the damn thing was in the bin, and a wonderful new tephalone with a CORD was in its place. It actually provides clear reception, and lots of fun features like memory-dial, holding-music (just give us a call, and we'll be happy to put you on hold so you can try it out), and best of all...speaker-phone. Mark and Jenn, you know what this means...hours of trans-Atlantic hands free talking!
-Stephen has been applying for jobs, and hopefully he can get one in Weybridge where I work...but that would be too conveninent, and British natural law will conspire against it I'm sure.
-On Thursday a few people from Innova got together for an Alternative Christmas party at a Weybridge tapas bar, which was quite intoxicating...But best of all come mid-night, after intaking an unknown quantity of wine, you could see a blond-haired girl swerving down the streets of Surrey on her bicycle in a black-velvet shirt, bicycling furiously to get home in time to wake up well-rested at 7am the next morning...trust me, I was not well-rested!
-Last night our neighbors below broke-up and a screaming match ensued at 3am which went something like:
She: You bastard! You pushed me too far He: Go home, go home! She: I hate you, you stupid ..... He: Go home, get away from my car! (louder now)
She: First you ..., then you....I can't believe... He: Go home you stupid cow She: (even louder) ARHHH! I can't believe you're leaving me etc....
It was NOT pleasent.
Ok---enough from me. Now it's to market, to market, to buy...vegetables.
Have a good weekend all!
E-
Saturday, 20 November 2004
Doodles anyone??
Mood:
party time!
Now Playing: The sounds of silence - Earlier Kurt Weil followed by early Faith No More...go figure!
Oh man, I hate to bump one of Elisabeth's rare & wonderfully insightful blogs down one notch (Seriously - she best captures our overall mood of the moment) but I've just bought the best notebook ever! It's black & called the 'Doodler' and is made by my book company so woo-hoo! 30% off! each page is 1/2 blank and 1/2 filled with ideas for possible doodles and doodle exercises which, if I'm not mistaken equals 100% pure doodling satisfaction + unintimidating note-taking (Because a blank white page can be so ... intimidating.) Ack! My language skills are leaving me and there's a phone bill >shudder< to be paid! Must be off... elisabeth will pay the bills; I'll cradle the Doodler.
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
Friday, 19 November 2004
Where did all the blogging go?
Mood:
spacey
Now Playing: BBC 4's Today programme
Check out this great site for one of the most thoughtful, well researched analyses of the American election you'll find on the net. You should also click on it because you're supporting a regular contributer to our web page.
Sunday, 14 November 2004
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.
Friday, 12 November 2004
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
I just got a letter saying I passed my dissertation. Which means I got my MA. Suckers.
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