We went for a walk along the canal today:
Came home and saw a fox lurking around the parking lot:
Now we're just sittin' round, waitin' for the lasagne to cook and feelin' apologetic for not makin' this blog entry a little bit more entertainin'.
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Stephen & Elisabeth in England
Sunday, 19 December 2004
Pictures of the day
We went for a walk along the canal today:
Christmas time in woking
As we approach the Big C, life in Woking goes on; shoppers shop, our yob neighbour has bought himself a brand new pair of camouflage pants while his little child teeters around in rags like the village drunk. It's rainy & sunny (usually at the same time) and the cats are fighting in the bushes outside of our window. The pantomime has come to Woking; it's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and, as Woking sets the standard for artistic interpretation, the dwarfs are being played by real dwarfs. So in addition to the usual freaks and geeks roaming the town square, there are packs of dwarfs, usually in 2's or 3's, doing their Christmas shopping as well. If London is supposed to be a microcosom of the world; Woking is a microcosom of the world that time forgot. Bonus Personnal Ad Follies (From the Woking News & Mail): Gay cigar smoking bloke, 30's, from Alton, seeks non-smoking, shy, cute white lad, around 18 for fun, possibly more. Let's hope his Christmas is a merry one!
Friday, 17 December 2004
Pooped
Mood: ![]() Now Playing: Bad Religion - Stranger than Fiction Well here's my attempt to get the blog moving a bit more; instead of one blog a week as we've been doing the past few weeks. Except Elisabeth's late coming back from work and picking up the take out pizza. As a result, this glass of wine's gone to my head and I keep accidentally closing windows. Yikes! Christmas here is insane. EVERYONE waits 'till the last minute to shop. So have I and I sense that I'm very, very, very close to getting screwed with regard to Elisabeth's present that I haven't bought yet. ... Of course, I wouldn't be had she not come into the book store last week and force me to buy the things that I was going to give her as a present because I knew she wanted them even though she thought I'd probably forgotten. Bleah! BBC radio 4 did a special thing about all the insane things booksellers get asked over the holidays and it only pissed me off because it only scratched the INSANE surface and didn't touch on the fact that YOU'RE ASKED THE-SAME-BUT-DIFFERENT QUESTIONS OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER AD INFINITUM for 8 freakin' hours a day. RAWG! These are the 3 simple rules a person needs in order to not be and insane customer and people don't seem to be able to follow them: 1) Know the title of the book you're looking for. 2) Know the author's name 3) If you're told the book is out of print, accept it as a fact; not something you can negotiate. Bonus tip: Knowing the colour of the cover doesn't do anything except confuse EVERYTHING. YOU CANNOT DO AN INTERNET SEARCH ON A BOOK ON THE BASIS OF THE COLOUR OF ITS COVER.
Tuesday, 14 December 2004
Who are those sexy people?
Mood: ![]() 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.
Posted by oz/rexcats
at 6:52 PM GMT
Updated: Tuesday, 14 December 2004 6:54 PM GMT Post Comment | View Comments (5) | Permalink | Share This Post Thursday, 9 December 2004
Sorry for the lack of updates
Mood: ![]() 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: ![]() Now Playing: BBC Radio 2 Here's where Stephen is going to be working on this dreary Saturday: And it is located above this monstrosaty: And I will be going to the market: So we don't have to eat the Local cuisine:
Monday, 29 November 2004
Kinda pooped, bored & lookin' forward to dinner
Mood: ![]() 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: ![]() Now Playing: Bob & Doug's Mackenzie's Great White North
Saturday, 20 November 2004
Doodles anyone??
Mood: ![]() 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: ![]() 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
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