Really Cute Picture Alert!
Now Playing: BBC Radio 4
I'm eating dinner at 9:30pm tonight. Stephen is at a Christmas party with his old co-workers at the Bookstore (they are a bit disorganized I think, seeing as this is the Christmas party for 2003-) So I stayed late a work cutting up prints into 30x30 cm blocks in order to select the best images for our new Block Print range. Ooo woo...It's positively inspiring : p

But, to cheer us all, here is the CUTEST pix in the world!

Workin for the Weekend
Now Playing: The Tea Kettle
Oh what a lovely weekend so far!

Last night we went into London to see a Canadian theatre show "Patience" by Jason Sherman with one of Stephen's old classemates and her beau.

The evening was very pleasent and refreshing, as watching the play transported us back to Canada where people dress like hell, swear casually and speak without pretention. The play itself is a good specimen of what Canadian theatre is generally like...full of promise but comparatively unrefined.

This morning we had a large breakfast (as per usual fried potatoes & eggs) and then set out to town for coffee & groceries.

We stopped into Boots Pharmacy and had my glasses adjusted, as one side was bent and sliding down my face. The friendly glasses-man asked me how I put on and take off my glasses; with one hand, or with two? I performed a test, and discovered I habitually use only my right hand to take off my glasses, which incidently is the same side that is bent on my glasses.

So TIP OF THE DAY: Always put on and take off one's glasses using TWO hands.

To honour the New Year tradition of turning a new leaf, we are indeed attemtping to become healthier and are drinking less alcohol. On the other hand we have consumed a combined total of 18 bags of crisps today (the small bags of course).

On the weather front, it has been unusually windy the past two days with consistent gale-force winds that keeps us up at night. But while in London, along with the trash being blown over and around town, were abandoned Christmas trees being blown across busy streets like tumbelweeds.

BLOG CHALLENGE: tell us your most bizarre wind-related stories (in 4 sentances or less).

Bumpa Lump
Now Playing: Sepultura--Straighthate
The music was not my choice.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Yesterday Stephen posted some pictures of us, but I got "pissy" and told him to take them off. Sorry.

For the gals out there: Throw away your lipstick! It's all about Lipgloss...no worries about applying without a mirror...no funny looks when a glossy sheen is left on the rim of your coffee mug or cigarrette (not that I would know). It's subtle, fruity and fun. Buy a high quality gloss that won't dry out your lips, and you won't regret it.

Ok--onto smarter topics: Are there any Red Dwarf fans out there? We are currently battleing through the show season by season, and I must say, I am enjoying it. This is a surprise to me, because when seeing the show in Canada (pre-move to England) I thought the show was for Mega Nerds. I didn't get it. Now that I've lived in this unhappy country, I can see that in a country filled with Mega Nerds, it is simply a show about contemporary culture, and therefore find it entertaining and amusing.

[Stephen here: From my MA class notes: Interesting cultural thing: "In Canada: Love of Montey Python = nerd. In UK it's standard cultural practise." Read into it what you will.]

ON a literary front, it's all about Africa. Jane, my co-worker from South Africa, with whom we spent Christmas, leant us two books : "Disgrace" by J.M. Coetezee and "Don't Lets Go to the Dogs Tonight" by Alexandra Fuller which I have/am fully enjoying. It has given valuable insight into the shamefull behaviour of British Colonists, and their children who must try to integrate and create a new hybrid culture. Tough and humbling.

[Stephen here: I'm reading "Chopper," "Chopper 2," and "Chopper 3" by Mark Brandon "Chopper" Read. The autobiographies of an Australian toecutter whose covered with tattoos, plays Russian roulette for fun and makes his opponents chew on razor blades at knife point. Dumb and violent.]

So we have heralded the new year in with our predicatble cocktail of smart and dumb. Or asshole and not-asshole (as Stephen so eloquently has requested me to state). As we like to think of our existence in Woking as: Cultured Yobs

[Yob=white trash in Britania)

So, after much arm twisting, her are those pictures:

{Edited for aparant nudity}

Thirsty Thursday's
Mood:  chillin'
Now Playing: Neurosis - The Eye of Every Storm
As this year winds it's way down, here are some random thoughts as elisabeth and I sip the last of the Christmas wine.

1) Yay! The comments are sputtering back into semi-consciousness. ... We'll engage with them starting from... Now!

2) In light of the horrible, tsunami's and Bush's laxidazical (yah, yah, I know I spelt tht rong); here's a great little piece on writing on Why GWB isn't a good Christian, so check it out. ... This is also a good link to see just how paltry Bush's ofer of 35 million $ for releif is. ... And This, I suppose show's the mindset of all those idiots who voted for Bush. ... And, finally, Here is a great editorial that puts Bush in a historical context by my favorite left-wing editorial writing guy.

3) I've >sigh< only got a day left of work and no immediate prospects but, hopefully, that will be short lived.

4)Elisabeth has found some exciting things shes going to do with her bonus but I'll let her write about them.

5) We'll be having a quiet New Year's over here - the meal plan fell apart when we realized that we could save the money we would have spent at the restaurant and eat really good food over here with it. We've also accumulated quite a few bottle of champaign and E's become very adapt at popping the cork.

6) Oooh, I bought a kick ass dictionary on discount for only 10 pounds. I. AM. A. NERD.

7) I'm also a loser who drags out his blog entries just so that he can write

8) I forget what eight was for

9) in the hopes that someone's familliar enough with the Violent Femmes so that they can get my lame joke.

Wacky Wednesdays
Mood:  cheeky
Now Playing: White Stripes-Elephant
On a lighter note than my last entry, it's end of the holidays, and back to work today, which isn't so bad when no one else is working and things are pretty quiet.

In a bid to genereate more interaction, please reply to this question before 1st January:

What are you doing for New Years?

--We may go to a restaurant, maybe not...no real plans. Please excite us with your plans!

L8R
E

Sunny Monday
Mood:  happy
Now Playing: Stereolab: Dots and Loops
Contrary to popular belief, Christmas is complicated. There are so many conflicts to wade through, such as age, finances, family situation, and work responsibilites. (to name a few).

For instance, AGE: if you are overweight and in your late 40s, and should be closely monitoring your diet, how much do you give in on Christmas day when the plate of turkey and stuffing is passed around? Indulging on Christmas is part of the fun, even if it seriously complicates your health?

FAMILY SITUATION: A child-free Christmas vs. a child-oriented Christmas. How much do you focus the day around the children, how spoiled should they feel? As a working parent, do you feel your time off should be spent relaxing for yourself, or working even harder for your children.

At the end of the holidays, it sees we're all left with a sense of "what is it all for anyway?" I mean talk to Stephen about the Zombie Christmas-Eve shoppers who have checked their brain into another dimension, and beg to be told what to buy, as they have no clue what to do for presents.

FINANCIALY: People go into more debt than any other time of the year around Christmas. Why? Because it's the season of giving? No, because Christmas is complicated, and no one feels in control of themselves, their families, or their chequebook.

In short, Christmas is out of hand. And as many Christians would probably interject at some point in my rant so far, that Christmas is actually a very simple occasion: it's about the birth of Christ, the saviour of the world.

In turn this presents another conflict: how to balance between secular and religious Christmas. Many simply visit church (often the only time all year--what a priveledge for the Churches) on Christmas Eve, and then spend Christmas day indulging in secular traditions. Quite acceptable by most standards.

Now, at this point in my young life, I am confused. I am not a church-goer, and I tend not to follow "secular" ways either. So Christmas doesn't hold much weight with me either relgiously or secularly.

Ideally I would like to try to give nice presents on people's birthdays, when the occasion is actually for them. And as for celebrating Christ's birth as a non-church goer, I appreciate the need for having sprituatlity. So every reminder to increase love, compassion and joy in the world is most welcome. Except that I think focusing heavily on this only once a year, is hypocritical. It should rather be a reinforcement of attitudes nurtured all year long. Therefore, marking one day of the year to go to church, to remind us to be giving and caring people is not good enough. But again, going to church every Sunday hasn't worked for me in the past, even though it certainly works for hundreds of thousands.

But I believe that going to Christian church can not be the only way to cultivate positive attitudes. In fact, looking at current world events, understanding diversity, especially religious diversity, is desperately needed throughout the world. That is what strikes me as the best Christmas message, secular or non.

T'was the night after Christmas
Mood:  chillin'
Now Playing: B-52's - 52 Girls
More weirdness, if you ask me - and it has nothing to do with Elisabeth saying how she's got to do a blog entry and then doesn't! nope; we got a slight frost last night and they're saying that Britain got a White Christmas. ... And betting agencies are paying out! Millions of pounds! Or at least ten-thousands of pounds! Pardon me, but when does a frozen puddle become a White Christmas?

Petty bitching aside, we had a wonderful Christmas with Elisabeth's co-worker - we played with their boys, put on our patented puppet show "Hungry Hungry Hippo" featuring Eugine Tiger and Gilbert Hippo, ate plenty of food and didn't drink too much. On top of it all, we watched 'Chocolat' and I really enjoyed it (As opposed to the James Bond-fest that usually occurs on Dec. 25th ... not that I don't miss seeing You Only Live Twice for the 400th time...).

Hope y'all had some fun hoidays and feel free o expound on them ... Seems like JC's taken off to Buffalo and left the messge board rather dreary.

Merry Christmas!
Mood:  celebratory
Now Playing: The chruch service at St. Mary's
Here's hoping your Christmas is a merry one!

Christmas is a-comin'
Mood:  chillin'
Now Playing: and you will know us by the trail of dead - source tags & codes
>phew<
Christmas is almost here and the exhaustion is setting in. We're still not used to the blanket of darkness that falls on this country from 3 pm to 9 am. I'm getting a sense of what it's like to live in the Arctic.

Pay day came early and by the looks of it, we'll be UK debt free by tomorrow so whoppee! I've just got to get a new freakin' job in a few weeks so that the good times can keep rollin'.

Otherwise, blank. Work, eat, have a tipple, sleep. We've been getting up to date a little bit with movies and finally got around to seeing The Producers. Now I want to see all the movies that Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor did together (I know this is a bit of a tangent BUT) but I can't remember all the movies they did. There's Stir Crazy, See No Evil Hear No Evil and what other ones? There's at least another one or two but my mind's a blank. Anyone?

Quorn bangers & mash for din-din's and I can tell that Elisabeth's going to ruin her meal by using honey mustard instead of the proper British kind.

PS- HAPPY BELATED ANNIVERSARY MARK & JENN!!!

PPS- To my dad: You may think that Elisabeth was wise to stop us from opening your first delivery but with the arrival of the 2nd delivery labelled 'WaitroseWinedirect," she's ordered an immediate opening and inspection of the goods. Go figure.

PPPS- Another exciting arrival from Sweden: Bilar candies and Marabou chocolates. What's that going out the window? Oh yeah, it's my health.

...at least I'm not working 'till 1.30 tomorrow. Ugh, 'till 9pm, though.

Pictures of the day
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'.