duh duh do dah do
Mood:  lazy
Now Playing: Of Montreal - The Sunlandic Twins
Topic: Stephen Says
E's in the kitchen making cookies & trying to perfect a cookie recipe. We've been making our way steadily through all the wine my dad sent us for my birthday. The South African is, by the way, really standing out against the French wines, I must say.

Spring is in the air & the weather's getting warmer and it's nice to be able to be outside amongst the daffodils and just relax - work-wise, it makes life alot nicer. Apartment-wise it means nice, fresh air wafting through the room.

Things are pretty relaxed, all said. E's off for 4 days and I've got the weekend off, myself so... could a spring clean be on the menu? Probably not. Nonetheless, things have been much less hectic than they have been and that suits me just fine.

I'm looking forward to when all the beer gardens open up.

A few bullet points
Topic: Stephen Says
Some stuff:

-Don't Look Now was really good. Weird but good and E&I are still trying to figure out what on Earth was going on in it.

-Our tickets to North Carolina are booked - we arrive on June 28th and leave July 6th - and E&I are looking to, on the beachhouse week, go to Charlottesville for a day (it's only 4 hours drive, after all) estberg siblings, are you interested?

-And finally, THIS VIDEO (There's also a transcript) was almost too embarassing to watch. Almost.

Blub blub blub
Mood:  lyrical
Now Playing: Husker Du - Warehouse songs & stories
Topic: Stephen Says
So I get a day off at last and get a chance to reflect on the last week... I still hate birthdays, I don't care what you say. That said, I'm happy and relatively stress-free yet exhausted and stressed-out.
Go figure.

Last night we at long last got to watch The Wicker Man again (As I attempted to prophesize earlier this week) and have a free copy (2 free copies, in fact! Let me know if you want one!!!) of Don't Look Now, featuing Donald Sutherlad & Julie Christie. I fell asleep watching it during a sleep in but I'm relying on Tim's awesome advice that it's fantastic. Looking forward to watching it soon!
(i.e., tomorrow - my only dat off in a while.)

Bleah.
Nothing much else.
It's weird how management suddenly makes you care about your job and, when your job is people, you have to care more.
Yet keep the professional boundries...
Which is cool but, at the same time frustrating because you've got to manage collegues who don't do what you want to care them to do.
Which doesn't make much sense.
Which means I'm rambling.
Which means that this blog entry has come to an end.

Surrey with a Fringe on Top
Mood:  a-ok
Now Playing: exactly
Topic: Elisabeth's Entries
EDIT: E's probably gonna kill me but I took some pictures off... I think those involved would't want said pictures to be up on the net. Sorry, hon!
*****

Ok, so I've been challenged to explain Stephen's Birthday (non)planning:

It all started when I didn't know what to get/do for Stephen. His crazy schedule soon ruled out planning a weekend away, or even taking the day off to spend together since Stephen was schedule to work the afternoon/evening shift on his birthday. So right, I must get a really nice present for him. However, I've found that after almost three years of marriage, the "special" and "romantic" and "thoughtful" are not in material presents. (Or I wasn't imaginative enough to think of something). I did give London a try however, but if you read back a few entrys, London disappointed me in several ways that day, so I came back empty handed for Stephen.

With the birthday only a few days away, I did the only thing a sensible person could do: surf the net. I found a party site that offered some wacky things, and had a delivery slot open for Stephen's birthday. But before I went ahead, I wanted to check with Stephen's co-workers that I wasn't going to duplicate any party things they were going to do.

It turns out they were happy to have the party stuff sent over, and I joked around that I'd get Stephen's old Manager to dress up in balloons and be a singing telegram. I was given his old manager's mobile number, and made the necessary arrangements. Through all of this, I thought I had communicated that I would send over some party stuff, and maybe show up after I finished work with some cakes, and bring Stephen's manager with me.

So the night before Stephen's birthday we went out for a few drinks and dinner to celebrate. I told Stephen I hadn't got him any presents (partly true) and was he disappointed? The answer was both yes and no. So I set his sights low hoping to surprise him the next day.

The morning of his birthday I had arranged to go into work late so that I could treat Stephen to a nice breakfast etc... but he was not feeling well for all the pizza and deep-fried cheese he'd eaten the night before (the pints of beer, 1/2 bottle of wine and naughty coffee surely didn't contribute) and so he wasn't hungry. Luckily, I had some marzipan men on hand to whet his appetite:

Not feeling well, and having no presents, Stephen felt like calling in sick to work (NO!). But he went in the end of course.

Stephen's boss picked me up (early) from work where we then gathered supplies (cake, balloons, ribbon, pizza) and made our way to the project.

It was a windy day, but the balloons held (bar one).

SURPRISE!

"It's daddy's birthday, oh yes it is, and it is today"

And then pop!

>BANNED!<

It was at this point that the misunderstandings surfaced: they hadn't opened the party things yet and they were all waiting for me and Stephen's old boss to arrive, and had been stalling for hours causing lots of confusion (um, I thought it was obvious that I had to work a 9-5 job and would arrive with desert, but hey, it's 3 o'clock where are they?)

So we opened up the boxes and found Mr. Wayne, hit the pinata, ate cake, sang songs, and the whole jing-bang gang just chilled out...

>BANNED!<


...until the food fight that is.

And how could I forget the lap dance?

>BANNED!<

Thanks to Susan's trip to cuba, I had a cuban cigar in my bag to offer to Stephen on his walk home. And thanks to his co-workers, they not only bought him a very nice bottle of whiskey, but had a flask engraved with "Just give 'r" (FUBAR reference).

The confusion escalated when Stephen spoke to his mother later that evening "Well Elisabeth didn't really get me anything, but my co-workers threw me a nice party". What?! I couldn't believe it. He thought his co-workers loved him more than me, and that was an unpleasant feeling.

Now I hope things are sorted and we can resume our life as a THIRTY year old and a (ha ha) TWENTY FOUR year old couple.

Stephen's working (of course) this weekend, and so I must off to market to buy some non-supermarket produce and local eggs.

I must confess that I ate 1/2 pint of Ben & Jerry's cookie dough ice cream last night. But I'm telling you this because I was shocked to read the ingredients list and discover all sorts of things are going into the ice cream. I was always under the impression that B & J's ice cream only had the purest and fewest ingregdients. What's going on? Never again I tell you. I dumped the rest down the drain this morning (well, it had melted).

SIDE NOTE: Happy 53rd Birthday to Stephen's father!
*******
EDIT: Stephen here again. Dad: I'm not sure if E's being funny or not but I know your real age and don't worry; I won't post it here!

I'm 30
Mood:  mischievious
Now Playing: Of Montreal - Satanic Panic in the Attic
Topic: Stephen Says
Well, there was some confusion today with my birthday celebrations and I'll let E try to explain it tomorrow while I'm doing the sleep-in. Suffice to say that I was suitably gob-smacked this afternoon and will have to explain what the hell was going on to my co-workers & residents tomorrow.

Here are pictures:
The Man eats marzipan in the morning:

He receives his pinata; John wayne stands in the background:

The anatomically correct birthday cake:

The Man is 30:

Anyway, a strange day that I still don't fully understand (I think). Apologies to those involved in it - I'll explain it to you as soon as I know what was going on. Also - If I talked to you and it seemed like it was a quiet afternoon well, that was before it stopped being quiet.

Kudos to poor planning and a little spontanaity.

There's nothing like walking home in a sailors hat, smoking a Cuban cigar & drinking 12 year single malt rare Scotch whisky from a flask.
Yum.

30 - 1 day
Mood:  lazy
Now Playing: Of Montreal - Satanic Panic in the Attic
Topic: Stephen Says
Just got back from our favorite Italian joint for a lush dinner (PS - the head waiter says 'Hello to mom.') where I've eaten so much that I feel like throwing up. Yum yum it's the birthday meal.

So on my birthday, I'm working 'till 9:30pm, the day afterwards, a 13 hour shift plus sleep in and then throughout the weekend. At least I've had the last three days 'off.'

By 'off,' I mean that I've been taking a smoking cessation course through the NHS - I'm now qualified to assist in quit smoking courses (group & 1 on 1) for both members of John Q. Public & those with mental health needs. It also means that I can freelance a bit (at 30 quid a pop!) should the opportunity come up. Ah well, it's good for the CV. With luck, in a year or so, I'll be able to qualify for a higher certification, which is kind of cool.

Otherwise, nothing much else. I'm aware this blog is kind of boring now but that's good. We're down to about 200-300 hits a day which is still way too high to make sense but it's better than the 800+ hits we were getting a while ago.
Weird.
Are we that interestiong?
I hope to God not... That would be wayyy too disturbing.

Anyway, I'm tired & theres a touch of wine around and I'm going to see if we can watch the Wicker Man tonight.
If only to see Britt Ekland do her ass-slapping naked dance...

"It's Stephen's birthday, Oh yes it is and it is today..."
-Festen... Sort of.

What a Bust
Mood:  irritated
Now Playing: BBC 4
Topic: Elisabeth's Entries
Where is the good side to London?

Woe is the city-loving girl who cannot enjoy London.

Yes its's big, yes there's a lot of history, yes there's a lot of art, yes there are a lot of powerful people, yes there a lot of ethnicities, yes there are red phone booths, yes there is a lot of variety in food, shops and neighborhoods.

But what metropolis doesn't have everything above (minus the red phone booths)? So what makes a city unique, or likeable even?

I sum it up in one word: soul.

Could you describe the soul of New York, Stockholm, Cape Town, Tokyo? It can often be discovered in the attitude of the people who live in said city. But no one seem happy in London. I don't envy anyone in London, because it is an uninspiring mecca of selling out and buying in.

I am still willing to be proved wrong about all this. But it's almost 3 years since we've been exploring London, and granted with not much money, but that shouldn't be a crucial factor to a decent city.

I went to Spitafields market, Portabello road market and the stores of Oxford Street, Carnaby circus & stolled around Soho. I really tried to focus on the positive, but there is nothing nourishing about London. Except for the people's need and persistence to survive in it.

I did get some help from a person on the street handing out cards:

"MR SUWAREH: GOD GIFTED SPIRITUAL HEALER AND CLAIRYOANT SUCCESSFUL POWRE OF KAHTTEN IN 7 DAYS...REMOVAL OF BLACK MAGIC...DON'T SUFFER IN SILENCE! ALL WORK GUARANTEED."

Thanks MR. Suwareh.

As for the food quest, I found an all English food shop, a spice shop, and an all Spanish foods store.

Stephen has set the table, so we can eat his delicious gnocci.

Bye.

What a (2) week!
Mood:  lazy
Now Playing: Os Mutantes
Topic: Stephen Says
I've just come off working 11 days straight and roughly acruing 75 hours of overtime during that period. Yep, I'm looking forward to next month's pay cheque. Thank goodness I've got the weekend off and will be spending Monday to Wednesday in Guildford taking a smoking cessation course for people with mental health issues. It'll feel like time off, at least. In all honesty though, this management thing ain't so hard.

E&I have spent a quiet Saturday in the pub reading the paper (Incidentally, The Guardian is strictly for guilt-ridden baby-boomers who would like to hold onto the belief that they're still in someway liberal but can't bear to face the reality of the shit they've created. Case in point: a baby-boomer was lamenting on the radio this week that her children weren't having lots of children of their own because she felt it was her kids duty to look after her in her in her old age because she'd spent all her savings and hadn't pepared for retirement and felt that her kids dhould be having more kids to look after them and ARGH! what narrow-minded thinking. Sorry - tangent over) and drinking mirco-brewed stout allowing me to forget all about the madness (heh) of the last 2 weeks.

We got Ghostbusters & The Wicker Man DVD's for 2.99 each. And The Princess Bride for under a fiver. Lame but guess what we're going to do over the next few nights.

E's off to London tomorrow to give me some space etc. as she pursues her organic/ evironmentally friendly food crusade and I focus on some hard-core, unadulterated spacing out.
And getting my things in order.

At least I've at long last made a start on the bathroom. E is complaining that I smell like chemicals.

Oh, and honestly, I've never heard so much moaning about how I look in make-up. Really! If you all are going to gripe about it this much, I'm liable to start with the eye-shadow full time. I walked home from work that way and no one batted an eye, you bunch of homophobes!
Watch out - I've got weirder pictures than those that I can post!

Trying something new

Mainline churches should be silent while Religious Right political leaders get to speak their mind? Do you care?

Check it out... Our first blog ad.
I think.

So what did YOU do at work today?
Mood:  mischievious
Now Playing: Cat Power
Topic: Stephen Says

Elisabeth says I look like a cancer patient. It was very difficult to stand like a woman and don't get me started on how hard it is to hold a cigarette like a transvestite. Because, of course, all transvestites smoke, don'tcha know?