England Blows!
Mood:  lazy
Topic: Stephen Says
Blows with gusts of wind, that is. It's been like 5 days that it's been windy and rainy and sunny in most cases all at the same time and the storm that's been threatening to descend has yet to rear its ugly little head. Maybe it's the Rapture? Maybe it'll just pizzle out? Stay tuned!

Yeah, so E's off to the concert and I don't know if I'm being lame not wanting to go but really, I think assigned standing room is a pretty weird idea and I refuse to sit at a concert. Been there, done that and it made Depeche Mode a really boring experience. I have my standards, Goddamnit!

So I'm going to eat frozen pizza and get boozy.

Remember when E took those management/ influencing people courses and it was like 'oh cool! Good for her.' Now I'm set to take some and it's totally like 'Wha'happened?!' A two day management training course ('Managing performance') in London is the last place I thought I'd end up this side of bizarro-world (Egham).

Almost forgot: Click me for a strangely feel-good video. I'm turning into a Youtube slut.

Ironing is Over!
Mood:  chillin'
Topic: Elisabeth's Entries

I smell the basil from the kitchen while I listen to the click-thump-click of the trains racing towards London or Portsmouth, interleaved with the sound of tyres driving on wet pavement.

It's Tuesday night, and we've decided not to drink.

As a result, Stephen cooked pita pizzas (the best ever-with Davidstow cheddar and chili peppers) and I did the dishes. The laundry was ironed, I polished the run in my tights, and relaced my converse high tops. They had been washed in hopes the black filth would disappear, but it ain't so.

Today at work I received my first letter written via typewriter. It was frought with overtyping, spelling and grammar errors. It was so quaint I photocopied it to show Stephen.

I believe it's also early to bed, as tomorrow night is Neko Case...and I'm going solo! I'll bring my camera so hopefully there'll be something a bit more interesting to blog about soon.

And did you know, that it's officially "Let's talk about sex week" in the UK? Only, I couldn't find the right moment to make that announcement at work today.

Been slacking off in the Perfect Husband department...
Topic: Stephen Says
So tonight for dinner we're starting with an organic salad, followed by organic zuchini 'in Italian style' and (hopefully organic) baby leeks in and egg & lemon sauce. Desert will definitely NOT be organic... something erring on the fruity/chocolatey/pastry side of things. Unlike Elisabeth, I doubt that I'll take any pictures of the food.

I've been slacking because I've just done 7 straight days of work but I don't want to go into the 'o woe is me, I work so hard' outine because, really, the weekend shifts are quiet and I haven't been working exceptionally hard. All is quiet. And it's my fault anyway because I never even tried to catch up on my sleep from the New Pornographers concert.

Currently reading Garth Nix's Sabriel. It's part of a young adults trilogy that seems to be a bit like an Australian version of His Dark Materials. I'm only about 60 pages into the first one but it's a pretty cool idea. Think: Harry Potter only where the Death Eaters are the heros and unlike Harry, the hero is already a fully trained up wizard. Except she's got Lyra's personality.

Plip plop, the weather here is miserable and I don't want to go outside. Ugh, I'm blogging about the weather. Got to go.

Duchy Originals
Mood:  hungry
Topic: Elisabeth's Entries
Well yesterday I did something I vowed never to do: go back to Egham & Englefield Green. It was a shitty day- raining heavy off and on and the train ride was agonizingly long--- boy did it bring back the commuting memories and make me feel so damn happy with my work situation now.

I slogged up the hill from the train station finding that nothing had changed, and there was no warm feeling of reminiscence of the good ol' days. I instantly regretted being there. But my mission was to go the library. They have the most wonderful theatre section at royal holloway, although I won't say that for the actual school or theatre department.

After the library I walked through Englefield Green: 1 thing had changed. They finished renovating a store into a restaurant.

I couldn't leave fast enough, and I can't believe a person should ever feel this way, but thank god we live in Woking. Urg.

Stephen & I then met up after his sleep-in + long shift and we did paper & pub to chill out. I made braised celery and goats cheese to use up the organic celery we got with last week's delivery.

Today was 4 loads of laundry day while Stephen worked again.

This week, what's on the menu: maybe Neko Case on Wed. and then on Friday I'm going to meet up with my old friend Susannah Rutherglen in London for the evening. Here's a link to a picture of us when we were 16: CHS Orchestra Trip We're going to see The Changeling by Middleton & Rowley produced by Cheek by Jowl at the Barbican. Can't wait.

Also, looking for a new hairstyle. I'm leaning towards a bob, with maybe some coloured tips? Think big, act small. That's what usually happens.

Happy Weekendend!

The Morning After
Mood:  accident prone
Topic: Elisabeth's Entries

It is 7:52am. I only came home at 3am from a work do in London. Because Stephen was asleep then, is still asleep now, and is sleeping-in at work, I thought it easier to communicate what happened last night through our favourite medium: the blog!

So at 10 o'clock yesterday morning I was told there was a free place at the H & V News Awards
H & V News Awards (Heating and ventilation-oh what an exciting world!) and that they were deciding for me that I was going. Not last minute at all!

Ok...so I slapped on the only dress I have, ironed my hair and waited for the cab to arrive at 4:35. The fellow arrived, picked up a cooworker and the marketing manager (who was up for an award) and we made our way to London. Except, the privite hire driver didn't know where he was going. Strangely reminiscent of the bus driver from Montreal to New York who upon approaching the NYC skyline at 5am yells back into the bus in his German accent "Does anybody know how to get to Manhattan?)

The point of all this being is that all three of us had motion sickness because his driving, much like his sense of direction was crap. Only I ended up succombing to the puke once we reached Westminster. Luckily, a lot of people throw up in this guy's car (might it be the pine-scented air freshener?) and so he had puke bags readily available. Go figure.

I find that once I've puked then that's it. I feel better. But this guy was so hard on his gear box and brakes that I started to feel nauseous all over again. Luckily we made it to the Grosvenor without further incident. But, because there are no bins due to bomb scares, coupled with the fact I did not want to walk into the Grosvenor with a bag of sick, I had to ask the cab driver if he minded taking care of my vomit. So he did. Classy.

Then we met up with the rest of the team and found our way to the champagne reception (perfect for the post-puke stomach...ugh). Lots of suits and schmoozing. Yawn. Eventually we were called down to the main floor for dinner, where the were 100 tables, each with 10 people, each superbly lit.

We ate, I got heckled for being vegetarian (predictable) and then the awards were handed out. Unforutnatly our team was not the winner, but did get runner up. The most interesting part of the evening was that it was hosted by well-known comedian, Jimmy Carr. Jimmy Carr homepage

He seems just as impressed by hosting a heating and ventilation awards do, than I was with being there. He had to tailor his jokes to please the midddle-age, white, businessmen (there were only about 13 women out of 1,000 there...) and so peppered his jokes with sexism, rascism, and laughign at 3rd world debt. He was funny, but I'm not so sure about his audience.

Anyway, after the awards a totally-ignored jazz band played and I was chatted up by a married man who didn't stop chatting to me when I told him I was married. He agreed to let me take his picture for the very purpose of posting it on this blog:

Everyone then headed over to the Dover Street wine bar Dover Street Wine Bar where a really good soul/funk band (Xtatic with Vanessa Haynes) was playing. Thankfully the evening was paid for 'cause it was 12 pounds to get in...and it was packed. I had barely any room to groove.

After being gropped and pushed around, it was time for us to take the cab back. And it was the same damn driver.

Luckily I drank responsibly throughout the evening, or else I would have puked again. He's a terrible driver! Even when I was home lying in bed, I felt the nausea.

So I'm off to work, won't see Stephen for another 30 hours or so and I've eaten carrot cake and toast for breakfast. Should be a fine day.

Here are some other pictures of the evening;

Topic: Elisabeth's Entries

We are tired. But happy. Last night we saw The New Pornographers in London, with Spoon and enjoyed our first music concert in 3 years. Yikes.

Stephen slept in at work the night before and is extra tired, although he secretly likes it.

Tomorrow's thursday and soon it's the weekend.

More blogging and maybe pics soon.

Plimpz
Mood:  chillin'
Now Playing: Basement Jaxx - Kish Kash
Topic: Stephen Says
Been a bit of a busy weekend so far which has meant that we've done nothing about our pig-sty of a flat. We'd tried to defer the holy cow how exciting act of cleaning to today but I officially can't be arsed. Doing the dishes strung me out a little too much and did I mention that I just shaved for the 1st time in a week? Phew! Too much.

We went to this BBQ on Friday night which was kind of freaky because when we heard 'BBQ,' we thought 'party' and even though the word 'BBQ' was spoken over and over again, we were thinking 'yep, partay.' So then E&I show up with some other folks & it's a BBQ and not a party. Except that we didn't realize that until the next morning and were thinking things like 'so that's why everyone kept telling us to be quiet.' And 'so that's why everyone was gone home by midnight and the other housemates seemed so irritated that we had no intention of either going home or going to bed.'

Anyhow, E&I (Rather, I) were on best behaviour... Other thn a mild bout of kleptomania, we weren't the one barfing or stealng food (Though we can't claim 100% innocence with regard to the, erm, booze). And Elisabeth has pointed out than, in about the space of a month, she has slept in the same bed with 3 of my co-workers.

Needless to say, yesterday was a little bit hairy... Our driver had to pull over on the side of the road to be sick while taking us back and we've now got sick in the gardens around our flat thanks to someone else but, after a couple of Neurofen and smoothies all around, we were able to be a little more alive and book theatre tickets and make it into London where we meandered around the south bank and ate pizza on a terrace by the Thames.

In the end, we saw Crooked at the Bush which was pretty fantastic. Brilliant acting all around and a pretty good, I guess, I don't know these things, slamming of evangelism. E&I haven't had our usual post-match analysis of it so my thoughts are still pretty all over the place. It had a really good mental health / self harm angle going with it as well which is weirdly relevant to my life right now. Also, there was no damn intermission which made my day. For that alone I'd reccomend it to anyone and everyone.

Bleah, I lost interest in this blog entry a long time ago, I want to get a few papers and go to the pub.

To be continued, maybe...

Early To Bed...
Mood:  happy
Topic: Elisabeth's Entries

Going to bed at 10pm...too many vivid dreams last night and Stephen kicking John Wayne in his sleep.

We had veggie bangers & organic mash with organic gem lettuce salad. Then I made a chocolate cake from scratch. Ran out of icing sugar, so made make-shift icing instead...never a good idea. Strawberry, cream cheese and yogurt? Don't try it at home, or anywhere for that matter.

Tomorrow's Friday already and we've a Bo BQ to keep us occupied in the evening.

Bought a new book: The Ethical Travel Guide: Your Passport to Exciting Alternative Holidays. Very interesting to learn for instance that for resorts in Goa, the local residents have access to running water for only 2 hours a day in order for the resorts to provide the kind of holiday that appeal to wealthy tourists.

We'll see where the road takes us.

It's offically hot & I almost got my first sun burn today. I realize I must buy a cover-up for the beach as I will not survive otherwise.

Finished reading On Beauty by Zadie Smith. There are certain similarities to White Teeth, and it's the same kind of family drama and humour, so enjoyable, and not too radical.

And that's about it mates.

Cheerio!

For the sake of it
Mood:  chillin'
Topic: Stephen Says
So what make me and the manager run to the poster on the wall that offers us learning & development courses? The horrible, horrible discovery that all these temporary promotions will now be made perminant because the boss is actually leaving. So now we'll be taking management-style training. Which is pretty scary because all I ever wanted was a job that wouldn't make me so bored that I'd become suicidal and that would allow me to, I don't know, slack off and engage in hedonism. Well, we'll see...

(That anti-vomiting post looked like I was spazzing out but I wasn't. I was just trying to be, uh, managerial. Hence my need to take those training courses...
...scary)

So it's work, work, work this week and nothing fun. There's a BBQ this weekend and maybe some theatre in London. There's a play in London that we're thinking about seeing about "religious nutters" that looks interesting so we'll see...
The other option is a play about pedophiles that we've been meaning to see and is ending its run...
Otherwise, summer has hit This Sceptered Isle quite pleasantly and its beer gardens are calling...

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PS - Stephen Colbert in transcript.

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PPS - _REAL_ Stephen Colbert related breaking news!!!

Stephen Colbert...Denied!
Mood:  incredulous
Topic: Elisabeth's Entries

Remember Stephen Colbert's press conference video where he slams Bush to his and his cabinet's face?

(If not, see link below)

Stephen Colbert info & video link

Well it's in the news today that C-SPAN has made two websites remove the video, see article

Silence Stephen Colbert

This means, it's all the more important that you watch it, share it with friends.

I WANT JUSTICE! I WANT GEORGE'S HEAD TO ROLL!