Sunny Saturday
Mood:  a-ok
Topic: Elisabeth's Entries
It's actually warm and sunny, and that's news enough.

But here's an update anyway:

-Stephen's working hard and welcoming the first murderer into the residence.
-Susannah (my friend) is still in town and we met up Fri, night for movie & dinner. We saw "Friends with Money" which was good for shutting off the mind. A positive aspect of the movie is that the main actresses are not flattered by the camera so wrinkles and lines are in abundance. Thank god some people think aging is a normal process that happens to everyone, including actresses.
-Today I had a lot of hair cut off, and I finally bought the right dress for my brother's wedding.
-My skin is really dry.
-We've got wine & cider and are now going to watch Ghost in the Shell...a japanimation?
-I've realized I'm addicted to food, and I can't go cold turkey.

Big Brother Musings
Mood:  energetic
Now Playing: Nick Cave - Abattoir Blues
Topic: Stephen Says
Been quite busy lately and with that comes a degree of productivity, it seems. Still there's always more that needs doing; I can't beleive we're only a few weeks away from summer and the second half of 2006.

Of course, that time of year also means that it's Big Brother time. And there's a Canadian in the house which lends it'self a balance to the excessively flrtatous & smutty young Brits all vying to have sex live on air first. Of course, the Canadian is also vying for that but at least he's going about it in a way that I can relate to.
Uhhmm, sort of. Yuh'know?
Of course, this year's Big Brother isn't as good as last years, which wasn't as good as the previous years (Whose winner was a Portugese transexual from - you guessed it - Woking), ad infinitum... But this year has a dude with tourettes on (Click me for a sample) who is charming, fascinating and hilarious, so it's only a matter of time until he wins.
Right?
Anyway, voyeurism at it's best and it keeps me busy during my sleep-in's and keeps me off the streets.

Staying Grounded
Mood:  happy
Topic: Elisabeth's Entries
Life has been very exciting (comparatively) as of late, and so I am struggling to stay grounded. And struggling to stick to a budget.

The Neko Case concert was fantastic, as to be expected. Her singing voice is angelic yet raw at the same time. But when she speaks with an American accent to a British crowd, it was met with a little misunderstanding I think. She's excellent when it comes to heckling the hecklers and funny anectdotes, but it seemed she ran into some culture clash with this one. But she's unphased and professional and eventually won everyone's hearts, and got everyone to stand up (the whole concert was seated--and I agree with Stephen that it sucks...) and had 2 encores, which were fab.

On Friday I left work early and met up with Susannah, my high school friend, and we had dinner at the Barbican before watching The Changling. This was an excellent production by Cheek by Jowl and I will try to go back to see their other production running at the moment of Twelfth Night. After the play we had a few drinks and crashed at her hotel.

In the morning we had a coffee/pastry breakfast before setting off towards the south bank where we met up with Stephen and the proceeded towards the Borough Market.

Susannah on the South Bank:

Stephen being Stephen:

Unfortunately a stubborn rain descended and so we ducked into the Tate to see what was in the main exhibition hall. It was Surrealist Saturday and this is what we stumbled across:

Not very impressed, we left the Tate Modern only to see a fellow casually walking down the side of the building, suspended by a bungee cord.

The rain was bad so once we got to the market we tried to find a place to eat, but London is so damn crowded it took a while. Finally found a pizza place and took refuge there for a while.

After chilling out we wandered around the market sampling cheese, oils, and a very fine brownie indeed. We checked out Neal's Yard Dairy, and found a queue of people for their famous cheese and breads:

Some of the cheese:

We decided to go for an indoor activity and so headed up to Islington and watched the film "Brick" which was very good. No doubt about it. I, however, didn't find it was my cup of tea. So sue me.

We then found a place to eat where the waiters were hell-bent on confusing us, but managed to get out alive without having been charged for everything. Bizarre.

Sunday, Susannah came out to Woking for the afternoon, was greatly amused by the aircraft on a stick and the giant alien. It's refreshing to be with someone seeing Woking with new eyes, as it confirms just how weird it really is.

And now it's Monday. Bank Holiday! Stephen's off to work though, for a sleep-in as well. Tomorrow I'm off to London again to see Susannah, so only a 3 day work week.

My head's just spinning from all the fun.

Neko Case
Mood:  rushed
Topic: Elisabeth's Entries

NEKO CASE CHARMS LONDON AT THE SHEPARD'S BUSH EMPIRE:

More details later...but wow...she's fab.

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.