uppercase F

Culture July 29, 2008

Today I ran around like a chicken. You know, with it’s head removed. I spent my morning before work, my lunch break, and my time after work filing papers for some extra cash. I know I’m in the right profession because I actually really enjoyed doing it. Sick, I know. But now I can afford the air mattress I’m picking up tomorrow. Now I have somewhere for all you suckers to sleep when you come and visit me. You’re welcome. I move into my new place on Thursday, so expect some lovely pictures soon.

After work I went to yet another iTunes Live show. Tonight it was the Ahn Trio and Haley Westenra. It was some classy stuff, and me and a friend were the youngest there by like 30 years. To give you an idea of the crowd, there were tables. With candles on them. The Ahn Trio were pretty bad ass. They are a classical trio, but they have a DJ/audio engineer for some of the songs they play. Musical pieces with some electronic beats in the background. Haley Westenra….. mmmm, not so much. I left when she started her operatic version of Danny Boy.

Eek! July 27, 2008

(Everything stated in this post is prefaced by the fact that it has been disturbingly hot here, and all activities have been executed despite indecent amounts of sweat.)

Today I went to Kew Gardens in West London. I’d heard the gardens themselves are very beautiful, but also learned via the 6 o’clock news that a treetop canopy walk has recently been opened to the public. With a brief stop in Chelsea to buy some bad ass socks (thanks Cheryl!), I made my way over to the gardens. Now, those who know me are aware of my fear of heights. This fear has previously made appearances during my visits to the Empire State Building (where I stayed in the gift shop at the top because I was scared to go outside), Chichen Itza (where I clung for dear life to a rope the entire time), and most recently at the evening showing of Avenue Q (where I was unfortunately seated at the front of the balcony). But, nevertheless I thought this whole treetop canopy thing sounded like a great way to pass the afternoon. Instead it made me want to vomit. The walkway is 18m in the air, and gives you stunning (horrifying) views of the entire gardens. And it shakes. And it’s got thatched flooring so you can see beneath you. Ug.

After my near-death experience I walked around the rest of the gardens. It was incredibly relaxing, and the plants and greenhouses were really amazing. And I saw baby swans! My new favorite baby animal (suck on that baby panda!).

This evening Kathleen and I went to another installment of the iTunes Live festival, as Kathleen won tickets online. The bands showing were Royworld and Tom Baxter. And I kind of developed huge crushes on both of them by the end of the show. As well, both acts involved keyboard! Royworld even had two keyboards going at one point. Genius.

Staying! July 26, 2008

So, drum roll please….. I’m staying in London! Argh! I’ve decided to hang out here a bit longer. For sure until December, and then- depending on my job prospects- maybe through until next May. Deep breathing, deep breathing. This may arguably be a horrible decision, but I am having an absolutely fabulous time here in London town, and could certainly use some more time to take the city in. And think of all the life lessons I will learn. Independence! Frugality! The inclusion of beans as a dietary staple! It’s just all too perfect.

I’m going to be living in Dalston (note the link), which is an area of London really close to Shoreditch and Islington. Rich, trendy, and attractive people live in those places, and Dalston is where the less rich, trendy, and attractive people are hanging out. I live 10 minutes away from the Arctic Monkeys! Above is a picture of a cute cafe in Shoreditch- when I find a photogenic area of Dalston I’ll put it up.

In other news- I went to the Tate Modern again today for the Street and Studio exhibit. It was awesome. The exhibit is a comparison of studio photography and those photographs taken on the street- often of unknowing subjects. The street photography sometimes verged on creepy and stalkerific, but that’s what made it so great. Maybe I’ll become a street photographer. There’s plenty of interesting specimens walking around the streets of London…

(P.S. I’ll be blogging more here now, I promise. The past few weeks have been hectic because of my wonderful hubby and my wonderful friend visiting. Oh yeah, and the whole finding somewhere to live and work thing.)

*honk-shu* July 20, 2008

Jonathan left. Cheryl arrived. I’ve been busy.

I Will Possess Your iHeart July 14, 2008

Tonight, I sang about my feelings. Jonathan and I went to a Death Cab for Cutie show, as I uncharacteristically won tickets as part of the iTunes Live Festival. Though they’re a band I would never pay to see, I was excited to see them for free. And it was nice. The show was held at KOKO, which is an old theater in Camden. As expected, everyone knew all the words. Hands were clapped and emotions were shared. I’m sure a girl in the audience cried because Ben Gibbard like totally gets her. If only her boyfriend could articulate his feelings the way Ben does. Sigh.

Das Pop opened up for Death Cab, and they were super catchy, fun, and Belgian. They used both a tambourine and a cowbell, which can only mean positive things. Also, the singer introduced a song as “romantic, yet upbeat”, which is how I will describe everything I like from now on.

Speakers, Sandcastles, Street Art, and Saints July 13, 2008

Today was a fairly full day, considering last night was a fairly full night. Last night we went out to Soho, found a fun bar named The Metro Club, then ate food at my favorite all-nighter, Bar Italia. Nothing better than cannellonis and cappuccinos at 3am. But, unfortunately, cannellonis and cappuccinos at 3am are a recipe for sleeping disaster.

At around 2pm this afternoon we made our way out into the big city, starting off by eating a picnic in Hyde Park. I wanted to stop by Speaker’s Corner because I’d heard that’s where all the nut-jobs hang out on a Sunday afternoon. Famous men have spoken there in the past (including George Orwell and Karl Marx), and, as I found out, it’s really just an excuse for strangers to argue. People literally stand on soap boxes (or ladders) and shout about things for as long as they want. And people shout back. It’s pretty cool to watch.

We then headed South to the Tate Modern. The Tate was high up on Jonathan’s list of things to do while he’s here, and we’d had bad luck getting there earlier in the week. After a short walk along the Southbank piazza, we came upon some men making very elaborate sandcastles on the shore of the Thames. Though I wouldn’t recommend getting within 10 feet of the Thames river water, these men were risking life and limb to build a living room made of sand. Pretty cool considering they had a couch, a beer chest, and a grand piano- all made of sand.

Farther down the piazza we finally made it to the Tate. There’s a street art exhibit going on there right now (which wasn’t up the last time I went), so there was some awesome street art painted on the walls of the building. It’s hard to capture the size of the art in a photograph, but the pieces are huge and really impressive. When in the museum, I had my second legitimate celebrity sighting (not including premiers), when Jonathan practically ran into Guy Pearce. I had to practically physically restrain Jonathan from going into fanboy mode, since Mr. Peace is one of his faves.

We then made the short walk over to St. Paul’s Cathedral. We didn’t go in, because apparently catholic people do stuff in church on Sundays (who knew!), but the outside was very impressive. The clouds were looking pretty ominous, as you can see from the photos, so we quickly grabbed some Marks and Spencer food (delish) and jumped in the Underground to make our way home. Ah, London.

Battersea Power Station and Zombies July 12, 2008

Today we went to Battersea Power Station, as they are allowing the public in for only a few days this month. There are plans to redevelop the area into a mixed-use residential, commercial thing. For now, though, it’s a big shell of a building with giant chimneys sticking in the air. It’s pretty cool to walk around, since its been pretty much abandoned for about 25 years. The building is right on the south side of the Thames, so it’s a fairly recognizable structure in the London skyline. And very dirty. We even saw a fox wondering around the wasteland. Here’s some pictures from our meandering around the building.

Afterward, we went to go grub down on some fish and chips in our neighborhood shop. While sitting we noticed that across the street sat a pub named The Winchester. Now, Jonathan caught on much quicker than I did, but The Winchester is the name of the pub in Shaun of the Dead. And considering Simon Pegg is from Highgate, we are thinking that this pub must be the one and only Winchester referred to in the movie. At which point we promptly shoved our food in our faces and went over to have a beer in the zombie pub. Fantastic.

Catch Up

I’ve been an awful blogger the last week, and have not been keeping you abreast of my adventures. So here is a brief summary. I went to Scotland to visit my Grandpa this past weekend, and it was nice. It was rainy and cold the whole time, but that’s to be expected. I’ve included a picture of what it looked like outside the whole time I was there. People in America have a misconception that Scotland is a lovely, lush utopia. Take a look at the picture. Not quite the same. But we were able to make it out to eat some delicious food, and also the Kelvingrove museum. I went there at Christmas time, but wasn’t able to see everything I wanted to. This was a great chance to catch some of the stuff I missed.

After I got back from Scotland, I picked up Jonathan from the airport. Yippee!!!! He’ll be here for about 9 days, so we’ll have plenty of time to paint the town red. So far he’s just been wondering around to various places, but above you can see that he has been reunited with Peaches. Aw.

One exciting thing we have done is to see Avenue Q. Amazingly funny, I pretty much cracked up the whole time. It’s an adult puppet show which has been playing in New York for some time. Hi-la-rious. I like anything with a puppet in it called Lucy the Slut.