There Goes the Neighborhood...
I guess I live in a swankier 'hood than I thought...big flurry of paparazzi and newscasters hanging about yesterday, as Tony Blair has bought a house literally around the corner. According to the news reports, Paul Oakenfeld and William Orbit also live on Connaught Square, and Madonna lives a few blocks away (where? where??? I can't seem to get more detailed info!).
Had a very relaxing Saturday - headed down to Portobello Road market in Notting Hill - what an interesting bazaar! Definitely a place I'll head back to again - lots of print shops, jewelry, antiques (especially silver and pewter), clothing, as well as some authentic leather soccer and rugby balls of which I plan to buy one. Toward the end of the market is mostly veggie stands, and I picked up some veggies for dinner tonight. Even hit the famed Travel Book Shop from Notting Hill (the film). Certainly a place I'll head back...
I've been reading a funny travel book by what must be Britain's Bill Bryson, called "Round Ireland with a Fridge" by Tony Hawks. It's basically as the title states: man hitches around the circumference of Ireland toting a mini-fridge on a bet. Humourous! I'll have to head over there for a weekend, I think :)
Took the bus from Notting Hill up to Tottenham Ct. Road to shop for housewares, etc. Hit Oxford Street - again. That road really is like an ant farm.
I've been preferring the busses - have only taken the tube twice. I live right near Marble Arch, which seems to be a central enough bus intersection - and the busses tend to go more places directly than the tube. It sometimes takes a bit longer, but I can see where I'm going, it gets me closer to the actual destination, and I can sightsee a bit, which helps me get my bearings.
Anyway, am off tomorrow to Munich for this conference until Wed. morning. Tomorrow is the last day of the Oktoberfest, so I'll try to head down for a pint - seems something one should do and I believe it's walking distance from my hotel. Then boring conference Mon. and Tues., and fly back to Boston on Wed. (!) - unfortunately it will be straight down to the Cape and work folks, when I'll really be wanting to settle in at home for a bit. Might go visit the fam over the weekend, as mom had seemed really to be expecting that before I left. But, given that they haven't returned any of my calls and that I haven't spoken to any of them since I left - well, they're either all dead or just not that interested in how I'm doing, so maybe this means I'll get to Sheila and Erin's party after all. Humpfh.
I have five basic television channels. On 1 they are showing pool (billiards, snooker, whatever). On 2 its darts. Yep, a darts championship makes prime time broadcast television here. Instead I'm watching "Worst Jobs in Victorian England" So far, railroad digger, rat catcher, executioner, and saddle maker (which apparently involved a dog shit rub at some point). Yep. Oy.
I'm editing in here to add that I just saw two odd commercials - one with Kim Catrall getting porny over Tetley's Tea and another with Jennifer Aniston having some adventure with a Barclay card (some kind of bank). What they won't do in the states...why do they feel their "image" is more protected doing ads here? Odd...
Anyway, I'm not sure how well I'm doing the blogging thing...should it be more soul-baring?
So far, I've been doing very well - none of those "What the fuck am I doing here?" or "I wanna be at home. Now." moments. Everything is still a bit interesting and new and when I've had enough and become overstimulated and exhausted, I retreat to the homestead.
The flat is pretty good - it is sorely lacking a couch, although I've established a weak replacement for my chair, complete with ottoman. I got a playstation to play DVDs, although because the setup has to go through the VCR, all DVDs play in B&W. Odd. Need a newer TV, but want to buy used - I'm not into investing a lot here. Will also try to figure out a sofa situation - the pouffe just isn't good enough.
The biggest household challenge involved a stopped up sink. Now, they don't have Liquid Plummer here and the hardware store I walked into recommended Sulfuric Acid (no kidding!) - this was not only unsuccessful, but right dangerous as well - when I opened the bottle (wearing rubber gloves), fumes actually visibly wafted. It's some tough stuff and difficult to handle - and, yep, didn't really do much on the clog and I had to manually bail the sink into the tub to get the diluted acid out. The next day, I found a Safeway and the much more household safe Mr. Muscle, which has done an okay job (probably needs another go, but it's much better than before).
Again, not soul-searching, but it did consume way more of my life than I'd have preferred, so - there you have it!
Anyway, see you all soon!
Stalking Jude Law…Badly.
I’ve been kicking myself all day. Logged into the London paper tonight to find the weather and TV program for the evening (so little stuff worth watching that I don’t want to miss anything actually good), only to see that Jude Law and I were but a mere 5 minute walk apart last night. And because I was feeling tired and lazy, I decided against walking to where he was.
Here’s the story.
I was out to dinner with my friend Meg in Covent Garden. The plan was dinner and then maybe a movie after, and I said that Leicester Square is good for that since there are about a gazillion huge movie theaters around the square. We finished dinner around 7.30 and then walked around for a bit and were going to head down when we decided just to head back to my flat and watch tv instead. So stupid! Crap TV instead of Jude! How was I to know? But a proper stalker would have known…sigh. Next time, Jude…then you’re mine!
So, I’ve been quite busy and out of touch the past week. Sorry to all for the lack of email response/blogging. Last week was a lot of running around getting boxes and sorting out the work bit. The temporary offices of our “sister company” (I hate that term) are –not- desirable (reference Milton from office space) – their dialup is slower than mine and the accommodation here is nicer, even if I am sitting on the floor of my flat most of the time. Plus I get broadband tomorrow, which I am very much looking forward to. Other than that, it’s been mostly working, which is going much slower than usual due to slow connections, questions about data sources, and me not knowing a whole helluva lot what I’m talking about.
Thursday night, I met up with Allan Brady (ex.Econ.com), Dan Green (same) and new Economy.com folks for drinks at the Troubador in Earls Court (where apparently Madonna has been spotted recently leading many regulars there to think it’s gone downhill). Very nice pub atmosphere – definitely bohemian and good to catch up with old Econ.com types. The new folks seemed surprised at our bitter delight in hearing of others that have fallen away (Sheila: the list now includes Brian Nottage, Mike Burt, and – Nate Walters! The last one I’d have never thought…).
My friend Meg (UD) has been visiting Europe since last Friday – which is why I haven’t blogged well at all. I met her at Heathrow Friday a.m. and we headed to Stuttgart to visit out friend Cristen (also UD) and her new baby, Emily (I could hear the freaking Sweenie!s in my head every time I saw her!). It was a very chill visit, as the baby is just 5 weeks old and mommy and she don’t make it out much just yet. Plus, we were on a military base, where it is difficult to get on and off and there isn’t a heck of a lot to do. So we stayed in the apartment for the most part, feeding, burping, changing, and breast pumping (well, not all of us). How weird it must be! That baby just takes over a mommy’s life!
Meg and I flew back to London on Sunday at a wicked 6.45 am flight, slept a bit, and then headed out on the town. We started with lunch and then headed to Speaker’s Corner in Hyde Park, about a 5 minute walk. Talk about free speech in action! Every weirdo with a footstool and an agenda was there debating/arguing with passersby. Lots of Jesus Freaks, one guy chanting in Arabic, another mouthing off about Tony Blair as the biggest terrorist aside from George W. et.al. (can’t argue that), and authentic Alabama preacher man, and various and sordid others. It was like a flea-market of propaganda!
Then we walked through Hyde Park, Green Park, and past Buckingham Palace to St. James’ Park, enjoying the actual appearance of sun and myriad passersby (many on rollerblades, which still seem to be big here). Lots of hotties playing soccer in the park as well. I’ll be coming back…
Walked by Big Ben and Parliament, took a spin on the London Eye at sunset (this big ferris wheel like ride will make the tourist docket for sure) and then a double-decker bus ride home to cook some pasta and eat with wine on the terrace. Lovely.
Monday – work. Dinner with Meg and Alexis (UD) at Giraffe – a (non-smoking!) world food restaurant –reasonably priced – in Marylebone.
Tuesday – work in am, but then finished up the intense nasty project and unofficially took the afternoon off to walk up to Little Venice (about 20 minutes) and take the canal boat down to Camden Locks – great shopping there including a cheap used book store and some fantastic spend-the-afternoon looking cafes. If they have Wi-Fi, I may have found my new office ;) Then some Indian food and my non-sighting of Jude Law.
I guess this has turned into a very long travellouge rather than introspective how-do-I-like it type of thing. I’m still not sure- on Sunday when up in the London Eye gazing out at Big Ben in the sunset, I was quite pleased to be living here; excited to explore more and just “be”. But then I got a sinus infection and had to scavenge for two days to come up with something approximating Claritin D – exploring new brands, terminology, etc. is not fun when your ears are swishing in and out and you can hardly breathe. The constant rain/drizzle/overcast is getting old, too. But on the whole, it’s pretty good and I’m glad to be here. Am starting to miss home a bit – mostly this morning for some reason – maybe because Meg was getting on a plane back to the States. It’s still very new and that generally is enough to keep me interested for a while – kind of like a nice shiny object.
And, as a reward to those of you who read this far: I am –not- going to go clubbing with the waiter boy. It’s at this club called Fabric that sounds worse than anything in the Alley and, while this experience is about challenging my boundaries, I do have limits. Plus, he seems about 19. But we did walk by Monday night and he waved, so I’ve got a friendly neighborhood waiter guy!
Okay, gonna give the blog and y’all a break. Now, get back to work!
