Camping Fun

Hey all -

I'm back! I survived the camping weekend, and according to the title, apparently had a good time, as well. :P

This past weekend - a three-day one, thankfully - Nic and I went to the Fordham Festival, which was the little music festival near Cambridge. Well, "near" is a relative term when it includes a 40-min bus ride and a 2-mile hike along the highway. But we made it there in one piece and immediately picked a prime tent-pitching spot...which we later realized was unfortunately far away from the stage...oops.

But yeah, camping was a lot more fun than I thought it would be. The festival was really small but had some entertaining bands - including Nic's dad's band, who were really good. We hung out with a couple of the other band members and wives/girlfriends, and they were really great. The lead singer has this adorable little 3-year-old, Lizzie, who had ridiculous amounts of energy and was a lot of fun to hang out with.

Food and beer were cheap at the festival, so no complaining here. I had a hog roast, which is apparently some pork on a bun with stuffing, fried onions, and applesauce. mmmmmmm...I may have found a replacement for the late, great, Best Burger of All Time. Played frisbee, which was fun, although I'm apparently awful now and have no idea why. I could play in North Carolina! (well, barely, but still...) I blame it on all the tufty grass.

Can't blame the weather, though, because the weekend was absolutely gorgeous - four full days of straight sunny days (if slightly cold evenings). Actually, it's continued into this week - today is 88 degrees and gorgeous, and Londoners are going on like it's the end of the world. Not happy in the sunshine, not happy in the rain...

Anyway, despite the increasing need to take a shower (the one I took on Monday night was the best on in my life, I think), I had a great time at the festival. Plus, as an added bonus, one of the band members and his wife picked us up from the festival so we wouldn't have to walk, and then treated us to a barbecue at their house! mmmmm steak...especially after a few days of living off of chips and salsa. :P

Anyway, so that's my grand adventure. Lessons learned: camping is not as scary as I thought it was, never attempt to take out your contacts in the dark, and always, always, ALWAYS print out a map of where you're going (Nic...). hehehe...only a few more hours of work and then off to the ballet tonight - ooh lala. Will post again soon!

By request of Eric...

...here are the pictures from my Dad's 50th birthday party. My mom invited a couple of their friends out for a nostalgic trip through Brooklyn - Coney Island, the River Cafe, and a bar in Bay Ridge, my parents' old neighborhood. Eric and I got to tag along for the ride.
Here they are:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=u54fr1b.2guwr64b&x=1&y=xyt9ht

In other news, I am going camping this weekend. Yes, me and camping - happy together. Nic and I are off to a music festival somewhere near Cambridge, and I'm off to see whether I can survive without a shower for three days (*shudder*). I'll update on Tuesday (as it's a bank holiday weekend and I have Monday off!), if I make it back alive.

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Stuff I've Done

I went to go see Theatre of Blood at the National Theatre this Saturday. It was pretty good - Jim Broadbent (from Moulin Rouge) was the lead, and it was a campy murder mystery thing - a lot like Agatha Christie with comedy.

Then on to Cambridge on Sunday for shopping, a movie, and a picnic in the park - all complete with sunny beautiful weather. Fabulous.

And now...pictures from New Jersey! It's a huge album...my apologies if you have to slog through it all. It has pictures from my trip up to my aunt's house in the country, my day at the races with Grandma and Grandpa, and my sailing trip to the Long Island Sound. Enjoy!

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=u54fr1b.48efuohv&x=1&y=afra8h

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Yet more picture fun

Below is the link for pictures from our Associate Away Day - my department took out a bunch of our employees (Associates) for a day of quad-biking, off-roading, and driving these weired little things called Honda Pilots. It was awesome, and I won third place in the quad bikes. Plus, I looked pretty damn cool in my jumpsuit. Enjoy.

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AbMWTRi5aOGGk

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For your perusing pleasure...

...pictures from Greenwich, right before I left London in June. For the record, it was the hottest day of all time - nice place, though. Good vintage shopping. And the Prime Meridian!

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=u54fr1b.9mnwluer&x=1&y=-hsww7e

Enjoy.

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P.S. Pics of Jersey coming soon...

Yaay, sun!

Finally feels like summer here again with sunny, 70-ish days. Ah...I love London when it's like this.

So, the weekend of boredom turned out not to be so bad after all. On Friday the housemates went out to a bar up near the canal. It had an outdoor patio right on the lock and it was a beautiful night. The only drawback was trying to find a bar open past 1am...ah, London.

Saturday I slept in and went to the Theatre Museum, which was huge and actually really interesting. More fun, though, was window shopping in Covent Garden. Shopping...mmm. Then we had a "party" at the house, which basically consisted of housemates and about 5 invited guests. We're a big enough house to actually seem like a party when we're all in one room, though, so it was a lot of fun. And I got to see Archie, an old work colleague returned from Australia. That night we went to Underworld, which is a complete dive but a lot of fun.

Slept in again on Sunday (ahhh) and then took a walk in the park with subletter Melinda (from NYC, of all places), despite the gray skies and constant drizzle. We turned a corner and all of a sudden came upon a dance floor with dozens of dancing couples on it. It turns out that Regent Park does something called Tango al Fresco in which they have live bands and a temporary dance floor in the middle of the Broad Walk. It was a pretty amazing sight - there was a big crowd gathered, and most of the couples were in raincoats or holding umbrellas. I wish I had my camera.

Last night I went to my first ballet class in over a year, which was great (even WITH the aches and pains...I'm getting old!). In fact, the whole beginning of the week has been pretty great. The only disappointment? The Best Chip Shop in the World (home to the Best Burger Ever and the Best Chips of All Time) is closed!! Agh. No more late-night trips up the street for delicious, greasy food. No more being recognized by the guys behind the counter and getting extra chips for the privilege. No more taking friends from America there and having them referred to as "cowboys." An era has ended. Sadness.

A moment of silence for the chip shop, please.

Thank you.

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Ted Leo!

Last night I saw Ted Leo, and he - as usual - was fabulous. He played at Underworld, which is this small underground venue that reminded me a lot of the Middle East in Cambridge. Ah Boston - how I miss you and your cheap and readily available concerts! Also, I miss my concert buddy Erin. :(

Not too many plans for this weekend - my friends are all still MIA. Maybe shopping, which I can't really afford, or maybe a festival or two, if the weather stays nice. Both seem unlikely, as does the "party" that my house is supposed to have on Saturday. Last time I checked, no one had actually invited anyone. Interesting...

So yeah - it's going to be very low key. Mostly sitting around in the chilly non-summer weather and thinking about how my whole family is enjoying the week at a house on the beach in sunny North Carolina. Ok, I'm going to go cry myself to sleep now. Maybe I'll write some more, most likely out of boredom. Sigh.

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Thank you...

...for those lovely comments, Barb and Erin. Except for that whole "setting fire with your mind thing." That Jeremy is a dangerous guy.

In all fairness, I suppose I can't expect comments when I don't really write anything interesting. But apparently I can get them by insulting my readers...how curious...

Anyway, to recap what's happened...hmmm. I've been pretty broke lately, so many of my activities have been cheap/free. These include: Fruitstock at Regent's Park, and the Latin American Festival. These involve food, music, and general wandering among booths. Also have been hanging out with some of the new housemates - Andrew, 24, from Sydney is the newest addition and tons of fun.

Hm, in other news...we're getting broadband and digital TV, and apparently I'm the one who organizes the whole thing, so we'll see how THAT goes. There's supposed to be a party on Saturday, but so far no one's organizing it, so hmmmm... Went to visit Nic yesterday (my wonderful boss gave me a day's leave - out of an annual total of 26.5 - haha, suckas!), which was really great, plus the weather was gorgeous. It's been sunny for a suspiciously long time now - over a week! It's supposed to rain tonight, so that should get things back to normal. :P

Now write your comments, my loyal readers. hehe...just kidding - hopefully I'll have something interesting to update about soon!

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Feeling the Love

No comments? No words of welcome? No congratulatory messages?



I hate all of you.


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I'm Back!

My visa went through!

I'm back in London and back at my job. My friends from America and Canada (Rachel and Nick) are gone. :( Oh well, back to the researching. Actually, the job is really getting interesting, now that I have a stake in a much larger project.

Coming back to the weather was quite a shock - leave NJ, 102 and humid, arrive UK, 55 and rainy. Awesome. But today is pretty nice - it's sunny and the temperature even made it over 70 degrees! Apparently all the nice weather happened whan I was home in NJ - yeah, right.

Anyway, new housemate Andrew is great. He's from Australia (they're taking over!) and is tons of fun. In sad news, Jenny's off travelling for 2 months, and will have a subletter (the yet-to-be-seen Melinda, either from New York or Florida). Probably going to go out with people tonight for Andrew's birthday, although I'm now on a strict budget because apparently I get paid monthly now. Awesome.

Ok, time to get back to work. Just wanted to check in - I'll write soon!

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