Saturday, December 19, 2009

we three kings

last night, our office had a leaving do (brit speak for going away party) for two of my co-workers. one of the great things about working in clerkenwell is the copious amount of pubs. i could throw a rock out the front window and hit three different places, one of which is the three kings.

three kings is small, always packed, sweltering hot inside, and they don't take cards. oh, and the staff know many of my co-workers by name. i tend to drink beer or cheap white wine when i go out in london, mainly because it's what i can afford. however, we had a company tab running so i helped myself to a double G&T. :-) seven hours, seven G&Ts, and a shot of vodka later we had closed down the pub (note: the company tab stopped in like, hour two). pubs here close early, around 11:30, but due to our rapport with the bartenders, they let us stay longer...they just shot off the lights. my memory of the evening is fuzzy, but a few interesting bits and bobs:

one of my co-workers was wearing a She-Ra costume.

i sang a few bette midler tunes for no reason (that i can remember) - three kings is NOT a karaoke bar.

i didn't get out of bed until noon today, couldn't find my shoes OR my keys, and i have about £2 (in change) left to my name. :-)

Thursday, December 17, 2009

mad as a box of frogs...

...is my new favorite phrase. what a visual, eh?!? our executive creative director used it today in a meeting and i feel determined to use it at least once in a sentence very soon.

actually, i'll use it now in reference to london town when it snows. good. lord. we're getting some flurries here right now, the wind nearly blew me down oxford street, and it's like, 0 degrees Celsius or lower. however, the flurries seem to be the root of the madness around here. i didn't think it was possible for a city to freak out more regarding snow than cincinnati, but i'm telling you friends, london wins. hands down.

apparently public transport SHUTS DOWN when we get an inch or two, and if tonight is any evidence of that, i'm scared. i waited 30 minutes for the 55 bus before giving up and getting on the tube at tottenham court road. tcr is nowhere near where i needed to go but i was just done with standing outside. i would up crammed into a central line car, with my face mashed against some dude's chest and two dirty hipsters eating mcdonald's pressing into my rear end.

i almost yakked. i really hate the smell of mcdonald's ketchup.

however, lots of good things happened today too! i had a nice coffee break with my boss this morning, i finally dropped off my dry cleaning, and i had dinner with new friends! we went to ping pong, a dim sum restaurant on great marlborough street and i had all sorts of new dumpling bits and bobs. we continued the party around the corner at an italian place, where i had lovely chamomile tea and something sweet. AND my friend Tu Anh gave me a box of chocolates from liberty department store. unexpected pressies = awesome.

lastly, i did meet a very nice englishman while waiting for the damn bus. we snickered, we discussed his family's trip to disney world, we made fun of the transport system, we wagered bets on which bus would go by next (2-243's, 2-390's, FOUR-25's, 3-10's, and a handful of 7's, if you're curious). in the end, we gave up on the bus (see above) and i had to waddle to the tube because my feet were frozen. sigh. :-)


dim sum!


wait, it snows here?




mmmmm

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

strange times

2 pm. back of a black cab. traffic light on clerkenwell road. i looked out the window at the crosswalk and there was a PIGEON walking across the street with the humans. when he got to the other side, he simply hopped up on the curb and went about his pigeon business. the whole scene caused me to squeal with delight; however, my creative director and the cab driver thought i was mad. seems to be the general consensus 'round these parts...

curry vegas

my friend carrie, who lives in portland, was brave enough to introduce me to yet another of her london friends - neil. neil and i must lead insanely busy lives, because it took us a week to find a night we were both available! :-) the plan was to check out old street and shoreditch, which are technically where i live...i've just never gone out and explored!

we met up at old street tube exit 7 (there are 8 exits and i've recently learned that #7 is the closest exit to my pad) and then we walked to hoxton square, where we went to a trendy-looking bar called bluu. trying to heed my own rule, i ordered the only beer on draft i had never heard of:



not bad, kinda thick, i could only drink one, so i switched to peroni after that. :-)

two pints, 8 pm, and we were craving curry. we decided to head to brick lane, which i was told had dozens of curry places. in fact, the street we were on ONLY had curry places complete with aggressive doormen who would try to get you to come inside. also, every place had some sort of claim "best chef 2008", etc. and bunches of neon lights.

neon lights. exactly how i'd picture india, really. hence we dubbed brick lane "curry vegas".

we selected our restaurant based on the offer for free drinks with dinner. i don't usually drink with curry but if it's free...

food was decent, free wine was crap although what do you expect??? we ended the evening at a brick lane bar, even trendier than the hoxton square one, where we decided we were definitely the oldest, least hip people there. :-)

Monday, December 7, 2009

everybody look at me, cause i'm sailin on a boat

worst song ever but strangely appropriate. i spent most of monday in training and in the words of lonely island, yeah, never thought i'd be on a boat...for dinner that is.

events surrounding this particular client end with things like mandatory dinners. usually you can eat in peace then sneak away quietly after the meal, if you so desire. but they got CLEVER this time and sent us sailing up and down the thames. in the rain. in 40 degree weather. ha ha ha, no escape.

i have to say, the view was spectacular. i got to see things i've only looked at from the cab window previously, such as big ben, parliament(!), the london eye, etc. we had a really cool motivational speaker (another MO for this client), who actually sailed around the world in some sort of yacht race. the goal, of course, was that we would be inspired about team building. i suppose i was, although i do hope i don't have to deal with things like severed fingers or compound fractures in any of my all-agency meetings.

at any rate, ahoy!

Sunday, December 6, 2009

brave girl

my hair had become unruly. it was long. the roots were unsightly. it was time for a haircut, but i kept putting it off because let's face it...highlights and haircuts can EASILY go awry. however, i realized i couldn't wait anymore and set an appointment for last thursday, which i promptly had to cancel because i ended up working till 11. luckily, jarrold's on old street was able to squeeze me in today.

the salon was three minutes from my flat, well lit, and gave me loads of free earl grey (black, which truly frightens londoners) while i sat in the chair. all good things. about an hour and three fashion magazines later, i was washed up, towel removed, and the new color unveiled. i was nervous. i couldn't remember what my hair was supposed to look like, especially since i've been staring at two inches worth of roots for the past couple of weeks. oh boy. the stylist trimmed, crafted, blew it dry, and trimmed some more, and finally...i recognized my cut and color. thank gawd.



relief is not the right word. everyone here looks perfect, all the time, even when it's raining. i usually look like i've just crawled out of bed and bad highlights weren't going to help that. luckily i can at least have decent hair color, even if i'm not polished and proper looking. sigh.

Saturday, December 5, 2009

day tripper™

my friend alex told me last wednesday that he was going to oxford this weekend. i've never been to oxford, don't know much about it, but i figured, hey, why not? it's only about an hour away!


to get to oxford, you have to take a train. the little red lightning bolts with a line through them signify overground trains in the london transport system. paddington station is where you catch the train to oxford. i showed up at the station a bit clueless, bought a ticket, and found a seat.


i arrived around 1 pm, about 4 hours after alex. (long story) we were both STARVING so we grabbed lunch at this french bistro, where i had a croque monsieur (basically a fried ham sandwich). really healthy. :-)


neither one of us had a map and these arrows weren't really that helpful. luckily alex had been on two bus tours that morning and somewhat knew how to get around.


christ church, where they filmed some of the harry potter movie stuff. i was too cheap to pay the entrance fee, so we just wandered around outside.


not sure what this is, i just thought it was neato looking


another church somewhere in oxford


beautiful tree that caught my eye


wtf is steampunk, other than a really cool word? according to wikipedia:

Steampunk is a sub-genre of fantasy and speculative fiction that came into prominence in the 1980s and early 1990s. The term denotes works set in an era or world where steam power is still widely used—usually the 19th century, and often Victorian era England—but with prominent elements of either science fiction or fantasy, such as fictional technological inventions like those found in the works of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne, or real technological developments like the computer occurring at an earlier date.


we managed to stumble into an exhibit of this highly genius artwork for free! by far the coolest thing in oxford i think.


walking around makes me pretty thirsty. anyway, how could you not stop somewhere called the three goats heads?


cheers to not getting horribly lost!

we made it back to london a little after 8 pm and for the first saturday night since i've been here, i didn't go out. instead i enjoyed a lovely self-date night with a tesco pizza and my bed. so nice. :-)

Friday, December 4, 2009

in and out

it's been a long week. :-) i worked till 11 again last night and had to be up at 4 am today, as the car was coming to take me to city airport at 5 am. 5. i normally don't get up until 7:30 or 8! good lord. luckily my cool creative director was going with me and i at least had someone to banter with in the car and on the plane.

we landed in geneve at 9:30 am, presented from 10-11:45, then RAN back to the airport to catch a 12:40 flight. we made it, by the skin of our teeth! (skin of our teeth, if you really must know, is a biblical reference to Job. my co-worker and i looked it up one day) i was back in the london office by 2:30 UK time and several colleagues were like, "aren't you supposed to be in geneva?" when i explained they looked at me as if i had three heads. my executive director actually said "you came IN after that? are you mad?" ha ha. i told her maybe i was mad. tough call, that one.

i really let loose and left the office at 5 pm, so that i could go home, change, and then meet Beth for a Christmas festival in smithfield market. we had some mulled wine and then headed off for greener pastures, aka jerusalem tavern, where i enjoyed a lovely grapefruit beer. the pub was SO crowded that we ended up sitting on a bench outside. we were having such a good conversation that we didn't realize it was pouring and we were both soaked. :-) we decided it made sense to go somewhere indoors where we could also grab dinner, so we headed to dovetail.

i had my first bangers and mash, although it was a vegetarian banger (cheddar and spinach), so Beth said it didn't completely count. :-) we also tried a delightful new beer called kwak (ha ha ha) that was 8% alcohol and only came in half pints. we each had two. needless to say, i staggered home a bit drunky drunk. i do love me some good beer...

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

on a mission for Mexican

contrary to popular belief, London has a wide array of restaurants that have a nice variety of takeaway for lunch - thai, indian, italian, pub grub, sandwiches, kfc knockoffs, etc. i've even seen a subway! one thing that's missing is mexican food. there are some bad burrito places but nothing really solid.

however, my new friends Pam and Andy told me about a burrito stand around the corner from my office. it was walking distance, i had a free bit of time today, and it wasn't raining. plus, who could resist a place named Daddy Donkey???


(shot backwards thanks to Photo Booth)

the leather lane market was small but interesting, and there was a long queue for burritos. i got close enough to read the menu and found that you could order:

a burrito
a fajita burrito
or a bol

you then picked your meat:

chicken
beef
pork
vegetarian

and your level of spicy for the salsa:

mild
medium
hot
WOW

the British version of chipotle!! ha ha ha. the burritos even come wrapped in foil:



i went a bit wild and got medium salsa, which caused me to break into a sweat. it also helped with the scratchy throat/congestion thing i've been rocking all day.

there were some subtle differences for sure (red peppers in the fajita variety, different spices on the chicken) but all in all it tasted pretty much just like chipotle. two enthusiastic thumbs up! :-) although i'm still on a mission to find real mexican food...