:)

I’ve made so many grumpy ass posts here I feel I should balance it out somewhat by remembering to post when I’m happy! :)

This weekend was absolutely amazing, I had my final day on a client on Friday, so that was a relief, then Saturday Peiyi and I woke up early and headed out to shop. Not clothes shopping in Oxford St or anything, but grocery shopping in Lewisham. Yep, that’s how we roll. Nothing like cheap fruit n veg to scratch that shopping itch. I kid, I kid. :p But I’ve had a craving to eat more healthily of late, probably linked to the phenomenal weather we’ve had the past week, so Lewisham it was! And we also picked up some camping chairs so we can loll about in the garden, and some tiki torches so we have some light while we do so. And Peiyi bought a bubble sword, i.e. a plastic sword you dip in bubble solution and wave about madly/while pirouetting/running down the garden/skipping/in the manner of a chinese dance club one may or may not have joined in primary school. (The last one would not be me.) Haha. All while eating cucumber sticks and hummus, some of our 3kg of cherry tomatoes, and chips dipped in homemade guacamole. SO much fun.

Then we came back, Jan came over and we did all the aforementioned lolling about, watching the bubbles float off into the bright blue sky, before it was off to a BBQ down the road hosted by some of Peiyi’s friends from work, who were a hilarious bunch. And about 10 I headed off to Matt’s. Sunday I woke up to a cooked breakfast, courtesy of the bf, then played FF13 for a bit before we went out and lay in the park for a while. Then back for more FF. Haha. And Matt got himself a mediterranean cookbook on the weekend, which he was eager to experiment with, so we had really -really- good chicken and mushroom paella for dinner. (Which I must make, soon!)

Work today was stress-free, had lunch outside in the sun, watching the sunburnt English people wandering by, and then came home, where I threw together a very random bean salad, which turned out really well! Am eating that now, along with a large mug of Celestial Seasonings Tension Tamer tea. So I have that, cherry tomatoes and grapes for lunch tomorrow, another day of not very stressful work, and I have just bought the sims 3 world adventures, which is installing as I type.

Life is good. :)

So…

It’s the night before my tax exam, I had 2 papers today and I reaaaaaally have no motivation to speak of. No. More. Question. Practice. For the love of god. This may also have something to do with the fact that I have been slowly coming down with the flu, graaadually, such that I hit the worst bit during my tax exam, and then get to go to Norway with a cold.

But ahhhh, I’m going to Norway this friday! :D It’s going to be awesome. Cold, but awesome. And then I’ll be home in less than a month! :D I have a very long list of things I need to eat when I’m home. Though.. most of those things appear to be Japanese.

In other news, I’ve been kind of seeing someone for the last month or so. Nothing particularly serious yet, but probably at the stage where I start letting a few people know. :)

100 Books in 2010

Thought I’d give it a shot! Though most of the books I’ve been reading lately are so embarrassing I don’t know if I want to put them up here. Haha.

Rules and Guidelines:
1. Read 100 books or more in 2010.
2. Keep track of how many I read.
3. First time reads only.
4. Leaving entry public. If you want to recommend any of your favorites to me, please do so in the comments.

2010

Happy new year folks! It’s still 2009 here, but am getting ready to head out into the cold. Never was particularly interested in celebrating the New Year, and this year isn’t particularly different. There just doesn’t seem to be any significance to it.

The only thing I would love to do is to be back home with all my cousins and family, as per most years when I’m not off in some foreign country. Though it’s still going to be better this year than the last, which was spent on a delayed plane in New York, stressed out about the forthcoming job interview and the thought of going back for one last semester. And depressed about leaving Ecuador.

2009 hasn’t been the best year, but I’ve had worse. And as the last few years have all been marked by months abroad, so has this. 2007? Yellowstone. 2008? Ecuador, and now 2009 in London. Still vaguely discontented, still searching. But I’m still happy that I moved on, and am still excited about the future. It’s just the everyday that has me down.

So farewell 2009, roll on 2010. May you bring more adventure.

Christmas!

It’s COLD. Brrrrr. And yet, there’s not real snow. It kinda dribbles, and then everything melts. BAH! The other night though, I was crossing the Thames on the way back from work, and there were people playing Christmas songs on the bridge, and it was snowing and it was all pretty, and I was squeeing a little (on the inside)… and then the wind swept down the river and I almost keeled over. AHH COLD. I have a really adorable hat though, that looks like a blueberry, has the little stem knitted in at the top. :P I try and take it off before heading into the office, it’s not exaaaactly professional looking.

Marcus and I had a very enthused and involved conversation about Christmas albums this morning, I think the conclusion was that we liked Mariah’s album best, and that Christina’s had far too much embellishment. I like my Christmas songs plain. Haha. Excerpt:

me: i’ve been listening to the OC christmas album hhaha

Marcus: oooooh

me: oh

and

it has last christmas

me: sung by jimmy eat world!!

Marcus: OMG

what!

omg

me: i am also listening to

Marcus: OHH MY GAHD.

hahaha

ok

me: christmas, baby please come home

sung by…..

ANBERLIN

:D :D :D

Marcus: :o :O!!!!!

Haha. I don’t know how to type these days without smileys. And I’ve really been trying to work on that. Words don’t seem expressive enough anymore! Then I start overthinking how the person’s going to interpret it, and I change words, then it just sounds stilted and odd. Or has outings to the more outre areas of my vocabulary.

So this week’s going to be exciting! Anna’s coming to stay for a day, then it’s christmas eve at my brother’s place, then christmas day with a bunch of his friends, then the start of the boxing day sales! I’ve agreed with him that we’ll buy each other our big presents there, since all we’ve managed to get for each other are a few small things. Haha. Then on the 27th Sarah arrives, and there will be more shopping! Wheeee. And I suppose other sightseeing type things. At some point. Around the shopping. Which I shouldn’t be doing any of, because I’m broke.

So in preparation for the exciting week ahead, I have done -nothing- this weekend. Except some washing up and laundry. Should be cleaning, but cannot seem to make myself. Oh well. I shall try and get it done Mon/Tues before friends start arriving. :P

Oh and I spoke to my mum this morning, and guess where she’s going to be on Christmas day? On a bus from Vietnam to Cambodia. Haha. My mum rocks.

Spending as I earn

I have been nagged (ahem, Marcus) to update the blog, and since I spend so much time checking up on Jen’s and Cat’s in the hope that they’ve updated I figure it’s only fair that I update mine. :p Now that I’m here I suppose that barring facebook people’s blogs are all the contact I have with their everyday life, which makes me wish slightly for the days a while back where so many people in my social circle blogged frequently. Daily, even. Ah well.

So work-wise we’ve not descended into the hugely busy season yet, so I’ve had lots of time to sit around and spend ridiculous amounts of money online. :( Seriously. With the excuse that it was the whole Black Friday/Cyber Monday thing in the US, I made orders from Head2ToeBeauty for a couple more nail polishes, Drugstore.com for skincare, mainly, inc things that I cannot get here for love or money, and American Eagle (which is totes Inna’s fault, btw).

Then locally, made an order from REN, (and I still can’t believe that my skincare is costing me so much these days, but this stuff has rave reviews on MUA, and I’m a sucker) (and they had this awesome coupon over the weekend where you got a free mask worth £28.50 when you made an order over £50, so fine) (woo, justification!) (I also influenced Peiyi into making an order with them, I should get commission! Instead I’ll get to try the serum that I didn’t buy and she did), as well as an order of Villainess soaps from PoshBrats, who were amazing btw, they had my order packed and shipped in about 20 minutes! Also just put in an order with Threadless for the $12 sale and free international shipping (!). Got that sent to Singapore because of VAT, and it’s not like I’m wearing too many t-shirts these days anyway. (Which erm, then leads me to wonder why I bought them, but nvm!) Also, the christmas sales will soon be upon us! And I have a list an arm long of perfumes that I want or want to try, and those are.. big ticket items. Restraint will be key this holiday season, I think. Not that I’ve shown much of it so far. :S

In conclusion, I’d better get a lot of work to do soon, or I’ll have spent myself out of house and home. And this is still not counting the fact that I have to pay for a flight home sometime soon. Ouch. And buying food for our housewarming party! Speaking of which, I promised Peiyi that I’d make up a groceries list today, so I’d better get to doing that. Oh the glamour. :p

Office christmas party tonight! :D

Living here to be honest doesn’t feel very different for the most part. I guess because although sure, it’s not that similar to home, I don’t get the same sense of displacement that I did in the US and Ecuador. But every now and then, like when I take a bus that goes past St Paul’s Cathedral, or the time I walked past the Royal Courts of Justice gleaming in the sun on the way back to the office from a client’s, or when I found out that the British Library was pretty much walking distance from my (then) apartment, I get a little jolt. A little, hello, you live in London now, which is actually rather nice. :)

Except it’s also rather cold now. :S To the shops this weekend for warmer clothing, I reckon.

I’ve been doing more experimenting, this week I made Banana Apple Bread, which turned out well enough. Nothing like being in a lovely bright, warm kitchen that smells of baking while it’s miserable and cold outside. The bread is very dense though, I suppose like most quickbreads are? Filling though, I may start having them for breakfast, toasted with globs of butter. :p

I have finally moved house, after many estate agent travails, and P and I are happy as two bugs in a rug, or something like that. We’ve got a little terrace house with a large lounge, kitchen and (bare) garden, and we’ve managed to get ourselves set up over the last week or so, and have found places for most things. I really like my room, it’s lovely and warm, and at the moment hasn’t been at all associated with studying/work, so is also brilliantly comforting and stress-free. :p Will be getting broadband at home tonight as well, which I’m looking forward to, since it was a long, odd weekend without it.

Not all is as bright and happy as the above, and in fact I’ve spent quite a lot of the last few weeks feeling simultaneously a bit lost and grumpy, but I’m trying not to dwell on it overmuch, as there’s little I can change right now. :) I hope everyone’s well!

A small update

So, updates!

Things have been pretty good work-wise, this week was another week of training, and there’s one more to come the week after. Our tutors have been really lovely, and most of my classmates are pretty personable. Obviously there are exceptions, but there’s nothing huge yet. It’s pretty interesting watching the various stages happen again though. You know, how you meet people and everyone’s on their best behaviour, and you try to meet as many people as possible, then people start to settle into their little groups, but still pretty much talk to everyone, to the bit where all the bitching starts to surface. :p Went for drinks after class yesterday, and had some hilarious conversations with some of the guys I hadn’t had a chance to really speak to yet, which was nice! :)

Came back fairly early, because one of my flatmates had decided to cook us all a steak dinner, which was really good, plus a fair amount of wine,  much hilarity and a lot of singing. :p And then woke up this morning to make everyone pancakes (again!), while we pondered buying crabs so my other flatmate could make black pepper crab tonight. Haha.

Have absolutely no plans this weekend, except to lounge around and perhaps do some laundry. Yawns. Soooo lazy. My brother’s in Bruges for the weekend, so am expecting chocolates from him when he gets back. Hee. Flat-wise, Peiyi and I think we’ve found something we like, and we’re now waiting for the credit checks and references to go through. Rather impatiently actually, because I do want to have a place settled, since it’s 2 weeks til I have to get out of this place! When it’s confirmed, I’ll provide a few more details. :p Don’t want to count my chickens, etc.

I hope everyone’s well! I’m rather behind on my email replies, but will try and remedy that this weekend.

I have been delving into the realm of online recipes lately, and have been quite happy with the results. Over the last few weeks I’ve tried:

• Sticky Chicken Drumsticks
• Honey Mustard Chicken Pot with Parsnips
• Creamy Pesto Chicken with Roasted Tomatoes
• Caramelized Onion and Blue Cheese pasta

Really liked all of them except that last one, mainly because I think I overestimated the amount of blue cheese to put in, and even though I love the stuff, it was a bit much even for me. :p The drumsticks were AWESOME. :D

HAHA.

Just saw this on an episode of Mock The Week:

You know they’ve launched a scheme to retrain failed bankers as teachers, but what sort of teacher is a banker gonna be?

“Imagine that you have 30 apples and I have no apples. Give me all your apples so I have all the apples, HAHAHAHA! Now, I shall retire on a pension of a million apples.”

HA.