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.

London Town

Well, I’m here! It’s hard to believe that just over 2 weeks ago I was in China, it really feels like much, much longer than that.

Thank you everyone who came to see me off! Seanie, for once again chauffeuring me to the airport; Damon for turning up as a ’surprise’ :p; Markie, Stephie and Boo, who I knew would turn up no matter what; and Amira, for running down from work. I miss you all!

Since I got here I’ve been..

- Getting admin stuff done: Getting bank accounts set up, applying for exam exemptions, posting off this that and the other, that sort of thing.

- Trying to finish the scarf I started knitting for my brother over a year ago. :p

- Watching lots of Top Gear and QI… and many old music videos.

- Lying on the couch by the window in the sun, reading. :)

- Painting my nails (though, unfortunately, office appropriate colours. Boring!) At least my toes are bright red. (Essie’s Lacquered Up, for those interested. i.e. Jayme, it’s a really nice tomato red! Quite pigmented too.)

- Fiddling with my photos from the month in China (some of which have now been uploaded to facebook!)

- Spending time with my brother!

So yes, all in all rather relaxing, and it’s nice to have (even more) downtime before I start work and plunge into college and all that stuff. I really hope my brain still works. My attention span is minimal lately.

Also, this morning I woke up and had a toasted raisin bagel with butter and cinnamon, plus a steaming hot mug of tea for breakfast, and it just made me happy. :) :) :)

I’m not even going to bother apologising for posting once every 3 months. Same old, same old.

Been mostly packing my life away for the impending move, and trying to plan for China. Very stressed out at the moment, there are money issues (aren’t there always? I feel like my whole life has revolved around money issues. No wonder I ended up an accountant), a lot of decisions to make, and many people to say goodbye to. It’s going to be about 1.5 years til I see many of them again, so it’s been a little heavy. Especially since I seem to be pretty incapable of dealing with people lately. Seriously, I think there’s just been too much, and now I need to lock myself in a cave without internet access so I can stop being such a rabid bitch.

Starting Sunday? 2 weeks alone in China. Or as alone as you can get in the most populous country in the world. I’m rather looking forward to what is anyway one of my favourite feelings, being somewhere knowing that noone in your life knows exactly where you are at that particular moment. Peculiar sort of freedom. (Though I bet if I slip and break my leg on Huangshan I’ll feel quite differently about it.)

One last thing. Why do people feel the need to ask me about my mum? Like, “Oh, so you’re leaving, then your mother how?“, or, “So how does she feel about you leaving?”, or, “Isn’t she going to be lonely?“. First off, I don’t know some of these people enough for them to be asking me this sort of question. Secondly, could you be any more obvious about telling me I’m the most unfilial person you know? Third, would it be any better if I stayed here, took a job here and then was snappy, bitchy, and never home anyway because I’m forever doing OT? Ooh. Now I just sound defensive. Quite frankly, I have enough guilt to deal with on this matter without every second idiot I meet bleating about it.

Ah well. Graduation tomorrow! Time to paste on my happy face and take some photos in a tremendously overpriced gown. Sweet.

Grousegrousegrouse.

bliss.

Today’s been a good day. Woke up at 11 or so and hied myself down to Raffles for champagne brunch with 2 of my bestest friends (This group is growing ever larger!). Long, leisurely brunch, complete with lots of laughter, rosé champagne and random pictures. And very good service! Ate faaar too much dessert though. Man. But the brulee was so good! And the mini chocolate tarts. And the yuzu tarts were AMAZING. Oh yums.

Wandered around Raffles City for a while, acting silly and looking at girly things. Then home for a nap, and probably going ahead to finish that super hard item on my to do list… finishing Final Fantasy X. So I can return the PS2 to Seanie, of course. My to do list hasn’t looked this awesome in ages.

I was on facebook earlier looking at a bunch of people’s new photos, and copying addresses into my travel notebook for postcard purposes, and was just overcome by how many awesome people I have as friends, and how many different places they’re all from, and just feeling really lucky. :)

What is this, the 4th happy post in a row? Scary! :D (Particularly for long time readers!)

Samples galore

I’ve been going through my stuff lately, and am erm.. rediscovering how much skincare and makeup stuff I have. Yikes.

Am working through the samples at the moment, just used the Olay “White Radiance” salon treatment mask, which is apparently “Suit for many kinds of skins”, has “mask juice” and should be used one a day for 5 consecutive days, as “this may bring the best result”.

Eh, it was alright. Really cooling, for some reason. Eye holes were waaay too small and I kept feeling like mask ‘juice’ was creeping into my eyes. I rinsed it off after, and applied my Paula’s Choice BHA lotion, and my face went briiiight red. Hello. And after that died down a bit, moisturised with a random L’Erbolario sample which erm.. didn’t smell nice. I <3 my L’Erbolario green tea moisturiser though, so I’m giving it the benefit of the doubt.

The worst thing is, if my skin does turn porcelain and glowy overnight and all that, I won’t have the faintest idea what it was down to.

Oh well.

Also, apparently I may have to try Shiseido’s Brightening range. Maybe when I get to London. (Which, after navigating their useless website, appears to be the White Lucency range.)

ETA: I suppose I should also mention while I’m at it that I’m going through my Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab imps, which have been gathering dust for a while as I played with my other perfumes.

Wore Tempest this afternoon, described as:

A crisp ozone-tinged breeze. The scent of the first gentle rain before the storm.

Unfortunately, I was in a rush and didn’t really pay attention, and so may have to try it again tomorrow. Am wearing La Bella Donna Della Mia Mente at the moment, which is:

Soft, lush myrtle and dry, sweet melilot with wild rose, pomegranate juice and peach blossom against a background of deep aquatic notes and a twirl of melancholy autumn breezes.

Inspired, of course, by the Oscar Wilde poem that can be found here. I definitely get the rose, which is one of my favourite notes, but it dries rather powdery on me, and that’s not something I really go for. No autumn breezes present unfortunately. Overall too sweet and powdery for me, though I could see reaching for it on a day when I want to feel particularly sweet & girly. Those days don’t come around too often though!

Counting my blessings

Things to be happy about:

I’m moving to the UK (again!). This time I a) have a degree, and b) an actual job! Which means no more sweeping out fireplaces early on frigid winter mornings a la Cinderella, and no more toilet cleaning! No more hovering over the about-to-expire display in the supermarket because I’m convinced I won’t be able to pay the rent that month. Well, maybe a bit more of that. Shit, London’s light years more expensive than Edinburgh. Nvm. I’m still pretty damn excited.

Yay, I kept my first class honours (or, you know, its latin equivalent)! Which means that I also get to keep my job offer! Which leads to..

I have a job! And therefore do not have to read all of OCS’s emails about career opportunities. It also means that I do not have to consider doing things for the sake of spiffing up my resume. (Note, I don’t tend to actually do these things, but think guiltily about them for ages. Now I don’t need to!) No interview prepping! Ok I’m going to shut up about this bit before I jinx something.

Mrao’s coming back sooooon! (And is also bringing my mega haul of nail polish!) And then it’ll be Stephie’s wedding, and David will officially be part of the family, so we can bully him properly!

I’m lolling about at home! I do not have a temp job that starts immediately after the last exam, for one of the first times in years. All this free time, it feels weird. And I’m enjoying it as much as possible, cos it’s sure as heck not going to feature that often in the next few years.

The end of the lolling about will be due to traaaveeeell. :D

*beams* How freaking wonderful.

Brief update

The AWARE thing was amazing, exhilarating, and pretty scary at the same time. A lot has been written about it from every possible angle, so I shan’t go into detail, but I don’t think anyone who knows me at all would have any doubts about which way I voted, and I’m damn glad we won. :)

Have been catching up with a bunch of people that I’ve missed lots. Met Terrence for my first Rock Band experience, which has led to me plotting ways to get my hands on a PS3 + the game, met Adrian for dinner and drinks, Syahzan for coffee etc etc. It’s at the point now though, that every time I meet someone we always mention having to meet up again more often before I leave, and that always makes me freak out a little about all the people I’m leaving behind. Ack.

Official results came out today. A- for MS, pah. But fair enough, I suppose. Final cumulative GPA didn’t change at all, and is enough for first class. Still wish it was a prettier number. Ah well. Noone’s really going to look beyond the designation unless I’d gotten a 4.0 and plastered it all over my resume, so I guess it doesn’t really matter.

Things have been er.. moving on some unexpected fronts, and I’m in a little bit of a state of confusion, but all in all, life is pretty sweet at the moment. Managed to finish 4 books in a day last week, then had to go straight back to the library the next day to restock. Oh silly, brain-rotting love stories, how I love you. Am also re-playing Pharaoh. Which probably can be interpreted as playing to the same level that I usually get sick of it, and then uninstalling without backing up my save games. Every. Damn. Time.

Oh, and the one storm cloud? I had to give my blackberry back today. :(