Mother Freakin' Nature

Why does Mother nature insist on being so contrary? All I wanted for Christmas was a little of the white stuff to make everything look clean and pretty on Christmas morning. Was that too much to ask? I think not.

So, why did I get a green Christmas, a green Boxing Day and a buried in 4 feet of snow 27 December? We can barely see the front road it is blowing so bad. Angela's truck , parked nearest to the house, is almost buried in snow. All I can say is thank God Dad, Mike and Pete are all here because I don't plan on doing any shovelling!

This One's For Catrin

Hi All, as you can see from the title, this update is dedicated to Catrin. I hope her head has not exploded at the fact that I have been so lax of late. My excuse is computer issues but I am sure she still wants to beat me with a large stick.

As you see now, I arrived in one piece. Christmas has been lovely even with the lack of snow. I have been shopping, baking, reading, drinking, wrapping presents, and walking Angela's dog -Desoto. He is now my favourite thing ever - check him out on Angela's blog. He is so friendly and loveable that I plan to dognap him. Sally will have to put up with another housemate who knocks things over and spills food all over himself. Oh well, not much of a change from Josh and I then!

I hope everyone has had a nice Christmas. Take care.

Rant Update

Just saw an ad for Christmas Ruined My Life. *&&%%!?!!?^%$£$! And the original show is actually called So You Think You Are Safe. Arrrghhh. Grrrrrr.

P.S. I get that my last rant didn't really make sense at the end but I have trouble thinking witily in anger.

Tis The Season

Rant 11 - to scare the piss out of everyone and make them believe that Christmas Dinner is going to kill them while the tree catches on fire and burns all the evidence.

Ugh - I realise that it is important that people understand how to be safe and that you need to fully cook the turkey and make sure the tree is not a fire hazard. However, apparently in the UK, the only way to make these points is through a scare-umentary - Christmas - The Hidden Danger. I gritted my teeth through the ad for 'The Real Beckhams' an exploration of the people behind the public personas. I ignored the commercials for 'Paradise Hotel', 'Britian's Most Embarrassing Parents', 'Date My Sister', 'Fool Around With My Girlfriend' etc but I let out quite a scream when the Christmas one came on.

What is next Frosty the Snowman was an axe murder that day he waved goodbye singing don't you cry you'll be dead in 15 minutes? Or Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer infected all the others animals with Foot and Mouth? Maybe here comes Suzy Snowflake spreading STD's?

Beary Good Evening

We had the brithday/Christmas dinner last night and I forced Sally to open her present so I can now tell you about the coolest store ever. Hope you are not disappointed.

This is it - The Build A Bear Workshop. You make your own Teddy Bears and stuff them and you can put sounds in them and even record your own voice. I made a pig for Sally. I had to pick the 'skin' then take it over to the stuffing machine and help the girl stuff it. Then I had to choose a heart, warm it, hold it to my nose and make piggy sound, kiss it, make a wish and put it in the pig. You then clean it, dress it and make a birth certificate. It was so much fun.

http://www.buildabear.com/choosesite.aspx?ReturnUrl=default.aspx%3f

I just found out last night that there are 4 in the UK. There are some in Canada too.

It is corny but great.

Also, I forgot to tell you this the other day. Guess what Sally's company is doing for their Christmas party? Get this - they are going to Paris! How great is that? Being taken to Paris for the day for their party. They may even go skating on the Eiffel Tower. I am certainly jealous. Beats the hell out of a couple of drinks at the pub.

More Bits and Bobs

Lots of little bits to share again.

Met up for drinks on Wednesday with my friends Scott and Nina who were visiting from Australia. Nina is a British diplomat and was over writing some civil service exams which luckily happened before Christmas so she could see her parents. Angela and I now have a place to stay in Canberra.

On Thursday my aunt came to visit and we spent all day Thursday and Friday walking our butts off. We hit all the highlights of London and then some.

We went into St. Martins in the Fields and there was a rehearsal going on for a recital that evening. We spent almost and hour listening to fantastic music. The violin soloist - Ida Haendal -http://www.thirteen.org/publicarts/violin/haendel.html was amazing.

As we walked past the Canadian Embassy, we noticed a sign showing that there was an exhibit by Douglas Coupland so we went in to view it. http://www.dexigner.com/product/news-g1651.html His premise is that in the 50's Canada did not have an identity and that it was considered almost subversive to suggest that it did. However, over the last 40 years, a unique Canadian identity has developed that is kind of like a secret handshake. If you are Canadian, you know what it is but cannot really articulate it. He had a number of displays that used Canadian stuff and all I could do was stand in awe and keep saying yep he got it. There was a chests and furniture made of old signs that had Eatons and Canadian Tire catalogues from the 70's sitting on top with pillars around it made out of buoys. There was old dutch potato chips and crosby's molasses and really really old beer cans beside hockey pucks and motomaster windshield washer fluid and a snow shovel with bacon hanging off it and a lot more.

On Friday we walked down the South Bank and went to Shakespeare's Globe theatre. While we were on the tour there was an actress auditioning. We got to sit in the stalls and listen to her. Really cool.

It was really cool to walk around London and realise how much goes on during the day. A perk of being unemployed??

Friday evening I went to tea at the Ritz with Laura and her friend Wendy. How posh. They have the best scones ever made.

I spent the weekend in Arundel being Christine Climbing Tree and came home today and baked and decorated 123 sugar cookies. Yeah Christmas!

Well, you are now up to date.

An Apple A Day

is expensive but cool. I bought a new toy yesterday - an iPod. It is already my favourite thing ever. It has 667 songs on it and is only about 20% full! It is great.

Couple of things I forgot to mention about Denmark. The money has hearts on it - how cute. The cyclists are mean. There are strict rules on how and where you can cycle and people yell at you if you get in the way. I got yelled at twice - how not cute.

It's Beginning To Feel A Lot Like Christmas

We got a tree! Yeah, it is up and decorated. Yesterday I got my first Christmas card. I am feeling very festive.

Thanksgiving went very well, we actually had 6 people in the end so there is not too much turkey left over. But I did have cold turkey today and plan to make soup. Yum.

Turkey Helper?

We went skating earlier this evening. They have set up an ice rink in Kew Gardens. It was a lovely setting. It was fun but the ice was not the best, very bumpy and pitty. If I left my mouth open, my teeth chattered while I glided across the ice! It was funny to watch people who had never been on ice before skating like 3 year olds. One poor fella fell and hit his head on the ice and we heard it echo. My head hurt just from watching.

Tomorrow we are having American Thanksgiving Dinner (delayed due to my trip to Copenhagen). I have a 13lb turkey thawing in the bathtub as I write. However, the guests are dropping like flies so there will probably only be 3 or 4 of us to eat it. Suggestions for use of leftovers are welcome.

Freaks

Steve has come up with a freak hypothesis for me. He feels that I don't attract any more freaks than the average person but that I indulge them once they start to speak to me. Apparently I need to get ruder. Comments?

Today

http://www.worldaidsday.org/

Hemp, Hamlet and Heroes

Back in the UK. I think I left you on Sunday night? Not much to report since then. Madde and I went for a walk around Christiana on Monday afternoon. That is the hippy commune type settlement in Copenhagen. There wasn't really much to see as the police cleared it out about 6 months ago. Lots of cool graffiti covering everything and a few snack stands and bars with very strange looking people in them.

Yesterday we took the train up to Helsingor to meet Madde's parents for lunch. Helsingor is where you get the ferry to Sweden but for literate people (this means you Peter) it is the site of Hamlet's castle. The castle isn't there any more but I got a picture of the one that has replaced it - finally remembered my camera!

On Monday night we went to see The Incredibles. It is fantastic.