Friday, November 18, 2005

Food diary

This week, I really used my days off to do some culinary travel...to try out the things that people advised me to try..and more.
So here is the verdict.

For lunch I managed to walk to Queensway and try this Shawarma place:
Taza, between Queensway and Bayswater station: excellent shawarma. I had a lamb shawarma take away, as the shop is pretty small and Hyde park was just nearby. I ran to the park, sat on the bench and just ate it all in less than 5 minutes! It's so good, for 3£ only...

Then I took the bus for Oxford Circus to look for dessert...ended up in Piccadily Circus instead and found this Donughts and Sandwiches shop right off the place..oh my goodness, I was eager to get one warm donought...Alas, it turned out to be a disaster. All I wanted was an apple custard filled donut..and it cost me...£1.25....And it was the worst ever donut: hard like cardbox, cold, and so small..I almost cried in the cold.

Tuesday, November 15, 2005

Test Griffor

Sur le test griffor (http://test.griffor.com/) mon score est
47 points
39% positive sur les questions sur le sexe
11% sur les boissons
0% sur les drogues

Commentaire general:
Vous etes presque normale mais vous avez du mal a vous lacher....

My Cupid profile: The Sonnet

Just did a test here
http://www.okcupid.com/profile?tuid=17240047800557806434 and my profile came up as:


Romantic, hopeful, and composed. You are the Sonnet. Get it? Composed?

Sonnets want Love and have high ideals about it. They're conscientious people, caring & careful. You yourself have deep convictions, and you devote a lot of thought to romance and what it should be. This will frighten away most potential mates, but that's okay, because you're very choosy with your affections anyway. You'd absolutely refuse to date someone dumber than you, for instance.


Lovers who share your idealized perspective, or who are at least willing to totally throw themselves into a relationship, will be very, very happy with you. And you with them. You're already selfless and compassionate, and with the right partner, there's no doubt you can be sensual, even adventurously so.

You probably have lots of female friends, and they have a special soft spot for you. Babies do, too, at the tippy-top of their baby skulls.
Your exact opposite:Genghis Khunt(Random, Brutal, Sex Master)

Made in Belgium

4kg overweight (ok, more than a week before), and a lot of things to remember, I 've just returned from Bruxelles...yes yes, where you eat fries and chocolate until you die...
So I survived..my dear friend and her husband made sure I eat healthy. Still, the fact is there..So you wonder if everything made in Belgium is so delicious?

I can confirm that the fruit beers are actually nice and I can drink those without wrinkling my little nose to the smell of manly, bitter beer. I tried a kriek beer, which is a cherry one. It drinks like juice and I like it that way.

Other things nice about Belgium? It is a fact that Belgium has the most density of population owning comic books (bandes dessinees) in the world. And I can assure you that after going throgh the comics or graphic novel section at the Made in Belgium Expo, all I wanted was to have all those comics and read them for the rest of my life....just imagine
Natasha, Thorgal, XIII, Lucky Luke, Boule et Bill, Cubitus, Pierre Tombal, Largo Winch, Bob et Bobette, Blake & Mortimer, Alix, Le Psy, Claire et Julie et..., Le Chat, Marsupilami, les stroumpf, Tintin et Milou....arghh..and so many more!

Also at the Expo, I discovered that so many artists are from Belgium: benny B, Lio, Annie Cordy, technotronix...and even Adamo...Phillippe Lafontaine, and of course, Jacques Brel...

So hurrah for Belgium....

Monday, October 03, 2005

More shopping...

Saturday morning. I managed to stay awake on my home from an overnight shift. Out of the warm underground, I met the quiet streets and the chilled air. My favourite time of the day. The beautiful sound of silence and the illusion of clean crisp air. Hopped on the 52 bus, struggled to keep my eyes open, and didn’t miss my stop. Dropped the handbag, undressed, and slipped deep in the soft warm comforter. Closed eyes, exhaled, and drifted into heavenly sleep.


Sweat dropping down my back. Roaring engines covering the whispers of the leaves in the wind. It must be afternoon. I need my daily walk into sunlight before my night shift tonight. Besides, I have nothing to read anymore and could use some window shopping. And I remember I should get those leather belts down at the market. They were only 12 pounds. Gathered all my strength, grabbed a peach, and headed for the crowded market.

On a mission to find something to lift my spirit.
A pair of handmade earrings made of seashells and grains? 7 pounds.
A chocolate brown fake suede leather jacked with white woolly lining? 20 pounds
One handmade wide leather belt with metal thingies incrusted in it? 40 pounds (gasp)
Smells of great Caribbean food? Free!
Colourful handmade glass jewellery: rings, earrings, pendants? 25 pounds at least

Wait. I need a lamp or a light bulb for my room. Bought light bulbs the day before but they don’t fit. Looking at those garland lights in the shape of flowers and stars (10 pounds). Got into the deco shop having a clearance sale. Got 2 candles for 2 pounds. That will do. I won’t dress in the dark tonight.

Laughter tickled my sleepy brain: just saved 38 pounds and won light!

Going shopping

While waiting for the tube, I blankly stared at a huge poster promoting Toronto as a destination. The top level showed four young women, arm in arm, laughing with their teeth out, and looking very happy in a bustling street bordered with tall skyscrapers. The text in huge font was spelling out RETAIL. The bottom of the poster displayed a woman wrapped in a white towel, lying on her belly with her eyes closed, and awaiting for a masseur. The word THERAPY spanned the width of the picture. And it quite fitted my needs at the time: retail therapy or shopping session was always welcome in my world.

I used to consider grocery shopping as a mere activity to get bread and milk for the fridge. Living 15minutes from the Portobello Road fresh market changed all that. One Day I had a good list of groceries set up in my head: bread, milk, some oranges, tomatoes, and most importantly, toilet paper. I got out, and decided to walk my way down to the market in an attempt to burn some fat. To be honest though, it was because my bus card had expired the day before, and the weather was pretty sunny. I rolled down Ladbroke Grove road, turned left and found myself in the middle of hordes of tourists. I forgot it was Saturday, which meant thousands of tourists with cameras admiring the antique market and the handmade goods at various stalls.

So I fought my way through, and started admiring the vivid colors of the fruits and vegetables on display. I got myself a box of raspberries to nibble through my shopping. The cries of “5 mangoes for a pound” startled me and I instinctively walked back to the stall and got 5 mangoes. Which was not a good idea because they were huge and heavy and I haven’t even bought anything on my list yet. I told myself this was my weight training of the day.

My next stop was the flower stall, where I stared long minutes at flowers of unknown names, and bought nothing. I suspect it was just an excuse on my part, a way to calm down before passing by the bread and snack vendor just next to it. The stall was adorned with bagels, fruit tarts, pizza, baguettes, round breads with Italian names, foccacias, donuts, and more…

Walking up the hill with a newly bought chocolate donut, I almost bought a stamping rubber with an intricate flower design. Fortunately I didn’t have enough cash on me. I passed by various jewelry stalls, old and antique leather and wooden toys and games stall, an expensive macaron shop, and more antique merchants. Finally I got to Notting Hill gate station and topped up my bus card. I got home by bus, to realize I absolutely didn’t buy anything useful. And while washing those beautiful mangoes, I discovered they were all very ripe and soft, and needed to be eaten soon.

The day’s worth? 5 mangoes and no toilet paper!

Saturday, July 30, 2005

Random things

Cool books:
-Idoru, by William Gibson, same guy who wrote the Neuromancer. Very futuristic and lots of technical computing jargon.
-Microserfs, by Douglas Coupland, very funny story/diary of a tester working at microsoft. A must for all people who know what ADA, OOP and coding on sundays are.

Very random:
-top up your mobile here! = add money to you cellphone so you can actually call people!
-Jog on! = Fuck off
-Take away = to go (when ordering food)
-coppers, the fuzz, the old bill, the bill = the cops
-one large Domino pizza 2 toppings here (medium in the US) cost almost £20 = $40....eeeks!
-I've been told over here that real men have beer belly (muahahah)
-I am officially a spinster I think (where is Mr Darcy?)
-Chandi or something like that = beer+lemonade(or sprite)...yuck
-Pubs stop serving alcohol at 23h....unbelievable! But there are off license shops that sell alcohol after hours..
-Tesco = city Walmart
-Sainsbury = city Kroger
-Kebab =favorite food of drunk people

Friday, June 03, 2005

british way of life

For 3 full days now I've experienced a british way of life.
here are few things
-always bring an umbrella, no amtter how beautiful it is outside
-it is better to cook at home vecause every meal is over £5 at the cheapest restaurant
-to add minutes to your cell, it's called to top up
-prepare to walk if you want to save on public transportation
-most people share a house, since it is so expensive to live in London
-people come back from work and hang out at the pub before coming home. Then everyone go back to sleep at around 10pm..
-of course you look right firt before crossing the road

well thats it for now, I'm still adjusting...watching tv is nice though, even if there is no cable. The accent is worth listening to, just to adapt my hearing to it.

Monday, May 09, 2005

Pick up (bus) lines

So I was late for work, and ran fo the bus. Breathless, I got in, after noticing that the hanidcapped, limping, bearded guy on our floor is going to campus. He sat in his usual chair (reserved for disabled) next to the conductor, and I strolled passed, towards the middle of the bus (my favourite seat).

The bus was early so it waited at the station. I just glanced sullenly in front of me, trying to remeber what was I supposed to do in my morning project. My right eye corner vision caught some movement, and sure enough, here he was, limping towards me (of course, who else?) arghhh tough luck.

I was polite, except he said something I did not understand. So I mde him repeat it 5 times..yes, 5 times..then I realized he was saying something like:
I just wanted to say that you look sexy with you hair back and your jeans"...WOW, well, take that for a morning horny dude...

The very annoyed person in my head said:
"and what about my top? Or were you just staring at my butt?"

I said I was polite, so I said (flashing my teeth and all):
" Thank you, that's sweet"
Now I hope the ppor guy does not get the wrong idea.

Why can't the cute guy living next door to Josh say that? Well, I need to sneak up on him when he does his laundry...

Thursday, May 05, 2005

Did you say heavy sleep?

Wake up! wake up!

Well...so much for that. I woke up one morning, went to the bathroom and discovered (gasp!) everything was soaked, drenched: the toilet rug, the bathtub rug...That sure woke me up..
Then later that evening my dear sister told me the story. She had to wake up so early that her system didn't agree too much with that. So while she attempted to take a shower, her sleepy head was still in a world of cotton clouds and warm bedsheets. When she turned around, she saw the whole bathroom, which should have been blocked by the (arghhh!) shower curtain...How a sleepy head can do tricks to you.
So she tried to twist the rugs to get the water out of them....good idea right? Well, trouble was...she did it outside, on the bathroom floor, not in the bathtube...so now the floor was soaked..LOL
Anyway, since the weather is gloomy and the sun is not sharing its beautiful warm rays with us, those bath rugs are still trying to dry ..in the living room...

So wake up! wake up!

Tuesday, May 03, 2005

Fire ! Fire!

On Sunday night I was reminded of another fire incident that happened 3 years ago. Time flies by but that episode is carved forever in my head. Sunday evening, the single fire alarm in our apartment started to ring like mad when I popped out of the oven my slightly burned apple & pear pie. Being in an 11 stories building, I was dreading the evacuation of hundreds of people, and the reproaches of the firemen (whoam I sure are not even cute). But we managed to stop the alarm by waving a fan beneath the litle gadget.

Now that was easy! Well 3 years ago, it unfortunately happened as smoothly. First of all, it was winter (January) and it was a 3 stories dormitory. The spring semester was starting the next day and most students have come back from their Christmas holidays. I was sharing room 341 with my German-Argentinian friend who was still not back from the break. So I went to the reception dinner at the Cranwell Center to welcome the new international students arrived for the spring semester. There were not many of them but that was where I met my good scottish friend and my good mexican friend. We had fun, with all the other orientations mentors, and around 8-9pm, my german friend and his girlfriend drove me back to the dorm.

While parking, we could hear an alarm ringing, and we all joked that someone must have had a really heavy sleep because that alarm was so loud. Then upon climbing the stairs, I realized in horror that the alarm is coming from my room and that smoke was coming out from underneath the door! We all rushed in like crazy to open the door, and found that the bottom of one of my plastic drawer was in flame, and that the smoke was all over the place. My German friend took off the batteries from the alarm device to stop it from yelling. By then, the window was open and the fire extinguished under the sink, but unfortunately, the whole building alarm went off as well! I was petrified! I hated to run outside naked with only a towel in the January weather, and I knew it was late enough for people to be in their showers.

But most of all, I would have to face the police, the firemen, and all those people evacuated outside...arghhh. In the meantime, I had to give a call to my other friends waiting for me to go bowling at Squires. SO I told them I couldnt because I had a problem. So they all decided to come to my room. So by the time we were outside waiting for the police and firemen (who took about 8min), I had to decide what to do. The officers went in, looked at a silly board with blinking lights, and immediately knew where the fire started.

So I went to talk to them, with the support of my dear friends, and told them all about it: I just stupidly forgot a candle on, and left it there for 2 hours. We all went to my room which was well ventilated by now, and I swear, all my friends were there. Kim from Cranwell came as well to support me, and my friends from the bowling place. They charge my german friend from shutting off the alarm device, and issued a probation for me. Fortunately nothing from the University was damaged. I had to appear to a court and all that. But with the great reference of Kim and my helpful german buddy, I ended up doing a poster for the dorm informing the students about the danger of fire and candles and allt hat stuff (very boring poster).

My whole head was spinning in fear. I thought I was finished because I was in the process of applying for graduate schoola dn didn't know if that probation business was going to show on my academic records..but Kim kindly reassured me and all was well...I couldnt sleep in my room that night. I was trembling all over the place and went to sleep at my indian friend's place.

Until now, Kim asks me if I 've had other pyrotechnic adventures..well, I make sure I leave nothing burning ever in the apartment since then. pffffff

Wednesday, March 02, 2005

Confessions

I haven't seen a good romantic comedy lately. You know, one where the guy makes a love declaration so sweet it just brings tears to your eyes...and even guys wish they had that eloquence...anyway, well, I haven't seen anything of that sort lately.

Instead, I've seen a hot guy being rejected on tv (Jerry, so hot!), by a bachelorette who couldnt make up her mind..shame on her, but then again, what is she doing on tv? So I wonder, where are all those passionate, heart felt, enchanting, amazing words of love? Sure, flowers, chocolate, kneeling, a big diamond, or a kidney will do, but the most difficult thing to do still seems to express the feeling in words! (I guess the song "more than words" is not that 'extreme' anymore)...

I just need some inspiration because I am planning to use words as proof of caring. Trouble is I am not sure if I should do it at all, given that I am not sure I have the correct feelings....call it lust, infatuation, crush, anything you want. And I know it probably won't be the last. But I want to make sure I don't miss anything by just shutting up. I have less than 40 days to build up courage, and then I'll do the scariest thing I've ever done for a while.....pick up a guy..LOL

Go ME.

Sunday, February 20, 2005

A beautiful poem

by W.H. Auden

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead,
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.

He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood.
For nothing now can ever come to any good.

Thursday, February 03, 2005

Motion pictures: moving and colorful

I spent the afternoon watching a little movie that made all the tears well out of my body. The fact that I have been inhaling bleach while cleaning the bathroom before may explain the inconvenience. But I know it was mostly from being moved by a brilliant storytelling.

Hero
I will not explain the movie but merely attempt to describe its impression on me. One could identify multiple heroes in the story, but apparently the chinese character covers the plural as well. Maybe because all of them possess unique qualities, and any additional word or letter will not enrich or reveal any of those qualities.

The beginning of the movie sets the tone, when captions show that some are willing to die for love, a cause, a country, and some are all equally ready to kill for those. This prepares you for a great epic movie, with great battles between great armies. This movie does nothing of such. There is no single hero and multiple sidekicks. Instead, it shows you how simple individuals go through their life battling their past, desire of revenge, hardships of life. It shows you how someone would struggle to achieve a perfect martial arts move, or a great calligraphy on a scroll full of meanings. Even the advertised tyran with the huge army is found to be struggling to be understood and finding a way to accomplish his goal: to unify the land (China).

In the end, our conventional heroes face death peacefully and with the knowledge they have reached their goals of loving, teaching and understanding their obstacles. One hero is left to continue the mission of appeasing the Chinese land, after facing the pain of killing those who have helped him get there. It is a new approach to the becoming of a ruler.

combining all arts in this movie, it brings you despair and hope at the same time: Despair, for even with the greatest intentions (like the ruler), one would hurt close friends or peers' feelings and loose them; Why would anyone even try to help, explain, save, etc...? And hope because the photography, music, movements , and interactions reveal something worth trying.

Those landscapes, beautiful colors and slow motion details of leaves, rain drops and sand are the little details that are worth living for. And for an emotional girlie girl like me, it is the ultimate lesson that hopefully will bring me courage.

Quoting the Director of another great movie (Four Feathers):
"True courage is not the ability to face death. True courage is the ability to face life"

Tuesday, January 25, 2005

late night sport

I know what you're thinking. It could involve some panting and a lot of emotions, and foreplays, and two partners...well this one is a bit different.

I fell asleep watching the Australian open game, Federer vs. Agassi. It was like 4am and I couldn't keep my eyes open. So when I woke up, my eyes fell on this very odd program on ESPN2: Basscenter. it is a whole program with specials and breaking news, championships around the world (I doubt their meaning of world here), and famous sponsors. To sum up, it is about fishing bass.

You may wonder what kind of breaking news they had. Well, the bass tournaments schedule and rules have changed apparently..big deal! This time, they set the date first and ask everyone where would be the best place to fish...aha! So ont hose dates, some lake would be raided by hundreds more fishermen...wonderful.
What annoyed me most (I know, how could Iw atch more than 1min of it?)..I was saying, what annoyed me most was the amount of sponsorship those people get. It's a bit normal given that they have TV airtime, at 6am....but those sponsors included Ray Ban, Nike, etc..I mean, I don't want to be associated with some fishermen because I wear the same brand...Tough.
So there you go...a real sport for real men...in a democratic country.

In the meantime, I think I fancy some salmon carpaccio, so ciao ciao..