'Mustek, Prestup na linku A'

And that's what's the lady says when we are at station Namisti republiky in Prague...
and it's only the second sentence I know in Csech, apart from 'Dobry Den' which means good day.

I've just got back last evening and trying to gather my wits together after 3 days of sleep deprivation. Drinking, window shopping, and sightseeing were the daily activities, and most enjoyable was the dancing in Solidny Nejistota: 80-90 music playfully remixed...awesome!! The hardest part was to remeber how to dance on Vanilla Ice 'ice ice baby'...magnificent.

I was so happy to reunite with my good crazy purple friend (no, the Smurfs are blue). I did stay in her room at the Hilton, when we had the chance to sleep that is.

The city is beautiful, once you get over the uninspiring soviet block building used for social lodging or dorms.

Upon arrival (wednesday) I got a quick tour of the famous Old Town Square and its clock. I also got the first taste of the cobblestone streets and sidewalks. It seemed the city made every effort to design beautiful patterns with the cobblestones, but disregarded their long time effect on tourists' feet: mind defying pain. With the complicity of coffee shops and cafes all over town, it sure brings in the Krone.

Pargue is known for its beer. But I had none of that. instead I got a huge paprika hotdog, goulash and loads of ice cream...mmm. It's also the capital of Bohemian crystal and all souvenir shops would sell you every quality of Crystal and porcelain.



The castle in Prague is on the hill that overlooks the river Vtlava and the sinuous Karlov Most (Charles Bridge), and the view is magnificent. The famous bridge is packed with stalls and tourists during the day so on our last night, we pulled an allnighter and caught the sunrise on the bridge, almost alone.

And now, I am trying to pack, and hopefully will catch on some sleep before going to work.

Snake and crisps

'Snakes tend to be extravagant creatures and love beautiful clothes and possessions. Luckily, you have a stout financial mind so you are gifted at making your money go a long way.

Although the Chinese Snake is not as sly as the western stereotype, you do enjoy being party to a good bit of gossip and you are very skilful at eliciting people's secret confidences.

Snakes have a deep-rooted scepticism and jealousy and distrust can mar your relationships if you don't loosen the reins of control occasionally.'

For chilli lovers, this is my favourite chips (or crisps they are called over here).

At the back it says:
'In this bag, real chilli creates a gentle heat, while a dash of soy sauce, onion, tomato and garlic add a delicate sweetness for a sublime taste contrast.'
And it's 202 calories...grrrr

Wow, that's proper english!!

Baishakhi Mela

Yeah, a festival just outside the house.

Check out the programme of the event here.

Unfortunately I was working night shift so I had to sleep until at least noon on Sunday. When I managed to wake up, clean up the remnants of the previous night's house party, take a shower and dress, it was already 2pm. As I walked down Brick Lane, I noticed nothing unisial except for the horrible amount of people. It was 10 times more than usual!!And restaurants were having tables and chairs set up outside. The good thing though is that they blocked off traffic so pedestrians could fight among themselves to walk the lane.

I didn't manage to get any interesting pictures of floats or colorful banners.

I did visit smaller alleys off Brick Lane but then decided I needed to enjoy my short afternoon and went to Spitalfield market:found a pair of crocheted gloves, a cute hair accessories.

On my way back, I saw this group next to the 1001 bar.


In fact they were trying to show up capoeira but it wasn't very good. Looked like people trying to have a chat then act up some leg ups and all that...quite embarassing really, I hope they didn't expect any money for their show. The musicians, those hitting on the weird instruments were much more interesting to observe.

Sunshine in the City

Unbelievable. I got to enjoy sunbathing in the garden while writing this, with my iced chai on the side and chicken salad on the other. Unfortunately my free wifi network is not reachable from this end of the house. My suspiscion is confirmed, the
network I usually use is an office network that is only switched on during weekdays during office hours. And it is on the east side of the house. Ah well, at least I am roasting in a peaceful garden.



I'm trying to decide whether to write that love letter or not. It was meant to be addressed to a particular person but then i realize I might write all the unexpressed feelings I have ever had for so many people before as well. I am not expecting any reciprocated feelings, although that would be great. Sometimes it's as if I was in love with Love more than anything else. Or the fact that I am relatively new in this environment makes me vulnerable to wanting a companion so bad I just fall for the first nice guy that comes along, without knowing better.

And I'm taken into the same painful cycle of being thunderstruck, unable to speak or get my act together in his presence, which doesn't really help in putting myself forward. And all I can do is replay each encounter word by word, second by second, sometimes delighting in what he could have meant, or being dissapointed by what I
understood or did...why is life so difficult????ARGHHHH

Aquarius

"An emotional love letter could come your way today, or perhaps an affectionate phone call. If the latter, you can also expect a proposition! What you choose to do about it is, of course, up to you, but whatever happens with this, you can rest assured that love, sex, and romance are going to be a large part of your day. If you're currently involved, your partner might cook you a very special meal. Enjoy your day."


In fact, I was about to write a love letter...Maybe I should wait for one to come to me first???? But how long should I wait for?

Teeth check ups and Parisian theatre

Last weekend, on my trip to France, I got to meet my high school friend and her sister for lunch at her parents and an evening to see a play. Lunch was delicious as usual, and I had the full tour of the lovely garden. The parents even got me culianry herbs to season my dishes, so I travelled with Eurostar with bushes of laurel, celerey and sauge in my suitcase. Later on, I joined the sisters (and their respective boyfriends) to see a play about a character Sophie who is torn between the guidance of Louise (her Lucifer angel) and Angelique (her good angel)...she becomes a runaway bride and discovers herself as a woman who wants more than just being someone's wife...I really enjoyed the piece. Note that Sophie comes from the greek that means wisdom...torn between good and evil...it's very dynamic, and most of all, the audience is seated in comfy sofas!!!!

However, the place is up the Butte Montmartre so we had to climb a 70% slope!!!! arghhh, under the rain...But it was all worth it.

On Sunday, my aunt planned to go to Chartres to get everybody's teeth checked up by my uncle. So off we went, on a gloomy weather. But the sun came out later on, we all had a huge lunch (i ate a 200g bison steak, yum). I showed off the pictures from Madagascar, and then hopped on the torture chair..turned out my teeth are ok (ouf, relief!).

My uncle gave me a salty toothpaste to prevent gengivitis..and I tried it and it is very very salty...

So now am back in London and at work after merely 5h sleep, here and there during the day. And I got the invite for the Microsoft conference on user web experience on Wednesday, with free lunch...we'll see if I'll manage to drag my tired body to that thing....

Un weekend a Lutece

Arrivee jeudi soir et depart lundi apres-midi.

Quelques trucs etonnants ce weekend:
-le ipod se comporte bizarrement dans le RER; le volume varie terriblement lors des deplacements entre Gare du Nord et Anthony. Au debut je pensais que je tournais le bouton par megarde, mais en fait soit c'est le ipod qui deconne, soit le telephone portable emet des ondes qui le perturbent, soit c'est la ligne de chemin de fer qui le gene.
-les tickets de metro se demagnetisent au contact du telephone portable. Je me suis faite engueuler au guichet quqnd j'ai demande au monsieur pourquoi mon ticket Paris Visite de 3 jours ne marchait plus. Je l'ai mis dans mon sac a main, normal, et donc mon portable lui a fait desmiseres. Ben franchament, faudra l'indiquer sur le foutu ticket que la technologie qu'ils utilisent est nulle et que le plus simple telephone mobile, ou meme les cles vont demagnetiser le ticket!
-Il n'y a plus de ticket hebdomadaire pour les zones 1-3. Donc j'ai du m'acheter un ticket Pari Visite. Ils essayent de tout mettre sur le Navigo, et eventuellement virer tous les employes de la RATP au guichet...d'ailleurs, s'ils ont peur pour leur boulot, peut etre ils seront plus aimables.

Sinon, j'ai fais mon plein a Carrouf....yeah!

gas prices, rush hour

What I read today:
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1190182,00.html

Yesterday I went for a show that ultimately was full. The thing was at 6:45pm so I jumped into the tube around 5:45pm...and tried to squeeze myself into carriages flled with 'sarary men' arghhhh, and then got lost because I took the wrong connection train...so more time spent with 'salaly men'...re-arghhhh

In the end, got drunk on a smirnoff ice and got home to sleep before coming to work with a hang over this morning...arghhhh..

Not a rushhour fan

Snowhite and garden gnomes

May Day 2006.

After merely 1h at the gym, the two ladies cooked and baked while I took a nice warm shower. Afterwards, warm pancakes awaited be, to compensate for the loss of huge amount of energy at the gym...I do have awesome flatmates who can cook!!!!! Anyway, afterwards, we just started to hang out in the garden, trying to figure out what's to be done to clean it up for the upcoming house party in 2 weeks. Nadia went to shower, Lorena opened a plastic garden cupboard that turned out to be full of cool tools for gardening:giant scissors, giant nail clippers, giant forks, etc...So we kind of clipped away the tangled branches that took over the fence. We enjoyed it so much we started to cut away the bad grass and untamed plants, swept the ground, discovered thousands of horrific little bugs that are still traumatizing me.

We got seriously involved when we both changed into proper shoes (the bugs, you see, arghhh). We moved the benches, cleared the flower pots of dying plants, swept some more dirt, but most of all, arranged the pile of unused white stones into a nice border path around the tree in the back of the garden...strained our back and sored our legs but the result is really nice. The garden now doubled its living space and we are just waiting for the landlord to sod off and leave for a holiday to pollute it.

This morning though, my arms are sore for clippignt hat fence away with the heavy giant scisors..really, we deserved that pasta bolognese for dinner!

Sunday car boot sale

Today, the London weather was almost cooperative. At 10, the sky showed fairly large patched of blue. And we all woke up before noon to put our old or small sized clothes into a bag and sell them on the sidewalk on Brick Lane. Sunday is market day and locals and tourists alike stroll along the street to forage for treasures among junk. There is the long queue to get bagels, the smell of pancakes and hot coffee. vegetable and fruit market, and all sorts of leather shops setting up stalls in the streets.

We set out around 11:30 and finished exposing the things in a nice spot in the sun. The hardest part was to sort out what to sell because I myself really care about those clothes! Sure, they may be too small now, or I've never worn them, but I still have that ounce of feeling towards them...So nothing would be sold for less than £4.

It started out quite nicely, with the sun burning our sun deprived skins. We even had our jackets off for an hour or more and doing business in t-shirt. With water, almonds and oatmeal cookies, 3h passed by and we made £17, £18, and £36...yup!

By 14:45 it got cloudy and some jerks decided to park their BMW in front of our stall, so we went home tired and a bit angry at them. They really should close the street to cars on Sunday because they're just nuisance to the kids in their trolleys and pedestrians lazily strolling.

Hopefully, this first experience will be repeated and I'll try selling more of the crap that clutters my room. With such ecclectic buyers, there is a market for everything.

The Geek and the Freak

Of course, there should be a Beauty involved to make the perfect triangle.

I am talking about the people that wanders in this grey vast dull kingdom which is the office. There are few gossips to entertain the masses, and testosterone-filled jokes, and swearing towards silly customers. Underneath it all is a general laziness and boredom. From time to time though, there is the odd challenging and interesting problem that sparks a bit of interest from everyone.

Apart from that quite depressing work, I finally got myself a flat that would ruin me for the next 3 months at least! But I'm guaranteed easy access to Brick Lane, and not far from where I am at the moment. I won't quite have the sun as bright because the window is facing west, but at least it's a good-sized room.

Fortunately I already have my outfit for the June wedding. I'll just have to buy the plane ticket later on. Next on the agenda is more packing and cleaning, strolling to catch the sun, and maybe a bit of drawing.

It's Labor Day weekend after all, and no work should be done.

Spring cleaning

It's that time of the year you might say. For me, it's that time when I am so angry and annoyed that all I can think of is clean. I suppose the state of my room lends to it....



The other reason really is that I have to move out of the room by the end of May so I am trying to pack up my winter clothes to bring to Paris next week. It already filled a huge suitcase and the cupboard is till stuffed! I will try to send out some books later on probably because that will be quite heavy to move.

It's a good time to sort out my paperworks as well...argh***. What annoys me is not to visit new flats, it's to meet new potential flatmates. To be forced to talk to someone you don't know for the sake of a not too expensive roof. A cheap room is so rare!A cheap room with decent flatmates? Even rarer!

At least the weather is cooperating. There are already some asian gangsta cruising with their convertibles and loud hip hop music...very flashy...by the way, asian boys here are more likely to be from the Indian subcontinent.

So am out with the old, and in with the new.

Once upon a time...

There was this girl surrounded by IT geeks!!! And they were all Star War fans and...never mind, it's just me getting a bit bored at work.

Something new this week,I have Sunday off due to expected massive partying on saturday: Belle and Sebastian on Trafalgar Square on Saturday, then Drum 'n Bass somewhere I don't know.

Until then it's tic tac toe and cubis on msn.

I hate Mondays

So last night I couldn't sleep and stayed up late. And when the alrm went off at 6am, hell broke loose: I had to take a shower, grab some breakfast and lunch for work, in 15min...which was feasible, but then I couldn't find my binocles, and that was less cool..so I gave up, missed the bus, and came in late...

Work was busy hell, and I just wanted to sleep. On top of that, the landlord pissed me off so bad on sunday that I am this close(.) to kill him...but I won't because they have laws against that in this country....pfffff...civilized...the landlord is definetely not civilized, just a heap of ignorant alcoholic stupid crap. In short, am looking forward to move out and move in a new place where people are considerate of others.....hopefully the place exists.

On top of that am broke, because I've been buying plane tickets for all over the world for the past 2 weeks. And to top it all, I miss my buddy hokies...So ate whatever what was in front of me: donuts, orange and chocolate biscuits, hot chocolate or mocha, the lunch I managed to grab, more biscuit...(I need professional help)

Damn...some mondays....Definetely a black cloud hovering over me.

What is a personal trainer?

So yesterday, I had an appointment with my would-be personal trainer. I have been doing the cross trainer machine for 2 weeks, and hoping not to be too rusty for whatever he'll have me do.

His first question was: 'What do you want ot what are your goals?'
Me:'To loose half my legs and tummy, and the flabs on my arms' (a reasonable request don't you think? Would take a novice genie to fix right?)
Him:'What do you do at home about it?'

Me:'Errr, nothing, I come to the gym to exercise.' (DUH, I paied to be here, remember?)

At this point he started to scribble stuff on this exercise chart.
Him:'What machine do you use?'
Me:'I've been doing that ski thingy for about 2 weeks, every two days or so, for 45minutes. '(The idea was to flood him with info to shut him up)
Him:'What about the bike?'
Me:'I dont' like the bike because it hurts my bums' (clear, direct, concise)

After more scribbling, the verdict came.
Him:'20minutes of treadmill, 6.3km/h, at 6% gradient. Then 20 minutes of bike and level 4, and 80rpm, then 10minutes of rowing to do 2km at level 10'
Me:'Sure'
Him:'After that come and see me I'll show you the things you have to do in the weight room'
Me: 'OK' (more like what? how long is this going to take?)

On the treadmill, I started to run it but lost my breath and my legs after only 5 minutes, so I just walked it all. He came once to check on me and was pleased to see I was still standing (or maybe surprised?), so he upped the speed to 6.5km/h....bastard!!

On the bike, I barely reached the 80rpm, and my bums, back and thighs were sore after only 4 minutes of that biking stuff...really boring too, so I just biked in aleisurely pace in between 2 minutes of effort. The rowing was easier though I only did 1.8km in 10 minutes....Level 10 is the highest level!

My flatmate was laughing so hard at me, and she was kind of getting bored of watching me suffer already. After a bit of stretching with her, I dragged my sore limbs to the weight room where all sort of torture machines awaited me.

The first exercise was ok, though after a serie of 30, I was ready to go home. Then he put me on another one that works another part of the arm....which kind of hurt my neck. Then he tried to put me on the press bench for the legs, but only managed to fold myself into 6 and be stuck, so he gave up and gave me the exercise ball and some heavy weight instead to play against the wall(squats and stuff). Then it was another arms exercise (bloddy hell!) and finally abs...

Now, I never liked doing abs exercises, and these were no exceptions. First, you're put into a vulnerable position, lying down on your back and having to sit up, with your belly tucked. Unfortunately his exercises requires more than a belly being tucked, which was too much for my fatigued brain and will. So I painfully tried to do the series, and wasnt at all amused by the use of different color balls...

Then another verdict came after all that was done. I'll have to do all that 4 times!

So now, I'll be my own trainer for weekdays, and will try to associate weight loss with exhaustion and pain...Thank GOD I don't pay that dude!!!

To celebrate my lack of extreme soreness or pain this morning though, I am waiting for my flatmate to wake up and make some pancakes before we go to the Tate Modern see the expo on Henri Fuselli Gothic Nightmare.

Queen's 80th birthday

So today is the country's ruler's birthday. Yesterday she was actually within the building I was working in, and saw it on TV, but kind of didn't realize it until someone rang the office to tell us...really, our work is very fascinating.
Enough sarcasm....here's a quick shot of what's leading to Buckingham Palace...a full row of those.



On TV, they had a show called 'The great British Menu', where chefs across the country face each other in a cooking competition. Each of them cook a 4 course meal to be served to the 300 or more guests of the Queen for her birthday. In my mind though, except chicken curry or fish and chips, I have no idea what a British menu should be, so it is a very interesting show! Let's face it, it's a good idea to showcase the different ingredients that can be found in this country but that we barely use, for lack of inspiration.

Another sight today was the mounted police force, strolling between Trafalgar Square and Aldwych (no worries, those places will be covered in London 103 or something like that).




Tonight, to celebrate her Majesty, I'm going to see the Premiere of 'La fille mal gardee' at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden. Very appropriate, don't you think?

Thank God it's the weekend

It's Thursday and I will soon finish my week's work. It's been a very difficult week because I have been trying to go to the gym everyday. The only problem is the more I exercise the hungrier I get and of course, there is no stopping me eating...ah well, at least I am eating.

Other than that, I lost Chip, the weird chick at work. There is a suspected mouse living under my desk at work so maybe it's that rodent that stole it for fun..

And I am going to see the premiere of the ballet 'La fille mal gardee' tomorrow evening. It looks really good on the preview I saw during the tsunami fund concert last summer.

Other than that, it's the usual market browsing, late morning sleeping and movie watching.

Easter Tuesday

I woke up to a nice sunny day.



And all the flowers in the vase were open.


Because I had so much chocolate and onion and spinach pakoras yesterday, I am now disfigured with millions of zits (ok, 3 but in top star location), so I will only leave my dear cover at dusk, when the red or orange rays of the sun will set a golden glow to my skin, and prevent other people from distinguishing red zits from red face!

Those are the signs...

A bit of sign seeing:


Yes you can afford a dog, but can you afford the fine? If you live in Notting Hill, where this sign is located, then you surely can!

In contrast, this is what I see outside in the street I live:


Notice that it is not screwed on the post but attached? Yes, it's a different level of income definetely. We don't care about dogs, just about the properties.

Happy Easter!

This is the season when one eats his/her weight of chocolate! So Happy Easter everyone and hope you don't abuse of the yummy goods. I didn't get to do an egg hunt this year, but got 2 new pet office: Chip and Tweety. See for yourself.



Tweety is on the left, as it looks very happy and always singing about. Chip is on the right and it is looking puzzled. I saved them from being dusty decorations at the cafeteria on the second floor. And instead of buying Cadbury chocolate eggs, I stole these cute chicks....hehehe



So instead of eating chocolate eggs, I ate this whole bar of white chocolate and peppers instead...