Posted 1:50 PM by Lodger
It has been a quiet weekend after a relatively quiet week. Last week was a difficult one at work and I had a minor blow-out last Friday night after three days of neck tension... after a few pints I got a few things off my chest about work. Thankfully my friends are supportive and tolerant and no one seems to think I'm a bit of a freak (at least that's their official line anyway). Actually, the neck pain was constant for three days and and causing some odd symptoms, dizziness, etc... so I was a bit concerned, as was Em. We went to a drop-in clinic on Saturday and I was checked out... blood pressure was normal, it may be a slipped disc or an impinged nerve. Dunc, the Scottish mentalist, gave me his osteopath's number, so between the osteopath and the doctor, I'm sure we will get it nipped in the bud.

Em's been a bit unwell this weekend, we are bit concerned... she's going to try and see a doctor tomorrow during the day. We seem to be falling apart. Thank God we each have each other to hold ourselves together.

On a lighter note...

We had a quiet day together yesterday, the first day in awhile we had mostly all to ourselves. I made Em breakfast, we read the paper, we cleaned the flat, *looked up flights to Canada on the internet, did a few other little jobs, then went out to dinner and a movie with Em's cousin Kristy, who is staying with us at the moment until she finds a place here in London. She treated us last night, Thai food at a nice place in Croydon. I had the duck. It was scrum-dil-ee-icious!

We then saw 'The Incredibles.' It was a lot of fun, really cleverly done. We all enjoyed it.

*Flights!

We are looking to come to Canada approx 25 July and to return approx 1 Sept. Yesterday we found some good deals on some flights and hope to book very soon, before they slip from our grasp. Looking at flights got us both very excited, I can't wait for Em to meet everyone back home. She is practically bursting at the seams with excitement.

Her parents are visiting over March/April next year, so it's getting down to 'meet the parents' time! A bit of pressure. Maybe more than a bit. But we are both looking forward to the experience.

Not much more to report. They're still coming up with weird, but often tasty crisp flavours here (Honey ham and English Mustard is surprisingly good). My top three weird crisp flavours at the moment are:

Prawn Cocktail (possibly the best crisp flavour ever!)
Worcester Sauce (tangy with an undercurrent of sweetness)
Pickled Onion flavoured Monster Munch (not technically crisps, but they still go crunch - they are a puffed potato, greasy, MSG enhanced, gastronomical wonder)


Got a new CD. Kings of Leon - Aha Shake Heartbreak. It is also quite tasty, but has more of a Cajun Southern gumbo kind of flavour.

Tony Blair is still Prime Minister. George Bush is still President. On that note...

Posted 1:33 PM by Lodger
Hello again. I have not disappeared off the face of the earth as my infrequent blog entries would suggest.

Picking up from the last entry:

The walking trip was fantabulous. Although it was a generally rotten summer weather-wise, we actually had some good luck. Sunshine (mostly) as we walked through the Derbyshire countryside with our good pals and tour-guides, Nick and Mike (these guys are quite keen outdoorsmen - they are trekking up Kilamanjaro this Christmas break!). We covered an average of about 10 miles per day and saw some beautiful countryside, and Em even made steps toward conquering her fear of heights!!! She sits beside me now, with an evil grin on her face, knowing that her fear is at least a common one that might elicit some sympathy from readers. My newfound fear of cows, however, generally just inspires laughter and ridicule. (That cow made an aggressive move toward me, Damnit! Anyone would have been scared. Except Em. Who grew up on a farm. And, erm, protected me. From the... cow.) Okay, I was really only scared by one particularly agressive cow, but the bulls really did scare the crap out of me. Thinking rationally, I knew they were on farms with walking trails, and thus were around strange humans often, but still... THEY ARE BULLS!

When we got back from the walk, we continued are house hunting. We stayed the course initially, looking for shared accomodation in the Clapham area. But while looking there, we thought, 'Why not check out Croydon. It's cheaper, and all our friends live there.' So, we checked out a few places, and, while much cheaper, they didn't quite do it for us. Still, the cost was appealling, and we began searching in the area in earnest. One day, we made an appointment to see a place very close to East Croydon st (important for Em to commute to Richmond). In short, it was beautiful. A lovely Victorian house converted into flats. Newly rennovated, one bedroom, a nice kitchen, and... it had a gorgeous little garden, a rarity in London. We instantly fell in love with it and made an offer. The landlord was out of the country, but the estate agent assured us he would go for us. In his words, we were the perfect prospective tenants. We put down the holding deposit. The place was as good as ours. Except...

When the landlord returned to London, he informed our estate agent that he had found other tenants while he was away in Thailand. SHIT! We were devastated. The school year began, both of us started teaching, and we were still without a place. Thankfully, Win and Scott offered to let us stay there as long as we needed (they are gorgeous, as Em would say).

On the following Saturday, the estate agent called us. She told us the landlord of the perfect little Victorian flat was having second thoughts about his other choice of tenants. They were rock musicians who wanted to rehearse in the front room. And they wanted to get a cat. He wanted to meet us.

We quickly got cleaned up and raced down to the place to meet the evil landlord who had so cruelly rejected us just a week before. Turned out, he was about our age and very friendly and apologetic. He felt bad for having put us under such stress and emphasised that he had never rented a property before. We didn't care, really. He could have had horns and a tail. We just wanted the flat.

We ended up getting it. And at this very moment, I am sitting on our couch in that same lovely flat blogging on Em's laptop. Life is sweet.


WINNIE AND SCOTT'S WEDDING

Last week, Win and Scott got married. It was a beautiful wedding in a converted palace in Croydon. We enjoyed having the opportunity to meet their friends and relatives from back in Toronto and Chicago, and I enjoyed playing an integral role in Scotty's stag night. He ended up passed out on our kitchen floor covered in cheetos and peanuts. We got a picture. (insert evil laugh here).

Everyone was dressed to the nines for the occasion, and we had fun buying our new outfits for the wedding. Win and Scott looked amazing. It was wonderful to share their day with them, as they've been such great friends to us. Croydon will not be the same when they leave us, next year.


WORK

In many ways, I've found teaching easier this year. I yell less. I enjoy most of my classes. I feel a bit more organised. I find my tutor group a real struggle though. And marking keeps building up, as always.

Em's had to adjust to a longer commute, which has been tiring for her at times. If the trains were reliable (as they were last year!!!), her life would be easier. But regular delays and cancellations have made many mornings unnecessarily stressful. Last week, I was home sick with the flu on Tuesday, and Em called me from Clapham Junction in tears. She told me she thought her hand might be broken, that some guy with a huge toolbox had rammed into her as he ran by her on the platform. She actually considered still going into work (crazy-woman), but I suggested she might want to call in sick to work and head to emergency. She did, and her hand was indeed broken, a hairline fracture on the back of the hand between the thumb and index finger. So, we ended up having an unplanned day together in unpleasant circumstances. It was kind of nice, though.

Since then, I've become chief cook and cleaner around the house. I don't mind.


THE ELECTION

Don't have much to say here. I'm disappointed, of course, but I'm not convinced the world would have been a significantly better place with Kerry in the White House. For me it was more about a victory for liberal over conservative, left over right. It was about a vindication of my own value system, about the hope that those values, liberal values, could still bring about positive change in the world. It's all becoming very 'Us versus Them.' Evidence, I suppose, that a culture of fear truly does widen divisions between people.


HOMESTARRUNNER

If you're not familiar with it already, check out this website: www.homestarrunner.com It takes some time to get into, but once your hooked, it's good for hours of mindless entertainment (strongbad emails and teen girl squad are excellent to start with).


Gotta go. Bye.