sleepless nights
I really wish my potential new flat would call & let me know if it's all good! Last night my crazy flatmate, Estee, decided she wasn't tired (ya know since she hadn't worked that day & didn't have to work today either) so she had some of her mates round. No biggy right? WRONG, they were all at ours till like 2am & since her bedroom is perfectly located just above mine I got stuck listening to their high healed shoes prance around the nice wood floors (what else do you wear in some one's house during the wee hours of the night I ask?) & they all had rather loud voices . . . I asked her once if they could be a bit quieter, but I think she just thought I was being a "party pooper" which I guess I was, but for
goodness sakes it was a Tuesday night, the rest of the
normal world has to work on Wednesday, not all of us get the luxury of just having to work 20 hours a week with the added bonus of still affording to live like they work 40hrs/week!!! Sorry for that rant, she's just been doing me head in more & more since I told her I was potentially moving out (I reckon it's just coincidence, but whatever it's annoying!!!!!)
Happy Wednesday morning from L'town!
Labels: flatmates, sleep
Kool Kontest
I know I know both spelled with a "c" but I'm bored at work so I needed a little pizazz in my day, sad I know that's the best I could come up with, BUT in other exciting things going on, I found the "kool kontest" at
This Eclectic Life's blog,
Click on the image link to check it out & enter if you have time and aren't afraid of a little challenge . . .
As some of you know I have a bit of a crazy flatmate. She's already an American size 2, which is a UK size 4/6 but she thinks she's fat, in particular she feels she has a big arse, so yesterday I went running with said flatmate, as part of her new "how to loose weight" program, which of course entails her
(not me) not eating anything that could possibly make you gain weight - so she's basically eating lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, peaches and drinking lemon water. If she does eat meat she just chews it to "get the nutrients out" & then spits it back out so as "not to gain any weight from it" (
those are direct quotes from her - don't get me started!)
Luckily for my sake (
since I can't recall the last time I went running) since she doesn't eat much she has no stamina for running, but the down side to that was we ended up walking around "town" and got caught in a rain storm, which motivated me to run home (
alone) - too bad I forgot she had the keys in her pocket, so I had to wait in the pouring rain for her to slowly walk back home! Gawd forbid another flatmate hear the doorbell & answer it, come to find out they were all home. It wasn't so bad, just next time I'm holding on to the keys for sure :)
Have I told you what's happening 1 month from today? I'm going to be "home" in New York with Jim, yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm getting really excited about it (if you couldn't tell from all those explanation marks. But before I head to the states, a week from tomorrow my dear friend Betty's brother arrives in London for a few days & we're going to see
Spamalot that night and on Tuesday we're going to see
Mamma Mia.
Okay I'm outta news for the day as my boss & all my co-workers are at a meeting in Porton Down at the
DSTL and the only reason I'm in the office is to help out the MSc summer student who is 90% capable on his own, but better safe than sorry. So far I've just reassured him (and another student) that they're on the right track - at least I feel semi-needed (lol).
Labels: flatmates
Trent Park for my daily Vit D
So I got my fill of Vit D yesterday sun bathing with a picnic in
Trent Park with Estee, Stephen (E's cousin) and Tanya (S's friend). After we got home I got a text message from Rob (who's back from Thailand) and wanted to meet up for dinner & for me to help him by putting his digital photos onto a CD as he doesn't own a computer & wouldn't be able to download them at work. So we met up on the high street & grabbed some dinner at a Greek place. Estee came to meet up with us for a bit while on her way to her uncle's house.
On Friday, I bunked out of work & went for my national insurance number "interview", which was easy enough, but the man conducting the interview said to me, "you've got enough bombs in your country, why don't you just go back" to which I was totally dumb founded & speechless! 30 minutes later he came back with my passport & abruptly said, "your number will arrive by post in 6-8 weeks" I smiled & said in the nicest voice that I could muster, "thank you very much, have a nice day" which apparently is a very American thing to say, according to some of my mates here in the UK, who usually don't speak with cashiers or the like & who giggle when I make conversation with them.
In
good news, Arsenal beat the Bolton Wanderers 2-1 this past Saturday, I of course missed the match because I was visiting my dad's friend Patrick who lives in Stretham. Louise & I met up at Tottenham Ct Road just under the "We Will Rock You" sign to get on the tube & head south to Patrick's house. We arrived just before half twelve. Upon arrival he opened a bottle of
Buck's Fizz to help tide us over before our fancy lunch at 13.45. Louise & I took a wonder around his garden (aka yard) and brought out 3 lawn chair & a small table. Our lunch was
chicken kiev, brussel sprouts, carrots, peas, boiled potatoes with butter & herbs and white wine. Pudding (aka dessert) was
panna cotta with slices of peaches. After tidying up the kitchen we retired to the garden for a bit of a chat in the lovely sun. After an hour or so we were forced to have tea, I say forced as Lou & I were both full from lunch, but you cannot argue with Patrick, so he went up to get the tea started. When I went up to retrieve the tea, I discovered we were going to be having some chocolate cake & cheese cake with strawberries on top . . . needless to say when MissyLou & I left we just sorta rolled ourselves on to the bus and then onto the tube for our ride home. I did not eat dinner at all - just kept downing the water to keep well hydrated.
Antonio (my 4th flatmate) has moved in, as of last night. He's Croatian, 25yo, now he manages an Italian restaurant near
Liverpool Street Station after spending 3 years living in Italy. So that rounds out the house. Of course the plumber came to fix Estee's and my showers (2 separate ones) this past Saturday and apparently was unable to find the part to repair it so instead of putting it back so we could shower with suboptimal conditions, he just took the parts with him, so there are 5 of us using just 1 lonely shower at the moment :( Luckily for me Estee & Zarina like to shower at night so Antonio & I were the only ones who had to "plan" what time we were going to get up & use the bathroom, since Giulia works 1-8pm so she doesn't have to worry about the AM shower schedule. We're all hoping the guy is able to get the replacement part today!!
Hmm what other exciting things can I tell you about?!?!? Look at
this photo, as if running in a marathon is not enough, he's decided to pull a 300lbs bolder with him - WTF?!?!!
Okay, I will leave you with this quote:
Finish each day and be done with it.You have done what you could.Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in;forget them as soon as you can.Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely andwith too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Labels: flatmates, football, friends, quotes
Science is Fun
Doing an IFNg ELISA today, for those of you who don't know what that is, don't fret, if I tried to explain it you'd probably get lost, all you need to know is that I'm looking to see if my cells produced any interferon gamma (a cytokine which should have been produced) and if so, is there a difference between the groups which I treated differently when stimulating the cells.
Last night, I met Zirina (spelling I'm not sure of yet, but that's how you'd spell it based on how she pronounces it, in my mind anyway, but then again we all know my spelling skills are horrible!) She booked yesterday & today off from work to move in & get settled - she came with a heap load of stuff - I thought I had a lot of junk, but I'm 90% sure she's gonna take the cake if we actually compare our rooms. She works near London Bridge in the
Southwark area of London, so she'll be busing to work on the 43 bus every day, while Julia & I take the 134 bus & Estee drives her car to the Brent Council offices.
Tonight we're having a vegetarian curry with rice. I think this is going to be ruddy good b/c Estee & I roasted butternut squash, aubergine (eggplant), onions & courgettes (zucchini) the other night with some EVOO & herbs and it was really delish!!!
(can you hear Rachael Ray speaking here?)
Something that I find interesting about
London (fantastic link "general" link) is how there is an many ways you can divide the city up, for example into"
central"
(where my work is), "
inner"
(where I use to live last year) and "
outer"
(where I live now) London OR you can divide it up by
boroughs (I use to live in the borough of Camden & now I'm in Haringey)Okay I have to write up my ELISA protocol since it is a bit different than the one I'm use to at Trudeau (ie they use a dunk & flick washing method)
Happy Good Friday, Easter Sunday, & Easter Monday!!! I will probably not be back online until a week from today since the school is closed till then.
Labels: flatmates, London, work
TGIF & flatmates
Still trying to figure out the hiring of a car for tomorrow, but I did meet my flatmate Estee last night - she's 31, born & raised in London but of Iranian & Jewish decent. She is super great. She's trained as a behavioral therapist & currently working with youths in the Mill Hill area who are "at risk" trying to teach them basic life skills. To pick up extra work she does modeling/TV acting work (not big parts, more just extras on sets etc).
I also got to meet her cousin Stephen who lives near Jim & Rob (just up the road about 5 minutes) he's about 27 & really cool as well. His training is in chemistry, but he's currently working for a company that sells spinal implants.
The three of us had dinner together at our new place - chatting about this and that & then went out for pudding (aka dessert) in Crouch End so I could see that section of London, as I'd never been there.
I will meet the rest of the girls on the weekend. I know Julia is 24, Italian & a student who works on the weekends, but aside from that I don't know any more details.
Okay off to lab meeting . . .
10.20 update: just booked a Honda Accord for tomorrow's adventures in moving :)
11.05 update: freezer is cleared of all things pre-Debbie Smith (whoever she is) so now I have my own shelf in the -20C freezer :) times like this I truly miss Trudeau where I use to have my own -70C freezer & shared spaced solely with Paula in the pre-PCR freezer or "woody" up in Larry's lab, but I'll get use to my tight quarters with time, I do have half a lab bench which is more than most of the malaria techs can say, so I'm happy about that!
14.06 update: had a tuna sandwich on a brown roll with salad (lettuce, tomato, cucumber) for £1, how awesome is that?!??!?!?! I don't have much else exciting to report, just been reading, ordering some stuff & chatting with Gareth & Claire about their lack of jobs. I've just been thinking about what type of telly & reading lamp I want to purchase for my new place.
Labels: flatmates
Flat Hunting Story #1
So last night after a longish day at work -
did I tell you I was bloody knackered all day yesterday, guess going back to work full time after 6 months of holiday finally caught up with me, well that & staying up past midnight chatting with Jim & watching Pretty Woman - which btw Jim knows many of the lines to the movie, it kept me laughing - I jumped on the Central line over to Marble Arch to visit with MissyLou
(my old flatmate) & Jeremy
(her boyfriend who she is now living with).After arriving at their flat we immediately started cooking dinner, as MissyLou & I were rather peckish!! We had cheese & ham tortellini with spicy tomato sauce - yummers! After dinner we decided we needed a bit of sweet, so we popped down to Green Valley
(Green Valley Lebanese supermarket on 36–37 Upper Berkley Street, London, W1H 7PG - highly recommended!!!) for some baklava - again yummers! After dessert we legged it up to catch the bus to Chalk Farm area to view my first flat.
For those of you who didn't go with me last night to see the place, the flat
(location I will not post) was really nice! My potential flatmate's name is Mame, she's a Treasury accountant for a diamond company - sounds exciting right?!?!?! She is super friendly, very outgoing, and the place was uber clean. It's a 2 bedroom place with double glazed windows & a small deck off the living room. In "my room" the walls are a light violet colour with a TV, VCR & DVD player, double bed, built in wardrobe (aka closet), 2 small dressers & a huge window that faces onto the street. The living room windows face a shared garden. The bathroom, well it's a bathroom, but it has a stand up shower, unlike last year, so that's a big plus :)
Don't worry if I move in I'll take lots of photos & post them up for you to see. Louise & I had meant to take photos last night, but never got around to it, we were too busy gob-jobbing it (aka talking) with Mame. I'm just going to look at a few more places this weekend just to make sure I like this place for sure.The really cool news is that I sent Mame an email this morning explaining I really liked the flat, but that I didn't just want to take the first one I saw so I'd like to check out a few more this weekend & get back to her. Within a few minutes she replied with, "I was just about to email you to say that I really enjoyed meeting you too last night. I totally understand that you need to see what else is out there so I’m happy to hold the room for you until Monday. Basically the place is yours if you want it so just let me know." How cool is that?!?!?! Maybe flat hunting isn't as bad as I had made it out to be????? Well there is still a flat to see on Saturday at noon & a few more phone calls to be made, so I'm sure on Monday I will have at least one other flat hunting story & a decision about what to do with Mame's flat.
As for my flat which you saw yesterday which probably made you drool all over your keyboard about. Things are much better there as well, Mr Annoying (RG) as I will call him, left this morning for a 4 week trek around Thailand, which means I get my own bedroom & en suite bathroom, yippeeeee. Course if I take this flat with Mame it will sorta be a mute point & I actually think I might miss hanging out with Jim, but I can still go up for visits.
Okay I'm asking for your help now, what sort of things would you like me to blog about, aside from my oh so exciting days at work?? I know Pete was looking for flat hunting stories, but does anyone want to "see" or "hear" about anything in London or England for that matter?
Okay I'm off to read some safety manuals, I know you're all very jealous & want to read them as well - LOL - Happy Friday & have a great weekend in case I don't post again today or speak with you in the mean time via email. I miss you all, but things are starting to fall back into place - yeah!! I knew it would if I could just, let go & take it one day at a time.
Oh yeah Happy Saint Patrick's Day to ya!!!!!!!!!!
Labels: dinner, flatmates, flats
