USA July 1, 2010
I've booked my flight HOME to the USA :-) I arrive at 9.30pm on July 1, 2010 - can you believe it nearly 5 years after I left saying I was moving to London for a year to get a masters I'm finally actually coming home . . . I know I'm actually still in shock!
Labels: america, moving, travel
your positive thoughts moved me (literally)
luckily today was much better, hired the car, drove to Milton Keynes, got desk & entertainment center thing, moved them in, packed last bits, packed hire car, moved my crap, had a curry take away with my mate Shani on the floor of my new flat & we laughed through the whole thing (laughter really is such a wonderful medicine for the blues!) then bought some Ben & Jerry's Phish Food ice cream & went up to Jim and Rob's and watched the rugby . . . Jim's doing okay, has 4 HUGE "elephant suppository" size pills to take for the next month (his quote not mine), but all things considered, seemed to be in pretty good spirts. Now just too knackered to write anymore, speak soon, hope you've all had a good weekend
Labels: moving
Comedy of Errors
So my move today was basically a disaster starting about 5 minutes after I made my last post . . . their car's fan belt broke about 30 seconds before arriving at my house, but of course we didn't know what it was, just that the battery light was on & that they had no power steering. They called AA (the UK's AAA equivalent). Had a cup of tea & the guy arrived to announce he didn't have the correct belt, but he'd tow us to the garage. Rob went with him while Tash & I walked, when we got there we found out the garage was closed & the AA guy had buggered off before we knew what was happening. So we attempted to drive to Tufnell Park (just over 2 miles), 2 pull overs for over heating (one of which we called AA to no avail), 1 detour up a huge hill & around a ton of sharp corners, we arrived across the way from my new place, unloaded everything & they went to see if the car would start so the could drive home before something else went wrong, and it wouldn't even turn over, just heard a meager clicking noise. Tash & I were hungry & thirsty so we popped into the Rustique Literary Cafe while Rob called AA
again. They finally agreed to come & tow them back to Fulham, so we ordered some lunch & eat it whist waiting for the guy to show up.
Needless to say my second load of stuff didn't get moved & I wasn't able to pick up my hire car b/c I was stuck in an overheating, fan belt broken Ford Kia somewhere between Muswell Hill & Tufnell Park. Luckily when I called they said they could hold it for me till tomorrow so at 10am I'm going to be there to pick it up & hopefully have a more productive day than today. I have to say Tash, Rob & I will look back at this & laugh but right now I've got a massive headache & that feeling like it's never going to work out . . . I know I know, it will, just frustrating. Hopefully the bed delivery on Tuesday will go better, though of course it doesn't take much to go better & could still be "not good"
To top it all off, in case my day hadn't been crazy enough the girl who was going to move into my room on Monday has backed out & since I've paid till the end of the month & according to the land lady I said I'd be out at the end of the month & she's leaving on holiday for 2 weeks, NOW she won't give me my money back for these 2 weeks I won't even be here - If only I had given her written notice then I could prove that I gave a month's notice (as the tenancy agreement says) and not have to be arguing about this right now . . . UGH!!!!
Alrighty, off to get some much needed kip, please send positive moving karma my way for tomorrow, I could really use it.
Labels: cars, disasters, landlords, moving
any minute now
Tash & Rob will show up & we'll start loading all of my crap into their car & I'll officially be moving to Tufnell Park . . . btw moving sucks sucks sucks!!!!! Course on my way to get the keys the road is closed AGAIN, so we had to go on a diversion, so I'm hoping the traffic doesn't get too backed up since then & that we can swiftly get this crappy part of the day over with!!!!!!!!!!
In Happy News, my college roommate my first year at Norwich, Jenn got engaged last night to Dave & so I wanted to wish them
congratulations!!!!!!!!!!! It's also Jenn's 28th birthday this weekend, so
Happy Birthday girlfriend! And a bit late but my blogging mate Jen got married back in Sept, so I wanted to wish her & Trav
congratulations as well . . . what is it with that name?!?!?!
oh just got a txt message, Tash & Rob missed the exit off the north circular, so they'll be about 10 minutes, gonna post this & get my rear in gear!
Labels: engagements, moving, traffic, weddings
10 hours to go
no, not till my birthday, but till I get keys to my new place :) Just got back from seeing Carmen & I'm back to disliking opera, not sure what went wrong, but this "new" version had mobile phones & bored me . . . so I'm gonna stick with musicals for the time being.
course b/c I was at the opera & not at home packing I'm not completely done yet, but my mate Tash & her boyfriend Rob will be here at 11.30 to do one run with me & then I pick up my hire car at 13.30 and will do another run. Sunday my mate Shani & I will go to Milton Keynes to pick up my FREE desk and FREE stand for a telly (yes, yes I know I don't own one, no need to rub it in) . . . gotta love FREE, eh?
Sorry I haven't written much recently, I've been rather side tracked with packing/moving and my dearest mate Jim had a rather horrifying incident the other night at work (was stabbed with a dirty needle from an HIV infected drug dealer). He seems to be doing okay, but I'm not sure he's fully admitting to himself what's happened. I know he'll call/talk when he needs to & I also know (from learning the hard way) not to push him when he's not speaking! In other not so happy news, check out my mate
Andrew's post about Blackwater USA. I feel a bit bad, but I agree with him. (b/c many of the people I graduated with from Norwich Uni after being commissioned into the forces, did their time & now are "switching" to civilian contracting since it pays more money)
On a happier note, for those of you who read me mum's comment on the last post, yes, it's true, I said "to-mah-to" twice the other day, instead of the American way of "to-may-to" . . . each time someone else called me on it!
Alrighty, off to bed, as I'm actually moving TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Labels: blackwater usa, moving, opera, packing, pronunciation
what's your opinion?
Sexy or not?
Nissan's ball-shaped electric car has the ability to squeeze into tight parking spots without backing up thanks to it's wheels that can turn 90 degrees with an added bonus of the seating area of the car being able to rotate in a circle, it's called the Pivo 2 (3 seat ecological car) and will be shown at Tokyo's auto show this month. Only downfall is that Nissan says even though it's fully working it is still too expensive to go commercial.
Update from 19.28:
Alls I can say about the rugby (since I promised I wouldn't say scores or details that would give it away) is it's well worth watching the England v Aussie match, I of course missed it being at work, but I read the 5 minute updates on the computer & I'm sad I missed it.
While at work I organised to hire a car for next weekend's big move - YEAH! Now I really need to get my rear in gear & pack the crap in my room up & the kitchen & bathroom stuff as well.
Off to read the 5 minute updates on the New Zealand v France game, go All Blacks (my god-father is a kiwi, so I have be faithful to them)!!!
Update from 22.41:
Just got an email from a dear mate of mine who went to LSHTM with me last year, she's just started medical school & read what she wrote: (NB don't be offended!)
"I just finished my third week of medical school here at St Georges. Did you know there are over 20 million sperm per ml of semen? And that usually 85% of them are wonky (three headed, two-tailed, directionally challenged mutants)! Silly men. Anywho so this week was all about fertilization. And its thoroughly convinced me that there is no way Ill ever manage to get pregnant! But I did get to slice up dead mens willies and poke all the complicated tubing. Ive been so fascinated about my course that last night I went to this very swishy bar ... swishy as in there wasnt even an entrance, you had to know which unmarked door to enter and inside there was a modest reception desk, then you entered an opulent den of extravagant cocktails with twice frozen ice that was hand-chiseled. And so there I am in my 4in pink suede heels and the classiest dress I own and cant stop telling people about average sperm counts. I won some... I lost a lot. But I figure someone who isnt interested in human biology cant be very interesting themselves."
To which all I could reply was, "yeah you're right Mer" just thought I'd share that tid-bit of essential information to your Saturday night/Sunday morning reading :)
Labels: cars, medical school, moving, rugby, sperm
slowly settling in
Let's start with
this really cool news, okay back to my personal news now . . .
So I spent most of last night putting clothes away & finding homes for all of my stuff. I think it's 90% set, just have a few boxes left to open with coats, a dressing gown (aka bath robe), and jumpers (aka sweaters).
Pete added
this link in a comment the other day about the area which I'll be living in. The bus ride takes about 40 minutes on the 134 bus (which drops me just outside of LSHTM), especially as a lot of the roads have bus routes which helps a lot!!! Last year the bus took me about 20 minutes, so not really that much longer. I must admit I like MH much better than I did
Kentish Town, not that KT is bad, just not as quaint as MH & much quieter at night for sleeping!!
I don't have much to report, yesterday morning I returned the rental car to Camden (driving all alone) without any problems (yeah me). When I got home Estee & I did some window shopping in
Crouch End, before checking out
Ally Pally (aka Alexandra Palace) and then heading off to Tesco's to get some
matza since Estee is Jewish &
Passover starts tonight at sundown, but unfortunately for us, it closed at 4pm & we arrived right around 3.55pm!
Last night Julia, Estee & I had dinner together & then all went to organize our rooms. At 9pm Estee came running down to my room because she wanted me to see this BBC1 show about an American family that goes to funerals of troops & protests with signs that say, "fag troops" and "God hates America" - I did not understand what this was all about but it's scary that these people exist!! Luckily it's a small family & non of the children are allowed to marry so they won't be procreating anytime soon! Just tried to find it on line but can't recall the program name, all you really need to know is they are CRAZY & it made me sad to see the show!!
Before I go, let me tell you that I seem to have caught the cold that everyone at work has/had. I thought maybe since I had a cold when I arrived I'd be able to avoid this one, but apparently the
UK common cold is different enough that I'm getting it :( My ears are feeling kinda funny & my throat hurts & just sorta feel all sluggish - hope this goes away fast!!!
Labels: moving
all moved into my new flat :)
Yes, I'm all moved in - drove a standard shift
Honda Civic with my old flatmate Lou & her boyfriend Jeremy & we filled the car up with ALL my stuff in just
one trip!!! Used the car to go to the Tesco's superstore to get all the essentials - sugar, tea, oil, milk, noodles, salt, pepper, loo roll, kitchen roll, cereal, yoghurt, cheese, soap, shampoo, shower wash, sponges, a duvet & new pillows (as mine where from Dad's friend Patrick's house but they were probably 20 years old & rather ratty). Came down to Marble Arch (where Lou & J live) to have dinner & pick up my laptop, but now so knackered that I'm going to kip on their couch & return to Muswell Hill in the morning.
Labels: moving
Nissan's ball-shaped electric car has the ability to squeeze into tight parking spots without backing up thanks to it's wheels that can turn 90 degrees with an added bonus of the seating area of the car being able to rotate in a circle, it's called the Pivo 2 (3 seat ecological car) and will be shown at Tokyo's auto show this month. Only downfall is that Nissan says even though it's fully working it is still too expensive to go commercial.
