jenepel

Okay I don't have time to write a proper update as we are just in an internet cafe and I think about to leave, but silly_cleo was bugging me about it on twitter (love you really!) and so I have decided to just cobble together all the email/FB/twitter updates that I just did and that will be info enough! There will be some repetition though - sorry for the lack of editing.

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Trip is FANTASTIC! Small safari bit in PE was good and as well as all the matches we have been to. SA is really beautiful and (fingers crossed) no sign of trouble as yet. We are going to the USA match tomorrow and then the England one the next day - both their round of 16 efforts. Pretty excited about seeing England v Germany, so resigned to how that turned out, hope it will be epic as they are picking up their game. The Slovenia match was pretty tense and we were right off the goal so had a perfect view of Defoe's.

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Hi! We are jumping online quickly at an interenet cafe in Durban. this is the first time we hve checked it since we were in cape town with the wi-fi. Its been a bit dodgy on being able to find access. Everthing is great so far, we have been to three games, adn two were england (sorry for the mistakes this keyboard is weird and i am in a hurry) the second england game was a lot better thant he first - very tense despite the lack of goals, but some good chances adn i can't believe they didn't score again. we are going to see the USA/ghana match tomorrow and then the next england one the next day. We have seen drew and his friends at severl matches so that was good.

Also the elephant park was awesome. we drove around and saw tons of animals close up, although not any predators as they don't have many of those. we also went to ride elephants which turned out to be great - we got to feed them as well and it was amazing they are so lareg and interesting up close. lots of good pictures too!

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Trip is FAB! SA is beautiful & (fingers crossed) no troub yet. Going to USA tmrw & Eng next day - both R16. Slovenia match tense & right off goal, perfect view of Defoe's. Excited abt seeing Eng/Ger, hope for epic, but will see. Ran into Martin Tyler(!) @ Durban airprt & he said thot
Eng had good chance as Ger team young versus our boys (older, exp). He did admit that might
just be his Eng bias tho!

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(AND AM EMAIL WRITTEN BY MY BRO TO OUR PARENTS)
Hope you're enjoying the Cup over there in the UK. England v Germany is an absolutely ridiculous match up for the second round; talk about history. If all goes well, we could be playing Argentina in the next round too which would mean meeting our two biggest international rivals in one World Cup: unthinkable. We're having a great time over here. I guess Jenn gave you a pretty good synopsis of how everything's going over here. We've been watching a lot of football of course but we've managed to see a lot of the country too I think. We had a great time in Port Elizabeth and the Addo Elephant Park. Now we're going to be travelling on the road for two days to see the USA and England matches. I really hope we'll be celebrating on the return journey or it'll be a quiet drive back. As far as safety is concerned, we've not seen or heard anything that would worry us in any way. I've been to far dodgier places as far as I'm concerned. Cape Town and Durban are so cosmopolitan you could be in Europe, and Port Elizabeth's suburbs on the coast were the same way even if the city center had a more 3rd world feel. There have been crowds everywhere though and we've been very comfortable everywhere we've been. The people here have been amazing too. Everyone everywhere we've been has been incredibly welcoming and in great spirits. I wasn't sure how South Africans were taking the hosting of this Cup but the people seem to be truly excited about their visitors and the event. The organisation has been top notch too. Parking lots, venues, public areas, our accomodations and everything in between has been really well organised and planned for. They were definitely ready for us.

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Guess that gives you a picture! Actual pictures when I get back - we have taken millions and have tons of good ones already.

Seriously people, the week I have had! And you know, it’s not really to be complaining, because everything seems to be working out okay thus far, and I’m really terribly thankful for that. But considering I spent the whole week at home, and only worked two days, it has been just incredibly stressful.

I just checked my last entry to see what kind of info I wrote about the surgery and realised I was all like “oh, maybe I’ll stay overnight Sat – we’ll see”. HA! And then I stayed Sat-Thurs morning. Oh how little I knew.

So anyway, my dad had surgery for tongue cancer in three parts – a chunk of his tongue out, a chunk of his leg (including muscle and a freaking artery) out to replace the tongue, and his lymph nodes. It was the latter that turned out to be the biggest problem, since he is having some kind of drainage issues (his body kept producing lymph but it has nowhere to go?) and an air bubble (yeah IDK) that they had to push out. So when I got there last Saturday they were saying he should get out by Monday, so (for various reasons) I decided to stay until then. But Mon turned into Tues, turned into Wed, and now they’re saying it may be NEXT Mon, so who knows.

Things that went wrong while I was there:
1 – Mom can’t drive at night b/c she had cataract surgery a few weeks ago. She didn’t mention this to me at first, but once I knew it was the main reason I decided to stay. Going to work at least in the AM and then to the hospital but having to leave before dark (in the UK, in March) is difficult.
2 – I forgot my charger (well didn’t bring it since it was just going to be a day), so my phone died
3 - we have plumbers working in the upstairs bathroom, and they did something with the electrics, which connect to the room next door, which contains the computer and modem. Thus no internet. I was kind of stealing wi-fi from someone around us, but it was very temperamental and only on during certain hours in the evening (who turns their modem ON AN OFF? I guess someone who doesn't know enough to put a password on?)
4 - our last car broke down (we have a few but every one seems to have at least one issue right now) leaving us stranded on the side of the road. We called my mom’s friend and the AA, but it was no go. We called around for rentals and no one had any cars free (!!) although we did end up getting one on the second day, thank goodness.
5 – I realised on Wed when I checked my email that friends of one of my friends in Japan were coming to stay and arriving on Thursday. I had agreed to it ages ago – I hadn’t met them but we do have spare couches, so whatever. Anyway I had to sort out meeting up with them on Thurs after work. Thank goodness I checked though.
6 – Addenbrookes tightened the visiting hours b/c of some vomiting virus (!) so when I went by there Thurs on my way to work (Cambridge is where I change trains) they wouldn’t let me in the ward. Instead dad and I stood at the door so he could give me a quick update. Ridiculous!

On the bright side, I came home to a lovely home cooked Mexican meal courtesy of the flatmates, as well as margaritas! Yum. And dad is doing alright, which is the important thing. I’m now off back to Cambridge to meet mom at Addenbrookes...

I'm on base b/c I was meeting with some tax clients, and it turns out that the Freedom Cafe (inside the Liberty Club, omg) has free wi-fi, so I'm online! Yay. Actual internet that actually works and lets me check my email. Seriously, internet issues at work and home right now (although work got cleared up on Friday I think) so I'm behind on EVERYTHING. While I'm here I figured I might as well put up this half-written post that I've been writing all week in Word or whatever. SO...

I forgot to actually put any kind of away message on this, but I've actually been on holiday once again, thus the lack of posts. (Oh who am I kidding?! I haven't posted regularly in months! This must be rectified. I cannot believe my last update was when Claire had her seizure.) Anyway, last week I (and 4/5 house mates) were away skiing in the French Alps. Oooh la la.

It was actually a really cheap (well relatively cheap) trip. Budget airfare (easyjet whoohoo), ski rental deals online, and a chalet we rented to share with 20 people total. Basically it was one big party. Oh and lots and lots of skiing! Six straight days, which I think is more than I have ever done all at once. I actually feel decent about my skiing now. I'm not going to be skiing black runs any time soon, but I feel good about the possibility of many red ones in my future. And the people who went ran the gamut for skiing (or snowboarding) ability, so everyone managed to find someone to go out with. Also, on the last night we had a giant party at the Chalet which included Raclette cheese, tons of other food, and colour-coded drinks that matched the runs. You were supposed to only drink the ones of runs you had been on, but that didn't last too long. I mostly drank green actually, because it turns out that I think Creme de Menthe makes very yummy cocktails! (Other people may have said it tastes like mouthwash, but whatever.)

So yeah, good trip indeed. Other things happening?

( Family health stuff, Tax Bitches, the World Cup, TV, Kradam babblings, weddings & Jenn (almost) turns 30! )

Whoops! My updates always get out of control. I really just need to post more. (Oh and where’s that 12 of 12 from January? Well technically, it does exist, just not as an LJ entry.

ALSO THIS! From silly_cleo: Reply to this post, and I'll tell you one reason why I like you. Then re-post this (if you feel like it!) and spread the love.

Um, yeah so some of that is slightly unaccurate now (I found a place for my bday!) but most of it's good and I'm leaving it. Also it turns out that the Freedom cafe is now called Rugbys - who knew? :)

Today is my two year anniversary with LJ! This is obviously an occasion to be celebrated, so Rach and I have cracked open a bottle of wine. (Hahaha! You're funny if you think we need a "reason" for wine.) I looked back over my history, but it seems that last year I somehow managed to miss this very important milestone and didn't post. Or I posted a few days later about it. But what was I doing this time last year? For one, dealing with the flat situation from hell, which if you've been with me this long you probably remember, seeing as it took over about three months of my journaling because it complely ruled my life. Beyond that, I also found a lovely quote from this entry, which is really pretty much perfect:

"I finally got to see basilm since it seems like it's been an age. She and I enjoyed a fabulous meal prepared by iamseb on Friday night, including (of course) much wine. And then we proceeded to talk into the night and make (possible) plans for the beautiful house with a garden that we'll all rent together in North London once everyone gets out of their current lease/ gets funding/ gets back from Serbia. Keep the dream alive!"

And thus Awesome Manor was foretold!! That's a really fun quote to read actually, knowing that it all came true. I'm just surprised it didn't mention a kitten.

So what am I doing this year at this time? ( I feel like you probably deserve a cut here, for length if nothing else! But you should click, it's totally worth it. )

Bad news that I heard today: Simon Amstell isn't coming back to NMTBuzzcocks next season
Good news that only slightly makes it better: Noel Fielding is joining as a team captain
WHY COULDN'T THEY BE ON AT THE SAME TIME; THEY ARE HILARIOUS TOGETHER.

I found this fantastic queer reading of HSM the other day - definitely worth a read. Actually it's not a full reading, most just some history and then discussion of the baseball song. But I've been looking for something similar for a while, so I was excited to find it. Seriously though, if you're seen the second movie, the baseball song? It just BEGS for that type of analysis.

Sorry that this entry is kind of all over the place. But now, since I'm being completely random anyway, a few pics I've been holding onto forever!( Random Picspam! )

And now Rach has gone up to take a bath and I need to do dishes, but I do hope you enjoyed this monumental entry! Oh! The title. I was actually pretty depressed last night, and I think my cheeriness tonight really proves that I need to be around people to uplift my spirits. I get maudlin if I spend too much time by myself. I had picked this title out last night, and my mood now is miles from what it was, but I'm still gonna use it. It's from the Journey song in this extended promo for Glee an upcoming show on Fox. If you haven't seen that promo, do yourself a favor and watch it NOW because it is made of awesome.

Five things:

1) Look what iamseb made! It's OBAMA BINGO! for election night. Go there and it will create cards for you to print and mark when various states turn blue. It was officially planned as a drinking game but can also be used just as regular Bingo. Spread it far and wide and make him* famous!

2) Quote as related from my mom today. She's an elementary librarian and was introducing "My Teacher for President" to a Kindergarten class she was going to read it to.

Mom : Can anyone tell me what special event is going to happen in America tomorrow? It's very important and all of your mommies and dadddies will be helping to something for the country.

Tyler (5 year old African American boy) : We're going to have the first black president!

Awesome, hilarious and oh so cute.
(I believe there followed a slight discussion on how that might happen, but that we wouldn't know for sure who won until Wednesday.)

3) I started Nano but only have 3000 words so far. I really need to get a move on. We planned our first official write-in for tomorrow, and I have successfully gotten admin controls on the London Nano FB group though, so we're on our way!

4) The red cups are coming! No sign as yet, but I asked a girl in Starbucks this weekend and she said they should be starting Wednesday. I'm a complete sucker for this entire campaign. Bring on the gingerbread lattes!

5) I changed my moodtheme. I finally uploaded the Buzzcocks one that I have been meaning to get for ages.


*For those of you who like to nitpick (SEB - even when I am promoting your own stuff), by this I mean make Seb famous, not Obama. Obama is obviously already famous. Seb, not so much.

It feels like it's been a while, although I guess I did post twice last week. However, posting just to complain about online flight searching (still not booked btw) probably doesn't count. What I need to do is sort out the pictures from the Turkey trip and actually put them up, but that isn't happening yet.

I went to my parents' for the weekend as planned, which was great. It's just so relaxing to be there, and so comfortable, which I suppose comes of being in the house you grew up in. Our house hasn't changed much in the past twenty years or so, which makes me feel like a kid. Or something. You might remember that my dad retired last year, so this has been his first week of not working, while my mom still has a year to go. (Let's just see how long before that becomes a sore point!) Anyway, they looked at houses while they were in America this summer, and I had to be shown all the pictures. They seem to have decided for sure on North Carolina (who knows why - we don't have family anywhere near there). It's so strange to think of them in one of those huge American homes - our house is decent sized by UK standards, but what they'll be able to get for the same amount of money (actually probably not all the money since they're talking about maybe getting a smaller place to keep here) is much larger and fancier looking. US houses are truly amazing to me. (Not to mention all the beautiful flats my friends in the States live in. Argh!) On a similar topic, I was reading this blog today and enjoyed this: '"Move to London?" at least 306 cousins, aunts, uncles and one great-aunt spluttered. "Why don't I just sit in a room full of car exhausts and burn 20s with a lighter? Bugger off!"' Yup. Sometimes it feels like that. But back to my parents, the point is (and pretty much everyone I know asks me about this) that they haven't lived in the States since the 60's. And now they are talking about moving back there permanently. It's weird. No wonder my mom wants to buy a smaller house here so they can go back and forth. I would be scared to death. I mean, you don't see me moving back there anytime soon, do you? [ETA: I'm not saying the US in itself is scary - just that moving there after 40 years of being here will be qutie an adjustment. So no one get all offended please!!]

While I was home I read quite a bit of my old writing, including random stories/poetry/journals from various ages. That never fails to be amusing. I pulled quite a few embarrasing quotes out which I have now emailed to my brother for his enjoyment. Also, (on the subject of bad writing, HAH!) I read Breaking Dawn, which is currently in my purse ready to be returned to Waterstones. Not in some sort of protest move, just in a pre-planned "I don't want to pay for this book and give her more money" sort of move. (I gave up on the library - I'm weak!) It was...not as amusing as I wanted it to be. basilm and I have been exchanging links about it, but other than that, it was mostly a slog. Girl needs a good editor! I have a feeling that the reason the earlier books were a bit tighter (although still not GOOD) is that someone was willing to cut stuff out and ask her questions. I would guess that once she got to this point they were happy to publish whatever. Not that I think the first three were that much better written, but they were a little less like crack!fic. This one was kind of the combination of every bad idea you could think of that would solve every possible problem. A cross between wish fulfillment and insanity. Moving on...

In other news, I finally made it over to J&K's house, so Kathleen can quit sending me threatening messages on facebook. Also, S&L (their in-laws and my brother's best friends) are coming over (from the States) in two weeks. So I'll actually be back in Norfolk again, for a whole weekend of fun. I went ahead and worked this Bank Holiday Monday so that I could take a three day weekend when they get here. FUN! It's good, because I need to save time off for November and Christmas. My boss decided to stay in Spain for another two weeks (yay) so he won't be back until Sept 5th. That would make for a quiet office, except the construction work is still going on. Now he has me taking daily pictures to email to him. Anal much?

Other things going on this week are possible karaoke-ing on Thursday night (if iamseb and teaatsix would come out of the woodwork) and tennis on Wednesday. Also, flat-hunting SOMEDAY. On Sat I have a wedding (wow, one that I don't have to fly millions of miles to attend) of one of my friends from the Embassy. Should be interesting. I have no idea what I'm wearing though, since I can't seem to figure out how fancy it will be.

Blech. This entry is pretty boring, but I think that's reflecting my mood at the moment. I need to go home. I was considering going out tonight, but we'll see how much enthusiasm I have as the time grows nearer.

It's Tuesday, so I'm back at work, back to normal. I guess.

The weekend was great, although my dad's retirement party was a bit of a letdown. He's been there 35 years, so I just kind of feel like it should have been something bigger than it was. At least he's not the type to take things personally, but I do feel like we didn't get involved enough or something. Of course, when you announce your retirement two weeks before the party and your kids live 2 hours and 2000 miles away, it's a bit difficult. So I don't know. I did give a little speech which was mostly off the cuff as they only asked me right before the thing started. But people laughed, so I'm calling it a sucess. Whatever. Anyway, if the ceremony was small, at least the food was great. I ate so much that I thought I was going to die afterwards, and it was possibly still worth it! When we got home my mom and I collapsed on either end of the couch with our books, so full we couldn't even have a cup of tea (!) and alternately read and napped for about three hours. Pure laziness.

Laziness was nice after Sat which was all cleaning. But I am finally free of the flat of doom! YAY! Well, almost free, as I am still paying final bills and giving meter readings, etc so we can get (most of) our deposit back. Surprise, surprise, evil!landlord wasn't satisfied with our cleaning of the flat, so he's going to take the charges for a professional cleaning service out of our deposit. Great. I kinda figured that though, even though we scrubbed tons and Katie's mom even came round to help. She did the oven and all the hard kitchen stuff, but he wasn't even happy with that. And of course I was the only one there, so didn't do a good job of fighting back. Oh well. We'll see how much money it is and then re-assess I suppose.

Sat night I got the rest of my stuff over to the new flat and then newflatmate and I, plus one of her friends, went to an awesome Indian restaurant. It was definitely worth re-visiting. It was also all the way out near Wembley, but since our only plan for the night included riding the tube, that wasn't a huge deal. Then we got on the district line and finally the circle line (where the party was supposed to be) with a few beers to see how it would go. We were leuisurely sipping ours, just chilled out and talking, but wondering where all these crazy, crazy tube-partiers where. Then we got off around High St Ken to see what was going on, and heard a ton of yelling. Turns out we were going the wrong way on the circle line! We went down the other stairs to find an entire train packed with yelling, drinking people (one guy mooned us) all knocking on the side of the train and wanting it to go. They had it delayed by 30 minutes or so - I have a feeling they delayed the line all night to discourage the party, wonder if it worked at all. Anyway, we took a few pics and then decided seeing it was enough, actually getting on the cars looked terrifying. So we left the tube and continued our (much calmer) party with another beer on the top of a double-decker. Then we went home and watched Dr Who on BBCi player. Which was AWESOME! So very excited for next week.

Monday I had taken off work, partly b/c of the retirement thing and partly because of my best friend from HS visiting. She lives in AK now, and had two others from there also visiting, so we went to Cambridge for the day. It's been ages since I've been there anyhow. We gave them the fast tourist day - the colleges, the market and a bit of punting down the Cam. (Which is basically like small Gondolas, only you get to do it yourself.) The guys turned out to be pretty good at punting - I think we only hit one wall and no one fell in, so that was good. (Actually, over many many years of taking many many people out on the Cam, we've only had one fall in, so that's pretty good I think. And that was in the part with the rapids under the bridge where you aren't really supposed to go.) Then we had a quick pint along the river and they dropped me at the train station so I could get back home, where I pretty much collapsed until I woke up for work this morning. Most of what I've been doing is socialising, but it sure takes it out of you!

Oh and look at my new userpic! I made it out of this old Absolut ad that was done by an artist with my family's name. No relation though, I don't think. (The novelist either. Too bad!)

TGIF for sure. I've had three days of work since we got back from Athens, but they've felt like those quick yet long days where you're kind of underwater, not really paying attention to the fact that you are actually supposed to be doing work. See what just a small little holiday does to me?!

I'm also slightly weirded out because in the past week or so I've read several war based books. It's coincidence, but it's strange because it's not my normal genre. One was Atonement, which I've been meaning to read for ages, but then basilm gave me one about ambulance drivers in WW1, and then I got one from A for the flight back to the UK which was set in occupied France in WW2. I tend to jump pretty completely into what I'm reading, so reading them on the tube gives me this weird jump back to real life when my stop comes up. And it makes me all vague and out of it for a little while until I realise that I'm in normal life again. Either way, all three of them were really good, but I think I could use some peacetime reading now!

Speaking of other reading, I got a few books from nanoSara last night. I went after work to meet her and another American and give them some help with their taxes. I always feel so bad about how much people freak out about it, so it's nice to be helpful. It took us about three hours, but part of that was because Sara had three back years to do and her friend had some dividends that needed foreign tax credit. Man I really HATE the 1116! It's one of my least favourite forms, especially when doing it by hand like that. Anyhow, they got done, so that's what counts. In the matter of taxes, what I really need to get to are my own and my parents, neither of which I have done yet. I got kind of lax about it because I was so busy, but the June 15th deadline is rapidly approaching, so I need to get on that.

On another random note, not sure why (perhaps the reading of death and destruction) but I woke up in panic this morning having dreamed that my dad had died. It's not the first time I've dreamed that one (or both) of my parents died (or you know, other people, or me) but still. I called home once it was late enough just to assuage my tingling feelings of worry that I had suddenly become a precog, but all was well. Creepy.

Anyway, as for the Athens trip, it was pretty amazing. I feel like we saw a decent amount of stuff for just five days. We walked a lot of Athens, went out to Sounion and took a day trip on the train to see the monasteries at Meteora. The pictures are here at my facebook but I did want to put just one here on my LJ, because I took it just for filo77.

( Sadly, when I looked in the window no cakes were in sight. )

I've had an extremely productive week, which would probably explain why the last time I posted was last Thursday. I meant to do a quick post on Mon/Tue detailing the weekend, and I never even got around to that.

I'm sitting here right now sorting computer files and watching "Can't Hardly Wait" which just happened to be on. I haven't seen this movie in a million years, and I'm getting shocked by all the people I recognize in it, most of whom are in totally random tiny parts. It's so weird. I kept seeing people, so I went to the IMDB page and was just blown away. Seriously, apart from the obvious main characters, you've got: Sean Patrick Thomas, Freddy Rodríguez, Donald Faison, Jaime Pressly, Nicole Bilderback, Jason Segel, Clea DuVall, Leslie Grossman, Eric Balfour, Selma Blair, Sara Rue, Amber Benson, Melissa Joan Hart, Breckin Meyer, and Liv Tyler. I mean, I saw a five second glimpse of Amber Benson - she's listed as "Stephanie, Stoned, Banana-holding Girl (scenes deleted)"! Craziness.

ANYWAY, as I said, I've been seriously productive, even today. ( This Week (not very exciting except for the bit about the murder). )

As for Easter weekend, basilm went with me to my parents’ house. ( The snow in the forest was beautiful. )

Holy crap I’ve been writing this entry forever. I think I started around 4PM and it’s now almost 4AM. I’ve just been writing it bit by bit as I did everything else. And the end result is BORING. Seriously, I wouldn’t advise actually reading it! :)

Hmm, just two tiny other little notes. Today I saw a preview on TV for Pathology, so it looks like it might have widescreen release here. Interesting. Also, the pilot season has come to the UK. Premiering within recent weeks or coming soon: Gossip Girl, Pushing Daisies, Chuck, Dirty Sexy Money and Mad Men. I’ve seen the first three, but I might try and watch the other two. We’ll see.

Okay, perhaps it is now time for bed?

ETA: CRAPOLA!! basilm has just reminded me that the clocks go forward tonight. Dang it! Stupid daylight savings time. That means it's actually almost 5AM.

ETA (#2): No, it's just 4AM. (sheepish) I guess my computer auto-updated and I didn't notice.

This entry is dedicated to basilm, who bore the brunt of my failure today.  I love you, my dear!

For me it was actually a somewhat productive Saturday, it's just that all the things that got done were accomplished on the wrong side of the parental visit.  I got up late (12) and went into town to try and get my bro's present.  But then my parents called when I had basically just gotten to Oxford street.  I was late and they were early.  So I had to turn around and go meet them, but of course I stupidly got on a bus, like hello (!) a bus down Oxford street in the middle of a Saturday.  Stupid.  And then Rach (basilm) calls and tells me she is there too.  So it's like everyone is waiting for me and I'm stuck on a bus.  I get off and get on the tube, but I go the wrong way up the Northern line, and then I'm on the wrong branch of the Northern line, and then Euston is closed.  And it's like HELLO JENN HAVE YOU EVER RIDDEN THE TUBE BEFORE?  I'm an idiot.  So I'm like an hour late.  And my parents and their friends have eaten, and Rach has been sitting reading for 45 minutes with a cup of tea.  Total failure of first parent meeting.  We leave and grab sandwiches at Pret and then go to Oxford street to try and salvage the present situation for my bro.  So that's fine, except I've now dragged Rach halfway across London for no reason.  She went to mail her paperwork.

This next part is fine.  My parents and I go shopping.  We get a shirt for my bro at River Island (I love it, I hope he does) and plus I get a new short black coat at Primark.  (I've been meaning to go.)  But Rach and I were supposed to meet after the parents left.  Of course they stay longer; she goes home.  Fail, fail, fail.  Anyhow, I stayed on Oxford street and shopped a bit - I needed a bday present for KP.  It was good I guess because now that I work out of town I never go shopping.

Then I came home and hung out with Nicola for a while.  We actually had dinner together, which NEVER happens.  And she taught me new ways to bring out the flavour of garlic.  That was cool.  Both my flatmates know a lot about cooking, and I don't, so I really wish they would tell me more things like that.  Anyhow, then we drank a bottle of wine.  It was nice to just hang out like that.  Too bad she's moving in a few weeks!

On the subject of that, she put the ad up on Thursday and we have six people coming to see it already!  Three tomorrow and three on Monday.  It's pretty crazy, but I guess that's good.  I hope they're nice - I've never been on this side of the flat-hunting business.

Just to finish this on a completely random note, I saw something that made me laugh when I was walking around today.  It was a car that said "Geeks on Wheels" on the side.  And then below it in parenthesis (in case you didn't get it) "we fix computers".  It was the "Nerd Herd" in real life!  How cool is that?  Well, I thought it was cool anyhow.