The wine gum conspiracy

For some reason I cannot find wine gums. Anywhere. Like, ever. Not long ago they were bountiful, every place I went had mounds and piles and heaps of wine gums. Bright red packages filled with all kinds of gummy goodness. Now they are like some sort of rare gem.

It all started with the union shop on campus. They stopped restocking everything when the school year ended. Before I realised what was happening, they were a wine gum free zone. The loss of wine gums at this particular locale has been especially difficult for me, as I am on campus most days and sometimes want a mid-afternoon wine gum snack.

Shortly thereafter, I noticed that wine gums were lacking from the shelves of other places. That empty bit of shelf space at Waitrose, a glaring absence at Tesco Express in Fulham. What on earth is going on? Is there some sort of sugar shortage impacting their creation? I was actually amazed to see some on the shelf at Superdrug on Sunday. There was a brief temptation to buy as many bags as I could carry in case my suspicions were true. Alas, I refrained.

Luckily, in my attempts to cut back on my afternoon snack sugar amounts, I embraced the curly wurly, which at 22 p and 100 calories, was in my mind a good deal. It's chocolate covered caramel in a fun, braid-like pattern. Alas, they ran out of those at the shop now too and I must resort of eating chomp, which is the same only its 15 p and lacks shape and technique. Although who am I to say no to a mini chocolate bar?

Chav Fashion

Or as I like to think of it "chashion".

As I was walking around town yesterday, I was lucky enough to see all sorts of local youths out and about enjoying their sunny Sunday. The glorious thing about Southampton is that much amusement can be derived from watching these teenagers going about their business. Central London is seriously lacking in those who partake in such fashions. So what is chav fashion? How can I look cool, fashionable and theoretically threatening yet really only be laughed at? That is what I am here to tell you.

Females:
The key here is the head. You can spot a chav girl without looking below the shoulders. Simply pull your hair into a slightly too tight pony, the slicker the better, but don't be boring and put it in the middle of the back of your head, gather it a little to the side. And maybe toss in a colorful hair band to draw attention to your clever off-sides trick. With your hair back, people will be able to notice your beautiful earrings. What better way to draw the eye than with big, thick, colorful hoops. This electricl blue, hot pink. You want to be visible here. You're no blushing wallflower, after all. When it comes to make-up, you don't need to do too much extra. Perhaps a splash of color on the eyelids, but other than that it's okay to keep things relatively normal. When it comes to clothing, the lady chav is not too different than other trendy females her age, breaking out a few layers of racerback tanks, some leggings and perhaps an oversized shirt or two. Footwear is on occasion a nice converse situation, but the ballet flats are still the norm. Top if off with some sort of lollipop and you're good to go! But don't forget that look of slight disdain, or people might forget you are disenfranchised.

Males:
Don't you hate those binding jeans? Can't be bothered to actually put something on with a button and a zipper? Then you're in luck. The key to the latest chav man fashion is track pants. Often seen in navy, white is another popular look. Now, you want these to be around ankle length, to best show off your bitchin 'trainers'. If you're lucky, your track pants will come with a nice band around the ankle, but if for some reason they don't, you need not fret. You can achieve the same look, or perhaps be even more fashionable, by simply tucking your pants into your socks. On the upper half, zip-up lionsdale hoodies work well, as do most all over-sized tees and sweatshirts. Again, just stick with white and navy. To bring the look home, you need a cell phone that plays music. Just upload a few hip hop tunes, the grittier the better here, and play them on maximum volume, on speaker, everywhere you go. On the bus, in the convenience store, walking down the street, don't worry, EVERYONE wants to hear what you are listening to. Oh, and if for some reason you see a police car, it doesn't hurt to hide in the bushes!

Best of luck in pulling off these looks. And don't be shy, be a trendsetter!

Bakin' cookies

I did something last night that I don't think I have ever done before, either here or back home: I made cookies from scratch without a mixer. It was a bold move, but I think it turned out at least decently well. The evidence is here for all to judge.

Before I could make said cookies, I made a special cookie-ingredient trip to Waitrose. Waitrose is a small store, not necessarily at the best of times, but I was still hoping it would have what I required. Flour and brown sugar were easy enough, as was butter. They had some small packets of chocolate chips that were easy to find, but I wasn't sure how many would be required so ended up with 4 (I used 3). Difficulties arose when I started looking for either oatmeal or oat flour, finally finding some in the cereal aisle that was basically oat flour but was for use in porridge. The vanilla was disguised in teeny tiny bottles near the baking powder and 'bicarbonate of soda'.

The preparation process was not that exciting, but I actually had to measure out the butter in a measuring cup instead of just tossing in conveniently pre-cut cubes. There was also a bit of learning curve using the oven in celsius ('test batch' didn't turn out all that well so I had to turn it down a notch). Now the cookies will have to hit the street to see they fare with the English market. I think they're tasty, as did my primary cookie taster. I'm sending the first shipment off to Brighton later. We'll see how that goes.

I'm watching something called 'rugby league'. I am under the impression it's somehow different than rugby without the league at the end of it. It's a bunch of beefy men in really, really tight outfits and very short shorts running around and getting tackled about every 10 seconds. Bradford is playing St Helens. Whatever that means. I should be doing some work!

Scary day in London

I went up to London yesterday with the London roomie. Heading up on the 9:00 am train, we had an appointment with an estate agent to see a place at 11:30 near Fulham. Around 9:30 am we got a call saying that the place was taken. And so began a day of looking for a 'flat' in London.

We decided that as were up there, we should at least walk around and check out some areas and possibly check out some listings at estate agents that we happen to come across. For those of you that have never heard of Fulham (which would have included myself prior to the day before yesterday), it covers the area with the SW6 post codes and is located between Kensington and the Thames, just past Earl's Court on the District Line (it's zone 2). Getting off at the Fulham Broadway tube stop, we took a quick peak at the Chelsea football club stadium and then noticed a plethora of estate agents. It took a while to work up the nerve, but we finally went into one at got an appointment to look at a place in Parsons Green (next tube stop to the south) in mid-afternoon. We got more nerve after this and booked another viewing closer to Fulham as well. The first place was a bit larger than what I was expecting (I was expecting something resembling a walk-in closet), and the second place (in Parsons Green) was literally awesome. By that time we had booked a third viewing, but before that we figured we probably couldn't do better than the second place (which basically had an extra room so you could easily sleep four guests and was 5 minutes from the tube) and called the agent back only to discover that some other folks had gnabbed it about 5 minutes prior. And the 3rd place wasn't that great. All in all, a bit disappointing about losing the fab place, but it's still a bit early to be looking for places and we figure we'll just keep going up once a week until we find something. And if we find something we like, to grab it right away! It's certainly a tough market when you can't very well make appointments to see places the day before and can't stop to think for two hours after seeing something. But I imagine there's more than one awesome affordable place in London.

In brighter news, we had lunch at the new Whole Foods on the Kensington High Street. It was freaking amazing. By far the nicest grocery store I've ever seen, the only thing you could really compare it to is the food hall at Harrods. Salad Bar was 1.79 per 100 grams. I have no idea what that translates to, but it was expensive. The whole place is 3 floors, with the main floor housing the salad bar and 28 check-out lines and the bakery, the main grocery area is downstairs, and upstairs has the sandwiches/sushi/made-to-order foods and the seating area. Oddly, they only had vinagreitte for dressings. I was not too pleased with this. They had amazing look sandwiches, but they cost the equivalent to $12.

Don't even get me started on the failed venture to the O2 Arena.

Next trip is next Thursday, which will be in conjunction with going to see my first West End show.

Drawing the line

First off, let's just note how completely giant the kittens have gotten. While perhaps this picture is exagerrating their length a wee bit, they are still a lot bigger than in their last appearance here. Let's all thank Kathy for sending that one in.

Now on my to my main point of discussion: language. The longer I'm here, the more I find myself somewhat accidentally/somewhat not accidentally using British terminology. For example, the other day I said the word quid and immediatly wanted to slap myself, as that is the one word I promised myself that I would never start using it because I find it annoying. But then I got to thinking about whether a total refusal to use local terms is just as bad accepting them wholeheartedly. But then where in the middle should one end up? I think for me the key things are to keep up my lingo-free dialogue with the stateside folk and keep my lingo-level at a tolerable place. In a lot of situations I find myself not wanting to use the local term or the American term. For example, when it comes to finding a place to live in the fall, I don't want to say 'I'm looking for a flat in London' and I also am wary of saying 'I'm looking for an apartment in London', so I just say 'I'm looking for a place to live in London' as some sort of compromise and hope nobody notices. This certainly doesn't apply in all situations as smoothly, but in many ways is the most PC thing to do, I feel. There is also still confusion from me in the pants/trousers and crisps/chips arenas. When it comes to writing my dissertation I freak myself out a bit when I start talking about 'taking public transport to the city centre' but there's not much I can do about that.

Anywho. I'm heading up to London tomorrow for my first 'place to live' searching day. Let's hope it's not too scary/depressing/overwhelming.

Sholing Butts

There is a bus that begins its route up by the halls of residence, so I often see it waiting at the initial stop when I walk by. Apparently, one if its destinations is a magical place called Sholing Butts Rd, which on its own is rather amusing, but for some reason every time I see it from afar I think it just says Showing Butts. You'd have to be brave to get on that bus, no?

Speaking of brave encounters, I saw a real live hedgehog yesterday. I was at my friends house and I peered out the window to see this odd little creature meandering along the grass. My look of disbelief gave away my sighting. Sure enough it was declared to be a hedgehog. Things got especially exciting when one of the dogs saw it and decided to take a closer look. Much like sonic, the little hedgehog rolled up into a prickly little ball. However, unlike Sonic he did not go spinning around at a hectic pace. The dog was shooed away and the hedgehog regained its intended form and continued its meander. It was not very big, I'd say less than a foot long and about 8 inches tall including its prickly bits. And it was also slower than I thought it would be, but that's because Sonic does keep that rapid pace.

Finally, as the entire world is aware, the final Harry Potter book came out today. I'm sure there is much ado about this in the US of A, but I still feel it warrents mentioning that it's been one of the biggest topics in the news for at least a week (the other thing mentioned is that half of the Midlands are under water at present, poor Midlands). Asda nearly got cut off from the publisher for selling it too far below the recommended price of 17.99, but even Waitrose was selling it today for 7.99. Fierce market it seems! As for myself, I'll just wait for the last two movies.

Graduation time

It's the season of graduations at the University of Southampton. Unlike some schools I've graduated from, this place opts out of one uber-giant graduation with just one day of horrible traffic and people in gowns walking around with their families and instead spreads it out evenly over a week. Basically, the rooms where the graduations are held are quite small so things are done in small ceremonies, meaning there are about 6 a day for the next week. Ergo, the campus is crawling with people in gowns with their families for the next week. And by 'campus' I really just mean the library lobby, as this is where they have opted to have the portrait photography. I tried ducking in there this morning before meeting with my dissertation supervisor and was greeted by a line going out the door of people waiting to get the moment etched permanently in time. Oh, and perhaps most importantly, when you graduate from Southampton, you wear a black gown with one of those 'hoods' that is lined in baby blue and no cap. I'm not sure if that is just what undergraduates wear or if that's graduate students as well. For the next week it looks like I'll be studying outside the library.

In other minorly interesting news, I saw a couple Mormon missionaries the other day. While I must admit this is an assumption, when you see two circa-19-year-old boys walking down the street in black pants, white button-up shirts, ties, and a whistful look on their face, you just know what's going on. I'm not sure if they were being successful, but there are at least two Mormon churches in Southampton so they are seemingly doing something right. And they were within about half a mile of one of these churches (very close to my residence, a hidden little enclave that oddly reminds me of home).

It's time to go and search for some food. Half of the food places on campus have closed, the library cafe is crawling with the graduates, and many of the open places have slim pickins.

This used to be a sidewalk

So I was on the bus yesterday staring blankly out the window and was somewhat confused. A few of you have been there so you may know vaguely of where I speak, but there is a building on the north edge of campus where all the banks have mini outlets. There is a paved walkway that runs in front of these outlets about ten feet away from the road. Right next to the road there is a six-foot wide area covered with these little pyramid-shaped tile things that are horribly uncomfortable to walk on. Basically, the powers that be wanted you to walk on this other pathway so much that they tore out the old sidewalk and spent extra dough on these icky bumpy things. I don't quite get this. The pathway was closed one day and you had to walk along the pyramid things. It was not ideal.

In other slightly odd news, I went and saw the new Harry Potter movie last night. As it was a Monday, it would have been a mainly empty theater if, literally, about 100 Spanish middle school kids hadn't shown up and filled up the greater portion of the good seats. So before it started there was all this loud Spanish being spoken. It was bizarre. The other non-Spaniards in the theater found it equally bizarre. How do you even arrange a trip with so many kids? The logistics must have been extremely difficult. They were a bit punky too, one girl had half her head shaved with the stubble bleached blond, the other half was past her shoulder and fluffy and bring pink. She also had two piercings on her lower lip that stuck out over an inch. She just screamed 'I like to blend'.

It's half price pizza night. This is never bad. I'm getting salad. Here is another photo for you enjoyment (thanks Mom). Oh, and I've bitten the bullet and 'sponsored' this 10k run situation. So far I am the only one. If you give them money you get a special thank you email from 'Benjamin' (Mark's bro). This amuses me.

TMF

I have discovered that there is a tv station on freeview in the UK that not only shows reruns of Newlyweds with Nick and Jessica, but also shows reruns of Laguna Beach. Plus channel 5 shows basically only American shows, although some are a few seasons behind. CSI New York was on last night. Good times, I tell you. This country's appeal grows by the day. It's like I've been away from tv for a year but am still ahead of what they are showing. I really should be watching more of the local programming but it's hard when the 'new' season of CSI Miami starts next week (aka, the season that started last September). Horatio times.

In related news, I have finished putting up my trip pictures on Picasa and am currently working on finishing up the captions. In fact, they are probably done by now as it's sort of early over there right now and I'm planning on finishing them up after this. Check it out to see more things like Kari enjoying her perfectly poured pint (you have to admit it's quite impressive). Oh, and one of my plates has disappeared. This is sad as I only have two. If you see my plate, please ask it to come back. I miss it.

One more thing... that tall dude that many of you met is running a 10k in a couple months over in Beaulieu (the ponies are used as hurdles) with his little bro and his dad. It's a fundraiser for cancer research and the bro has set up a website to take pledges or donations or whatever they are called. Unlike bro, Mark has low fund expectations, but here is the link if you want to look at it and giggle or something.

http://www.justgiving.com/ben_andy_mark

a quick message to say thank you

ciao all

my third blog on margo's blog site thing!

margo is putting photos of the last three weeks on picasa and im horrified at the detail quality of her camera (not very flattering!!!)

anyways i just wanted to say thank you for every ones kindness to me in the north west, i had a great time! i want to reiterate that if anyone does want to come over to the UK (not sure why?!?!) your welcome to stay at mine.

So my top five things were:

1. meeting margos family and friends (aaaaawwww)
2. july 4th fireworks and the boat ride
3. the pets (2 kittens and 3 dogs - Sir Winston by far the coolest dog ever!)
4. the natural environment - from both cities!
5. the ski lift sorry cable car no errrrr oh yeah aerial tram :-)

Go Beavers!!!

Cheers, Mark

Back in England!

I know, I know. I've been a terrible blogger. Leaving my post for weeks and making other people fill in a couple blanks. Well, that's because an American in America is really not that exciting. Now that I am back in England I can pick things up again.

The return journey was long but relatively uneventful. I was asked at customs why I was traveling with an emergency passport but luckily my truthful story checked out. There was been minimal culture shock sort of things so far. I did find the streets freakishly narrow and harrowing at first...well, not at first, I've only been here a few hours. They will probably freak me out for a few more days. And the fact that I paid $3.00 for a bottle of water was also a bit disturbing. Although the fact that its sunny has certainly helped make up for these other shortcomings.

I'm in Emsworth at present. It's, like, um, between the airport and Southampton near Portsmouth. There are leather straps in lieu of door knobs here. It's all very intriguing.

Anyways, I had a nice time in the US. It is indeed a good deal in many more ways than one. I'll get the photos uploaded tomorrow or the next day and have one giant massive picasa album. Or perhaps two. One for each state. There are nearly 700 pictures on my camera at the moment, so may take a bit of time to go through them!

an englishman in west linn

Oregon is a beautiful place no more so than the views you can see at the top of the Portland ski lift...no but really it really is. I'm not sure what i was expecting but so far I've seen waterfalls, a ski resort, harbours and evergreen trees in their thousands - all within hour drive (or what seems to be an hour) from each other.

the city itself is great not too big and not too small with three types of tram! (for all of you doing the msc tpe course). Margo has spent the last six months getting excited because Whole Foods is opening on Kensington High Street near Notting Hill and i can see why now - very good salad bar - we definitely need more of those in the UK.

the tax free shopping with the GBP to the USD has also been good fun especially in the REI store in Portland where i couldn't quite believe how cheap everything was!!! so far been to two brewery's where we've tried the sampler - very good beer especially the IPA's.

going to the coast today so should be good fun...

cheers, mark