Christmas!

So I'm back in the US now. After the initial shock of the amount of water in the toilet bowl at the airport, it's been a smooth transition back into American society. Oh, plus there was a tiny moment of fear today as I thought my mom was pulling into the wrong lane of traffic.

Yesterday was Christmas. In contrast to last year, there was heat and other people around. Let's call this an 'upgrade'. Due to the time change times, I was first up at 4am, thinking it was 5am due to the inaccurate guest room clock, then decided to go back to sleep for a few hours. So I was up bright and early for presents. Which is always exciting. Wooo. Then we had some lovely cinnamon pullapart, eggs and bacon for breakfast.

Sometime in the mid-day time range it started to snow. This was again very exciting. And just in time to make guest arrival a bit more interesting! Everyone made it okay. Then I made approximately 28 cocktails for folks and then ate some brie. A while later there was dinner, then I took a nap, then there were more presents and dessert. Then more sleeping!

Oh, and then there are the alleged 'kittens'. Edgar, I'm pretty sure, is the world's largest cat. But he's also the world's softest cat and is pretty but slow. Lizzie is not as big, but is still evil and the size of a regular cat. And pretty. I have taken many photographs of both the Christmas events and the giant cats. They can be found on Picasa. As can photos of my dinner at harlem a few weeks ago!

Merry Christmas

so wanted to wish everyone a merry christmas! i hope you (the hemphills) enjoy the mince pies - single cream i think is like pouring cream its the kind that you pour rather than spoon!

so didnt really know what to write and margo suggested to say what an anglo xmas involves - well in my family as im sure everyone differs!

so my mum wasnt going to do stockings this year but my 22 year old brother insisted that we have them and he normally still wakes up at like 4am to open them! i found out the other day actually that when he was little he connected his stocking to his bed though a banger from inside a cracker...basically meaning that when someone ('santa') picked up the stocking there was a small band which waked him up!!! i thought this was genius! anyways yeah stockings usually involve really stupid things that are of no use but fun on the day to open - like chocolate money! we then usually have a present opening session (1 each to keep my brother happy!) and the lunch prep is started. this involves getting a little stove thing out as the arga is not powerful enough to keep its heat for everything that gets cooked:
1 turkey/vegie option for my mum
3 kinds of stuffing
peas
carrots
roast potatoes
pigs in blankets (small saussage rapped in bacon)
small sausages
bread sauce
cranberry sauce
bacon rolls
gravy
brussel sprouts
other vegies - normally parsnips

these are combined with wine and crackers!

so thats cooked and normally eat around 1.30pm and pudding is xmas pudding with brandy butter and ice cream.

then its the queens christmas message which is broadcast at 3pm on all channels - well my dad insists on watching it i cant say im the biggest fan, but its one of those things that when you watch it its actually quite interesting!

next in the post xmas walk with the dogs that have xmas decorations...usually just round westbourne but youll have no idea what that is...then when we get home its present opening time. then its normally a film that mums bought....like a family thing like love actually/gladiator no idea what it will be this year/if theres a good tv show on like the only fools and horses xmas special.

then its bed - not really any more room for food but there is plenty of turkey for the next week!

26th is boxing day. this usually involves heading down to the sailing club where my dad brother and I take part in the boxing day rowing race which involves 360 degree turns/rowing backwards etc. my bro and i have done it together for the last couple of years and normally end up last and my dad usually wins it - most annoying! then its just home for more turkey and relaxing times. i think we are also heading over to my cousins in bognor.

thats enough from me...merry christmas!!!

hope you all have a great time!!!!!!!!!!!!

EAT.

Amongst the gazillion places you can buy a normal, quick lunch in this city, one stands like a beacon of light: EAT. While you can partially attribute this glow to the starch white interior, especially visible when it starts to get dark, it has much more to do with what goes on inside.

I started going to eat regularly a little over a month ago when the weather started to turn cold and the concept of soup before lunch sounded like an overwhelmingly good idea. Both Eat and Pret a Manger have hot soups available, and Tesco down the road has cold soups you can buy and heat up yourself. So on my first attempt at lunch soup I ended up first poking my head into eat to see if I liked what they had on offer. They had a smoky bacon and lentil, which I got with a chunk of wheat bread. It was the most delicious soup I'd ever eaten. The next soup I had there was of a southeast Asian variety and unfortunately had a high percentage of mushrooms, but was tasty otherwise. That was followed by Moroccan root vegetable, chili con carne and chicken pot pie. By this time I was checking the weekly soup menu on Mondays to see what would be the best day of the week to go (I try to take my lunch most days). Today they have smoky bacon and lentil, so it is indeed my eat soup day for the week!

The trickiest part of the ordeal is the actual ordering of the soup. Everyday they have two soups, one termed 'simple' and the other 'bold'. Smoky bacon and lentil is a simple (basically chunkless). I stick with ordering the name of the soup, while the people behind the counter refer to them as simple or bold. So a couple weeks ago when trying to order a big bowl of smoky lentil, I nearly ended up with two soups: a big 'bold' and the lentil. There was a long discussion but it was eventually sorted out and I just ended up with my big 'simple' so to speak. And eat soup day is one of the highlights of my week. Along with starbucks coffee day, which is again limited to once a week. It just so happens that today is both!

Speaking of today, it is also my last day in the office this year. After getting a transport assessment I did out in the mail yesterday right before lunch, I haven't had anything to do. So I'm slowly trying to gather knowledge on the history of the British monarchy and all their offspring via the best source for these things, wikipedia. Keeps you entertained for hours, I tell ya.

And I've got some tesco's finest mince meat pies ready to come back to the states with me! Get those taste buds ready folks! Mmmm. Raisins and goo.

Soul Food

Last night was the little 'Southampton' people Christmas dinner. With this in mind, what could be more festive than going to a restaurant called Harlem that served soul food? Nothing I tell you, nothing!

In my ongoing effort of metropolitan exploration, we went to the Bayswater neighborhood, sort of east of Notting Hill proper. So basically it was a walk trip from work. Lucky for me I missed the turn on the way, so had to walk extra far in bitter, bitter cold with high winds blowing in my face while carrying a bag of heavy baked goods. It was not pleasant!

Before dinner we went for drinks at a pub that came in second place when deciding where to hold my work group's Christmas thingy, so I was curious to check it out. It was expensive and eerily quiet, but pleasantly warm! I was complimented by the barmaid for my ability to properly pronounce San Miguel, which is apparently difficult for Americans (she was Hispanic but had lived in LA). Anyways...

I was really excited at the prospect of a corn fritter appetizers. Like, really excited. It's why I want to go to there in the first place. They were really good. And came with a leafy salad. For my entree I briefly considered the Cobb salad but decided I could probably get a much cheaper, better one when back in the homeland next week. So attempting to roll with the soul food idea, I got ribs. I think it's maybe the third time I've ever ordered ribs. They came with coleslaw and 3 onion rings. It was pleasant. Elsewhere on the table there was chicken and ribs aplenty, collard greens and steak fries. All in all a tasty food representation and not a dissapointing rendition of the concept of American food in general.

The restaurant was small dark and woody. Below the restaurant there was a tiny little bar with a dj and a dance floor. Oh, and when I went down to use the restroom the light was out in the stairs so it was a bit spooky. And I also had plenty of opportunity to play with the settings on my camera again. The above photo is actually of a mirror reflection. I like to think it makes a bit ethereal, but really it's just out of focus.

Cream of Tartar

The day after the Christmas party, commonly called 'Saturday', I had few missions. Mission number one was to procure baking and cooking ingredients, mission two was to clean up an apartment that had basically been empty all week before dinner guests arrived.

My first trip was to my local kitchen shop, where I had gotten a meat thermometer for Thanksgiving. Miracle of miracles, they had colored sugar. Not just colored sugar, but a big thing of festive colored sugar, a green/red combo. I was like, yesssss, and then I saw the price and was like, nooooooo! So £7 later, I had my snickerdoodle ready sugar imported from American. I also sniffed around for a 13"x9" baking dish, but they only had ones that were fancy and cost £20. I have my limits.

The next trip was a quest to big Sainsburys at Earl's Court/Gloucester Road. I figured it was my best chance for cream of tartar. We had a long shopping list, as we needed stuff for dinner as well as all my baking requirements. All items were miraculously found, from light bulbs and drain cleaner to thyme and toffee fudge ice cream topper, until only one item remained... the freaking cream of tartar. I had spent considerable amounts of time in the baking aisle, stocking up on flour and sugar, but had failed to see any. After gathering everything else I went back and kept looking, by this time a bit grumpy. Having failed to find the baking powder and bicarbonate of soda before, I figured if cream of tartar was there, they would all be together. In the second miracle of miracles of the day, I finally found it, on the top shelf above a case otherwise full of flour. They are tricky. So for £1.03, I have procurred a many years supply of cream of tarter.

I spent the afternoon making a double batch of snickerdoodles and cleaning. The holiday sugar supply worked out absolutely perfectly with the amount of snickerdoodles. And on Sunday I made raspberry bars and carmelitas in my new pan (oh, they had a pyrex at Sainsburys for £6 that I picked up). I also candied a few more pecans. Everything seemed to turn out okay, so I was very pleased! All thanks to my cream of tartar, of course.

The company party

My company Christmas party was on Friday night. It tactfully began at 7pm, when the work day ended at 5:30. So after work, those attending basically all spread out to a number of pubs either at Notting Hill or Gloucester Road. This went on for slightly over an hour before the masses headed towards the hotel.

After the coat check, there were 'welcoming' drinks outside the main room. So basically there were waiters walking around with trays carrying glasses of wine, orange juice, and beer. Then they had a meal with fancy table service (where if you went to pour yourself some more water, someone rushed up and poured it for you). I was a little sad as the starter was salmon, and I don't like salmon. The entree was turkey with gravy, carrots and brussel sprouts. And a sausage wrapped with bacon. It was alright. I ate it. Dessert was Christmas pudding, which I was excited to try because it kind of looked like chocolate. Alas, it's not chocolate. It's like, raisin. And I wasn't a fan. Perhaps it's an acquired taste. Or it just wasn't a very good example. Who knows. They also brought out some mince pies to go with the coffee. Again, raisin and rather unpleasant. Although I'm still intending to bring some back to stuff down the throats of others. Oh, and there was wine on the table for drinking.

Around this time there were speeches that I couldn't really hear. So I didn't really listen. I might also mention that whilst I spent the before party time with the other folks from development, I sat with Adrian's team at the meal. It was a bit crazy, but I feel like it can't hurt to talk to new people at those things. Anyways, after the speeches I made a run for the door. This is apparently the time of night that everyone a) starts paying for their own drinks and b) people 'let their hair down'. So basically, that's when all the stuff would have happened that I get to hear about tomorrow.

Umm. I don't really know what else to say about said party. Many people were going for what seemed to be the explicit purpose of getting quite trashed and dancing around with their coworkers. That seems a bit sad, really. Oh, and there were lots of little party hats on the table. See above photo. Speaking of which, I have added some additional photos to picasa! A bit random, but perhaps mildly interesting.

Hertford and the Failure of Whole Foods

Yesterday at lunch I went on yet another Whole Foods quest. I find I have come to rely on Whole Foods as a source of items with perhaps an American slant, which was my mission yesterday. As a key component of my plan to make festive snickerdoodles over the weekend, I needed colored sugar and cream of tartare. Having recalled seeing colored sugar there before, I figured it was a safe bet. But noooooo. They did have colored sugar, mind you, but it was £4 for a little tiny thing and they didn't have the right colors. They had a light green, orange, pink, and yellow. Not useful if you need kelly green and red! On top of that, the little dye kit was £16. There comes a point where you decide your snickerdoodles don't need to be festive and they can roll in normal cinnamon sugar.

For the second ingredient I wasn't sure if it fell under the category of a spice, like cinnamon, or if it lived with the baking ingredients, like baking powder. Luckily it's one and the same aisle at Whole Foods. Despite about ten minutes of searching, I was unsuccessful again. They have about 24 kinds of flour, 1000 types of salt, and 27 varieties of pepper, but no cream of tartare. Things are not looking bright on the festive snickerdoodle front. While I know they don't have colored sugar at my nearby Sainsburys Central (aka, 'small with no bakery or meat counter, but bigger than a convenience store), tomorrow I shall go on a quest towards the full-size Sainsburys at Gloucester Road. If I fail there, I can always up my other options with more readily available ingredients.

In other yesterday news, in the afternoon I got sent on a mission to get a 'contract of common ground' signed in Hertford, located in Hertfordshire (they are that clever, it's like Oklahoma City, Oklahoma). This involved taking the Central Line to Oxford Circus, then the Victoria line to Highbury & Islington, getting off and walking around really confused until I realised it indeed was not Finsbury Park, taking the Victoria line one station further to Finsbury Park, buying a ticket like a good non-fare evader, taking a short-haul overground train about 12 stops to Hertford North, walking in unpleasant freezing cold surroundings for about 15 minutes to the council, staying there for about 2 minutes and then doing the whole thing in reverse. It took 3 hours and 45 minutes. I got to the office 15 minutes after quiting time to drop off the contracts and pick up my newly acquired parchment paper and pecans so I wouldn't have to take them to the Christmas party tonight.

And in response to a comment made by someone generically calling themselves 'dad', public transport is the default mode for business trips around here. There are no staff vehicles available for use, and everyone take the tube and train to reach their destinations, perhaps with the occasional cab. Oh, and you can walk or take a bus. This is probably a combination of destinations lacking parking, people not being willing to drive, complicated road systems, the ability to do work while travelling by train, and the company being 'green'. I guess if we keep telling everyone else how to travel by sustainable modes we should practice what we preach, even if it does take ages to get places! Although with traffic around here I'm not sure how much a difference it would make!

The Nutcracker

Last night was Nutcracker night! I had my £8 partial view bench seat tickets to see the Royal Ballet before at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden. A good deal really.

For the pre-show meal, the concept of grab a quick sandwich had transformed into pizza, which then became a specific destination. Alas upon arrival they were full and with limited time before the show there wasn't much we could do! Luckily, about a block away I had spied a newly opened second branch of a restaurant I had really been wanting to go to that was located in Chelsea. The phonetically named Wahaca is seemingly making waves in London by bringing the people the concept of fresh 'market' style Mexican. They had good guac. I got a chicken burrito with some black beans on the side. Good stuff! We had gotten seated right away (arriving just after 6), but by the time we left at 7 there was a line up the stairs and to the door of people waiting for tables. I had grabbed a match book because I had managed to soak my only other matches in water, only to discover that the matchbooks contained seeds to grow your own jalapeno plant. Not so useful!!

The Opera House is located right in Covent Garden and has been recently fixed up. There's a lot of lobby space and a lot of different levels. Mark and I felt a bit of the people when we walked into the first open area and everyone was drinking champagne from the central champagne bar. Mark had some of the free ice water. I bought a program. Things got progressively less fancy the higher you got. I couldn't help but wonder how much some people paid for their tickets! Our seats were some lovely red velvet benches, quite frankly a little better than I expected for £8. The whole place was pretty much covered in red velvet, including the massive curtains with the 'EIIR' symbols on both of them and a giant royal crest at the top. The official patron of the Royal Ballet is listed as 'HM Queen Elizabeth'. Bizarre I tell you, bizarre.

The ballet itself was very good. It was a slightly different interpretation of the story than I'm used to, but of course all adaptations have their differences. The staging and performances were good. At the interval everyone ate ice cream, and at the end there were like a million and a half rounds of applause because people kept coming out and bowing! It got to be a bit ridiculous, really. Anyways, I thought it was very good and fine festive fun. Mark survived his first ballet and not only lived to tell about it, seemed to derive at least some enjoyment out of the affair. So that was cool as well!

The only downside was that it was really really cold when we left! I was slipping a bit crossing the street this morning on frozen road condensation. Such is life adjacent to the north pole!

Chelsea FC

I don't think I like living by a football stadium. Whenever there are Chelsea home games the trains are suddenly inundated with men wearing bright blue jerseys, all heading to or from Fulham Broadway. This past Saturday there was a home game at 3 (the kind folks at the Fulham Broadway tube station have a permanent sign up saying when the next home game is and who they are playing), which meant I had to wait for the second train before I was able to squeeze onto a train into town. Luckily it was getting close to game time and most people were probably there already and everyone gets off at the next stop so you are in the clear after that.

On Monday I was not pleased when I saw the sign saying that there was going to be another home game on Tuesday (yesterday) at 7:45 pm, basically in order to cause maximum disruption for all who live or work on the Wimbledon branch of the District Line. I was okay on the leg of my journey from Notting Hill Gate to Earls Court, where a mass was waiting and not everyone was able to squeeze on. I was heading towards the gym, which meant I had to get off at Fulham. Normally you just walk out of the tube, up some steps and up a couple escalators to get to the gym, without having to go outside. It's really quite nice. But not when there's a Chelsea game. The stadium is right next to the shopping centre, and to deal with the crowds for these games they shut the normal entrance/exit to the tube and open up these normally locked doors at the end of the platform. Instead of being shuffled into the nice warm mall you have to shuffle along with a massive crowd, some of which are singing, go outside, up some steps and end up in some random side street. I couldn't even figure out where the mall was right away. There are a number of restaurants in the mall, all of which had huge long lines (you normally never see lines, like, ever) to get tables before the game started. The little line guiding ropes were Chelsea blue.

I was hoping the gym wouldn't be very crowded because of the game, but it was. Alas. I met up with Turner post gym to head back to the green, but the game was still yet to start so we decided to go see the Golden Compass. Of course, as it turned out this just meant we were leaving at 10, when the game probably got out about 9:30. So again instead of being able to slip down the escalator and straight to the tube (yes, you can walk but it was below freezing so we didn't want to), we had to walk outside and down random side street to get to the tube. It was quite amusing going down to the 'westbound' platform that was practically empty and looking across to the 'eastbound' platform, where there was literally a solid wall of Chelsea fans about 10 deep waiting to cram onto trains. I took a picture. Normally I would fear photographing Chelsea fans in fear of attack, but there were two third rails separating us so I was feeling a bit bold. I guess they had the final laugh when 3 eastbound trains came before a westbound train, so they were all scooted off before me anyways! Oh, and by the time the train came they had also reopened the 'normal' entrance/exit and closed the giant doors. If only the movie was a few minutes longer!

The ballet tonight is the Royal Ballet performance at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden. I'm hoping it's the top notch London Nutcracker. Of course I hope it's not that great as I bought the tickets before my first paycheck and thus have really cheap limited view seats!

Christmas Shopping

I took yesterday off of work. It was exciting in many ways.

To start things off, I went to the gym in the morning time. I decided to see if I was humanly capable of swimming laps. Turns out it's a bit of a stretch. Don't ask me how you are supposed to go straight in there. Needless to say I didn't last long. Oh, and the steam room has a creepy fake color-changing rock and smells of insence. It's not a happy place.

I then went over to the South Bank to meet up with Mark for lunch. I had some goats cheese and spinach pizzettes or something like that and a side salad. To undo some of the healthy, I ate some of Mark's fries.

After this I went Christmas shopping. I spent some time in and around Covent Garden and even took a side trip over to Harrods. Whilst in Harrods I walked by a £31,000 marble bath tub. Like, um, yeah. When is that ever, ever going to be a good idea? I spent £3 on dog treats. Oh, and the cruel people there also have a little room where there were puppies running around. There were two Cavalier King Charles Spanials and they were indeed the cutest things ever. But again, who would buy a puppy from Harrods? Anyways, I accomplished a lot of shopping and in basically no crowds, so I'm quite pleased.

It's a bit sad being back at work, but probably for the best! This weekend will be a bit more laid back and homely, but before then I have Nutcracker tomorrow night and the omminous company Christmas party on Friday!

the weekend after dissertation....

so the dissertations are at the binding people and hopefully if nothing goes wrong the university will have our completed books on Wednesday....in celebration a weekend of fun was planned well not planned but left to go about in a natural way (not sure right now how to express that)

so on Friday i dragged Margo to a Australian bands gig in hammersmith just up the road called powerderfinger - one of my favorite bands. was good time met some of my undergrad friends there and had couple of drinks afterwards in a nice bar.

er Saturday was xmas shopping time for me after Margo cooked what can only be described as a legendary breakfast ...margo cooked cookies and nuts (not sure their name). The tube was very busy but for some reason Covent Garden was empty so got away with getting a seat while everyone else battled it out - you can definitely tell those who do it everyday and those who do not! in the evening we were suppose to go to Vinopolis a wine museum/tasting thing where you go to taste world wines only problem was that it was really busy i think because of the really bad weather so we went for nachos and newcastles in the pub next door. next stop was ice skating with my fam and some friends of my parents. they took ages getting to tower bridge so margo and i stopped off at German market and had bratwurst and mulled wine. it was good times. the ice skating was really good fun -Margo was definitely better than me apparently she had lessons when she was 8! it was outside the tower of London which is actually a really good part of town - i would say it looks very modern but with the old parts there too! i haven't really spent too much time there even though i work like a 10 minute walk from there! anyways it was a good time (well i thought so). afterwards we went to wagamamas which is this weird modern Japanese thing (chain) but we went to the one at Victoria which is all office etc so its completely dead at the weekends - really bizarre! but the food was good and the restaurant definitely didn't have a problem coping with the party size!

Sunday was lazy day and i realise no one will read this but ill carry on. we got the 2pm showing of American gangster which i thought was amazing but not sure about Margo. i thought it showed the signs of what taking drugs really means very well. also russel crowe is a very good actor and Washington needs no introductions! then we went to the elk bar in fulham and had cheap nachos though we partly went there because they advertised kronenbourg 1664 for like 1.50 but we found out that's for half pint bottles so we were like we'll get full pints for 3 quid anyways! nachos were good though not as good as the more expensive pub thing near London bridge. i get confused between London bridge and tower bridge not sure why!

er then we went to the German bar for a stein and now I'm like its work tomorrow but Margo's got a day off but meeting her for lunch at the slug and lettuce on the south bank which is something to look forward to on what otherwise is a day spent at work.

right think this is about as boring as one of these things can be...but the end of the dissertation was celebrated well. Margo's watching csi! sorry about the bad grammar!

p.s. There are pictures on Picasa! Lots and lots! They just don't have captions yet...

Edmonton Green

Yesterday I went where few Americans had gone before: a random private road into a small development in Edmondton Green, which is in zone 4 in north London outside the realm of the tube. You have to like, take an actual train to get there. Being the sucker that I am, I said I would go up there and count movements in and out of the development during peak hours. Peak hours being 7:30-9:30 am and 4:30-6:30 pm. I was assured there was overtime involved. I'm not that much of a chump.

So after getting up at 5:15am and getting precisely the second tube of the morning at 6:05 to Earl's Court, then another tube to Victoria, then one from Victoria to 'Seven Sister's', I went on a crappy train with some pink interior to Edmonton Green. Being that special combo of December and London, it was heavily misting when I first got there, then it stopped misting, and then it just started raining. You do not look cool trying to hold an umbrella with your chin trying to mark things on a clipboard and then having to chase after your umbrella when it blows away. The whole thing reminded me of every Jane Austen novel everywhere where people get wet and cold and get fevers and nearly die.

On the way back I had to mind the world's biggest gap to get on another one of these regular trains, and then due to my own confusion and lack of announcements or maps or signs anywhere, I got off one stop early. And then I realized this and the train pulled away. Thanks to the crappy weather apparently causing some signal problems I got to wait 30 minutes for another train. It was very unpleasant. I was really just cold and wet. Don't go to Edmonton Green.

In that afternoon I went back despite at one point swearing nothing could get me to go back there. It was a little better as there was no mist, but there was a lot of rain and wind to test my umbrella handling techniques. Some kids lit off a firework that kept me entertained for approximately 2 minutes, which was a definite highlight. I got home at 8pm.

So today is the Friday before a 3-day weekend. You gotta like that excessive leave allowance! We can't carry it over to the new year so need to use it up! I'm going to be festive and put up some lights and have some egg nog latte and go ice skating and such. This is made possible by the done-ness of my dissertation, which is, quite frankly, very anticlimatic.

Crazy English Christmas Time

Sometimes I think the English are more into Christmas than we are, and sometimes I think they are less. It probably just bottles down to a bit of a miscommunication guised by the combination of the English sense of humility combined with their quirkiness. Really they just don't do ostentatious. Let's go through the list.

Let's talk more of my adorable little Christmas tree. While it may not be visible to most passers by, it is there in the front room, and so far I have spotted two other trees on my street. This is not very many considering the number of abodes. There are no Christmas lights in any windows. Although this will change as soon as I get my £19 lights up in the window (which is dependent on me buying packing tape). I am hoping this will inspire neighbors to do the same. Perhaps in the suburbs people cover their houses in lights and have animatronic reindeer and such, but I have yet to see it. I wonder if there is a Peacock Lane type thing somewhere in London?

For a people so allegedly into their Cadbury and generally superior chocolates, there is not nearly as much of it at Christmas as you would expect. They have their Christmas pudding (still have no idea what it is, but it looks like cake) and their mince pies (not to be confused with actual mince meat, which is what they call ground beef). I think the mince pies might involve raisins or something, but no chocolate. Although I am willing to concede the yule log.

Perhaps it's because I haven't been to any malls recently, but I feel like I have no been inundated with repetitive Christmas tunes. This is probably a good thing.

I also sometimes think that their idea of Christmas is a little off. It seems more concentrated on this idea of a Thanksgiving feast than anything. We seem to have the right idea of putting aside eating as a separate holiday, thus allowing us to concentrate on presents and eating chocolate all day. Which in my mind is as it should be. Oh, and this year I shall be putting decorative items on Lizzie and Edgar and making important notes on their different reactions.

Don't even get me started on Boxing Day. As far as I can tell it's just a pause between Christmas and shopping.

Christmas Tree

That's right, two posts in one day. I'm trying to make amends.

The roomie and I had decided that Saturday was a good time to get a Christmas tree. See, if you're going to be away from the week of Christmas you want to maximize your tree enjoyment without looking silly. And December 1st didn't seem to be pushing it that much. Embarassed by even the thought of carrying a Christmas tree on the tube, we headed down to the Fulham Garden Centre down by Bishop's Park, a little less than a mile away. The place was crammed full of trees and some of the poshest people ever, where you were surprised they didn't send the help to get the tree. Anyways, after much debate we for some reason decided to get a little tree still in the pot. Now, I couldn't left it to save my life, but Mark said he could carry it. The potted thing was somewhat logical as it was only a few more pounds than a cut tree but the stands were ridiculously over-priced, so in the end it was cheaper. We purchased the tree, two 'nice' ornaments and a mini-poinsetta.

Because the tree was potted, there really wasn't a way for it to be easily carried by two people, so it really was a one-person affair. And that person clearly wasn't me. It required a lot of pausing and what I can only assume to be a lot of pain, but about 3 hours later the tree made it into the front room and was adorned with the two ornaments. Clearly this wasn't going to cut the mustard, so in lieu of working on dissertation in the afternoon we hopped on the tube to Wimbledon to go to a home improvement store.

Wimbledon was a bit crazy, but B and Q wasn't too crowded. We decided on a red and silver theme and got ornaments, some colored lights, a bead garland thing and a little tree-topper. To demonstrate Christmas spirit to the masses, we got the world's most expensive string of lights to put in the front window and a fake wreath to hang in the front window. Due to a lack of heavy-duty tape they have not yet been put up. Anyways, I spent a portion of my late afternoon/early evening decorating the little tree. Before long I decided it was the cutest little tree ever. A photo shall follow soon!

In other Saturday news, I have taken a giant step of commitment towards living in London by purchasing an annual travel card. For £928, I can now travel freely anywhere within zones 1 and 2 for the next 12 months. This extends beyond my lease even! I don't know why, but it's a slightly scary step. Now I need to submit some paperwork and should get reimbursed for the ticket at work, with equal interest-free installments taken out of my monthly paychecks (before tax). If I leave the company for whatever reason, the remaining balance will be taken out of the final paycheck. So now I have this hankering to go places on the tube at lunch. Just because I can. At no additional cost! And like tak the tube back from the gym when it's raining instead of the journey costing £1 (inter zone 2 trips are cheap). Freedom people, freedom!

The American Embassy

First off, I know I'm a horrible person for not updating blog for a week. There are no excuses. My bad.

Anyways, on Friday I took a venture to the American embassy. The day before Thanksgiving I had received a call from someone at the embassy telling me that my passport had been completed in October, they had tried sending it to my house and the Royal Mail apparently couldn't figure out where I lived so they had sent it back to the embassy. They then gave me the option of picking it up or sending them another envelope to try and mail it again. Giving my proven inability to go to the post office when needed and the inability of the Royal Mail to find where I live, I said I would go pick it up.

Like all of these places, they have obscure opening hours. My choices were 8:30 am - 11:00 am Monday through Friday, or 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Anything to keep you from being able to go on your lunch hour, really. I decided I would try and get there at 8:30 so I could arrive at work with minimal delay. Last Friday I got up early and left early to head to the embassy, but still didn't get there until about 8:40. Oh, it's in Mayfair, just to the east of Hyde Park, while my work is to the west of Hyde Park. It's 4 stops on the Central Line, and I was able to take the Piccadilly Line to get there and then walk about 15 minutes.

So first of all they were doing some construction work outside the embassy. Requiring 3/4 of the building to be surrounded by construction fencing, so I had to walk quite a ways once I found the building to even find the entrance. Then I went through the first check where I put my cell phone and USB port in a clear plastic bag and declared my intentions. If I had been a Brit there to get a visa I would have had to show them my paperwork about my appointment. I then proceeded through to wait in the American Citizen Services line to get through the metal detector. There were separate lines for the visa folk. There was initially a large delay as I can assume some required strip searching, but then things started to speed up a little. The American services line got called up slightly more frequently than the visa line (there was only one metal detector).

After leaving previously mentioned cell phone and USB port in the security office, I had to walk all around the outside of the building again to get to the American services entrance, where I had to go wait in the passport line. This took a bit longer than it should (but still not as long as the metal detector line!), dragged out slightly by the mid-western woman behind me who decided she wanted to chat the entire time. Finally I was able to pick up my passport, regaining my status as a legitimate human being. It was a very exciting time!

By this time it was around 9:40. Having skipped breakfast, I was pleased to discover a Starbucks on the way back to the tube. I figured heck, I was late anyways, what's 2 more minutes? My muffin was delicious. I got to work at 10. Alas. Perhaps there's no such thing as a 'quick' trip to the US embassy. Oh, I forgot to mention the building! It's on Grosvenor Square, which is a cute little open area in like the nicest area of central London, surrounded by cute Georgian, brick townhouses. Except the embassy. Which looked like it was built in the 1960s, was off-white stucco with yellow gold trimmings, and the world's largest gold eagle with spread wings on the top. And of course a giant American flag, but that's standard embassy issue. It's perhaps hard to describe, but the construction around it didn't help the blending in process.

Anyways, I now have a fully legitimate 10-year passport. It even has a microchip!