The combination of Christmas and moving into a completely empty new flat makes for rather busy times. However, it also means you have a legitimate excuse to go to a lot of after Christmas sales!
Perhaps I best back up a little. So Mark and I got the keys to our new place on December 19th, which was a Friday. The next day we went and got some paint, and got cracking on what we viewed as the vital personalization process. We painted the living room a yellowy beige, and the bedroom is a greeny blue. Or a bluey green, depending on which way you look at it. After then taking a week off for Christmas, we hit the sales down in Southampton (of all places) the day after Boxing Day. Mark's brother tagged along to provide valuable assistance! We went to John Lewis, sort of accidentally ended up buying a couch (with sofabed), a bed, two accent pillows for the new couch, a cute door stop, a coat rack, some scented candles and some tights. Well, the tights have nothing to do with the house situation. On Sunday we went to Homebase and managed to procur a table and chairs and attempted to purchase a coffee table and tv stand but the deals were so good they had run out, but we have our fingers crossed that more will become available! Oh, and we also got some wall art.
Yesterday I braved Oxford Street at lunch time and picked up some curtains for the living room. We have thus far been able to find curtains we like for the bedroom! But we have some old ones that we can use until we find ones we like. After a stop at the new place to lay out the new curtains and do some more measuring, we then placed an order for a washing machine and a fridge/freezer. The main items we still need are a dresser and some pendent lights to cover up our dangling (energy efficient!) light bulbs, that require special lights because they are so big and energy efficient that normal lamp shades are incompatible. I'm making a jaunt to Habitat on High St Kensington at lunch in a few minutes to see what I can find.
We haven't really done any moving yet, but the bed and couch are being delivered to Mark's parent's house on Friday and we're going down with a van on Saturday to pick up those and a few other items. We have the van from Friday night so we might try and do a bit of moving then as well. Moving on a Friday night, I know, we're so cool.
Anyways, that's pretty much where we are in the moving process! We will probably move once the new fridge gets delivered, which will hopefully be a week from this Saturday!
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Thursday, December 18, 2008
The Christmas Dinner
As I'm sure most (if not all) of you know, it's that time of year. Being a recent group transplant, this means two 'group' holiday dinners and one company Christmas party in 8 days. Now the development group dinner and the company party are on successive Fridays, which I personally find a bold scheduling move, but nobody seems to be complaining. And then squeezed in the middle on Tuesday there was my 'new' group dinner. Having been in the public sector in the US, I never was able to actually experience an American company party, but I did attend a few dinners involving the female types from my floor and some group lunches.
So here is a run down on what is involved in a group Christmas dinner: everyone leaves work and goes to the pub, have a pint or two and then continue towards dinner. The development dinner was a booked 'Christmas' meal at a soul food restaurant called Harlem. Such a 'Christmas' meal generally means you make your selections for a fixed price menu and there are poppers for everyone. This, as in the film 'About a Boy', results in everyone sitting around wearing a tissue paper crown for at least 15 minutes. My second group dinner was not a 'Christmas' meal and was at an Italian restaurant, so we were allowed to choose from the entire menu. It was a bit overwhelming.
Now, the real gusto behind these 'meals' seems to be to drink copious amounts of alcohol. At Tuesday's meal, between 24 people, estimates of the amount of wine consumed have reached 25 bottles. Sadly, I was limited to two glasses as my wine glass disappeared when I got up from the table after we had eaten. Alas, it was probably for the best, I was the first person in the office the next morning (at 9:30!). Both of these meals were followed up by dancing, both meals conveniently taking place at venues with dance floors and DJs. And of course the dancing was followed by people trying to figure out where to find a night bus (or if you're me, you leave when the trains are still running).
Now tomorrow is the company party. It really is along the same lines, with trip to the pub followed by dinner and dancing. Only as there are so many folks, we have a conference facility booked at a nearby hotel. And by nearby, I mean nearby. It's at the end Paddington Hilton at the end of our street. We secretly think they want to people to work as late as possible, as the party doesn't start until 6:30!
Additional notes: people all go to these events by themselves. Outsiders don't dine, but a few might drift in afterwards. The company contributes towards the cost of group dinners (apparently £12 per head), and higher ups usually pay considerable amounts out of their own pockets. The development dinner cost me £10 and the other one cost me £12. The holiday party is free, but they limit the amount of alcohol and then start charging for it after dinner is over!
For your enjoyment, and in what I have come to believe to be in the fine English spirit of making yourself look silly as often as possible at this time of year, I have included a picture of myself dancing with a train taken at Tuesday's dinner. And as a note - everyone had to dance with the train at some point! Oh, and yes, I got some salad dressing on my skirt.
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Euro-toilet
First of all, my apologies for neglecting blog. It's the busy holiday season, something clearly had to give. And next I feel obliged to apologize for returning to do a blog entry on toilets, which is not only not the cleanest of topics, but one I've touched on before.
Here is a recap of what I've previously covered: the lack of toilet seat covers in UK toilets (where, to the best of my knowledge, there are no outbreaks of 'bum on toilet' disease or whatever might happen if you don't use a toilet seat cover) and the general preference for hand dryers over paper towels (although my work place has paper towels).
Okay, now my next discovery: stall differences.
The difference in general stall design didn't really hit me until I was using the bathroom off the casino at the Paris in Las Vegas. And I'm not sure if this made sense, but I'll give it a whirl and then come back to the bathroom at the Paris.
A typical large restroom will, as per in the US, feature a number of stalls. In the US, the stalls are somewhat 'open', that is to say that there is a good foot tall gap between the bottom of the stall door and walls and the tops of the stalls often linger at about 6 feet off the ground (perhaps it's higher in men's rooms to account for the differences in heights?). Efforts have been made to move bag hooks away from the middle of the stall door to combat the easy theft of reaching over a stall door and grabbing a bag while the owner is in no position to come running after them. So sometimes you find hooks on the sides, or those little levered shelves that I can never actually get my bag to stay on.
Now the anglo stall. Stalls tend to be actual rooms, with walls extending from floor to ceiling and doors that do the same. As a result, bag hooks have remained on the back of the door and thieves are at a loss.
So what was so odd about the Paris Las Vegas bathroom stalls? Well, I walked in, saw a wall with a row of stall doors and thought, ooh, how Euro of them. So I step into a stall, and what do I see? Behind the facade there was just a long row of typical American stall walls, barely clearing my head. Although I must admit that I did not make a mental note of where the bag hooks were located...
Here is a recap of what I've previously covered: the lack of toilet seat covers in UK toilets (where, to the best of my knowledge, there are no outbreaks of 'bum on toilet' disease or whatever might happen if you don't use a toilet seat cover) and the general preference for hand dryers over paper towels (although my work place has paper towels).
Okay, now my next discovery: stall differences.
The difference in general stall design didn't really hit me until I was using the bathroom off the casino at the Paris in Las Vegas. And I'm not sure if this made sense, but I'll give it a whirl and then come back to the bathroom at the Paris.
A typical large restroom will, as per in the US, feature a number of stalls. In the US, the stalls are somewhat 'open', that is to say that there is a good foot tall gap between the bottom of the stall door and walls and the tops of the stalls often linger at about 6 feet off the ground (perhaps it's higher in men's rooms to account for the differences in heights?). Efforts have been made to move bag hooks away from the middle of the stall door to combat the easy theft of reaching over a stall door and grabbing a bag while the owner is in no position to come running after them. So sometimes you find hooks on the sides, or those little levered shelves that I can never actually get my bag to stay on.
Now the anglo stall. Stalls tend to be actual rooms, with walls extending from floor to ceiling and doors that do the same. As a result, bag hooks have remained on the back of the door and thieves are at a loss.
So what was so odd about the Paris Las Vegas bathroom stalls? Well, I walked in, saw a wall with a row of stall doors and thought, ooh, how Euro of them. So I step into a stall, and what do I see? Behind the facade there was just a long row of typical American stall walls, barely clearing my head. Although I must admit that I did not make a mental note of where the bag hooks were located...
Tuesday, December 09, 2008
Back from Vacation
After two work-free weeks, I'm back at Paddington today. And might I add, there are very few people in my area to eat all the candy I hauled back across the pond! Anyways, instead of going over the entire trip, I'm going to do a brief summary of my time in Vegas by providing you with my top 5 Vegas Experiences of Randomness.
5. National Finals Rodeo
Mark and I realized that something was a bit funny when upon landing in Las Vegas last Wednesday, we were suddenly joined by a random mob with a heavy cowboy concentration on the tram to the main terminal. We just assumed it was a flight just in from Texas. Then at baggage claim we were right across from a fresh arrival from Bismark. This proved to be an extremely entertaining site. And I learned that North Dakota cowboys prefer black cowboy hats.
The cowboy phenomenon continued at the hotel, where we ended up in a big check-in line behind a very large number of, yes, cowboys. It was seemingly around this time that we learned that the National Finals Rodeo (sponsored by Wrangler, of course) were in town, and would be for the next few days. Fun times for everyone! And of course, that meant we got to watch some enjoyable rodeo action on TVs in the bars in the evening time.
4. The Deuce
There is a double decker bus that runs up and down the strip and also to downtown. It's called 'The Deuce' but is essentially a city bus. It's reasonable priced ($2 for a single trip, $5 for a 24-hour pass), and comes regularly. However, it's in many ways the slow boat to China. During peak times it spends longer at the stops with people loading and unloading, then crawls along in gridlock conditions. If you have time on your hands, it's probably the best way to get around. We took three trips on The Deuce in a 24-hour period, going from the MGM Grand to Treasure Island (well, it stops at the Venetian going that way), then from the Venetian to Fremont Street and back.
3. Fremont Street
It's safe to say that downtown Vegas is a very different place than the strip. Well, not so different in the scope of things. Both are lined with casinos and glittering lights and have hoards of tourists walking up and down. But different in more subtle ways. For example, the restaurants weren't owned by celebrity chefs. We dined at Tony Roma's. There was a 40-minute wait. And whilst I didn't think it was humanly possible, there's an even higher density of cowboys down there. During the Fremont Street Experience (Queen-themed) light show, I had to resist the urge to take a picture of 3 cowboys lined up in a row, heads tilted extra far back (those hats block some of the view) all with really really big cigarettes in their mouths. It was something. Oh, and it's rather seedy.
2. Free entry!
One of the benefits of being in Vegas on a non-weekend night is that there are no waits anywhere and places offer plenty of deals to get you to come on in. Because we were on vacation, and had obliged the Kahunaville bar with their buy-one-get-one-free cocktail offer 3 times (before watching their flair bartenders show, very impressive!), Mark and I decided we might as well go to the Christian Audigier nightclub after getting vouchers for free entry. It was an interesting experience. We left before midnight, so things quite possibly picked up a bit later, but it was small, you had to pay a lot extra if you wanted to use a table and have a scantily clad woman be your waitress, and you couldn't go out the door you came in. I feel like it must not be cool to have people visibly leaving your club. Mark and I dazzled everyone with our amazing dance moves.
1. Free show!
Our first night in Vegas, we were leaving a bar in the Venetian right outside the Blue Man Group theater. Before we could get 50 feet we were greeted by some hurried Japanese tourists who gave us two tickets to the show starting that very minute. So not wanting to hurt their feelings, we turned around and went in. We would never have actually picked to go to the show, so we didn't really have high expectations. Let's just say there was some cool musical stuff mixed in with some random not funny comedic skits (no talking!). It was a 10 pm show, and having been up since 5:30 in the morning, we both sort of drifted off to sleep intermittently. But a free show still ain't bad! We made plans to start hanging out outside the 'O' theater at the Bellagio but I think we must have forgotten!
5. National Finals Rodeo
Mark and I realized that something was a bit funny when upon landing in Las Vegas last Wednesday, we were suddenly joined by a random mob with a heavy cowboy concentration on the tram to the main terminal. We just assumed it was a flight just in from Texas. Then at baggage claim we were right across from a fresh arrival from Bismark. This proved to be an extremely entertaining site. And I learned that North Dakota cowboys prefer black cowboy hats.
The cowboy phenomenon continued at the hotel, where we ended up in a big check-in line behind a very large number of, yes, cowboys. It was seemingly around this time that we learned that the National Finals Rodeo (sponsored by Wrangler, of course) were in town, and would be for the next few days. Fun times for everyone! And of course, that meant we got to watch some enjoyable rodeo action on TVs in the bars in the evening time.
4. The Deuce
There is a double decker bus that runs up and down the strip and also to downtown. It's called 'The Deuce' but is essentially a city bus. It's reasonable priced ($2 for a single trip, $5 for a 24-hour pass), and comes regularly. However, it's in many ways the slow boat to China. During peak times it spends longer at the stops with people loading and unloading, then crawls along in gridlock conditions. If you have time on your hands, it's probably the best way to get around. We took three trips on The Deuce in a 24-hour period, going from the MGM Grand to Treasure Island (well, it stops at the Venetian going that way), then from the Venetian to Fremont Street and back.
3. Fremont Street
It's safe to say that downtown Vegas is a very different place than the strip. Well, not so different in the scope of things. Both are lined with casinos and glittering lights and have hoards of tourists walking up and down. But different in more subtle ways. For example, the restaurants weren't owned by celebrity chefs. We dined at Tony Roma's. There was a 40-minute wait. And whilst I didn't think it was humanly possible, there's an even higher density of cowboys down there. During the Fremont Street Experience (Queen-themed) light show, I had to resist the urge to take a picture of 3 cowboys lined up in a row, heads tilted extra far back (those hats block some of the view) all with really really big cigarettes in their mouths. It was something. Oh, and it's rather seedy.
2. Free entry!
One of the benefits of being in Vegas on a non-weekend night is that there are no waits anywhere and places offer plenty of deals to get you to come on in. Because we were on vacation, and had obliged the Kahunaville bar with their buy-one-get-one-free cocktail offer 3 times (before watching their flair bartenders show, very impressive!), Mark and I decided we might as well go to the Christian Audigier nightclub after getting vouchers for free entry. It was an interesting experience. We left before midnight, so things quite possibly picked up a bit later, but it was small, you had to pay a lot extra if you wanted to use a table and have a scantily clad woman be your waitress, and you couldn't go out the door you came in. I feel like it must not be cool to have people visibly leaving your club. Mark and I dazzled everyone with our amazing dance moves.
1. Free show!
Our first night in Vegas, we were leaving a bar in the Venetian right outside the Blue Man Group theater. Before we could get 50 feet we were greeted by some hurried Japanese tourists who gave us two tickets to the show starting that very minute. So not wanting to hurt their feelings, we turned around and went in. We would never have actually picked to go to the show, so we didn't really have high expectations. Let's just say there was some cool musical stuff mixed in with some random not funny comedic skits (no talking!). It was a 10 pm show, and having been up since 5:30 in the morning, we both sort of drifted off to sleep intermittently. But a free show still ain't bad! We made plans to start hanging out outside the 'O' theater at the Bellagio but I think we must have forgotten!
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