Bloody Anti-Clockwise

10/13 - Dirty mind???

2009-10-14T23:52:00.004+01:00

Ok, you tell me if it is only me or if someone else see what I see here.

First of all, Swedes DO have a reputation of "acting out/being free" when it comes to sex and alcohol. So when a Swedish fitness group post an ad in the Swedish Church (!) in London... you might want to select your words a bit more carefully.

"Sweat and smile, Swedish style"

"A unique style of exercise - we call it 'Swedercise'."

"Free trial, and why not bring a friend"

I would say, "is Swedish massage" included here too?"

I mean, not that either Victoria Silvstedt or that Anka wife have helped the reputation of the Swedes, but this, in the church?.... hmm.....

I'm not sure if I'm gonna go to this "Sweat and smile, Swedish style"... I think I'm gonna have a hard time to find a friend to bring. A girl friend that is, cause I have already had quite a few male friends volunteering to come. :)

"Sweat and smile, Swedish style"

10/12 - Celebrating Canadian Thanksgiving in UK

2009-10-14T23:12:00.008+01:00

Oh no, the location is not gonna stop me. Thanksgiving is time for family, friends and good food.

Well, I have one family member here...

DECORATION!

So, you need to bring the thanksgiving spirit into the shoebox. Since it is tiny, you don't need much. Ok, so some leafs and some candles, that would do.

Finding pretty leafs was a challenge. Apparently, they nicely hang green (for green leaf trees) or red (for red leaf trees), then they fall down and are dead rotten, ugly brown from the second they touch the ground. So, what do you do... you need to find an old tree and PICK the leafs from the tree. And where do you find the trees? Well, at the cemetery. :)

Oh, I also have to add that not everything is dead at the cemetery... there were TONS of tiny little bugs that were fully alive and kicking with my leafs..... And they were then all over the little shoe box... You see, even though the decoration was placed on the other side of the room, it only took them about 30 minutes to crawl over and climb up on my leg while I was eating!!

The decoration...

TURKEY!

If I would have found a turkey, the goddamn bird would not have fit into the combined microwave/grill anyways... so what the heck... a bird is only a bird so why can't we have chicken.

Healthy as always... (?) i selected a few file's without the skin.

GRAVY!

Gravy... yeah, some "brown sauce" that I put together.

MASHED POTATOES!

Sure... after boiling them I realized I had nothing but a normal fork to make them mashed... Thank god I have a nasty and short temper... with my anger I had those potatoes mashed in minutes!! Shopped garlic and put some herbs in there too and it tasted the same in the end.

VEGETABLES!

Of course, gosh, too much protein would kill me. I tossed in some carrots, broccoli etc. to flavor the bird and the bird flavored them. So it was a win-win for me. It tasted bird but was healthy as rabbit food.

Thanksgiving dinner in UK

DESSERT!

Of course we had to have something unhealthy and still Canadian...

If you want to find something unhealthy in UK, you have come to the right place. So that was easy. Waffles and ice cream. Then something Canadian... well, maple syrup from the "Canada Shop"! Yummy, yummy in my tummy!!

Thanksgiving dessert

TO BE THANKFUL!

So, with decoration and dinner completed, now comes the part when you say what you are thankful for. Well, that we all are healthy of course... then there was silence.... cause honestly, this is gonna be a "dog year"... and we are not very thankful for it... but what the heck, at least the food and the drinks were good!

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The positive thought for today:

I would have to give the "thumps up" for enjoying some Swedish snacks that I found in the Swedish store.

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10/11 - What you find in a grocery store in UK

2009-10-11T00:08:00.001+01:00

FAST FOOD

And as everything has to be "ready made" to become as fat as possible in as short time as possible... I guess, why not squeeze in an egg in the ham, so you don't have to waste time and energy when you make your triangle sandwich?!

Egg-Ham slice

SOCCER

Just in case you urgently became a fan you find this in a grocery store....

Soccer crap

10/8 - Signing for living on top of a strip club

2009-10-09T00:36:00.005+01:00

Sining for living on top of a strip club.

Yes, that is the case... The apartment is RIGHT on top of a strip club. You can actually pull out a fire latter and clime down the living room window and end up at the door step at the club.

NO, I won't post any pictures of the club, if you think you can climb up through the window. :)

Picture of the kitchen... where the real stuff happens - Gourmet food! :)

Regardless, feels good to have an address to tell the moving company and the customs when they try to get thorough all our California "stuff".... :) You know.. I'm sure a a house hold from San Francisco have to go through some special clarification before entering a royal country... :)

New family member - Mr. Sylvester

Well, Mr. Tiger can't be the only furry friend in bed, so please let me introduce Mr. Sylvester.

He had a nice welcoming to the "shoe box" and got to stay up late to watch the amazing movie " The Sweetest Thing" with Cameron Diaz, Christina Applegate and Selma Blair....

Well, I gotta say... I think Mr. Sylvester was a chocked as we were....

Being born in a scandinavian country, you certainly have some reputation around the world.... (And no, Victoria Silvstedt did NOT help out at all...) but I gotta say... even this movie was a bit out of my taste... at least while I was eating... Being "dirty" is one thing... but you can at least do it with class!

Mr. Sylvester chocked to his new family culture

(No he is suppose to be laying down, he fell on his back watching the movie...)

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The positive thought for today:

I would have to give the "thumps up" for singing for a place, not the best one... but at least an address for a year!

And for all my guy friends who all of the sudden find time to come and visit me... :)

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10/6 -How come the food taste like nothing and the chips taste like real food?

2009-10-07T22:23:00.009+01:00

Don't eat at Tootsies in Reading!

So, I have a question again,

How come the real food here taste like NOTHING! Today, I had a salad, so first of all the salad contained following: green salad leafs, broccoli and slices of beet. With that, I got a huge amount of guacamole, and "ranch dressing".

Now what is wrong with this picture?

A. Well, I don't mind cold boiled broccoli, but perhaps a slice of pepper or at least an onion to bring some flavor to the mix of tasteless broccoli and salad leafs.

B. And then guacamole? What on earth in this plate of salad goes with guacamole? And could they add something more green to the plate.

C. The so called "ranch dressing" was NOT a ranch dressing. It was way to watery and tasted sour!!!

No, I did not take a picture of this salad, I think you can imagine it in your head, I was GREEN!!!!

Oh, did I mentioned that the wine was not the best either. :)

A frog on wheels

So, after the "delightful" dinner we headed back to the parking garage to get our car. On the way to our car I spotted this "car"... or honestly, I don't know what to call it...

Not that the disgusting glass of wine I had withe the shitty salad had helped me laugh... I would have laughed anyway. And on top of that, this TINY little "frog on wheels" could not even be parked into the parking spot. To make the car look even more like a frog... it was also green. :)

The frog-car

Can you be more retarded?

So, outside of a large grocery store, we found this car. Sure, the person could be handicapped, but most like there are more problems with this persons brain than the rest of the body...

Not only were the lights on but he/she could not even part straight.... I mean, I truly suck at parking, and I'm a woman (yes, yes, most women can't park and if you don't agree, prove me wrong...) but this is just ridicules.

Retarded parking

A shrimps is a shrimp, a ham is ham... and they should not be flavors in chips!

So, now to the big question of the day?

How come, the food in UK don't taste ANYTHING, but then the snacks/chips taste like real food?

I have tried out several restaurants (and after 2 years in the country in the early 2000, I know by now)..... British food don't taste anything at all!

BUT, now you listen.... we all know the brits LOVE to snack on their individually wrapped bags of chips, which ACTUALLY taste like real food? How is that? Who makes these chips?? Are they imported, can they import food from this company too? Is there some one here in UK, can they hire him to train chefs at the restaurants?

The sad thing is.... the chips does taste good with the "real food flavor".... but c'mon... if I really wanted smoked ham, or shrimps, I rather eat smoked ham as a piece of ham, or shrimps in their own shape and texture... and not as fried chips....

So, all and all, sure, they taste good.... but shrimps are not suppose to sound and feel crunchy....

Taste better than dinner!

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The positive thought for today:

I would have to give the "thumps up" for the food flavored chips. At least they tried. :)

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10/4 - Totally overplayed music on UK radio!

2009-10-04T21:39:00.016+01:00

David Guetta Feat Akon - Sexy Bitch:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBH85xp9bvo

The Ian Carey Project - Get Shaky:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUa15Mly3_s

Jade Ewen - My Man:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UU4WVA9tSs

Medina - You and I:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzXFppZCDSg

Taio Cruz - Break Your Heart:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOg_IHwXWsk

La Roux - Bulletproof:

h ttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l40bQFqJX6I

Sean Kingston- Fire Burning On The Dance Floor:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rvrRx-3eUE

Jason Derulo - Whatcha Say:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xj_uqorUYKI

Cheryl Cole - Fight For This Love:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMiy_UsrPDs

Jay Sean - Down: Closed-Captioned:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m34xyw8E-Qs

Madonna - Celebration:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbwUroDaP3c

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The positive thought for today:
I would have to give the "thumps up" for the Madonna song. It is great and I she is a brilliant artist!

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10/4 - Trying to find things I need and want.....

2009-10-04T20:09:00.008+01:00

A day in Windsor... Felt good to see people that care about what they wear... compared to Reading... Tons of tourists too which I actually don't mind at all, makes you feel "part of the crowd"... :)

The castle

Windsor

A local florist in Windsor (thank God they don't have earthquakes in this country... this house would not last a second..)

Finding good food in Windsor

You do get hungry by walking around in Windsor, so we decided to stop at a tapas place. It looked kinda nice, not fancy nice, but cool. You could tell they put some effort into the design and comfort, so you would think that they would do the same about the food. But then when we got the food we remembered... we were in UK. Not even the poor Indians have been able to spice up these Brits, even after 50 years of trying... It tasted NOTHING. Now you would think, when you order a paella, even these soggy little devil beans would taste at least something that it has been mixed with, but you are wrong. They don't even taste the water they have been boiled in.

You would also think that when you order something called spicy, it would at least taste a bit more... but then you are wrong again... it tasted only the fatty oil they were swimming in...

The beans the tasted nothing!

The "spicy" sausage, that tasted nothing but oil.

Again, I'm really trying to stay positive, so I took a picture of something that I did like at the restaurant. I found it in the ceiling, it was a heater. It was bright light, it was warm and it was the opposite of everything else that I could find!

The light and warm moment of the day

Finding a gym in Windsor

Part of the mission today was to find a gym in Windsor. We went to 2 places. The first one was a local little club called "The Windsor Club". Now if you think that sounds charming, think again.... it was a tiny little crappy place where the bar in the gym (yes, do I need to remind you we are in UK, of course they have a bar at the gym!!) was bigger than the weight training "corner". And the honestly had more different types of alcohol, beer on draft than I could find equipment that I could work out with... Oh, do I need to say that the places smelled like a British bar too, yes.... alcohol and sweat!

The second place is called Windsor Leisure Centre. It also stank badly, but it was not only from sweat.... you see, in the WHOLE gym AND swimming area (where it was really hot and very humid) they had a full thick and soft carpet. No, I'm not "pulling your leg". It was a baby blue carpet that I'm sure other people in UK also have in their living room. However, they did NOT have a bar full of alcohol and they did have quite a lot of equipment, including a indoor soccer hall.

Ok, so now over to the next shock with this place... the board on the wall that lists the personal trainers.... Ok, seriously, I'm not super fit, but I would like to be. So, you enter a gym and you look for a personal trainer.... do you want some one to inspire you, some one that you can take the advise from seriously, some one that might even look a bit like you would like to look like, well in that case... Fire ALL people on that board. 90% of the trainers were seriously FAT and the rest 10% were bony... not skinny/slim... no... they look like they had NO muscle at all.... I must admit, I think I had more muscles on my arms than the skinny people on that board. So, back to the fat asses... The women... I could not tell what level on the front side of their body that was boobs or bellies.... (yes, they had several)... and you know who also had boobs? THE MEN!! But then it is of course called "bitch tits". Now tell me... to get pushed around at a gym, take exercise advice and nutrition guidance from people that are not chubby, but FAT... How is that going to inspire me to work harder? How will I be able to think that what they say actually is going to help me?

And if that is the way they look, why are they working as a personal trainer? They must only do it for the money... cause they can't seriously want to help others if they can't manage to help them selves!?

I mean, who wold go to a dentist that has horrible teeth?

Finding a real estate agency in Windsor, on a Sunday....

In Windsor, we were trying to meet up with a real estate agency, but of course, they are closed on a Sunday. How silly of us to think a real estate agency would be opened on a day when families and most people are not working so the can view new homes.... Duh....

Anyway, the selected agency, that actually had a few nice apartment on their website did have a window with some apartments in too. For once, something in UK is a bit high-tech and they actually had a monitor with looping homes for sale and rent. Although... this is what is said on the monitor: "A truly professional Estate Agency Practice" perhaps you can't see it cause the professional agency has not updated and installed the LogMeIn version that they apparently downloaded...

The "truly professional Estate Agency Practice" that was so professional that we could not see the offerings...

Finding a car (?) on our way to Windsor

On our way to Windsor I spotted this car... don't ask me how the hell this door ended up back there, but it looks ridicules!!!

Silly looking "car"

Finding food in Reading that won't kill ya'

Back in the nice town Reading P' needed to eat dinner. As all grocery stores (except the emergency stores around the corner) close around 4pm here on Sundays, we hit the Chinese takeaway on our street. Ok, first of all, the names on the menu kinda kicked my stomach content around a bit, and then I saw the fish tank and what the water in there looked like, and all of the sudden I was not hungry any more. I thought, if that is how they treat something alive... how will they treat the dead animals that people eat... Nah, not for me thank you. P order something from the menu and while waiting for his food he reads on a "diploma" on the wall. The diploma is from some type of food health inspection organization... and on the diploma it states that this restaurant has earn "Level 2"..... I mean, why even bother to put up that diploma, why even have it framed? Why not just toss it in the fish tank?

P kinda lost his appetite too, but decided to try out the food anyway.

Back at the shoebox he got a bit nervous about getting sick from the food, so he did what I use to do to avoid getting sick: drink alcohol. Now, you don't want to waste that nice 16 year old Lagavulin unless you truly feel like enjoying it... and we did not have any Jameson in the shoebox at this time... so he cracked open one of the vodka bottles. You can absolutely trust an absolute! :)

And no, the fortune cookie did not give any message that would indicate that this year would get by any faster or better... not even when you ad "in bed" after the message, as a dear friend of mine taught me. :)

Food and stomach medicine at the same time - very classy...

Finding something I liked

Yes, trying to stay positive, I actually did see something I liked today, no, not the god damn car you silly.... I meant the dog!!!

Cute dog!

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The positive thought for today:

I would have to give the "thumps up" for cute dog. No doubts there!

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10/3 - You have got a huge mouse, London at day and night....

2009-10-03T20:43:00.012+01:00

Wow, you've got a huge mouse...

A day at P's office where I had to wait for about 1 hours so a document could be scanned...

During this time, I found what normally is called a "computer mouse"... but I think it should be called "computer rat" in this case.

"Computer mouse(rat)"

Scandinavian art

Killing time in the office I decided to draw something on the white board.... I can paint, but not draw... so I did the only thing I could. What a lovely surprise for P's colleagues on Monday morning. :)

"Cat from behind"

A good reason to sleep at home...

On our way to the office, now the time is about 1:30pm, we see a man walking in flip-flops and wrapped in a blanket. The question was... was he kicked out? Was he running from someones angry husband or was he simply just dressed like that?

"Man wrapped in blanket"

I find no words...

We also drove by a Hand Car Wash... Hi, hi, hi... it has got to be the most empty and smallest one I have seen. :)

"Hand Car Wash"

And this is so stupid I really don't know what to think...

So, can anyone please explain this for me....

Why do you need a roundabout, when you can only exit at one place, to the left? Why not just turn the god damn road to the left??

Roundabout.....

A little bit of heaven on earth!

A day down town London. THANK GOD I found a Canadian store and a pub. And, they served Poutine!!!

The Maple Leaf Bar

The Maple Leaf Bar menu where they have POUTINE!!

Wear this, not that

I also manager to figure out what is hot in London right now... since more or less EVERYBODY was wearing leggings and flat shoes!!

Trendy chicks in London

Safest place in town!
Perhaps they were on their way to this place in Soho...?

A friend of mine once said, most cities look nice at night. :)

Bye, bye down town London... We are heading back to the shoe box in Reading...

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The positive thought for today:

I would have to give the "thumps up" for the finding a piece of Canada in UK... :)

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10/1 - A cereal winner, hump warnings and polar bear named Mr. Tiger

2009-10-03T01:56:00.008+01:00

I love my hockey team and my Mac!

Slow day... not our fault though... we had to watch the first NHL game of the season... Montreal - Toronto... exciting and good. 3-2. What an amazing night... yes, it had to be night because we are in LONDON!!! Anyhow, the game was over around 3am... but I was too excited to sleep and I think I had a quick look at the clock around 4:15 before I passed out. Which is by the way 1 hour and 45 minutes earlier than yesterday. Marvelous!! :)

My lovely Mac is acting live TV

Ikea, I just can't get enough...

The adventure of today was to go back to Ikea and get some more hangers and to visit an organic store in Ealing. At Ikea we ran into another Swedish guy, not very social but on the other hand, I had no other expectations so we only said hi. By the way, what kinda of person are you to wear a black t-shirt with the big print of the 3 golden crowns and the text SVERIGE, when you g to Ikea... Do you think you will get discount?
We had a delicious "fika" where P enjoyed a soggy shrimps sandwich and I had some chocolate mousse, that I did not even finish... so no need to explain what it tasted like... for those of you who know me... you know it must have been bad if I don't finish the chocolate... I even stole dog chocolate from our dogs when I was a child...

Oh yeah, we have a winner!

At the organic grocery store in Ealing we FINALLY found the right brand of the cereal that I use to eat home in Montreal. Thank God!! I have tried a few other before I found this one!

The winner is the box to the far left!

A quick trip outside of the house where we use to live in Ealing.

Also, warning sign for some humping.....

A normal McDonald's building...

Oh Mr. Tiger, will you sleep in my bed tonight?

I also found a store that for some reason hand tons of Norwegian stuff, everything from necessary things, to spices and crap. Among all things I spotted a soft polar bear. The very nice men at the moving company back in Cali packed ALL my soft toys. When I was offered to open the box to pick out one, I couldn't... cause how could I chose 1 or 2... how would the others feel when they knew that they were not the "special" ones...
Well, this one was for some reason an "Irish Polar Bear" named Tiger... can it be more complicated? Yes it can, causes the polar bear had a scarf!?! As if a polar bear would be cold???
At the Italian restaurant where we dined, I took my knife and sliced up the stitches for the scarf to set the poor polar bear free. He is no longer Irish and he does no longer use a scarf. But it is bad luck to rename an animal, so I still call him Tiger. :)

Mr. Tiger

Dear Horny Kathy... shape it up now....

On the long way home from Ealing to Reading, P wanted to rent some movies. As the Internet is soooooo fast (NOT) in the "Silicon Valley" of UK, we have to actually go to a physical movie store and rent a physical movie. Gosh, I did not even knew they had any these days. But according to google.co.uk there should be a Blockbusters in Reading... after 20 minutes of driving, with the help of the lovely HeytchKay (HK= Horny Kathy) (our GPS!) we ended up at a crematorium!

Miss HK (Horny Kathy)

No movie tonight... but that was fine with me... I was not really looking forward to watch Hugh Hefner's movie "Miss November" anyways...

2morrow can be a good day...

Time for the exercises at home, just some simple push-ups to try to stay in shape as I apparently have a "snack need" that I kindly got pointed out to me today....
Not that I will be any better tomorrow, as I spent 1 hour on internet googling US and Canadian grocery stores in London... YUMMY!!!! My godness, they seems to have so many good things there that I have missed, just after 1 week. The best of all, they had Tim Horton's Hot Chocolate and Montreal Steak Spice! Can't wait for a another lovely day in UK to start.
Goodnight!!

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The positive thought for today:

I would have to give the "thumps up" for the awesome hockey game!!! Thank you Habs!!

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10/1 - When you think you have seen it all, there is more....

2009-10-01T23:16:00.008+01:00

Nothing is ever free!

Soo SMART!!! Add the Ikea catalogue for FREE, along with an interior magazine.

As if the Ikea catalogue normally cost anything???

Ikea catalogue for FREE!

Fish, fish, fish....

A picture of a very nice takeaway place just around the corner... Of course they server fish sticks and french fries... ops... sorry, I meant "Fish and Chips".

The name of the place sounds soooo delicious that I have to force myself not to run in and order a delicious meal of fish, wrapped in a newspaper... Mmmm...

But tell me, isn't there a picture of a hot chicken on the professionally designed building sign?

But perhaps it does not matter at a place like this... I'm sure it taste like fish anyway. Deep fried with vinegar.... Mmmm...

Yummy takeaway place in Reading.

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The positive thought for today:

I would have to give the "thumps up" for.... I don't know... for having a good laugh at the stupid things I saw today?! :)

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10/1 - Blinded of fat cowes, white bread and sick of jet lag

2009-10-01T23:15:00.006+01:00

Aaaaaa..... day is night - night is day....

It is going in the wrong direction... my jet lag...

Thought I was good to go to bed at 11pm.. but woke up at 1am... browsed the net...

Visited all news sites, checked out the most popular movies in YouTube, stayed updated of what everybody was doing and how they were feeling on their Facebook staus, read all the latest Tweets and chatted with some colleagues from the US office...

Man... I get tired of being tired...

Forced myself to bed at 6am and forced myself out of bed at 12:30pm...

Gosh, I honestly don't know what day it is unless I check on my computer...

The cereal competition

Went through the exercises of the day and then took a walk "down town"... :)

Have been trying to find healthy cereal without nuts in it... how hard can it be!?

I found the brand that I use to have at home, but they put so much other stuff in there but cereal. All the crap that you would feed the birds with at the park, all sweet things that you would feed kids with and then shaped like a funny fish, rabbit or a football (no, not the normal American football, the SOCCER ball!)

No winner today.... I will have to keep on looking for the "cereal winner"...

Although, i think I have a winner for the yogurt. Way too much sugar in it though... My old trainer back home would never approve... but at least it don't taste like shit even before you swallow it...

"American" food

TGIF for dinner. C'mon, I try but I know what I like so why not...

While waiting for our food P points out a "sexy lady in red" at the table next to us.

He sais "look, a half cow"! I look at her but I can't figure out why she is only half a cow, she looks pretty big to me... but then he explains "she "only" has 2 bellies".... And oh yes... there they were piled up on top of each other in the very tight red dress.... Disgusting! Just like my Caesar salad!!

Mmmm.... yummy....

A quick trip to the grocery store where P wanted to buy some "wild strawberries". Wow I thought, I haven't had that in ages... I walk up to him and sees that he is pointing at the raspberries.... Life is hard, but at least both of them are red. :)

We also spotted some Swedish stuff in the grocery store.

Mamma Scan's kottbullar

And look such healthy white bread you can get... Snow white!

White bread!

At the grocery store P got sick and tired of his gum. As they don't have many trash bins here, he could not throw it out before we entered the store. Almost at panic stage he desperately needed to get rid of it in the store, polite as he is he would not throw it on the floor. No, no, he gently placed it ON the basket. It looked so funny so I took a pic.

P's gum ON the shopping basket.

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The positive thought for today:

I would have to give the "thumps up" for the gum on the shopping basket. I hope it makes two baskets glued together so it get heavier... so it will be like a "work out" for the lazy fat people I saw in the store.

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9/30 - Desperate for something I like...

2009-09-30T23:14:00.000+01:00

The first trip to Ikea is now over and done.

Everything you need and everything you don't need is always available there. The x-mas decoration was nicely piled up next to the check out.... with only 3 available cashiers, you had plenty of time to make 2 runs to the x-mas department and get things you had no idea you needed. I mean, how would you know what you need for x-mas in October...?

Kalles Kaviar Kiss

The main reason for the Ikea trip was for the Kalles Kaviar. Now I can eat boiled eggs, sandwiches and just a tea spoon of kaviar when the cravings kicks in. The best thing about Kalles Kaviar is that the flavor stays for the longest time in your mouth and NOTHING can wash it away. No matter what you eat, if you brush your teeth after Kalles Kaviar, it stays with you for the longest time. And soon the little Kalles Kaviar devils points out that you crave for more, and more, and more...

Other new stuff a the Ikea store, that I have not seen home in Canada or in US, is the x-mas platter. All in one! Are we back to the multitasking again?

Swedish X-mas platter

Anyway, I would never buy that since I LOVE cooking (and washing clothes at the same time in the same room). :)

Number 115 & 187 please

Dinner for today is Chinese takeaway.

Delicious! Oh, did I point out that we just HAD to stop by the old Chinese place in Ealing, where we use to live to have the special dish there that P just LOVES so much. When we finally reached Ealing we could not find the place and we had to order from another Chinese takeaway place down the same road...

Driving the 40 minutes back to the shoebox in Reading (pronounced "Redding" for those who don't know that) we could finally enjoy the overly fatty, salty and sour Chinese food.

Yummy.... The only thing missing in this dish is something sweet.... like ice cream... Oh man... now I wish I had a cup of vanilla....

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The positive thought for today:

I would have to give the "thumps up" for the Kalles Kaviar!

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9/29 - I wear ugly shoes - I can change... but your face.... I'm sorry...

2009-09-29T23:13:00.000+01:00

Yeah so what... they are comfortable...

I noticed that people were staring at me today when I was out walking. I quickly realized that they were staring at my shoes. I started to look around, and I had forgotten, EVERYBODY is wearing so nice shoes. And here I was, in my running shoes. Even old fat ladies that did not seems to care that they were overweight, had no hair style, make-up and even put a smile on their face, they were wearing super NICE and TRENDY shoes. But they will have to wait until the ship from the states arrives with my boxes of shoes... then I can change shoes every second day... well, most likely I won't, since most of them are "open toe" shoes...

Yes, I can still smile....
On my way back to the "shoe box" I walked by some houses... well, I guess they would be called town houses here... but more or less, shoe boxes piled next to each other, instead of on top of each other... Anyway, in their garden I saw something I have not seen in ages... "torkvinda". For you who don't know what it is, here is a picture. :)

Small and simple things can really put a smile on your face sometimes... :)

"Torkvinda"

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The positive thought for today:

I would have to give the "thumps up" for the "torkvinda"... since nothing else could make me smile today.

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9/29 - Update from the pessimist

2009-09-29T23:03:00.000+01:00

Another day off the check list of 1 year. At least the weather is still good.

After some stress and hell, P got the paper from his employer so we could run to the bank, the last minute and arrange the bank account that we at first could not open without a home, electricity bill etc... They were REALLY nice at the bank and they let us open a bank account right there and then. Perhaps because P mentioned that he needed to have his salary in right away...

So, finally some cash in the wallet. But what a funny problem... the money don't fit into the wallet. And no, it is not because I have too much cash... it is because the Queen and some other important old farts with big hats have to fit into the bills, so they have to print them in letter size!!

Back at the "shoe box", logged into the new internet bank... another cryptical codes to add to the memory and then off for some more shopping.

Introducing Horny Kathy

Luckily, we bought a GPS today. The voice we finally selected after trying out a few is Kathy. Kathy is Irish and she pronounced the "R's" very clearly... so you actually understand important words such as "right" and "roundabout". The only problem with Kathy is that she sounds a bit.... well, I'll just say it as it is, she sounds horny! As the GPS lady in US very often use to take me the wrong way, I quickly named her to LB (= Lost Bitch). So this one was very easy, her name is HK (pronounced HeytchKay here in UK) and it truly stands for Horny Kathy! But HK is very friendly and she always takes us where we want..... All satisfied in the end.

Grocery shopping hell

The big grocery store we selected for the evening was called Morrison. A bit nicer than Tesco and Asda, in my opinion... There were a few things about the grocery stores in UK that I forgot about. For example, how small the fruit and vegetable department is, compared to the cracker isle?! And what the heck is "Salad Creme" anyway?! It does not only sounds horrible unhealthy, but i really looked like mayonnaise!!

Even this time I was surprised to find the eggs right next to the Tupperware, and not at all in the fridge department. I guess... why should the eggs be cold, they came out of a warm chicken...

Chips in longe isles in the store, and huge bags... pretty much looks like in US, but there is a difference... Here, the bags are big, but inside, there are several small individually wrapped bags. One for each person! Being nice, service minded and to share... nah... you are at the wrong place...

LOTS of beer in nice tin cans and some cheap Spanish wines. Of course, there are some nicer stuff from France, but not in this store...

Someone needs to get laid....

Arriving at the cashier, the nice lady sits and wait for you, resting her heavy double chins in her hands.... "Haya" she says, without looking up... As a polite Sweden, you gently load up the groceries lined up, categorized and with the bar code facing the scanner. Normally, the cashier lady would start spinning the belt and we can continue to line up the stuff. But no... I forgot... not here... as I have a TINY bit of a short temper, I think revenge is a great thing, so I make this HUGE pile of stuff. Everything on top of each other and all bar codes pointing in all directions! Yes, there we go, I'm done. The "trolley" (and not cart here in UK) is now empty and the belt is full. Finally, she decides her nap with her eyes open is over and she starts to scan. Oh dear, the fat cow is fast too... Bloody hell, I pack as fast as I can and then I realize... my revenge punished me instead! Now I got a mess of groceries, heavy, fruit etc. ALL over the place! And where is this kind little man in the hockey jersey who packs for me and earns some extra cash for his hockey team? Oh no, I forgot again... they don't exists here... they are out skating with their pants haft down their legs! So I have to do the packing and the fat cow at the cashier is now ready for payment. So now I understand why I need to do laundry and cooking at the same time in the same room. It is to learn to multi task, so i can unpack, pay and pack my groceries by myself in the store. Aha......

We say goodnight to the "nice lady" at the cashier and hope we don't ever have to go there again. It makes you wonder? Fat like a cow, ugly like a pig and sounded like a crow when she talked, wouldn't she at least try to act nice since she could not have any of the other 3? Nah... she probably had not "got any" in a long time...

Don't worry, tip is added to your bill!

Dinner at an Italian place. The waiter was actually nice. He was even so nice that he helped us to tip him by kindly adding 10% to the check (ops, sorry, I meant bill)... how sweet of him to not makes us bother to calculate that!

I had a salad that was called "Salad with thin crispy Pancetta". Ohh... that sounded so Italian and delicious. After some digging I found it!! I found the Pancetta... but it was some tiny burned pieces of bacon.... back home, we call that "bacon bits" and it is normally just some topping on a poutine or a hot dog. But what ever, I like bacon and I don't eat that much anyway, so I guess I was happy in the end.

Tomorrow there is a trip to Ikea on the schedule. More hangers are desperately needed. They provide you with 3 hangers in the apartment! 3?!?! I came with 3 suit cases... I meant, 2 suit cases 1 one hockey trunk!

The lovely apartment hotel

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The positive thought for today:

I would have to give the "thumps up" for the Horny Kathy... At least she sounds happy and "pleased"... :)

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9/28 - Catch 22... how could I forget...

2009-09-28T22:57:00.000+01:00

Catch 22

Full speed with "Catch 22".... you can't get an apartment without a bank card, but you can't get a bank card without a home address, since you need to show proof of an electricity bill or water bill... but since we live at a temporary apartment hotel... we don't pay electricity or water...

Tricky... but HSBC open their arms and let us have an account with them. All they needed was a letter from P's employer on the company logo paper, that he worked there... Funny... even I can copy that logo off internet and paste it to a word document, write some text and then print it.... is that really better than our pass ports since we don't have the electricity bill?

I say nothing...

Service minded... nah.... nice clothes, but no style and ugly teeth! And the smell... what is that horrible smell that I seems to have forgotten... yes, it is urine and beer!

If I would not have been studying, I would have either opened up a dentist clinic or a gym. Cause that is what is needed here.

Not that I'm in the best of shape... but at least I have a shape. My arms have more shape than some of the men here.... it seems to be either or... super thin or fat!

I have been looking for a suitable gym to join, but the first one that I saw was a combination of a gym and an Internet Cafe'!

I thought you went to a gym to move around, not to sit down and surf the net....

Ford Ficus....

Speaking of sitting down... we got a car rental for 1 week, so we don't have to walk around every where. A Ford Fiesta. Oh dear... it is was so tiny when we got it, but when we tried to park it outside of the apartment hotel, it would almost not fit in... and speaking of that.... P can't stand up straight in the parking lot, he hits his head in the ceiling..... Imagine parking a Fort Focus here... Which is by the way the car we will get next week, that will be our "car" for 1 year... Bloody hell!!!

Living in a shoe box

Our lovely apartment is small like a shoe box, not that I was expecting anything else. The kitchen is super nice and new, and the same for the bathroom, and the best of it all, it only has 1 tab!!! The hot and the cold water come joint out into your hands. Lovely!!!! What more can you ask for!?

The washing machine has temperature programs. It takes almost a life time to run one program, but oh dear, I forgot how nice it was to wash the bed linen in 90C!!

Washing is also very handy in UK. The washing machine is placed IN the kitchen. This to make it easy to mix dirty socks with your steak, or to get a delicious garlic and fish smell on your clean shirt! The ease of mixing the clothes with the food comes with a super tiny kitchen. Or, perhaps it is to make sure you are multi tasking all the time? It could be... since the whole apartment is so small so you can eat, wash, cook, watch tv, work and be social with friends from ONE single room! Awesome!!

I still have my Canadian and US cell phone, since I can't get a UK contract without a bank card that I have a PIN code with... But I cant get the PIN unless I have the electricity bill, but I can't get the electricity bill without a home, and I can't get a home without a bank account... So... it is not just Quebec that can be complicated sometimes...

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The positive thought for today:

I would have to give the "thumps up" for the... hmmm... tricky....

Perhaps I can say that it is positive that I can still use my Canadian and US cell phone... it reminds me of home and it makes me feel good... :)

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