Christmas Meals

I'm just catching up to pictures from Christmas because I'm lazy. The pictures aren't too spectacular because it was a cloudy day and there wasn't much light in the kitchen but here they are anyways. Simon (someone sharing the flat) showed me how to make St. Helena curry with lamb - traditionally they use goat at Christmas. That isn't to say that I will be able to make it properly but he gave it his best shot. It was really good so I hope I do get the hang of it. Here it is cooking on the stove right before we ate it.


Here it is on my plate as I was eating it. With a trusty Dr. Pepper close at hand.


On boxing day he made pea soup. I was supposed to be a part of that cooking lesson too but I wasn't awake. Happy Holidays.

The Grand Tour

One of the people I'm sharing my flat with had some free time last weekend and took me on a walking tour of Central London. Get your Tube maps out, pay attention and try to keep up!

I'm going to start it off with a picture of me, because I love myself so much and not because I promised my parents I would. I'm standing outside a high street store on Oxford street. Now I know where to bring people shopping when they come.


Wait what's this! The same picture again? Double the pleasure double the fun! Can you spot the difference? (Excuse the lazy Photoshop work please, I didn't feel like putting too much effort into it.)


You probably spotted something by now - and you're right. That is what I would look like if my neck wasn't 13 feet long. No time to pat yourself on the back though, we're moving right along to Covent Garden. I'm not sure how to explain what this place is. It is a permanent market with a roof, but it's also like a shopping mall without heating. The safest thing is probably to shift the job of describing it onto someone else by linking you to the most factual source of information to ever exist, ever. Ever.


We found a fair in Leicester Square. This is a full-on ultra-cheesy, Yuletide, carni-run, hypen-ated, barf-fest of rides and stalls. Conveniently that makes it the sort if thing I'd be embarrassed about if anyone back home knew I walked through. Thankfully no one bothers to read my blogs so the secret is safe with my trusty friend: The Internet (or to Alex: Interwebz).


I present the saving grace of Leicester Square: An actual Hägen-Dazs store. I didn't notice the creepy guy in the window above the take out sign until I went to post this. I hope you enjoy the fruits of his (slave?) labour designing delicious ice creams.


Can you tell what 'town' of London this is? On an unrelated note, no one seems to own any dogs. Seriously though, those chickens (I hope) creep me out.


You may be asking yourself why I took a trip to Time Square part way through my walking tour. If you are, please re-evaluate your ability to recognize giant advertisements on buildings. This is actually Piccadilly Circus and it wants me to buy lots of stuff.


This is in Trafalgar Square. I specifically chose the photo where I was the least visible. You're welcome. In the background you can see a nice fountain and behind that you can see a giant Christmas tree. It's Norway's way of saying "thank you" to the British for being on the winning side of WWII. It is a pretty huge tree. It's hard to tell in the picture but it's almost twice my height (or roughly three times the length of my neck).


I had to postpone my audience with the Queen because it was getting dark and I wasn't interested in being swept away by the ghost of Christmas past. I'll go back with Dr. Egon some time and sort things out. We made our way to North Greenwich to go to the O2, which (apparently) suffered from problems similar to the Big O. It has a suspended, soft-shell (read: paper) roof and was a huge waste of tax payer's money (until it was sold to private owners).


This is another picture from the O2. There's some text that snakes around the inside of those bubbles. Attractions at the O2 include a skating rink inside that looks like a dusty carpet, a movie theater that has some claim to fame which I've forgotten, a bunch of restaurants with ridiculous queues and a King Tut exhibit which I'll be seeing about 5 months and 10 days from now.


And that's the kind of day it was Saturday, December 22nd, 2007. For some of you, your local CTV News is coming up next. I'm Scot Murray. For all of us here in the National Newsroom, goodnight.

Private Party for a Dead Frenchman

I became a member of the design museum the last time I was there and they sent me an invitation for this 'private event' via email. Congratulations, Design Museum: The black on yellow got my attention. You win this round.

I got to see a lot of 1950s chairs, desks and prefab houses. The best parts were a house that was built into a mountain and a conversation that went from Tin Tin, to a model house, to Stargate SG1, to Richard Dean Anderson, to MacGyver, to making fun of the cultured, artsy scarf-wearing brigade of scenesters that stood around drinking wine next to the museum shop.

Iron Man

I am an absolute failure at ironing. I bought an ironing board yesterday which helped a lot until my iron went crazy and started leaking water. The board has a convenient little rest at the end for my iron. It also another convenient feature: being really poorly made. I expected it to be awful, but not this awful. It stands a little higher than my knees, but that's alright because it gives me a reason to iron sitting down. It absolutely refuses to fold up nicely, but that's alright too because I'm sure I could get it to fold if I pushed hard enough (assuming it didn't snap in half). The real reason this is an abortion of a patent is that it hasn't made me a professional ironer. I'm thinking of buying a blazer and wearing a massive tie so that my shirts won't need to be pressed. This weekend is going to be the deciding moment in my away-from-home-ness where I'm going to battle the evils of wrinkles with my steam machine. Tune in next week for the exciting conclusion. Same bat time, same bat channel.



Sadly I don't think an bat-anti-wrinkle-spray exists...OR DOES IT?

Bonus link: Here's something I found while searching for the that spray.

Catching Up to Myself

Two weekends ago I did a few touristy things but I was too lazy to get the pictures off my phone when I got home and then I forgot about them. The pictures are pretty awful and blurry but they're all I have. The first two are from the Design Museum, I got a membership so I (hopefully) will be going back more often. I have access to 'special events' and I have free entry for myself and someone else for a year.

This was from an exhibit of some British fashion designer's work. The rectangles on the wall are different patterns he created or used, I'm not sure which.


This taken from the other side of the wall with patterns on it. You can see some of his dresses and behind them is a collage of more patterns, pictures, and ... etc.


This is the famous crack in the Tate Modern. I don't get modern art. I can make up excuses for my mistakes after-the-fact too. You see how I took the picture? It was intentionally bad. I WANTED it to be crooked, pixelated and poorly lit. You can play along now too, help me finish this sentence: I [thing we're making an excuse for] to symbolize the [current event|social movement] and to [reflect|reinforce] the [characteristic of the subject].


I don't think I was supposed to take photos in this area but I only figured that out afterwards. Oops, oh well. 80's twist: I rebelled and took pictures where I wasn't supposed to to symbolize the struggle and oppression in North Korea and to reflect the free, expressive nature of this sculpture.

Obviously I don't have the capacity to appreciate real* art. I really prefer place like the Design Museum because generally the work they show will have to have a purpose - like architecture, fashion, ads ... typography even.

* The kind of art that you have to stare at for anywhere between 10 minutes to several hours (depending on how dedicated you are and how little a life you have) making humming noises** to score scene points with the respectable connoisseurs around you that are doing the same thing.

** "Hmm, now with more pulp!"