Snow Invades London

I didn't know it was snowing until someone told me on MSN and I went to the window and looked out.


It had all melted before supper time.

Ball of Whacks

Yesterday I was working from home and finally got a chance to play with my Ball of Whacks (while eating lunch). It is a set of 30 magnetic shapes that you can combine in any number of different ways. In doing so, you're supposed to be able to spark creativity or just have fun. Even from a different angle (perspective) a creation may look different (symbolic of problem solving - they like to play that up).

Here are some pictures of the things I made, along with what I thought they resembled. Maybe they'll remind you of something else - that's the whole point.

A sea anemone.

An AT-ST.

A windmill.

A biker and his motorcycle.

A farmer his wife and and their dog.

A chair.

A scorpion.

A dog scratching his side with his back paw.

A chipmunk on its hind legs.

A lobster directing an orchestra, Disney-style.

A tri-force..with ears?

In case you're wondering, I made the descriptions less visible to give you a chance to play along. If you are having trouble my "answers" then highlight the text (if you're lazy, use Select All).

Making Pasta

I had pasta for the past three nights to use up my ground beef. It is really cheap, really easy and really seems like something I will be eating quite a bit of. Hopefully I make it more interesting, but I had a few good trials. Here's a picture of it in progress.

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.

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.

My view

Sky line (of my neighbourhood) at dusk.

Neighbourhood Photos

I was finally able to get a real pillow today (two actually - they come in pairs). I'm not sure how they managed to be out of stock on them for two days. Here are some pictures of my neighbourhood.

This is a picture of my building and the store downstairs owned by the landlord's relatives. There are actually several buildings in a row so I'm not actually sharing 1 bathroom and 1 kitchen with 16 people, just 3+me.


Here's a picture of the tavern across the street. I went in there today to see if they would serve me food and I saw a toothless granny and a bunch of elderly men. The waitress was not particularly interested in serving me and needless to say I didn't get any lunch (from here).

A picture of the other houses in my area.


I got take-away from this place yesterday. It was amazing and the price is good too. It's probably awful for me but I'm sure I will be back there quite a bit. Sorry Mom.


The nearest tube station. The trolleys come above-ground here so when you get on it's more like a train than a metro but it dips underground shortly after departing so you don't get to see much of the city while you're traveling.


Here's a picture of the main street, taken from almost the same spot as the picture of Leyton station except looking into town. You can't tell from the photo but I'm standing on an overpass (over a highway) so there's is more town behind me. Just off to the left is what I've come to think of as "mini-America" which is a series of chain stores (ASDA, Pizza Hut, Fitness First, KFC and some place that looked like BureauEnGros) that wouldn't be out of place back home even if the names are slightly different..


I'm going to watch some American TV but I may be posting again later to explain what I want to do and how I plan to do it.

Flat Photos

Hi! I am feeling a lot better than I was earlier this afternoon. Before, I felt so isolated without the internet. Actually saying that is pretty pathetic, but it is so many things to me (TV, radio, mail, newspaper, phone, phone book, information, map, store, job, job search). Without it, my room felt like a cage instead of a home.

Now things have changed. I fixed up my bed today and it will be a lot more comfortable. The store still didn't have any actual pillows so I'm stuck with the three little ones I got the other day. Anyways, here are the pictures.

Here's a picture of my bed (they still didn't have any actual pillows).

Here's a picture of my computer desk (WITH INTERNET).

Here's my dresser and mirror and some kitchen/bathroom stuff i bought.

On a nicer day I'll post some pictures of my view. Right now it's too cloudy/smoggy for a decent photo but I can see the tops of some of the buildings I took pictures near Tower Bridge.

Note to Alex: Yes, that's British Fanta on the corner of my dresser. I just finished it, it was amazing.

Feeling A Bit Better

It feels a lot better to be able to take a shower in a place where you can lock the bathroom door but I'm going to feel lonely and lost until I have internet there and stressed until I have a job. I found an internet cafe with OK prices that's fairly close to my place so I should be able to stay in touch. I didn't bring my phone's wire so I can't post any pictures but maybe I'll be able to do that next time.

Design Museum

Today was good but it had a bit of a rough ending so I am a little stressed. I got the place, but I didn't get bedding. Apparently it isn't in a very good neighbourhood and now I'm locked in for at least six months. The landlord is really nice and it is in a fairly good spot but I have a sinking feeling about it. I only have 6 minutes left on my internet timer and I didn't get to talk to all the people I wanted to. I want to get back to my place before it's too late. Maybe I'll be able to get dialup tomorrow. The high point of my day was walking across Tower Bridge and going to The Design Museum. There was a really cool architecture exhibit. Apparently they offer internships for web designers, I don't know if I would be able to afford that though but I would love to apply. Only 3 minutes left now so I better wrap this up. Pictures will come tomorrow, hopefully. No time to check for typos, I'll get to that tomorrow too.

Flat Share

I move in today. I hope I'll be able to pick up someone else's internet signal. If I can't it's going to be really inconvenient. I'm going to try to sign up as soon as possible. Some ISPs provide temporary dial-up while you're waiting for high speed. I can't do much research ahead of time because I don't know which company (if any) the land line is with. I'll try to post pictures tonight if I can still get on the hostel's wireless.