7DAYBLOGCHALLENGECANWEPRETENDTHISISDAY7?: Total failure.

OK so I totes failed the challenge. And disappointed Lucy greatly judging by the facebook wall posts/text message I received.

I'M SORRY.

The truth is on Sunday, aka day 7, I woke up pretty early to skype Clare and then I was so sleepy that I just stayed in bed and watched The Cosby Show/napped all day. It was pretty great but not exactly blog worthy. Also any photo I took would not have been pretty.

I did have something to blog about on Monday but I got home real late and then I skyped Jenny until like 2am (which was a terrible plan). This meant that on Tuesday I went to bed at 7.30pm and then on Wednesday I just plain couldn't be arsed. I know, I know... You're not interested in my excuses.

Anyway. Monday.
On Monday I went to this super fancy restaurant for dinner. I was definitely not fancy enough to be there and I couldn't understand half of what was on the menu. I did eat everything that was put in front of me though. Except for the onions. And most of it was real tasty.
I wanted to take photos of all the food but it wasn't really appropriate. You can see some photos on that website. I didn't get to meet Gordon Ramsay but we did get to go and see the kitchen at the end for some reason. I think the Maitre D' really liked us.

This week has gone super slow so I'm real happy it's Friday tomorrow. Then on Saturday I get to go to Italy and eat Italian food and see volcanic ruins and stuff. It will be great. Also I won't have to work.

I don't think I will get to take an hilarious photo of myself holding up the leaning tower of Pisa, sorry Sarah and Jenny, but I will wear the bear somewhere real exciting for you.

7DAYBLOGCHALLENGEDAY6: End in sight.

I am really happy this is almost over.

Also none of you have given me any kind of feedback for my last few posts and this makes me mad. I would like to be acknowledged.

My cousin arrived today which was nice. It's good to see people from home. And I actually got out of the house before 9am which pretty much never happens on weekends. Let's face it, I'm lucky if I leave the house at all on weekends. We ate some good food and hung out and shit. I can't really be bothered to write about it really and I'm sure it's not that interesting.

I also took no photos all day. Rookie mistake. So therefore here is a photo of my wall of things people have sent me from home. Mostly everything thing is on there except a couple of letters I haven't put up yet.

I really like receiving mail *hint*.

However I have sent exactly nothing back home in return. I am a pretty terrible friend. Really wanna remedy this situation. Quite possibly never will.

7DAYBLOGCHALLENGEDAY5: Green Park

So I really hurt my foot yesterday apparently. Like I had to loosen the laces on my shoe heaps to get it on today and then when I was at work it was throbbing so I had to take my shoe off. It's a bit worrying since I really haven't done anything to it except walk.

Today after work I went to Green Park. It's not that far from my work which is why I chose it. Seems like heaps of people had the same idea as me. Perhaps they all have annoying friends who are making them blog for 7 days straight and they needed something to write about too. Either way, Green Park was a happening place this Friday evening. It must really go off in summer. Today wasn't even that nice a day.

There were daffodils. They were pretty. There were also birds and bugs and they were annoying me so I didn't stay long.

I'm pretty happy the week is over, it has gone super slow. Also it means that there is only one more week until I go to Italy for a whole week! Pretty exciting!

Tomorrow I am making a trip out to Heathrow to meet my cousin who is coming to visit. Mostly he is visiting his sister and I am just blending/hijacking their holiday but meh.

Hopefully I can walk by next week otherwise I'm gonna be super bummed.

This probably doesn't have enough words. I should write some more.

7DAYBLOGCHALLENGEDAY4: Touristing it up.

Sorry that my last post was lacking in words Jenny... Maybe this post will make up for it and you won't make me do an extra day? FINGERS CROSSED.

Today after work I decided to go for a walk by the river. The Thames that is. Mostly because I haven't been down there since I got here, except for that time I was drunk on Waitangi day, but that doesn't really count. Oh and also I needed something to blog about.

I looked on google maps because although I kind of knew which direction to walk in, I wasn't entirely sure how close I was. When you come to London I would recommend walking heaps and catching buses because when you catch the tube it's really hard to picture how far apart stuff is. The City is actually pretty compact.

Anyway it turned out I was way closer than I thought.

On the map I saw something called Cleopatra's Needle and I decided to head for that because I didn't know what it was.

I'm pretty sure I found it. Well the thing I found was from Egypt so that makes sense. I was real interested in how it's all damaged from a bomb that the Germans dropped nearby in 1917. And I like how they left it like that. I also found a statue/bust of a guy with really awesome facial hair. I think he was some kind of engineer or something. To be honest I was mostly just interested in the facial hair.

I walked all along the River and over the Millennium Bridge and along to London Bridge. Then I got the tube home. It was pretty sweet except there were too many people out running. Also I had kind of a sore toe/foot for no apparent reason beforehand and now it's like 10 times sorer.

7DAYBLOGCHALLENGEDAY3: Fences.

I discovered this body of water near my house the other day. Today I wanted to walk all the way down to where I guess it meets some canal but when I got half way down there was a god damn fence in the way. I was real mad.

I do enjoy the lack of wind in London. Coldness is so much more bearable if you can protect yourself from it with clothes. Not like Wellington where nothing can save you from the southerly.

It's getting lighter in the evenings now and warmer during the day. I guess it's not that long until summer. I have only ever been in London in Winter/Autumn so I'm not really sure what to expect. Will be interesting.

I have been watching The Cosby Show from the beginning. It's real great. Mrs Huxtable is a babe.

7DAYBLOGCHALLENGEDAY2: Supermarket edition.

Ugh. Day 2 and I already hate this.

I slept in today, well actually I was awake on time but I couldn't actually bring myself to get out of bed so I was late to work. Therefore I had to stay until 6pm. It was pretty great. ANYWAY after work I went to the supermarket in the hopes of finding some amusing products for Gabs... and failed. Turns out English supermarkets aren't that fun. I mean there are differences, like you can take care of all your hard liquor needs, chips are called crisps, all the sausages are made of pork and it's almost impossible to find rice crackers... but the food is pretty normal. Nowhere near as exciting as say visiting an American supermarket. Or even that Asian one on Dixon street.

I made a special trip to the big Sainsbury's which is a tube stop away from my house. Usually I just go across the road to the Tesco Express which is pretty much a glorified starmart.

After I was done shopping I went to catch the bus home and was totally denied. My Oyster card had no monies on it so I was forced to walk. This isn't exactly a bad thing, I mean it's not that far and it's not like I can't use the exercise. But it was a bit awkward turning round and walking off the bus with a line of people behind me.

When I got home I made a sweet Stir Fry:

I had to use the potato masher to stir it because that is all there is in my flat and I keep forgetting to buy something more appropriate.

I wanted to take some to work tomorrow for lunch but when I tried to buy some kind of glad type plastic container at the supermarket all I could find were these stupid foil takeaway things:

Real poor substitute.

Tomorrow I will try to wake up on time and get to work early so I can leave at a reasonable hour and have something better to blog about on day 3.

It won't happen so don't get too excited.

7DAYBLOGCHALLENGE aka Letting Jenny boss me around.

I'm not sure why I let Jenny be the boss of me, but here goes.

She has decided that I must blog everyday for 7 days. The rules are that I have to post a photo that I have taken that day and write at least 250 words. I think they are the only rules? Did I forget any?

Well anyway, today I couldn't be bothered going anywhere so I took some photos on my walk home from the Tube station.

So I walk to this station every morning and there is pretty much always a homeless person sitting at the bottom of those stairs. Not always the same homeless person though, there seems to be 3 or 4 on some kind of rotation. I never give them money or anything but it's getting kind of awkward since I see them so often and they obviously recognise me... maybe I'll have a chat one day when I'm drunk. I'm real chatty when I'm drunk these days.

So when I leave the station I walk down this road. One day, right behind where I was standing when I took this photo, I was accosted by an old man who spoke limited English and seemed to be in tears. I'm not sure why he picked me as I was clearly wearing headphones and I had on my "Fuck off" face. You know the one. I use it every day. He was going on about how he'd just been to the eye hospital which also located somewhere behind me and showed me some kind of appointment slip. I couldn't really understand what he was saying at first as I still had my headphones on and then the combination of my deafness and his thick accent made it pretty much impossible. I did figure out that he wanted money. I think for the bus. He was really crying, so if it was a scam he was sure going all out. I gave him the last 5 pounds I had in my wallet, mostly because the situation was getting awkward and I just wanted to leave.

I walk past this bin every day and I always wonder what 'HIT.RULE" means. "*BEB" was new today.

I'm pretty sure that is definitely more than 250 words. I will maybe go somewhere better tomorrow. Probably not though. Let me know if you have any suggestions!

Stockholm Syndrome.

I went to Stockholm for the weekend. It was good.

There were a few firsts involved:

First actual proper trip out of the country since I got here (Scotland doesn't really count)

First time flying on Ryanair/super budget airline that doesn't even assign seats/rings a bell when you land on time/announces over the PA that 50% of their flights arrived on time last year like it's something to be proud of.

First time being stuck on a plane on the tarmac 'waiting for paperwork' for over an hour in a way too warm plane with no free food or water and a group of loud New Zealanders who were making it their mission to talk as loudly as possible/make me wish I spoke with like an American accent or something instead.

First time staying in a hostel with communal showers. Like 4 showers in a room with no cubicles and no curtains kind of communal. (Luckily we found another bathroom that only had 2 showers and a main door that locked otherwise I seriously would not have showered the entire weekend)


Mostly we spent the whole weekend wandering around the city.

There were many hazards to contend with:

Therefore I mostly walked very slowly. Really did not want a repeat of Edinburgh broken ankleness.


Some people were very reckless and ventured out on frozen water:

I guess they thought there message was important enough to risk it?


My bear friend also came along for the trip. Sadly one ear was accidentally amputated as I attempted to remove him from my pocket... hopefully it can be reattached.

I learnt that people from Sweden (Swedes?) hate Avril Lavigne also:

And sometimes you are not allowed to hold children's hands:

It was a pretty cool city and I would definitely go back there and spend more time exploring. Clare, hurry up and get your butt over here.

CHALLENGE: COMPLETED.

So the other night I was skyping Jenny and she decided to buy something off ASOS and send it to me. Obviously knowing Jenny I assumed it was gonna be sparkly.

It wasn't.

Somehow it was decided that I would have to take a photo wearing whatever it was in front of Big Ben.

I did this.

It was pretty tricky because it was dark and also pretty damn cold. And people in London don't really care if you are trying to take a photo in front of a famous landmark wearing a bear on your head. Mostly they just want to get home from work quickly and you are in the way.

We tried with the flash:

And without:

I was trying to make sexy faces/poses because on my way to meet my cousin I was walking behind 2 Italian(?) girls who were really good at sexy poses and I pretty much wanted to be them. I was unsuccessful. Plus you can't even see anything but my head. This is probably a good thing. I know for a fact their Big Ben photos were much better than mine.

I opened the package at work and my workmate was super jealous. She really wants this bear to wear on her head. I had thought about giving it to her but I think maybe the bear will have more fun travelling with me so maybe I will take photos by more famous landmarks? Maybe not though. I'm pretty bad at following through on things like that.

Giving the fans what they want.

More weird things about London:

Dogs on the tube.
Ugg boots worn in lieu of actual shoes.
Grey trackpants.
Being yelled at to "Get a proper haircut" by a stranger on the street.
Smelling that someone in my flat has cooked fish, or something that smells like fish, every fucking day but never actually seeing them do it.
Front loader washing machines.
Always having to carry cash.
1p and 2p coins.
An excessive amount of pork.

So my Grandad died last night, which is a bit awkward considering my last post. Not entirely unexpected and probably actually a good thing seeing as he was slowly wasting away due to Alzheimers, and wasn't really the Grandad I grew up with any more anyway.
Still. It's pretty shitty being here and knowing I can't go home for the funeral. Made worse by the possibility that my cousin, who is also here, might be able to.
And it's kind of hard to know how to react. Like, if I was at home then obviously I could be around my family  and we could talk and laugh and share memories or whatever and then we would go to the funeral and move on with our lives.
Am I sposed to just go to work on Monday and act like nothing happened? Or what? I don't really know.

Also, I really hate the phrase "passed away". I always say died, and people look at me weird like it's an insensitive thing to say or something. But it's not like people are gonna feel less sad if you say the sad thing in a  "nicer" way. They're still dead.

On a happier note, my uncle woke up from his coma and although he thinks he is still in Rotorua, working in forestry or something (which I'm pretty sure he hasn't done since like before I was born) he does know who people are and apparently he even got grumpy at his wife which, if you knew him, is a good sign.

Apparently the whole world, well more people than I thought (read: not just Jenny), cares if I blog. You probably weren't counting on the emo-ness of the last couple of entries however.
I will attempt to post something upbeat and happy in the next week.

Failing that I will just post an embarrassing photo of myself in front of Big Ben. That should keep the punters satisfied.

My Grandad used to sing this song to us when I was a kid. Minus the annoying Canadianess. The outfits are probably accurate though, It was the late 80's/early 90's. It makes me smile.

Don't listen to the 2nd song, I don't know what it is.