From ldot to LDOT [With a Capital 'L']

Cheese Dogs and Chili Fries

2010-06-05T22:36:00.005-04:00

Saturday morning hurt a lot. But Anna and Jeff [who responsibly left Marie’s Crisis early] were up and at `em early in the AM. And by early, I mean 11. They were heading to Coney Island. I didn’t know much about it, other than the fact it was really, really far from us [1.5 hours on the subway]. But I decided I would join them.

Usually, we walk east to Broadway to catch the subway at 157th Street Station. To catch an express train to Coney Island, we walked about 15 minutes to 145th Street Station. We walked south down Riverside Drive for the first time. And we found all the white people. They were out jogging, pushing prams, walking, etc. on Riverside. Riverside is purely residential, consisting of mid-rise condos like ours. It’s funny that we rarely saw white people on Broadway, suggesting that these people leave the neighbourhood to access commercial uses. Weird.

Coney Island is a semi-abandoned amusement park on the Atlantic Ocean. Its glory days were in the early 20th Century and it started to decline after WW2. Today, there are rides, some operate, some do not. There are concessions and games [including ‘Shoot the freak’… Anna wasn’t down with it]. There’s also a great deal of high modernist era social housing. The signage is all original from the early 20th Century and has a bold, graphic, colourful quality. There was a boardwalk and the beach, of course. It was fairly busy for April. We stopped at Nathan’s, home of the infamous ‘hot dog eating contest’, complete with a digital countdown to the next even [months away]. We stopped for some traditional American food. I had a cheese dog and chili fries. It wasn’t the best idea and it sure didn’t agree with me a couple hours later.

The three of lounged on the beach, played some pinball and browsed the Coney Island museum. The museum had a large section dedicated to designs for the new ‘Dreamland’. It was designed by a man [who’s name escapes me] who was inspired to study psychology after Freud visited the park. Naturally, the designs were all sex related. The central building was called the ‘Pleasure Palace’ and it was shaped like a pre-pubescent girl. A train connected all the outlying buildings. It was pretty bizarre.

Erin warned us that we would see some characters. She was right. We saw one gentleman in sort of a tin foil tutu with a colourful wig and a parrot on his shoulder. I didn’t get a photo, but Anna did. Maybe she can hook me up.

Erin texted me as Anna, Jeff and I were planning to leave. She had some free time so I went back to Williamsburgh to hang out with her. It required going from South Brooklyn to lower Manhattan and back to Brooklyn. It was a bit of a trip. Erin told me she appreciated my spontaneity and my ability to read maps. I had no problem adjusting my plans and navigating the City for a little more quality time.

Back in Brooklyn, Erin and I were unable to find a venue that had both seating AND was not closing in 5 minutes [it was really, really weird]. So we grabbed some take away tacos and hit up a small park on the river. The park was actually a former ferry dock that connected Brooklyn and Manhattan. Ferries ran every 5 minutes beginning in 1880! In St. Catharines, buses stop at 5pm on Sundays. I’m not kidding. Erin and I chatted longer than anticipated, as usual. And I had to run back to the condo to get ready to go out.

I virtually sprinted back to Bedford Station to see that the next ‘L’ train didn’t come for 42 minutes. HWHAT?! I nearly had a heart attack. I didn’t understand how that was possible. The thought of waiting 42 minutes was obscene. It was Saturday night in New York, not weekday rush hour in St. Catharines. Oh, snap. I started plotting an alternate route on the sketchy ‘JMZ’, trying to figure out if I would save any time by walking 15 minutes south or not. Then the train came. Apparently, the sign lied.

Back at the condo, my friends were pretty low key. Chris and Matt had an unfortunate rough day. I convinced Anna and Jeff we HAD to go out for our last night in New York. I’m good at that. We went to Greenwich, as it was an easy jaunt from the condo. As we were walking down the street, a woman was herding passerbys into her bar by saying ‘$5 Cosmos’. Yes, please. We were sold. As Anna and I sipped Cosmos [I have to say it… soooo Sex and the City], Jeff nursed a pint. All of a sudden, a girl tripped and spilled her drink all over me. She apologized and ran off. I was pissed. I looked damn good that night. I went to the bathroom to towel off and stopped suddenly when she was in the bathroom. I double-checked the sign on the door. I was right. But she was the last person I wanted to see at that moment. She continued to apologize profusely. I MAY have diva’d out when I said things to her like ‘I guess I’ll live’. I joined Anna and Jeff slightly dryer and left the girl in the men’s bathroom. A few minutes later, a guy came over and introduced himself as the girl’s cousin. He gave us $40 and told us the next round was on him. We thanked him for being generous, but we told him that was far too much money for a round. He insisted we keep it. And we did. We bought two more rounds of drinks and when we were sufficiently drunk, we got pizza. It was all free. Delicious!

At the pizza place, a bunch of frat types were trying to see how many saltines they could eat at one time. I’ve never heard of this game, but I want to play sometime. Anna thinks she can eat one million saltines at one time:

It was SO hard to leave on Sunday. We had such an epic trip. We got to experience living in New York, without any responsibilities, and a whole lot of disposable income. Is that what it’s like to be independently wealthy... or a trustafarian? That’s the life for me!

Chris and Matt drove back to Kingston. Anna and Jeff rode the Megabus back to Kingston and I lugged 50lbs of luggage on the subway to JFK to fly back to Buffalo. At the airport, a stranger gave me a note and walked away. It read ‘You’re very attractive. I hope you have a good flight, where ever you’re going.’

It must be the beard.

I’ve Never Been To Brooklyn And I’d Like to See What’s Good.

2010-06-05T22:11:00.004-04:00

Actually, I have. And I love Brooklyn.

Chris and I did some more shopping Friday morning. We both got a pair of Sperry Topsiders at a store called Shoegasm. It was great. No tax. After a couple hours, I had to meet Anna and Jeff in the East Village to see more parts of Brooklyn. We were at Washington Square and Chris told me to take to the B or D train to Delancey Street. Shan’t. Fortunately, I had the foresight not to trust a policy planner with directions and I checked the map in the station. I actually took the F train to 2nd Ave, where there was an exit to 1st Ave. Pretty sure he deliberately tried to sabotage me. Jerk.

While Chris and Matt did something lame and touristy, Anna, Jeff and I wandered through parts of Brooklyn I’d never seen: DUMBO and Brooklyn Heights. DUMBO stands for Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass. It’s located beneath the Manhattan Bridge AND the Brooklyn Bridge [and associated subways]. So it’s fairly noisy, but still completely gentrified and appeared pretty expensive. It seemed a tad sterile – like my old hood in London, Canary Wharf. We chilled in a park on the river for a while.

Then we wandered over to Brooklyn Heights. We’re pretty sure that’s where the Cosby’s were supposed to live. There were old brownstones and streets with mature tree canopies. It was SO quiet and peaceful, despite being really close to a freeway. An old woman wearing more bling than Tiffany’s sells, told us we had to go see this statue:

I guess we looked liked tourists. Stupid running shoes.

We had a cheap dinner followed by cheap beer in the East Village. I liked the East Village. It’s very Annex-y, but denser. And I got checked out there. What, what!

Back at the condo, the five of us got dressed for the Tribeca Film Festival party. We looked HOT. So we took a whole lot of photos of ourselves. Eventually, we strutted through the lobby as the doorman grabbed the door and we headed south.

The downside is that due to our photo shoot, we lost track of time. We arrived at the Juliet Supper Club later than anticipated and as soon as we pushed our way to the bar, the bartender removed the ‘open bar’ sign. Curses! My cheap ass friends made me order a drink. I got a vodka soda. It was $14. I socialized a bit with Erin and her friends, but it was inevitable – we had to find somewhere else to go. We needed a venue with cheaper drinks. Erin’s roommate Alena [who I met last summer in Brooklyn] suggested Marie’s Crisis [she had also suggested it when I was in town last summer]. During my extensive pre-trip research, I had come across this bar and wanted to check it out. And it wasn’t too far away.

As we descended the stairs into the basement bar that is Marie’s Crisis, it was clear that this bar was TINY. It was also packed full of people standing around a man playing the piano. He was playing show tunes – no sheet music, no lyrics, he had it all memorized. And everyone just sang along. It was HILARIOUS. He played some Oklahoma, Mary Poppins and RENT!!!!! Anna LOVED it. She knew ALL the words to ALL the songs. I knew Rent. Ha!

Erin later told me that the bar serves poison. It makes sense because I only had four drinks and I was CRUNK. But Americans don’t precisely measure one-ounce drinks like we do. They just pour. God bless America.

MOMA – And I Don’t Mean, 'Model Matt'

2010-06-05T22:02:00.003-04:00

We had our timed entry to the Tim Burton exhibit at the MOMA on Thursday from 12:30 to 13:00. We were browsing some images in a lower level gallery and after 20 minutes thought – is this it? At 12:50 we realized that the main exhibit was on another floor and we ran upstairs. The gallery was PACKED. I thought it was only going to be pieces from his movies but it was so much more. There were hundreds of conceptual drawings, videos, models and early scripts. There were lots of dark, twisted ideas and imagery. The most upsetting part was a model of Sarah Jessica Parker’s decapitated head from ‘Mars Attacks’.

We also checked out ‘The Artists is Present’ – an exhibit by Marina Abramovic. Her medium is the nude body. To enter the gallery, you have to walk between two nude models standing about one foot apart. And it wasn’t so much ‘walking between’ as it was ‘squeezing between’. There was one man and one woman. It was interesting to see which model people chose to face as they passed though. Anna, Chris, Matt and I all entered the gallery between the models. Jeff did not. POOR JEFF. Inside, there were images, videos and live models. Some of it was a bit… odd. For example, there were a series of three videos on the wall. One had women flashing their genitals in the rain, one of a woman caressing her breasts in field, and one of men copulating with the ground. Viewed in isolation, they were pretty bizarre. But we read that it was actually depicting Baltic agricultural folklore. Women would flash their genitals to stop the rain, rub their breasts to call for rain and the men copulating with the ground represented fertility. Crazy.

There was an episode of Sex and the City when Carries meets Alexander Petrovsky at a gallery where there’s an exhibit of a woman living in the gallery for 12 days without food. That whole set up is now in the MOMA. There were a series of VERY minimal ‘rooms’ elevated above the floor and fully exposed the the gallery. The ladders to access to living spaces were made of knives… to discourage the artist from escaping.

After the MOMA, Anna and Jeff left and Chris, Matt and I went to Macy’s. Macy’s is terrible. I thought Erin was biased because she was a bitter former-employee. No, it’s total crap. It was such an enormous waste of time. Do not bother going there. It was just…. ghetto. I’m so sorry I doubted you, Erin. Forgive me? The three of us had dinner in Macy’s food hall. It was dec but in a basement and still kinda smelled of cigarette smoke from the 80s forward. After sitting for a while, we realized that we were all completely exhausted and wanted to die. Maybe we partied too hard the night before? In any case, Chris and Matt ended up bailing on the opera despite having already bought tickets, and the three of us went back to the condo to chill, eat junk food and watch Dr. Who.

Quality Doug Time

2010-06-05T21:06:00.007-04:00

I spent most of Wednesday on my own. The five of us had a picnic in Central Park as the cherry blossoms were blooming. It was warm and breezy and I wore my new Modern Amusement shorts.

When we split up, I lay around in the park for a while, then wandered a bit to see the body of water where Charlotte had jogged in Sex and the City. I popped in the Guggenheim [which I affectionately call ‘the Gugg’], just to see the building and take a couple pics.

I spent the rest of the afternoon in the Met, browsing Greek, Roman and Modern Art. Here's a bizarre new trend in museum viewing:

1) Take a photo of the art.
2) Take a photo of the description.
3) Repeat.

I.... guess it saves a lot of time? But you can view photographs in books, people. The experience of the actual artwork is completely different. Also, it's tacky. Really tacky.

The fab five had agreed to meet in Washingston Square at 6:30. Since I arrived a bit early, I went to Union Square and bought a couple pairs of skinny jeans. When I found Chris in Washington Square, I got a stern talking to. I had my ringer off and I had missed a series of texts / phone calls from him telling me they had found a restaurant in which to dine – Elmo. It was comfortable and not unaffordable. I ordered meat loaf and an $11 mojito. Delicious.

The ceiling of Elmo.

The great thing about Canadians is that we know how to appreciate warm weather. As soon as double digits hit, it’s time for patios and TRAVEL. My friend Terence [from Toronto] was in New York the same time as us. I literally had MORE friends in New York than in St. Catharines, where I’ve lived for nearly three years. There’s something sad and tragic about that. Chris, Matt and I met up with Terence on Wednesday night for some bar hopping. We went to the lounge area of Monster, Eastern Bloc and G-Lounge. I think. Our fav was Eastern Bloc. It was very West Queen West-esque. It was small, with fun music and lots of hot hipsters. And we even managed to leave a lasting impression at each venue. Bar stars!

I love my iphone. And it's so handy when I don't want to take a camera out with me. I especially like the real friendly bathroom and Jersey Couture. Here are some iphone shots:

By the time we got back to our hood, it was about 3am and we were starving. We were drawn to the bright lights of ‘Kennedy Friend Chicken’, the first of two visits [when in Rome…]. We were talking to the man working and he said he had family in Hamilton and it’s his dream in life to one day live in Oshawa. Oshawa? For real, real? We didn’t question it, because we didn’t want to shatter his hopes and dreams. But we sure hope he meant Ottawa.

A Proper British Reunion 2

2010-06-05T20:47:00.004-04:00

I met Erin in ’06 at a BUNAC social night for foreigners in London. We hit it off immediately because we’re both pretty fab.

Anna, Jeff, Chris, Matt and I walked across the bridge to Erin’s hood - Williamsburgh. It’s a mix of old warehouses converted to relatively affordable housing [predominantly for artists], new faux loft buildings [for really, really rich people] and industrial uses that still operate. Erin lives across the street from a hot dog factory. Do people still eat hot dogs? Who do you think you are, my dad feeding my brother and I in the 90s? What? While my Canadian friends explored the area, Erin and I hung out at her apartment of questionable legitimacy and caught up. Her roommate had a film in the Tribecca Film Fest [Sons of Perdition] and Erin had been keeping herself busy with that. She invited us to the film’s after party in the meat packing district. She had also been working part-time at Macy’s, which she despised.

A little later, Erin and I met up with my Canuck friends at a bar on Bedford Avenue – the main drag. The bar was amazing. You get a free pizza when you order a pint [a re-occurring theme in the US, it seems]. For a mere $10, I got two pizzas and two pints. Delicious.

After dinner, Chris and Matt left for Riverside Drive, but Anna, Jeff, Erin and I got some Brooklyn Brand Ale went to Erin’s roof – my fav place to chill in New York. It’s a large space, about 5 [industrial] floors up, with a view of the Manhattan skyline. It’s pretty special.

Anna, Jeff, Erin and I had a deep moment on the roof.

A very rare patch of grass!

After some beers, we went to car-e-oke. A gentleman in a red station wagon used to drive laps in the hood while blasting music and singing along. He now hosts the karaoke night at a local bar. Aren’t hipsters fun?

He puts the 'car' in 'careokee'.

The singers were quite good. Erin sang. She was good too. Anna, Jeff and I were too intimidated… BUT… there was a TACO CAR on the PATIO of the bar. Shall.

New York City Boy: Where 157th Ave Meets Broadway

2010-06-05T19:48:00.005-04:00

I went all the way around Lake Ontario. Lia was in Canada after living and working in Abu Dhabi and before moving to Amsterdam with her man. So I left St. Catharines for Toronto on Thursday night so I could spend all of Friday with her. We explored the Beach before heading to the Annex for dinner on a patio followed by a ridiculous number of pints. It was upsetting to say goodbye yet again.

My train to Kingston was at 7am the next day. 7am hurt a lot the next day. Soon after I arrived in Kingston, Chris, Matt and I loaded up the Accentrice and we were on our way. We crossed the border somewhere east of Kingston. The conversation with the border guard went as follows:

Guard: “What do you do for a living?”
Chris: “I’m an urban planner.”
Matt: “I’m a festival director.”
Doug: “I make sparkly pillows!”

Ok, I’m kidding about that last part. But why on earth did a sparkly pillow make it on the road trip in a tiny, tiny automobile?!

After we made a scene with our photo shoot in McDonald’s, and sped past a paranormal investigator just before getting very lost in rural New York, we decided it was time to buy a road map. Google maps was very disappointing. Actually, it may have been ok if Chris has printed out the visual instructions, not just the text. Apparently, there are situations when it’s worth the ink and paper.

The purpose of going all around the lake was to see Lake Placid, site of the Olympics in 1932 and 1980. There were some stores dedicated to Olympic paraphernalia, other gift stores, the hockey arena, a ski jump way in the distance and Starbucks. Oh, thank goodness.

How can Curious George POSSIBLY be live?!?!

It was cold and rainy at the lake, so we continued south. Matt used a cartoon, not-to-scale map drawn by an Autistic child to find Mallory’s Bush. It had a covered bridge and a house that looked like Goldie Hawn’s faux house in ‘Swept Away’. Then Matt used his cartoon, not-to-scale map drawn by an Autistic child to insist that the empty driveway 20 metres to the east was the interstate. Shan’t.

As dusk fell near Albany, we were tired and hungry and cranky for deciding to be spontaneous and not booking a hotel in advance. We couldn’t find a hotel and we were on a toll highway with about 4 exits in a 2000km stretch of road. We got off at a rest stop and Matt asked for a hotel. The girl gave him directions and asked where we were going. When he said ‘New York’, we thought she was going to say, ‘You mean over there?’ and gesture out the window toward the Manhattan skyline. We were only about 100km away by this point, but it was time for food and sleep and booze [not in that order].

You know what I love about the US? There are stores with names like ‘Liquor Warehouse’… AND they sell ONE LITRE bottles of Smirnoff PINEAPPLE Vodka for $17. God Bless America.

--------------------- Sleep.

As we got closer to the city on Sunday morning, I found myself baffled by American planning. We were driving down a highway around 100km/hour, and there were stores along the side of the highway. No ramps, no service roads, just direct driveway access from the highway into the store parking lots. And I don’t just mean gas stations but clothing stores and big box stores. The thought of having to merge into heavy, high-speed traffic from 0km/h terrifies me.

We played ‘Empire State of Mind’ as we crossed the George Washington Bridge among hoards of high-end automobiles. Damn tourists. Somehow, we crossed too far on the bridge and got lost in the Bronx. Matt wanted to stop and ask some thuggy looking gentlemen, one of which had his hand down his pants, for directions. Chris and I suggested it wasn’t the type of neighbourhood where you want to be identified as tourists. Matt finally won and we stopped and he asked directions. We soon arrived at our new home on Riverside Drive. It was pretty ballin’ – 1000 square feet, 2 bedrooms, new kitchen and bathroom, and there were more closets than residents.

The hood was interesting. Our street was very residential composed of mid-rise condos. The commercial uses were concentrated a block away on Broadway. Broadway was very ethnic and our pasty white skin stuck out like a well-designed house on Rykert Street [pale is in for 2010]. We had restaurants, grocery stores liquor stores and convenience stores. Everything was pretty cheap, which was a bonus as we’re a frugal bunch… some more than others. I later learned from Erin that we were staying PAST the area that everyone’s afraid to go to.

We found a canvas shopping bag for a grocery store and set out to look for it to buy supplies. We couldn’t find it so we went to a different store that had ‘security guards’ in every aisle. When we returned to the condo, we asked the doorman where that particular grocery storey was located. He told us it was a very nice store and it was located at 125th street, a few subway stops away. We started to suspect that white people leave the neighbourhood to meet their daily needs.

I must say, I loved having a doorman. He jumps up to open the door when you enter / exit the building. It feels pretty posh. I should always have a doorman.

We soon headed to the Port Authority to meet Ma and Pa… I mean Anna and Jeff… who had just spent 10 hours on the Mega Bus from Toronto. Their border guard was super cranky and asked them for pay stubs. For real, real? Who brings pay stubs across the border?

We left early on Monday to go shopping at Century 21. It was near the former World Trade Centre site, which is now under construction. We wandered into a nearby church. It had free bathrooms. Suckers. We looked around the church. There were memorials to people who had died in the WTC everywhere. There were hundreds and hundreds of photos – and mostly young people in their 20s and 30s. After we felt thoroughly depressed, we went shopping.
Century 21 is epic. It’s in an old bank building and spans several floors. There were names like Ringspun, Diesel, Alexander McQueen, Modern Amusement and many more. The only problem, and it’s a huge problem that needs to be fixed Century 21, is that there were 5 change rooms for men that you can ONLY use if you’re trying on suits, not the regular clothes. The regular men’s clothes consumed the floor area of the Empire State Building. But men are expected to buy them, try them on at home and return items they don’t want. Srsly? The gentleman at the change room who explained this to me…. well he was a dick. I would have had no problem changing in the middle of the store, but I didn’t want to get kicked out, so I tried on shirts. A nicer employee told us that there are THIRTY-SEVEN change rooms for women, but none-ish for men. I ended up buying one Ringspun t-shirt and one pair of Modern Amusement shorts – regular price would have been $250. I paid $90.

Dear Century 21: I would have spent much, much more money in your clothing store, if I had been permitted to try on the clothes. In fact, you left me $800 below budget. How many fitting rooms does that buy? Jerks. Love, Doug.

Also, if you spend less than $110, there’s no sales tax [and tax is only 8% anyway]. It was amazing for me as a foreign shopper. But it also explains a lot of America’s social ills.

We split up. Chris and Matt went off and Anna, Jeff and I walked around Greenwich and found one of those pre-fab diners with cheap food where we could barely fit in the seats. Delicious.

I re-wired the ATM / At the Food Emporium / To provide an honourarium to anyone with the code / The code, well, A-N-G-E-L / Yet robin hooding isn't the solution / The powers that be must be undermined where they dwell / In a small, exclusive gourmet institution / Where we over-charge the wealthy clientele.

My friend Bryan lives in Hell’s kitchen. I met him in ’04 on the dance flo’ when he was a UofT engineering student and I was a York grad student. He’s a big shot NYC lawyer now. He invited me to my first opera – Armeda. It was about a woman who tricks a warrior into loving her and then takes him down to her pleasure palace. His mates come looking for him and steal him back and then girl is PISSED. Bryan explained that it wasn’t the best opera for a first-timer. I guess that’s because it was 4 hours long. Yep, I’m a champ. The building was stunning though.

I Gotta Make A Run For The Border

2010-06-05T19:18:00.007-04:00

The Trip of a Lifetime: Conclusion

2009-04-19T17:41:00.006-04:00

We went to a disco called 'The Pirate Cave' on the Wednesday Night. It was near our hotel and apparently just for tourists, but it was in a real cave - so that made it totally worth it. We went with a couple cool girls from Toronto we met at the resort - Leslie and Michelle. It was THE party night of party nights. The music was great. We found a cave kitty in the bathroom. Good times.

And now for some general thoughts on Cuba...

I can't imagine being a second class citizen in my own country. The tourists ride around in luxury coaches [far nicer than my usual ride to Toronto] and comfortable, newer model rental vehicles while the 'worthy' locals ride around in 1960s American cans, but the majority of locals hitch hike.

It's almost Disney-fied. Tourists use a separate currency than the locals [convertable pesos] and they're worth more than the Canadian dollar.

We saw families who have very little. 'Panhandling' is very common. While I was standing alone in Havana, a little girl touched my shirt and her mother said 'one dollar' and pointed to her daugher. I don't consider myself an overly materialistic person, but it makes me appreciate the things... and the relationships that I do have.

Tourists can be obnoxious. I watched this woman demand a paper towel at the bar. The bartender didn't understand. She continued her demands by speaking louder and slower. I was embarrassed for her. I don't believe Bounty - the quicker picker upper is exactly common in Cuba. Then I tripped her. Just kidding. But it would have been satisfying.

The funny thing about a resort is that you're around the same people all day long... and you begin to develop names for them because you're drunk and catty. So thank you to the following people for adding extra entertainment to the trip:

-The Aberfamily [an entire family of models... we loved to hate them]
-Tristan and his mom [a cute 5-year-old worried about looking cool and mom not embarrassing him in front of us... I was 13 when I hit that stage... what a diva]
-King Cholo, Prince Cholo and the Duke of Cho [upwardly mobile white trash]
-Dirty Hot [lowered expectations]
-Amy Shih-tzu Winehouse [the nicest bartender with the tallest hair ever]
-Caliente

Conquest vacations went under while we were there. People who travelled with them were told they had to pay $55/night to continue their stay at the resort.

This was the best feature of the resort - 'The Unnecessary Bridge'. It was a bridge over land with pathways on either side at grade. We always climbed over the bridge. It was so unnecessary.

Where am I going next?

The Trip of a Lifetime: Jeep Safari

2009-04-19T17:16:00.004-04:00

We did a jeep safari on the Tuesday. It was epic. It was the highlight of the trip for me. We signed up knowing very little information about it but quickly learned we would be driving the jeeps ourselves [well not me because I can barely drive automatic, let alone standard] across much of the country - highways, local roads, dirt roads and right through central Matansas. There were ocean views, wild fires and a glipse into rural life. It was nearly a 12 hour day and it was HOT out [on a side note, the weather was consistently 35 degrees and sunny]. We made several stops along the way: snorkeling in 15 metre deep water with coral reefs, many colourful fish and even a jellyfish, swimming in cave full of jagged rocks, a visit to a local farm growing pineapple, mangos, passion fruit, guava and sugar cane, watched a 'native dance' [not clear on how how accurate it was since the colonialists killed all the natives] and finished with a peaceful boat ride with Cristal and cigars.

The Trip of a Lifetime: Havana

2009-04-19T16:04:00.011-04:00

Cast of characters: Anna, Jeff, Jason, Paul, Steve, Chris and I.

Once we got settled and learned the ins and outs of the buffet, two lobby bars, pool bar, beach bar and south bar, we started to explore what the resort and the country had to offer.

While we all enjoy a little beach action, spending a week on the beach would quickly become monotonous. We learned the hotel had overbooked and was offering a free overnight trip to Havana for anyone who was willing to vacate their rooms for the night. Remember Cancun? After careful thought and debate, we decided to go for it.

On the way to Havana, the bus made a pit stop at the best road side pina colada stand. The pina was 2.50, but the rum was free... AND you add it yourself. Watch as Anna demonstrates.

In central Havana, the architecture is very Spanish colonial [obviously]. Between the wide boulevards and public spaces were very narrow alleys. It seemed a lot of buildings were underutilized as we could see a lot of vacant spaces. The uses were truly mixed. As we walked down the alleys, sometimes we’d look into small shops, sometimes private dwellings – all on the ground floor. The Floridita Bar was a popular attraction – Hemmingway drank there.

Our hotel in New Havana was much nicer than our resort, but it was in the middle of nowhere. The bus drove through a purely residential neighbourhood to get there – fairly nice houses on small lots with attached garages. It was on the water, but had no decent beach. It also had fortification walls around it. Seriously. The hotel was impenetrable. The electricity in the room was activated by the key card, so it all turned off when you left. The air con was activated by a closed window [I learned this the next day after sleeping in a warm room with an open window].

After dinner, we went to old Havana to party a bit and try to mingle with locals. We found a patio in the Cathedral Square where we sat and had some drinks. It was interesting that the waitress was apologetic when she brought our 60 peso bill – not a lot of money for 7 people drinking.

When the bar closed down we went to the seawall. The seawall stretches the length of the city. At night, locals go there to drink. There are some bars set up along the wall, but mostly it's BYOB. We sat there for a while and tried to blend in - a difficult task. I like to get a local experience when I travel, but we always stuck out as tourists. While we sat at the seawall, a group of people beside us started singing and dancing. They immediately stopped when we got up to leave.

The hotel had this great atrium with tiny, impractical glass elevators for you and 2 of your closest friends. Mostly, we just took the stairs.

The next day was spent in Cementerio Colon - the world's third largest cemetery. The cemetery was very dense. Bodies were entombed above ground. The tombs were very sculptural - we saw a pieta, Egyptian pyramid and zebra banding on a miniature Italianate Gothic cathedral. Then we wandered around old Havana in the daylight, this time.

Praha – The Grand Finale

2008-06-23T15:21:00.010-04:00

I got back to Maida Vale around 9pm on Friday and Marissa and I had to leave for Gatwick at 8:30am on Saturday morning. We had no problem getting to Praha. We found the hostel just fine. However, when we checked in, we were told there was no space for two people in a 5-bed room [that I booked two months in advance]. We could either split up into two separate 5-bed rooms or go together into a 32-bed room. We didn’t want to be split up so we chose the world’s largest dorm room. It was quite the sight. I didn’t have a chance to snap a photo, but it was just beds – beds EVERYWHERE… in my raccoon wounds… two bathrooms, lockers, and a door that never really closed or locked. The men's bathroom had group showers, which kinda creeped me out and kinda made Marissa laugh. The women's had private showers. Marissa and I were just stunned. We might be slightly… high maintenance travelers.

We reluctantly got settled and then went to dinner at a pizza restaurant across the street. Our hostel had an excellent location. It was outside the city centre – about a 20-minute walk – and therefore, everything around us was cheap! I had a 12” pizza for 100 crowns AND a pint of beer for 25 crowns. That converts to about $8.17 CAD. Yah, I think I love this town.

We hit up the hostel’s basement bar for ‘Happy Hour’. I asked the bartender what the drink specials were [since it was happy hour]. He told me there weren’t any. Weird. However, he said that you could buy two pints and get one free – and this offer was valid any time the bar was open. Weird. But I wasn’t going to complain. That meant that you could get THREE pints of beer for $3.66 CAD. Sold. Yah, I love this town. So we sat and chatted a bit and some people at the next table asked if we wanted to play cards – Presidents + Assholes. We agreed – took me back to the days around the lunch table at JP2. We met David, Sarah and Alex from Minnesota. I asked if they were from Mount Rose [a la Drop Dead Gorgeous]. They were not. But I was impressed they got the slightly obscure reference. They also said that the city is actually called Rose Mount and the movie fictionalized it a bit. I was slightly disappointed. After a few hands, a few pints, and a photoshoot in the men's toilet of our 32-person dorm room, the five of us set out to explore the nightlife.

We set out to a local bar that I had read about online. It was nearby, and supposedly friendly, Anglophone and a good source for information on the party scene. We got some info, met a couple creepers (including this one dude who scratched his ass for about 45 minutes) and then we left for another bar.

On the street, we met two young Czechs, Jacob and his friend [name unknown]. They were going to the same bar we were looking for but Jacob was being a Maria about helping us find it. He also accused me of thinking that I was better than him because I was a Canadian in Praha. It was pretty messed up. We had a heated discussion on the street about how it’s not about superiority, but about new and different experiences. He saw ‘different’ as a negative thing, like I was a Westerner looking to judge everything around me. He was kind of an idiot. But he did eventually lead us to the club. The club was ok. We mostly stayed near the bar and chatted.

Marissa and I got a late start the next day but we wandered around the city for hours.

More men climbing buildings - remember Manchester?

We finally made it to the city centre. I was a little nervous because Steve1 told me all these horrible things about Praha – it was dirty, dangerous, I’d get robbed by gypsies, etc. I’m not sure what happened to him when he visited, but this was not the case. You have to be smart about things, but I never felt threatened while I was there. We saw all the sights – Charles Bridge, Praha Castle, Gothic Cathedral and the high street.

These statues were peeing. Their pelvises rotated as they relieved themselves. It was... funny?

But the most interesting attraction was the Torture Museum. On three floors, it features narratives, illustrations and reconstructions pertaining to torture techniques in Europe during the 16th and 17th Centuries. It was GRUESOME. Those Europeans meant business. By the time I got to the third floor, I actually felt sick to my stomach. Naturally, we went to dinner after. We went to an upper scale restaurant in the centre. I got a traditional Czech meal – beef goulash with bread dumplings and a pint of beer. It cost less than $20. Delicious.

Metro art. It's pretty.

After dinner, we had to get back to the hostel to change rooms. We got in a 6-bed room [still not what I reserved] with four unfriendly German girls. At least these room was called 'Nice View'. It was beside the room called 'Best View'. We asked the girls in that room if their view was REALLY better than ours. They said yes... after all, their view was angled slightly toward the left.

'Nice View'.

Marissa takes a break in the room.

Then we went to ‘Happy Hour’ and to meet David, Sarah and Alex for more cards, pints and to formulate a game plan for the grand finale – last night in Praha!

Because I didn't want to be the only one with a 'traveller'...

We started in the Old Town Square to catch the Eurocup football match. There were huge project screens set up all around the square, hundreds of people and most importantly – cheap beer sold at a kiosk. We only caught the last 10 minutes of the game, but it worked out well because the crowd dispersed immediately after and we had the beer stand all to ourselves.

Look how happy we were about that!

The public toilet situation was problematic. They all seem to close at 9pm. So we picked a bar at random just to use the facilities. Then I talked David and Alex into joining me for an obligatory shot of absinthe. The bartender asked if we’d done it before and we confidently told him, ‘Of course’. He gave us the shots, sugar, a spoon and matches. We had no idea what to do.

So we learned that you put the sugar in the spoon, submerge it in the absinthe for a second, light the sugar in the spoon, let the flame burn out, dump, stir and shoot. Then the bartender told us if we were going to throw up, we had to do it outside. I laughed. He was serious. Nice guy.

Next, we set out to find a club called ‘Roxy’ that some girls at the hostel were talking about. We found it. It was closed. As if clubs in Praha close just because it’s Sunday! As we stood outside, pondering our next move, two Czech girls approached us – Anita and Bara – accompanied by a man. We chatted a bit and they discreetly told us [by the power of mobile phones] that the man with them was a creeper and wouldn’t leave them alone. So we just walked with them a bit and the man kind of fell back. He even told Alex ‘You and your party must leave now.’ Creeper.

Anita joins in.

Back to the beer stand!

Alex and I share a deep moment.

We had no real game plan, but we needed to find a toilet again. I knew of one nearby – beneath the Torture Museum – but it turned out to be closed as well. Right next door, there was a man trying to coax people into a club [also below the Torture Museum]. It was 80 crowns entry [$5 CAD] and included a free drink. At that point, we would have paid 1000 crowns!

The club was awesome. It wasn’t terrible busy but the music was awesome. It was all upbeat and housey. We walked into Rhianna’s ‘Please Don’t Stop The Music’ – how appropriate. The walls were all brick that continued into the arched ceiling. There was a stage for dancing, where Marissa and I spent most of the night.

After we got the boot [because the club closed, not because Ronnie was there], we went to the Charles Bridge. It’s MUCH nicer at 3am without all the annoying tourists – just the 7 of us. Anita showed us where to touch the bridge and make a wish. We all did.

Alex gets a little adventurous... we told him if he fell in, he was on his own. :)
After the obligatory street food, we said goodbye to Anita and Bara and walked back to the hostel in the daylight [how unwholesome]. At least we had a wicked night.

On our last day in Praha, I set my mobile alarm for 10am so we’d have one hour to get ready before the 11am checkout time. Marissa and I wanted to shower but our new room was in a suite of rooms with 1 shower for an estimated 14 people. Needless to say, it was very busy. Suddenly, I realised my mobile was still on London time, ie: it was actually 11:20am and we were late checking out. Oops. So we quickly packed up and ran downstairs. They didn’t seem to care.

We had breakfast with David, Sarah and Alex, but we were all pretty wrecked from the night before. They were preparing for a 22-hour train ride to Nice. Crazy. We exchanged contact info and said goodbye. For the whole day, we experienced on and off monsoons. We went to a local park, had lunch on a McDonald’s terrasse, shopped and checked out Frank Gehry’s building – meant to resemble two people dancing.

Around 6pm, we went back to the hostel to pick up our bags and left – exhausted. I left for Toronto the next afternoon. I was sad to leave so many great people, but happy to return to some sort of structure, routine, and so on [assuming Judy didn’t fire me, as predicted by Chris]. I need a holiday from my holiday. Asia in `09 Chris?

We Komen Aan In Bruges

2008-06-18T15:58:00.003-04:00

Six am came quickly on Thursday as I didn’t get back to Maida Vale until half 12 the night before and Marissa and I had our usual daily de-briefing until 1. Damn you and your ice cream, Nik. Getting on the tube at 6:30am, I thought I was beating rush hour. I missed the bulk of it, but there were already plenty of people wearing suits and going to work. Sick.

The Eurostar is quite nice. The staff are exceptionally nice [even though I couldn’t take my tall, skinny latte through security – don’t they know it’s a treat since I have to walk 30 minutes, uphill both ways, barefoot to get one in St. Kitts?] The trains are nice. The ride was enjoyable and fast – 400km from London to Bruxelles in under 2 hours. They travel at about 300 km/h for most of the trip, but not in tunnels for safety reasons. The train goes through tunnels below most of London and then through a tunnel below the English Channel. It’s slightly unnerving to know there’s a huge body of water above you for 20 minutes.

I arrived in Bruxelles and transferred onto a domestic train to get to Bruges. I wandered down narrow, cobble stone streets to find the hostel. It was pretty nice. I had my own room! After I checked in, took a quick nap and bought a jacket at Zara because I was cold, I set out to explore the city. I went to the main square and to the Church of the Holy Blood where you can see Michelangelo’s Virgin and Child, [one of?] his only pieces to leave Italy.

I went on a tour of their brewery and tried their 500 year old recipe. The coolest part was the wall of beer cans where visitors send cans from their respective countries. Canada was already represented.

Cholo.

Maria.

BEER!

I ate a delicious Belgian waffle and wandered through the city as the sun slowly set. It was much nicer at dusk [10:30pm] as the sun was ALMOST set and the tourists were home in bed. I like to think of myself as a traveler, not a tourist.

The next morning, I climbed the 366 steps up the Belfry tower in the main square. It was quite the puppy surprise when the massive bells rang at 2pm, 3 feet away from my head.

I went to the museum of Flemish art and saw 'The Last Judgement' by Hieronymus Bosch. It's a really creepy triptych showing the end of the world. In Hell, you see body parts, a lot of nudity, a man being eaten by a giant rabbit, a man trapped in harp strings, a man straddling a knife. It's SO bizarre. Heaven is equally as strange. I ended my stay in Bruges by the canal and windmills with a little picnic.

Biking is so big in Bruges. There were paths everywhere and all ages of people riding. There was also a massive bike parking lot at the train station for hundreds [thousands?] of bikes. It was amazing. Why can’t Canada get it right? Keep rising, oil prices.

Bruges is just one of those ridiculously beautiful cities where everywhere you look, there’s a photo opportunity.

Ten Things I Hate About London

2008-06-18T15:38:00.002-04:00

People keep asking if I’d ever live in London again. I don’t know that I would. It would take a pretty sweet offer and a flat within walking distance to work. It’s awesome in so many ways but there are a few things I’m not fond of:

1. Isolation – People avoid live interaction at all costs. They text message instead of talk on the phone. All mobiles are hooked up to facebook. Half the time, people don’t get your messages. On the tube, it’s eyes down in your daily Metro newspaper. You can be surrounded by people and totally alone.

2. The tube – 45 degrees in the summer with no air con. ‘Nuff said.

3. Oxford Street – I live the shopping but crowds and slow walkers make me homicidal.

4. Geographical Inconvenience – when you live, work and play miles apart, you spend your life indoors and underground and you remain pasty white

5. Private Public Space – Almost all parks are fenced in and close at dusk.

6. Keep Moving – there are so few places to sit down. Tired? Too bad. You can’t sit here.

7. Fees – Council Tax, tv and radio licences. What’s up with that?

8. Celebrity Worship – The Brits LOVE their celebs. All papers have pages of celebrity gossip. When I was out one night, apparently I saw a Big Brother contestant and a tv presenter. Bored now. Everyone knows who’s dating who, wearing what, and who got wasted and passed out at a club at 11pm. Oh Lily Allen, you’re not smiling now, are you?

9. Urine Stench – It actually hasn’t been so bad since I’m staying in a nice hood.

10. Terrorism - Every day on my way to work on the tube, I would read my Metro paper. Every day, there would be an article about a foiled terrorist plot against Londoners. A common method was using bombs to rip holes in the tube line beneath the Thames River so the line filled up with water. It's not like my fears were unfounded. 7/7 was tragic and horrifying.

But it’s a love/hate relationship. On a positive note, I LOVE how fashionable everyone is here. My style slips when the weather gets too hot… but not the Brits’! I love the accessibility to international travel. I love sipping wine in a park. I love most of the accents. Hot. I love that museums are free. I love that feeling of excitement when you meet up with good friends in Soho on a Friday or Saturday night.

Good times.

Love is a Label That Never Goes Out of Style

2008-06-18T15:37:00.001-04:00

Wednesday was my last full day in London. I got a late start to the day following my Tuesday afternoon lounging in Regent’s Park in the 23 degree heat and evening of Tiramisu martinis – from a recipe from a single bartender at Freedom in Soho, that he only serves to regulars. Yah, I got connections. I’m big in Europe.

I was with my friend Ozzy who claims that his friend who’s a merchandiser for Topman said it’s coming to Canada. I told him not to f*** with my emotions. So we shall see.

Anyway, on Wednesday afternoon, I met up with Steven at Oxford Circus. We weren’t sure what to do. I asked if he wanted to see my Manchester pics and he asked ‘Are they all of buildings?’ Yes they are, you jerk.  I successfully talked him into going to see the Sex and the City movie [hence the title of this entry]. It’s been out for 2 weeks and I think I was the last person in the world to see it. It was fantastic – funny, depressing, but with a happy ending and a couple of surprises. Afterward, Steve and I had separate commitments so we said goodbye for another year and a half.

I got on the tube and headed to Bounds Green to see Nik. I did a double take when I saw the world's funniest PSA:

Nik lives in a newer 7-year-old townhouse. There 3 floors with a kitchen, reception room and 4 bedrooms. The townhouses had a fairly small footprint, were only about 12’ wide and had long, narrow rear yards that backed onto the rear yard of adjacent townhouses.

I took a photo of the rear yards because they looked so interesting and compact. Nik laughed and asked if it was a ‘planning photo’. Naturally. Then I told him about the accessible parking in Derby. I commented on how warm the reception room was on a cold night. It seems that’s because of the building materials. His parents recently built an addition on their house and the building code dictates walls be made of two rows of cinderblocks with insulation between and then a row of bricks on the exterior. The result is a wall that’s nearly 2 feet thick made of a material that slowly absorbs the heat of the day and then slowly releases it at night [into the dwelling]. I asked if houses were built with wood frames and he looked at me like was mad. After a gossip sesh, song sharing and ice cream, Nik showed me this awesome website – asos.com. It stands for As Seen On Screen. It’s a British site that rips off celebrities’ outfits and sells them at affordable prices. It has a Topman style about it AND they ship to Canada! Why didn’t I know about this?

I said goodbye to Nik for another year and a half. He’s promised to come visit [if I’m ever living in Toronto again] as I explained to him that flights are a mere 325 quid in the off-season]. Toronto’s nicer in the AUTUMN anyway.

Euston Station, the Train Journeyed North…

2008-06-18T15:36:00.004-04:00

On Saturday afternoon, I took the Virgin Train from Euston to Manchester. The Virgin Trains are quite nice. They are large, plush seats, headphone jacks and it wasn’t at all busy. However, due to infamous ‘planned engineering works’ [a term I have learned to dread as it complicates your journey], there are no direct trains from London to Manchester on Saturdays until December, 2008. Instead, I took the train to Northampton. It terminated there and coaches were there waiting to shuttle passengers to Birmingham International Airport. When I arrived there, I hopped on a second Virgin Train to Manchester. The whole trip took about 4.5 hours as opposed to 3 hours under normal circumstances.

I arrived in Manchester shortly before seven. Richard was waiting for me on the platform. It was pretty surreal to see him again. He and my [Torontonian] friend Josef both helped me get my 35 kilos of luggage to the airport when I moved back to Canada in ’06.

We set out to find our hostel ‘The Hilton Chambers’. I like to call it ‘The Hilton’. After walking the wrong direction for 10 minutes, we found it. Did I mention I’m a city planner? But like most European cities, there’s little logic to the streets. It’s tough, ok? It was the most stunning hostel I’ve ever stayed it. It was all clean and refurbished. We had a twin room with an ensuite – no bunk bed! The room and loo were both quite spacious. We dropped off our bags and went for dinner in Chinatown. Though, it wasn’t cheap like Toronto’s Chinatown.

Dec room.

Nice view?

After dinner, Richard’s friend Dave came over to our room to predrink. Dave lives in Manchester so he’s familiar with the city. Around half eleven, we set out for Canal Street. Canal Street is a narrow pedestrian street with a row of shops, bars and clubs on one side, and a canal on the other. We started at two different bars, then off to a club called ‘Essential’.

Dave, Richard + I.

Out on Canal Street.

From the roof of 'Spirit'.

At the club, the cover was 10 quid [$20]!!! Anyone who parties with me knows that I don’t like to pay cover for clubs. Naturally, I tried to talk my way out of it. I told the girl I was visiting from Canada and asked if she’d ever been. She told me all about her trip to Mont Tremblant. I went on and on about how beautiful it is [even though I’ve never been]. Then she told me the cover was still 10 quid.

The club was pretty crazy. It was on two floors with hard house music, lots of pretty people, performances on stage AND in cages. It was a good time.

A caged 8-foot tall drag queen.

It was pretty bright outside when we left the club at 4am.

Blue men climbing the wall? Sure, why not?

Richard chills on a statue.

The next morning was a little rough since we had to be out of the hostel at 11am. After a breakfast [lunch?] of proper British jacket potatoes, we went shopping. We went to the Arndale. It’s a large indoor shopping centre in the city centre. However, the stores on the perimetre of the complex also had a very prominent street presence. So it was like a mall with store fronts on all four adjacent pedestrian streets.

Hello planning Heaven. So even though the complex was large, the scale felt smaller from the street. It’s like shopping on my beloved Bloor Street… WITHOUT the cars. I finally found a pair of jeans and a waistcoat… from Topman of course. The centre was badly damaged in the 1996 Manchester City Centre bombing by the Provisional Irish Republican Army and needed extensive redevelopment work. In the immediate aftermath of the bombing the southern half of the centre was repaired and refurbished. The result was the world’s largest ‘Next’ store on four floors.

Richard and I met up with Dave for dinner on Canal Street. We got a window seat overlooking the Canal.

The street was different during the day. It was equally as lively but all the restaurants appropriate street space as patios. But since it was sunny and 23 degrees [I’m told this is very rare for Manchester], it was PACKED and we had to sit indoors. After I finished my proper British bangers and mash, Richard and I got a train to Derby.

The trip was about 2 hours. We had to transfer, we ran into an acquaintance of his on the Stoke-on-Trent platform. Needless to say, we were quite knackered when we got back to his flat so we just passed out straight away. He generously gave up his room for me so I had my own room!

On Monday morning, I got a better look at my new environment. Richard lives alone in a very old 2-bedroom terrace house – the quintessential British dwelling type.

It was almost entirely refurbished so it was quite nice. It was only about 12’ wide and maybe 50’ deep [on the ground floor]. There was a 0’ front yard setback and a small ‘garden’ in the rear. You immediately enter into the reception room and then step down into the kitchen. Then you step down again into the laundry / bathroom area [added on much later]. Up a narrow, steep, L-shaped staircase is a 3’x 3’ landing with a bedroom on either side. The sinks, bathtub and eaves trough all outlet to the same exterior drain. I noticed that as the tub drained, I could hear water pouring outside – I was very confused. There was a small shed for the water heater tacked onto the back. There was no shower.

We set out to explore Derby a bit. There wasn’t a whole lot to see. We went to a new shopping complex that put the city on the map. But I didn’t buy anything this time. It was also fairly large, with all the regular high street shops and surrounded by pedestrian streets. I bought a lifetime supply of Toni + Guy heat serum [not available in Canada].
We also went to the grocery store and this is what the parking lot looked like:

The accessible parking row was perpendicular to the store and stretched all the way to the back of the lot [where I took the photo]. I couldn’t believe it. Richard wasn’t phased by it. Imagine a grandmother trying to head into the store from the last space with her walker?

Puppy Surprise! [Or is it higher up on the hierarchy?]

2008-06-11T08:48:00.003-04:00

Yesterday morning around 8am, a painter arrived to paint Marissa's kitchen and two bathrooms. The place is a disaster and we haven't been able to use the kitchen. I can't find the spoons. I couldn't shower yesterday and today we could kind of shower, but had to hold the shower head the whole time... at 7am before the guy showed up. Did I mention I got home only 3 hours earlier from the night before? Marissa had no idea this work was going to happen. Her flatmates do NOT communicate. It's VERY strange. I'm hungry.

I haven't had a chance to write about Manchester yet and I'm off to Belgium tomorrow. Good times.

Shopping, Culture and CAMP ATTACK!

2008-06-09T15:58:00.004-04:00

Shopping in London isn't the same when you're not manorexic. I spent Friday afternoon shopping at Topman [again!], River Island, Joy [forgot about that store], Debenhams and House of Fraser. I'm having trouble finding jeans, (dress) shirts and waistcoats to fit properly. Sandra, my personal trainer, clealy whipped me into shape. But do not fret, I got some great tees, a jacket, sunglasses purely for the purpose of strutting down Oxford Street, and lets not forget the 'trinkets' as the boys call them.

Later, I went to the Tate Modern [I love that place] to see the graffiti art that Angelo told me about. It was massive! There were various images that spanned the entire height of the gallery's exterior walls.

I didn't feel like spending 10 quid to get into the street art photography exhibit [I feet poor from shopping] so I checked out the regular collection. I saw Mondrian's Composition #3, which I love, a MASSIVE Lichtenstein of a war scene - very cool - two connected panels both about 10' x 10'. There was also an artist who was new to the gallery called Thomas Demand. He had 5 large photos in one room. They were exterior and interior shots of a building. I really liked them but I felt they had a strange artificial quality to them that I couldn't figure out. I read the text and it said that Demand reconstructed the locations of crime scenes out of cardboard - in this case a pub in Germany where a boy was kidnapped - then he painted the cardboard and photographed the resulting tableaux. It looked amazing and the colours were so vibrant.

Afterward, I went to meet Marissa at Baker Street for a picnic in Regents Park. But it rained a bit earlier and the grass was wet so we went to a nearby Nando's instead. Delicious.

After dinner, we had to race back to Marissa's flat to meet Steven Brown for predrinking. He arrived around 8 and the three of us got ready, drank, and so on. Steve changed a lot [in a good way]. He used to be painfully shy and we thought he was going to pass out at our Canadian Thanksgiving Dinner back in 2006. He's much more confident and outgiong now. Naturally, he has the same wicked style.

Sexy time.

The three of us headed Central around 11. We thought about taking 'travellers' since drinking is banned on the tube. We chickened out but we saw a guy drinking a beer out in the open anyway. WE were going to be subtle about it. We met up with Nik Patel. Nick and I partied together a lot in '06 and it was so surreal to be doing it again. He also played 'Roger' in his uni's production of RENT. He knows it's one of my fav musical.. probably my fav.. and he STILL refused to sing. So I cut him. Just kidding.

Soho - Dina was just asking me about it!

Finally, we were off to the Astoria for CAMP ATTACK - my fav party at my fav club in the world. It's 'camp' music from the 70s, 80s and 90s that you can scream along to... I mean sing to. It's an old theatre that's been converted [as I'm sure I've said in previous posts] so it's a huge and stunning venue. As we walked out to the balcony, 'Gloria' was playing. Gloria, GLORIA!!!! I laughed as it reminded me of the Mexican butter by the same name. No one else cared much. Where are you when I need you, Chris + Anna?

So the four of us danced the night away, left around 1 only to get some chips at the infamous Dionysis. The post-bar food became the mid-bar food. Weird. We thought it would be funny for the Brits to speak in North American accents while the North Americans spoke in British accents. I must admit, Steven + Nik have really improved!

We returned to the club to dance a while longer then called it an early night at 3:30. I was sad to leave, so I made plans with Nik and Steve for the following week.

Walking to the bus stop at Oxford Circus, a girl complimented my shirt - take THAT, Ronnie, John + Matte. I told Steven and Nik that you generally don't like my style and they questioned your collective tastes. It's a cultural thing.

The infamous TOPMAN @ Oxford Circus.

The night bus approaches.

As we sat in the upper deck of the night bus, these three drunk British guys were talking about how they had the best teeth on the bus. Naturally, Marissa and I started laughing and they noticed our smiles and changed their minds. Then the dude in the front seat threw up. Lovely.

Day 2

2008-06-05T12:55:00.003-04:00

I was on my own today since Marissa when to work, but I had a full day. I took the bus central to do a little shopping at my favourite TOP MAN!!! I also hit up Bershka. I didn't buy that much - about £100. But TOP MAN was unbarably hot and busy, so I think I'll continue that venture at a smaller location... NOT Oxford Circus.

Then I walked through Soho and ate lunch in Soho Square. I bought my train ticket to Manchester. Thanks to engineering works that are occuring on Saturday ONLY, I have to take a train to somewhere, then get on a bus to Birminham, then take the train to Manchester. It's crazy. But Saturday is the only day I can go. And thanks to... some kind of event... we didn't get the hotel we wanted OR the backup hostel. I just had to book backup hostel 2. Tragic. Apparently it's very nice... just a little pricey.

Ok, so nothing much happened today. I got in touch with a few people and they're excited to see me. Marissa, Angelo [her friend who came to my 25th bday in London] and I are making a proper Italian dinner tonight. I'm very excited - and hungry.

Marissa just showed up, I need to ask her if I can invite Steve2 to dinner.

:)

In The Beginning...

2008-06-05T12:43:00.006-04:00

I didn't sleep on the plane.

The first day here was pretty rough. I met Marissa and we were so mutually excited to see one another. We grabbed lunch at a Thai place and she showed me a tunnel of really cool graffiti. This was my favourite (a little planning humour and some warhol):

Marissa's flat is on the second floor of a walk-up apartment building with a courtyard. She has a beautiful full-length window in her room that has a view of the courtyard. She has 4 flatmates, but we don't see much of them. There are 3 other bedrooms, 1.5 bathrooms and a large kitchen. There's no social common area so people really stick to themselves... and that's not Marissa's style.

I went home to shower and change while she finished her day of work. I also took a nice nap. When she came home, we explored her neighbourhood a bit. She lives in Maida Vale which is adjacent to Little Venice. The hood is STUNNING. Kate Moss used to live here but she recently moved out. If I had lived here in London, I may have never left!

The rowhouses are narrow and well kept and are set back fairly close to the street. There's a proper high street [where I am writing this post). There's a nice park and of course, there's the canal network lined with house boats, cafes and bars. One house boat was for sale for only £49,000 [roughly $100,000]. I looked in the window and saw a nice kitchen with a dishwasher and washer/drying. It's probably larger than most flats.

We got some groceries and then crashed. I slept about 10 hours. It was lovely.

I'm Flying First Claaaaaaaaaaasss Up In The Sky

2008-06-05T12:35:00.003-04:00

Finally, here I am... 1.5 years later, waiting for the same flight into London Gatiwck. This experience is far less dramatic, however. Last time, I accidentally showed emotion in public as I waited to leave a life with which I was perfectly content to arrive at one full of uncertainty. In retrospect, it was all worth it. When I returned to Canada in December, 2006 some thing stayed the same while others changed completely. Presumably, things would have changed with or without my being there. At least this time I can expect some degree of consistency when I return in two weeks (unless Judy fires me, as predicted by Chris).

A baby is crying. Why are you flying overseas with a baby? That's cruel not only to the child, but to me.

I'm excited, but also exhausted. I'm still beat from The Johnny-Tiffy Event of '08 (John + Tif's wedding). Who plans a holiday 3 days after a wedding and goes to work for two of those days? Oh yah, me. I'm just hoping I sleep on the plane this time. I'm armed with an eye mask, ear plugs, gravol and free wine. Plus, I had to deal with Michelle at work all day. Just kidding. She bought me a cookie. Delicious.

When I arrive in the morning, I have to grab my luggage, take a train to central, get on the tube (AND transfer) to Marissa's work, get her key, head to her flat, drop off my 18 kilos of luggage (I packed light!!) and then the adventure can begin!

Posse Out

2008-05-29T12:31:00.004-04:00

Finally... 1.5 years later, I'm travelling again. I'm not really counting Calgary because, well, it's Calgary. Take that, Alberta. :)

So I'm flying into London and I'm using Marissa's flat as a home base and getting around as much as possible. People keep asking why I'm going. I say: why not? As usual, I've packed a lot of activity into two short weeks:

June 3 - St. Kittens / Toronto
June 4 - London (Zoom Airlines #210 10:30)
June 6 - CAMP ATTACK! - Come one, come all
June 7 - Manchester
June 8 - Nottingham
June 9 - London
June 12 - Bruges / Brussels (Eurostar!)
June 13 - London (Eurostar!)
June 14 - Prague (Easyjet #5493 12:05 - 15:00)
June 16 - London (Easyjet #5496 21:40 - 22:40)
June 17 - Toronto (Zoom Airlines #210 14:00 - 17:05) and back to St. Kittens

My cell / mobile phone should be working if you need to contact me.

Where in the world is Douglas J. Stiles?

2006-12-01T09:44:00.000-05:00

I'm going to be very busy for the next few weeks so I figured a global timetable would be a good idea.

December 2 Dover
December 3 - 7 London
December 8 - 11 Frankfurt / Cologne (RyanAir # 748 16:40 - 18:55)
December 12 - 13 Rome (RyanAir # 4108 20:00 - 21:40)
December 14 - 16 Paris (RyanAir # 9635 19:15 - 21:20)
December 17 London (EasyJet # 2568 15:55 - 17:15)
December 18 Toronto (ZoomAir #111 15:00 - 19:40)

All times are local!

Rememberance Day 2006

2006-11-21T15:16:00.000-05:00

On Rememberance Day, I went on a day trip to Stonhenge and Bath [pronounced BAAAAAAAAAAAth]. It was organised by BUNAC [The British eqivalent to SWAP]. I went with a few friends that I met through BUNAC. At 11am at Stonehenge, everyone observed 2 minutes of silence. It was pretty cool being at this ancient landmark and only listening to the wind.

Erin, Marissa, Tom and I at the rocks.

Afterwards, we bused to Bath. Bath is just a really, really, really, ridiculously pretty city. The city is founded around the only naturally-occurring hot springs in the United Kingdom. It was first documented as a Roman spa, although tradition suggests that it was founded earlier. It's very compact, walkable and situated on the River Avon.

Outside the baths. This eighteenth-century structure was sort of a museum to the orignal baths. There were relics, sculptures, reconstructions, original construction, infrastructure and of course, the hot springs themselves.

Inside the baths.

Chris, Marissa and Erin drinking the water. It actually tasted terrible but it was free from the Pump House Restaurant with our admission tickets into the baths.

We spent so much time in the baths we had little time to do anything else. We walked across the Palladian-style Pulteney bridge and along the river.

We all really wanted to go out when we got back to London [it was a Saturday night, after all]. But after returning to our respective flats, we all just crashed from playing tourist all day.

When Deer Attack

2006-11-19T14:22:00.001-05:00

Michelle and I ventured out to 'the deer park' bright and early on Saturday [12:45 - we were bar hopping in Shoreditch the night before]. It was a beautiful, sunny day. We took the train from Waterloo to Richmond. It was fairly spontaneous so we weren't armed with maps or other reference materials. Richmond is a really pretty area.

There's a great high street and lots of greenspace. Apparently rich, white people live there. We followed the signs to 'Old Deer Park'. Old deer park looked like this:

Because why wouldn't the deer park have its own circus? I suggested that maybe Old Deer Park got its name when all the deer got the boot. Michelle insisted that the deer existed as she had read a recent article in Time Out. I asked one of the football players if he knew anything about the deer [Old Deer Park also had football fields]. He told us they were moved years ago to Richmond Park at the top of the hill. It was about a 20 minute walk.

The article said that there were so many deer in this park that they had to be routinely killed. We expected to see maybe one or two deer if we were lucky. We saw at least one hundred deer. It was so strange. They just wandered freely mostly in large groups throughout the park. Then something weird happened [and it was caught on film, how fortunate]...

Fear the deer.

From Saturday, 25 November to Monday, 27 November, I'll be in Barcelona. It's my first international flight alone, but I'm meeting a friend there.

Saturday 25 November - London Luton To Barcelona

flight 2265; dep. Sat 25 Nov 13:00
arr. Sat 25 Nov 16:15

Monday 27 November - Barcelona To London Stansted

flight 3036; dep. Mon 27 Nov 21:10
arr. Mon 27 Nov 22:30

I should have stayed in bed today.

2006-11-16T14:10:00.000-05:00

I am having the most frustrating day. It just keeps getting more complicated.

Last week, my magnetic fob that opens the front door stopped working. Our flat is 'managed' [and I use the term loosely] by uber-incompetent letting agency, Vanet Estates. I spoke with Sheldon who referred me to Joanna last Friday. She told me she could drop one off. By Wednesday, it had not arrived. Brennon and I had been sharing the remaining one by
locking it in the mailbox. When I got home from work last night, there was a dodgy looking eastern European man standing on the porch. I didn't think much of it and I opened the door and locked the fob back in the mailbox. When Brennon arrived home an hour later, the fob was gone.

At the moment, we have no way to enter the building. Apparently, Leah from Vanet is meeting me at 6pm on the front porch with a replacement and she'll order a second one. It remains to be seen. I pay way too much rent to be putting up with this BS. I actually miss Trasherella at Skylab. She may have been the epitome of 'white trash', but at least she was efficient in her work.

Tube fun [look up 'tube map' in google to find a diagram, too lazy to post it myself] - This morning, the Central Line
[red] was not running to Ealing Broadway. It was only going to North Acton [one stop before EB]. An announcement said that I could go to Hanger Lane and take bus 83 to Ealing Broadway. I did and it worked out, but I arrived at work 30 minutes late.

I was trying to figure out the best way to get home after work. I realised I could take the District Line [green] from Ealing Broadway. It's slow but steady. I just checked the Transport for London site and apparently the District Line is closed from Mansion House to the end of the line and I need to go to Tower Hill! There was a 'fire alert' at Monument. This isn't the first 'fire alert' for Monument. It's a pretty useless station. Why not just let it burn down and close it for good?

Now I'm going to get creative. I'll take the District Line from Ealing Broadway to Mansion House. Then I can walk 5 minutes to Bank where I usually transfer from the Central Line to the DLR and I can continue as usual from there. Although, the way this day is going, I feel that I'll be changing my route again by 4:30.

An hour after I got to work, the fire alarm went off and I got to stand outside in the rain for a half hour. Good times.

So I checked the Transport for London website before I left work to get an update on the tube lines. The District Line had been upgraded to 'severe delays' due to emergency essential engineering works at Cannon Street. This meant that I could not take the Central or District lines home and they are by far the most direct. I knew I had to leave work early to make it back for 6 to meet Leah. So, I consulted with people at work and I took the 207 bus to Ealing Common Station on the Picadilly Line. Then I rode that to Green Park where I transfered to the Jubilee Line to Canary Wharf. When I got to the wharf, the DLR was INSANELY packed with bland business people so I decided to walk 10 minutes home. I arrived at 5:50. It took 1h20min which wasn't bad because my normal commute is 1h10m. I stood on the front porch waiting for Leah [remember, our fobs are rubbish so I CANNOT even enter the building]. She was late. I followed someone in to get warm. I waited in the lobby until 6:30. She was late. I called Joanna. She told me Leah was stuck in traffic [thanks for letting me know]. I got Leah's number and rang her. She apologised profusely. I told her to just ring me when she got here cuz I was going upstairs to make dinner. She showed up at about 6:45. She apologised. She moaned about traffic from Chelsea to Poplar. IS SHE NEW TO LONDON? WAS IT HER FIRST TIME IN RUSH HOUR?! WHAT A BLOODY IDIOT!!!! I KNEW TO LEAVE WORK EARLY AND I'M A FOREIGNER!!!! Cholo Maria.

Now we have one fob and I'm really tired from one messed up day.

Best Guy Fawkes Day Weekend... EVER!

2006-11-06T17:14:00.000-05:00

I had another fun-filled, action packed weekend. Quinton [my job agent], jokes that going to work is my 'downtime'. But he promises not to tell my employer. He's pretty much right. But, that's what a working holiday is all about!

Guy Fawkes allegedly tried to blow up the Parliament Buildings on November 5th. 'Remember, remember the 5th of November. Gun powder, treason and PLOT.' For some reason, the crazy Brits decide to celebrate with fireworks ALL WEEKEND LONG.

On Friday, I went out to Camp Attack with Marissa, Francesa and Angelo. I'm supposed to have photos but Marissa hasn't sent them yet. We had a great time dancing on stage and meeting several new people. The night ended around 5 with a tragic mobile phone malfunction, but I partially recovered.

Naturally, I slept until 1 the next afternoon. Saturday was the evening of the semi-formal Guy Fawkes Boat Cruise. I only had a few hours in the afternoon before I had to get ready for the boat. I ran my new jacket [which I bought with birthday money] over to Canary Wharf for a little bit of tailoring. Then all of a sudden it was half four and I had to start getting ready to meet the girls at half 6. The cruise was put on by Florida State University [my first employer when I arrived in London]. In a high-class move, we opted to bring our own booze in water bottles. The tickets were 20 quid, after all. But it was so amazing to see all of London, from the Thames River, at night, over the course of only a few hours. We started at Embankment and went west to Battersea Park. The boat stopped outside the park where we watched the fireworks from the water. To watch the fireworks from with the park cost viewers 5 quid! We got a free show [kind of]. After the show we went east to Tower Bridge [which everyone thinks is London Bridge] and then back to the pier. The views were stunning and photos were plentiful.

You missed, Guy Fawkes.

Tower Bridge [NOT London Bridge - London Bridge is horrible.]

The Eye.

Alexis, Megan, Michelle and I.

I'll have a Doug sandwich on Lindseys with a side of pink.

On Sunday, I got up bright and early at 8am to day trip to Brighton with Erin. I have decided that Brighton may very well be my favourite place on Earth, at the moment. It was a beautiful fall day, sunny and 13 degrees. As we walked down the main street to the ocean, the sun was reflecting so strongly off the water, it was blindingly bright [in Brighton... haha]! The beach is a pebble beach but it didn't bother us terribly.

Erin and I on the beach.

We still lay down, basked in the sun and chatted. There are two piers: Brighton pier, a tacky, super-kitch funhouse of flashing lights, rides, music, games and greasy, delicious food and The West Pier that burned down at some point. We tried to play 'urban archeologists' to figure out what happened to it. Here's the answer c/o Wikipedia:

"The West Pier is a pier in Brighton. It was built in 1866 by Eugenius Birch and has been closed and deteriorating since 1975, awaiting renovation. The West Pier is one of only two Grade 1 listed piers in the UK, the other being Clevedon Pier. It was the second pier of Brighton, joining The Royal Suspension Chain Pier of 1823.
Plans by the charity which now owns the pier – the West Pier Trust – to renovate the pier with help from the Heritage Lottery Fund were opposed by some local residents. The local media reported that a major concern was the impact of commercial operations on the shore which were apparently required to help fund the project. The Noble brothers – owners of the Palace Pier – joined the objectors, having originally been supporters of the restoration scheme (the 1996 Year of the Pier was launched from the Palace Pier). Their reported point of view was that subsidised rebuilding, were it to happen, would represent unfair competition.
The West Pier on fire, March 28, 2003.
Having already been cut off from the shore (partly deliberately, for safety reasons), the West Pier suffered a serious partial collapse on December 29, 2002 when a walkway connecting the concert hall and pavilion fell into the sea after being battered by storms. On January 20, 2003 a further collapse saw the destruction of the concert hall in the middle of the pier. On 28 March 2003 the pavilion at the end of the pier caught fire. Firefighters were unable to save the building from destruction because the collapsed walkway prevented them from reaching the end of the pier. The cause of the fire remains unknown. On May 12, 2003, another fire broke out, consuming most of what was left of the concert hall. Arson was suspected; the West Pier Trust refers to the fires as the work of "professional arsonists". On June 23, 2004 high winds caused the middle of the pier to completely collapse.
The West Pier in January 2006, after the most recent collapse.
Despite these setbacks, the West Pier Trust remained adamant that they would soon begin full restoration work."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Pier

After about an hour of doing very little, we walked along the boardwalk and checked out all the kitchy souvenier stalls. Erin bought 3 pairs of earrings for one pound. I finally had my very first [expensive] fish & chips meal on a patio on the beach. After lunch, we wandered the narrow streets of an area called 'The Lanes'. The Lanes were originally a market area of the city so they're extremely narrow and compact. Afterwards, we went to the palace. The palace was built for Prince Regent (later King George IV) after his first visit in 1783. The palace looks quite striking in the middle of Brighton [surrounded by common British urban fabric], having a very Indian appearance on the outside.

After the pavillion, we went to the free Brighton Museum. There was an excellent display of surrealist furniture including Salvador Dali's couch in the form of Mae West's lips. There was even a miniature version of it in the kiddie room. Why must I end up in the kiddie room of every museum I visit? Brighton has quite the history. Despite being fashionalbe for royals in the 18th and 19th Century, in the 20th Century, it suffered all kinds of problems. Mental health patients were sent there in large quanties to recover from their illnesses naturally [in nature]. Nature is still thought to have a physiological healing effect according to some planning literature I read last year. There was poverty and large amounts of council housing was built in the form of two-floor terrace [row] houses. Those houses now appear to be gentrified and painted bright colours. Brighton was also devastated in the war. The beaches were closed and massive barbed wire barriers were erected on the beach to prevent invasion from the ocean. Underground bunkers were built in parks and playgrounds and schools often evacuated. Thousands of homes were destroyed or damaged. Thousands of people died or were injured. There were photographs, videos and audio narratives presented in the museum.

On a lighter note, as the sun began to set, we raced back to the beach with our inexpensive alcoholic beverages to enjoy the most amazing sunset I have ever seen. The ocean was at low tide and had receeded to reveal a wet sand base. As a result, all the colours in thy sky were also reflected on the ground. It was visually overwhemling. Then the fireworks started.

Erin and I enjoy a romantic sunset on the beach in Brighton.

Following sunset, the temperature dropped by about 20 degrees. We decided to explore the pier where we could be partially indoors. We walked through the casino/arcade and were tempted by the slot machines. Erin put a 10p coin into one machine but we weren't sure how to work it. The woman next us showed us what to do. We didn't follow. But the woman suggested we put in another 10p coin. We did. All of a sudden the machine starts flashing '8.00'. I asked the woman if that meant Erin had won 8 pounds. She confirmed it. I yelled at Erin to quit while she was ahead. She bought us dessert with her winnings.

We walked along the pier into the inky blackness of the night. There were rides, music and food stalls. However, there were very few people out on the pier that evening. For dinner, we enjoyed some of the best chicken fried rice ever. It was fresh. They grilled the rice, veggies, chicken and egg right in front of us.

Erin and I dining and dancing on the pier.

We left the pier after grabbing some donuts and a couple 'Belgian waffles on a stick' and headed for Kemptown. It's a trendy Annex-like area with great bars and shops. We enjoyed a couples of pints at the 'No Name' bar and reflected on the day. When we finished, it was about 9pm. We had planned to leave Brighton around 5pm so we could get back for Sunday Dinner with the FSU girls. However, Brighton was just so beautiful and so much fun that we had to pack in as much activity as possible.

When I got home at 11pm Sunday night, the fireworks started.

I'm still feeling a little rough from the weekend. It was so much fun, yet somewhat exhausting. This week at work, I'm working with the Planning Enforcement team. I'm covering for a woman who's on holiday. I think I might like it better than my job. The work is time-sensitive. There's more exposure to planning legislation. I get to liase with different people. And I feel like the work I'm doing actually matters.

This weekend, I'm day tripping yet again to Bath and Stonehenge. I'm going on an organised BUNAC trip and will be joined by Marissa, Erin, Chris and Tom. It should be a good time. Other than that, I'm trying so very hard not to make plans. I need some sleep!

The Most Bizarre Night in London to Date.

2006-11-02T16:35:00.000-05:00

Michelle is doing this '365' project where you take a photo of your day, every day, for one year and post it online. It's supposed to make you reflect on the events of your life for the past year. She selected this photo that represents the most bizarre night in London to date. The photo makes me laugh - a tough, urban alley way and a not-so-tough urban boy.

Michelle and I started the night together at a pub in this alley, the name escapes me. But it was so hard to get a beer because it was so busy that we left. On the way out, we ran into Alexis and Megan on the street. It was the first time I've run into people I know in London. It was weird, yet Toronto-familiar. We went to another small Soho pub. We stood outside drinking and we ran into more people I know - Andy and Suba. I met them during my first week in London. They were off to see Girls Aloud at The Astoria. I couldn't be arsed to pay 12 quid for the show [look, I'm proper British]! The pub closed so we moved to a bar on Old Compton Street. I was supposed to meet my friend Talim there, but we couldn't find him. At midnight, the bar closed so we went off to Covent Garden to find a bar that would be open late.

On the way, we passed the Astoria with it's massive queue. All of a sudden, Megan screamed. Then I screamed. Then everyone in the queue started screaming. It was total hysteria. You see, London has a problem with public urination. But until that night, no one had seen a girl do it. There was this girl on the pavement, squatting, doing a full frontal. Megan and I held each other quietly sobbing for the next 3 blocks or so.

We went to O'Niell's on Great Queen Street. At this bar, we met a group of crazy Scandanavian businessmen aged 27 - 60 from Oslo and Stockholm. They were impressed that we had been to Stockholm. They were quite the characters. The old one [the 60 year old] did 'The Steve' with Megan. Named after Steven Fogal, it involves kneeling on the dancefloor, then bending all the way back at the knees so your back touches the floor. We couldn't believe it. It was so shocking.

Finally, around 3am, I heard from Talim. He had been at a different bar and he was clearly quite drunk. He asked if I could meet him outside the Dominion Theatre. My night was winding down so I went to go meet him. I needed to yell at him for ditching me. When I arrived, he wasn't there. I rang him and he told me to go to his friend's place around the corner. I found the address and arrived at the most stunningly beautiful Soho loft in the world [haha]. Talim was so wasted he didn't know how I ended up there. He thought it was just some coincidence that I found my way to the same afterparty... in London... right...

I took a tour of the 2-bedroom, 2-bathroom, 2-floor loft, but then the party got pretty dodgy so I had to leave [my momma didn't raise no FOO].

And this photo will forever represent that night.

My Canterbury Tales

2006-11-02T15:07:00.000-05:00

About a week and a half ago [too busy to post!], Marissa and I went to Canterbury. We went mainly to the the oldest Gothic cathedral in the UK, that I studied briefly while at UofT. We hopped on a bus bright and early Sunday morning and set out for the 2-hour journey via coach. It was a miserable day but we made the best of it with colourful umbrellas. When we got off the bus, I was surprised at all the high street stores in such a small city [150,000] - h&m, topshop, and so on. It took 6 million people in Toronto to get an h&m! This town must get a lot of tourists. The main street was fully pedestrianised with heavy foot traffic. The buildings were so beautiful done primarily in a proper British tudor style.

We set out wandering the streets. We found a farmer's market at which we weren't allowed to dine. The restaurant was completely empty but we were told they were full. It was suspicious. We saw the old entrance gates from the former fortified city as well. Finally, at noon, the cathedral opened.

GAP... oh, and UK's oldest gothic cathedral... :)

The Canterbury Cathedral.

We spent about two hours wandering the cathedral. I've never actually been inside one. I've just seen a couple thousand photos [I'm not exaggerating, am I Anna?] It was MASSIVE and since it's so early in the Gothic period, it's a smaller example of the style. Insane. This is the ribbed vaulting of the nave.

Interior transcept quadropartite elevation.

Interior choir elevation.

A view from the apse right through the cathedral to the west facade.

Marissa and I chilling in the cloister.

After the cathedral, we went to the Roman Museum. It was very silly, but we got a student discount. It was in a basement. The highlight were some original Roman foundations that predated the British occupation. The rest of the 'museum' was kind of a joke. The descriptive text was all on paper printed off a computer. There were old school mannequins that acted out various scenes of daily Roman life. It looked like a budget master's thesis or something. As we played with the tesserae [glass mosiac tiles] in the children's area, we overheard a man exclaim that it was the best museum he'd ever been in. We had to cover our mouths to avoid laughing out loud.

Next we went for hot chocolate and 'brown sauce'. I'm still not sure what this brown sauce is all about. I don't know when it's appropriate to eat it, or why anyone does. Its ingredients remain a mystery... I mean.. BROWN SAUCE... What is appetising about that?

We tried to go to 'The Tales of Canterbury' exhibit. But we weren't exactly sure what it was and although the guy at the front desk was very passionate about it, we passed as the student price was still 7 quid.

After a spot of shopping, we went for dinner at 'Cafe Latria' [above]. After a day in the rain, we wanted a hot meal in a cozy environment. We sat on the upper floor, by the window of this charming tudor building. We had a delicious soup and sandwich.

It was definitely nice to escape London for the day.

A Slightly Censored Quarter-Century :)

2006-10-19T16:39:00.000-04:00

I was fretting my 25th birthday for many reasons. Getting old sucks. But celebrating without all my Canadian friends and family was even more difficult. Fortunately, my London crew made it a blast. It was by far, the most international party I've ever hosted. We represented five countries: Canada, US, Italy, UK and New Zealand. The evening began at Michelle + Dracine's flat in Soho. They prepared cheese and crackers, some delicious creamy olive wraps and of course, WINE AND BEER! I brought crisps and biscuits. We hung around, drinking and chatting for a few hours. Then we were off to Camp Attack at the Astoria. It was definitely one of the more debacherous nights I've seen in London. The international theme continued at the club as we met some French, Welsh and an Australian. Erin probably had the most fun of all us. I ended up closing the club at half four when the lights came on. Oh, the shame. Most of my friends had left by that time. Erin was still kicking around but I couldn't find her. Fortunately a text message from her indicated she was a-ok, so I left for Poplar.

Alexis and I predict: The 'Lamb + Mint' crisps will not go over well tonight.

Michelle, Alexia and the spread.

Italian Sandwich: Marissa, Francesa, Angel + I

Bar star Erin and I.

Erin, Anthony [came all the way from Toronto!] and Brennon.

Yah, that's proper British.

Good times!

Calgary: Canada's Nottingham?

2006-10-17T14:06:00.000-04:00

Nottingham is nicknamed the 'guns and gangs capital' here in the UK. I got this email from Chris today and it's so bizarre that I had to post it. I just sat in the office with my mouth gaping open as I read it. The moral of the story is: do not open your door at night. Here it is:

------------

So this morning at around 2:30 am my telephone rang and shook me from a
very deep sleep. At first I was concerned that someone had died, but
luckily it turned out to be the front door. I was told that it was 'The
Plumber' and that the apartment below me had flooded and he needed to
come in to look at my bathroom. Mmmmhmm. Luckily TV and a
non-so-distant alley-way encounter have made me sceptical and scared of
people, so I refused to buzz him in. Not 90 seconds later there was a
knock at my door. I looked out my peephole to see a man with a large
red tool box. The toolbox made me think, momentarily, 'Well, he must be
a plumber then.' But logic set in and I refused to open my door without
some confirmation that he was legit. Of course, he couldn't seem to
produce anything confirming who he was, and Matt telling him there was
no water in the bathroom was not good enough. We suggested that he give
us the number of his work, or get them to call us, or have the people
downstairs come up and confirm the situation (which would have made the
most sense you'd think). Nope, he didn't agree to any of these, we
should just let him in. He finally stormed off saying that if there was
any damage we would be responsible. Mmmhmmm. Then we could hear
knocking on someone elses door down the hall, so we called the Police.

The Police showed up within 5-10 minutes and saw no lights on in the
apartment below, or any sign of 'The Plumber'. Apparently we did the
right thing not letting him in, the normal route for such a case were he
telling the truth would be to have Management call us. So I couldn't
get back to sleep last night thinking of all the horrible things that
could have happened if we'd opened the door (not that I would have).
Sketchy huh? So DON'T either of you ever answer your doors in the
middle of the night to strange people! Seems like common sense, but
apparently it happens all the time. I think the lesson of the story is
'Don't Trust Anyone, Always Be Suspicious'. There could be a terrorist
in your home RIGHT NOW.

But seriously, where do I live? Why am I having such bad luck with
violence and attempted violence? I live in a good 'hood, perhaps too good. Apparently being
associated with our nice building makes people think we have nice things
:) We just rent silly.

Anywho, now I have to try and stay awake at work on a Council day that
is predicted to run until 8 pm. I am the last item on the agenda. :(

Have a goooooood day y'all.

Chris

Stockholm: No one does it like librarians.

2006-10-16T16:37:00.000-04:00

Saturday began at 4:30am so I could catch the 4:55am night bus to Liverpool Street and take the 5:30am train to Stanstead so we could arrive two hours before our 8:35am flight. People on the night bus at that hour are NOT a pretty bunch. We however, were surprisingly perky.

We arrived at our hostel in the early afternoon. This is a view out the window of our private room. It's very typical of Stockholm architecture: about 5 floors high and very colourful with lots of flowers. It also reminds me of a puzzle I had circa 1986.

We spent Day One exploring the city on foot with a bit of shopping, of course. We struggled to find a place to eat that had an English menu AND that was relatively afforable. There is an H&M on every corner, literally. It was really something. I didn't see a single Starbucks though. We stopped to rest on the above bench. I turned around and this boat was headed straight for us. I asked the girls if they were worried about it and they ran off screaming. The relationship between land and water is somewhat undefined. There are no fences or guard rails, just sidewalk and then a drop right into the water. Apparently, we were sitting at some kind of ferry dock but there was no visual indication that it was a place where a boat actually docked.

Showing off our new purchases while predrinking on Saturday night. Swedish posse!

We went to three bars that night. This is the second bar. It was open-air [so cool!], which meant it was a little cold, but there were heaters to keep us warm. Michelle and I were twins/models in our scarves. At the third bar, we met an Australian guy and Italian girl from Amsterdam who commented on our similar appearances.

A post-bar horror: The vegetarian feasts at McDonald's. How many vegetarians will I convert?

Many of the streets look like this photo. This central zone for pedestrians and cyclists shaded by a generous tree canopy divides one or two lanes of traffic and a dedicated transit lane in both directions. It made for a pleasant walk to the Vasa Museum.

This photo shoes the relationship between the land and water. This parking job made me nervous. Certainly, I am not that skilled behind the wheel.

We decided to visit the Vasa Museum. The Vasa was a 17th Century double-decker warship that sunk on it's maiden voyage and was underwater for about 300 years until 1951 when it was found and lifted out of the water. This entire museum is dedicated just to the ship with artefacts, models, reconstructions, films, and of course the massive ship, itself. When you walk in, the museum is very dark and quiet. It felt like we had arrived at a funeral, except that there were intermittent camera flashes from all around. The photo does not capture the massive scale of the ship. But it was taken from the highest possible point in the museum. I think Derek and Joey would have enjoyed it.

Afterwards, we went to the park across the street. Dracine sat down to rest [we were all tired from the night before] but Michelle and I were determined to keep going strong. We stumbled upon the Secret Garden [play the video]!

After the park, we went back to Gamla Stan [the old part of the city]. The sun was setting and all the lights were coming on. It was so beautiful to see the light reflecting in the old squares, on the cobblestones and across the narrow streets and alleys. We had our 'nice dinner' this night. We ate at an Italian restaurant and drank lots of wine!

On Monday, we went to Skansen. We had a very friendly bus driver who was quite intereted in chatting with North Americans. We were caught off guard. We live in London. Bus drivers here are feared. Skansen is an outdoor museum of Swedish history. Buildings of all periods have been moved here from around the country so you can walk around this contained area and view all kinds of examples of Swedish architecture and building types. They also had native animals. There were bears, lynx, moose, reindeer, seals and a crazy little wolverine.

Bears.

19th Century green roof.

The view.

Stay away from that tree!

When we left Skansen, we got the SAME bus driver. I couldn't believe it. He gave us a free ride! I could believe that either. As we drove through the streets, he provided us with a guided tour. He asked if we'd heard of the Stockholm Syndrome [that's when a kidnapped person starts to sympathise with their kidnappers]. I thought, 'Oh my God, he's going to kidnap us.' But actually, he showed us the bank where the Stockholm Syndrome originated. He asked where we were going and we told him we were on our way to the airport and were catching a coach from Central Station. He told us he would go off route to drop us off at the front doors of the station. We were all pretty stunned. Michelle tried to tell him that it wasn't necessary but he made an announcement in Swedish and all of a sudden he was navigating some extremely narrow streets that clearly pre-dated mass public transit. I thought we were going to take out a building or five. But we made it to the station and gave a big thank you.

We ate dinner at McDonald's in Central Station [we were in a rush]. I can justify it because it was a nice McDonald's with a carved wood ceiling, mood lighting and tvs on the wall. I recognised the station on one of the tvs. Four girls were walking through it. I commented that it would be funny if it was live. We left McDonald's and saw the same four girls. We thought they might be Swedish celebrities so Michelle snapped a photo.

It was such an amazing trip. The recap was slightly censored. I need to do another.

Fun with numbers?

2006-10-10T14:48:00.000-04:00

My pay situation is not working out. My limited company needs to send my p45 to Inland Revenue. You need a p45 from every employer that you leave. It usually takes a month to process by your last employer. I had mine rushed because they actually still liked me and it only took 3 weeks or so. I got my p45 to my Limited Company on Oct 5. It takes about a week for the limited company to process. Next, they send it to Inland Revenue and then it takes a minimum of 28 days to process and then my tax rate may be reassessed. At the moment, I am being taxed at 'Basic Rate'... 40%. I make 9.73/hr. Therefore, I take home 5.21/hr. That's less than minimum wage. Did I mention I live in London? So I have about 30 days until my tax rate MIGHT be reassessed. I'm going home to cry, now.

I've cut corners everywhere. My weekly income is about £20 less than my weekly expenses [that doesn't include 'fun' money]. There's nothing left to cut. I read today that due to a shortage of prison cells, criminals are being offered £2500 to leave the country. Perhaps if I turn to a life of crime... is that the solution? What does it take, Inland Revenue? If I were making twice as much money, I would BARELY be scraping by.

If a Londoner ever complains to me about all the illegal immigrants here, I will hit them... very hard. Doing it the legal way is designed to make you fail. If you can't do it with a master's degree and a few thousand dollars in your pocket, WHAT THE HELL DOES IT TAKE?!

Canadian Thanksgiving

2006-10-09T16:15:00.000-04:00

Bren and I hosted Thanksgiving at our flat yesterday. Bren did all the cooking [I did some stirring]. We ended up feeding fifteen people and we still had leftovers. It was one epic meal. We invited our British and American friends. Many of the Brits weren't really familiar with Thanksgiving so we opened the evening with an explanation of the holiday. I never really thought about how North American it is. I also didn't realise how much I would have missed it if Bren hadn't cooked up a storm. My mom always does a pretty huge feast and this was the first year I missed it. The night went smoothly. Everone brought a bottle of wine and only one guest got a little out of control and started saying inappropriate things to others.

The calm before the storm.

The food.

The reason for the season.

Girls.

Boys.

Also, I FINALLY saw Avenue Q last weekend! I went down to the theatre with a friend and we scored standby tickets in the THIRD row for a mere 20 quid [student price]. Avenue Q is sort of an R-rated Sesame Street with human actors and muppets, with classic lines like 'Ethnic jokes may be uncouth, but you laugh because they're based on truth...' The show is about how much life sucks immediately after university: You have no money. You live in the ghetto. You forget who you are. You find love. You lose love. Your ex starts dating someone called 'Lucy The Slut'. You question your purpose in life. Interactually, it may have hit a little too close to home. I have all the music now. It's fantastic.

Surprises @ Ealing Broadway

2006-10-03T13:44:00.000-04:00

I'm back safe + sound from Stockholm. It is such a beautiful city. I will post stories and photos later when I'm not so tired. It's a 9-hour trip from 'door to door'.

I just had to share a weird discovery at work today. I was using a coworker's phone [Ben] to speak with my limited company and to prove my identity, I had to state my birthday. When I got off the phone, Ben questioned my birthday. I comfirmed the date [a mere 10 days away people - and it's a milestone, a quarter century!] He told me that he and our other co-worker Zoc were also born on October 13th.

Weird.

I am 1981.
Ben is 1982.
Zoc is 1983.

We're also all working-holiday makers.

I am Canadian.
Ben is Kiwi.
Zoc is Australian.

We're the three newest staff members.

We're also all over-qualified for the work we are doing.

Needless to say, it was the talk of the office today!

York Grads Go Global

2006-09-26T15:47:00.000-04:00

I am so proud of us crazy FESers. We represent internationally. Lia is in Ghana and I'm hoping to visit her for a few days this Autumn. And Jessica Park [pictured below in my flat in London] is in Johannesburg. Parker was here last weekend and we hung out on Sunday. We were very excited about buying sandwiches for 24p. Park told me all about how violent Joburg is. She was told that she WILL get mugged while she's there and if she's lucky, she won't get shot or car-jacked. Public transit exists only in certain areas at certain times. She won't be able to go out alone at any time of day. I think she's crazy. I feel so much safer in London now.

I went to Notting Hill Carnival a few weeks ago. It's similar to Toronto's Caribbana, but it feels much, much busier. It takes place in Notting Hill, an area made famous by that dumb movie of the same name starring Sandra Bullock and one of the three famous British actors. It was quite the party. The events took place along several blocks. As the streets are fairly narrow, so it felt packed. All of the local businesses had been boarded up like there was a hurricane evacuation. Local residents charged one pound for use of their toilets because for some reason, beer was plentiful yet public toilets were scarce. There was a parade, stages, djs, music, dancers, beer, booze and FOOD!

The crowd on the streets during the carnival.

Michelle enjoys a tasty treat.

Steve and I bought shooters from a random woman in the street. Delicious!

On an unrelated note, we found this chocolate bar with a strange marketing campaign. Since we're not girls, we bought two. I guess it works!

Alexis and I outside the Energie store. We both loved the scarf in the window and shared a photo opportunity [she may have loved it even more than I did]. I bought it the next day. This was the night I finally went to the Canada Pub in Covent Garden. It was slightly disappointing. It looked like a British pub with maple leaves carved in the woodwork. There was no Canadian beer. I miss my Alexander Keith's India Pale Ale. *single tear*

This is yet another short of Greenwich Park. It may be one of my favourite places in London. Bless.

An overexposed night view of Canary Wharf from my bedroom window. Ahh... so North American: new, clean and lacking that urine stench of most of the urban fabric.

Last weekend, I thought it would be a good idea to venture out to a retail park way out at Gallion's Reach in east London. When I got off the DLR, I walked down the above road. It looked just like that for fifteen minutes. I couldn't even believe I was still in London. I finally got to the mall and bought two pairs of Diesel trousers for cheap [this was before I realised my money situation was dodgy]. When I left the mall, I decided to take the bus to the DLR because I didn't want to be the only sign of life, walking down that road. I went to the bus loop, studied the signs very carefully, and learned it was only a 4 minute ride to the DLR. The bus came and seemed to overshoot the bus stop. I got on and enjoyed a lovely ride with a child who was SHRIEKING and other passengers, who thought it was cute. *I* thought it needed a slap. Twenty minutes of wailing later, I still hadn't seen the DLR. I got up and asked the driver if he was headed to the DLR or if I was on the wrong bus. He told me I was on the wrong bus, but I just had to cross the street. I stood at this bus stop SOMEWHERE in east London as the sun began to set waiting for a bus. I had no map. I was the only white guy for miles. I was wearing capris. I anxiously awaited the arrival of the bus! It came about 10 minutes later and I put my arm up to flag it down, as I would have for a taxi [you have to flag down buses in London]. The driver kind of waved back, which struck me as odd. When I got on the bus, he started yelling at me that I had signaled for the bus wrong, 'THIS, means nothing!', he said. 'Hold your arm straight out like this! Straight out!' I was so shocked, lost, scared, alone, in the dark and there were probably wolves around. So uncharateristically, I apologised and sat down rather than telling this cranky, overweight man what I thought of him and his damn arm. The ride back to the DLR was quick even though I had gone so far out of my way. I certainly learned my lesson: There is no reason to venture off the tube line.

This weekend, I'm going to Stockholm with Michelle and Dracine. We leave Saturday morning around 9 and return Monday night around 11.

Doug Stiles - Planning Support Officer

2006-09-12T13:58:00.000-04:00

Sept 12, 2006 -> I finally reached my goal. I am living, planning and traveling in London.

I took the day off work last Thursday to get my National Insurance number. I was asked about my fancy 'Search Engine Optimisation Consultant' job with the Visa Bureau and then I immediately provided the guy with search engine optimisiation tips for his own website. When I left the office, my mobile rang. It was Quinton from my job agency. He told me that I had been offered a planning job - without an interview! He also said they wanted me to start on Monday. I proposed a Tuesday start date to give myself a long weekend... again. On Friday, I told Oonagh [from the Visa Bureau] that I had been offered a career-related job and had to quit. She was happy for me, but sad to see me go. She asked how long I could continue working - I said '6 o'clock'. I was worried they might be angry but Oonagh was really nice about it and even offered herself as a reference for the future. As it turns out, my flatmate Brennon might replace me at Visa Bureau.

I started my job as a Planning Support Officer with the local borough of Ealing. Ealing is AWESOME. I would like to live there if it wasn't way out in zone 3. But the council office is on a major high street. There are all the banks, three grocery stores, a large park, two Toni+Guys [because one is never enough, right Bloor Street?] and a TOP MAN! I haven't seen too much of it yet, but I plan to explore this week.

The job itself is fine. It's a little basic at the moment. I'm just preparing application files for the planners. The position will get slightly more involved, but I expect it won't be nearly as interesting as my work with the CRCA. However, it is still an introduction to the wonderful world of planning in the UK. I also get to wear nice clothes to work and no one asks, 'Why are you so dressed up?' Therefore, I'm happy. It's a 3-month contract which will expire about the time I go home for Christmas.

In other news...

Steve left London on Friday morning. On Thursday night it was a battle to get him to meet me for drinks at our beloved Ku Bar at Leicester Square. He was with his friends Dave [a Londoner] and Chelsea [visiting from Canada] in south London and they wanted to stay in and watch a movie [because doesn't everyone come to London to veg out in the suburban south end]? Anyway, he was fully prepared not to meet me and just leave the continent without a proper goodbye. Somehow, I managed to convince him to come out. Some people's kids.

Brennon's friend Erika and her boyfriend were staying here. Some of you met Erika at Bren's birthday party in Waterloo. On Saturday, they bought me a Palestinian scarf from Greenwich Market while I shopped in Soho. That night, Erika, Bren and I went to a fairly random bar in Lewisham. Lewisham is at the end of the DLR line in the south. We made the trek out of the city because Bren knows the bartender. This meant that we were buying ROUNDS of DOUBLE vodka drinks for a mere 4 pounds. Needless to say, we had a GREAT night! We even mingled with some of the locals.

I went back to Greenwich Park on Sunday... AGAIN. I went with a friend and we had a nice time chatting, drinking non-alcoholic beverages and lying about in the sun as it was a beautiful day - about 30 degrees. Afterwards, I went to Keiko's place in north London with my American girls [happy Derek?] and we had our weekly potluck dinner. Next week, our potluck is themed '4 pounds or less'. We each have to bring a dish / bottle for under 4 pounds. I found a bottle of wine in Somerfield's for 1.66!

This weekend, Jessica Park [from FES @ York] will be staying with me!! I'm pretty psyched.

I know I have some photos to post... I'll get to that.

Greenwich Illustrated

2006-08-26T09:23:00.000-04:00

So this is what you find at DLR station 'Cutty Sark for Maritime Greenwich'...

Then I stumbled on to the Old Royal Naval College. This church was designed by Christopher Wren.

Colonade.

Perfect baroque symmetry.

Venetian pastoral or picturesque of the Enlightenment? Probably the latter. This is England, after all.

Ominous dark clouds rolled in over the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich Park. But I still decided to climb the 'mountain' to the Observatory.

I took this photo of the classical-inspired museum with the super-modern Canary Wharf development in the background right before the rain started. Everyone pulled out their umbrellas. Mine was safe and dry at home.

First Football experience / Marathon Saturday

2006-08-20T12:48:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I had my first football experience. I finally met up with fellow planner Jeremy Henderson. He invited me to join him and his girlfriend Jill and flatmate Matt to watch the Arsenal game at a local pub. I invite Michelle and the two of us headed up to north London. Jeremy described the experience as 'London at its absolute, proletarian finest' and told me I would be required to 'eat poorly, drink far more than is recommended by the surgeon general'.

I don't really have an interest in football, but since it's such a huge part of British culture, I wanted to check it out. We all met up at Jeremy/Jill/Matt's place and started drinking at 2pm. The pub we went to was packed, of course, standing room only. There was a big screen on one wall. It was a beautiful day outside but all the windows were covered so we entered a dark, seemingly sketchy, smoke-filled establishment. The crowd was wild and loud as they chanted/cheered for the home team. Michelle and I got covered in beer during post-goal cheering, jumping and leaping. After the tie game [1-1, how anti-climatic!], we grabbed some pizza and went back to their place where we decided it would be a good idea to drink more beer and do a few shots of absynthe [also a first for me].

Michelle and I parted around 8:00 at Holborn. Later, I learned that the poor girl doesn't remember getting home but she woke up on her couch, fully clothed at 8am Sunday morning. She also had no idea where her camera was, but it turns out she left it at Jeremy's and not on the tube as we feared.

Needless to say, when I left at 7:30, we were all quite drunk. I had a great time but I had to leave to go meet Drew Mighton who randomly called me on Friday to say he was passing through London on his way to Spain. That's the funny think about London. People are always passing through. No one is permanent. It's the most transient town I've ever experienced. I was late to meet Drew at Poplar but he was later so it worked out well.

Remember Drew? Remember Drew at 241's party on Sherbourne? :) Obligatory kitchen shot.

We continued drinking at my place [I'm not sure why I thought that would be a good idea] and then we were off to the club where we met up with Nik + Owen. By 2am, my marathon drinking day had to come to a close. I haven't left a club that early in a long time but it was definitely time to call it quits.

Hopefully I can throw some photos of football here when Michelle gets her camera back!

From London to Berlin, in every disco I get in...

2006-08-03T09:11:00.000-04:00

And we rewind...

Square-framed glasses sandwich.

Finally, you can read about my Berlin adventure with David to visit Steve! For the MESers, it was unfortunate that I arrived the DAY AFTER Andrea Winkler left! David and I got off to a rocky start when we unknowingly hopped onto the first class car of the Gatwick Express train. We boarded and thought 'This is nice, air conditioning, big seats... and a free paper?!' The free paper was the big tip off. Then the ticket collector came and told us we were on the wrong car, unless we wanted to upgrade. Naturally we had no interest in that so we moved. It was a quick ride to the airport and since we had already printed our boarding tickets, we were able to skip the check in and enter the security queue. It appeared to be massive but we got though quite quickly and then we had lots of time to wait around in the airport. Good thing we left extremely early like I wanted! The flight was quick and easy and Steve met us at the airport. To our surprise, he was in a rush saying how we were going out. We ended up going to a club that was in the basement of a cafe and you had to walk through the cafe to access the club. It had a nice terrasse with projections on the wall. It was rock/indie night [someone didn't do his homework] so we weren't big fans of the music, but we just hung out and had a good time.

On Saturday, we had breakfast at an American style cafe [sad face]. Then we checked out Berlin's pride parade [but on the way, I got to see the Bauhaus Archieve!] The parade was pretty busy and very much community-based, featuring floats of local groups, businesses and organisations rather than flashy corporate-sponsored floats.

We had cheap dinner [2 euro doners] in Steve's neighbourhood. Steve lives in the 'Turkish ghetto'. He doesn't like his neighbourhood [but we all know he's a Yorkville snob]. I thought it was great! There are so many cute/cheap stores and cafes centred around the U-bhan [subway/tube/underground] station. There are a number of sketchy characters that hang out at the U-bahn station, but they seemed harmless.

The streets are fairly vibrant with enough sidewalk traffic to provide a sense of security. And you can get a meal for really, really cheap. We went to Berhain that night [Steve's favourite techno club]. The club was a former power plant so it was MASSIVE at about 5 floors. I'm not really a techno fan, but I went with an open mind because it's a big part of German culture. Also, Steve promised me that the smaller room was less hardcore but that was unforunately not the case. I danced for a while but I got bored and HOT, dancing to what felt like the same lyric-free song for an hour, so I went to the 'chill out' room and chatted with a couple strangers.

On Sunday, our day got off to a slow start but we finally played tourist! We had a delicious brunch on a terrasse. I wanted a definitive German meal so I got these meatballs with a German potato salad. It was sooooo tasting + delicious. Next, we went to the Jewish Museum [by Daniel Libeskind]. I had seen it in school and I finally got to visit, which was very exciting. It really was 2000 years of Jewish history, although we were particularly interested in the holocaust artefacts. David and Steve enjoyed the children's table where they both produced stunning works of art in the medium of Crayola.

The facade of the Jewish Museum. I believe the cuts are representative of physical and emotional scars.

A view upwards in the Holocaust Tower by David. It was supposed to simulate the experience of Jewish people in hiding during the war. You were isolated in a silent space, but you had sensations of the world outside: street noise and a tiny amount of natural light.

The 'garden'... 49 columns representing... something...

David and Steven take a break at the kiddie table.

We went to a portion of the Berlin Wall afterwards. Steve had already been there five times so I learned a lot. The wall is actually two walls with a 'death zone' between. The death zone had electric fences, barbed wire, patrol guards and it was watched over by towers. The primary purpose was to keep East Berliners in the east. On the west side, a tower built in the late 80s gave westerners a view to life in the east. I was surprised the wall only came down in 1989. I have no memory of the event.

We took it easy Sunday night and just watched some South Park, ate crips and drank soda pop.

This brings us to the last day. We did a bit of shopping. I really wanted some kind of article of clothing that was unique to Berlin. Unfortunately, I didn't find it. I found one cool tshirt at a store for local designers that had the TV tower on it in a cool, fragmented graphic but I felt it made me look fat AND the fabric was about 5 metres thick. Since it was 40 degrees out that week, I passed. Then Steve convinced me it would be cool to get a tshirt with the... little green man with the hat that tells pedestrians when it's safe to cross the street [there's a word for it, but I don't know German].

But the only place to get the shirt was a little touristy store without change rooms!! What's the point? Alas, I bought nothing. But I did take a whoooole lot of photos, including this one of the world clock. How curious that the world clock features Halifax, but not Toronto.

We checked out Steve's favourite store, KaDeWe. It's pretty much a clone of Holt Renfrew with all the same stuff, which is fine, if you're into globalised fashion. By this time, we had to return to Steve's to pack. I only took that blue MEC backpack. I packed SO light. Y'all would be proud.

We flew EasyJet both ways. EasyJet is the 'Greyhound' of Europe. Seating is not assigned, but you board in groups A,B,C and D. Naturally, David and I were D [Double D!]. By the time we got on, there were only middle seats left. I groaned and excused myself to take a middle seat, but to my surprise, the man in the aisle seat moved over beside the woman at the window seat. THEY WERE TOGETHER! Everyone rides in pairs and then sit at the aisle and window so only the middle seat is free in an attempt to have more space. The funny thing is EasyJet flights are always full. Who are they kidding? In a funny turn of events, the two men in front of us got drunk and belligerent on their own beer so the man and woman beside me moved and I had ALLLLLLL three seats to myself. It was fantastic. Then the two drunk guys passed out. Good times!

So after all my fretting, I am neither going to Brighton nor Nottingham this weekend. Nik and Rich both have to work this weekend, so all my plans fell through. I think I'll entertain myself at the Tate Modern, Shoreditch and Oxford Circus instead.

Posse Out, David.

2006-08-03T08:58:00.000-04:00

Last night, David and I enjoyed our 'Last Supper'. We went to Itsu in Soho. We decided to dress up for dinner so we looked fantastic as we strutted past all the crowded Soho bars. Itsu is a sushi restaurant where all the food continously circles the dining room on a long, winding conveyor belt. You just grab what you want to eat and the plates are colour coded so you know what you're spending. It's probably the most expensive, but most delicious [even though the place was a little touristy] sushi I've ever had. Afterwards, we went for dessert at... Starbucks! We split blueberry cheesecake, a lemon tart and a colossal chocolate chip cookie. Delicious! We may have appeared morbidly obese to witnesses, but I figured I could handle it, being on the Lindsay Lohan, aka. Doug Stiles diet.

While at Starbucks, I developed my new pick up line: 'You don't speak English? Is that because you're from HOTLAND?'

Pretty appropriate, don't you think, Brown? ;) Nik, I hope this doesn't hinder my progress on our 12-step program.

Anyway, David will be missed. We had many a good time in London. There was culture, food, eurotrip #1, debauchery and of course HOTLAND. Who's coming next?

Tate Modern

2006-07-29T18:24:00.000-04:00

Today, David and I went to the Tate Modern. I've been wanting to go since I got here, but I haven't had a chance until now. The Tate Modern is a museum of modern art that has seen adaptive reuse from its former use as a powerplant.

The Kandinsky exhibit is happening at the moment, but we didn't go because there's a charge to enter. I don't DO paying for museums [most museums in London are free]. Maybe once the pay cheques start rolling in.

I love this photo because I took it in manually and the colours and lighting are pretty accurate. This is the turbine room. It's massive. It's not really used for much other than circulation on the ground floor. We didn't get to see as much of the collection as I would have liked just because there's so much to see. We spent about 4 hours there and we made it through two galleries. It was amazing. It might be my new favourite museum in London [more so than the National Gallery]. I saw some Pollock [who inspired that massive painting I did in SKYLAB], Mondrian [who inspired the triptych I did in SKYLAB, actually produced in the BOG Mansion] and Lichtenstein [who inspired the portraits I did of Anna and myself last summer]. It was funny because David asked me where the inspiration for the triptych came from. I told him I couldn't remember, then we walked into one room and I remembered when I saw Modrian's 'Composition # whatever'. I love the Modern movement! There was one room dedicated to 3 Dan Flavin pieces: 'Untitled [for Donna]', 'Diagonal' and 'Monument for Tatlin'. For those of you who don't have degrees in art history, Flavin did large light installation work. In school, I wasn't really feeling the love for his work, but seeing / experiencing it today was amazing. There was also an abstract expressionist painting called 'Gothic Landscape' by Lee Krasner. I've never seen this painting before and I didn't care for it at first glance, but after reading just the title, I looked again and you could see abstracted Gothic facades in the composition. There was ribbed vaulting across the top and a west facade with a rose window. It was fantastic! It was like a 'magic eye of gothic architecture'. Anna, I wanted to buy you a post card of it, but they didn't have it in their massive collection. I'm probably the only person who actually likes the painting. The was also a film by Anri Sala [who I'm not familiar with], but it showed simple urban design alterations to an unknown post-communist town, to eliminate former political associations. All the facades were painted bright colours. Not just one colour, but several colours on a single building. It was so interesting I had to watch it all and that's when I lost David.

After a few hours of wandering, we stopped at the restaurant for coffee. I actually drank coffee. I feel so European. This is the view from our seats of St. Paul Cathedral.

In other news, I'm writing this at home on a Saturday night. I didn't go out tonight because David and I went to Camp Attack last night. It was so much fun. They played 'Murder on the Dancefloor' and I went crazy. I'm pretty sure the entire Delta Bev crew would LOVE Camp Attack. Come visit, guys! It's 70s/80s/90s... so much fun!

I had such a great time in Berlin last weekend. I have about 150 photos and I have to do a big post for that, but I'm too tired to do it tonight.

Last Tuesday, I had a planning job interview for working on some reports in Slough. Slough is a borough outside London. It's a good 1.5 hour commute from Poplar! It sounded interesting and paid well. I got the interview through my agency. It went very well but I didn't get the job because I lived too far. The policy director was well aware of where I lived before the interview because he asked Quiton to ask me if it was too far. Therefore, it would have been nice if he hadn't wasted my time by inviting me for an interview and not hiring me based on geography. It was the day after I got home from Berlin, so I was quite tired and could have been sleeping instead. So I did what I always do when people jerk me around: I sent him a nice email thanking him for his time and I asked for people I could contact about potential work opportunities.

My new job is... ok. It's better now that I have a better understanding of what I'm doing. It's definitely better money too. But I haven't filled out any paperwork or anything, which is dodgy. I feel like there should have definitely been some 'confidentiality' papers to sign, since part of my job is editing one of the websites and also using the company paypal account. It's actually a private company, which I didn't know. They're sort of a visa consulting firm. They help people get visas. It's kind of a funny service to pay for when national governments post everything you need to know on their websites, for free.

Next weekend, I've had offers to go to Brighton AND Nottingham. Au secours! Why must everything happen at the same time?! I really want to go to both cities. South or north? Beach or Robin Hood? These are difficult decisions!

Covert Garden - Hyde Park - Vengaboys - Job!

2006-07-17T14:35:00.000-04:00

The first four photos are from last weekend [as always, click to enlarge, right-click to save, OPTION KEY ON THE MAC. SketchUp Tutorial anyone?]:

This is an insane footbridge near Covent Garden Market. I would like to walk across it. Also, if you're ever planning a trip to Covent Garden, use any other tube stop. The only way out of the Covent Garden tube is by a talking lift [everything talks in London: lifts, trains, supermarket queues...]. That means cramming in with all the damn tourists with their damn cameras! :)

The market in all its glory. There are a multitude of little kiosks and vendors and gift-type items. I liked the tshirts with names of London neighbourhoods. I thought about buying 'Soho' but it would only be cool in another context, ie: Toronto. If they had 'Docklands' or 'Eastender', I probably would have given in.

At UofT, I studied architecture with two very cool girls: Mel Copping and Kristine Joyce. Naturally, when I saw this letting office, I had to take a photo.

We were out of eggs for Sunday brunch so I went to the store down the street and bought the world's biggest package of eggs. I got THIRTY eggs for 1.79. For those of you who shop at big box stores, this might not be shocking, but I come from the Annex! This is HUGE!

I spent a couple of days last week in Hyde Park lounging, tanning and reading The DaVinci Code [Thanks Bren!]. The park really is the Brit's beach. There were so many people there in the middle of the day, in the middle of the week. There were lounge chairs, row boats and paddle boats for hire, a horseback riding track, restaurants and food stalls. It was stunning. I'm thinking about checking out Hampsted Heath this week. It's a large park in the north end with swimming ponds!

This photo explains the demographics of my neighbourhood: Where 'poverty' meets 'bling'! There is so much social housing in Poplar [and in London in general] and it's immediately adjacent to the lavish Canary Wharf. However, I suspect Bren and I are much poorer than those living in social housing. We don't drive a BMW or Mercedes, which are common sights on Poplar High Street.

Everyone already thinks my mom is cool. But this photo represents more evidence: Model Doug Stiles, Cut by Eleanor, Style by Nik, Wardrobe by Top Man, Funded by MOMMA STILES! I was feeling frustrated by life and my job situation so my mom bought me a haircut and a new outfit. This was the result.

On Saturday Night, Bren, Nik and I [above in the kitchen of the 'Canadian Embassy'] met some deaf girls and their non-deaf [what's the opposite of deaf?] friends on the Central Line. My sign language lessons from grade six finally served a practical purpose! They were fun. We drank, exchanged names and chatted as best we could. Since I don't feel as though I've seen enough live performances, we all went to see the VENGABOYS at the Astoria on Saturday Night. What is this, 1998?! No, it's 2006 but I can't explain how they ended up playing in London. It was a fun show. Everyone got really into it. 'Spice World' was playing on the big projection screens [that's the Spice Girls Movie]. Girl Power! Wow, talk about camp! Copy and paste the link below into your browser to see a Vengaboys clip courtesy of Nik's mobile.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aeHFNvnu6Q&search=vengaboys%20g-a-y

We think it was a late night because while we were at McDonalds, Nik asked the time. We realised it was 4:10 and his day pass was only good until 4:30. We ran to the bus stop and assumed our positions on the upper level of the double-decker night bus. After a few stops, who should appear, but the deaf girls and their friends! We chatted for a bit. They were from Romford and Chelmsford. But this doesn't mean much to me. Apparently that's in Essex, just outside of London. They invited us to Romford to party on Tuesday. I don't think I'll be going. Then all of a sudden I thought I smelled ganj [marijuana]. I looked around and the deaf girl lit up a big, fat joint on the bus! It was too funny.

With respect to my job situation, the Research People never called today so at 4:45 I called the Aussie to accept the job. It was a little awkward because he thought I was supposed to call on Friday [but I definitely told him Friday OR Monday... twice. I have been stressing about if all weekend, after all]. Anyway, the job is mine and I start on Wednesday the 26th. Tomorrow I'll have to quit the library and break their hearts. I emailed IBI on Friday night at 10pm just saying 'I assume there's been no change in your staffing needs, but do you have any contacts who might be able to use my skills?' Shockingly, I got a reply FIVE MINUTES later. He said he had no change in staffing needs and he'd think about contacts and get back to me today [Monday]. I'm pretty sure I'll never hear from him again. What a bizarre experience! Tonight, I made a delicious dinner for Bren and I consisting of salmon with green onion, tomatoes and lemon, and a garden salad with celery, cucumber, cheese, tomatoes and mushrooms. It was delicious. Afterwards, we enjoyed an ice cold vodka and malibu 'dessert' on the terrasse as the sun went down.

Too Many Jobs + City News

2006-07-13T16:43:00.000-04:00

My life got a little more complicated today.

I got an email from Adam Challis today with a post for a research assistant position looking into prices of new housing in London. In sounds really cool. It sounds like what I do in my spare time on mls.ca and various developers' website. I'm a huge geek, ok? The job is part time and would be easy to combine with my library job to create full-time work and enough money to live. However, the library job does end on Sept 14.

I went for an interview for a data entry position with the Australian Visa office. He decided I was over-qualified but he offered me another job doing search engine optimisation. Are you familiar with that? I certainly am not, but he seems to think I can pick it up. The job is full time and it will pay the bills. He offered me a 3-month contract. There was a really cool Toronto girl I met who worked there and everyone else seemed pretty young / cool. I told him I wanted to think about it but I'd let him know on Monday. Naturally, finding a planning job will still be my priority. I feel that if nothing comes up by Monday [which I don't see happening], this job will at least solve my financial problems [it would pay a bit more than combining the two part time jobs] and buy some time to continue to look for planning work. I would have to quit my library job if I took this one.

I've exhausted myself stressing over the sitation. I need to calm down. But when I got Chris' email, I was furious:

So, in sad Canadian news, Bell-Globe Media (CTV/The Globe and Mail/Bell
Canada) bought out CHUM (City-TV, Much Music, Star TV, etc.) They have
fired 350 people already and are replacing 6 and 11 news casts with
magazine style programming. More programming changes are to come. I am
SO upset and I thought you would be too. I loved City-TV's news, it wa
the only Toronto-centric news program :( Doesn't CTV control enough of
Canadian programming? It's sad to think that they will most likely give
City-TV some class, as it's trashiness was what I enjoyed most.

I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT ABOUT CITY TV!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love, love, love City News. I don't care what any of you MESers have to say about my passion! :) What about Laura DiBattista!? Is she out of work!? I can't believe 350 people got fired. That is tragic. Those poor people...

No Update!?

2006-07-12T16:52:00.000-04:00

I've had a couple of complaints lately [Mom, Dad, Derek] that I haven't updated my blog in a while! The reason I haven't updated lately is because I haven't done too many interesting things since Ronnie left! I've mostly just been going to work and applying for jobs after work. At least it hasn't all been in vain. I have a job interview tomorrow [not planning] but rather data entry work with the Australian Visa office [again, very, very random]. The man I spoke to basically said, 'You have a master's degree. This is boring work. Why did you apply?' [Finally, someone is impressed!] I told him that I was here to work and travel. He thinks that I'm over-qualified [he's right] but he offered me an interview. The job is full-time and pays 18000-20000 quid annually so it would solve my worries about money for now.

There are problems:

1. I like my library job and I'd want to keep it if they'd let me work evenings. I would also be filthy rich, just working 60 hours / week [no weekends!]

2. If a planning job interview or meeting came up, how would I deal with getting out of the day job? Fake sick? Fake an appointment? Chris, you should be good at this one! This problem applies whether or not I keep the library job.

3. I just planned a trip to Berlin from Friday, July 21 to Monday, July 24. We located affordable flights and I got the time off from my library job!

Any thoughts? Please leave a comment!

In other news, I met up with Adam Challis for a pint of hand-crafted beers made in local brewaries! Adam is a friend of the family who is also a very successful planner workng in the private sector for a property company located near St. Paul's Cathedral. We had a great chat. He suggested some reading for me and asked for my CV to see if he knows anyone with whom I might benefit from talking.

David Wong [the newest SKYLAB resident] will be in London for two weeks and he'll be staying with us from July 18 - 25, which means he'll be flying to Berlin with me! We just booked our tickets tonight! I'm so excited for my first European travel adventure. We'll be staying with Steve so we'll be doing it on the cheap.

I had a great weekend! I hung out with a friend on Saturday who showed me Covent Garden Market. Even tho he's lived in London, I felt as though I was playing 'tour guide' at times. :) This seems to be a common occurance with these so-called 'Londoners' and I. We met a 43-year old grandmother on the tube. She liked my teeth. I get ridiculous amounts of compliments on my smile in London [Yes, there is a bit of truth behind the stereotype.] Or maybe the problem is that Torontonians are vain / HIGH MAINTENACE [There's that phrase again!]. Perhaps a little bit of column 'A' and a little bit of column 'B'? We had hoped to party at Ghetto that night but the queue was ridiculous and we were waiting in the rain. By 1am, we gave up and went to The Astoria for 'Camp Attack'. It was amazing. Anna, Chris, 2-4-1, Audgag, you guys would love the music. It's sort of retro / cheese / former pop hits. We met a number of interesting characters that night.

This week I've spent some time tanning and reading in Hyde Park. Hyde Park is STUNNING [photos to follow when I have more time]. It has the Serpentine pond, restaurants, food stands, horse-back riding, row/paddle boat rentals, lounge chairs and lots of people soaking up the sun. I was surprised how busy it was in the middle of the afternoon, in the middle of the week. It must be THE place to be on a sunny weekend. I definitely want to go back for some boat rental action. But that's more of a group activity.

This weekend, Brennon, Nik and I are going to try to catch a last minute [ie: CHEAP] matinee of Avenue Q! It will be my first London musical. It's about puppets, people and sex. Later on, we may or may not catch the Vengaboys show at The Astoria! What is this!? 1998?! Ahhh.. remember the 90s?

Ten Brown Days

2006-07-02T16:54:00.000-04:00

For the past ten days, my very good friend Ronak, aka Ronnie, aka 'Brown, from the Fab Five' has been visiting Brennon and I. We had an amazing time! There was plenty of sight seeing and debacherous nights to fill a month or two, I'm sure. In this first photo, Ronnie, Bren [aka The Polish Midget, aka Midge] and I [Tall Giant] were preparing for a night out in Soho. Brown was underdressed and it was horribly embrassing. He wore... shorts. This isn't TORONTO, you know... Geeez. I'm kidding, it was fine. He didn't look like too big of a tourist. I think I found my new British hairstyle. Straight hair on guys in HUGE here. So with Ronnie's help, I bought a hair straightener to achieve the Brit look. I love it. I just need to get it cut into a proper style now.

Ronnie and I spent the day out at West India Quay while Canary Wharf Pride was happening. London seems to be a very proud city. This is exciting because this is very close to where I live. West India Quay is an old warehouse building that has seen adapative reuse into a row of restaurants and a museum with flats above. On any given day, the enormous terraces are packed full of people socialising and drinking. This photo doesn't capture the beauty or massive scale of the area, but it's fantastic, I promise.

Ronnie's Art History friend Heather [aka Switz] came down from Coventry [She goes to your school, Dave The Brit] and spent a couple days with us. The photo is her [with her owl necklace] and I. I took this photo for my good friend Chris who has an intense fear of owls after he was brutally attacked by one at his Beverley Street flat in Toronto. It was a full house with two guests but we managed to have a good time. While Heather wasn't off researching in the library, she was partying it up with us at Heaven. Heaven is Heaven. There are different rooms playing different styles of music. The main room is generally the harder, euro beats. There is a smaller Buddies-esque room and a hip hop room. We went on a Wednesday [hip hop night] so the main room played hip hop. It was fantastic. Ronnie befriended the bartender who gave us all free drinks. At one point, I was walking through the bar when I heard my name. Nik randomly happened to be there. What are the odds that in a city where I have 1.5 friends, I would run into one at a club on a Wednesday night? Pretty good, I guess.

Nki, Gareth and I at Heaven.. others are MIA.

Ronnie and I played tourist on Thursday and we really wanted to see Westminster Abbey. I met him after work at 2pm and we had to meet Switz at 5. The abbey isn't far from my work, but we really took our sweet time stopping in Trafalger Square, Dorothy Perkins and the National Portrait Gallery. We got to Westminster Abbey at about 4:25. I had time to snap this photo of the Parliament Buildings....

...and this photo of the apse of Westminster Abbey. Remember Gothic Cathedral, Anna? It was taught by the woman who wore clothes that were contemporary to the Gothic Era. Why were you so mean, Anna? :)

This past weekend, London hosted EuroPride [hence the proud city comment earlier]. It's a Europe-wide pride event. It was massive! It seemed like the entire city closed down first for the parade and then for the thousands of people afterward who were drinking in streets and public squares all over the city. I love that we were able to drink while we watched the parade and then wandered the streets with beers in our hand.

We spent the afternoon in Soho. Soho streets are narrow to begin with, but most of the parade-goers ended up here after. This photo shows just how packed the streets were. There were beer tents everywhere and the occasional sound stage set up.

We danced at 'Candy Bar' in the street for a while. It's hard to look this fierce among thousands of drunk people in 10-foot wide streets... but we pulled it off nicely. We went to Soho Square for a while where we talked with many a random people and learned about 'couch surfing', where you can sign on to a website and stay on people's couches for free. Crazy!

In the evening, Ronnie and I ran home to take a quick break. When we returned, Brennon was no where to be found and we couldn't reach him on his mobile. We feared the worst: he was passed out in a bar toilet with his pants around his ankles. We thought we never should have left him alone. But as it turned out, he did some window shopping on Oxford Street and when we found him and told him how worried we were, he pointed out that *I* am that one we need to be worried about [just kidding mom and dad]! Brennon, Ronnie, Nik and I spent the night at 'Ghetto'. Nik taught us how to say 'I come from the ghetto' in a British accent. My accent is getting better, but it's 'too posh' apparently. I need to ghettoise it. Geez, baby steps! Ghetto is a little like Buddies but it's smaller and about 40 degrees inside. I don't understand how these Brits party and travel in such overheated spaces. That reminds me, at the portrait gallery, I pointed to a picture of the 1851 exhibition at Joseph Paxton's Crystal Palace [an exhibition to celebrate industrial and engineering techonolgies] and I told Ronnie that was the last time the UK advanced technologically [a la Erandi DaSilva].

Ronnie, THANK YOU so much for coming. We had so much fun. I won't ever forget Lurky Dan, Retarded Sally or our kilted friends. The soundtrack of his visit includes Steps - Stomp, Nelly Furtado - Maneater, THE BAYWATCH THEME SONG [which is HUGE here], Sugarbabes - Push The Button.. these are good people, check them out.

So many visitors!

2006-06-21T14:07:00.000-04:00

Last weekend, Steve came back to London. On Saturday, we went to the National Gallery, which I absolutely loved. We primarily looked at renaissance paintings and a bit of medieval. My favourite find was Bronzino's Allegory of Love. I had to sit down and admire it for a while. To my art history masters, Anna/Nicole: What is going on in Veronese's Adoration of the Magi? It looks like Chewbacca [sp?] makes an appearance... seriously. It's very strange. We saw Mantagna's Agony in the Garden but not Bellini's. It was being restored. I once confused the two of them on a slide test at UofT. We also saw some Titian and Botticelli. It was stunning.

Steve + I outside the National Gallery

Afterwards, we tried to identify all of the provincial flags at the Canadian Embassy. We failed. Then we had a picnic and drank wine in Soho Square. I love how accessible and socially acceptable alcohol is here. Everyone in the square was drinking. It was just so relaxed and made for a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

London drinks in Soho Square.

That night, we went back to The Astoria to see the Pussycat Dolls. I'm not a huge fan, but it was a good show for only 12 quid and you certainly can't see them that cheap in North America. Later, Steve demonstrated an unprecedented display of insensitivity, but it was generally a good time. We met some fun Irish people who invited us to Dublin sometime!

On Monday, Brennon and I went to the British Museum where we saw plenty of Egyptian, Greek and Roman artefacts and sculpture. I didn't recognise too many specific pieces [unlike the National Gallery] but there were sooo many red-figure Greek amphoras and the mixing bowls and other vases.

The obligatory Great Court photo.

The seated goddesses from the Parthenon.

I made a new friend on Tuesday: Nik. He and I were hanging out at Starbucks on Tuesday when Adam Morrison called my mobile. I met Adam while I was living, working and partying in Kingston, Ontario last summer. He was passing through London from Greece on his way back to Canada and he was hoping I could give him a place to stay [naturally, I had lots of space for him!] The three of us had dinner at Wagamamas in Leicester Square. It kind of reminded me of Salad King / Spring Rolls in Toronto. Then Adam and I went back to my flat, I gave him a tour of Canary Wharf and he gave Brennon and I a bottle of Ouzo from the Isle of Lesbos [hehe]. It's a liquor that tastes like Sambuca [black liqorice] but it's much stronger and had to be diluted with ice water. We had a pretty late night of drinking and photo sharing.

Yesterday, I met up with Erandi DaSilva. Erandi and I did our undergrads together at UofT and she's continuing to study architecture here in London. It was nice to see her. For you other archi-kids, she's been very busy at school and she's in a long-distance relationship with her boyfriend who lives in Toronto, despite the fact that she's in a 5+ year program here. Good for them! We went to the John Soane Museum. I was appalled to learn that she'd never been there during the 2 years she's lived in London. I went during my first 2 weeks. She loved it. I accidently stood on his wife's grave while I was trying to get a view upward to a skylight. Soane buried his wife and son in the basement. Kinda weird. Then we went to Harrod's and walked around for a while. I am in love... with Duchamp ties. Then we went to the Spitalfields / Old Street area where we went to the El Paso Pub and shared nachos and beer. The El Paso is SO Toronto. I love it. It's sort of Green Room-esque.

Erandi + I at John Soane's crib.

Today, I started my library job. It's fine. It's very low-key. Ronnie arrived from Toronto with contact solution, eye drops and Kraft Dinner for meeee! I'm very excited to have him here. I'm sure he'll make the next 10 days very interesting.

Update + A Few Photos

2006-06-16T11:02:00.000-04:00

British Telecom is REALLY jerking us around with our internet access [because we're immigrants, I bet]. Fortunately, today a new wireless network appeared in the general area of our flat [which we're thinking of naming 'The Canadian Embassy'] and so I'm mooching free wireless off a neighbour!

I've accepted a part time job helping to catalogue books in the library of Florida State University's London campus. It's near Tottenham Court Road / Soho / The British Museum. It'll give me a little more money while I continue to look, pray and wait for a planning job to happen. I also signed up with another planning employment agency that found a job for Chris' friend while she was in London.

A funny thing happened on the way to get Pussycat Dolls tickets... There was a delay on the central line and since it was 900 degrees centigrade on the tube, Brennon and I decided to walk from Bank to Tottenham Court Road. We got a little lost and we ended up in Trafalger Square where a couple dozen people were frolicking in the enormous stone fountain there [it's about 20 feet tall]. It's also built on several flat tiers, so you can really climb it and get quite high. They were wearing British flags and cheering for the football [soccer] team. Crowds of people just stood around, watching, taking photos. It was quite the sight. People are die-hard for their football. I took a photo on my mobile phone and downloaded it with bluetooth [Click on it to enlarge it, this goes for all photos].

Some other people were kicking around a football and it went into the secure area that divides the restoration of Nelson's Column from the square. They tried to climb the construction fence to retrieve it and an alarm was triggered. Brennon and I decided it was time to leave. The party's always over when the alarm bell rings. No exceptions. It reminds me of a night at Lee's Palace in Toronto with Steve + Moma...

We got the Pussycat Dolls tickets - a mere $24 Canadian. It'll sound like even less money when I have a pay cheque. Steve will be joining us for the concert on Saturday night. It should be a good time. Brennon and I grabbed some cheap Thai food and had a picnic in Soho Square, where we were the only ones who weren't drinking! Next time...

Thank you to Lia, Linda and Dave who have commented on my blog. It makes me smile and it's nice to know people are following my life. If you want to comment, just click where it says the number of comments below each entry. That's actually a link to add a comment. There will be a form to enter your comment and your name. I set the blog so you don't need to log in / create an account to comment, because that's just annoying.

Also, I want to congratulate a few of my fabulously successful friends:

Lia - Got the CIP scholarship in Ghana, the only country she hasn't been to yet.
Anna - Printed and submitted 5 copies of her thesis, to defend later this month
Chris - Who is now employed as a Planner I with the City of Calgary and moves at the beginning of July... what ever happened to our pact to start our careers in Toronto? Oh right, I messed up that one...

And now, I have a few of my earlier photos:

The view out of our ghetto-fabulous hostel room. You can see the London Eye in the background [the ferris wheel]

When Brennon locked his keys in his locker, I never thought he'd actually know how to use a lock cutter...

The empty tube. This is a rare site. It's very hot down there and I have to duck to get on. I'm the tallest person in this country, apparently.

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There's a farm in Vauxhall. Vauxhall is an area just to the south of 'downtown'. It's very urban, but there's a farm with horses...

...and goats and a llama. We also have a farm in our neighbourhood, near mudchute. The urban farm phenomenon seems to be huge in London.

The Parliament Building and Big Ben! I once misidentified the floor plan of this building as Westminster Cathedral on a slide identifcation test during my undergrad. That will never happen again.

For the planners, this is a creative solution to parking lots. Above the lot is an elevated park with a rotating fountain. People were quite content to use this public space in their free time.

Meeting @ IBI

2006-06-08T12:53:00.000-04:00

I believe I did impress IBI today. Mario Bozzo met with me. He's a fellow Canadian from Hamilton and educated in planning from Waterloo. In London, IBI focuses more on (the aesthetics of) transportation technology. It's very interesting. It's by no means a traditional planning job but it would involve the application of my planning and design skills into a slightly different realm. They do work with traffic cameras and try to unify them between boroughs and minimise their visual impact on the streetscape. They're working on creating a new transportation hub [for Euro Star?] at King's Cross station. In the long term, they're hoping these projects will lead to regeneration work of transportation hub areas... like the Union Station work in Toronto. It sounds pretty interesting, even though it's not what I expected.

Mario was impressed by my thesis project and thinks that my skills would be great for IBI. However, he's waiting to see if a couple of clients come on board or not. If they do, I should have a job. Unfortunately, he won't know for a couple of weeks. So in the meantime, I will continue looking and perhaps pick up a job for which I am over-qualified to get some cash.

More contact Information...

2006-06-07T11:57:00.000-04:00

I grabbed this information off Brennon's blog as it's worth having [ie: it was written by him, not me]:

Now, if the mail that you are sending is in the form of a package (and they are greatly encouraged!!) that is thicker than about an inch, you'll have to send it to the following address (we don't know where/how pkg delivery works here yet... and our mail box slot is only about an inch wide... soooo...):

Brennon Zwingli (or Doug Stiles)
BUNAC
Incoming Programmes Dept.
16 Bowling Green Lane
London EC1R 0QH
United Kingdom

**NOTE: BUNAC does not accept FedEx pkgs b/c they get charged, so it will be returned to you!!**

Now for the phone numbers:

Brennon's Mobile: 079 5508 6595
(if calling from Canada dial as follows: 011 44 79 5508 6595)
Bren & Dougs Flat Landline: 020 7537 9052
(if calling from Canada dial as follows: 011 44 20 7537 9052)

ADDRESS + Weekend fun.

2006-06-06T08:40:00.000-04:00

Our new address is:

14 Caraway Heights
240 Poplar High Street
London, E14 0BG
United Kingdom

So now y'all can mail fun things.

The weekend was pretty amazing. Steve stopped by on his way to Berlin and he and Brennon and I went out to The Astoria where we saw some amazing live performances. The girl who sings the lyrics to Armand Van Heldan's 'My My My' sang that song, which was a surprise. Sharon Osborne came out to introduce the UK idol who sang 'Ironic' by Alanis Morrissette. It was nice to have some Canadian Content. Then Inferno came out to sing a few songs including... my favourite... the infamous... 'FROM PARIS TO BERLIN'!!!

That was the reason we went. It was amazing. And it only cost £6 to see all this. It was definitely worth it. Next week Danni Manogue [sp? Kylie's sister!] performs and then the Pussycat Dolls will be there the week after that!

I found out my meeting with IBI is actually on Thursday. June 8th is not Wednesday.

We were sad to see Steve leave the next day. It was nice to have a visit from home. But Ronnie will be here soon! I'm feeling a little homesick at the moment, but hoping to feel better soon.

'There's only us, only tonight, we must let go, to know what's right, no other course, no other way, no day but today...'

PHONE NUMBER + A long week.

2006-06-02T15:08:00.000-04:00

We got the flat. We paid a large desposit and we take possession tomorrow! It's stunning. Steve will be here tomorrow to help Brennon and I move in. Hoorah! :)

I have a British bank account. I deposited a substantial bank draft into the account that will be held for an entire month. Mom and Dad: Send money.

I also got a mobile phone! The number is 077 5693 9394. It is free for me to receive all incoming calls while I'm in the UK. So feel free to drop me a line. From Canada, dial: 011 44 77 5693 9394. I got a great international calling card from BUNAC that's 4 pence / minute for outgoing calls to Canada.

And I finalised the meeting with Mario, a director at IBI. IBI is a huge, global, inter-diciplinary consulting firm [architecture, landscape architecture, planning, urban design, engineering, etc.]. They did Liberty Village and City Place in Toronto among many other projects. I feel as though this will be an AMAZING opportunity / a great start to my career, providing they like me. But, who doesn't? :)

It's finally happening for me! [a la Jlo South Park]

2006-06-01T16:41:00.000-04:00

Our flat [which is not officially ours yet] is in Zone 2. It is situated very close to Canary Wharf, E14, Docklands. It's on the 3rd floor [4th floor in Canada] of a 6 floor building. It has an alarm system and video surveillance of the front entrance from within our unit. The kitchen it stunningly beautiful with a washing machine. The living room has a view of the Canary Wharf skyline [it's reminicent of the Toronto skyline]. There are two bedrooms with enormous closets with mirrored sliding doors. Overall, the size is very comparable to SKYLAB [750 sq ft]. It might even be a little larger. It's about $1000/month CAD each or £425/month each. There is a communal south-facing terrace on the 1st floor. Needless to say, I'm not so sad about leaving SKYLAB anymore [no offence Gerg].

I received an email from a director at IBI yesterday. He wants to speak with me on the telephone. My dad's friend gave a my CV to an IBI Toronto employee who passed it on to London. I didn't expect anything to come from it. But he emailed my York account, which means he had to have emailed me from my website! I'm meeting him on Wednesday, June 8th at 3pm!

I still don't have a mobile because I'm so busy all day, every day that I can't make it to a phone store during business hours. I did however make it to H&M for a private party. Brennon and I walked into H&M and scored free passes to an invitation-only party on the men's floor. The woman told us it was a big deal that she just gave us the passes. Oh, those Brits! Does she know who were are?! There was a DJ, free beer and servers offering free sushi. Brennon dropped £50 on seven polos and two tees. I got two polos for less than a tenner [£10]! I think I'm going to be very happy in this town.

The Start of the Flat Search.

2006-05-29T14:13:00.000-04:00

We've mostly been doing a lot of work to start our lives here, but I've seen a lot in the process. I take my camera whenever I leave the hostel so I can photograph cool things [mostly planning related - they'll be posted next week when we have our own place, I hope.]. Yesterday, we saw a bunch of areas in SE: Vauxhall, Elephant + Castle, Oval and Brixton. Vauxhall had a farm. There were horses, llamas and goats and tall buildings on the horizon. Elephant + Castle is somewhat of a ghetto. Oval is plain. It's kind of like Bloor / Ossington. There are things there, but nothing
overly exciting - only a large stadium and mobile phone theft. Brixton was fine. Initially it seemed really trendy like the Annex, but the retail area was very small.

Last night we wanted to check out the club scene. Apparently Sundays are a bad night to go out, even though it's a bank holiday today! We got to chatting with these people in line, who were happy to know we were Canadian as opposed to American - "Canadians have class." One of them frequented Toronto [Richmond Hill]. I let him know that's NOT Toronto. He seemed shocked. We laughed.

Today, we went to the docklands where Bren + I want to live. It's accessed by the DLR, which I like so much better than the tube because I don't have to duck when I get on. It's remincent of the distillery district in Toronto, but it's further long in its development with lots of housing stock of varied ages and conditions and shops and cafes inserted in various places. It was really nice. The British seem to think the east end is trashy. It's so beautiful and trendy and it's along the river. It's where we want to live [and we can afford it]! Unfortunately, our tour was cut short when it started hailing!

We are doing our best to have a home this week. One cold shower was one too many. Locking our valuables is kind of annoying, especially when Bren locked his both his key and extra inside the locker. We borrowed a lock cutter from the hostel and SHOCKINGLY, Bren knew how to use it. Those crazy farm boys. Fortunately, we've had our 4-punter hostel room to ourselves since Sunday morning! We contacted various housing agencies today via an email form on a popular website. The problem is that today is a bank holiday, so we cannot get anything accomplished. It's hard enough to find a working bank machine, let alone start a life!

Here is this week's schedule:

Tuesday:
9:30 - meeting with BBT [employment agency]
10:30 to 3:30 - hoping to view flats
4:30 - meeting with Bluetec [employment agency]

Wednesday:
10:30 - SWAP orientation
12:00 to 5:00 - hoping to view flats.

Thursday:
Going to Oxford to get Brennon's additional 30kg of luggage.

Friday:
Potentially moving out of the hostel, if we secure a flat.

We might reserve more time at the hostel if we can't get our flat in time. But believe me, that is our number one priority at the moment and we will do anything to get a home! Sadly, I do not have a phone or a bank account and I won't for a while.

I can't believe there's a TTC strike!

We arrived in London...

2006-05-29T14:05:00.000-04:00

"We arrived in late May and London was cold! We stayed in the internet cafe, on Charing Cross Road. The guys all had jackets in line at the bar. In our tshirts we were Canadian, and had come very far..."

I have arrived in London. My flight was delayed, the gate numberwas changed, my name was wrong and then the luggage was delayed in London due to 'technical difficulties'. I have been awake since 9am on Friday, tonight I actually get to sleep so I am quite excited. On the bright side, I feel like the UK is the easiest country in the world to enter... but maybe that's because I have a visa.

We took the Stansted Express from the airport, except that when we tried to find it, we ended up at the back of a rental car parking lot where the vast green fields began. We finally found the train and Brennon thought that we had to buy tickets on the train, but then he read we had to get them elsewhere. He suggested I wait while he bought the ticket. I suggested that we BOTH get off the train, which proved to be the better idea when the train pulled away one minute after we stepped off.

We got off the train at Liverpool Station and got on the tube. It was PACKED and we had about 50 kg of luggage with us. The tube is not at all what I expected. It's very similar to the LRT in Scarborough. It's small, round, with a low ceiling. The platforms are small. The halls are narrow. There aren't enough exits from the platforms. The stations are DEEP underground. All the escalators remind me of the 'longest escalator in the world' at the rear entrance to Lawrence Station in Toronto. There were so many people in this tiny space. And it was HOT. Fortunately, both times we had to climb stairs, someone offered us a hand.

For those of you who are visiting us or moving to Berlin in one week, TAKE A TAXI FROM LIVERPOOL STATION. I have no idea how much it will cost, but I'm sure that preventing the massive headache of carrying luggage on public transit will be worth the fare.

Our hostel has character. Our room is at the very end of a long hall. It's the only room between two sets of fire doors so it's fairly private and quiet, but there are two other beds in the room and one guy staying there right now who we haven't met because Brennon pulled a Medusa on him and he took off. Anyway, our hostel has inspired us to get a flat ASAP. The search starts tomorrow.

We had our first dinner at a pizza / pasta buffet that was reasonably priced at 6.45.

That's about all I got.

Back in Civilisation!

2006-05-23T00:07:00.000-04:00

I'm back in Toronto temporarily until I fly to London [with a Capital 'L'] Friday evening. So if anyone wants to get together one last time, book your appointment now. But please... no drinking. I had a rough weekend, but I had a LOT of quality time with good friends, which was much needed. Knowing that everything is changing, being back in Toronto is a lot more emotionally taxing than I had expected.

On Friday, Chris, Anna, Jeff, Audrey, Dawn and I went to Green Room for one last Hoorah. It was nice, fairly low-key and surprisinglingly packed despite the category 7 hurricane outside. According to Shannen Doherty, that's what happens when two category 5s collide. Man, we're funny. And Mom, you'll be excited to know that Dawn is now a writer for Canadian Idol!

For most of Saturday, Chris and I met up with Ronnie and Laurence to brainstorm, debate and argue rather loudly on the sales floor of Zara, what we believed would be a really thoughtful, special birthday / going away gift for Steve. We thought we nailed it. I hope we were right. As a result, I reluctantly ditched Lia and a BBQ at my thesis supervisor's house in The Beach. Later in the evening, the four of us plus Julio + Rob collectively decided it would be best to go out clubbing at our beloved Buddies. Naturally, it was an AMAZING time because so many other cool people were there including John, Trevor, El Salvador and Jeff. It was nice to see so many friends in one night. After much dancing upon stages, talking with strangers, a 'Minority Report' incident, obligatory street meat and alledged pickle disaster, I had a really good 3 am talk with Chris about the sources of all my stress right now. Well, he did most of the talking.

On Sunday, I spent some time hanging out with Gerg, the former roommate and we drank a bit on SKYLAB's balcony while we aborbed the BEST view of Toronto from a residential building. We chatted about all of the changes that have been made to the apartment: new lights, new light switches, a spice rack with spices no one has ever heard of, a lime green hallway, a bedroom swap and new furniture! The place looks fantastic and I really want to live here again!

On Monday, I definitely owed Lia some quality time so we had a PLANNERS breakfast with Laurence. We went to China Town for some Vietnamese food. In the spirit of new beginnings, I tried Bun and Pho for the first time. Laurence tried to kill Lia with some cream in her coffee [she's allergic to dairy]. Then again, Laurence always tries to kill people through allergic reactions [kidding.. kinda :) ]. Afterwards, we had an adventure suited for a Magistrate of the Environment... or a Waterloo undergrad! We went for a stroll to The Beach, checked out some local parks, walked along the boardwalk and ran to the water to touch Lake Ontario one last time. The beach itself was surprisingly busy with volleyball players, kites, BBQs, joggers, walkers and cyclists. At 10 degrees and cloudy, we ARE Canadian! We selected a row of adorable Corktown houses that we will one day gentrify and occupy with other planning friends.

Next, we explored the Distillery District where we saw the crazy cube house. Lia was telling us all the facts behind it. She finished talking, looked at me staring at the house and quickly snapped 'What are you doing!? Let's go!' in a sharp, strict, motherly tone I've never heard from her. We enjoyed some free samples of beer and admired the juxtoposition of new construction with the original buildings. We walked through the St. Lawrence Neighbourhood and lamented over the loss of planning leglisation that so successfully afforded mixing market housing and social housing together in the same building. Around dinner time, I had to leave them to meet Dad, Arlene + Byron for dinner at Milestones and then I was back dowtown for beer with Archi-friends Choi, Kate and Tina. We had a great chat about Europe and all the places they suggest I visit.

Needless to say, I need a weekend to recover from this long weekend.

Suburbia: A Dangerous Place To Raise A Family.

2006-05-16T15:16:00.000-04:00

Over the past few weeks, I have complained about the social isolation, car dependency, illogical public transportation and pavement obssesions that accompany living in london, Ontario, but today I read about a bigger problem [in the Free Press from May 15].

"Drugs, sex assaults feared as youths meet in woodlot"

This infamous woodlot is a few hundred metres behind my mom's house! It's shocking because there's a 'stigma' of safety and security associated with suburban life. I disagree. I have always disagreed. When I'm walking home from a night out in london, Ontario, at 5 in the morning [I mean 1 in the morning, Hi Mom + Dad!], I'm actually a little scared walking down completely deserted streets, listening to the echo of my steps, without any signs of life whatsoever. There's no sense of security where there's no street life 24 hours/day! Furthermore, this is a 'nice area' where houses range in value from $200,000 - $400,000 [That's a lot for this town!]. I would have never expected the activity that goes on in the woodlot.

I was extremely shocked by a number of quotes in the article:

"Neighbours have had homes pelted by eggs, paintballs and even dog feces."

"One woman was forced back inside her home when a youth ripped a sign from the ground and charged at her..."

"City staff didn't respond until rumous of a second sexual assault surfaced in the spring, this time involving a 13-year-old girl and a 19-year-old man."

"Two youths lived in the woodlot for some time, making an eight-metre lean-to with pool covers and siphoning gas from vehicles to fuel a fire."

"Neighbours later found taped-over plastic bottles they believe are leftovers from cooking crystal meth."

And the one that blew my mind:

"As dusk approaches on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, neighbours see pricey cars stop next to the park, drawing youths to their windows... they seem to attract girls who appear to be 12 or 13 years old."

WHAT?!?

The woman featured in the article is the head of neighbourhood watch and she lives around the corner. I almost wish I was here longer now to suggest solutions. It would be such an interesting project to undertake! It would be amazing 'to take back the park!' I think that part of the solution is to make this a useable public space, especially at night. Perhaps large-scale neighbourhood potluck BBQs, sports nights [there are 2 soccer fields and 3 tennis courts] or yard sales, with plenty of lighting provided by the City. Activities could occur on Friday and/or Saturday nights when families can stay up a little later. If the park were more of a destination, a place where people gathered and stayed for a while, these stupid kids would stop coming around so much. Presently, they are the ones feeling safe and secluded within the confines of the trees. Naturally, this would require a new sense of community cohesion and the elminination of this stupid individualism [remember the seven-foot tall fence?] that has plagued this neighbourhood for a number of years.

Also, searching for precedents would be useful. This is not the first time this sort of thing has happened in the history of the planet. Searching for previous soultions applied by SMARTER municpalities could in turn lead to a local solution.

The City's current solution is to thin out the already heavily fragmented woodlot to increase visibility. Soon it may resemble my barren, barren thesis project site! Bravo london...

Stiles does it Suburbia-style.

2006-05-02T00:01:00.000-04:00

The drive to London, Ontario was a real treat because all of Toronto's highways were closed on the day that every single motorist in the GTA decided to take their cars for a spin.

A few hours later, we finally arrived at mom's 2400 square foot, 4-bedroom house in the north end of London. Her house is just a little bigger than my beloved SKYLAB. In my room during my first night, I decided to go to bed hungry as opposed to fixing a snack. SKYLAB's kitchen was a mere 10 paces from my room. In this house however, the bedroom-kitchen distance is much, much greater.

Fortunately, a larger living space comes with larger closets! I donated 5 or 6 bags of clothes to charity and the clothes that I actually wear fit in nicely into this standard 6' x 2' closet.

While exploring my transitional accommodation, I came across this fence that's actually taller than I am. The neighbours erected the fence a few years ago, ignoring my Mother's concerns about its monumental height. Its massive scale evokes a couple of questions: 'What are you hiding from?' or 'What are you hiding?'

This photo answers the first question. While I almost understand the suburban mind's desire for complete and total privacy to the point of isolation, the only glazing on this side of Mom's house appears as a garage window and a laundry room door window. Now, as comfortable and as lavishly appointed as these two rooms are, there are nicer rooms to enjoy in the house. Now I know what the planners are wondering, and yes, surprisingly this fence does comply with the city's bylaws and yes, I have a LOT of free time on my hands right now. Clearly, the neighbours are hiding something. Perhaps I will use the next three weeks to get to the bottom of this mystery.

Goodbye SKYLAB!

2006-04-26T00:14:00.000-04:00

This is mainly a test post.

SKYLAB has been my faithful Annex apartment for the past three years. Last Friday, 30 of my closest friends joined me for SKYLAB's funeral. We shared our fondest memories of all the crazy antics that occured 19 floors above the intersection of Bloor and Spadina. Even though my roommate Greg has decided to keep the apartment, it will never quite be the same for dozens of die-hard SKYLAB fans.

I officially move out on Saturday, April 29th. I will be living at Mom's house in the suburbs of London, Ontario until about May 19th. At this time, I move into my Dad's house at Yonge @ Sheppard until I fly to London [in the United Kingdom] on May 26. I will be arriving around 10am on May 27 at Stansted where Brennon will meet me to carry my luggage back to our hostel in Piccadilly Circus.

I'll try to keep this interesting. Just wait until I analyse my new hood!