grecian sun

well i'm finally back in my own house...the bathroom's not 100% finished but at least the shower, toilet and sink are working again. i had such a great time staying with my friend at his flat though, i didn't want to leave! hanging out with him made me miss having a flatmate. don't get me wrong, i like living with my landlord, but it's definitely not the same as living with a friend.

i'm feeling a bit better about things, though i'm still scared about the future. i cleared things up with one of the people who hurt me so that's good; we came to the unanimous decision that he's a big fat idiot and that he's sorry, so i'm moving on. i also got to see "wolverine" this week in theatres; seeing hugh jackman semi or completely naked always brightens my day.

i thought posting some pics of my recent trip to greece would cheer up the few readers of this blog, so here they are:



the parthenon!



there were lots of stray dogs everywhere. here's one lying in the shadow of the parthenon.



canuckian and canuckian's evil twin!



athens was also covered in graffiti; this is a great pic of graffiti found in the gazi area.



mmm, "donuts"...



sunset over the harbour in aegina.



wee baby turtle amongst the ruins of keramikos!



st georgios church on top of lykavittos hill.



best tzatziki i've tried yet.



sunset over athens, viewed from atop lykavittos hill.

ah, to be back in the sunshine again...

CET :o)

anguished sentinel is framed!

remember how i bought a painting from not keith? it is now framed - check it out!







it was the best i could do without getting glare off the glass. my landlord framed it; he even put a little window at the back so one can see the note not keith wrote for me! the painting's going to hang above my bed; i'll post more pics once it's in place.

i love it!

CET :o)

pink cab, pink banana

some pics of quirky things along commercial street and great eastern street, shoreditch:



a very phallic-looking pink banana.



i wonder if people live up there?



looks like a character from a video game or cartoon.

CET :o)

exam? what exam? there's a snowman to be built!

my exam got cancelled today because of all the snow! i had a lovely and much-needed day doing absolutely nothing but enjoying the snow: i built a snowman, had a snowball fight and went tobogganing. i haven't played all day like that since i was a kid. it was absolutely fabulous. :o)





my snowman, "the gardener". notice the lizard at his feet?



he has chestnut eyes, a walnut nose and a little stone mouth.



that's the "flower" he's holding in his hand.

hope your snow day was fun and relaxing!

CET :o)

why hello there!

i figured that if i'm sitting in front of the computer reading blogs when i should be working on my papers and projects, i should at least bang out a post on this poor little blog!

i'm sorry blog, i've neglected you for a long time. and my readers! well, the ones i have left anyway. for a while now i've stopped looking at my counter at the bottom because i don't really want to know that no one is reading this anymore. i don't blame them really, seeing as how i've been so shite about blogging. i always seem to find other bloggers articulating SO WELL the stuff i've also been feeling that i'm like "what's the point of repeating it in a less articulate, less witty fashion?" i don't want to add to the absolute crap out there in the blogosphere but then i feel guilty for not posting. dumb thing is i always make mental notes to "blog about this or blog about that" but then i never do it! argh.

and if blogging wasn't enough, what's up with this twitter business? i seriously don't understand the obsession with it. a blog and a facebook profile should be MORE THAN ENOUGH to let the whole world know how you're feeling/what you're thinking every minute of everyday, why bombard them with more status messages? i suppose though that people who follow twitter actually want to follow it so who am i to judge, right? well, i'm judging anyway.

and can i just say that facebook is just TOO MUCH INFORMATION sometimes. "in a relationship" becomes "it's complicated" becomes "in an open relationship" becomes "single", all in the space of a few hours, let alone a few days or even months! i really need to turn that stupid option off on my newsfeed.

so, HAPPY NEW YEAR! i hope everyone had a lovely holiday and spent it eating lots and growing their bums and muffin tops. that's what i did. pictures taken at the beginning of december show CET's well-defined jawline; pictures taken after new year's show that the jawline is now missing and has been replaced with a roll of chin fat. nice. i suppose because of this, losing weight should on my list of new year's resolutions but a) i don't have a list and b) at this point i don't think i need to exercise to lose weight - the sheer stress of deadlines and exams looming alone should cause enough weight to fall off. and i don't think i need to change my diet because a) i'm a student which means b) i'm poor which means c) i don't buy a lot of food which means d) my daily caloric intake will be far less than in the last month which means e) by default i should lose some weight. that's sound logic, no?

before flying home to canada for the holidays, a friend of mine came over to visit and we took a four-day trip to prague together! as this is my last year in london i made a list of places in europe i would like to visit before i fly home for good; prague was at the top of my list. when i lived in london years ago with my sister, canadians needed a visa to get into the czech republic, so we never really exerted the time, money or effort to visit when so many other places could be explored without the hassle of a visa. skip to present day and canadians no longer need a visa to visit, so off i went! i think i picked the best time to go to prague too - right before christmas; this meant christmas markets in all the town squares were in full swing! oh it was so beautiful. if you weren't taking thousands of pictures of the stunning architecture you were drinking in the atmosphere of christmas and of happiness, and stuffing your face with yummy things like trdelniks and hot chocolate that gave you instant orgasms. mmm. here are a few of my favourite pics:



ahhh, my ode to the czech pilsner. cheaper than juice!



the baroque church of st. nicholas, with horses and carriage in the foreground.



walking down from petrin hill; i like to call this pic the "czech montmartre".



looking through into the old jewish cemetery. bodies buried in some places twelve people deep, because jews were not allowed to be buried outside the jewish quarter back in the day.



the "obecni dum" or municipal house, a visual symphony dedicated to art nouveau. LOVED IT. and finally...



a trdelnik! dough wrapped around metal poles rotisseried over an open pit, then coated with sugar and spices. drooooooool. i had one everyday (of course).

i have loads more pictures but my computer's taking bloody forever to upload these things so i will stop here. off to scavenge for food and then it's an early night i think (the jet lag's starting to get to me).

welcome back (hopefully!)

CET :o)

no imagination to even think of an appropriate title!

a lovely cupcake a friend surprised me with, as i was feeling a little under the weather and she thought a whole load of chocolately, sugary goodness would cure me. no cure alas but it was tasty, tasty, yummy goodness:



the graham norton show last wednesday! reese witherspoon, paul o'grady and the ting tings were guests. it was my second time to a taping of the show and like the first, it passed by in a flash!



kitty cat! here is one of my landlord's cats hanging out on my desk while i was trying to do homework (or reading blogs, whatever!). he likes to sit on my lap while i'm in front of the computer. i like it because he's like my little radiator:



i stumbled upon a warehouse in my neighbourhood that's been converted to a viennese cafe/bar/craft space/theatre space/music space/general place for artsy-fartsy-ness. i found a lovely dragonfly brooch for a couple of quid! bought a book of illustrations from this cute, painfully shy guy who poured his heart into his illustrations but couldn't look me in the eye for longer than a second. i swear he wouldn't know what flirting was if it came up and punched him in the face. pity.



it's december! i have a couple of deadlines next week that i have to meet, on top of my two jobs and classes and such; all i want to do right now though is sleep. tomorrow, tomorrow i'll get crackin'...

CET :o)

nouveau frock

eeeee, i'm excited - i bought a new dress today! no particular reason, just shopping along brick lane with some friends. i had seen this dress yesterday at my favourite clothes shop but needed a second opinion; they each ended up buying a dress as well! it was a very fruitful excursion for all of us. here are a few pics:







i don't know why i'm so frivolously excited over a new dress but i am. even though i'm working at the school bar tomorrow night i might just wear it anyway.

i'm off to iron my new dress!

CET :o)

the opposite end of the spectrum

i went to a baby shower yesterday.

don't get me wrong, i think kids are great, but i've realized that my yearly baby shower quota stands at one. one and one only per year thank you; that's all i think i can tolerate.

yes, baby clothes are cute - so tiny and soft like the babies that wear them - but after the millionth "awwwww" over a onesie or towel or bib with an animal of some sort stitched on it i think i was ready to scream.

it seems like you need a whole shitload of things to care for a baby nowadays; people back in the day raised kids with barely more than a rag and they survived - does one really need a top-of-the-line stroller that's as big as a SUV? or a bassinette made of some quality wood or strips of wood or whatever the fuck they make bassinettes with? seriously!

this post isn't meant to sound bitter so i apologize if it does; i personally think baby showers are a big to-do when it's not necessary. i'm not a mom but if there are any moms out there that read this blog (i can think of one), can you tell me if you prefer yet another baby outfit or diapers to last you the month? if i was a mom i know which one i'd prefer.

in other news, it was halloween on friday! i had to work at the bar but dressed up as a cat. here is a pic of my tail, as that's the only pic where you can't see my face:



it was a good night but i got verbally slaughtered by my fellow barman and another friend, who could not stop with the "pussy" jokes because they're mature like that. i knew (too late) that i would be subject to their merciless teasing but oh well! what i could not tolerate was this one student who came up to the bar and screamed "PUSSY!" to get my attention so that i could serve him drinks; i told him to shut the fuck up, as he screamed this in full earshot of my professors who were also at the bar! dickwad.

anyhoo, in addition to my bar work i'm starting a part-time pharmacy job this week; i slightly regret taking this job as it means even less time for schoolwork, but i know i'd regret it if i didn't take it as it's money that's (always) needed. this is the prime difference between me and the other foreign students at my school - they spend their halloween getting VIP table service at a high-end london nightclub (no joke) while i work the bar. :o/

have a great week everyone!

CET

hot pot

well it's been three days since i got home...it's funny how my life is so different here than in london, primarily because i live with the parental unit while in toronto. there is always this "lull" when i first get home, settling in and whatnot, before my life picks up again. i have a feeling my time here will be busy.

i LOVE it when the plane isn't full and i get two seats to myself, ahhh...it's time like these that i curse not choosing the middle aisle, thereby getting a whole FOUR seats to myself!

i finally finished reading "the amber spyglass" by philip pullman, the last book in "his dark materials" trilogy, while on the plane home. i'm always kind of sad when i finish such a great book - i want to stay immersed in their world a little while longer - and you never have another chance to read the book for the first time. i would LOVE a daemon, though perhaps i already have one but just can't see him?

here are a few more pics of london (while walking along the southbank) the sunday before i left:



browsing for books



some guy on the edge of the thames at low tide creating a sand sculpture of a sea turtle



i liked the line of trees

CET :o)

change

i'm leaving london for toronto today. i'm starting a research project back home, although it will count towards my degree here. just finished packing my life up (how did i acquire so much?). my bed beckons.

whether i leave toronto for london or london for toronto, every single time i feel like i'm leaving just when things are good. like michael buble's song, "home", "it's like i stepped outside, when everything was going right."

don't get me wrong, i love going home, but i will definitely miss my londontown. here are some pics from the last few days:



Brockwell Park



View of the London Skyline from the Southbank



Christchurch in my beloved Spitalfields

goodbye london! hello toronto!

CET :o)

for a particular reader...

i hope you know who you are! enjoy!

CET :o)

coming down to the wire

four days until my first exam, it's getting close...i just want these horrid things over with! i will be happily viewing the world through beer goggles on friday afternoon, shaking my booty to cheesy music like i've never shaken it before. oh yes, mark my words.

the last time i took a walk i made sure i took a picture of the roof of this house:



how cool is that? not something you see everyday. i wonder what possessed the owner to build that?

here's another picture of my current hood though it was taken a while back, late last year:



i love the sky in that picture.

i was so bad today, i was surfing the net reading all my usual blogs when i came across a jewellery website (based in australia) and ended up buying a necklace! it was on sale and will be in my grubby little paws in seven days' time. i think it's beautiful, and will post a pic of me wearing it when it arrives! talk about procrastination costing you.

okay, back to revision! i am such an exciting girl on an early saturday night.

CET :o)

signs

someone who works for the city of london needs to learn how to spell:



so true:



recycling is the devil's work:



just all in a day in londontown.

CET :o)

a bit of my everyday

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

i want to start off the new year with the picture below - i pass by it everyday while on the train to charing cross. two little words but it brightens my day and reminds me to have strength. i hope looking at this will help you find your courage too!



all the best in 2008! i wish nothing but joy and success (in its many forms) for everyone.

CET :o)

on my way to school this morning...

hungerford bridge in the morning light:



getting off the train at charing cross station:



this is the park by my school. it looks like the branch is about to tap the man on the head!



my feet in the leaves. i like taking pictures of my feet in different locations. weird, i know.



the soccer/football field across from the park:



CET :o)