Good Ol Amos and Maxi Pads in our way

I don't talk much about the Clanricarde flat except for its location and Herbet the Electricity Machine...did I mention that Herbet's lock was never really locked and now we aren't paying for electricity? This is wonderful. We are saving tons of money right now. tons.

No, but our cozy flat has its wonderful kooks. I shower up on the english third (american fourth) floor because it's the cleanest shower in our house and it smells least like old man poop. I go potty up there as well (this makes for an interesting dash when you really gotta go). Our window (besides being upwind from our neighbor's bathroom) has the perfect view of a concrete and two maxi pads have found their residence there. I have no idea why people threw maxi pads out their window but Casie and I find it enjoyable to stare at them for seconds and then look away in disgust. hehe. But- alas! I am not complaining. Because of these kooks and quirks I have come to love 43 Clanricarde with ALL of my heart. I enjoy this small flat and its absurdities. I even find it comforting to come home to someplace simple, and inconvienant.

Tonight I purposefully made no plans. I have two days off in a row and I wanted to fill them up to the top. Possibilities surround Soho, Abbey Road, Covent Gardens, and The British Art Museum. But it all really just depends on the weather (aka- rainy and cold- Abbey Road and The British Art Museum, hot and sunny- Covent Gardens and Soho). I might go to St. James park for a picnic lunch if the sun decides to shine again. Silly old starbucks wanted me to work tomorrow at portobello market. I said noway hosea. That place is chaos. Any starbucks in the middle of a tourist attraction (aka, the one I work in) is chaos. Send me to the starbucks in the corner of nottinghill that no one goes to...ppppllllleeeeaaassee.

I might want to own my own laundromat someday. Casie thinks that I'm insane. But I would love to have a vintage laundromat all to myself. But, it would be a classy laundromat- reasonably and I would painted it pea green with bright blue washing machines. The idea would be that it would be next to that "funky" coffee house I want to own someday and maybe down on the corner from both the laundromat and coffee house would be that bed and breakfast/house that I would live in. Sound likes a plan, eh? haha.

Oh and world cup update, England won, and so did some other teams. (can you tell that I'm into it??) I love that this whole country is infected with world cup disease. Flags, bags, tshirts, mugs, faces, chests, everything is red and white here. oh and speaking of red and white...my favorite fireworks celebration is coming up. We are floating down the Thames with a bunch of Americans on a big boat. I think Miss Mary Chiles from MoState is coming to stay before her brief excursion to Cambridge. Fun, fun.

i saw a sign yesterday advertising a rare picasso exhibition. I must go look into that.


i miss everyone so much. I am desperately seeking emails from friends- what is life like back at home?





ps- happy birthday to joe today

rosy business

no doubt this might be something that some magazines encourage but the reality is that most men (i'm almost sure of this) do not enjoy the receiving of flowers at their place of work. maybe the occassional, honey i brought home some lilies, but a single stem rose in a vase with a box of chocolate to a business of all men--maybe overboard. but today, an architect at work, recieved just that. hilarity ensued. though ian (the boss) thought the gesture was plain lovely. Ah, the love of the english!

The Elected was a fantastic show. the venue was everything i thought it would be. grimy, low key, beer (am and british), and horrible lighting. gotta love it. its not about the place, its about the music. and the opportunity. not only was i graced by the presence of bass player nate but also lead singer blake sennett came across our paths outside water rats before the show. then post show we caught up with nate again and drummer mike. it was fantastic. casie loved it too (enough to buy a cd).

sat and sun was non too productive. i worked and worked and worked. and slept when i didn't work. all i can say is that pay day should be sweetly arriving.

I uploaded a few pictures again on flickr. And here is a webaddress to put in your url in case you want to see even more:
http://smsu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2037450&l=d8cbb&id=34301513

all my love,
m.

Salad Days

todays google word of the day is actually two words, or a phrase. i felt compelled to email them. instead however, i am writing this post. Salad days.

Today has had the potential of being a horribly-awful-no-good-very-bad-rotten-day. but. i have been strong headed, i refuse to let the little things get me down. i started off by writing an e-vent to my friend christy who will probably read it and wonder what kind of drugs they are feeding me. but the e-vent was very helpful. calmed my nerves. you are probably wondering why this day has had such poor potential- let's see. it started off with no alarm. folks - it's my last day at work. i have been early every single day since starting at evolve and it's my last day and i am going to be l.a.t.e. i have no idea why the alarm didn't go off (i remember turning it on, i woke up and it was on- just not ringing) but nevermind that. i had to get dressed, fast! so i pull on clothes i wore just two days ago and were dirty. pulled my gross air up into two pigtails (disgusting), try to do some sort of makeup (didn't work) and grabbed my bag, shoes in hand, and out the door. tube is experiencing severe delays at the circle line (dammit) so i wait- 20minutes for the stupid thing (there is no other option). I get to Farringdon at last! everyones late, i saw a guy fall down the steps at the station (he's having a worse day than me, no doubt). I get a gift outside (cool! bonus points. I think God is laughing at me). I finally run into the office and am greeted with the looks of concern. Are you alright? feeling okay today Megan? haha. Yep- this is called- the unkempt look. it's in style, right??

so in order to keep my spirits up my boss asks me to work another day ! yay! the (very very nice) salary of one more day was more than thrilling. then the guys took me out for lunch! (even better!) and now I am enjoying pomegranate juice while writing a blog about how bad the day has been but really--i am doing fine.

no doubt to- i will be happier tonight. I get to go see The Elected. The band is fronted by the other half of Rilo Kiley- Blake Sennett and is undoubtably one of this years biggest hits in my book. They have a catchy sort of pop, but eclectic enough to not annoy me. Their biography says that they summon "everything from early Grateful Dead, The Beatles, The Band, Pink Floyd, and The Eagles. This time out, the band experiments with a greater depth of sound (think '70s hi-fi rather than modern-day lo-fi) and influence (think more classic, less country)". The venue is a hot spot already in the London scene. The theatre- Water Rats is for the young at heart only- those who are still experiencing their salad days. Supposedly it emodies the grimy pub feel - the raw stuff that musicians fancy.
oh and i get to wear my new dress :-)

city rats and bums bums.

Two evenings ago I spent some spectacular time on our roof, reading, watching the sunset. We have a generous view of the city from up top. There is a cathedral on the rear end of the building, on the right is an extensive view of the 40 chimney's per house on our row, and the left you view what i like to call : modern london (the glass domes, skyscrapers and such). and the sunset was too lovely for words.

some interesting experiences in this city- i will admit. yesterday we saw rats- as big as possums (eeek!). and last weekend after my exhausting day at (ahem, cough, cough, gag) starbucks i went to oxford street to buy a new uniform (long story) where- lo and behold- the exhibitionist bicycle rally/parade was taking place. naked men and women as far as the eye could see...on bikes! ow. i laughed so hard i cried. also on the roster is another mooning! that's right, again- stacy, casie, and i were mooned. this time- at a pub. he was homeless and shook his tush for all sorts of laughter from the pub goers. so let's see- rats? check. thousands naked? check. homeless naked? check, check. Yes this has been an interesting trip thus far ;-)

I think i am going to a concert this friday at a theatre called (of all things) Water Rats. The band- The Elected (love love love them). It's only £7 to go and I think well worth it.

As for sights of this city go here is my list so far. Click on any that link and discover them for yourselves. Also please add any other places that you wish for me to go (by adding a comment) and hopefully i will wind up there:

London:

Tate Modern ...check!

British

National

and Victoria and Albert Museums

The Home of Charles Dickens

Globe Theatre

Abbey Road (I will also go to liverpool for penny lane)

Camden and Portobello Markets (to do with some quid) ...half check!

Hampton Court Palace and Maze Convent Garden

Windsor Castle

22 Hyde Park Gate (which, seriously is right where I live- I just can't seem to find the place) -where Virginia Woolf grew up ....check!

The Docks

Greenwich

SoHo

Keats House

Convent Gardens


outside of london, in england:
stonehenge ...check!

bath

cambridge

oxford

stratford upon avon (shakespears home, it may be fun to go here, but time permiting)

york


then of course i think we should travel to:

Ireland

Scotland

Amsterdam (Casie insists ;-) )

Greece

Italy

and France.


its good to have lists like this. it is likely i will forget things that i want to see or have already forgotten them andmight have to come back and edit this list. :-)

love you all.
m.

they keep mating

there's a baby boom in the uk, or at least that's what the newspaper said, as well as a drought. i find the drought business a farce- considering 9 out of the 12 days have been rainy. i guess they are experiencing less rain than ever before, but less is still more for a girl from missouri. the baby boom is not a farce however. everywhere i look we are looking at a pregnant woman or at twelve. and the uk has never seen anything like it. i wonder if it's the recent boom in tourism (us country gals are keen on the alluring male brit's voice). maybe it has something to do with the fact that on every tube, at every stop, on every bus, and every street corner we have a pair of lips bonded to another pair of lips without a chance to break a part. it's amazing they aren't cranking out the children any faster with the way things have been looking here.

i heard somewhere that the french show strong affection and that the british strong aversion but i believe that this source was mistaken. the french show strong affection as well as the british, ask casie (who can't seem to ward off the men by just saying no). i, however, have been blessed. i get some looks here and there but no official proposition or kiss (because they love to kiss when they like you). Thank goodness! i proclaim (though i know half of you are laughing because i had spent months daydreaming about the brits mouths). it's true though.

in other news (especially to get away from the subject matter of mating) i have just learned that the brits don't like the queen. they despise her as a matter of fact. coming as a strong sentiment from my current boss and the like i have received quite a shock at this revelation. i have always really adored the queen. but then- i see their point. i mean we do have a clown at the head of our country as well- nothing but a show figure. but at least theirs doesn't say much, ours dances around like a monkey half the time (sorry to those who disagree ;-) ). anyhow, i am still going to buy that mug i saw with the queen's face on it. i truly adore that cup.

life on the wall

have i mentioned that i put coins in my wall for electricity. haha. and i can hear my neighbor poo (i still haven't met him). but hey- it's nottinghill.

my first flat, my first laundromat, my first income (lousy yet) and my first time living somewhere other than the united states. and we are only on day 12.

the weather has been awfully delightful. yesterday i even got a tan while going to the Tower Bridge and the London Tower (both are exiquisite). We saw a wall that dated back to before the 12th century. In the middle of all this old antiquity was London's city hall which is basically an enormous glass dome. right smack dab in the middle of london. this city is an interesting twist of old and new and the all together charming.

Pull Yer Trouser's up!

Besides being mooned in the tube a lot of funny conversations happen on the underground. today on my way back from wimbledon (that's where the tennis match is held) i sat across from four ladies who were obviously not from london. one can tell these things because they were chatty cathy's, a rarity in these city streets. they were talking about the prostitutes that had just rented their lower flat. the conversation was hilarious. i almost couldn't contain my laughter. the best part was that the women were horrifed that these women would share the same washing machine and toilet (apparently there are six). i should have chimed in to inform them that nottinghill residents don't get much better (sharing bathrooms with the whole house --15 people!).

interesting point: my electricity is paid through a coin slot on the wall. one pound per turn, three turns per week. i love it!

living in london while broke is no fun but today was the day of deals. £6 and 50p's later i have a pair of pants and clear studs for nose for starbuck's training tomorrow. they still haven't hired me but they want me to prove myself on the floor before they even consider my application.

the rain won't stop and i'm sick but that won't slow me down (or it won't anymore). trying to stay positive is hard when it's freezing. i found this perfect jumper (aka-sweater) at a thrift store for £6 but i needed pants more for work and therefore it has been sacrificed until i get paid.

i need people to send me emails. i miss stories from home. let me know what's going on friends- i do love you dearly.