The 17

In last weeks TimeOut (the weekly entertainment magazine) I read this:

"New project from the ever-provocative former KLF chap, Bill Drummond comprising a choir, open to all and committed to never being recorded, broadcast or even watched by an audience. Instead, the members – who will include you, if you manage to secure a ticket for this event – will perform entirely for their own pleasure."

It's a free event but due to limited space you have to email to get tickets. It turns out space is very limited - only 17 people and it only happens once a week for a limited time.

Anyway, we thought it sounded cool, and something different to do with Stephanie's mom who is hear visiting. Stephanies sent an email requesting tickets, and on Monday afternoon she got a response saying that they had some cancellations so we could attend.

It turned out that it was not so much a choir - but more of an interactive art installation. The artist had written "scores" for a fantasy choir, and is now having people get together to sing them. He did record it so he could play it back for us, but then deleted it.

We had to sing 5 notes for 5 minutes each. It was hard, and I almost busted out laughing on the 1st one. Hearing it played back was interesting. I felt like we were signalling for the mothership. Stephanies's mom described the experience as "different", which I think was a nice way of saying it was weird.

I thought it was great.

Paris

I took the Eurostar from London to Paris last weekend. It goes 186mph and reaches Paris in about 2 hr 15 min.

I had to wait around for a couple hours for Amity and her friend Caitlin to arrive, so I found the hotel which happened to be at the bottom of Montmartre and The Sacré-Cœur Basilica. It was beautiful day so I sat in the park, read my book and watched tourists being harrassed by some dudes trying to sell friendship bracelets.



We spent the rest of the day being French - hung out in a bistro eating quiche and drinking coffee, and had wine with cheese and baguettes for dinner.

On Sunday we walked around Montmartre



and then Amity and I ventured out in the rain and cold to see the Arc de Triomphe and The Eiffel Tower at night. It was freezing but pretty cool to see. I had to buy an umbrella from a souvenier shop that broke with 10 minute.




On Monday, we walked along The River Seine from The Eiffel Tower to The Louvre. We didn't go in anywhere - Paris is not free like London - but we weren't to bothered anyway. You've seen one famous art museum, you've seen them all. We also rested our legs and warmed up in Notre Dame, had a picnic in the gardens at Place de la Concorde, and wandered through a couple of cemetaries.

350 degrees Fahrenheit = 176.666667 degrees Celsius

I tried to make Grandma's chocolate chip cookies, to take to work in honor of Thanksgiving. Instead somehow I managed to make chocolate chip muffin tops. They're good, but they're not cookies.

I also made sweet potato soup - a recipe that I got from the WomanWhoEat website. (I wanted to make yam casserole - but couldn't find any canned yams.) I substituted part of the milk with coconut milk. It was good.

I saw a dead body

on my way to work this morning.

There used to be a mobile methadone clinic near a church directly behind my building - In the mornings I walk thru the church yard - it's a bit of a shortcut and it's nice to see some green before I sit in front of a computer all day. There's always 1 or 2 junkies milling about (I think that even tho the methadone clinic is gone, some of them continue to congregate there...it's certainly better than the tube station.) I've never felt threatened by them, although once it started getting dark early, I stopped taking the short cut in the evenings.

Anyway this morning the entrance to the church yard had police tape in front of it. There were a few cops milling about, and as I walked by the opening in the gate, I saw a pile of clothes with a body inside, sprawled out face first on the sidewalk. I'm sure he was dead, because if he has been ill or unconscious then he would have had blanket covering him or the police would have been tending to him, instead of standing with their backs to him.

On a much brighter note, I saw the musical Desperately Seeking Susan tonight - the dancing was great. I always get crushes on the actors when I seem them dance - I wish I knew someone in musical theater - although up close, and standing still they may not be so wonderful. All of the songs they sang were Blondie songs - now I need to rewatch the movie...

Off to Paris in 6 hours - I better get packing.

Iceland

I still can't believe I was in Iceland! Stephanie and I decided to go on a whim because Icelandic Air was offering really good flight/hotel packages.

We flew out of Heathrow, which was awesome because we got the tube all the way there - as usually we were running a little late, but it worked out perfectly in the end. By the time we got to check-in there were no lines at all.

We arrived around 4 pm, but by the time we reached our hotel an hour later it was dark. On the bus we met a couple of people also from London, who ended up staying next to us at the hotel. I had a raging headache, but I took a quick shower and some painkillers, and we met up with our neighbors to go find some dinner. After walking around the city centre looking at over-priced menus we settled on Icelandic fastfood - it was actually really good.


After dinner, we decided to go back to the hotel and chill out for a while - I wanted to sleep off my headache - and then meet back up later to check out the nightlife, which doesn't really kick off on the weekends til around 3 AM! We finally went out around midnight, went to a bar called Sirkus - it's the "cool" bar in Reykjavik where Bjork and Sigur Ros hang out - but to me it seemed more like a bunch of pretentious scenesters. We were entertained by raver/circus performer weirdo with a funny haircut that at one point danced underneath Stephanies chair, up between her and the table, and on to the table. It was slightly entertaining, but got annoying after a while when he wouldn't go away.

There is virtually no major crime in Iceland, so you can walk around anywhere, at anytime. We finally headed back to the hotel around 4 AM - and took some photos on the way. (The house in background of the photo with the stoplights is Hofdi House, where Gorbachev and Reagan met to discuss the Cold War.)


Saturday morning we woke up just as it was getting light - around 9 AM. After breakfast we went for a walk along the beach (Faxafloi Bay). I tried to convince myself that I saw a puffin, but I don't think it was one.


We spent the rest of the day walking around Reykjavik. In the city centre we found ourselves in the middle of a giant dog walk which we joined in on for a while. We also went to Hallgrimskirkja Church, The Pearl (a glass dome built atop tanks that store hot water for heating the city), a grocery store (which is an experience in itself) and found a cute little coffeeshop where we warmed up and wrote postcards.


We went out again on Saturday night - but since we had to get up early on Sunday for our bus tour we couldn't stay out too late. At 2:30 AM, as we were leaving the city centre was packed! I'd like to go back to Iceland sometime just to experience the nightlife - 3 days wasn't really long enough.

Sunday morning we took a bus tour of The Golden Circle. (from Wikipedia since I don't feel like typing)
"The Golden Circle is a popular tourist route in South Iceland, looping out of Reykjavík closer to central Iceland (where most of the sights are) and back to Reykjavík.
The three primary stops on the route are Þingvellir National Park, Gullfoss, and the geothermally active valley of Haukadalur, which contains the geysers Geysir and Strokkur. Þingvellir is a national park containing both historical and natural beauties. Gullfoss, meaning golden falls, is a spectacular waterfall that is a must see. Other less frequented stops include Kerið volcano crater and Hveragerði greenhouse village."
We went to all the places listed, as well as another waterfall, but I don't know it's name. At Gullfoss it was snowing and raining when we arrived. It was so cold, and we were soaked by the time we got back to the bus, but definately an experience.


This photo was taken at the Greenhouse Village at about 10 AM - it looks like it's dusk!!


Sunday night we went back to the fastfood place for dinner, and then walked around the city centre one last time. We ended up at the coffee shop, and played our own version of trivial pursuit. Basically making up questions from what we could make out on the cards, which were written in Icelandic.

On Monday we went to The Blue Lagoon on the way to the airport. It's a geothermal spa in the middle of a lava field that is fed by the water output of a nearby geothermal power plant. The water stunk because it's full of sulphur and silica and there were buckets of natural mud masks for people to use. The minerals also were an amazing hair straightener - It was really relaxing and beautiful - a good way to end the trip.

I've put a bunch more pictures up at flickr - it takes to long to upload them here.
Here's the link: http://www.flickr.com/gp/79098137@N00/3s8kPL

Barcelona, London and Sarah

So I've put it off long enough - I need to write about Sarah's visit, and our trip to Barcelona.

Sarah arrived on a Thursday - we just hung out in London and on Saturday afternoon we flew to Barcelona. The flight was uneventful - slight anxiety attack when our bus to the airport was 30 minutes late. We arrived in Reus - about 90 km from Barcelona - at 10:30 pm, and caught a bus. I tried to be prepared, and printed a map of our hostel from the bus station - but I didn't realize how long of a walk it was, and forgot that we would be carrying bags. It turns out the subway would have been much easier - but walking was an adventure, and it's always cool to see the city at night.

We found our hostal - it was clean and cute and very close to the university and Las Rambla - there were people everywhere, even at 2 AM. We put our bags up and decided to wander around the city. The street was full of tourists and spanish men trying to sell us cans of cerveza.

The next morning we woke up and waited for my friend from Dublin, Elina, to arrive, and then didn't waste any time figuring out the metro and getting to the beach. The beach was packed with tourists and locals alike. There were several butt naked people, and lots of boobs! We swam in the Mediterranean, sunbathed, and drank sangria before heading back into the city. That night we walked around, people watched, and ate tapas. We had some amazing miniture peppers that tasted just like fried okra! Apparently Barcelona is known for it's nightlife, but none of us are really into clubbing, so after peering into a couple of bars, but no one being very enthusiastic about going in, we made our way back to the hostel and to bed.


Monday was a day of sightseeing. We walked so much. Of course we saw Gaudí's still unfinished church of the Sagrada Família, which has been under construction since 1882 (as of 2007, completion is planned for 2026.)


My favorite was probably Park Güell - a giant park also designed by Gaudi. Lots of mosaics and color, and alot of the achitecture blends in with the surrounding landscape. It felt kind of like an amusement park, only trees and sculpture instead of rides.


After walking all day we went for more tapas, and then had churros and hot chocolate - delicious!!! That night we ended up at a bar called Manchester - there's no escaping England.

Tuesday morning I got a random call from a BMX friend who remembered that I had said I was going to be in Barcelona, and he happened to be there as well. It turned out he's been there all weekend, but my phone battery was low so I had turned it off and didn't get the message - too bad... it would have been fun to hang out with those guys. We were tired of walking around the city, so we decided to take a sailing trip. It was great, and not something I wouldn't normally too - I'm such a cheapskate.


After the sailing, we met the BMX guys at the beach, just in time to say hi, and then tried to soak in a another hour of sun. I also paid 5 euro to one of the many little Asian ladies walking around the beack offering massages - for 5 euros it wasn't too bad. 1 last cerveza, and we headed to bus station to catch our bus to the airport. (That is whole other story, and not really one I want to repeat - so we'll just say a missed bus, 100 euros and a speeding unlicensed Indian cab driver later, we made it to the airport only to have our flight delayed.

Back to London....
Nothing too amazing, but we stayed busy - the weather was great so we walked around alot.
We caught up with some friends, ate at the THE IVY and pretended we were rockstars (yummie PIMMS, but mediocre food), walked around Hyde Park, went to Kew Gardens, an art show, and to a play that Orlando Bloom was acting in. London Fashion week started while Sarah was here, so we tried out hardest to figure out a way to get into a show or party, but no luck. 2 months later... I think I remembered everything.