chillax'n with the 'rents

My mom and dad came to visit last week. They were only here for 6 days - the time flew by. We went to see Wicked and Cabaret, walked around Harrods, went to the Tate Modern and Victoria and Albert Museum and I finally got to eat at Tayyabs - my favorite Pakistani curry house. Sarah and I tried to go when she was here visiting, but just our luck - they were closed for the the entire month of Ramadan!

We took a day trip to Cambridge - really pretty and huge old buildings, the whole town is basically just colleges. I'd like to go back someday and try the punting. (a boat kind of like a canoe or rowboat, but the person that rows and steers stands in the back with a long stick.) We had dinner at a cute little teahouse and then went to the evening service at Kings College, and got to hear an amazing boys choir. Of course, my choice of seating was not ideal, and we sat on the wrong side of the pipe-organ, so we couldn't see much or hear the speaking part of the service. Oh well.



We also did an overnight trip to Canterbury. We arrived fairly late so most things were closed, but we got to wander around the massive cathedral grounds in the dark. It was cool - We were the only ones there, so it was a little creepy, and it was so late in the day we got in free. Afterwards we explored the city centre, had some dinner and finally went back to the hotel where we watched a weird British movie about dog shows and romance called Catwalk Dogs. The next morning we walked around Canterbury some more, filled candy orders for people at home, and checked out an old Norman castle, before taking the train back to London. It was a pretty relaxed trip, but fun - and now I can cross Canturbury off my list.

Out to Lunch...

Today while flipping thru an old issue of Time Out, I was came across an ad for a BBC Radio 2 stand-up comedy show, that tapes in front of a live studio audience. I'd found it once before a month or so ago, put it in my free-things-to-do in London file and immediately forgot about it. Anyway, it tapes on Sunday nights, so Stephanie and I logged into the website and booked 2 tickets for tonight's show.

We got there early, and were rewarded for our patient waiting in the cold and rainy que by getting 2 drink tickets each. Woot! We were also asked to come up with ideas for a sitcom (involving 2 guys and a girl), which were then given to the writers, who picked their favorite and wrote a sketch for the cast to perform near the end of the show.

Our ideas were:
A Young Republican from Amarillo moves to Austin to work in politcs and has to live with his liberal bike messenger cousin. The 2 are balanced out by their friend who is a mexican-american girl that wants to be a rockstar, but struggles with her traditional hispanic upbringing.

A man who lives in a trailer on the shores of Loch Ness, and devotes his life to finding Nessie. His best friend is a pubowner who also owns the land the trailer is on. The pubowner believes he is a direct descendent of Braveheart and hijinks ensue involving kilts bagpipes and blue face paint. The girl is the "Nessie hunter's" on/off again girlfriend from Liverpool that on/off again believes in Nessie, and likes to argue with the Scottish pubowner about Scotland vs England.

After all that hard work, we didn't even get picked. Regardless to say it was still really funny and made what was probably going to be a really boring Sunday night seem worthwhile. If you like comedy radio check it out: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/comedy/outtolunch.shtml#guests - The show we were at doesn't air until Nov 10, but there are others up.

I only have a little over 7 weeks til my European adventure comes to an end (and I'm still going to Iceland, Paris and probably Rotterdam between now and then!) I can't believe it's almost been a year! I have no idea what I'm going to do when I get back - I'm looking forward to it, but at the same time, dreading the day I have to get on the plane to fly home. At least it will be warm in L.A. People like to use the work "lucky" when they descibe this year to me - It's not luck - It's just life, and what I've chosen to do with mine. If I was lucky I would have found a great job with plenty of money, a house with a sitting room (where I don't have to live with my weirdo landlord), an awesome hot boyfriend, and still have gotten to do all of this. Or maybe I could just win the lotto, or my band get a multi-million $$ deal.... that would be lucky.

Ukeleles and Enchanted Gold

Last night Stephanie and I went to see Das Rheingold at the Royal Opera House. I admit I fell asleep a couple time during the first half, but overall it was really good...and really strange. (Das Rheingold ("The Rhine Gold") is the first of the four operas that comprise Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung), by Richard Wagner.) The whole thing was sung in German, but there was a big screen that hung above the stage with subtitles.

We paid £3 for our seats - they were really bad, we were practically at ceiling level, and we couldn't see one side of the stage, but we saw the important stuff - and for £3, I didn't feel bad about falling asleep.



We also went to uke night last week and are re-motivated to learn how to play our ukeleles.

Raindance Film Festival

For the past couple weeks I have been volunteering at the Raindance Int'l Film Fest, as an assistant projectionist. It was fun, but very time comsuming since I would go to the festival immediately after work. I met some cool people, although not as many as I'd hoped to - I can blame that on being locked away in the projection booth all day, and I saw tons of shorts and a few films. I would recomend these:

"Manufacturing Dissent" - a Canadian documentary about Micheal Moore that made me dislike him more than I already do.
"In Search For a Midnigh Kiss" - a love story in LA
"Frank and Cindy" - a doc. about the filmmakers weird parents

Stephanie and I also met a couple of NYU film grad students. They were only here for a couple days, but it was fun having someone different to hang out with. The picture below was is in Notting Hill, not Serbia and was taken by a friend of the boys. I really like it - it looks like a movie still, which I suppose is fitting...

say cheese!

Stephanie and I can now say that we are internationally exhibited artists not once, but twice!

The first was a LomoWall in Trafalgar Square. People from all over the world submitted photos, or in our case, participated in workshops that submitted photos. I can't believe we found ourselves! Sarah was here for the exhibition and found us first - once we found the first pic, we started finding them everywhere. I've posted the group shot.




The 2nd is was from our 'Shoot Shoreditch' photo hunt. Our 'fashion victim' photo got chosen to be part of the exhibition.

I've got no strings, to hold me down...wireless.

could it be true?! i think we finally convinced our landlord that even if wireless router makes a person sick, turning his off, in this age of wireless, will not make a difference. The people next door have it, the neighbors behind us have it, the school across the street has it - and as he so elegantly put it, "it goes thru walls, we're not safe anywhere."
internet - 24/7....unheard of!! it's like we've caught up to the future.


Here's a few more good zombie photos that I found on Flickr, taken by a strangers.

I Walked With A Zombie

Saturday was a zombie walk. Stephanie, Kara and I joined the undead for an all-out attack on the good people of London from beyond the grave!