Friday, October 30, 2009

Burrito Friday

One of the things I crave most from San Francisco is a burrito. I get off the plane and that is the first stop I make. I have tried Mexican food in London and it is a far stretch. Nachos are made with cheese Doritos and enchiladas with barbecue sauce. But, near the British Library, someone who has been to San Francisco has opened up a burrito shop and it ain’t bad folks. Not bad at all. I like going there not only for the tasty burritos (made with black beans which are finally being offered here on a somewhat easy basis. Before you had to buy the dried kind or have them shipped in!) but of the nice mural on the wall depicting all the GOOD burrito places in San Francisco. It is almost like I am back home. I find it comforting. The only bad thing is it is very popular with the many many many college students in the area and if you don’t get there early you have to wait in a very long time. That I don’t like. Makes me feel old. :-(

Friday, October 23, 2009

No news is good news?

There has been some quite on the blog front, mostly because I am working all the time now and when I get home or stop working the last thing I want to do is look at a computer. I don’t even want to watch TV! Hence the sharp decline in posts. I will try to be better.

Things in Britain are moving a long. The job at the British Library is going well and is interesting for the most part however I still manage to feel okay about writing a blog post on a Friday afternoon instead of doing the work I am suppose to be doing. Why is this? We’ll call it my lunch break. I like working here and I think it is a great experience however lately I am noticing how much I don’t like working. I really resent having to spend a good chunk of my life inside an office doing things that in the grand scheme don’t really matter. I think I would much rather doing something that actually produced something. Like farming. We’re looking into. Don’t laugh, I am being serious. We’ll see but I like the idea of working hard and being able to look up and see what I am working hard for. I don’t like the idea of working hard and looking up and seeing four white walls. What is inspiring about that?

Off to see Martin’s new niece this evening to celebrate his dad’s b-day. We had the opportunity to meet her last week and she is a doll. I want to eat her up. I have since been on the prowl for cute baby girl sweaters I can knit her and I can’t wait to get paid so I can buy some wool to get started! The possibilities are endless!

What else…mmm, not sure. I have been missing running lately as it is difficult to fit in now and running in the dark-either in the evening or in the morning-is not appealing. Hopefully I will be able to fit in a couple this weekend. And with the clocks going back this weekend I might be able to start considering going in the morning. Hopefully Martin will be better about waking up and doing this than I have proven to be. I try not to wake up a minute earlier than I need to.

Oh, here is some exciting news-the pub two doors from our house caught fire! Obviously everything is fine however it was a bit scary. It was evening and we smelled smoke however didn’t think too much about it as we had used the fire place for the first time in months that evening and that it was just that. But then when Martin was getting ready for bed he saw smoke was coming from the wall dividing our neighbour’s yard to the pub’s yard. He called to make sure it wasn’t burnt fish cakes and upon learning it wasn’t he phoned the fire brigade. Apparently the fire was in the basement of the pub. It did not spread and there was no damage to our or our neighbour’s place, although it smelled strongly of smoke for several days. The pub is now closed and boarded up. It is being investigated. Seeing as how it has been shut for several months we have our suspicions about what might have started it but can’t say for sure. It was pretty exciting but also a very good lesson. Smell smoke? Take a look around. Don’t make assumptions. If we hadn’t seen the smoke who knows what could have happened. We are very lucky it wasn’t worse. I have pictures and will post them when I get a chance. The fire fighters were there all night!

Big news in Britain today is about the BNP leader being allowed on a popular question and answer program featuring British politicians. The BNP stands for the British National Party and basically wants Britain to be free of any foreigners. In the most racist sense imaginable. The party has managed to secure two seats however so the BBC had to put the leader on this show out of fairness as the BBC is suppose to be non-political. We watched it last night and he is an outrageous sort of man. Now he is complaining of being set up and bullied. Which he probably was but I don’t think people really care. He described the Klu Klux Klan as being “non-violent”. Oh dear.
Here is an article about the show...http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8322322.stm

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Royal Parks Half Marathon

Last Sunday I woke up at 6:45 and went on to run the Royal Parks Half Marathon. Yay! I have to say, I thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience of running and training for a half marathon. The runs were just long enough to be challenging and make you feel like you have accomplished something but not so long that you didn’t want to do it. I lost a little bit of extra weight I was carrying around but got to increase my food intake at the same time. I got to run through the summer months which is a always a joy and I didn’t have to sacrifice a whole Sunday preparing for a long run, doing a long run and recovering from a long run like I did when training for the full marathon. I liked the training so much I have signed up for another half in February!

The event itself was a lot of fun. Basically 13 miles around the sites of London, with the last half looped around Hyde Park. There were 12000 runners which was both a good and bad thing. Good in the sense that you got carried away with the spirit and speed of the people around you and didn’t feel like you could stop, even if you wanted to. Bad in that it was hard to go your own pace and when you felt a surge of energy and wanted to speed up you often had to do so by dodging the people around you. This was especially annoying at the end when you didn’t want to waste any energy by trying to avoid people. But, I would highly highly highly recommend this run and think my sisters should come and join me next year. A whole year to train! Think about it. The weather was pretty ideal for running. It did rain a little bit on the way there but stopped for the most part and it was just cold enough to keep you the perfect temperature while you were running without a jacket. Martin came along with me and it was great as I got to see him three times along the way. A nice thing to look forward to! I can honestly say I gave this run everything I had and when I crossed the finish line I was exhausted. I ran as hard as I could and went as fast as my little legs would let me. And I crossed the finish line in 2 hours, 4 minutes and 18 seconds. I am very proud!

In other very exciting news Martin’s sister had a baby today! A little girl. They plan to call her Milly. I can’t wait to see her! 8lbs, 8oz. I love it when babies are born. A whole new person to love-how exciting! Congrats!