bon voyage

friday: ate ice pops in the park then made squid and cabbage for dinner, chatting with kelly about imaginary men and drank cocktails while watched american tv shows.

saturday: more of the usual wandering manchester, drinking bubble tea. there was a tiny jazz festival [with obligatory beer tent] and separate dance festival in town. we saw some interpretive dancer with two orange-coat wearing body guards near exchange square. after grocery shopping we bought 1pound strawberries that were tiny and so delicious. we also went down oldham and into the northern quarter to check out retro rehab. they buy vintage clothes from all over [mostly the US i guess] then wash the mothball smell out and sell them at ten times the price. i bought the most perfect 80s ann taylor dress. it is white with purple polka dots and i love it. i will be wearing it all over the place. for dinner we ate the strawberries, drank more cocktails [mojitos!] and went to watch lyrics born. after the ehhh show we stuffed outselved with fried goodness from tastemasters.

sunday: hot and sunny and hazy. after lunch at home we needed to get out and get some breeze. we walked down the canal and around spinningfields. everyone we passed seemed to be drunk. three old men.. one wearing a white tank top with a red sunburn, one wearing black jeans, boots and a long sleeved shirt in 80º weather and one sipping from a wine bottle. they were all drunk. the guy with the black jeans was walking like he was on a moving boat. later we passed a guy near the library who was eating a bag of chips. he winked at us and smiled and shrugged as he lifted a chip to the sky.. like saying.. it is 2:30 in the afternoon and i'm walking down the street, drunk as a skunk eating these chips. isn't life grand. either that or he was making some lude suggestion or propositioning us for a three-way. either way, it was funny. we all chuckled together. we spent a while reading the paper and getting tan in the park then went home to..eat i guess? i forget. yes, we made calzones.

monday: work. we tried to get a fish curry at this n' that but they were closed by time we showed up at 5. instead we ate leftover broccoli, eggplant and mushroom calzones from the night before and cleaned house.

today: i forgot to set my out-of-office message even after being reminded five times, so, in an attempt to avoid co-workers, i got up early, skipped showering and went into work. it took a good 10 minutes for my computer to turn on then i got distracted by a co-worker with cookies, printed out some articles for peter and turned the computer off again.. without setting my out-of-office message! so i had to stay for another 15 minutes, for the pc to boot and outlook to load..

now we are lounging and will soon be packing and leaving for our first euro holiday ever! woo!

house guests, hoodlums and hot days

today was the hottest day of the year. 79º. it was sunny from 5 a.m. to noon, then gray, as usual. it is almost depressing. no, it is actually depressing. i wore a sweater and jeans. you must always prepare for the worst. it actually did rain during my walk home after work so my cynicism about the supposed british summer is warranted.

photos will be posted when i am sober.

lately i've been obsessively making lists at work in preparation of our upcoming holiday. at home we've been watching the new seasons of weeds, no reservations and project runway.. and missing friends. i wish we could re-live alicia's visit the way i had imagined it, but here is what actually happened..

last tuesday we met alicia and cayle at the airport. they were tanned and i was jealous. but they were also jet lagged and hung over so we made them walk all over manchester. we also fed them curry made them drink some mid-day beers, which was cruel. they had the typical manchester/british experience of day drining in a dark pub. we were successful, as there was a sleeping lady on the couch next to us at the pub. we then dragged them around the canals, by the old hacienda, castlefield, the museum of science and industry, st. anne's square, st. peter's cathedral, market street, exchange square, the curry mile, uni manchester and all of oxford street. then we ate pizza. they fell asleep on the couch at 9 o'clock.

wednesday we somehow got the fast train to london and avoided being bothered by hoodlums and their cell phone music, which was good. we ate noodles, checked in to our hostel, which was ehhh then walked through hyde park and all over without much rest. out feet ached. we rode the tube lots, ate 18$ fish and chips in the west end then had lots of beers and tried to sleep on our bunk beds. a loud woman woke me up at 6 in the morning. i was really already up because peter and i were reliving junior year of college and trying to both sleep on a twin sized bed. anyway, this lady was yelling at her kids for a long time. i felt a bit bad for them but i felt worse for myself.

thursday we saw notting hill and portabello road [peter really likes to go by the sausage + mash (s&m) cafe], westminster abbey, buckingham palace, lots of sparkly jewels at v&a, ate 14$ cheese sandwiches, drank coffee, walked by harrods, got rained on, rode the tube some more, walked along the thames and the wobbly bridge, wandered around tate modern then got our luggage, ate thai and got back on the train home. this time there were hoodlums on this train. 4 or 5 boys with a bag of booze. they were boozing it up [and singing?] and doing generally naughty things. i don't think they had tickets. we made an unscheduled stop at crewe where a copper came on and escorted one of the boys out. it was fun and exciting.we laughed at them then reminisced over stories of our [not at all] sorted youth.

friday i went to work while everyone recovered at home. we ate fried rice then made cocktails and forced them to watch peep show.. and they liked it. before bed i made pita pizzas. i am so handy.

saturday we went to liverpool. there were way too many people in town for the tall ships race. we saw excellent skyline paintings at the walker. peter's allergies attacked due to a giant tapestry depicting some debauchery. we ate lunch and got sassed at the egg cafe. after we tried to go to the tate liverpool but were denied. we saw some lobster ladies wearing stilts and kids on leashes. it was cold and windy. we tried to buy hoodies at american apparel but refused to pay 80+ american dollars. we were just cold. found an almost derelict, downstairs irish pub and got tipsy then waited it out to catch a very comfy train back to manchester.

sunday i don't think we left the apartment. for dinner we drank ginger beer, ate yummy fish + chips [with homemade tartar sauce and mushy peas] and reminisced at the marble arch. actually stayed until closing time.

monday i worked, hungover. made green curry for dinner and were generally bums. later on we went for some farewell drinks at the ducey bridge pub then cocktails and peep show back at the apartment.

tuesday went to airport and said good bye's. it was very sad. then petey and i ate egg + cress sandwiches for breakfast in piccadilly park before i had to go to work. i wanted to play hookie very badly but went to work anyhow. we are old.

wednesday thursday friday work, eat, sleeps. the end.

and also in the news..
fun baby names.. yeah detroit!
obamafest in berlin

beck, blackcurrants + bangcock

the boys at beck
beck
slot world in aston-under-lyne
ikea candles named after myself
petey eating goodies on the depressing balcony





last wedneday we went to see beck at the apollo with a canadian and a ginger. it was alright. beck looked tiny and he is still dressing like it is 1994. the girl playing bass had some good dance moves.

friday we made lazy tortilla pizzas and shrimp & avacado salad for dinner. fell asleep early. saturday we woke up early-ish, waited out the rain then took the train into ashton-under-lyne. we wandered in circles forever, ate sandwiches from boots then bought some goodies at ikea: two tiny stools and a balcony table. and two candles. and two packs of mylti-colored chopsticks.

later that afternoon on our way into town to buy groceries i saw an advert for ribena, a very popular juice drink made with blackcurrents. realizing i have no idea what blackcurrents are, i ask petey "are black currents like grapes only smaller?" he mumbles somthing and i go on.. "are sultanas from blackcurrants and raisins from grapes then?" then peter says something like "i think curtains are shear and drapes are heavier." haha. then we got caught in a sudden downpour that made it look like i peed myself.

after conning petey into clothes shopping for a bit we went to china town to buy groceries. we walked in circles for a while and found the suprisingly tiny ladyboys of bangcock circus. who knew you could make a whole circus from thai trannies. i am a little sad we did not get tickets to the show. afterwards we bought goodies at wong wong bakery. we went right home to eat sweets and drink coffee on the balcony, using out new ikea goodies.

the rest of the night we read the paper, planned activites for special visitors who are coming soon, made thai red curry (in homage to the carnies) and celebrated the fact that this week will be my last full week of work until september. hooray!

P.S. read this very sad but acurate story, mostly about detroit, from the telegraph.

d+b flyers