day tripping: blackpool

last saturday we went to blackpool. it was warm-ish and sunny and we had an excellent time walking the promenad and piers, people watching and exploring the pleasure beach amusment park. we also ate fish + chips + [canned] peas that tasted like a school lunch.. and saw some strange people and strange good [check out the osama bin laden masks]. the highlight of the day was the steeplechase ride. we didn't actually ride it, but we watched other people ride it and that was enough.

today i brought in crispy cremes as my almost-last-day-of-work treat. i hadn't had a doughnut since i worked in lansing and almost forgot how heavenly they were. i wish they made doughnut perfume. that reminds me.. there was a quality dairy [neither peter or i could remember the name of the store.. i had to google "lansing convenince store".. we are old] doughnut factory down the road from my apartment in lansing. every morning you could smell doughnuts in the air. i think it was the best part of living there. that and the thrift stores. and pablos. but that was about it.

anyhow, i am anticipating a lot of things in the next 12 days, but mainly just looking forward to going home. i am also dedicating the rest of my time here to visit and photograph my favorite manchester-ish things. happy almost-friday.

the final countdown

we will be home in t minus 19 days.
we will be hosting a [very long overdue] early fall waffle gathering.

hooray!

i ♡ franz ferdinand and fridays.. falafels..

finally re-downloaded franz fernidand's first album. i listened to this album lots when petey and i first started dating. brings back lots o memories. mostly of making out and/or driving home [to east lansing.. shaw hall actually] after making out. it is all very nostalgic and romantic. so romantic that i just kicked a glass of rose off the coffee table and all over the carpet.

today we slept in, ate eggs and toast then walked up to cheetham hill for the best green grocer/grocery store. ate some macaroons. found an excellent navy suit for petey's interview this friday. wish him luck. this would be excellent! then we went into town and got grumpy due to the large amount of slow walkers clogging market street. it is seriously ridiculous.

anyhow, we're enjoying our very fair-weather, rain-free weekend. it is a miracle.

p.s. i shared laurie's hummus recipe with a co-worker this week. he asked about tahini. i said it was sometimes used on falafels. he asked if falafels were jewish. i just stopped taking.

bruges, bunkbeds + barak obama

i just read this and laughed until my eyes teared up. it reminded me that i haven't run down our trip. i am not going to now because i am lazy, but i will document a funny story. well, i think it's funny. you probably won't.

so. we got to bruges on a very wet sunday morning and checked in to our hostel. they told us what beds we were in and we stashed the bags in storage as our room was still occupied. but, the good thing about bruges [and brussels and antwerpt, even though we didn't go there] is that some company had provided the hostels with excellent, very cheap-traveler friendly maps with excellent suggestions on where to eat and what to see. so, we consulted the map and found a place where the owner looks like freddy mercury and you can get 3 euro spaghetti. because we had spent the night before drinking an entire box of wine in the park [that only cost 1.92 euro] we were hungover and needed drunk belly meal. so, we found said restraunt, medard, drank cheap belgian beer and ordered large spaghettis, even though freddy thought we might be better off with the smaller size. i told him i could handle it. when our bowls arrived, filled with [what looked like an entire pound of] pasta covered with cheddar [why?] cheese i felt a little sick but tried to eat it all. peter kindof accomplished this but i failed.

anyhow, after the pasta we were zombies and tried to walk it off.. we climbed the tower [which looked nothing at all like the one in the movie] and walked along the canals, checked out some shops and got stuck in a rain storm. eventually we made it back to the hostel, got our bags and went to check out our rooms. first we had to squeeze ourselves and our bags up a very scary free-standing spiral staircase that moved with every step. it was dangerous. then we saw out room was the first exit for the third floor. there was a sign on the door that read "in case of emergency all key cards work on this door." which really meant "anyone can get into this room at any time!" anyhow, we had a fire escape/balcony so i guess it made up for it. there were two bunk beds in the room and bed #1 had mr. man beach towels on it so we went for the far bunk bed thinking those two beds were ours. while peter changed and hot on the interweb i made the bottom bunk for us [with two pillows] and hung our towels on the top bunk to air out. we also met our australian roommie who was going to take a nap after staying out [until 6am.. what! we're too old!]. having made out bed for the night we peaced out to go find a grocery store. we got kindof lost of walked in circles around town but finally found a market that was jsut about to close. all the normal bread was bought up so we grabbed what looked like whole wheat pitas, red pepper, tomatoe, zuccini and goat cheese. and three bars of cote d ore chocolate. [we still have one and a half left!] back i the hostel kitchen i made sandwiches for the next day's train ride [just like my mom used to for road trips] and headed off to eat dinner.

i was hungry for ice cream and frites so we consulted the map again and found a close place named cafe brituur snack. it turned out to be an american themed diner filled a couple old farts who were drinking tiny glasses of beer chatting. we ordered frites and burgers from the lady with a blonde bouffant hairdo and 60s style eyeliner and sat down in a little booth with a mini-table-side jukebox. peter went up to get a beer and started speaking to one of the old farts. when we heard we were american he yelled out "barak obama!" and called us yankees. he also brought his adorable flemish sheep dog to meet us. he was a very friendly guy. after eating we went went to see the old windmills and wandered town for a while. it was so quiet and you could see into everyone's windows. made me feel like a creeper. eventually we bought beers and sat around in the park. we spotted a kitty stalking the ducks near the pond and, using my skills, eventually got her to come over and hang out for a while. she was very purry and obviously someone's lovey house cat. i wanted to steal her.

because we were leaving for frankfurt the next day we figured we had better go and try as many belgian beers as we possibly could. with guidance from the map [again!] we went to brugs beertje bar, the only brewpub in town. it was tiny and crowded and smokey and everyone was having a good time. especially the giant table of brits and australians [including our wino roomie] sitting across the room. anyhow, peter and i tried a few of their specialities and chatted until we got sleepy and headed home, stopping in quick [the belgian equivalent to mcdonalds] to use the restroom.

when we got back to the room i spotted a very large pair of yellow crocks in front of our bunk bed. i knew that our roomie was a petite girl so i thought she may have borrowed them from a large-footed, crock-wearing man. so i moved them so they were in front of her bunk. peter, of course. took our his laptop, sat down on the bottom bunk and started doing whatever he does on the internet. i took my pants off and brushed my teeth then went for a pee, then changed into pjs and sat down next to peter. i was sitting there for a few seconds before i realized there were infact an asian man sleeping in the bed. he was the owner of the mysterious yellow crocks and he was sleeping with both our pillows in the bed i so lovingly made earlier that day. he was also a very heavy sleeper, or thought i was a voyeur. anyhow, i laughed at peter's inability to realise when he was sitting on someone and was angry that he stole out bed and two pillows! i then had to make the other bottom bunk and we had to share. i was angry.

the next morning we got up and showered early to be first to enjoy free breakfast. i am greedy like that. and i don't like people to watch me eat 5 pieces of toast. mr yellow crocks sits down at the table next to us and i make peter apologize for sitting on him. instead of apologizing fo sitting on him and disrupting his slumber, peter tells him he slept in our bed and he should pay more attention to the bed he is assigned. a few minutes later they start talking all about traveling and engineering so its no big deal. turns out he is from korea and we are the stupid ones and made his bed for him instead of one of our own.

that is it.

oh, and we discovered that those sandwiches i made were the most disgusting things imaginable. the "pita bead" was actually sickly sweat and that mixed with goat cheese and red pepper tasted like a regurgitated meal.

lost in leeds

simba, take I and II
petey being attacked by a bee in howarth
fish + chips in leeds
neighborhood near uni. leeds






friday we went to the mackie's for dinner and very entertaining conversions. to get there we took a train to stalybridge then a very nauseating bus ride [winding through some yorkshire moores] to howarth. also on the bus was a middle-aged hiker who had asked the bus driver for some assistance finding his way. no less than three other local passengers took that as their queue to grab the bus schedule he was studying out of his hands and repeatedly advise him of the route they thought he should take. it was entertaining.

upon our arrival we caught up with the summer's events, which included a string of bad luck. thankfully after family dinner and wine the conversation became cheerier. topics included, but were not limited to, conspiracy theories regarding the US and UK government, german robots, england's pub culture, frank zappa, that notorious russian christmas party in clarkston [circa 1976], cuban cat-cuisine and traveling europe as an actual starving artist. we chatted until past bed time then ate cheese and biscuits then fell asleep by the fire place.

in the morning we bonded with the family pets [simba the old rickety persian and mac the henry-lookalike] and ate pie before wandering town a bit and setting off to leeds. i had spend most of friday morning at work making a list of vintage stores to visit. i included detailed directions for each and even found some cheap restaurants. unfortunately i forgot to print it out so we only had a map and my fickle memory to guide us. we did find one decent store from my list, then stumbled upon an excellent and very busy fish + chip shop. but then we wandered north and got lost trying to locate the notorious hyde park and the surrounding shops. we never did find it, but did get to see the ivy-covered neighborhood around uni. leeds and a very sketchy housing estate.

back in manchester we sat in st. ann square while petey recorded the terrible [but very well dressed] cover band and the tail end of an art market. afterwards we picked up some faux gordons gin and ate leftover fish pie [take II was much better than the first attempt] with green beans for dinner.

today we did not leave the apartment. the only thing worth mentioning is the very momoun's-ish lentil soup i made for dinner.

please observe the current 'most popular' page on NYTimes.com:
it seems as if the editorial team as well as the informed public have some concerns over that lady who looks like lemon.

our henry dog..

is one sick puppy. please send him your love.

too tired to alliterate.

been feeling like something is about to happen lately. maybe because things are back to normal. sleeping in tiny, creeky hostel beds doesn't look so terrible now..

last friday i made sure to look through the paper to scout any garage/rummage sale opportunities. i found a giant, american-style second hand store in berlin and made sure to check out practically every rack, but it only made me miss my regular summer saturday morning routine even more. eat a giant breakfast and getting lost all day driving to garage sales and buying random nonsense. i found one "jumble" sale at a church only three miles away so i google mapped it and we set out to shop. of course we got lost on the way. britain needs to work on signing it's roads.. so, when we got there at 2 they were packing everything up! a lady asked us if we were here for the sale. i said yes, i thought it started at 1. she said it did but these things get over with quickly. what! i have been to a lot of church sales in my day and they do not last for only an hour. they have cookies and coffee and casseroles and make a day of it. this congregation must have had add.! i want to come and buy your old junk and you can't even sit there for an hour. goodness. anyhow, she let us look around, which was nice, but i went to pick up a coat and another lady snatched it up to shove in to a garbage bag and said, you should have gotten here earlier love... bah

after that disappointment we headed back, stopped on the way to get some veggies at the green grocers. we discovered they had joined two buildings together to form an almost grocery store. we were excited to have an option besides the ridiculously crowded tesco and aldi in town. they had a giant selection of chapattis/pitas and a better selection of italian pasta brands than tesco carry. we bought a bag of tiny star of david shaped pasta. later that afternoon we picked up goodies [stinkiest, stickiest, most rank piece of brie i've ever eaten] from the french market in st. ann square and went home to lounge and start season three of the wire.

sunday morning, in another attempt to find second hand stuffs, we took the bus to new smithfield carboot sale and market. it was not very impressive, but it was very crowded. mostly cheap electronics that will set you house on fire and polyester clubbing gear. and a strange meat auction-ish event that sounded like a creepy announcer at a carnival game.. afterward we ate asda sandwiches on the walk to victoria baths. There was a table-top sale but it was lame. mostly handicrafts and romance novels. last time we tried to see the building it was covered in scaffolding, so i'm glad we got to come back and explore the pretty (in a very creepy way) building.

also in the news..

sad but excellent NYT interview -ish with maurice sendak

strange and mildly aggravating story about rednecks and politics from BBC

been thinking about how baltimore would be an excellent home [can't be that far off from detroit] and falling deeper into the wire abyss.. did you know mcnulty is british? i love it when bubbles calls him mcnutty.. hahaaaaa

this make me frightened. i miss having a whole isle devoted to canned vegetables

liz lemon, liverpool.. lotion

today, and most of this week, i tried to busy myself at work by readying things on the internets, writing e-mails and making lists.

this is what is on my mind..

sarah palin looks exactly like liz lemon
oh kwame..

watching the wire gives you strange dreams

i wish i was in liverpool to gawk at la machine

it has rained every day since we've been back from vacation

everyone i work with is looking for another job

petey is a hot commodity.. i already know this though

updating my resume is painful
the people who designed these are so clever

english mustard burns your nostrils

been reading random articles, mostly from the NYTs. today i found a story with these strange quotes:
“I bought a restaurant-size roll of aluminum foil in 1992. I had to buy a new one last winter.” The most unusual thing Mr. Cohen keeps in his pantry? A year’s worth of matzo. “Every Passover, I buy 15 or so pounds,” he said.

+

“But we do keep lots of lotions and creams. It’s the only pleasure we get. Karen Root agreed: “Our downtime is going home, lying on the couch and rubbing lotion on each other’s feet.”

sick.

this weekend i plan to visit the french market in st ann square, make fresh rolls and go to as many car boot sales as i can find.

i finished posting photos from germany. i still need to run down what we did and where we went. hopefully that will come soon as my memory is terrible.

my favorite duos

goodness gustav

happy first day of september. i've posted photos from the first week of our germany/benelux trip. an actual recap will be posted in due course.. when i am feeling more motivated.

on saturday my sister got married. i called to wish her luck and congratulations and heard four generations of women joking and laughing in the background. i am sad to miss the company and especially the food. i am very much looking forward to family christmas and [not so] secretly wish we were able to be home for thanksgiving as well.

sunday we did not leave the apartment, just watched the first season of the wire and lounged. this week will be rainy so i'm sure there will be much more of the same.