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I know I have been slack about blogging. I’ve been to places and done things that are interesting enough to share and I’m so behind that I’ll never get there. As wonderful as advice has been about writing short sentences encapsulating what I’ve been doing, I just don’t have the discipline. Well, I'm in the office at the moment. The post-lunch slump had hit (cue insert of artificial stimulants – instant Mars-flavoured coffee!) not too long ago. Then I remembered a silly story that has made me laugh, so I’d like to share it. ( Unneccesarily long back story. All it says is - I went out with some friends. We parted ways at 11:30pm, promising to text each other when we got home. But if you like my chatter feel free to click here... )So I got home, sent off my texts to say ‘Yup, home safe, wasn’t attacked by a random or anything’, and this was one of the responses: “I am home too and have weed!” If I could draw my reaction, it’d have been one of wide-eyed surprise. I had never taken her for a pothead! I always thought she was fairly clean-living, with alcohol being her sole poison of regular choice. And I’m not sure that Peckham is the safest place for a (very attractive) young woman to be sourcing marijuana in the early hours of morning.
Still, who am I to judge on safety in an area I don’t know. And I’ve been raised pretty conservatively, so I always assume people are more innocent than they are.
My wide-eyed surprise and shrug of acceptance was wasted. I had simply misunderstood.
She had “had a wee” => “weed” = urinated. Past tense. Oh... Tags: anecdote, katherine being a spaz
Current Location: Office
Current Music: None because my boss doesn't let us listen to music at work (the w@nker)
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It's about 1:20am and I just got home from a fairly random night, that I am inclined to share. To start with, I was in a pretty shitty mood this evening. I went dancing hoping that it was going to help with the shitty mood. Things were looking pretty grim for the first hour, and I was tempted to turn tail and run home, but the night turned out really well. One of my favourite dancers (who I hadn't seen in an age) arrived, and the place filled up with great dancers, and Simon (the head of the organisation) bought us all rounds of free shots at the end of the night. I left dancing at about 12:20 and hopped onto the tube with two dancing friends, an English guy named Chris and a Kiwi named Andrew. Both lovely guys as far as I can tell. As we were changing tubes, one of the boys noticed a girl, sprawled on one of the tube station seats. It looked like she had passed out. I exclaimed "Someone should get her!" I then paused a moment, then asked hesitantly "Should we go get her?" We all probably went through the same thought process. She was not stirring despite the tube having arrived. She could only be waiting for this tube. It was late, near deserted, and the tubes would be finishing soon. "Yeah" said one of the boys, and we hopped off. I was given the task of waking and talking to her, which I did. She was pretty tired, and pretty drunk. It turned out that she was heading to the same stop I was. So we made sure she got safely onto the tube. And then I made sure she got safely OFF the tube at the correct stop. And then I rode with her up the escalators, a little concerned at her unsteadiness. And since she was heading in the same direction as me, I figured I may as well walk her some. Afterall, anything could happen to her. We ended up picking up a random boy at the tube exit, who needed directions and was heading in the same direction as we were. We walked past my street, and I decided to keep going and potentially walk her all the way home. I was a wee bit worried that random boy might decide that a drunk girl leaning heavily on him might be an opportunity! It turned out I was worried for nothing. Random boy was perfectly well behaved and charming company, and drunk girl got home without mishap. Random boy then tried to hail me a taxi, as he then decided to be worried about *my* safety getting home, i.e. walking back up those 3 blocks of street. It took quite some argument from me to dissuade him from doing so, so he decided he'd walk *me* home. So back up the street we both went. How funny. But nice I think. We live in a cynical world, but it's not all so bad. I'm grateful for dancing friends/acquaintances that will notice someone who might need help, and be willing to help them. I'm glad that I decided to look out for a stranger's safety - it'd be so easy to say it wasn't my problem, but safety is important, and I that should anything disastrous ever befall me in public, that people would not be held back from helping me by my being a stranger. And I'm very amused about having the tables turned on me! Well there's my little story. Good night! Tags: anecdote, random acts of kindness
Current Location: Home, in bed
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I’d like to tell you a story, and the story is about tea. One day, I went to the supermarket with my friend ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) zooper . zooper spied a box of tea and plopped it into my shopping basket, telling me that she’d heard it was good and had always wanted to try it. I was a little bemused as to why *I* was buying and trying her choice of beverage, but bought it and took it home anyway. It was a box of Tetley's Calming tea. It didn't sound very exciting to me, but one day I tried it when feeling a little under-the-weather, and was met by a revelation - this tea was amazing! It was a black tea, so I could have it with milk (which I tend to prefer, despite being Asian) and had a bit of a caffeine kick (which you need when you're run down!) At the same time it was flavoured with camomile and vanilla, which made it quite soothing, especially when teamed with a bit of honey. This tea became my regular go-to when feeling unwell, particularly when it was THAT time of the month. Some of my friends shared the wonders of this tea: - the Lim sisters regularly requested this tea when visiting my place; - one of the occasions danman80 visited I converted him to pepermint tea with honey. The following night I made him another pepermint with honey, making myself some Tetley's Calming with honey. He took one sip of my tea and attempted to steal it; - icansinghigher was hit by fairly bad cramps when she came by to watch/help me pack. They got worse and worse as they do, as you approach the point of being incapable of doing anything. I made her a cup of Tetley's Calming, and it seemed to help a bit. Fifteen minutes later she drove herself home. One hour later I received a text message thanking me - the tea had worked it's magic. Ok, so it's just tea, just some dried leaves in some hot water, not some miracle cure. It just a good one. I took the last of my Tetley's Calming (the grand total of 3 teabags) with me to London, and started seeking its replacement. Supermarket shelves and website searches yielded no hits. I called up the Tetley's customer service line to be met with the unfortunate truth - this line of tea had been discontinued. :( The customer service lady was really sweet. She didn't know why the line had been discontinued, mentioned that they had gotten a few calls asking the same thing, got my postal address and posted a whole bunch of samples in the mail to me. Wheee!!! Except I doubt any of them will replace my wonderful tea. So I ask of you: a) Do you have any miracle substances for me to try? b) The feedback of many *might* just bring back my favourite tea. So if you have tried, or would like to try this tea, would you call up the Tetley's customer service line, make the request, at the price of receiving some free samples? Current Location: Home
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Most amusing comment made to me today (in fact, for a while)
“Don’t get raped! You’re very rape-able!”
Made by a woman from dancing, who realised she could catch a bus home but felt guilty for leaving me alone on the tube. Sure it’s extremely un-PC, and flippant about a very serious topic, but in the context of not taking it too seriously, I found it hilarious.
Illustrating the cultural divide I had dinner and a drink at Sway (a restaurant/bar/club) before going downstairs for dancing. I asked whether or not they had angostura bitters behind the bar, and requested a Lemon Lime and Bitters. (For those who have never tried to order this in England/Europe, it doesn’t exist.) Bartender: *with a strange look*
“That’s unusual.”
Me: *with a bit of a sigh*
“Not in Australia it isn’t.”
Bartender: *Gingerly making the drink, finishing by dashing in a few drops of bitters.*
“Is that alright?”
Me: “Just a bit more.”
Bartender: “Really? Bitters is very distinctive tasting...” Anyhow, the bartender added a bit more bitters, stirred it in and asked if he could try some. Because it was *such* a strange request. He ended up proclaiming with quite some surprise that it was good, and asked what it was called. He was rather surprised that it didn’t have a special name. I told him he could walk into just about any bar in Australia and they would serve it. Lol. Two nations divided by a drink!
Food reviews
( Only interesting if you live in London, and/or like reading food reviews )Tags: anecdote, food review, funny, london
Current Location: Work
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Tuesday 30 June – Piano #1
While wandering through Leicester Square gardens with Daryl (a former work colleague newly arrived to London), we stumbled across my first London street piano. I knew the street pianos were coming to London but I hadn’t paid attention to timing, and thus have missed the first 2 weeks of it – boo!
Never mind, I’ve discovered them now. The piano was decorated with musical theatre motifs, which rather appealed to me. A simple book of laminated sheet music (traditional folk music, The Beatles songs and other recognisable tunes) was a wonderful addition to the piano. I sat myself down, uncertain as to what to play. I started with half a verse of ‘Joyful Joyful’ from Sister Act 2 (half a verse was all that I had learnt to play). Someone nearby mentioned that they had watched the show the other day and requested that I sang along, so I did. I then paged through the sheet music and sight-read a couple tunes, including one I’d never seen before. To my delight, one of the old ladies sitting nearby started singing along. This is what the Street Pianos were intended to do – bring people together, get people interacting, who may not have otherwise. I had to finish with a show tune, so I did: Music of the Night from The Phantom of the Opera. Sure it was a tacky number, but very appropriate. Once again I was asked to sing along, so I warned everyone that this song was not really written for a female singer. I sang a little before giving up to the piano solo. Afterwards I relinquished my piano stool to a round of applause and the next eager performer. My performance evoked a curious response from Daryl, who complimented my playing and singing. He confessed that he hadn’t previously thought very much of my singing around the office, but having now heard me in the above contest, was rather impressed, and no longer believed that he’d beat me at karaoke/sing-star. Piano Rating:-
The piano was not in great condition and has been dubbed an ‘OAP’ (Old-aged pensioner). Quite a few keys were missing across the entire keyboard, making playing anything rather frustrating. However in such a great location, and with all of the musical theatre logos pasted to it, it sure had great character! I didn't have my camera with me so I can't put up a picture of the piano, but here's a link to the website if you're curious. Also, I think I feature in one of the photos there... http://www.streetpianos.com/london2009/pianos/leicester-squareTags: london, music, street pianos
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