Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Dating the southerners





Well, I've found it - check this

Antipodate




It's a dating site for :

Antipodate is an online and speed dating site for 'Antipodeans' or more generally anyone from the Southern Hemisphere - Australians, New Zealanders, South Africans, Zimbabweans - living in the UK and Ireland. Free to join and contact members, Antipodate is growing quickly amongst the UK expat community.

Finally! A man I can understand!!!

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

The long weekend

The weekend was a Saturday of teaching an au Pair how to catch a bus and how to get to get to Kingston and back. Then on Sunday we went to the Science museum, Piccadilly, Leicester Square and Trafalgar Square where we sat done with about 1000 other people and watched the Olympics handover from China to London on a big screen out in the sunshine. It was brilliant.
National pride and all that – just brilliant.

Then we went home on the tube – longer than the train which would have been my preference. Cooked supper ( I taught her to cook cottage pie) and make crunchies.

Monday was a braai with friends, and Donovan came over. I’ve not seen him for over 31 years which Is weird. We got on like a house on fire, and he stayed till about 9pm. We really just chatted a lot. He’s done really well, and really badly a few times In his life, which Is just like his Dad, but his Dad was a bit more dishonest I think. Donny doesn’t seem that sort to me.

Today the cupboard for the au-pair is being delivered, and the kids should get a chest of drawers then which will help with the hopeless clothing Issues we have on the floor. The kids are still living out of suitcases, and my bedroom Is full of clothes and things, but when I get home I don’t feel like doing anything more to tell you the truth.
It’s the lazy London Issue I knew from before. Long days, collapse at the end.

Friday, August 22, 2008

cars just parked - for you to use

Ok, so I'd never believe this unless I knew it was real.

There is this company that parks cars all over London, and you register with them, pay an annual amount, and pay every time you hire the car. You can hire it for an hour or a week!

I think it sounds brilliant seeing as I never use a car here, but it'd be nice for shopping now and then.

See http://www.streetcars.co.uk/ - it's amazing!

It tells you wherethe car is, you book it online and simply walk to the car and drive it off!! When you are finished, you park it back there and that's it!!!

Shopping at the Market

France, is well known for it’s open air market where you can buy freshly produced food. Britain is less well known for them unless you live in more rural areas and a Saturday farmers market is readily available.

Last night I popped into the Coven Garden fresh food market, as it only run during August, so it’s worth a special trip into London. I wanted to see how close it resembled the French markets I’ve been to in Paris and Provence.

It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t exactly great either. More an ‘eat- here’ type market than a buy fresh and take home type market, which disappointed me. I was looking for fresh bread, cheese, grapes, olives (I did find those), and other easy table food that I could buy and use at home for the weekend.

So, no courgette flowers, but they did have lovely mushrooms. Porcini mushrooms being one of my favourites, I was able to buy 100g of them for a wonderful pasts dish to be cooked on the weekend. I also found Girolle and Oyster mushrooms which I was happy to buy. There is nothing better than that fresh, taste of the earth that comes out of the stew you’ve cooked with fresh Girolle mushrooms thrown in, in the last 2 minutes of cooking.

When I’ really lazy, I throw together a pasta Carbonara, and add a few Porcini mushrooms, and eat watchingtelevision. That lovely fresh aroma of musty earth and, creamy sauce and salty ham is heaven! Of course it’s a real bonus if it's a quiet room and I get control of the remote!

Ahhhh... we can dream......

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Wanna larf?

I know a guy who sleeps... a lot .... and he does it at the office. Well, in the loo in fact. Amazing that no-one notices that he's away for long periods.

The sleeping loo worker.

Imagine sleeping on a loo, and getting paid for it.

Today it was 3 hrs.
Yesterday was 4 hrs.

I'll keep you posted.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Sobered by sunlight and caffeine

I sat in the office wishing I was at home, in bed, playing Bingo on my laptop. It’s not nice this world, but a wise man once said......

“What you should prepare for is mess. Life’s a mess. You are not entitled to expect anything from it. Life is not fair. Everything does not balance out in the end. Life happens, and you have no control over it. Good and bad things happen to you day by day, hour by hour, moment by moment. Your degree (or education) is a poor armour against fate.

Don’t expect anything. Erase all life expectancies. Just live. Your life is over as of today. At this point in time, you have grown as tall as you will ever be, you are physically the fittest you will ever be in your entire life and you are probably looking the best that you will ever look. This is as good as it gets. It is all downhill from here. Or up. No one knows.” Adrian Tan


It’s brilliant – and true! Read it – read it again and again until you understand every nuance of it. Because once you understand that little bit you’ll live a much happier life.

Monday, August 18, 2008

The office is so quiet......

There you have it – another day another - £50. So it goes. The nice thing I keep thinking about is that I earn that on weekends too. Yay. Gotta love the power of money.

I have to think that, and keep reminding myself that I have to make that much to pay for extra maths, English, rent, food, travel and the au pair. It’s a hard slog.

Actually the work is fine, I even enjoy the work. I don’t enjoy the morgue-like office we sit in where no-one talks to anyone, and when the phones ring it sounds so loud it’s like a fire alarm.

It's like a morgue. Not fun, and literally deadly quiet. It makes no sense, but it is.

Anyway, the sun is shining and I am about to walk to Waterloo for fun. It's a nice day. The walk will do me good, and the bridge across the river is lovely - skyline of London.

The weekend was lunch with friends, on Saturday, and lunch with Dad on Sunday. It all went well. no problems to speak of.

It's a long weekend this weekend yay - looking forward to doing stuff with the kids. Gotta plan it now.

Have a nice day!

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

London life

Did you know that the library has free things for kids every Thursday. Last week they made birds and Chinese lanterns. The week before it was Picture frames and masks (Connor made a lion).
Last weekend they spent the time with their dad, it rained a bit, so they had 48 hours of DVDs.

No comment.

I on the other hand, went for walks, a sushi lunch with family, the Pub to listen to Jazz, and a walk on Sunday to go and watch the Polo, and then walk along the river. It even ranied and I STILL did it. Go figure!

Justice for the forgotten - or overlooked

So, the cricket sorted itself out really. Not much to say, KP became the captain, and if I were him, I’d be revelling in the justice of it all. What goes around comes around I always say.
If he was booted out of a selection process due to his lack of pigmentation, but not without considerable talent, then the world’s best justice would be for him to lord it over the SA team when he finally ended up captain of a national side – against the side that refused to let him play for them.
Cheaters never win they say, and it seems that this is the same for old KP.
It is, as they say, the person who holds out the longest, or the person who goes into the fight the hardest that wins, and KP does both those well.
He’s an aggressive fighter, borne from the days of trying to protect himself in a country torn by strife and poverty. He has had to fight against the injustice of being born at the wrong time, in a reversal of previous regimes, but the theory being the same, to attempt to ‘right the wrongs’. The worm turns.

It’s the same as any company that tries to defraud people. Staff or customers, I am of the opinion that the worm turns and those people will never really prosper long term. Unfortunately it may not mean that they will be dethroned quickly, but one day they will be.

Mark my words.

It’s like that big shot city banker that is currently walking around the city, briefcase in hand after losing his job recently. He’s not told anyone he’s lost his job, and he’s trying to keep up appearances. But he did lose his job , as he was ‘not a very nice man’ who treated his staff badly, and looked out for himself foremost. Nothing wrong about looking after yourself, but doing it whilst stepping on the heads of other people means when you fall, they never offer you a hand up.

The worm turns. Make sure you aren't on it's back.

Wednesday, August 06, 2008

YAY the container arrived

YAY - my container arrived and got unloaded. 3 things were smashed., which, as a % was pretty good. Yay I can finally sit on a sofa again, and sleep in a decent bed.

Weird but great too.

The house looks so full after being so empty. The cupboard i brought overe can't make it up the stair, so it's become a storage unit downstairs and I need a cupboard upstairs now.

Will have to look on the web for a good one.

Sulking is a nasty habit

Don't you just hate people that sulk? It's a nasty habit, and one that should be stamped out the second it's noticed.

I think adults that sulk should be thrown in with other petulant children to see exactly what they look like when they sulk. It' s pathetic, and sad, and should be banned.

ESPECIALLY if it's a person over 20!!!