The beaver is a proud and noble animal

birds! birds! birds!

Went to Canada House at Trafalgar Square this morning to get information about the possibility of Katy emigrating to Canada. We found out that we need to go to the other canadian pavillion on Bond Street, so we're going to head out tomorrow. We ended up completely ignoring our plans and wound up in St-James park close to watch the birds and look at Buckingham Palace.

Random moments and quotes of the morning:

– seeing horny pigeons humping each other
– seeing Katy do the horny pre-shag pigeon dance.
– “I have my head in my boobs, leave me alone”
– “Geese are nasty. They hunt in packs. You just watch, they'll go eat a small child now”
– walking in front of the queen guards barracks and hearing the drill band playing Petula Clark's “Downtown”

After St-James, we walked to Westminster Abbey. It's a beautiful church. I would have loved to take pictures of it, but you couldn't use cameras inside. It messes with your mind to see a church that's been built in the 14th century and has seen kings live and die. It's beautiful, but people inside it seemed oblivious. Seeing a kid blow bubble gum bubbles was… meh, I'm being a snob here, but i just wanted to smack him. Poets' corner was really interesting, seeing the burial slabs of Byron, Shelley, Carroll, as well as other famous names (including Darwin, which was oddly cool).

We tubed it over to Leicester Square, where we spent a bit of time glancing at all sorts of bookstores. Had a greaseball burger at the Angel and Crown, a little pub, then tried to find a cloting store along Tottenham Court road. We saw a stupid amount of electronic stores, followed by a stupid amount of home furnishing stores, but not a single clothing shop.

Got back to the hotel to chill a bit, where we both got scared and scarred by a kids TV cooking show. Imagine a gourmet chef, kids and a grown man dressed up as a yeti trying to make breaded chicken cutlets… mmmya.

Things took a turn for the worse when Katy got news from the agency who's handling her volunteering post. The only apartment they can find for her is unfurnished. As in, not even a fridge or a stove. It threw her for a loop, which sucks the really, huge, hairy ass. She doesn't know what she's going to do, and I feel helpless to help her :(

took the train from leicester to london (st pancras station) this morning. it was a short ride, only 1h15 minutes. I had fun trying to get nice pictures along the way. I'd just point the camera out the window and click randomly to see if I could get something nice. It was mostly farmland and grazing land, with a few villages here and there.

In London, we took a ubiquitous black cab. Cabs in the UK, I have learned, are completely bizarre. Apparently, luggage counts as a person (i.e. the more people you are in a cab, the more the fare cost for the same distance – weirdos, the lot of them). Got to the hotel, where the accomodations are spartan but should suffice to sleep in and look clean. Stowed most of our stuff then went on walkabout. After a bit of a false start figuring out a map of the Underground, we headed towards stuff we could just look at – we'll start the visiting tomorrow. We got out at Tower Hill station and headed off towards Westminster. It looks like a reasonable walk on paper, but it took something like 4 hours to do.

The first thing we saw was Tower of London and Tower Bridge. We didn't go inside cause the admission prices are highway robbery, though I'm kinda disappointed to not have seen a beefeater guard. We walked along the Thames snapping pictures along the way.

Amusing random moments:
– seeing “look right” painted at every street crossing to prevent tourists from being squished by traffic
– Katy doing the wee dance trying to find free public toilets
– Katy yelling out of nowhere “a rat! a rat! look, a rat, now that's a London trademark!”
– myself almost walking up stairs that lead into the Thames

We passed lots of bridges, each nicer than the previous ones. For an annoyingly long amount of time, I had “London Bridge is falling down” stuck in my head – probably because we went over it. Southwark Bridge has a really cool underpass, where the tilework illustrates the history of the bridge. The Blackfriars bridge is really pretty at night, and is close to clean, free public toilets, so that's something in its favour :D The new Millenium Bridge looks cool, and apparently has now been fixed so it doesn't induce motion sickness on those people who cross it because of all of the swaying it previously had.

We reached the Embankment, where out of nowhere we saw an Egyptian Obelisk flanked by two sphynxes. We had our first good look at the London Eye and Big Ben in the distance. The Eye is impressive. It's BIG, and it's scary to think that only “little” spokes keep that wheel upright. There was Golden Jubilee Bridge, a cool suspension bridge, and then the Houses of Parliament with Big Ben.

We were walked out, so we headed back to the hotel on the tube. That's another source of weirdness. Putting aside the ubiquitous “mind the gap” jokes and adverts about rats coming to eat your trash, you need your ticket to *exit* the tube as well as get into it. Madness, sheer madness.

Went to eat at a place called Garfunkle's, which will probably have our repeat business as its close to the hotel, reaaonably priced, varied menu, and most importantly, didn't kill me.

That's it for now. We're watching Coronation Street right now on a TV that “has all its channels squiffed wooed (translation: jumbled up)”. Katy was about to “throw a wobbly” because she couldn't find Coro', poor thing :)

Katy and I are leaving for London today, so that means that I will be offline for a while, until I get back home. We might stop in to Internet Cafes once in a while, if the rates aren't murder. Have fun y'all, we will :)

Yorkshire pudding: bowl-shaped pancakes, good.
Crumpets: fluffy pancakes, good.
Red Leicester cheese: orange cheddar, good.
Cheshire cheese: british feta, good.
Lancashire cheese: saltier british feta, good.
Trifle: jello with custard and whipped cream, mmokay.

One thing I'll always remember from this trip is that British food ingredient labelling, while sometimes painfully cynical (ingredient list on a block of cheese: cheese), are actually more precise on the stuff that actually matters for my allergies.

I've been able to have curry for the first time in 4 years, which basically made me come in my pants, and I also ate commercial sausage for the first time in too long a time. Hmmmm, sausage. And profiteroles, HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM! And coriander and chili pasta sauce, something I must look into again. And victoria sponge cake with cinnamon and nutmeg and other sweet spices.

And booze, jeebus, the booze!

Oh, and they have the WEIRDEST chip flavours for the holidays. Like honey-glazed ham and mustard, roast chicken with rosemary, lamb with thyme or curry. I mean, WTF?

Oooh, and bisto… The British have an unhealty obsession with their gravy, but I have to admit that it is damn good.

Katy's uncle Stuart and her gran just left, so we're off to bed. Later all. Hope you all had a good day. I did :)

*yawn!*

Just woke up. Last night was fun. Went to see Phantom of the Opera with Katy and Rita then headed back to the house for food and drink. Note to self: coriander and green chilies in a pasta sauce kicks ass! Must investigate the possible uses of that nice green herb.

Then came drunken Trivial Pursuit (which was WEIRD as hell, cause we were playing with the brit edition – so imagine what that means in terms of geography, politics and history), then fireworks, then other kind of fireworks.

Today will be another day of food and drink and family. It also happens to be our 3 month anniversary. Time flies…

Went on a walkabout of Leicester today. The only museum that was supposed in fact wasn't, but we did see New Walk Lane, which was really nice, then Victoria Park, Ayleston Road Cemetary, the Leicester Tigers rugby pitch, Leicester University campus, and Castle Gardens. Katy describes Leicester as a generally minging (i.e. crappy) place with a few hidden jewels here and there. I agree.

Had coffee with Rita and her friend Matthew and then went on a bit of a shopping run in the market, the Shires and the Arcades. I bought some books at Whaterstones for a good price (until you factor in the exchange rate), and bought myself a Pink Floyd vinyl at a retro shop. I have decorating plans for that thing :)

Got home just before my feet really started to hurt – perfect timing – where Katy's mom had a real authentic Indian curry dinner waiting for us. Can you say NUMMY? That was toe-curling good!.

Had a good talk with Katy's parents about our upcoming trip to London and now Katy is inflicting some sort of brit comic on me. Must go watch…

Went to see House of Flying Daggers at the cinema. The movie is nice eye candy, but at the same time, it is just baaaaaaaad! The characters are insipid and the story doesn't go anywhere.

Best review quote: “that girl should have stayed dead the first time”.

Tesco is a Leicester institution. From what I managed to gather, it started out of a little jewish guy selling teabags on a street corner and is now a huuuuuuuuuuge superstore chain. Imagine a weird cross between Zellers, Canadian Tire, Future Shop and Loblaws and you get Tesco. It's a place where you can do your groceries, shop for clothes, get your tires aligned, buy oil for a lube job and buy a big screen TV all under one roof.

Food shopping, while different from my usual jaunts with Sara, was still nonetheless fun. I'd brought my camera with me and delighted in teasing Katy by taking pictures of everything and generally embarassing her :) My favourite quote of hers was oh dear lord, he's taking pictures of the cheese followed by a shake of her head. Heeheehee!

It still unnerves me that their grocery stores have a better scotch selection than the neighborhood SAQ. They also have tesco brand EVERYTHING! Tesco vodka, Tesco VSOP cognac, even Tesco Champagne!!!

I have photographic evidence of these outrageous claims, but it'll have to wait a bit until I can upload them. In the meantime, look for yourself here: http://www.tesco.com/

Went shopping today with Katy and her parents. It's weird. Different brands than what I'm used to seeing, different chains. Went to an electronics store, the equivalent of future shop, because my digicam had rekindled the gadget lust of Katy's father. He bought a cool camera with a photo printer, hehe. I'm a bad influence, according to Katy :D

Shopping is an interesting adveture. I'm constantly going, oooooh, cheap until I realize that the price is in quids and i have to multiply it by 2.4, durrrr. Still, I managed to find some interesting stuff, and I want to hit the tea shop and a bookstore while I'm here.

Oh, and just so you know, while I'm writing this, Jeff is scampering across the keyboard and sniffing madly at my shirt. Just wanted to share that.