olé!

So yes, I have to post all about Portugal and yes, I haven't even posted about my last trip to Portugal but for now, even the impending excitement of Barcelona has been temporarily eclipsed but Brussels. Yeah. Who'd've thought? I'm going to Brussels for a supershort weekend at the end of June and really only because one of my friends needs a visa for trip to Italy in July but can't get an Italian one so is hoping to get a 3 month shengen one*. Not that that really matters to anyone but us so anyway- I was going along because it was somewhere new to see and I thought the food should be good but had no idea what there was to see and wasn't too excited until my friend sent me this link. A comic strip museum in a building built by Victor Horta?!!! Oh my God yes! Out pops my inner supergeek. I loveloveLOVE seeing places I've studied or buildings by the people I've studied. Or chairs by them or anything else. It's way cool and makes me way happy. Oh my God there's even a whole Victor Horta Museum. Soooooooooooooooooo cool. My friends may not want to go but I am so there. Yay yay yay.

how about you just drive the car?
On my train the other night there was a man in a suit reading a user manual for a Mercedes Benz. With a bookmark. WTF?

stumbling again
It's been a while since I've given any cool links to check out so this should make up for it a bit:

COOL 3M AD
WHY NOT TO THROW PAPERCLIPS AT WORK
POLITICS EXPLAINED- I'm sure everyone's had this email forwarded around at some point but I still find it amusing.
BENDER CURIOSITIES if you're a Futurama geek then this will make you stare in awe. You are not an übergeek fan in comparison to the people who made this site.
COOL CLOCK
NICE AFRICA IMAGES
LEONARDO DA VINCI DRAWINGS ever since first seeing his sketches, I have been in love with this man's work. Not so much his paintings but the sketches- I could look at them forever.
THIS ART REMINDS ME OF SCHOOL DIARAMAS.
CLEVER HOMES- I liked the models of the houses

*travelling as a Kiwi is so easy but if you're a South African, everything is a hassle and needs a VISA.

sniffle snuffle snot- again

I am currently wallowing in full-blown oh-woe-is-me-ness. This can't just be hayfever. Have I finally succumbed to a version of what has been making the rounds of my friend's flat? I hope not. I have four rainy days to look forward to in Portugal and at the moment not even the thought of going all pruney in the jacuzi makes me feel better because my brain is leaking down the back of my throat, I have soggy cotton wool in my sinuses, my face is exploding and I feel like a whale. Man but I'm good at being grumpy. AND my flight tomorrow is at God-awful-early-o'clock in the morning so that I might as well not even bother going to sleep at all. And I forgot my camera yesterday so no pictures of cute baby animals. BA HUMBUG.

here comes the sun

You're telling me this is a toy?

Yeah...I dunno aye. You can see more of these creations and similar things on superdeux.com. [FYI: I think this is a cool site just in general. Funky little intro animation, nice layout, good material, yada yada yada.] There are quite a lot of these 'toy' things out at the moment, I'm just not sure how well the term 'toy' is sitting with me. To me a toy is something you play with and the thought of kids sitting down and playing house with these things disturbs me a bit. Yeah, yeah, I know, they're toys for adults but they're not getting played with then, are they? I mean I do think they're cool and fun and funky and some are cute and not scary but to me they're design objects, not toys. But where's the line?

learning the hard way
I'm looking after the horse-sized "kitten" again before I go to Portugal for the weekend (bad weather forecast, don't want to talk about it, why does it always rain when I go to Portugal and why do I not get the hint?!) and there is a park nearby so last night I decided to go for a wonder. I decided at the last minute not to bring my camera because it's just a park right? What's to see. Oh boy was I wrong. This 'park' is AMAZING. I saw deer (yup, you'd best believe) and lots of birds- with babies, and rabbits and squirrels. Now I know an instinctive Kiwi reaction when hearing rabbit is to spit to the side and reach for a gun or a club but these guys were CUTE (plus they're not a pest here) and I had great fun trying to find all their little homes. It was just incredible, this place was like some Eden with all these animals roaming around not really too scared of the people. So today after work I'm geeking it up, hopping on Jane's bike (yep, this park is huge and I'm going exploring), taking my camera and the bread that's going mouldy and will venture forth in search of photo opportunities of supercute baby birdies (the only ones I'm likely to get close enough to because I can bribe them with food) and miscellaneous wildlife. I'm hoping for deer. I'm also quite, quite geekily excited about the whole thing. Hopefully I'll have glorious nature pics tomorrow.

lest we forget
This blog is about me. Well it is now that Kitty's gone solo and right now I'm doing my darndest to wallow in oh-woe-is-me-ness (which is hard when it's gloriously sunny and I'm going on a nature safari after work) because I have a horrible cold- that is unless it's actually even more horrible hayfever. I currently feel like someone has chiseled in the my brain via my sinuses and then stuffed with with cotton wool except they missed a bit because some of my brain fluid is leaking down the back of my throat. Yummy. That said though, I was in a pretty foul mood when I woke up this morning and my eyes were so puffy I could hardly see out (this indicates hayfever) this morning but now I'm finding that the sunshine and the thought of seeing baby animals tonight plus a bike ride is making me way to Suzy Sunshine to be grumpy.

pushing the envelope

good old Dunners
This picture was posted on my father's blog and all I can say is what the hell? Discovering that had to add a surreal touch to his day...

did nobody watch Dark Angel?

Scientists want to fuse human cells with animal eggs to create mixed-species embryos

Yup, you heard me. Read more here. This is a topic where I could potentially rabbit on for ages because it is such a can or worms. But I think we really are starting to head in to a time where things written of not so long ago are starting to happen fo' real. But because I don't have enough time to go in to this topic in any depth right now, I'll be brief: I understand that genetic research is, on some level, "necessary" but I also firmly believe that humans are far too curious and will fiddle with things as much as they can and eventually fuck them up. In actual fact I am super-torn on this issue. The tree-hugging-hippie part of me wants to say, "There's a cycle to things and we're made the way we are for a reason* so why mess with the fundamental nature of things? You're screwing with the fabric of the universe in a way." The other part tells me that that is an incredibly naive point of view and that things are far more complicated than that and that some of this fiddling with the fundamentals is necessary. And while those two are fighting it out, I have a third person on the sideline watching in amusement but who is thinking: This is all well and good and they might say that if you can mix animal and human DNA to make a combo embryo that it's illegal to let it grow to the point where it's a "real" personimal** but if it can be done someone will do it. Why? Because they can. Because it's human nature. Because we're envelope pushers. And I really do believe that that in the end we're going to f*ck ourselves over because of it. Curiosity killed the cat? HA! Cats have nothing on us...

* which is where my inner existentialist sniggers, then thinks better of it, coughs politely to get my attention and says with a sceptically raised eyebrow, "A reason? As in a greater purpose? As in a grand design? As in exactly that which you have decided doesn't exist?" At this point I wrinkle my nose, squint my eyes and tell it to piss off. This is more about balance which is a different kettle of fish all together. My IE looks at me with both eyebrows raised now, clearly believing that I'm taking the easy way out of this debate. Which I am. So sue me.

** a whole can of worms I'm not even gonna open right now but I ask you (and I haven't even decided my own personal answer on this one)- at what point does it become a "real boy"?

cats & cake

Last Friday I went to see Cats at the Wimbledon Theatre. I really thought I liked Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals. I was prepared to overlook The Woman In White (*shudder* I try not to think of it) because I'd seen Jesus Christ Super Star and Phantom of the Opera, and Evita (some just as films but still...) and liked them all but for some reason I just didn't really seem to warm to Cats. I knew it was based on poems by T.S. Eliot but personally I just didn't think it hung together. Where was the plot? As far as I could see, it was about a bunch of cats, we got introduced to some different characters, one was a bit tragic, crisis hit in the disappearance of the cat leader but he was returned safe and sound and at the end the tragic kitty went towards the light. Bleh. I just didn't care. Cat leader disappears- who cares? Cat leader returned- whoop-dee-f*cking-do. Tragic cat character- not so tragic to me. I mean it was all nice enough but the whole thing just left me a bit unmoved.

I also find that initially I take a bit of warming to a musical. It's like the first time they start doing that talk/singing thing my brain goes, "What?! Why don't they just sing or just talk? Why are they talking but almost singing? Soooooooooooo naff." If it's a good musical, I tend to be able to just take it in my stride after a while but if it's not, well it ruins it all for me.

I'm currently watching the end of Pride and Prejudice (the BBC version, the only real one)- I watched the 2nd three episodes as I made dinner and then two banana cakes. I happened to mention to Kez on our walk that I was making one tonight and she asked with a winsome smile if I'd use their old bananas too and make them one too and I'm not the kind of girl to deny someone cake. Speaking of which, I should go check the oven... Toodles.

no zzz for me

I had planned to get an early night but here I am watching the final of season 2 of Grey's Anatomy (I know, I know, the UK is waaaaaaaaaay behind) and indulging in a beer. Lotte went to a NZ store and brought me a Monteith's Raedler. Mmm... yummy. It's more gingery than I remember though- still, good beer. I am all alone for 3 weeks now as Sarah and Sean have taken off to China and it's a little weird to be kicking around here all on my lonesome. Stalkers take note, now is the time to bust your move. Just please bust it with chocolate and flowers, I like chocolate and flowers. And make sure you knock because already I am getting way to comfortable and doing anti-social things like leaving the door open when I go to the bathroom.


Last night Kitty and I went out for dinner for my friend Lauren's 30th. When we got back we ended up pulling an all-nighter because she was due to fly out at 6.50am which meant leaving here at 3.30am. Hence no point in sleeping. I even took the bus with her to Clapham because she hadn't done it before and it was 3.30 on a Sunday morning and when we got on the bus oh boy was I glad that I'd decided to accompany her. There were drunk people on that bus, loud drunk people which, when you think about it, makes sense because 3.30 on a Sun morn is also the end of a Sat night. And the last thing a girl needs when catching a bus to a destination you've never been at 3.30am is the added worry and distraction of obnoxious drunk men when you're all on your lonesome. And then we get to Clapham and the train's been canceled but justice triumphed and we got it sorted and Kitty got off just fine and I got to head home and sleep.

But no sleeping in for me, today was museum with Lotte day who is heading back to NZ at the end of June so is starting to try to tick things off her list of places=to=see that you never seem to get around to when you actually live here. So today was the Childhood Museum and the Museum of London. The MoL was pretty standard stuff but I really liked the Childhood Museum (oh shit, seems that Romeo Must Die is on after Grey's and you should all know by now what a martial arts/action movie whore I am. How can I go to bed when there's cheese like that to watch? Now I'm never going to catch up on my sleep.) which is full of toys and boardgames and everything from your childhood, in fact everything from everyone's childhood since, like, forever. Some things totally cracked me up like examples of early typographers and some seriously freaky-assed dolls.


These are two examples of early typographers learning the hard way. Come on, don't laugh too hard, we've all done it before. Maybe I really am a typography geek but I just found these two pics waaaaaay cute.



From the plaque:Pregnant Doll, 1992Here is a pregnant doll with a baby you can deliver- but it's not much like real life! When the baby is removed you can put a flat stomach back on the doll. Made in China. WTF?! "Put on a flat stomach." We wish. As if it's that easy.


From the plaque:Blythe, 1972 Blythe was only made for one year. If you pull the cord on her back her eyes change colour five times. She was designed by Marvin Glass & Associates for Kenner. Now maybe it's just me but I find Bythe just a bit scary. And imagine if those eyes changed colour five times... FREAK OUT!


A doll house for boys- a butcher shop. The vege in me was a smidge revolted.


And this one chuffed Lotte. Bricks named after her!

And finally, some interesting info about Barbie: Did you know? Barbie was closely modelled on Lilli, an earlier German fashion doll. As a model, she wore a risqué striped swimsuit, a pair of while high heels, and sunglasses. Barbie's full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts. She has had 5 sisters, 43 pets and over 80 careers. She has been produced in more than 45 nationalities and is sold in 150 countries. Go Barbie!

you do it to yourself

I don't know what it was last night- the piously induced endorphin high from running or the warm curry glow, or maybe it was just laughing with friends- either way, last night was a fab night and I went to bed happy with all thoughts of anger as far away from my mind as possible. Opting for the quick fix, I did a couple of sprints around the park instead of my normal run and as a result, I can hardly move today. My run this morning was done at a snail's pace because I hurt so much. I'm shin-splint-prone so I always run on grass and I can't tell if my bones hurt or if my calf muscles have finally rebelled but I can tell that they hurt like buggery. It doesn't feel like the usual pain down the front of my legs but instead like someone is nailing a spike through the middle of my leg. I think I'll have to go easy on the whole running (wheezey shuffle) thing.

We get curry from the Indian Takeaway below us and when we order, we always make a point to say that we're from upstairs and we get free poppadoms and a discount. It's great- and last night we even got monster portion sizes so yay for our friendly neighbourhood Indians. Sarah managed to pack away a phenomenal amount of curry and I nearly lost mine due to my stomach cramping as I laughed at the look of horror on Sean's face as Sarah just kept on keeping on. It was a thing of beauty.

corrupting the young
Speaking of the Indians- they live above the takeaway and have a roof beside ours and their kids play out on the roof. With the onset of summer, Sean, Sarah and I seem to be the new objects of interest and the first sunny weekend when I was out on the roof, the kids were out all the time chatting to me. The wee girl, who seems about 8, had a lot of questions about Sean. "Who is that man who is always out on the roof with you?" Oh, Sean? "Who is he?" He lives with me and my friend Sarah. "Isn't he your friend?" Yes, he's my friend too, we all live together. That night we had dinner out on the roof and as I was taking in the last of the stuff, the girl came out again with more questions. "That man was out here again." yes... "Who is he?" That's Sean. [So here's me thinking, "Umm dude, I thought we covered this..."] "But who is he?" That's Sean, he lives with us. "Oh he lives with you and your sister?" Noooo..... Sarah's not my sister, she's my friend, he's my friend, we all live together. "Oh. I thought two of you were married." [to myself: WTF?!] Oh Sean and Sarah are together but they're not married. Oh the disapproving look I got from that 8 year old girl. And nothing gets up my nose like disapproving snooty piety from a child so I just said, "Mmm." in a suitably smug and smirky way and went inside. Once I got inside I burst out laughing and when Sean and Sarah asked what was so funny all I could chant in a childish manner was, "You're living in si-in." What a look in to another culture. I guess to them it makes perfect sense that I, as a single girl, could leave the safety of my parents' home if I were to live with my sister and her husband. But instead I am a single female living with two friends who are sleeping together but aren't married. Oh. My. God. Sean is a king living it up and Sarah and I are dirty slapper ho-bags. But it gets better, since this incident, the kids don't talk to us any more. Yeah, true story. I don't know if they've been told not to talk to the morally depraved people next door or if they decided it themselves but I see them and say hi and they do not say hi back. Personally, I find it hilarious. Luckily, this whole incident doesn't seem to have effected our relationship with the curry takeaway downstairs, thank God.

you'd best believe

I get a lot of forwarded mail from my friends. Most of them are those "funny" emails which I can cope with, some are even good for a bit of a giggle, but every now and then they send me ones which just f*ck me off. They make me wonder how smart my friends really are and surely they're not retarded enough to believe these things? It seems they are, bless them. The latest one I got this morning was:

hi guys Sorry to break the news, but looks like all of those
warnings were real! The use of msn and mail will cost money from summer 2007. If you send this message to 18 different people from your list your little msn icon will become blue and that will make it free for you. If you dont believe me go on (www.msn.com) and see it yourself. Dont foward this message, copy paste it so people will actually read it.

Hey it is Andy and john the directors of MSN, sorry for the interruption but msn is closing down. this is because too many inconsiderate people are taking up all the name (eg making up lots of different accounts for just one person), we only have 578 names left. If you would like to close your account, DO NOT SEND THIS MESSAGE ON. If you would like to keep your
account, then SEND THIS MESSAGE

TO EVERYONE ON YOUR CONTACT LIST. This is no joke, we will be shutting down the servers. Send it on, thanks. WHO EVER DOES NOT SEND THIS MESSEAGE, YOUR ACCOUNT WILL BE CLOSED AND YOU WILL COST £10.00 A MONTH TO USE. SEND THIS TO EVERYONE ON YOUR CONTACT LIST. NOW YOU KNOW WHAT TO DO. PLEASE DO NOT FORWARD THIS or REPLAY. COPY
THE WHOLE EMAIL. GO BACK TO YOUR INBOX AND CLICK ON NEW. AND PASTE THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION

hey everyone, i dont normally send this sort of stuff out but had
a look on the internet and its actually true . On the 30th of november , we will have to pay for the use of our MSN and email accounts unless we send this message to at least 18 contacts on your contact list. It's no joke if you don't believe me then go to the site (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/1189119.stm) and see for yourself. Anyways once you've sent this message to at least 18 contacts, your msn dude will become blue. please copy and paste don't forward cos people won't take notice of it

I mean for the love of Christ. Who on this earth could believe this? I also checked out the link mentioned and yes, there is a story on BBC news where it is rumoured that MSN might start charging (might) but how on earth does that lead people to believe that forwarding spam to 18 people (WTF kind of number is that anyway?!) is going to help apart from proving how many stupid people there are in this world? (If it sounds like I'm starting on a bit of a rant here, you wouldn't be wrong. Stupid spam is on my Top10 list of things that really get me riled.) I mean how is MSN going to know how many people you forward your mail to? HOW? I mean I could sanction Big Brother paranoia about it if you use hotmail but let's face it, most people don't any more. *deep breath* Right. I am going to try to calm down now and not sit here waving my hands in the air shouting, "WHY? HOW? Why are people so stupid? How can they believe this? Why are some of my friends this stupid? WHY? HOW? WTF?!!" Okay. I'm done now. (Until the next thing starts me off...)

the legacy of kitty
I know that everyone has songs that they associate with certain people and times in their life. For me, Hey Ya will always remind me of my final days at Critic but also strongly of Kitty and Kate. Oh the final Thursday nights when we would be shaking our booty around the office to this song (apparently Kate would know what time it was to the half hour because I would get up, have a wee walk around, then put on some music and start shaking my ass) while Holly was proofing the mag... And now, the new song which will remind me of Kitty- irreplaceable. I'm not a fan of Beyonce really but it's hard not to love it with Kitty singing it ALL THE TIME, but with such cute enthusiasm. She's even got me singing along... Before Kitty arrived, my flatmate Sean commented that she might be a little freaked out by our flat and think we're weird. I smiled at him and said that he hadn't met Kitty. Also, I think it's cute that he thinks that I only act crazy/cool with him and whereas yes, not everyone is special enough for me to dance around the kitchen with and give special high-fives to, Sean is not alone in this treatment.

the onus of hosting
Having someone stay with me, I feel an obligation to provide a "full" London experience. Kitty needs to have curry & chips, see sights (Kitty almost tried to talk me out of posing for big/smalls. For shame KittyKat.), have a pub meal, have a cooked breakfast, get rained on horribly, jump in to a crowded tube train, shop in grandiose stores, sample my local French delicatessen, and so many other little things. Most of it involves food, you will note... I also can't take any time off work so I try to do what I can on the weekends and evenings but worry that I'm not preforming my hostess duty to the mostest. At any rate, Kitty is too polite to complain so I'll just assume she's getting what she needs out of this trip. We spent a major part of our weekend house/kitten-sitting although Kitty's reaction on walking in the door was, "That's not a kitten, that's a fucking horse!" I tried to look at Arthur in an objective manner and yes, he is almost 10 months old no not really a baby any more and he is larger than many fully grown cats that I have known but he's still a baby to me. I love looking after him. He tolerates my hugs, has funny personal habits and, most importantly, he purrs. If you're a cat person you may understand this but there are few things nicer than a purring kitty. I get quite nostalgic over that contented rolling rumble they generate.

me and my cooked breakfast. lucky thing I like mushrooms, I think they gave me a whole field...


whilst having coffee in Tate Modern, Kitty and I couldn't resist taking arty photos and giving ourselves halos. I mean who could?


Here I am trying to hold an umbrella in rain whilst holding a camera, protect afore-mentioned camera from the afore-mentioned rain and take a photo in a gap in the foot traffic. I think I look hilariously wannabe-covert.


cryptic
Life is throwing me a couple of curve balls at the moment and due to their nature, I'm not gonna be discussing them online but what I am gonna be doing is seeking solace in wine and curry with Kitty tonight. (And a run after work, no time for gym today so I'd better get my ass out for some form of fat-burning.) There will probably be more singing along with Beyonce and booty shaking. A girl does what it takes to lighten up, pride has no place in these matters. ;-)

flowers

A bit of a gratuitous photo splurge this one. I can't be bothered integrating text and pictures (yet again) so this means they'll be really big. Oh well. Some pics are better than no pics. And there will be more pics of me for the next few days as Kitty is here. We're camera hussies, we can't help it. This is my posing with my aquilegea. They are the second of my rooftop garden to flower and are my pride and joy.


Aren't these flowers just crazy? Such shape! Such colour! I'm in love.


I got a "mixed bag" so we have no idea what colours will come up which is part of the excitement.


Me exhibiting some of the afore-mentioned excitement.


And this is Kitty at dinner last night. Hmm.... that was quite an event. I will write more about it later because it brought up some very important issues and I am quite worked up about them but for now you will all just have to wait with baited breath.

the reunion

By now, my KittyBittyBoo should be in the country. Seeing as today is deadline day, I'm getting Sean, who has the day off, to meet her at the tube station. I've emailed them photos of each other, I'm sure they'll make it. I haven't seen my blog co-founder since Easter last year I'm ready for some shenanigans and high jinx. Just as soon as I help to tuck in the lastest issue of Dive. So look forward to many images of Kitty and Aynia Going Mad In London. Huzzah.

who'd've thought

So when I started this running malarkey, the last thing I expected was to actually enjoy it. On Sunday, Kerry and I headed out for our usual run/walk (sorry Kate, I know I've joined an anti-slash club but old habits die hard) but Kez's knee was playing up so when decided to just walk it. This seemed like a good idea except that when we got to the park I actually felt something I might label disappointment and felt quite like a dog on a leash. It was with a slight feeling of horror that I realised that I actually wanted to run. In fact, I realised that I'd even been looking forward to it. *shudder* I never thought it would happen to me. I'm not saying that I've become a die-hard-running-fan because, among other things, my body won't let me. I may get fit enough one day for that to become a problem but for now my rasping, gasping, wheezing attempts at breathing are enough to hold my new found enthusiasm in check. I guess the problem is my closet boy-racer-persona. My need for speed has teamed up with my endorphin junkie and the two of them enjoy getting high to a soundtrack of Queen and equally cheesey songs; I just don't seem strong enough to battle them. The only thing in my favour is the 7 hour sleep rule and even that isn't enough to save me at times, it's a sad state of affairs, let me tell you...