Let's do this

I’ve not had the time nor concentration to sit down and do a proper entry for ages! So here we go.

I believe at last you read something from me was before the Fourth of July, oops! Well, let me tell you how I celebrated the day with the Benjamin Franklin House. On Thursday the operations manager gave me some petty cash and told me and two other interns to go ahead and pick up some party food like cupcakes, brownies, muffins and pretzels. Ok, no problem right? Wrong! Cupcakes, brownies and pretzels are all actually kind of hard to find in England. Cupcakes and brownies are really only found at the upscale boutique bakeries. Two dozen cupcakes can cost about 35 pounds from those places! They have these things called Fairy Cakes here in the grocery stores that are a poor imitation of cupcakes. They’re mini cupcakes with a dab of pastel frosting on them, that’s it. And the brownies (when you can find them) are sold individually for about 65p. That’s not going to feed a party of fifty, you guys. I found the muffins and eventually found a bag of stick pretzels at Marks and Spencers but the brownies remained elusive until I found them at Sainbury’s. Forty mini brownie bites for 2.50! Score. I had money left and I decided to get Krispy Kreme’s since they’re American and everyone loves some donuts. (You guys, I miss me some American food, I admit it). Oh my gosh. I got two dozen Krispy Kreme donuts for 17 pounds. Seriously. That’s 35 dollars. Ridiculous! But my mission was complete so hey. I also helped put up some American decorations there on the outside of the house. We're so ready to celebrate!

On July 4^th, I got to work and tucked into a Krispy Kreme with the rest of the BFH staff, delicious. Then the party began at noon and it was a great turn out. Out of the fifty person party, there was a large majority of American tourists looking for some friendly faces as well as some British people coming to help celebrate. I had to work during the party so I had to pour champagne, make small talk with the guests and work in the box office to sell tickets to the party. I got to snack on the brownies and the pretzels too, good times. But then the good times ended at 3:15 when there were too many people for the tour and things got really confused. Me and this other intern Carley were the only ones that knew how to start tours and do box office that day so we didn’t get lunches and pretty much got worked ragged. Grr! But it’s ok. Afterwards, Tez and I met up and we did a little shopping. I got two more pashminas, score. When we got back home we tested our new pop up tent for the weekend ahead and then packed up and called it a night.

We got an early start on Saturday to head to Hop Farm near Tonbridge in Kent. We drove south for an hour or so before stopping at a rest area for some road snacks, which of course is the best part of a road trip (besides the in-car sing a longs). We got some Mini Rolls and some Chocolate Covered Corn Flakes from Marks and Spencers and Tez got some breakfast at Burger King. Burger King in the UK doesn’t have Croissanwhiches! They have Cumberland Sausage Butties instead, imagine that. After Tez was well and full we scooted down the rest of the way and arrived promptly at 11:30.

On the way I took these pictures of the Kent country side, Tez driving and me being a passenger.

The doors opened at noon though, so we parked and waited in the line. I bought a program to the festival. It was in a really cool format. Rather than being just a book, it was designed to look like a backstage pass on a lanyard. Sweet! As you can tell by the photo, it was flipping WINDY.

When the doors opened, we scoped out the situation. I’ve never been to a festival so it was all new to me! I got a Mighty Boosh shirt. It’s red with white lightning bolts on it. It was pretty decently priced really, for pounds. Then we settled down in front of the main stage and watched Polar Bear play. I have to say they were kind of a jazz band and didn’t really hype the crowd up for the festival. But next up Robots in Disguise played and I really like them. They’re an electro punk band and they really got the crowd up and moving! Love those girls.
Robots in Disguise >

We scooted off to the comedy tent and saw Arj Barker from the show Flight of the Conchords and Matt Berry from the Mighty Boosh as well as a funny Irish comic called David O’Doherty.

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After eating our packed lunch on the lawn we watched more bands like The Kills (a boring ripoff of the White Stripes). After The Kills though, we had to get up and get our spot right in front so we could hold it for like, oh, FOUR HOURS in order to be at the front to see the Boosh Band. We held our ground through Gary Numan (he sings the 80s song, “Cars”, which was pretty enjoyable in the 80s but he seems to have gone goth and totally sucks now), the Charlatans, Peaches, Jarvis Cocker and Har Mar Superstar.

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Har Mar Superstar was RIDICULOUS. Basically, Har Mar Superstar is this 30 something year old fat and balding guy (he looks 50) who raps and dances on stage and think he’s totally awesome, which is tolerable enough until uh, he strips. Seriously. He got down to his undies and it was gross. I think that he told the camera men to film the grossest parts of him like his fat hairy stomach and his hairy back. Sweet sassy molassy. The whole audience was groaning and he was just loving it. Bah!

Har Mar Superstar in his nakedness>
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Then finally the Boosh Band came on and the whole audience shifted forward squishing me and Tez and everyone else in the front against the gates. Grr. The little kids next to us had to be pulled out and sent back to their parents towards the back. The Boosh Band was really entertaining though. It was sort of a live theater/band thing going on and it was really awesome. I’d explain it to you more but you’d actually have to watch the show to appreciate what I was saying. Haha. Anyway, we had a great spot and saw all the action. The show was over way too quickly for me though and I was sad to go but we had to.
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The traffic in the parking lot to leave was gridlocked for an hour and Tez was really frustrated. We were supposed to be driving to a small town near Brighton to go to his boss’ party and we were already so late anyway since we went to the festival. We finally got out of the parking lot only to get lost several times! Let me tell you, England is pitch freakin’ black at night and there are no street lights and the street signs are hard to see. So, we missed a turn or sixteen and it took us til 1:30 am to get there instead of getting there around 12 like we’d planned. By the time we got there, Tez’s coworkers were pretty far drunk and most everyone had gone home. It was cold, windy and pitch black in the yard but we pitched our tent and made small talk til 3 but then we called it a night. It was not a good nights sleep, I was freezing! I slept in all of my clothes and still was chilled. English summers are not hot, people. It’s been in the upper 60s for highs for weeks. When we woke up we pretty much headed straight home. We had wanted to go to Brighton but the weather was cold, windy and rainy so the beach had to be a miss. We took a wrong turn or two to get home but made it safe and sound and spent the rest of the day cuddled up watching tv.

Monday was another quiet day that saw me doing laundry and working. Tuesday through Friday were pretty normal days at work. We got some new American interns named Elspeth and Charlotte and it’s good to have them there. I’ve missed me some Americans. Thursday evening Tez and I and his two friends went to look at a house to rent in Hornsey. We got a bit of a late start and then jumped on the wrong train but we made it. I tell you, I want to buy whatever camera they’ve got because those pictures made the place look immaculate but in reality it was kind of a piece. Oh well, the right place is out there somewhere. Plus I think I read there was a stabbing near the area the very next day. I don’t know what it is about Londoners but they keep stabbing each other up. It’s an epidemic here. It’s constantly in the news.

Friday evening I met Tez after work to celebrate his last day as a runner since he got promoted at work and would be a junior assistant in the machine room at work starting that Monday. We called it an early night though because I was crabby and went home. Ooops. Saturday we decided to go to Ikea and check out some things. We’re so domestic. I bought Tez a fitted sheet and he got a new comforter cover, pint glasses and a squircle plate for me (those square plates with rounded edges, I call them squircles, don’t ya know). We also ate at Ikea. I had a vegetarian hot dog and a donut and Tez had a foot long hot dog. Then we both got an ice cream cone for 35p. Nice!

Sunday we went to Sainbury’s and bought some groceries to make some curry for dinner. Tez’s mom had gone to the Cadbury Factory tour and brought us home copious amounts of chocolate, mmm. Tez was nervous about his first day at his new job so we called it an early night. Monday was another work day for me and I just stayed at home.

Tuesday at work we had a special event on, the Midden of Mystery event for National Archaeology Week. I was a bit nervous about the turnout at this event because I was in charge of advertising for it. Last year it seems that only two or three kids showed up for the event and Ana was hoping for at least four this year. Happily, we got 12 kids that showed up! It was a success! That’s the most amount of people I’ve seen at an event that wasn’t the 4^th of July party. The rest of the week was pretty quiet and normal at work. I finally finished the conservation list I was working on. I think I’ve recorded all the significant problems with the house. I even got to meet the conservation team and go over some small repairs I’d recommend to be done soon. I felt pretty involved and felt like I was getting a lot of experience with that task. Friday evening after work I went out with my work friends Charlotte, Elspeth and Carley to a pub for a pint of…cranberry juice. I’m so hardcore! After that I caught the train home but it was a bit late so I had to run for my bus, grr. But I had a nice quiet evening at home after a long week and I was grateful for it. Days seem to take so much more energy here!

This weekend past, Tez and I had planned on doing a few things but the plans pretty much failed. We wanted to go to Shoreditch, the Tower Bridge exhibit and Burrough Market but none of that happened, which is ok. We went to High Street Kensington to check out the Whole Foods Market there. I’ve never been to a Whole Foods Market in the States but gosh, the store in London looked so American, I loved it. We got some free samples of some proscuitto dip and bruschetta made with buffalo mozzarella. I’ve never had cheese from a buffalo but I give it an A+, would eat again. Tez and I were quite hungry perusing the store so we decided to treat ourselves to something from the take out buffets there. The prices were steeps so we shared a bit of lasagna and a baguette. It tasted amazing! Ah, were we rich we’d have bought some groceries there. We explored the rest of the high street and its shops like Urban Outfitters and Uni Qlo to continue on Tez’s never ending search for the perfect pair of socks. Yeah, we didn’t find any socks, unfortunately. We couldn’t help ourselves when we passed by a cookie shop and picked up a treat. We got a double chocolate chip cookie topped with strawberry ice cream to share. Yum. We took the train home after that and made a quick trip to Sainsbury’s for some dinner supplies.

Tez trying to find some socks >

Unfortunately, when we arrived home we discovered that Georgie, Tez’s cat had birthed her kittens in the shed while we were gone and they were all dead. Sad :( I took the three little kittens and gave them a proper burial in the backyard for Tez, who was very upset. Poor guy. I seemed to have gotten bitten by a spider while digging though. I had a small bite on the inside of my left wrist that turned very red and it burned like whoa. I was afraid I’d have to go to the hospital! But the burning receded and my wrist is ok. Georgie seems to be doing ok but she’s still looking for her kittens, which is quite sad to hear.

Sunday we woke up eary and drove to London with Tez’s parents to meet up with a family friend named Dr. Hayes. He is a historian that has lived in Hong Kong for decades and has come to know Tez’s family there very well. We parked near a famous Banksy grafitti. I've only ever seen Banksy stuff online but now I've seen it in real life. He's talented.

We had lunch at a place in Chinatown that serves dim sum. I’m still digging those steamed pork buns! After lunch Tez and I went to Fopp, a music/DVD/book store and I completed my Mighty Boosh DVD collection by buying season three. If anyone wants a Boosh-a-thon with me, you know where I’m at, haha! When we got home, I settled into some work. We were going to go see Wall-E but alas, we got caught up making dinner and just never ventured back out. We might do Orange Wednesdays at the movie theater though. Basically my cell phone service provider allows you to do 2 for 1 tickets at the movie theater on Wednesdays and since the price of movie tickets here is exorbitant, it all works out for me.

The boys in the back: Rupert (Jean's friend), Tez's dad, Dr. Hayes, Tez. The girls in the front: Ros (Dr. Hayes' daughter), Mrs. Hayes, Tez's Mom, Jean (Tez's sister) and me!

So, that brings me back to today, Monday and I’m here finishing up and publishing this blog, working for the archive and looking after Georgie. I am thinking about making some chocolate chip cookies out of some of the Cadbury chocolate in the cupboard but we don’t have any brown sugar or flour. If I can be bothered to go out and get some, it’s cookie time!

I hope you enjoyed the post, sorry it took so long to post.

We've been on planes and trains 'til we think we might die far from North America

Ok, so I thought I'd do a travel post! This, my non-public transportation-using friends and family, is how I get around here in the UK.

Well, first of all I catch a bus from a bus stop called Whitehorse Vale/The Bramingham. I don't have a picture of that bus stop though, maybe I'll get you all one later. But I take a bus that looks like this pretty much except it has "24 Dunstable" on the front of it. I never sit up top because well, it's hard to walk up the stairs frankly haha. I nearly have fallen up and down stairs on a double decker bus in London so I just avoid them all together.

So wait a minute, let me tell you how to ride a bus because no one ever seems to be able to explain it. There are no directions. It's kind of like you have to know where you're going or you're screwed. But anyway, the bus stops at my stop and I get in it and I say to the driver, "A single to Leagrave Station," and pay him my £1.50 and then a little ticket strip prints and I rip it out and go pick my seat on the lower deck. From there I get to let my mind wander for about ten minutes as we wind about on the narrow streets of Luton. And I'm telling you, these streets are definitely very narrow. Sometimes when we have to make a turn in an intersection that's not a roundabout it looks as if the bus is going to hit the oncoming cars. We can't even go through this tunnel without making the oncoming traffic stop and back up because we'd plow right into them if they didn't make room. I'm always biting my lips when the bus makes turns or stops just inches from the car in front of it. It's insane.

To get off at Leagrave Station I have to wait until we get near it and then hit a button above my seat which then buzzes at the driver to let him or her know that I want to get off at the next stop. Yeah, there are no assigned names for the stops and the driver definitely doesn't ever stop unless you say you want to get off by hitting the buzzer. I pretty much have to know by sight where I want to get off and hope that the next stop puts me somewhere near it. Luckily the stop I get off at is just a quick minute walk to the station. So, I get off the bus, walk to the station and sit on the platform to wait for my train. To get to London is pretty easy. I basically have to take a train towards Brighton or Sutton which will make stops in the towns between Luton and London and Brighton. I usually take a train towards Brighton everyday except for Tuesdays when I take one towards Sutton. That picture of me over there to the left was taken in St. Pancras International train station in London. I was showing off my £90 travel card for you. Yes, that little orange and beige ticket there costs me $177 but allows me unlimited travel for a week. Whee...I guess. Rip off is more like it!

That's pretty much what the train I take down looks like. I usually get a seat in the mornings no problem so I've 50 minutes or so to just relax. I grab a free Metro paper to read for the first twenty minutes and then the last half hour consists of me closing my eyes and waking up at every stop while listening to my iPod until I arrive at London Blackfriars, which is a rail station that drops me off right above the Thames. Literally. I arrive on a bridge over the Thames. Crazy. I didn't realize that fact until about two weeks ago!

Then it's down an escalator to the Underground where I take the District or Circle Line to Embankment station. It's only two stops so it's a pretty quick little jaunt once I get on the tube. There on the left is a pretty good example of what a tube platform looks like. Pretty empty though, usually it's quite crowded and hot and people are bumping into you all the time which bugs me the most. I need my personal space, dang it! Anyway, that's what the tube arriving looks like to the right there. If you want some interior shots of it, let me know but it's not terribly exciting. Then after two stops I arrive here at Embankment and that's what it looks like from the outside here. I usually just duck under that bridge in the right hand side of the picture and then it takes me to Craven Street where the Benjamin Franklin House is. It's about a three minute walk from Embankment, that's all!






So then, here's my journey in reverse...with more pictures! I scoot back on the District or Circle Line from Embankment back to Blackfriars and head to the National Rail platform which looks like this at rush hour (to the right). Not bad looking you say?


Well yeah, let's just look at my own platform here to the left. That's just a small group of people I captured there. Blackfriars isn't that popular of a station so I usually get on there and get a seat on the train but if you go to St. Pancras International, you'd be lucky to push your way onto the train when it pulls up! If you enlarge that picture to the left and squint at the orange light back there, that's the arrival/departure board for the trains so you know which train is coming next, at what time, and at what stations it will be calling at. That's how you navigate the train system. Just find the earliest train calling at your station and hop on it.

Here's a sneaky picture I took on the train ride home one day. This is rush hour on a train. Most people get seats and then the unlucky people who don't have to stand in the aisles and in between the doors for about 40 minutes. Yuck! I hate having to stand after a long day. I usually wedge myself in a seat at Blackfriars and read my free copies of the londonpaper and The London Lite that they hand out in front of the tube stations to entertain the commuters on their way home. I also count out my bus change as well because more often then not, I have to scoot back home on the good ol' bus.

I arrive back at Leagrave and usually have a twenty minute wait for the bus at the bus stop. I usually give my family a ring while I wait and have a chat. I have pictures of this bus stop going home and here they are!




This one here on the left is looking back towards the station road I came from. This one here on the right is looking in the direction that the bus comes from. I have to wave the bus down to tell it to come pick me up and sometimes if there are a lot of cars parked on the road it doesn't see me and I have to frantically run for it and make it stop. Grrr. Oh, and here is the bus schedule hanging on the pole that tells you a) it's a bus stop and b) when you might be expecting the bus. It's really pretty confusing because it only shows some of the stops and it's hard to read and everything. Luckily the two stops I use are on the schedule so I don't need to think about it much. But the procedure on the way home is the same except I say a single to Whitehorse Vale and ride it until I see the Sainsbury's store by Tez's house. Then I get off the bus, walk less than a minute to Tez's house and wrestle with the lock and have myself a sit down after a long day.

So there you guys have it--Ashley has mastered the English public transportation, ha! Well, as long as you don't ask me to ride the bus anywhere unfamiliar, then that's another story.

Busy as a bee

It's been too long since I've last written, hasn't it? Sorry about that but it's been a whirlwind here lately.

Since last Monday I've done scads of things. SCADS! Last Tuesday was a crazy eventful day. My bus driver made me late for my train so I had to take a later one which meant I was late for work on the day I was told not to be late! The BFH was hosting a science fair in SoHo so we had to be scooting right away. So after running to work and flying up and back down the stairs at work I had to carry several cartons of juice and cookies over a mile at a speed walk and man, that was difficult. The juice kept falling out on the sidewalk and I was just thinking "Gah, why aren't we taking the bus?!" So yes, it was a warm day and I arrived at St. Anne's Hall beet red and sweaty and worn out like whoa and it was only 9:30 am. The science fair was only two hours and then I got to take even more stuff back that mile and I was so worn out by the time I got back to BFH at noon. I got to leave right afterwards around 1 pm for helping out with the event so I ate my sandwich and was off to explore in the hours before I'd meet Tez to go home. I went to the Victoria Embankment Gardens first to contemplate where to go next. As you can see, it's a pretty nice place to contemplate!







Anywho, I decided to walk down the Thames towards the Houses of Parliament to visit Westminster Abbey. It looked imposing on the outside but I didn't care to see the inside considering it'd cost me about 12 pounds to peak inside. Too much!









So, after that I was off to the Victoria and Albert Museum but there was a delay on the Circle and District Underground Lines due to a person under a train (yes, they really tell you that over the PA system). Because of that I had to take a really long journey on a different line to make it to the museum and by the time I got there I was too bleary eyed to do anything but yawn and eat the rest of my lunch in their courtyard. I stayed there for about an hour before giving up any hope of stumbling around in an exhausted stupor through their exhibits and took off back towards Embankment for a nice nap in the garden there. Yeah, I fell asleep in a public park in the middle of London! Look, I wasn't the only one sleeping there so I don't feel bad haha. Then I woke up a bit restored and met Tez and went home and fell asleep promptly.

Wednesday and Thursday were pretty typical days but something must've been in the air because I had some terrible asthma happening and kept needing my inhaler. Annoying but I'm ok now! Friday after work I stopped off at Sherlock Holmes Pub with three other interns named Shari, Carley and Max. I had a J2O which is just a juice that they sell here since I can't drink! Then I met up with Tez and we came back to Luton and did some grocery shopping and made dinner. I was exhausted Friday and though I was supposed to go back down to London with Tez for his friend's karaoke birthday party I just couldn't keep my eyes open to do it so I stayed home.

Saturday Tez and I had a quiet day. We went to Luton to get some library books and look at the shops but mostly stayed at home. Sunday was quite fun. We went to Edmonton Green in London to visit our friends Jen and Jassen at their new flat. We attended their wedding around this time last year! We stayed their for ages and they graciously fed us pizza and other delicious snacks and played the Wii, which is a pretty great game console. Tez and I plan to definitely repay the kindness and have them over for dinner sometime before I go!

Monday was a completely useless day for me. I just stayed home and worked on bits and bobs and was generally a bum.

Yesterday was another busy Tuesday. We had two school groups in and a new intern named Elspeth start. Edited to add that I got to deposit the BFH earnings as well and I had to go to a bank called Coutt's which is the fanciest bank I've ever seen because it's the queen's bank! It had a massive glass front and I had to ride an escalator up to the main floor where I could do the banking. Everything was in marble and it had statues everywhere. I felt like a raggamuffin being there haha. Awesome! I was asked to stay til seven last night to help out with the National Children's Art Day event at the BFH. Unfortunately no children showed up so it was a bit of a waste of time. We really need better advertising! We were even asked to dress up for the event in the historical garb that our actress uses to give the tours.
Ummm yup. So this happened to me. I had to dress up in a Georgian dress! Gaaaah embarassing. It didn't even fit me haha. I was too small. But it was all in good fun. Laugh it up everyone :P
So, three other girls also dressed up and all four of us stood on the porch waiting for guests and we attracted a lot of attention. We even had people coming up and asking to take pictures with us haha. A lot of strange looks and whatnot came our way as well. Bwaha! Too bad no kids came to draw Ben Franklin but at least we passed out a lot of pamphlets. It was good publicity anyway. After work I had some time to kill before meeting Tez again so I looked at Primark, a cheap clothing store and tried to find this store that sells American food but I couldn't find it. Darn.

This weekend I am going to be even busier! I'm going to be gone from Saturday morning to Sunday evening because of the Mighty Boosh music and comedy festival, Tez's company party south of London and checking out the sea side town of Brighton where I will dip my toes in the north Atlantic.