Portobello Road Market

This morning I woke up and went straight out for a run. It was so good! Usually, when I had run before, I'd run fast and burn out in a few mins, so I thought I was no good at it; but today I pased myself and ran straight for 45 mins (1 min of walking in between). I ran from my flat through Primrose Hill and Regent's Park and back almost to the top of Primrose Hill again and then had to stop. Yay! I'm glad I can run like that! I was thinking earlier of doing the London Marathon next year since I didn't notice any Canadians on the course, so who knows, maybe I will if I can keep doing this often (I feel very good afterwards). Anyways...

I headed over to Portobello Market afterwards and looked around (took about over an hour to get there by bus). It's similar to Camden Market but a little nicer. There are also lots of antiques including jewelry, china, and silverware. I didn't buy anything, just browsed. I went home afterwards for something to eat and watched a movie with Garreth which I fell asleep through. Now I'm tired and want to go to bed!



M

On the Thames

Today I went to the Borough Market with Garreth. It's a food market under the London Bridge on the South Bank. It took about an hour and a half to get there by bus and walking. The market was full of food stalls with a bunch of free samples! There were samples of cheeses, jams, sausages, breads, fruit, juice, brownies, etc. Everything was sooo good! There was a German stand, so I bought some weisswurst. I also bought some dried strawberries and mango. mmmmmmm! Garreth left to visit his parents till tomorrow.

On London Bridge and the Borough Market.

After the market I meandered along the Thames to Tower Bridge and down the other side. It was very sunny and nice today (still not t-shirt weather though). I made it to St.Pauls Cathedral and walked down Fleet Street. Next I stopped for a coffee and studied some Greek. On the way home I made a stop at the grocery store to buy some food because I wanted to make a German dinner. It turned out so good! It had weisswurst, mashed potatoes, sauerkraut, pita (pretzel substitute) and topped with strong mustard and wine! I love that type of meal. Now I'm going to hit the sack.


Tower Bridge, St. Paul's Cathedral, a skinny building on Fleet Street.

M

Invigilator

Today I did my second temp job. It was so easy and not stressful at all (quite the opposite actually). It took me 45mins to walk to the school. It's a business school on Finchley Road. I was an Invigilator in a 3 hour exam. I was with another lady named Michelle. We had to get the room ready for the exam and once the students came in we had to check their dictionaries to see if there were any hidden cheat notes. The rest of the time we just observed and gave the students language dictionaries when needed. At the end, we collected all the exams and cleaned up and went back to the main office.

They needed someone to photocopy a bunch of the exams, so I stayed behind and photocopied for a few hours. Tedious and brain dead work, but at least I wasn't stressed (and I made a bit more money at this job, than the last). I just got into a rhythm and daydreamed most of the time.

It's kinda neat doing different types of jobs, I haven’t done anything like these two jobs in the past. It gives me a better idea of the types of things I like and don't like. For example I now know that I hate switchboard phones. It also gives me a greater appreciation for doing multimedia work (which is what I really want to do). I may have something in June, if not, when I get back from Greece I have a good chance of getting something, I'll keep you all posted.

Now I'm going to make some dinner and watch "Grey's Anatomy"; I've been hooked on it lately.

M

Getting Lost

Today I felt like going for a nice walk around the more residential areas in Hampstead and Belsize Park. It was pretty nice out today so I headed out earlier and walked up to Hampstead Village. I saw this cute lane with old stone stairs leading up so I decided to check it out; I got to this really cute dead end with cottage type buildings and there was a good view over Hampstead (pic of rooftops below). I meandered all through these cute residential streets, it's so beautiful! Very hilly and full of character, trees, and big old houses!



I made it back to the village and stopped for a frappuccino and studied some Greek. I headed home and diverted to another side road and I got lost all through Belsize Park (closer to where I live). It was really nice! I love this area sooo much! If I stay in London after Greece I definitely want to live in the same place; it's pricier but it's worth it! You pay less in transportation, it's safe, clean, close to shops, has a village atmosphere, and it's so beautiful as the pics show! If you visit London and feel like getting out of the main city for a bit I definitely recommend Hampstead!

M

PS: I got a call today about a mini temp job for tomorrow. A very easy job sitting in a class while students write their exams. I'll have to make sure they don't cheat and collect their tests at the end! Sounds difficult but I think I can manage! lol! It's only for a few hours (maybe more, it might even be more than one day) and it pays a little more than the last job, so why not!

Movie Premiere

Today was a strange day. I did two of the most opposite things you can do! A museum and movie premiere. On my way to the museum I saw this little store, it has a pretty sweet name if you ask me...(one of my nick names!)



First off, I headed to the John Soane's Museum (the one that I tried to go to yesterday). He was one of Britain's greatest architect's in the late 1700s and 1800s. He bought a few flats and turned them into his home and eventually a museum to house all the artifacts and art he had collected over the years. There is a lot to see! Old paintings, Roman sculptures, books, furniture...it's basically the exact way he left it when he died in 1837. The house is my dream house, it has many floors and is full of nooks and crannies! Lots of random windows and little passages. I snuck 2 photos of the atrium area from the basement below.



After the museum I headed to Leicester Square where the Mission Impossible 3 premiere was going to take place. I was told 3-4:00 would be an OK time to get a good spot but I got there at 2:30 and the first row was already taken up behind the barriers. I found out that Tom Cruise was going to show, so I thought "What the heck, might as well wait it out and see what this is all about!" Lets just say that if I had known how long I would have ended up staying there, I wouldn't have done it! Below, a pic of the outside of the Odeon Theatre where it took place.



It was kinda neat seeing them put down the red carpet. And soon the paparazzi and entertainment shows arrived (ET, Extra, Access Hollywood, etc were all there). I was situated in front of the Odeon Theatre across the carpet from the entertainment networks. The first to arrive was Tom; he got there about 5:30ish. He took a long time with the fans and even kissed a cute old woman who was turning 80 that day, she had birthday balloons and was brought into the premiere and interviewed by all the shows! I didn't see Tom till a few hours later because he was taking a long time signing autographs and taking pics with fans in another area. Meanwhile, the other actors arrived. Here are some pics! Keri Russell, Michelle Monaghan, and me and Jonathan Rhys Meyers (one of my favs!).



It took forever for Tom Cruise to come to our section because he had to run in and introduce the movie; then he came back out and had to be interview by about 20 shows before finally coming back to the fans. He made it to our section at around 9:00ish!!! I was thinking about leaving before then because my feet were really sore but I had already waited for a few hours and what's a little longer! When he came though, it was like an avalanche of people!!! It felt like I was in a mosh pit! I barely got a good pic even though I was close enough to touch him. Oh well, I exchanged emails with a nice girl named Takako whom I was chatting with and we will exchange pics (she got some good ones). There were paparazzi on step stools barging through and I ended up "sharing" one of the step ladders to get a few more shots, but it was impossible; I just held my camera up and snapped whatever happened to be in the shot. Haha! It was crazy but fun! It really makes you think how much it would suck to be a celebrity. People were just going nuts over him and yelling his name! I bet he can't go anywhere on his own without a million body guards.

It was kinda neat seeing everyone get interviewed and get there pics taken just like you see on TV. But I think the novelty is over now after seeing this. I'm not sure I'd want to wait that long again! Unless it's someone I'd really like to see like Angelina Jolie for example!

M

Wandering

I was planning on going to the John Saone's Museum today but when I got there, it wasn't open. That's fine I'll go tomorrow. Infront of the museum was this cute park pictured below. The Huntarian Museum also faces this park on the opposite side.

Lincoln's Inn Fields

After the failed museum attempt, I decided to head toward The National Portrait Gallery and see where I ended up. I walked around Covent Garden and stopped in a cute tea shop where I bought some vanilla tea; it smells soooo good. Then I hit an area full of book stores so that lured me in for an hour or two! What next? I walked around Soho and each time I go there I always find a new part that I hadn’t seen before because the streets don’t make any sense; there are no grid patterns, so it’s hard to see it all and memorize where stores and other streets are.

Covent Garden Market

I made my way to Leicester Square and went for a Starbucks and studied Greek for another hour or so. Apparently they are having the “Mission Impossible 3” premiere in Leicester Square tomorrow, so I think I’m going to come down for that. It would be kinda neat to see Tom Cruise in person! Although I doubt he’ll show since he just had a baby; there are others in the movie I wouldn’t mind seeing like Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Laurence Fishburne; It’ll probably be packed though, I’d have to go early for a good spot!

By the time I finished all that it was too late to go to a museum so I wandered some more and went to Hamley’s Toy Store; it’s huge!

Hamley's

I got home around 8:30 and made myself a big bowl of pasta!

M

Marathon

Today was the London marathon. Unfortunately it was a grey rainy day but I went down to watch the runners anyways! The marathon is about 26miles long and they block off a whole bunch of roads. I went near the end of the course on the Thames south of Aldwych and watched and walked my way up to Big Ben. There were some hilarious costumes worn by some of the runners! Examples: A girl dressed as a toilet, a few bigfoots (bigfeet?), Batman, Santa, Super Woman, a bunch of fairies (guys and girls), a couple bears, and one guy had the guts to wear just a tiny leopard print thong! It was quite hilarious!



While I was walking my shoes completely soaked through and my socks were sopping wet! My feet were sloshing around in my shoes! It wasn’t comfy at all! I was planning on going to the 4:30 service at Hillsong but I just couldn’t; I just wanted to go home and soak my cold feet in a bath and put nice warm dry socks on.

I finally made it home and did some grocery shopping. Now I’m going to make dinner and veg out on the couch and watch TV…it’s one of those kinda evenings!

M

Sunny Soho

I had a really good day today! The weather was very sunny all day. I left before lunch for a walk to the Camden Markets and browsed for a bit; then hopped on a bus to Aldwych. I had to go to my bank but it was closed.

I planned to go to a museum around there anyways called the Huntarian Museum. It's based on specimens from John Hunter who was a pioneer surgeon in the 1700's. He would disect humans and animals to study anatomy. So in the musem there are tons of jars with things in them from fetuses, to intestines! It's pretty interesting if you can handle it. There are also oddities like examples of elephantitis inflicted limbs to a 7'7" skeleton of who was known as the "Irish Giant." It also showed instruments that surgeons first started using! Yikes! There was one kit for amputating limbs (without anesthesia!) Anyways, I like biology, so it was very interesting for me. There was no photography allowed but I snuck one pic in below!



After that, I started walking towards Soho. It's such a neat area! There are cafes everywhere with tables outside on streets that cars rarely drive down. In a way, it reminds me of Paris (the outdoor cafes that is). I stopped for a mocha in one of the cafes.



I went home after that and ended up going to a few pubs with Garreth and 4 of his friends. They were fun and we also went to an Italian restaurant and had pizza - really good!!!

Now I have to go to bed!! Night night!

M

Last Day at Work

Well, I finished my little two day temp job. Today went better than yesterday; It was a bit quieter but still had it's stressful and frustrating moments! I'm glad it's over and I can relax and eat some dinner now! I'm going to make a little antipasto platter with prosciutto, tomatoes, stilton cheese, crackers, olives mmmmmmm....darnit! I forgot to get some red wine to top it off! I might have to go out for that!

Well not too much else to write about; I'm going to watch a special on the Queen tonight (she's all over the media here because it's her 80th birthday!)

M

First Day at Work

I started a 2 day temp job today at a car dealership. It's a receptionist position which I've never done before! I left 45 mins before it started because I wanted to walk there (it's quite close but I wanted to make sure I was early like any good worker would do!). I walked down Finchley Road and thought I saw it in the distance beside a Mercedes dealership; I was over 20 mins early so I thought I'd detour around the block and get there 10 mins early (which is a better time). Once I made it around the block I saw that the dealership wasn't beside Mercedes like I thought it was!! I started to panic a bit because I didn't want to be late for my first UK job! I still had 10 mins to figure out where is was, so I backtracked thinking I had been blind and missed it; Finally I saw a tall poll with the logo at the top on the corner of Finchely and a long side rode. I ran down the road and it led to a large supermarket, the dealership was on the other side of the market, so I made it with 1 min to spare! haha!!

When I got there, I received a crash course in using the phone and was introduced to a few people. It was quite a stressful day! There were a ton of phone calls and I had to transfer them to the right people or take messages; sometimes there would be 3 calls at once and I just couldn't get to them all! Some accents were quite strong too, so it was hard to hear their names. They were also short staffed so a lot of the messages didn't get returned since everyone was very busy. I had to deep breath on my breaks to calm my nerves. The day went by fast though; 10 hours seemed like 2! I also got quite a few comments on my accent; people would ask where I was from and why I came to London so it was nice to chat for a bit. I think tomorrow will be a little easier since I will know what to expect and more people will be in. I hope it goes ok!

Now I'm at home relaxing and I'm going to make some tea and watch TV. Garreth went out to buy food and I asked him to pick up some nutella for my crumpets!! mmmmmm!

M

Pixar

Another exhausting day. A few days ago I booked a ticket to see the Pixar Exhibit at the Science Museum. I took the bus down there and took some random pics of the ride: An example of "Pret", my fav place to grab a quick bite; me on the bus; and The Strand).



Unfortunately, I wasn't allowed to take pics in the Pixar Exhibit. It was pretty cool though. There were a bunch of concept art and sculptures. They showed their short movies and an animation created just for this exhibit; it was shown on a very wide screen and was very well done! There was also this contraption (I forget what it's called, starts with a "z") that was made up of rings and had Toy Story character figurines attached to it in different poses so when it spun and the strobe lights went on, it looked like they were all moving.



After that I decided to see the rest of the museum. Museums take a lot of effort! So much walking and so many things to see and take in. It was interesting but I had to leave and sit down with a cuppa. I took the bus back to Piccadilly and walked through the Burlington Arcade; Lots and lots of jewelry stores. I was almost blinded by all the bling! It was great! I then grabbed a pain au chocolat and tea and headed home.

Tonight I'm making pasta and taking it easy since I start my first UK job tomorrow (see last post) I found out today that they extended the hours so it'll be from 8am-6; I get a paid lunch though, so that's alright. We'll see how it goes!

M

Rubber Legs

Wow, I did a lot today! This is going to be a long post. I wanted to do some museums this week, so I decided to finish off the Natural History Museum. I took the long way there by deciding to walk almost the whole way. I walked from home through Primrose Hill (pictured below) and it was so nice out that I sat down and sun tanned for a bit on the hill. Through Regent’s Park next (third pic) and walked to Marble Arch and along Hyde Park to Knightsbridge. I had to hop on a bus the rest of the way, my legs were tired!



I got off at the Natural History Museum and there was no crazy lineup like the last attempt at coming here! I had already seen the dinosaurs, so I did the mammal and Earth sections today. It was neat but there were so many kids! By the end I just wanted to get out of there.



I was starving when I left so I stopped at Pret (my fav café) to have a breadless sandwich (they are so good). Then off to Harrod’s. I spent quite a while in there! I had been in there a little while ago, but this time I saw rooms that I hadn’t seen last time (it’s huge!) I treated myself to a cuppa and a pain au chocolat; Soooooo good! I also bought some tea ( blend 49); I’ll try it out tonight! I know I like their assam tea so I’m sure it’ll be good. (Harrod's below)



What next? Then I caught a bus to Piccadilly Circus and walked around Soho towards Oxford Street. I got a phone call about a little temp job for Thursday and Friday! It’s not the job I mentioned in the last post but it something. It’ll be my first UK job! I’ll be a receptionist at an Audi car dealership. I’ve never been a receptionist, so it’ll be interesting! They’ll teach me how to use a switchboard. Yikes! I hope it’s not really busy.

Piccadilly Circus

I guess that’s it! I’m at home resting my poor rubber legs and I’ll try out my tea, oh, and Gareth brought home so hot cross buns! I haven’t tried those before! Mmmmmmm.

M