Movement

Say What?

Something you just don’t think you are going to see in the London Underground…

a buddhist monk in his red gown & shaved head.

Thought it might be rude to take his picture. But really, he was there yesterday as I was heading home. Then again, you do see all sorts at the St Johns Wood tube station!

I have to admit that I’m kinda sad that I didn’t fully take advantage of living in Kilburn while I was there. I didn’t check out all the restaurants or pubs. And now that I’ve moved, it’s more likely that I won’t. Perhaps this summer.

What prompted this ’sadness’ is the fact that I met up with some people last night at an Indian restaurant just one block from my old house. And it was inexpensive and darn good! What they day about Geeta is true - it’s quite plain in decor, but the food is like that which you’d get in a home. It’s not as English as most Indian restaurants…catering to the tastes of the local neighborhood. Instead of being very hot, it is spicy. Instead of being very heavy, it’s just flavorful. And it was really very inexpensive! R. & I spent around £30 TOTAL and shared a starter (masala dosai), had two mains & two beers each.

After the dinner, the group headed to the North London Tavern (just a few blocks away). We had a beer here & just enjoyed the company. While it’s not the best pub ever, it’d be nice to have it in Cricklewood as our local. Sigh.

So, if you ever get to London and want a decent meal on the cheap & good beer, check out Geeta & the North London Tavern. I’d say it’s worth the detour!

The First Game

Yesterday we had our first cricket game. It was a decent day…it wasn’t raining (which it has been for a while), there were bursts of sun and it wasn’t uncomfortably cold. We seemed ‘on’ and excited about playing. I certainly was.

We started off fielding. I play in what is the equivalent to the outfield (if you only know baseball) in a position known as deep square leg. The reason I play here is that I have a good arm. I can usually make it to the wicket from the boundry in only a bounce or two. And on this game day I got a LOT of work. Our bowlers (pitchers) were giving them some lovely shots to hit in my direction. On the positive side, I was told that the other team didn’t try to get an extra run cause they figured I’d run (throw) them out! After 25 overs (each over is 6 bowls), we took a break and it was then going to be our turn. They scored 149.

Next came our turn at batting. I was the second batter. While I did fine in the beginning, I made one big ol’ mistake and got out. It was a great throw by the bowler. Still…ya never like getting out. We had a few good runs but didn’t get to 150…we made it to our 25 overs and scored 107. Happy we got over 100 runs for our first game (the other team was more experienced)…but hope we can get even better!

The Rock

What is it about engagement rings that make people so crazy? If you do a search on google, you’ll see that there are thousands of sites dedicated to selling this one piece of jewelry. Amazing.

The wonderful thing about the UK is that people don’t have the expectation that you are going to have a HUGE ROCK on your hand. The majority of people have a nice diamond and many people actually choose to have a different kind of stone as their engagement rings. And I think that is cool.

When you check out American sites though…bigger is better! Even the pics they put on the sites are shown as larger than they truly are…cause you wouldn’t want to be seen as having one that is tiny, would you? And two months salary as a guide? Crazy!

I do have friends who seriously wanted more than a one carat diamond ring…irregardless of the cost or the fact that it might make more sense to save some of this cash for other things. Yes, I do realize that it’s an important piece of jewelry for some…that you are going to be wearing it for the rest of your life…but have you ever tried to actually DO SOMETHING when you’re wearing a big ol’ honking ring? It’s kinda tough.

What goes through my mind is the fact that I’m going to be sharing money with my new hubby…his money & my money will be melding in a lot of ways. So if he spends £5000+ on a ring, it takes away from money we could spend as a couple…say helping pay for a car or putting it toward our house downpayment. I just want something simple. Something that is an engagement ring…but a ring that I can wear for life, that won’t get in the way & one that doesn’t detract from our ability to pay for a really cool honeymoon (travel is more important to me than jewels).

So I’m hoping that when I go to the States and meet up with friends and family, that they don’t grab my hand, take one look at my modest ring (that we’ll be buying over there) and give me that look…you know the one…the one that say, oh, so he just didn’t have the money to pay for a ring…or the, oh, your fiance is just too cheap to spend that much money. I HATE THAT! Cause marrying R isn’t about getting a diamond…it’s about our lives together. He’s neither cheap nor poor - we just figure that there are more important things in life than carats!

‘Dem Blogs

I started writing a blog after reading a few that made me laugh. I’ve been reading a few for quite a while and decided that it was my turn to write about my life. I didn’t really care if anyone else read or made any comments (which is good as no one has left a comment yet for me!), but I thought it’d be great to share my thoughts to anyone who might care and especially to leave my thoughts as I go through this great journey of love and life. I want to be able to look back and see what I was thinking just months or (hopefully) years ago.

When you read a blog that has been going on for years, it’s cool to see how people grow and change. I have two favorite blogs which I’ve read for a while that follow the lives of two women. One is recently married, one is still single…and both of their journeys are interesting to read. You should check them out: http://thesmitten.ivillage.com/love/ and http://thisfish.ivillage.com/love/.

They then led to me a few new blogs which I am beginning to read religiously (darn them!). The first is a food blog. As a complete foody, I LOVE going on there to read a new idea or recipe. Such yummy stuff is on offer. If you love food, you have to check out: http://www.nosheteria.com/.

And then finally, while spending time on ivillage, I found my latest blog…one that supports ‘women power’. Her latest blogging was very similar to the one I just posted yesterday…about women and viewpoints. Grrl Genius is very fun to read.

I hope to find more and more blogs that strike a cord. While it does take away from some of my day to read them…it’s like a little present each day. Sometimes there’s a new post, and I’m thrilled, sometimes there’s not and it heightens the anticipation!

Smashed

I recently read a book that was very poignant. It’s call Smashed: Growing up a drunk girl by Koren Zailckas. While I was one of those girls who didn’t drink in high school (aka ‘the geek’), I remember how my friends reacted to drinking and that ‘freedom’.

So many of us start out our lives feeling quite good about who we are and how we look…children typically don’t feel fat. But then, at least in my generation, the focus on looks and popularity and doing the ‘right thing’ started…probably around age 13 or 14. So many girls went on diets. So many slept with guys to feel attractive and okay. So many pulled away so hard from their parents that their heads were spinning.

What is it about our society that allows young women to feel so lost. And so much so that they need to turn to alcohol and other drugs to hide from these feelings of hurt & anger. Why are we told to be nice and good, and that looking perfect is part of that? What is it that makes us want to get ’smashed’?

I know women who just haven’t grown from this yet. They still see themselves as awkward teens. I know women who still, in their 30s, drink to feel okay at a party or to be able to flirt better. And I know that I was that way for so very long. The things we learn in adolescence has such a strong hold. And the scary thing is that the message is being sent earlier and earlier…we have 12 year olds getting pregnant, 11 year olds in rehab, and 9 year olds dealing with eating disorders. How do we stop this? Or is this the route that eventually will cause us to implode? I don’t have the answers…but I know that if I have a little girl, I’ll work my darndest to make her feel okay for as long as I can. I’ll never, ever, talk about diets or being ‘fat’ or anything like that. And hopefully, she’ll grow up thinking that everything is not about looks…that she’s more than that. And that she can BE.

I coach a youth field hockey team (or just hockey as they call it over here). The girls are aged around 11-13. It’s such an interesting age for girls…for the most part, they are completely self-absorbed at times, have a tough time focusing (even during a game), are more interested in how they look and scattered. But not always and not all of them.

Yesterday we had our one and only day of games. We were playing a group of young ladies from a local British school. Let me tell you, it was not pretty! The girls on the other team have seen the game and played in PE since they were able to run around. My girls on the other hand just began to learn the game this spring. We only had about 10 practices in total…have you ever tried to learn a sport? It takes a while. But on the good side, they had a lot of fun learning something new & we may be able to get them to play in the senior teams (high school age). So we’ll build up this sport to make it better.

A cool thing that happened is that a large number of parents showed up. And they brought treats. Cup cakes, oranges and fruit bars were exploding all over the place…juice dribbling down their faces which were caked with chocolate icing. It was good to see the kids NOT dieting at their age but enjoying treats while they still can!

So we lost and tomorrow is our last training session. I’ll miss them…while they can be almost like typical teens, they also can be utterly sweet & look up to a grown adult woman who pays attention them. It’s nice to be a mentor of sorts…even if it’s just about athletics.

Hi, Ho, De, Merry-O, A walkin’ we shall go…

It was Saturday night. A time when most people are planning to go out to dinner, drink at the pub, watch a movie, read a good book or curl up at home with a loved one. That is exactly what I would have wanted to do…but I had to go on a walk.

Saturday night, five of us from work met up in Hyde Park to take part in the Playtex Moonwalk. We met around 8pm and found a space in this huge tent.

We were excited about doing the walk. We felt we were contributing to something worthwhile…something worth giving up a Saturday night of fun and sleep…and potential pain!

The fun thing about the walk is that you are supposed to decorate a bra. We did not like the ones that they sent (you really need a sports bra for this sort of thing), so we decorated our sports bras. We had a USA sort of team - all red, white & blue with flashy bits and feathers…quite special I tell you. But there were all sorts of funny & funky people with some great designs. From a bra that looked like boobs (nipples & piercings included), to eyes and more, there were some fun themes. Here’s one person who was sitting next to us…and yes, even men did it!

We began around 11:40-something in the evening. And we vowed to stick together through blisters, bathroom breaks, water stops and stretching. And we did. We started the walk in Hyde Park and began the walk toward the river. We went along the river on both the south and north banks and headed toward Fulham & Kensington at different times. We laughed at jokes, sang all sorts of songs, talked to people we didn’t know and made fun of the drunks who came out to cheer us on (and we thanked them too, but boy were they out of it!). I took a bunch of pics, most of which are blurry due to walking & pic taking…but you’ll get a sense of how the light changed in our 8+ hours. I’m sore today. But boy, it was something to do. And we’ll never forget the strange man in the spotted shirt and his clingy girlfriend…there are just some things you ought not to do in public! (ask me about it if you want!)

To see the flicker show, just check this out: Flicker Show

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Break in

It’s 9:30pm. Roy & I are just about ready to go to bed (it was a late night due to Arsenal game the night before). And then he gets a phone call. It’s A. My old flatmate.

A. I can’t get into the house. The chain is locked.

L. What? How did that happen?

A. I think someone is in there.

L. Shit. Call the police.

A. No. I want you and R. to check it out first to make certain I’m not being idiotic.

L. We’re coming, but you really ought to call the police.

Now I’m quite peeved that this is happening. I’m exhausted from this week…I just wanted an early night with lots of sleep. I was feeling ill from being so tired. And R wasn’t so pleased either. But she’s our friend, so we’re heading over.

We get there and, yes, the chain is locked. So we call the police and talk to our nice neighbors who let us wait inside their house. The police come within 10 minutes (which is very reassuring)…in fact another set come 10 minutes after that. They cut through the chain to get in and do a search. The place has been turned upside down.

We have to wait for another 1-1/2 hours until the crime division come to try to get finger prints. And then after that we can check on stolen stuff…cause we’re not allowed to touch anything.

Luckily none of the big stuff was taken - A’s computer, our big screen tv, etc. But we both lost a couple of gold jewelry items. My high school class ring, my gold watch that was given to me on my 16th birthday, a gold bangle from Italy and a few other cheap gold things. Nothing that mean much to me (or else they would be with me at R’s place)…but still, my stuff that I left there was all mussed up.

So, we finally left the house and took A. to Roy’s. We emailed our bosses and told them we’d be in late. And we slept in a bit, had coffee and cereal & took the bus in. And now sitting at work, a bit more tired (but happy it’s Friday), I’m glad that I’ve moved out and that A. will be moving to another place in one month. Sigh. Living in the city can be hard…but they haven’t broken me yet.

Ewwww!

As you may recall, I typically love riding on buses and trains and the like. Typically. But today, my people watching came to an ugly conclusion. I got on the tube in West Hampstead as per usual, rushing to get a seat in the car up front…usually there aren’t seats so if you see them, you rush to them! Ahhhh…comfort. It was especially lovely as I was wearing a pair of high heeled boots (it’s cold here today…rainy and in the 50s/60s). And then I began my people watch. I’ve gotten quite good at being subtle about it. But today, there was no need for caution…the person I looked at first didn’t seem to know that he was in a public space. Why do I think that? Well…he was picking his nose. At first, he started by rubbing the side of his nose, as if it was itchy. Not a problem, we all do that. And then the finger went in…not too far, but definitely in. And then he went to town. And played with the results. It was like a train wreck…I just couldn’t look away. And just as we were reaching my stop, the finger went into the mouth.

As I gagged and left the carriage of the train, I wondered what it is about being on public transport that makes someone like that feel like he’s in his own private world. Didn’t he notice that there were people around. I mean, come on, I know a lot of people do pick their noses, but they do it in the privacy of their own homes…with no one else around. Ick. What are we teaching people these days?