Morning Rant

Argh, I am so annoyed at the moment (and freezing cold, why? later). Yesterday I got into work late because I had the plumber and construction people come into our flat to fix things. The central heating didn't work, water leaked through the ceiling in the bathroom and the cold water pipe in the shower was leaking. Plus our chain at the front door is broken and should have been fixed weeks ago, but it never happened.

So yesterday they showed up at 7.30am. Which was fine. But then they stayed way too long to get everything done and I left late for work. Which already annoyed me a bit, because it should not be my responsibility to give them access to the flat. The landlord or building manager should provide that. But anyway, the guys made a big mess in my bathroom. Took down all the shower fixings, messed about with the heaters and the boiler. And when they left they said it was fixed. The heaters were heating etc.

But big surprise this morning, the boiling had shut off again, this time with a different error message. And this time we could not restart it. It seems dead in the water. So now I had to take a shower with cold water. Shit, was that cold. I am still freezing. I kept blow drying my hair and my body afterwards, but I am still COLD! Bf will call the landlord/building manager and yell at them. Honestly if this is not fixed soon and the boiler keeps breaking I am considering not paying rent until it is fixed. This is now becoming ridiculous. It's almost winter, and there is NO way I am going through that without heating and hot water. NO WAY!

Plus of course I won't know if they fixed the leak on the roof until it rains heavily the next time. Oh, and contractor guy said that it's leaking in our neighbours flat too. Great, that does not make me feel any better. Au contraire, does that mean the whole roof is shit and we will have MORE leaks? Thank god I am only renting this place. Can move out whenever I want to (but I do like it. I want to use the balcony in the summer). Damn. 

Ok gotta go to work. Will walk at an extra quick pace to finally get some warmth back into my feet. COLD!

End rant.

Leaking ceiling

So I am back from Germany. I had a great time. On the weekends I was at my sister's place in Hamburg. And I met my nephews. They are both adorable! Though very different. One of them is pretty big, has red/blonde hair. You can hardly see his eyebrows and lashes. But his head is so big! The other one is tiny. Had full black hair and long eyelashes. His face and everything is really tiny. Both of them were pretty much eating, sleeping, crying. Maybe next time when I see them, around Easter, they will be more aware of their environment. So excited!

During the week I was at my parents place. Went to the dentist. All is well. Yay! And I met up with a lot of friends from high school. We will have our 10th year reunion next year. Originally I couldn't care less about it. But now it seems like one of my friends will be organising it, and most of my friends will attend. So I might go after all. Just because it would be such a great opportunity to meet them all at the same time. This might mean that I will be going back to Germany three times in three months next year. Easter in April, a friends wedding in May and the reunion in June. Uh oh. That will blow a whole into my bank account. Thank god for Ryanair. So I guess the Japan trip will have to be in the Fall. No way I can squeeze that into spring as well. And I want to avoid going in the summer. I don't much enjoy the summer heat. But we will see. I just found out about the reunion and the wedding in the last week. Will have a think about it over Christmas.

Anyway, I came back Sunday late evening. That was a bad idea. I was so tired all week at work. But I made it through somehow. Was super busy catching up on last week. But wasn't really motivated. Especially because next week a lot of my colleagues will be either on holiday or work trips and I have to take care of their emails. Boo. On top of catching up. Well, it's Christmas soon(ish) and I will be off for almost two weeks then. Cannot wait!

In other news... There are really no other news. I still love our new flat. Though we discovered a few problems that we have to call our landlord about next week. It rained heavily tonight and in the morning we discovered that some water had leaked through the bathroom ceiling. Not a lot. But they better check that out (since it NEVER rains in England I am sure it won't be a problem). The other thing is our boiler. So far we only had the hot water on. But now it's gotten colder so I switched the central heating on. But then the boiler heats for about ten minutes and then shuts down with an error message saying it's over heating. That can't be good. Let's hope someone can fix that before it gets really cold. The other thing is that one of the pipes in the shower is leaking. Not a lot, but still I want to get that fixed before it turns into a bigger problem.

Even though those problems are annoying I think they can be forgiven. It's a new place so there are bound to be things that are not working. But eventually everything will be tuned and then it will be a gorgeous flat.

Which is why I will leave you with photos taken from my balcony yesterday. Enjoy the London dusk:

 

Kew Gardens

A couple of weekends ago I went to Kew Gardens with a friend. I had been planning to go since I moved over to London three years ago. But somehow it never happened.

But now finally I made it on a glorious autumn day. Enjoy the photos:

 The Pagoda was very fascinating. I took many pictures of it.

 They had a little forest of redwood trees. They were huge, but apparently they weren't even half the size of the biggest ones ever found. That is just crazy!

 Pagoda from afar. There were big 'lanes' running through Kew where you could walk across and watch tree. I love trees. It was so great to be in such a green place in the middle of London. The only annoying thing were the planes heading for Heathrow. They fly really low and are very loud.

 Biggest surviving Victorian glasshouse structure. It looks beautiful. I took this photo from the treetops on the tree walk. Yes, they have a walk inside the treetops. It was amazing! And a little shaky...

 Banana palm. I used to have one. Much smaller though.

 Star fruit. 

 Bonsai. This was hidden away in the garden behind some research buildings. The map they give you is a bit crap.

I was very glad that I went. I might have to do it again in spring. Though autumn was really nice with the trees in glorious colours.

New place

We are in our new flat! And the internet/phone/TV situation is sorted. Was actually very quick and efficient. I am mighty impressed.

I managed to take some pictures. They are not the greatest quality, but here it goes:

Our kitchen. I tried not to take a picture of the counters because they are still packed with stuff.

Our bathroom. It's an actual room!

Bedroom. Messy, but I cleaned it up after this.

View of the balcony. It was pouring down rain when I took the pic.

Living room. The kitchen and living room are actually the same room, but it's really long.

So there you have it. Nothing spectacular, but I love it! Have been in it for only a few days now, but it is already home. I love all the space we have. The first night was a bit weird, but now it's all good.

1 boy + 1 boy = double auntie!

I forgot whether I mentioned that I will be going home in November in order to see my new nephews. I booked this flight a couple of months ago and placed it safely more than two weeks after the due dates (which were only two days apart) so I would not miss one of the babies. This is one for my sister one for my brother.

My sister in law had her little boy two days ago. All went well, he came in the middle of the night and she and my brother are happy first time parents. Who cannot agree on the name. I think they have to decide within one week otherwise the state will give the baby a name. Uh oh, excited how that will turn out!

And then yesterday my sister went into hospital and had a baby boy. She had to have a c-section, which we were all expecting since she had to have one with my first nephew as her hips are very tiny, but the baby was big, especially the head. But all is well and that little bugger actually has a name: Emil. Which I love, love, love.

They are in the same hospital on the same floor. They also live very close together in the city. Those little boys might end up growing up more like brothers than cousins.

So yay, the little buggers are there. Which means when I get there in two weeks time everyone will be settled in at home and I can enjoy my two new nephews!

And now I have to go to work. Booooo....

Where is my free time?

I am free!!! Or so I thought when I handed in my thesis at the end of September. I spent most of September, especially my precious weekends, polishing the thesis of (well writing it) and handed it in on the 30th. I took the day off work because the uni office opening hours didn't allow me to pop in before and after. So I spent my day picking up the thesis from the printer, together with another girl from my course. We ended up returning all our library books (yay) and then turning in the diss. Finally!!! It was actually pretty unspectacular. We didn't even get a receipt. Nothing. Ah well, it's gone, that's all that matters.

Then we went for a nice lunch with another friend who we met at the office. I guess we weren't the only once turning in our papers on the last possible day. We went to a nice Japanese place and had a lunch set. After we went for ice cream and some shopping.

I had to leave them for a bit then because I had an appointment at a real estate agent. We finally found a flat to rent we liked and went in to sign the contract! So that has been eating up my 'free' weekends. We have been moving stuff the last couple of weeks. This weekend we are taking a break (bf has to work). But next weekend we will properly move. We will have to bring over the rest of our stuff and properly set up. I took of a day to get the BT and Virgin Media guys into the flat to get connected to phone/broadband/TV.

I am VERY excited about this flat. It is new (the whole building is). So nobody has lived there before us. We have a proper sized bathroom with a bathtub (I don't really like to take baths, but am excited nonetheless). We have a balcony, a proper sized bedroom. We have double-glazed windows (score), we have a couch! The kitchen/living room is one big living space. But I love that. Makes the flat look much bigger than it is. Plus, it means bf cannot hide away in one room. We still get to spend time together.

We still have to buy some shelves for my massive book collection. Though I am getting rid of about half of them (breaks my heart, but what can you do). This also made the need for an ebook reader much more apparent. Though I still cannot decide which one I want. Well, don't have money at the moment anyway, so I guess I will figure it out later.

Anyway, just wanted to write this quick update. I am not dead, just massively busy. But hopefully in two weeks that will all stop and I will be settling into a brand new flat with free weekends (soooooooooooooo excited!).

Until then... Let's pack some more boxes!

Taking a royal dump

This last weekend was another weekend of diss work and culture. The Saturday was spent holed up in the British Library working hard. I am getting ever closer to the finish line. Hurray!

The Sunday in contrast was spent at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden. My bf had got some tickets for an all day event. Before we hit that we went out for brunch. We went into a hotel because we wanted to avoid the tourists that usually walk around the Covent Garden area. Gosh, the brunch was sooo nice. Came with real bread, eggs, ham, smoked bacon, cheeses, as much coffee and juice as we liked. I went for the carrot juice, and they actually made it fresh everytime I asked for a new one (I might have turned a bit orange at the end of the meal).

After we headed over to the opera. The event was a bit weird. To be honest, I didn't know what to expect since I didn't look it up. It ended up being a lot of installations. The room we spend most time in was showing recorded interviews with artist from around the world (and by that I mean mainly the US). They could talk about whatever they wanted it some were really hilarious. Then there was a live discussion in another room. Mainly about the internet and technological revolution. The organiser kept talking about how technology forces so many artists to work for free nowadays and how the old model of patronage is coming back. He kept banging on and on about that. It's not that I don't agree with him, but what he should have realised (since he was the organiser) is that this whole event was free and sponsored by a big company. Made everyone hide in their seats and I secretly thought that you couldn't get me to pay to see this. Know your audience, man!

So we kinda left them to rumble on by themselves. Next we headed up to the balcony. We had a really nice view over London. The Royal Opera House is right on the corner of Covent Garden Market. The weather was really bad, it kept raining hard. But luckily the balcony was completely covered with a roof.

Peeking down on London.

 Covent Garden Market

 Hardly anyone there because the rain was coming down hard. You can't really see it though. But on the left people are crossing the plaza with their umbrellas up.

On the left you can see the London Eye.

At 2pm we moved on to the best part of the day: A backstage tour of the opera. We weren't allowed to take a lot of pictures in most areas because they are moving in the costumes and stage parts for the new productions. We started off just outside the main rooms. Looking at old stage models. Then we moved on to the royal room. It's where the royal family waits and can go directly to their own box in the main area. The room itself was not very big. But looked grand. This is the only place where I was allowed to take photos:

Nice little chandelier anyone?

 The royal loo! Kid you not, this is their private toilet leading off through a 'hidden' door in their waiting room.

 Nice old clock.

View from the loo. It was very dark. They had heavy curtains in front of the windows.

After this we took a peak at the stage from the royal box. And then headed down into the many corridors running under the opera. Honestly you could get lost down their and never see the sun again. So glad we had a guide with us.

She led us to the back of the stage. That area is huge. The whole stage can be moved around, up and down. Apparently they are storing up to 16 productions there at the same time. The whole stage can be lowered or moved to the side. It's one huge lift.

Then we went up to the top floor to see the rooms where the ballet company practices. And we went by the rooms where the costumes are made. We couldn't go in though, which was a real shame. They had little windows in the doors, so we could take a peak, but that was about it.

That sadly concluded our tour. We decided to skip the rest of the art stuff and just head home. Walking around made us tired. So that was my exciting weekend. Really enjoyed it. Now not looking forward to this one because it's all gonna be work. Urgh.

Alphabet meme

My lovely friend tagged me in one of her memes, so I figured I better get it done and over with ;-)

A. Attached or single? Attached.


B. Best friend? Not at the moment...

C. Cake or pie? I have to choose!?!?


D. Day of choice? Saturday. I get to sleep in and get to do something fun in the evening.

F. Favorite color? Blue, orange, purple, yellow, green...


G. Gummy bears or worms? Bears!

H. Hometown? Mansie. Try to google that!


I. Indulgence? Food. Anything from soup, chips, sushi, chocolate, cookies, cake, hot chocolate... Though a daily one would be tea.


J. January or July? January. It's usually nice and quiet after all the Christmas stress and the year is still full of possibilities. July is usually just humid and annoying.


K. Kids? Nope.


L. Life isn’t complete without? Tea and a light breeze around me... (sea breeze that is).

M. Marriage date? Quoi? Does not apply.


N. Number of brothers & sisters? One brother, two sisters.

O. Oranges or apples? Apples. Because you can bake them!

P. Phobias? Spider and toilets...


Q. Quotes? Gah, I hate them. Please, no more.


R. Reasons to smile? New job! And hopefully soon a new apartment...


S. Season of choice? Autumn. Love the fresh air, the colours and my sweaters.


T. Tag seven peeps! Sorry, but that's not gonna happen. If you see this and want to join though, please link back! I would love to read it.


U. Unknown fact about me? I don't know if it's unknown, but I basically like every food and can never understand people who say they don't like something. I see how you can prefer some things, but not like something? Weird!


V. Vegetable? Pumpkin, squash, baby plum tomatoes, asparagus, green beans, broccoli...


W. Worst habits? Double and triple checking everything, e.g. before leaving the house in the morning I will check at least three times whether I packed my travelcard, wallet, keys and cell phone.


X. X-ray or ultrasound? If necessary ultrasound.


Y. Your favorite food? Bread in all it's varieties, bananas, sushi


Z. Zodiac sign? Taurus. I am said to be stubborn.

The Rest of the Bank Holiday Weekend

Saturday I basically spend sleeping. God, I am really not used to staying up late anymore. I got to bed at 4am and only slept till about 8.30am. We went to Angel for lunch (burritos, nom nom nom) and looked around at some of the estate agent. With bf having his visa sorted it is now time to find a new place to live. Yay! Finally, we are going to move out of our studio apartment and will look for a 1 bedroom flat. Oh the luxury of having a bedroom AND a living room. Cannot wait!

Anyway, we noticed that it will be very expensive to get a nice flat in the areas we like. But screw it, I wanna live somewhere nice. So I think bf might start to look seriously at flats. I really don't have the time to help him yet. I am thinking October when I get this stupid dissertation done. Then I will have time to spend all my weekends flat hunting. Oh the possibility of not having to spend another winter in a flat with stupid windows that don't really shut! Honestly, I think windows are my top priority. I want double-glazed, please! There are other things, but that seems like such a basic thing to get right. And it will make such a big difference to whether we live in a wet, mouldy flat or a nice, dry and warm one.

I spent the afternoon napping and doing absolutely NOTHING. I was lovely! Sunday I had planned to work really hard on the dissertation. But because I tried doing it at home it was a major FAIL! I managed to type up two interviews, but that was about it.

So the next day I decided to join the boyfriend at his work (remember bank holiday, so we were basically the only people at his workplace). Oh man, it was brilliant. With absolutely no distraction I got so much done. Now I want him to take me there next weekend, but he flatly refused. He has his last day of work at the current place and won't be back for about 9 months because he's doing a secondment. Bad timing as I had just found my perfect workplace. I guess next weekend it will be back to the coffee houses and libraries of London. Urgh.

Well, the good part is that I can now see an end to this whole dissertation business. I will keep you updated ;-)

Bank Holiday Weekend

This weekend was a Bank Holiday weekend in the UK. I love long weekends. It started great on Friday, which was the last day I was allowed to take summer hours and left work at 1pm. I went home, hung out a bit and had a nice lunch with my bf who had taken the day off work. He had spend the morning at the immigration office and got a new visa. He is now allowed to stay and work in the UK indefinitely. Yay! We celebrated a bit but then I had to leave for a birthday party.

It was at one of my favourite pubs. Waxy's Little Sister, right between Leicester Square and the main street through Chinatown. They have a little food lift in the middle of the pub where you can order drinks to the first floor without having to go downstairs. It was brilliant! I forgot to take a picture of it, but you can see it on their website. It's the wooden box thing on their bar. They also have a couple of fireplaces which was perfect as it was pouring down rain when I walked from the tube to the pub. My legs were soaked!

Of course, when we got hungry we made our way over to Chinatown and had some food. I was expecting to get something really greasy, but we managed to squeeze into a nice restaurant and had really good and healthy Chinese food (who ever heard of that). I didn't mind since I hadn't been drinking anyway.

After dinner a friend of mine and I slipped away to make our way down to the Globe Theatre to watch Shakespeare like it's meant to be. It was very exciting. We went to the midnight showing of 'As You Like It'. I had not seen the play before and really enjoyed it. The atmosphere was brilliant. They sold food and drinks outside the theatre. Our seats were all the way at the top in the last row. But we could see really well. I thought it was a bit irritating that they left the lights on full even during the play. It's just weird when the spectators boxes are illuminated during a performance. And I loved that all the windows that were in the staircase leading up to the floors didn't really have windows in them. The windows were holes in the wall. Loved it!

 View back into the audience. It looks really dark, but was not at all. I am just photographing against the light.

We were sitting on the side of the stage. I liked how the stage had it's own roof. Poor people standing in the middle of the theatre. No roof at all. Luckily it didn't rain. I completely forgot to take a picture of the middle bit.

Notice the people standing in front of the stage. They had to be there for almost THREE hours! Play started at midnight and we got out at 2.45am. Only a small break of ten minutes in between. Gosh was I glad that we paid more for seats!

Overall it was a great experience. In the three years I have been here I always wanted to go to the Globe but somehow just never made it. And I think the midnight showing is just such a great idea. It was great to walk through the city along the South Bank towards the cinema. The area is really cool. You can see all of the old buildings on the north side of the river that give way slowly to more modern buildings the further east you walk. It's just such a nice walk. And I love the smell and sound of the Thames. Need to remember to leave the house more often and do new things!