pea souper

.. boy is there a thick one out there tonight... went for work drinks... French wine totally sucks... vinegar...but still managed almost a whole bottle to myself.... West Cornwall pasties taste awesome when you've had a few drinks... or at any time for that manner... and especially when you're too far gone to cook the promised asian-style stir fry....missed my bus stop...oops... a little bit of longer walk home... almost couldn't find my way in the fog....and my poor boy sick with 'flu, giving me that forlorn forsaken look. Talk about a guilt trip!London is at least -1C. Time to curl up and get some zzzzzzzz time....

brrr....!!!!

It's absolutely freezing over here in London right now. The five day forecast is showing max temps of 6C and minimum overnight for 1C. ... and boy am I cursing the housekeeping staff at the hotel I was in for work last week, claiming I didn't leave my warm black jumper behind. Yeah sure, I had it on while I was at the hotel and then it wasn't in my bag on the night I got home and was unpacking...

It's one of those things. I'm sure everyone has their fave jumper/ sweater. It was only £16 at BHS, but it had quickly become my fave jumper. Now with Christmas coming closer, the last thing I feel like doing is battling the shopping crowds on Oxford Street to go back and get myself another one..

And as much as I'd love something warm for lunch, I'm refusing to go for the tinned soup at work. Poison. Worse than instant coffee... and I already do far too much of that, so don't want to attack my immune system any more than is necessary.

But I cooked a great risotto last night. Trust the good ole Aussie Womens' Weekly recipe books. Can't go wrong there. Only thing is trying to get half of the ingredients over here in the UK. London is not exactly reknowned for its variety of fresh food.

bok bok bok....bagerk!!!

50,000...750,000.....10,000,000....1,000,000,000!!!!! hmmm....as the press reports are released it seems like there's a bit of an exponential increase as to how many people this bird flu thing is going to affect. 10million, billion whatever... from a strain that hasn't actually mutated just yet where there are still only 62 deaths out of the entire population of Asia, where the people concerned were actually exposed to/handling large concentrations of birds... H51N..or whatever it is...

Just one reminder...SARS.... what happened to that pandemic wiping out the population of half the world?

I seriously feel more of a threat being presented by psychopathic London bus drivers...or taking my chances getting some incurable disease from the dirty, filthy,disgusting Silverlink trains and its passengers....eeeeww!!!! GERMIES!!!

But I can't help kinda getting this image of all the battery hens out there storming the cities on mass...joining forces with the pigeons of Trafalgar Square, the seagulls of the Thames and squwarking and spluttering and pooping over all the humans.... or some poltergeist type chicken to come leaping out of the KFC fryers....The McChicken nuggets to start glowing in their containers....Hitchcock meets Stephen King..."The Birds" meets "Maximum Overdrive".....[The Twighlight Zone theme now playing in my head...do do do do....]

"normal" service

So anyway, Monday morning I'm sitting at Homerton (Silverlink Trains) station waiting for the 8.19am train to get me into Stratford where I will change for the Central line tube into St Paul's and walk down to work for my 9am meeting. 20 mins later there's some garbled announcement on the West bound platform that all trains in that direction have been cancelled. Something going on at Dalston. Whatever... I'll just sit and wait.

Then I see droves of people start to leave the Eastbound platform moments later. Apparently someone up the other end of the platform hears that the trains in our direction are also cancelled... F*@#....F*@#....F*@#....F*@#....F*@#....F*@#....F*@#....F*@#....F*@#....
F*@#....F*@#....F*@#.... F*@#....F*@#...#....F*@#....F*@#....F*@#....
F*@#....F*@#....F*@#....F*@#....F*@#....F*@#....F*@#.... F*@#....F*@#....
F*@#....F*@#.... F*@#....F*@#....!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[I'll just give you a few moments to guage what my reaction to that was....ahem!!]

So going out in sympathy with my other fellow commuters, back past the ticket office where the station dude has conveniently placed himself back behind the safety of the glass....I trudge down (in the rain) to the bus stop.... a water main has burst...splashed and drenched by passing traffic... I ring the office. "Sorry, god only knows what time I'll be in today."

Not the first time I've been left stranded by Silverlink. That train company is the most poor excuse for public transport that I've ever come across. Stranded at Stratford when the last train home is cancelled, platform hopping in heeled shoes on wet tiles, severe delays here, cancellations there, dirty disgusting trains, overcrowding, infrequent...worse than trying to get around in a billy cart in some third world country..,

So I check the website today to see if the trains are running...man...they also need to pay for a webmaster to keep that thing up to date. Appalling. Ring customer service...first time ever..."I want to make a complaint". So I get the email address instead. custrel@silverlink-trains.com and get told to put my complaint in writing...sheesh! Plus a ribbing from my workmates who hear the whole fiasco.

...but apparently the trains are back to a "normal" service. F!! more cancellations, delays, etc etc

I decide not to risk it and walk in my killer (killing my feet) heeled boots to the bus stop. 15 min later and an angry crowd, I ask this guy what's going on. They've been waiting for the bus for an hour and are told the delay is due to some fire that happened in East London on the weekend. Wha tha...!!! It's now Tuesday!!!...I guess that's good ole British maintenance/service for you.

So the bus gets going. Eventually. Charming creature driving the bus as always. Moments later, the bus lurches to a stop and we all go hurtling off our seats across the bus. So now I'm sporting a rather sore shoulder after being slammed into the emergency exit and the guy who was opposite me will be seeing his doctor tomorrow, from the groin injury sustained when I sort of accidentally kneed him in the nether regions....ouch!!!!

Despite the optimistic timetables promising a bus trip of only 38 mins back home, it took over some hour and 20min....feet killing me...at least the alarms in our flats have finally ceased (a week later...)... no little brats harrassing me for money in the name of trick or treating on Halloween...I can't stand the children (devils) here...but that's another story...

what a load of rubbish...

Hi..long time..no communicate...exams, travel etc etc...

And man... there's like this totally crazy garbage woman (Crazy Bin-Lady) who lives in my flats...now I thought I had some compulsive obsessive tendencies.. being a bit of virgo neat freak an' all..but this chick really takes the cake... On both occasions I've come across her she's been going totally mental... at nobody in particular about people leaving their garbage lying around.. Mind you, to her credit, she got to the rubbish before I did. I mean, I was totally considering grabbing some full on rubber gloves and emptying out the hard rubbish space and putting the gar bags into the designated bins. ... she kinda got to it before I did.

Brits have a total dislike of rubbish bins. NOT EVERYONE USES THEM FOR BOMB DISPOSAL!!!!!

So now, with all the paranoia surrounding rubbish bins, they've totally removed them. And London is like this totally stinking, filthy tip. Londoners are oinkers.

It just seems like the most pointless waste of money to me to have people employed to pick up rubbish...

I mean, every other city has rubbish bins! They also have huge fines for dropping rubbish and the police it too.

Point in case: We are just recently arrived back home from Barcelona. Whilst there we noticed how clean the streets are. Everyone knows how to use a rubbish bin! Plus the streets are washed down every morning. PLUS!!!! We saw this guy drop his paper on the ground and then promptly accosted by about 4 cops making him pick it up. Now I don't know if that kind of policing is a throw back from the days of Franco, but I reckon it's not such a bad thing. ...Now you never hear tourists commenting on how clean a city London is....

I kid you not. Our block of flats has recently had major disputes over the dumping over rubbish, amongst other things like the basement car park being used as a beat, the lift not getting fixed, the stairs not being cleaned...Mind you, we sure do have some pigs living here too. Ashes and cigarette butts left in the internal stairwells, nappies left lying in front of the bin cage, wrappers etc etc...If I knew who it was, then rest assured it would be shoved back in their mailbox.

Crazy Bin-Ladie was in fine form this time around. Ready to declare war on every other resident in the flats. Inconspicuously going down the stairs to have a sticky beak about what the row was about, I inadvertently found myself the nominated UN delegate. And true to this status I calmed the immediate situation, but have done nothing since. Work, exams, partying...other mitigating circumstances...yada yada... well, the intention is there to get this resolved....Me and the landlord are going to have words...Word!