Tales from the Cob

kernels of thoughts September 25, 2006

things i am currently obsessed with: Wagamama, dried apricots, getting Wicked day tickets, Special K Fruits of the forest and peach and apricot bars (heaven in bar form!)
things i now appreciate: a car =), california avocados

things i appreciate now: the tfl website (soooo much better than our mta website), inheriting cooking tools from Lulu, being able to enjoy rice. I think i woudln’t be able to survive without rice. it’s my most important food staple…i’m learning that i can actually survive with passion fruit boba…

listening to: Along the Wall by Leigh Nash
watching: Hitch

my feet had a long day yesterday. Woke up at 4:30am to shower before leaving for the Apollo Victoria theatre to try to get 1 of the 24 day tickets they release each day. no such luck, by thhe time we got there (around 6:45 ish) there was already a 20 people-ish line…so bonny, henry, and i decided to head over to the Portobello antiques market instead. it was practically deserted, but it was nice having the place to ourselves. i wouldn’t appreciate the emptiness until it got to be 10:00am and we were about to leave and felt like fish swimming upstream because there were so many tourists and shoppers in the streets. i got peaches and a lampard football jersey! yay!..except i don’t know much about this lampard dude…i just didn’t want to get beckham. then we came back to drop off our goods…and i had ANOTHER freaking fire alarm. twice in 3 days!! 4 trucks from the fire brigade pulled up…for another false alarm, i feel bad for them. it’s not like they just sit idly waiting, i hear at least 5 sirens going by each day…anyhoo, then we met up with vivian (ahs reunion! =)) at wagamama, which i’ve been wanting to go to foreverrrrrrrr…but i think i built it up too much in my head and there’s no way it coudl have stood up to my expectations…it was still pretty good though..and expensive…we wallked around the tower of london for a bit before crossing the tower bridge.we ended up walking all the way to the Tate Modern. on the way we stopped by for this thing called flakes ice cream or something, which turned out to be just frozen cream, which was…interesting..haha…we also stumbled across this shopping place called Hay’s galleria..that’s the thing i like about walking around in London, you’re always coming across these old, odd, little, unexpected places/things..it had an antiquey feel with high glass ceilings and a small ship in the middle of a fountain. there were really good views of the gherkin (my fav!) and the city hall along the thames too..but back to the tate…i think i’ve given up on trying to “get” modern art..it shall always remain a mystery to me. I fail to see how a canvas painted completely black, or a green florescent light installed slanted, or a metronome with a picture of an eye tacked onto it could be considered art. well, maybe “art,” but i fail to see how it could earn a coveted place on the wall of the Tate Modern, when other probably more deserving pieces are left to mold in storage. There was even a dark room where there were balls strewn haphazardlyy on the floor and surrounded by a net hung from the ceiling. it probalby sounds more complicaited and artsy than it really is. *glum sigh* what has art come to. it’s not even asthetically pleasing half the time anymore…although artists at this point in my entry are probalby jumping up and down saying “that’s the point, art is making a statement, it doesn’t always have to be aesthetically pleasing!” ok, sue me. anywayyyyyyyy, most of the time i only like visiting modern museums for their gift shops (they have cool things!!) anyway..and I heard the Tate had good fries, although i wasn’t able to try them =( There were some pieces that i liked though…there was the replica of the Degas ballerina statue, which is one of my favorites, a couple Miros, etc…on a higher note, i saw Alice from yearbook!!!! it was the randomest thing ever!!! well, i mean i knew she was in London, and I had just fb’d her the other day, but it was still random and completely unplanned. i was just walking into another room in an exhibit when i see her just standing there haha…it was nice to see a familiar face though =) after that we crossed the millenium bridge (by Foster!!!!) to St. Paul, and dropped off a tired Henry before deciding, spur of the moment, that we wanted to catch Big Ben at sunset. The sun was already starting to set at that time, and I couldn’t even see Big Ben yet, it was that far. It took us around 30 minutes of speed walking to get to the big ben, plus time lost for getting distracted by the London Eye. The Thames at sunset is really nice, all the monuments and the skyline set against a sky that was all streaky pink and orange. by the time we got to the big ben the sky was already dark blue and the lights were on. (the best part!) the big ben is my favorite building/monument/what have you at night, the lighting is so perfect it just looks fake (that sounds nice lol) or like a picture, it looks surreal, but there it is! standing right in front of you! for dindin, we ended up grabbing pastries at Tesco and deicded to walk up Whitehall to the tube station. On our way we passed by 10 Downing street where Tony Blair lives. I want to meet Tony Blair! haha he is one of my heroes..i really need to see a Wednesday debating session before i leave. or before he leaves..whichever comes first *sadness* we also passed by this guard decked out in guardy-garb and asked if we could take a picture with him. I think that was my most touristy moment ever. He kind of nodded but he had this wry, bemused, “here we go again” expression on his face. he probably gets photo requests alot…we ended up at Trafalgar Square, in front of the National Gallery and sat in front of the fountain for awhile. Thennnn we walked up Tottenham court rd,passing by the Soho area, the theaters etc..i FINALLY got back, after nearly missing my stop becuase i almost fell asleep on the tube..it’s very lulling. sooooo that’s that.

Finally! September 9, 2006

Packing is the devil!! but for once I didn’t have to go into the wee hours of morning…the night is still young! am currently: 50% excited, 50% dreading it. can’t believe i’m going, it feels unreal. ok, that’s all i have to say…

…baby steps!!

Hello world! June 12, 2006