A quote

‎"I like to see people reunited, I like to see people run to each other, I like the kissing and the crying, I like the impatience, the stories that the mouth can't tell fast enough, the ears that aren't big enough, the eyes that can't take in all of the change, I like the hugging, the bringing together, the end of missing someone." — Jonathan Safran Foer

Spring again!

After 9 long months it is Spring again! while I wouldn't recommend a double-winter, it does make the onset of Spring that much sweeter. Today the clocks went back, and we wandered down the road and got our BBQ- Rhys is firing up the coals as we speak!

the grass was freshly mowed last week on our little patchwork lawn (note the sweet compost container in the picture below) which was the first sign that spring was really on the way. Our lawnmower is a funny thing that plugs into the wall and runs on an orange extension chord. Good thing our yard is so tiny!

London Day Trip to Windsor Castle

On the last Sunday of my friend's visit we decided to skeddadle from London and head to Windsor Castle (located in the lovely town of Windsor), a few hours away. The underground line that we live on was down over the weekend for repairs, so we ended up taking a one hour bus ride through various industrial estates - showing my friend the other less scenic side of London. We then caught a train out of the city, to the lovely (read NOT lovely, actually derelict) town of Slough. Essentially this town is about as nice as its name sounds. We then connected to another bus, and finally and long last ended up in the town of Windsor.  

Elin visits

I have been lucky enough to have had 2 visitors this month! First my Dad and then my very oldest Fort Collins friend Elin came to visit this past week.  Amazing how many more people will come visit when you are in the middle of the world, instead of the edge.

 (I guess 6 hours by plane sounds like a much better deal than 24 hours. I still can't get over how close to the USA we are here).

I took a couple days of work, and had a 4-day weekend touring the London sites with Elin. I forgot how much work it is to be a tourist and walk about for 8 hours a day- even when it is the city I live in, making the journey pretty quick and painless. We kept up a busy schedule, which left us slightly destroyed but happy by the end of it.

Springing Spring in Notting Hill

Walking around London this week it's become clear; spring has sprung! it's only a matter of time until we will be BBQing, swimsuits-wearing, and sun-basking.

Our walk through Notting Hill yesterday was filled with blossoms

The Tower of London

The other weekend I was lucky enough that Dad stopped by on a business trip around the world. He stayed with me for the weekend, and we tried to cram in as much as possible into the 2 days we had- it turns out a weekend is way too short! And being a tourist is really tiring. I already told you about Phantom of the Opera, I'll tell you about what we did on the second day: visit the infamous Tower of London! Rhys and I had tried to go not long after we arrived, but the price is just ridiculously expensive (it's hard to convince yourself to spend £17 on something historical when there is so much exciting free stuff to do). But Dad coming to visit was the perfect excuse to go see the landmark- and actually that price tag is worth it. We bought our tickets, then jumped on the first tour with a beefeater, or yeoman warders as they prefer to be called. Apparently beefeater is actually an insult, and yeoman warders have to serve 20 years in the army before they are allowed to be a yeoman- who is a sort of personal guard to the Queen. Even though the Queen lives up the road at Buckingham Palance, while the warders all live in the Tower of London.

Purple Turtle

The other night I managed to go out in London- at night. nearly a new one! I went with a couple friends to see my flatmate play in his band at a bar in Camden called "Purple Turtle". Contrary to it's name, the bar isn't full of hula-hooping girls, with tropical drinks, pineapples, and aquatic animals. Instead it was a goth bar, with purple turtle-shaped lights. With no dreadlocks, black spikes, or head-banging perfect hair, I was the odd one out. But the people watching was fantastic! The first band on was called "generation graveyard", with 5 guys with epic head-banging hair that they all spun about in unison. They lived up to their name, with heavy metal guitars, crazy drums, and crazy diatribes about how they hate the record industry, and hate the X Factor (an American Idol-like show on here that people love to hate- so everyone tunes in to hate it together. strange).Bopping heads, goth watching (and understand on some level)- generally a good night out, and exciting to see Camden's non-market face.

Listening to all the heavy metal music got me to thinking about how people perceive the world- and how people express their perceptions. after watching some music and listening to some music I don't listen to, it all makes more sense. Some people see the world, and go home and write a pop song about being a teenager, some go home and write a symphony, and some write heavy metal songs. The best way I can understand it is comparing it to art: one guy will paint a classical landscape, and a different guy will see the same view, and go home and pain a bunch of squiggly lines racing across the canvas. They are both reacting to the same thing, just expressing it differently. which is like music I guess - people just use different "brushes", but maybe they're all expressing the same thing on some level.