Last of 2011 and more Holiday Art

It's the final day of 2011! I hope you all have a very fun New Year's Eve. I will be spending it at home with my grandmother. My NYEs are invariably rather shitty. It seems like fun NYEs are things other people have. Ah well. I'll just have to ask the rest of you to get drunk and kiss a couple of pretty young things for me.

Let's all hope 2012 proves to be a much better year than 2011!

More Holiday Art.

Nothing much to say today. I've had a long tiring day, but now I'm finally home!

Today's art:

More Christmas Art!

Here's today's art:

Hannukah Art!

Not much to say today. Except:

Happy eighth day of Hannukah!

More Holiday Art!

I'm feeling a bit better today. I actually went to work. (I only had a short three hour shift.) I should be completely better in a couple of days. The wonders of modern medicine and lots of sleep!

Here's some more holiday art:

An Eventful Boxing Day and More Art.

I was going to post today's art this morning. I really was! But then I woke up with a really painful throat and when I went and checked in the mirror with a torch I saw I had tonsillitis. I get tonsillitis so often I'm pretty good at self-diagnosing by now. Back in Greece I just go to a pharmacy and get my own medicine and that's that.

But in the UK you can't do anything without a prescription, and being a holiday nothing was working. I wasn't going to let them put me off getting my anti-biotics however! I jumped through all their hoops! I had to wait for hours on an emergency hotline before giving my details and telling them what was wrong. Then I had to wait for an hour and a half for them to call back, where I described all over again what was wrong and I persuaded them to book me an appointment at the nearest hospital (after insisting that no, I would rather not wait and see if it goes away by itself!)

I took the bus to the hospital, where in spite having booked an appointment I still had to wait about three quarters of an hour before they saw me. And obviously it took only five minutes for the doctor to see that, yes, I have tonsillitis and yes, some anti-biotics would be very helpful. So she wrote me a nice prescription for 2000mg of penicillin a day which I think is a bit of overkill, but I'm hardly a doctor.

Obviously the pharmacy at the hospital wasn't working today so I had to get the bus to the closest open one in the area (which I had googled before leaving because it pays to be prepared). And, yes, I successfully acquired my two boxes of penicillin tablets despite being in the UK on Boxing Day. Go me!

Then I called my cousin to pick me up and I went to the tennis club where they were holding a big family dinner which I somehow managed to survive without the help of alcohol.

How about some nice holiday art now that you slogged through my ranting?

Merry Christmas and more Art!

I'm still feeling very very sick. My bad luck to get sick over christmas...

Anyway, Merry Christmas to you all! I hope you have a great time today!

Today's art:

More Christmas Art!

I am feeling so sick tonight you wouldn't believe! Just the thought of the big family dinners I will have to go to tomorrow and the day after while feeling like this fills me with dread.

And of course my grandmother doesn't understand. If I'm not running a high fever, she thinks I'm exaggerating.

Today's christmas art:

Christmas art!

I have decided, now that I've finished all my cards for the holidays, to post a piece of Christmas art a day, until... well, until I run out of art. I haven't actually counted how much art I drew. Beware that most of it is rather generic holiday stuff.

So, first art post:

Catching Fire

My library got me the third book of the Hunger Games yesterday! Yay! Because I had been anxiously waiting for it.

I haven't yet begun reading it. (I have other stuff to do too, and I'm trying to pace myself.) But it did remind me that I never got round to making a post about the second book of the series, Catching Fire.

The reason most probably was because unlike the first book, Catching Fire isn't a stand-alone book that tells a complete story. It's most emphatically part of a series. It leaves you with the most horrid cliff-hanger!

SPOILERS!!!
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So. Catching Fire.

I confess that I went into it fairly prejudged. The description wasn't very inspiring, and I was pretty sure it was going to be just filler until the last book - where I had been promised Interesting Things would happen.

And it started off rather dull and uninspiring. Katniss's day to day life. Katniss whining. Katniss being horrid to poor Peeta. Katniss not knowing what she wanted and being an annoying tease. Actually I felt like Katniss was turning into a Bella.

Thank god things started happening soon enough! Yay for revolutions! (Even though I thought I would miss all the interesting stuff because we were stuck with dull Katniss's pov.) So Gale is even more awesome than he seemed in the first book. And so is Peeta - but no surprise there.

The new Hunger Games were interesting. I liked the twist and seeing some of the older winners. I really liked the reaction of the people of the Capitol to losing their winners. Very real.

But you know what? Just like I hated all the senseless killing in the arena of the first book, I possibly hated it even more the second time round. This time the people were older, they had lived through far more than one game, they knew each other and were friends. So few of them decided to organise and try and beat the games? Really? So few of them were interested in a revolution? Really?

Anyway. Katniss got far better by the end of the book, but I still don't like her much. On the other hand I love Peeta, and Cenna, and Haymitch, and Finnick (please don't let him die!), and Beetee and even Joanna. What is it with me and not liking the heroes of this types of books?

I always thought Frodo was a drag. Harry Potter is a bit annoying and self-righteous. Luke and Anakin Skywalker were dull dull dull (until the second went bad at least). Half the kids in the Narnia books were rather meh in my opinion. Ged from the Earthsea books didn't get actually likeable until Tehanu. As for Paul Atreides from Dune, I have mixed feelings about him. Etc Etc. I always seem to like the secondary characters far better than the heroes. They are so much more human and interesting. And that is especially the case in the cinema. (Particularly Hollywood cinema - where the heroes are just so plastic and uninspiring.)

So that was my little rant. Time to read book three.

What did you lot think of Catching Fire? (Please don't spoil me for Mockingjay!)

Christmas jobs

I've been depressed and preoccupied a lot lately, which hasn't particularly put me in the mood for updating much.

I would like to ask you all your opinion on something though.

I am desperately looking for work as an architect (or in the worst an architectural assistant), and until I run out of money that will be my goal. I'm not ready to compromise yet.

But my relatives are constantly on my case (they are all underachievers so they don't really get where I'm coming from), and spending so much time at home with my grandmother is driving me up the wall (and her too I think). So I have started applying for christmas jobs at big shops (no way I'm working for a small shop). I would make an awful salesperson, but they don't need to know that. And anyway I'm only applying for part time and temp positions.

My big worry is this: Let's say I get a temp job in say Boots (have you ever tried applying there? Their questionnaire is crazy! I'm sure I failed it.) But then I get an interview from an architecture practice and they want me. What happens then? Can I quit from the temp job, or having signed some sort of contract, that will get me into trouble? I'm pretty sure they won't sit around waiting for me till after Christmas for the other job.

I'm so confused! A bit of extra money and getting my family off my case is so tempting. But not if I might potentially screw up on what I really want.

Help! What are your opinions?

Athens under fire

Yesterday central Athens turned into a battlefield.



Today, when I went downtown it was rather worse for wear and broken. It's all very disheartening.

On Sunday I fly back to London.

I really have to make this emigration business work, because there is nothing to come back to.

In Athens.

*sigh* I'm Athens and getting stuff done and seeing people. But I'm feeling restless, dissatisfied and unhappy. Things are really bad and most of my friends are either stoically plodding forward or quietly panicking.

And I'm in a very un-talkative mood. So here are some videos instead from yesterday.
















(And it case you were wondering, yes there is a rubbish collectors strike on and the roads of Athens are sinking under the rubbish piles.)

This next one is old, but you get to see the swanky Suntagma metro station:




And for those of you who might be missing the Athens Riot Dog:

Children of the Riots

A very interesting documentary about the 2008 and 2011 riots in Athens.

*sigh* It makes me homesick. Truth is, even though Athens is a provincial city in the larger scheme of things, things had slowly started happening. I was starting to feel okay with compromising and staying in Greece. I had organised a life, with an apartment, and a neighbourhood and things I did and stuff.

Until we went bankrupt and things went to total shit.

Now I need to get a job in London and manage to save money, so that when the economy finally gets better, I can return with a bit of capital and hopefully open up my own practice. If I didn't have deluded dreams I would have offed myself ages ago.

Don't worry, the documentary is in english

The Hunger Games - what I thought

I had heard lots of gushing over The Hunger Games by various people. Mostly over here on LJ, I must confess. So I thought that now that I have a library card I might as well find the book and see if it's all that. They didn't have it in Enfield. (Do they have anything in Enfield?) But I could order it to be brought over from another library, which I did. And it came a couple of days before I was to fly to Athens.

I started reading the book as soon as I boarded the tube to Heathrow at 5.15 in the morning and finished it ten minutes before we landed in Athens airport. Yup, it was gripping. But also I am a bit of a compulsive reader and usually read a book right through.

SPOILERS AHOY!!!!
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First thing I feel I must say, is that with an ominous title like Hunger Games, I would have never picked up the book if I hadn't heard so many people gush about how great it is. There is a reason I have never seen Battle Royal or read The Lord of the Flies a second time. Stories about children killing each other really turn me off.

I begun reading the book with the crazy hope that despite the title and all the foreshadowing in the first chapter, the book would end up NOT being about what I was afraid it would be. When I was disappointed, I almost put the book down. I really, really do NOT like reading about children killing each other, or being killed.

But I am a sucker for alternative realities and post-apocalyptic dystopian worlds. And I thoroughly enjoyed that part of the book. A couple of chapters in, I begun routing for the story to turn into the beginning of a revolution. I really could have got behind that... But damn it, I was reading a teenager's book - it was kind of obvious - and not an adult one. Does YA fiction deal with revolutions, I wonder...

Katniss is a very good heroine for a YA book. (Kudos for having a female heroine in an adventure story.) A little bit of an annoying bit of a heroine for an adult to read about though. She was far too strong and abrasive and certain and self-centered for me to be able to identify with her and properly like her. On the other hand, that is kind of how sixteen year olds are. I'm just too old and can no longer easily identify with teenagers.

I really liked what little we saw of Gale. And I certainly liked Peeta, there seemed to be more dimensions to his character than there were to Katniss's. Why, I wonder? Sometimes the hero/ heroine does end up a bit more simplistic and two-dimensional than the secondary characters. This is not the first time I've noticed this in a book. On the other hand, the fact Peeta was more complex as a character, made him perhaps a little less persuasive as a teenager? I'm definitely over-thinking this!

The actual Games, were gripping - even though at some point I did get a little bored, that sort of action bores me a bit. I kept on hoping something would happen, and they wouldn't actually go through with the games. Seriously, every time another kid died it annoyed the hell out of me. I especially was annoyed by the way we were supposed to be routing for the death of certain characters. *Sigh* I will not stop harping on about how a nice little revolution would have improved the book vastly.

I called almost all of the plot twists - I have been reading books / watching films too long to be surprised by such basic plot twists. The only one that really took me by surprise - so much that I really don't know what to make of it - were the zombie-werewolfs. I'm not sure if it was brilliantly nightmarish, or just a bit too much over-the-top. The plot "twist" I emphatically didn't like was the open-ended possible love triangle. Bleurgh! Have a mentioned how much love triangles bore me?

Anyway. It was a good and interesting book, and at some point I did tear up. And I was left curious enough to seriously consider trying to order the second book from my library when I get back.

So, who else has read the book? Anyone want to talk about it? It did give me a number of vague thinky thoughts.

Flying and Reading

I did two things yesterday. I flew to Athens for a short visit home, and I read Suzanne Collins 'The Hunger Games".

The flight wasn't bad. I was stressed about managing to reach the airport in time, because it was an early morning flight and I live on the exact opposite side of London from Heathrow. I took the Piccadilly line right from one end of the line to the other. It took about one and a half hours.

Once there things I dropped my bags really fast - I had checked in online to save time - and rushed to the security check. As usual I forgot about the liquid thing and ended up downing a whole (small) bottle of water before going through - it's a pity to throw away water when you've carted all the way from home!

Security check was the usual bleurgh. I was forced to take of my boots - even though they had obviously thin rubber soles- , and my cardigan, - even though obviously a cardigan isn't a coat. I made the BIG mistake of forgetting to take off my badge which set the alarm off as I passed through the door. So ended up being THOROUGHLY frisked - first by hand and then by hand held bleepy machine. The machine thingy bleeped when she passed it near my bust - it seems like the under-wiring of a bra is enough to set it off.

I was far too tired to enjoy the airport shops - I hadn't slept the night before - so I took the shuttle to my boarding gate practically immediately. Well, I did try buying my father a box of cigarettes first, but was summarily informed that only people travelling outside the EU can buy cigarettes at the airport. (What?)

Once I was finally chilling in the waiting area, I tried doing a bit of net surfing only to realise that Heathrow airport doesn't have free wi-fi! WTF!?! Athens airport has free wifi (granted only one hour), but they are so cheap in Heathrow they make you pay? That got me very annoyed. So I decided I better forget updating LJ and twitter and return to my book instead.


I returned to Athens for a number of reasons, and I have made myself a nice big list of things to do:

1. See family and friends.
2. Get my return of taxes, because I'm broke and need all the money I can scrounge up. (Done! Did it this morning.)
3. Bring back summer clothes and take winter clothes back to London.
4. Visit dentist for my tri-annual cleaning, because dentists in the UK are far too expensive. (Booked appointment for tomorrow.)
5. Get haircut (because hairdressers are far too expensive in UK. And anyway my mother offered to pay for me to go to her hairdresser.)
6. Visit my beautician for electrolysis/photolysis (because, yes, even that is cheaper in Greece.)
7. Buy stuff I can't seem to find in London (argyle clay for face-masks, my organic hair-dye, some cheap but good olive oil soap, my Apivita facial cleanser, some scraps of fabric - they sell left over scraps here really cheap if you know where to go)
8. Print some business cards - because I know good value shops to go to for that in Athens, but haven't a clue where to go in London.
9. Photograph some of the buildings in Athens I worked on for my portfolio.
10. Try to find where I put my old architecture sketches from university.
11. See if I can get the glasses I broke fixed - no one would do in London where I asked.

And well, that's all I can remember now. But I'm sure to add more to that list soon enough.


You know, this post ended up so huge, I'll make another one later with my thoughts about the Hunger Games.

I've got to cook anyway.

R.I.P.

Steve Jobs was deifinitely a great man and Apple Macintosh is one of the twentieth century's most seminal companies.

But it was Bert Jansch's death that stung the most for me. Maybe because I was still holding out hope to see him live one day?

Last days of summer

I'm feeling hopelessly lazy lately, hence the lack of updates.

Also, like the sheep I am, I made myself a twitter account. Twitter is proving rather addictive. Hmf, I get addicted far too easily.

My news?

On Thursday I met in London! Katelin is just as adorable in RL! We had lots of fun talking in real time (yay for meeting people face to face!) and discussing fandom loudly in public. We meandered around Regent's park and then walked along the Embankment. Two of my favourite places in London! It was a gorgeous day, which we ended with a nice thin crust pizza (hawaian, because I was feeling adventurous) and a final stroll to Saint Paul's in the moonlight.

I hope you had lots of fun in London, ! *squishes you close and wishes you didn't have to leave!*

Otherwise I have been visiting parks with Dimitris to take advantage of this last burst of good weather. Enfield is just full of parks! Today we went to Hilly Fields, where we lazed in the sun, had a pick nick and ogled all the hyper young 'uns surrounding us. Then we moved our lazy arses and went for a walk, discovering a huge cemetery which we promptly got lost in.

Look at me becoming all tech savvy and managing to embed a slideshow!

Glee

I was in Enfield Post Office today, helping Dimitris chose a get well card soon for his sick four year old nephew and guess what I saw!



Will you look at that!

Long post of weekend escapades!

You know how some people claim to not remember what they get up to when drunk? Well, I always remember every single excruciatingly embarrassing minute of it. What's even worse, is that when I'm drunk I realise it, and I know I'll be horribly embarrassed next morning, and I realise I'm talking rubbish to strangers and acting ridiculous, yet I still do it. Hmf. Must be something wrong with me. I'm pretty sure it's my english genes that are to blame.

But I am coming before myself here. I had a busy weekend and much happened before I ended up clutching the toilet bowl.

Short story: I walked until I dropped around Hackney and Finsbury on saturday. Then I went to a party in Kingsland, where I drunk too much and crashed. I spent sunday mooching around the Embankment nursing a hangover and had tea on the seventh floor of the Tate Modern.

Long story with images shamelessly stolen from web:
This weekend was Open House London. For the weekend they open up hundreds of buildings to the public and have the architects do guided tours of them. Isn't it a brilliant idea?

I organised myself and made a program of what I wanted to see. Being terminally lazy, I started out a little too late and decided to start from Hackney. I went to a couple of buildings in Dalston Kingsland and then got lost on my way to De Beauvoir Town. After that I followed the canal to Angel and Finsbury where I walked in circles in the rain.


I went to Mayville Estate, where I actually did see this sign.



Yes, De Beauvoir Estate IS that ugly. But the Grand Canal is kind of nice - especially the closer to Angel you get.

I saw a number of interesting buildings and architect's practices (and scored some addresses to sent cvs, hooray!), but I spent too much time walking, so I saw only a fraction of what I wanted. By next time I will hopefully have bought a bike (and got a job and a flat).

Because I was going straight to a party afterwards, I was walking around with a heavy bag with maps, bottles of water, a jacket, pajamas, makeup and god knows what else. Also I was wearing ridiculous clothes and completely wrong shoes to go walking in.

I ended up exhausted and aching and starving in King's Cross, where I proceeded to sit in a cheap place and have a too heavy and too creamy lazagna.

Afterwards I was ready to collapse and there were still a couple of hours to go to the party, so I went all the way over to Queen's Park in Kilburn to find Angela who was visiting a friend, and crashed on their sofa and drunk their herbal tea for two or more hours.

Did I mention the party was an m&m party? Which means we had to dress as m&m colours. Hence my ridiculous outfit. I was wearing a short red dress, with bright red tights, a red cardigan and a red scarf. Totally ridiculous getup to go traipsing around London in.



They certainly took their theme seriously at the party. The food as all coloured with food dye. (Blue penne anyone?) Even the ice-cubes were coloured!

It was a great party! There were people from all over the world, and even a couple of Brits too! And there were loads of architects, yay! I talked about all sorts of random subjects with strangers, from the EU economic policies and farming, to building regulations, to the Smurfs, to whether Denmark has polar bears.

Unfortunately I drunk a bit too much a bit too fast, and I might have just missed the best part of the party. The place was still full of people talking excitedly when I made my hasty exit to the toilet and afterwards the comfortable leather sofa. I remember finding a nice warm woollen throw and curling up under it. Next thing I know there's only five people left in the party dancing drunkenly and it's almost five in the morning!

The awesome hosts let me crash there for the night. (And I wasn't the only one taking advantage of their wonderful hospitality!)

Needless to say, I didn't visit any of the buildings with Open House London next day, like I had planned to. Instead I met Angela at Southwark, where we went to laze on the marvellous Queen Elizabeth Roof Garden Cafe made by the Eden Project.



Then we proceeded to mooch around the Embankment until it got too cold and we took refuge in the cafe on top of the Tate Modern, where we proceeded to have tea with one of the best views in the city.



And now, Monday, I'm still tired and achey. Next time I will wear better shoes and a warmer jacket! Don't let me forget!

Walking the Heath and taking night buses

Now that this weekend is coming close, I thought I should get a move on and talk about last weekend.

Last Saturday, my friend Dimitris dragged me to his favourite place in London - and possibly the whole wide world, you never know with him - Hampstead Heath. This time I brought my camera. With a fully charged battery. Because Dimitris begged and nagged I should because he wanted photos.



Dimitris dragged me up Monument Hill, where we were almost blown away by the strong the wind. And then he snagged my camera and started snapping away like a trigger happy crazy thing.



When he was satisfied he had taken enough photos and I was fed up with the hill, we went for a walk across the heath. We meandered around the place and ended up by a big pond to sit on a bench together and bemoan the sore state of our lives.

After seeing the manor from afar, we decided it was time to get going, because we were invited to a party in Chalk Farm. It will hardly be a surprise to find out we promptly got lost and ended up following the sound of distant traffic.



We emerged on the opposite side of the Heath than we wanted to, and I brilliantly got confused and we took the 168 bus instead of the 268 bus. So instead of going to Chalk Farm we ended up at Finchley Road. Without a map. And neither of us having a clue where we were.

We did eventual find our way to the party, after a little break to eat some indian food and warm ourselves from the bitting wind.

And well, the party was fun! We drunk lots of wine, ate Natasha's gorgeous hand made finger food and talked about all manner of stuff.

And when the time to go home came, we walked to Camden Town with Dimitris and took the night bus to his place. Will you believe we spent almost two hours on that damn bus? I can't believe I spent so long getting back!

Poor Dimitris! He lives in a teeny tiny room in a ramshackle house with a crazy landlady and her layabout cousin who sleeps on the sofa. There truly is no way to describe exactly how unbelievably small his room is! I should take photos.

And because Dimitris crazy landlady works nights - she drives a night bus - I tiptoed out the house in the morning before she realised I had spent the night.

At the RIBA

Yesterday I went to a CDP thingy over at RIBA in central London. The thingy started at 9.30 in the morning. Which meant waking up early and enduring rush hour. I still haven't decided which one is worse.



Because I'm cheap and fares in this country are ridiculously high, I went the cheap way. By bus. Big big mistake! It was absolutely crowded with noisy screeching school girls. (Where were all the boys? Does segregation in the school in the UK extend to getting different buses in the morning too?) Oh god! The noise! In the half an hour I was on the bus I acquired a splitting headache. When I have money I will travel by train on rush hour!

By the way, what's with the short short skirts? I can see how the girls would like their skirts so short. (If I were a straight man I do not know how I would survive all that naked pubescent thigh flashed around. Thank god schools aren't co-ed, otherwise all the teenaged boys would be in a constant state of painful arousal!) But how exactly do the school authorities permit it? Aren't they any regulations about skirt lengths?

Anyway. I went to the CPD thingies. It was OK I guess. Some presentations interesting. Some not so much. I didn't meet anyone, but I did buy a nice big serious book on the British Building Code. Let's see when I read it!

While in the RIBA, I had all sorts of thinky thoughts. I even noted down some of them on this free notepad I was given. But I'm too lazy to transcribe today.

And then I went shopping. See, the RIBA is a short walk from Oxford Circus. And once there I couldn't resist the lure of Topshop. I know, I know, it's a teenagers shop. But I'm poor, ok? It's a dizzying confusing warren of a place. Perfect for the young I guess. Most of the clothes are cheap rubbish. (Their jumpers are atrocious! Not so much the designs as the syntheticness of the materials.) However I managed to score a pair of short black shorts (I know I'm too old, and I'm sure it was a trick of the mirrors, but I looked good in them and have wanted a pair for the past ten years, ok?) and one of those weird straight but sorta puffy skirts that seemed to be called paperback waist (what sort of name is that?)- also black. (I know the belt is awful, I will change it.)

Now I must not buy anything more. Ever! Because I can't spend all my money on clothes and books. Then how will I eat? (And even more importantly, how will I pay my public transport fares?)

Bow-ties are cool!

But do you agree with me?

And if you're having a hard time deciding here's some visual aides:













Feel free to share your favourite bow-tie images with me!

Learning stuff and meeting people - part 2

It's time for me to bore you once more with what I was up to last week. God, I am the world's worst blogger! (And how pretentious is that? Calling oneself a blogger?)

Last thursday I had a lunch date with an architect friend of a friend. Go me! Doesn't it sound all serious and grown up meeting people for lunch dates? Especially people you have only met once before.

The lunch date went great. I have missed talking to fellow architects so much! And he proved to be a very cool and nice guy. He bought me lunch and told me to stop stressing so about having the perfect cv and not knowing enough to find work here. Did I mention it wasn't a romantic date, it was a work date? Yup, I harangued the poor guy to meet me to give me some advice and pointers.

And he's a Dane. The first actual Scandinavian I have properly met (I did sort of meet a weird Swede in 2001 but I don't count him). Are all Danes so warm laid back? All I know about Scandinavians I learnt from the cinema and this awesome webcomic.

Friday was a nice sunny day and my sister guilted me into taking her to the countryside. We went to Lee Valley and Waltham Abbey. It was a lovely huge walk over a network of paths through the countryside. There were streams and canals - complete with barges and boats - and lakes and lots of greenery. There were places to spot otters, watch for birds and chase dragon flies.

Because I am a disorganised idiot I took my camera but forgot both to charge the battery and to bring my spare battery. So I didn't take any photos. I feel so stupid! But I will trawl the net to steal other peoples photos instead...

Random thoughts on a Tuesday

I went down to central London today to see my sister one last time before she returns to Greece. I will miss her. We have become very close, especially as we were living together the last five years.

I have a couple of trivial observations to share:

1. Changing from the train to the tube at Highbury & Islington station was a brilliant idea! Changing tube lines at Green Park was a bad idea I should try to avoid repeating.

2. The V&A has lots of gorgeous, but far too expensive, stuff in it's gift shop. (I shall return when I have money.)

3. English girls have just as much - if not more - cellulite as Greek girls, and are not afraid to show it.

4. Le Pain Quotidien might have a nice atmosphere and fancy, tasty food but it still is horribly overpriced.

5. Prince Harry has the most ridiculous - and oddly mesmerising - hair colour. Is it real? (My grandmother insists it's proof that he's not actually Charles' son...)

Learning stuff and meeting people - part 1

Sorry for the little meltdown the other day. I have the tendency to be over-dramatic and easily embarrassed.

So what have I been up to? Lots. Too much for one post I think, so I'll just tell you in drips and drabs.

Do you really want to know? Proceed at your own risk.

You all know I'm unemployed - and homeless - right? The first thing I did as soon as I came to the UK was apply for an unemployment benefit. Which I got. Most British people are tremendously indignant when they find out that I have barely arrived in the country and yet am already getting benefits. Take it up with your MP, not me. If they are handing out money, it would be stupid not to apply for some. And anyway I am a British citizen, so there!

So the deal with this Jobseekers allowance - which is the official name of the dole - is that how have to regularly show up to your jobcenter to sign in and jump through all the hoops they ask you to with a smile. Well, ok, the smile isn't necessary, but it shows good attitude and makes you feel better. (By the way the allowance is actually quite small, much smaller than the Greek unemployment benefit and the cost of living in the UK is ridiculously high.)

Last time I went for my sign in, I also had a half an hour interview for them to check up on me and make sure I am actually trying to get a job. They give you a silly booklet to fill in with all the things you do to show them. I have been so busy that I have already filled one booklet and asked for a second. Which impressed them. Also I turned the charm on full force which meant we got to chatting with my councillor and ended up talking for over an hour instead of half an hour. Always get people to like you, it will be to your benefit. It's so strange how many people don't seem to realise that and act rude and belligerent seemingly just for the sake of it. Don't they realise that will just make people not want to help them? If you slip up, or make a mistake, who will they rather turn a blind eye for? The one who bothered to make friends with them, or the one who gave them a hard time?

I have a phd in dealing with the public sector. What do you think I spent most of my time doing in Greece with my job? I have perfected the smiling, wide-eyed, eager-to-please persona. I am also not above acting younger and dumber than I am. Never flaunt your intelligence or abilities. People don't like it. I slip up and do it quite often in private casual settings (I can be quite snobbish and arrogant), but never when dealing with civil servants.

Anyway, last time I went they signed me up for this two day course called 'Finding and getting a job' which was supposed to help with cv writing, interviews and stuff like that. It was seven hours each day and it was obligatory.

So I went. All the way to the miserable part of Edmonton Green where it was taking place. Even though I think the whole of Edmonton Green is most probably miserable. The building was unbelievably drab outside and not much better inside.

We were the craziest most mismatched group of twelve. There was a builder, a labourer, an office worker, a real estate agent, a singer from Jamaica, a Persian woman who could barely speak english, and a couple of people who patently refused to talk or take part in anything. And me. Who I am embarrassed to admit quickly became a bit of a teacher's pet by being one of the only ones prepared to give intelligent articulate answers. Me and two of the only three bona-fida white anglo-saxon english people there.

By the way, the 'teacher' was a hyper chinese guy about my age who used to be a head stylist for Toni & Guy. How hilarious is that?

Anyway, it was mostly a waste of time, but a strange and interesting experience never-the-less.

So that is how I passed my Monday and Tuesday... It made me feel strangely alien and alienated. Because the other people there were so obviously on a completely different wave-length. Would it be awfully racist of me to say that, besides the chinese teacher who was very personable and talkative, the ones I liked the most was the white british working class couple? They were the sort of people I would never have met otherwise, but seemed very pleasant and nice. And for you gleeks out there, I couldn't help thinking that the husband reminded me of a younger Burt Hummel. Which is a pretty good endorsement, isn't it?

Panic attack

Just posting to say that I'm still alive. I have been busy doing stuff and going places and meeting people. And I'm a bit overwhelmed frankly. I'm so used to being an anti-social hermit, that it's all a bit too much for me. I have drunk too much, laughed too loud, shared too much with strangers and awkwardly flirted too much.

OMG, I have flirted like an awkward teenager, and made bad jokes and generally possibly made a total fool out of myself in front of people I will be seeing and meeting again! I need to calm down, hide under my covers and get over how cringingly embarrassed I am currently feeling.

And no, I was not drunk. I just am an awkward shy socially inept geek that over-compensates in social situations and acts like a loud obnoxious flirty idiot. Oh god, I want to stay at home for a couple of days until I feel better. I have overdosed on socialising. And too many guys now have my phone-number...

Sorry about the random spazzing, but I needed to vent before collapsing into an uneasy stressed sleep.

Trashy tv shows are bad for your (mental) health

So I have been browsing british trash TV.

Does anyone know what exactly "Made in Chelsea" is? It's absolutely disgustingly bad. So bad I can't stop staring at it in a daze as I slowly feel my braincells melting out my ears. But I can't decide if it's an obviously scripted reality show, or a very badly written and acted soap opera. Any ideas?




Also methinks that this guy:


has taken acting and modelling tips from this guy:


He seems like the sort of person who might have mistaken Zoolanderfor a documentary.

Panic on the streets of London

So I guess you've all heard about things in London.

The first day if the riots, I was on the train home and it got held up just as we were passing over Tottenham. It never even occurred to me to think of riots, I just assumed it was over-exited sports fans after a football match. I was in the UK after all and it was Tottenham. When I got home I saw the news...



The second day of the riots, I was feeling under the weather and I was home alone - my grandmother has gone for a week to Devon with my aunt and cousin and assorted children and dogs. I invited my friend Dimitris over to hang out. When the sun set he left to go home, but ten minutes later I got a frantic call from him that he was coming back. Enfield Town had been cut off by rioters and my friend freaked out. He said they were arriving by car specifically to riot and loot.



Actually I think calling them rioters might be the wrong word. We have rioters in Greece, and their reasons and aims are political. They usually smash and burn banks, public buildings and Macdonalds (re: US imperialistic outposts). The ones here seemed set on looting shops and making a quick profit. Some were said to start selling the stuff off just a street down from where they looted it. So sorry if I'm not very sympathetic to their cause.

And yesterday I stayed at home and cocooned without looking at the news once.

Today I'm looking at the headlines and seeing that yesterday things really spread...

And as I write I can hear police sirens and helicopters. What the hell? It's one o'clock midday!