Daily Dose of Doom

hmm.. for some reason blogger is refusing to post my pictures today.. so you'll have "chumpy" on display tomorrow instead. He's a resident of Duke St, and I'm horribly jelouse of his owner.
More tomorrow.

Its Monday. Hear yee hear yee Hair yaaa..
and its bloody well boiling outside. Humiditiy is in the hair curling procentage, and I'm melting.. its quite embarassing really.. I was than treated to a walky, as always we went to wormwood's and I have to say you do NOT feel sexy when you flash your legs and ppl drop to the ground screaming while protecting their eyes. yes.. I am, in fact, the whites woman in England. And that is no small feat let me tell you. This is after all the land of redheads (even though the Irish do not admit to england actually excisting.. )

Happy B-day Sweetie. There's not a lot of ppl I'd ever force to listen to me singing, but you can count yourself to one of the unlucky few ;)
(and yes.. that is suppose to be a horribly bad impresonation of the marilyn monroe birthday song... just have a good laugh and I'll tally it off as a b-day present!)

Grattis Grattis Grattis!

... and possibly a knob, as they say here in England. We took the morning walk thru Helens Garden, picked up a sandwitch at the cafe (where the lady behind the counter pilfhered my boyfriend to take behind the counter.. only to plugg in a boiler that she could not reach the socket off, granted, but still. Good start to the morning! I love cheeky old ladies) and then I found that our favourite bench at Little Wormwood Scrubs has been molested by Dan-Dan.. Or as he will from now on be know: Dumb-Dumb.. Hey, if the doodie-head had atleast made an effort of making it look good, I would not have complained, but this is just shit to be honest. My unborn nefew/niece can do better!

We've been out doing footwork this morning, this time in Fulham. What used to be our "home-sweet-home".. and we miss it!

He's up for sainthood pretty soon. We spent the morning going thru the reasons why I should go to the dentist (I hate them.. seriously, i fear very little, but they are definately on the top 2 list.. ) and he's sweet enough to put a pillow between me and the wall when I try to thump myself into oblivion because of the face pain (its way beyond toothache.. its great to have colds)

And ontop of that hes sutch a hunk-a-hunk-of-burning-love. Grrrr.. I mean, common, look at those dimples!!

I'm sorry, I digress. We also went to the lovely pharmacy down ladbroke grove. Got into a lovely talk with the family that runs it. The Alfpha Female (im thinking she's the mom of the family) has the most gloriouse and softly rolling rrrr's ever and speaks with a beutiful Indian accent. She also wears one of those beutifull saris with more colours than a test picture on the tv and I definately got a bit of a crush on her, or rather I'd love to be indian middle aged woman with flaying arms, rolling rrrrr's and a definate gravitas than a 30 something whitebread troll with a toothache. Anyway, we had a moan about prices ( I told them what it costs in Sweden, and as always, that takes home the baccon.. Sweden is a bit pricey..) and as always. A good moan bonds like nothing else in this country.

Anyway, besides the codine paracetamol (good stuff apparently, but I'm not on it yet.. I hate pills..) the nice lady gave me something called Clover Oil.. and it works! dont even need the pills basically. I'm still going to the dentist (there will be no blogg that day most probably.. I'll be shaking to much) but this will atleast keep me a little closer to sanity, or whats left of it.

Anyway again, back to work again. hope your all fine. Gimme some good news to quelsh the terror of looking down the week and seeing a dentist at the end.


oh oh oh oh, almost forgot to say: I found my best friend from when i studied in Holland, Casper (the very friendly ghost) after 7 years of silence. Google is amazing. Him and his GF are in Wales (dragons be there) and their comming to London for a weekend, so we're meeting up for a beer and trying to put 7 years of gossip into one friday evening. Soooo looking forward to it! gonna have to have the teeth fixed before that though, dont want to be dribbling and getting knocked out after one beer.. just not done (I've got an old and heavy rep to protect)

And the really weird thing: Casper has aquired a teaching possition at the school of business in Wales (that is not the weird part). So now, instead of the same twangy americano/canadian mix accent that I sport after too many hours infront of the TV as a kid, he speaks english.. or a mix of queens and welsh, giving me a bit of a shocker there actually. Amazing how a persons voice and dialect is sutch a big part how you remember a person. I barely recognized him over the phone. Almost got me toungetied, and that is a condition I do NOT find myself in very often... and not a condition I really enjoy either. But oh well, I'll get used to it on friday I guess!

Me and Love took a walk to Little Wormwood Scrubs this morning (I Löööööve english names ... common, wormwood? gnnnn, to quaint and weird for words... ) when we stumbled uppon this: Kavallery with guns.. and i'm talking the big hunkering thing that the team of 6 are pulling, not the measly puny handheld variety. Sorry about the bluish 80's tint to the pictures by the way, my stubby fingers had managed to set the mobile phone camera ISO settings to 400 in the excitment... Bit of a retro feel though.




Only problem is that I'm now having new withdrawl symphtoms.. I miss riding. I miss working with horses.. and I miss my old work place (Plekity, a studfarm back in Poland.. more horses than you can shake a stick at.. ) and now living in a small shoebox that does not even accomondate fish (seriously, we have a clause in our contract that states we cant even have an aquarium.. hmm.) I cant even get a hamster to cuddle. Woe is me *wobbly lower lip*





anyway, on the same bluish tint:
Butterfly on the walkway around Wormwood Scrubs (suck on that name again, common you know you want to.. )

And now.. back to work!

We were at Holland Park Av to do some food shopping, and on the way there (and back.. since the shop did not move) there is the best fruit and veg vendor in London. And I got cherries. 4 pounds worth (as in the legal tender, not the weight, you'd be getting bloggy updates from the hospital if it was) and they are quite possibly the best damned cherries I've had since forever.
My dad used to teach me and my brothers to "mashine-gun" the pits on taxi cars when we used to go to Poland on family hollidays (another giftwrapped childhood trauma.. dont even get me started on the whole "Queens greatest hits" horror. I still get trembling at the knees when "I want to ride my biscycle" comes on the radio.. )
Anyway, its quite a lovely walk over to Holland park Av, takes about 20 min if your not rushing... And the horrible part is we only go there once a week or so. When I was living in Stockholm (i'm using the term very loosely, I was a total bush-baby. Woods right outside the house, and moose too... only reason I got to use the subway was because Love had a 2 bedroom flat within the city limits, and I only sported a studio about the size of our current appartment out in the no-where-land of Haninge... He veto-ed it down :P) Anyway, I'm digressing.
Back in Sweden I'd walk everywhere. I had my lovely hell hound (Hades) and I'd walk past my parents house to leave him for the day, then walk to work (all and all, not counting breakfast, an hours good thumping pavement). And over here.. We'll , when we're working with B, we're winging over the fact that everything is half an hour off. Hmm.. need to get back to walking again. And I'm putting my sights on the fruit vendor and the cherries *drool*




Also found this in my scetch book.. hmm.. must have had a perticularly rough day with telesalesmen or trying to get some service fixed that day..

Anyway, i'm missing my family. Midsummer was this friday (in Sweden its a BIG thing) and we missed out on it. They raise fallos symbos (a cross with two rings of flower at the ends.. could it get any more sexuall?) and we dance around in a big circle while singing and jumping about doing the "small frogs have no ears and no tail have they"dance and song.. .. Don't know why. We just do. But this year we've been here.. have to find a birtch (Björk in swedish.. white tree with black spots. A dalmation tree) and do some dancing..

Stalking the cookie.. Either need a decent sugar hit (not gonna happen, i'd end up falling asleep on the sidewalk next to joe, our ressitent beggar before i reach the shop) or some decent sleep. I'm just not happy about the idea of having that horrible "ping-im-awake-yeah" feeling at 1 am if I give in to it right now. So.. gonna bugg Love untill he caves in and watches happy feet with me agian.. poor man.. its that or Mamma Mia.. I'm all for soppy when i'm this tired. Ah who am I kidding? I'd go for an animated film any time of day.
Anyway, take care ya'll's. Have a lovely weekend..
psss.. its friday.. ;)

Well, today was started at McDonalds .. or at least that's where I found myself opening my eyes. Because of over enthusiastic planning and a somewhat pessimistic time calculation on the London Journey Planner I ended up having coffee with Schnufflegangenloop.. my invisible friend, at the Golden Gull. Woke up, even though I really don't think you can call it that, at 4.55 and was out of the house by 5.30.. And amazingly the ride was clear all the way to Trafalgar Square... I think we got a new record braking time on that distance.. (20 min) thought that means that I was the customary half hour early, therefor the need of one sided conversation with Schnufflegangenloop over Donalds-Latte


And here the reason for me being so damned early.. .. See.. not a SINGLE PERSON OUT .. Not even traffic. I can't even express the freaky-outy feeling about going around in London and barely meeting a soul. Gives you a "Shaun of the dead" kind of feeling.. Had to fight a growing urge to poke the bus driver or at least ask if he's a card-carrying member of the human race. Quite nice though. Need to get out more in the morning. All though my solution to it is simply not to go to bed at night.. So much more pleasant. When we were still living in Fulham we'd do that every now and then. Just get out and bugger the street cleaners and possibly sit down and have a coffee while the first round of stressed out office workers stream by. Sometimes we'd even point and grin.. yes, i know.. evil..



Anyway, the whole whooopla about getting up was to be here. At Browns, Bar and Brasserie (snigger, snigger.. Brassier.. Brown Bar and Bra?).. Really gorgeous setting, for a networking breakfast done by BNI. According to Neil, one of the members there's this story about how it used to be a courthouse until someone forgot to go and renew the registration or something, basically your everyday admin f**ckup, forget to send the papers, everyone get their wiggs off and lets turn it into a upclass boozer.. And so that's how i came to spend friday morning in the courtroom nr 1, I think I'll not tell my mum though, she'll need at least one kid that has not been talking to a judge at some point...






Anyway, here's a picture of the sky over London at around 11.. The reason being that in the same way that the bus was going exceptionally fast one way, on my way home, which is a one buss line.. 23.. goes from door to door basically.. I had to change 3 different times at which point I got to enjoy the wonderfull weather and a good moan with the rest of the passanger. Appearently the busses all caught the "oh crap, i need a brake/coffee/I cant face the next couple of streets" and kept on dumping us prematurely on the sidewalk where we had to wait for another 23...
All though, granted, I could at any point after Marble Arch taken either 7, 70 or even 52 at the end, but hell... Pick a number and stick to it right?
I'm picking and sticking ...

I'm trying to choose between getting a coffee.. or tea.. hmm.. as for anything else, only thing thats on my dance card is work. And it feels great. Honestly, now that we've been working with our own stuff its a joy to not have to go out and club new customers over the head to get some business. My wonderfull accountant said something about a networking meeting tomorrow, but here's the catch: its at 7 am... see, i've got a problem with remembering my own name at 7 am.. much less anyone elses.. but atleast I'll be able to hand these out:

their goooorgeouse. Too bad the camera on my cell phone is not the best, but still.. my prrreciouse..

anyway, back to work!




And if anyone is looking for other employment, go visit Marks and Sparks in Westfield (Shepherds Bush) .. seems that beeing a maniquin there is a job worth taking. Never seen sutch happy plastic ppl.

Me and Love went for a lunch at "Tea's Me" today, a small but oooh so wonderfull cafe thats placed behind the corner of Ladbroke Grove. Green Beans and Roasted Zuchinni.. And yes, the captials are valid. Its that good... I'm also a total pushover when it comes to good veggies. If the need for meat was not so great (I grow fangs if I need to go more than 3 days without meat) I'd be a vegetarian in a heart beat.

Now add the fact that the coffee is lovely, freshly made and the waitress is a sweet shy smiler. in other words, full points. Only fly in the ointment is the fact that the trafic of Ladbroke Grove is quite close, but atleast its not right under your nose. And you do not have to bodyslam your way thru Portobello Rd to get to it.


Oh and here are some random pix from last week:





Found this in Islington. Why limit yourself to flowerpots or windowledges, when you can just slap the greenery all over? Looks like green maringue and I'm smitten. I'm just wondering how they water it (the London weather isnt as wet as hearsay let's you belive.. )

Cinabon Peacanbun... hmmm.. As substitutes for moms home cooking, there are worse things to get. This beeing my b-day brakefast. Me and Love endulged in the best way we could. Any one swedish will recognize this as a very dressy form of "Kanelbulle", and they would be right. It's also a bit of a sugarhigh, after this we went thru Whitleys on Queensway, doing some b-day shopping and trying not to die from ruptured stomachs...

I usually do not go on about products. Lets face it, I'm to shopping what Bush was to the peace movement. But this.. Oh common. I go goooey eyed and get a raised temperature by looking at the box... Addmitedly I'm a sucker for packaging. Probably a side effect from working with it. But still. The box was actually the reason I bought it. The 50's retro prettyness.. And then I haven't even started on the name.. The added bonus is that it actually does what it says on the box. I've been blessed with lips perfect for lower lip wobbles but this puts me in the Daffy Duck categorie. On top of that Love is squarely in the "buggeroffwiththatstuffnokissinguntilitcomesoff" - corner. So mainly it rides around in by make-up bag or handbag, and I simply pull it out to enjoy a snicker for myself while reading the lable and enjoying the packaging that is so gorgeouse, even now when the pink text has been almost compleatly rubbed off from the choclate brown tube.. God.. I'm sutch a nerd..

This right here *points* is the reason neither me nor Love has died in scurvy... Our fruit/veggie bowl. The simple tomato.. the humble union (tear-jerker though, always goes for the sympathy vote) and the apples.. you can even glimpse the statuesque cucumber in the background. We've actually been peeling ourselves away from the computers to trot down to the veggie shop to get some more. Need more bowls though. My only problem is that we've got no room. Our kitchen is the size of a well used stamp. And the ledge just outside (that covers the radiators) are more or less swamped . Our minibar is placed on the same ledge basically...- containing all of 1 bottle Shivas, one bottle of Bells and one bottle of Glögg (for all you non-swedes, its spiced and lovely wine that you warm up, we drink it at x-mas.. we have obviously not necked this one bottle though. Lets hope its still good next year :P)
.. A couple of lights (I'm a card-carrying tea-light abuser)
and our Fruit/veggie bowl..
Now, lets have a homage to the fruit and veggie bowl, please send your prose/verse directly.
I'm gonna go and kill off another apple in the meantime.

The weather is being obnoxious. Once second its pouring down to the point of sparking the reflex to build an Ark or two, and then slap. On goes the sunshine. Was all kitted out in my lovely old Hoodie from Lucky Strike(for automatic street cred around here) , all curled in under layers of protective clothing. The elements were to be beaten! I walk out, all set, going on strong, mapping out the course to the corner shop and Ta-bloody-daaa.. on comes the sunshine. I'm starting to think its some kind of joke from "the one on top".. He/she is basically flipping the light switch while having a problem with the plumbing.

Found this lovely blogg:

We've been out trawling the streets of South Kensington and Chelsea, meaning we walk around gorgeouse houses all day going "ooooh.. " and ofcourse "aaaaah".. and then we got to the " eeeeh?" part... This is a gorgeouse victorian house. Huge.. white.. Statly.. Everything you can wish from it really. Except that the front door and steps lead up to a wall of iron.. How they figured this was a good idea I have no clue. But oh well. if it works for them why not. Maybe its the house of the English Vaulting Champion and he feels he needs some daily excercise mixed with challange? your guess is as good as mine.
We've got a very nice version of it just one street up from us as well, gorgeouse marble steps that lead to a ... window.. The luxury burgler entrance possibly?
Will post a picture of it later.

Okej, the PassPortDebacle (also soon to be known as Notting-Gate) has taken its first vicitim. I've sacrifised my strawberry *chough* blond locks on the altar of self recrimination and I'm back to beeing the bitchy brunette you all know and love (or run away screaming from.. take your pick really...)
Also at the possibilitie of not beeing recognized, heres for hoping... *cough*... lets face it, my family does not pull punches, so layering up in protective gear (hair colouring) is basically doing the safe way out. Specially when they are all on the other side of the English border. Not that Loves family is any sweeter when theres a good heckle comming up :) Bless them. I'll be hearing about this until my (or their) dying day.
I've taken to not answering my phone.. I'm a grown up.. yes...

Its Sunday morning. Me and Love braved the sunlight like vampires and turned left from our house and went to the small park that's hidden behind Ladbroke Grove. We've decided to be quite finicky about where we go around here. We live very close to Portobello Rd, meaning if you turn right after leaving our house you end up body slaming your way thru tourists, beggers, pickpockets, other dazed civilians and in generall getting in touch with a huge amount of the unwashed masses. Soooo not cool. So now we take the long-ways-around. meaning we get to walk down leafy and lovely village-like surroundings, and it just adds 3 minutes to the walk generally.
Anyway, spent the morning rolling up my trouser legs to put my legs up to get some sunshine while sitting on a bench drinking coffe and smoking (yeah, I've been weak) The rest of the day will now be spent in the UV rays of the computer screen. Need to finish one logo and an email template untill tomorrow morning. When we're due out to do B's bidding walking up and down drumming up work. Lets hope the rain will keep away.

I'm freezing my toes off. Summer came and went in what seemed a week. I've just managed to find a pair of surfer shorts (looks better than it sounds, their black and look quite corporate) and a pair of barely there tops, and now I've got to digg out my sweaters and swat myself in layers cos the "big feeze" is back for a second round. Never thought I'd say this but I want the warmth back!

Even the freekig pigeions (flying rats) are huddling up together to stay warm.
I'm also still in mourning for the trip-that-will-not be. Sucks.
Was looking forward to watching my family wigg out in person, as well as enjoying sinking my toes (the blue ones) into the grass outside Loves-mothers summer house. BBQ-ing with the family, all of them (Loves side is included, they are just like him. Amazingly well balanced and heartwarming, quite disconserningly actually.. after four years I still have nothing to bitch about, that alone makes them strange :)

Anyway. Life goes on. Atleast now we can welcome the Nilssons in style when they decend in July. We'll be working our proverbial bums off for the next 3 weeks so we'll be able to do the touristy stuff for a couple of days.

I've just found out that my passport is out of style.. and date.