shopping

Dr Lauren and Darling Simon are coming round to ours tonight. That's what they say here.
"I'll come round to yours."
"You come round to ours."
I have not yet heard anyone say "Lets go round to theirs" but I'm sure they do.
Anyway, I decided to make dishes that Dr Lauren likes. Chutney chicken. I looked for an alternative to Mrs Balls as I didn't want to use half a bottle of it on one meal.
(for the record, I hate chutney,and wouldn't care if I never saw Mrs Balls again, but Paul likes it.)
The alternatives were odd to say the least. Lime chutney, tomato chutney, mango chutney, I was prepared to try something new, but no, there on the top shelf was dear old Mrs Ball. £1.59

Next, brown onion soup (packet)
No packets except for Broccoli and Stilton. I am going to use Ainsley Harriott's Classic French Onion cup a soup instead. It was the closest I could get.

Then the chicken. Dear god the chicken! Look at this...

• Sainsbury’s Fresh British chicken reared indoors to Assured Chicken Production standards
• Sainsbury’s Devonshire Red corn fed chicken which is a slow growing chicken reared indoors to the RSPCA’s Freedom Food standard
• Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference West Country free range chicken which is a slow growing chicken reared outdoors in a traditional free range system
• Sainsbury’s SO Organic West Country free range organic chicken which is a slow growing chicken reared outdoors to Soil Association standards

and I kid you not...you can watch a VIDEO of these bloody chickens bring raised.

http://www.sainsburys.co.uk/food/foodandfeatures/safety_quality/articles/chicken_video.htm

They are certifiably mad in this country.

Dessert was going to be fridge tart, discovered there are no Tennis biscuits here. I am going with Sainsburys Malted Milk biscuits. They are the closest to Tennis I could get.
This is the last whenwe meal I am ever making. And I am only doing it today because Dr Lauren and Simon are coming to ours.

any opinions on art will be welcome

ipod thingies

Up until now I have thought the people who have earphones stuck in their ears on the tube and on the street were pretentious twats...NO NO NO...it is fabulous! I have had an ipod thing in my ear for about 2 hours, it is fabulous. I have made supper , ironed, cleaned up, danced all over the apartment... I love it. i may never unplug myself ever again. I want my own ipod thing. the one I have is Paul's . If he ever wants it back he needs to buy me my own.

And you never have to speak to anyone if you have an ipod.

art

Don't you just love it!?? This is my favourite gallery...it is FABULOUS

Saatchi&Saatchi

Wedding

Off to the country to a wonderful wedding. Seemingly miles away from anywhere (nowhere is actually far away from anywhere here on this small isle)
A beautiful setting, a few brief spatters of rain, a radiant bride, and indeed... a braai!
Geese and sheep, a pond and a little bridge, it was lovely.
The trip back from the wedding venue to Oxford Station cost £50!! Bloody hell. Still, it was worth it for a super weekend away. Tomorrow we are buying a car.

eating out

Would you like to join me for a meal here? I won't tell you where it is, just hop in a taxi and ask for the restaurant. I will bail you out if necessary!!

Friends

I have realised why I am never going to make a friend here. The women are either pushing a pram or a zimmer frame. There is NOBODY my age. I thought I was imagining it , but I asked Dr Lauren and she agreed, well, what she actually said was 'all the middle aged (!!!) women live in the country , not in London'
Never mind. I am currently too busy to meet new friends.
I joined the Library. And went to Sainsburys. See? Far too busy. Still, it would be nice to chat to someone I am not related to or sleeping with.

Marylebone Street Fair

Previous pics were all from the fair, London at its best, sun, Pimms, lots of food...music and fun!

bandstand , music and Brits in the sun
So much to see!

Thought this was funny!

Part of the crowd me...

Odd way to sell lingerie....

Summer

Yes, it is summer today. The sun is shining off and on. I think we had better go out before summer is over.
It is the Queens Birthday. Happy Birthday Queenie. I may pop over to the palace and give her a birthday wave.

I love the South Bank! Weather was a bit crap this day.

This is the pub we frequent. Good food. Very quaint.

Equal Opportunity

Oh I love living here. I am writing my blog, drinking wine, watching TV and stepping outside every now and then for a fag. Paul is ironing.
28 years of marriage and eventually I have got it right. Why I did not do this years ago is beyond me.
Mind you, I did clean the whole flat and make supper. But I must say I love the sight of my husband ironing.
Hee hee hee

Internet Shopping

Shopping is difficult. Carrying home stuff on the bus is tedious. So , just to do a once off stock everything up I decided to internet shop.
It is not as easy as it seems. Yes, it is all arriving tomorrow. Yes, one can get good bargains online. Yes , it is easy to pay and fabulous all round.
What the FUCK am I going to do with 36 bananas???
(do not press the button 3 times. Valuable lesson learned)
6 punnets of raspberries I think I can eat....but bananas ..not so much
Lordy lordy

New Friends Made

Zero
I miss you guys

getting there

I can now get the right bus, find the right shop, know how much i am able to carry and get home again. This may not seem like a big deal, but actually it is.

getting there

Some interesting facts

1. Movies
They make movies ALL THE TIME in Greenwich. I love it. Yesterday they were filming Gullivers Travels starring Billy Connelly, Jack Black and Catherine Tate. I could have watched for hours. On the subject of movies, we went to see Last Chance Harvey with Dustin Hoffman (well, not with him, obviously, I mean starring Dustin Hoffman) It is filmed on the South Bank which is absolutely my favourite place of the moment. Go and see the movie, and look at the book market (I love that!) and you can see the Thames Clippers going up and down the river, which is our 'bus' home to Greenwich.

2. Summer
I feel very at home with the Cape weather here. It is rainy and windy and chilly. It is also supposed to be summer. I asked a few locals about this summer thing. They say 'oh yes, I remember last summer, it was a Thursday afternoon in July'
Not funny.
Anyway, I have watched Wimbledon for years, I know we are going to have some more sun.

3.TV
British TV is crap. We have 5 channels. It is just as bad as SABC. On Saturday they are eventually going to install our Sky box. Not too sure what this is but it gives us a lot more channels. I have read a lot of books.

4. Doctors
I now have a doctor. She is about 12, but very nice. The Health Centre is right across the pathway from us, so very convenient. The child doctor tut tutted at my '3 years out of date 'medicine I am taking. She said not a word about smoking though. This was a relief as I have not yet finished my South African cigarettes. Mainly because of the rain. It tends to wet the cigarette and spoil the whole smoking experience. So actually, I think I am doing quite well.

5. The 02
The 02 is FABULOUS. It used to be the millenium dome for those of you not in the know. Last night Beyonce was there, the night before, Britney. There is hope, though, as Pet Shop Boys, 10 CC , Madonna and just everyone is coming. I will choose carefully who I want to see seeing as the tickets cost a bloody fortune.
There is a Spur there, and a Nandos...but fortunately many other restaurants as well. Hee Hee.

6. Housework
This is crap. The flat has vinyl floors. They are really crap. But...my container has arrived so I am going to lay all my nice rugs over the crappy floor and then just clean around them.

7. Triple Glazing
This is magic. Cuts out all sound completely. There is a school right opposite us, close the windows and doors and you can still see the little bastards, but can't hear a thing! I love it!
I thought it would also cut out all dust. Not so much.

Hotel Hewlett

It has been busy here, hence the no blogging. We have had visitors, and have totally ignored the fact that we are supposed to be making a living here and happily been on holiday with our guests.
Sam and Veronica left the day that Lesley and Brian arrived, Ann and Jim were here yesterday, and Brian and Lesley leave today. How they will be leaving is a moot point as we are having a tube strike.
I must be feeling at home...notice I said 'we' are having a strike, not 'they' are having a strike. Lordy Lordy, is this how it starts???

racists

And we thought SA was racist? To sign on with a doctor I have to fill in forms, and tick my 'Ethnic Origin'
These are some of my choices
White British
White Irish
White and Black caribbean
White and Black African (is this me??)
Bangladeshi or British Bangladeshi
Black British
Black African
British Pakistani

The list is endless...WTF??
I also have a choice of 35 languages, besides 'other'. Is fabulous. Afrikaans is not one of the choices so i am filling it in under 'other'

Then there are the forms to fill in for drinking and smoking. I am doomed.

glue

So funny...Paul went to buy wood glue and during the checking out process had to prove that he was over 21 and able to buy glue. At the same time he bought a stanley knife. You can KILL people with a stanley knife.

loo

can see out when you pee.....also, people can see in.

loo with a view

Shower

I know I wanted a proper shower. But bloody hell! The shower we have is like Niagra Falls. You could drown in this shower. And boil to death. Is a very scary shower. Paul loves it. Scares the shit out of me.
Oh Oh, and check out the loo...am posting picture....

art

It will be really nice when my container arrives and I have my own pictures. And rugs. My nice persian rugs. This is the rug we have in the lounge right now

See? no taste at all

artwork

the landlord has no taste in art.

artwork

Flat

Interesting things about living in a fully furnished flat:

First off, it is never really fully furnished. You only notice whats missing when you look for it, or need it.
So far this is what is missing.
Microwave. You would think that would be an obvious thing. Not so much. Took me 3 days. Only when I wanted to warm up some soup did I notice we had no microwave.
Bottle opener. Pear cider. Not a twist off top.
Toilet Roll holder. You don't need to know when I noticed this.
Ironing board and iron. Fuck. Have to do own ironing.
Car. Why was that not included???

pictures

A picture of the Lego Village we live in and the eco park behind it. More to follow , hopefully.

pics

Food and Drink

We have found our local pub. It is called The Pilot Inn and is a 3 minute walk from our new home. It has a garden (for smoking)
I have also found a place in the 02 which serves the best margaritas in the whole world . £5.20 , 2 for one. They are really big on 2 for one and 3 for one in this country. I love the books, 3 for 2. Baked beans, 3 for 1, mince 3 for 2....buy one get one half price...is a bit confusing but I think I will get it eventually. The margaritas somehow I understood straight away.
Food is good. It is really cheap to eat in and kak expensive to eat out. That's all you need to know here.
Drinking is expensive. You pay per glass of wine what we would normally pay per bottle. It all works out quite well in the end though. I spend less on books, less on food, and less on clothes. The leftover pays for alcohol. Works for me.
Smoking is something else altogether. I am going to have to stop smoking when my SA cigarettes run out. Seeing as I cannot even smoke IN MY OWN HOME, they are going to last a long time especially seeing as Ann arrived this week and has brought me 400 Vogue Slims. Dr Lauren has me all signed up to the National Health Stop Smoking Sysyem (yes, it does exist...can you believe it???)
Bloody hell.
Well, I am going to make supper now. Prawn tails (they look very nice) £1 per packet. With a salad I think, and a nice glass of white wine.

Shopping

Shopping is very interesting. I don't know the brands. (there is a cleaning product here called Cif. I kid you not.)
I don't know the prices. I don't know the system. Nonetheless we are managing to eat. Clothes are kak cheap here, and Moira! You would die if you could just see the shoes! I don't want to wear them (obviously with the 500 mile a day walk) but I really just want to buy them, they are FABULOUS!
I bought summer clothes today. For £75 I got 9 items of clothing. 1 skirt, 2 pants and 6 tops. And some flip flops. Nice stuff, and I made them give me the coathangers as well as I don't have any.

Internet

There has been a delay in my blogging. This was caused by our Dongle. The Dongle allows us access to the internet, but has not allowed me to get to my Blog because of ADULT CONTENT.
(Note to self: Don't say Fuck)
After a long bus ride to the T Mobile shop in Woolich, this has now been fixed. Don't ask me to explain what a Dongle actually is, I don't know.
I am doing so well. I have a British Drivers Licence, a credit card, a cash card, an overdraft, a cheque book, a cell phone (will put the number on facebook) and a KEY RING.
Yes, this is the thing I have missed the most. Having keys on a keyring. I have carried my car and house keys around for the last 20 odd years and it has been most odd not to have a key ring in my hand. But now, I have House Keys. Is very exciting.

Lessons Learned

This is what I learnt today

Do not buy more than you can carry
Have one usable hand to swipe your bus pass
Have more than a vaugue idea as to where your bus stop is
Asda bags are crap, use Sainsburys