Time Consuming Fodder #1:
I found myself a part time paid job. It overlooked the London Bridge which is utterly gorgeous at night. Too bad that ended...but all for the best as working 12 hrs a day was not good for the soul...or the lungs. We'll keep bad talking to a minimum on public forums. But if you want the juice, feel free to call/email me.
From my classy restaurant job
...which served defrosted dim sum and other types of classy "Asian" cuisine
Time for Immersing #2:
I found myself another job. Now I'm a bartendress. Although I'm not a beer guzzler, it's nice to learn a new skill. A lot of rich USC people within the program here keep asking, why are you working? Well... 1. I'm not rolling in pounds (every Londoner goes on trips to Manhattan because it's goddamn cheap! Yes, I still don't understand that. Damn this conversion rate!) and 2. I want to immerse myself into the British culture, which involves everpresent boozing. (There was a huge concern recently on the alcoholic nature of the Brits, whose beer costs cheaper than water.) So far, pretty interesting interactions...maybe I'll write about my observation and philosophies on human needs and nature someday. Too bad tipping's on the low end...like a pound an hour?
So I've realized how little time I have in London and needed to get my arse (as they call it) together and stop pouting. Too much to see. So last weekend I went to see my first castle ever. Enough with temples; now cathedrals and castles! It's funny. In Asia...(the infamous and supposedly annoying start to many of my sentences, which I'll have to save for reunions unfortunately) you always randomly bump into temples and pavilions. Always refreshing. Here, it's beautiful churches and cathedrals...scattered with homeless people.
Time Distraction #3: Leeds Castle
Leeds Castle, 1.5 hours out from London took me surprise surprise...4 hours to get there. Let's just say that it wasn't only my bad directional skills, but also that London has the worst customer service in the world. It makes me not feel bad putting 10% tips.
Leeds Castle, the royal residence for six medieval queens of England, included a castle surrounded by a moat, gardens (of course), a hedge maze, and too many types of fowl.
Insensitive to culture
At least I'm not the only one
The Painted Hall, Greenwich
What a pompous creature. I'm surrounded by pompous creatures.
It opened its feathers and turned around 9 times.
But gorgeous...
Scaling...like a Mongol.
(Man do I need to post about China. Oh the stories...)
Yeah, I know I said I didn't have friends. This is one of my few friends, Karen.
She's an Aussie. She teaches global things to me, like of nasty food like Vegemite (yeast extract that weirdos put on toast) and what Prince Harry looks like when taking a jog...red.
Boring, I know...a garden.
Another beautiful garden.
Enough of castles for now. Look forward to falling, ruinous castles abandoned by their owners. That's what I want to see. Enough of pristineness, enough of perfection. I want to see the effects of history, intrigue, and reality. Hopefully one day...
Blinding Myself of Time #4 by Learning About it:
Last week I headed out to Greenwich (Pronounced Gren-ich, though you'd think that the English would know English phonetics). Greenwich is known for being the origin of global timekeeping, King Henry VII's principle residence, and where Bloody Mary and the Virgin Queen (Elizabeth) were born. I went into a clock museum. Exciting, huh? Well, it actually was. Nutshell of excitement: accurate global time has everything to do with latitude/longitude and maritime. That is why the Prime Meridian (the origin of our time measurement system) has everything to do with Greenwich Median Time (GMT). Thus GMT+8 (i.e. HK) is 8 hrs ahead of London time (Greenwich is in London, so it's GMT+0) (ish...matters with daylight savings) which is 8 longitude measurements over. [Long sentence, read by no one.]
On the prime meridian
My body is in different time zones. Is this the source of all my confusion and dilatory nature?
Painted Cathedral
Me and Sir Christopher Wren?
Time scarfing #5: Gluttonous food consumption
So as my co-workers want to disprove that the Brits are known to have the worst food in the world, they've helped me compile an extensive list of what to eat. One thing that was claimed to be rather lovely is the treacle tart, a crispy pie crust filled with a "gooey sugary goodness". So we had a treacle tart party at 3:30 but these sub par pies were pretty much just filled of liquid sugar...covered in soggy cornflakes.
Supposedly these grocery tarts were not a good representative of the wonder of treacle tarts.
The co-workers respond:
Viscount Langley-Smith...
The British cuisine aficionado admits this British defeat to American desserts
The Sheriff ignores this pud for more interesting work
Brits call all desserts pudding...even if it's not...well, pudding
My first fish and chips
I found out that the Brits have a different type of egg style than us: Eggy Soldiers. Once I heard about them I had to make them and be a Brit for a night. These supposedly scrumptious numbers are strips of toast dipped into carefully hacked into soft boiled eggs. I um...screwed up the eggs. Google failed me again and said don't boil them more than 3 minutes, but they were still runny. So I put them in the microwave...Boom! I made another alteration and used garlic naan instead of bread. I am now a laughing stock within the office. A laughing stock!
I tried...
Taste of London
Got excited for great but not-really-English food
Time Item #6: Not Blogging, Obviously
I wish I could post more often. I do fail at life quite often. Sorry for any and no one that may read this religiously. Unfortunately, posting takes me days as I try only to put up my best...which some still think is sub par. But do look forward to pictures and commentary on life in Malaysia, China, and London (which includes my adventures of this week).
