A night in Shepherds Bush

It's the weekend again and last night we kicked it off with a bus ride to Shepherds Bush. Our friend Tony was in town again playing another show with his band The Gutter Brothers, so Jim and I headed to Bush Hall to enjoy the music. Our bus driver was slightly psycho (and American,we think), nearly missing running over a few teenagers and an innocent looking woman on a bike (who he then honked at). We were a little carsick but still hungry when we got off the bus, so we stopped in a noodle house for a cheap dinner before heading down to hear the band.



The Gutter Brothers are a "skiffle band" and Tony plays the washboard, harmonica, sings and sometimes plays the guitar. There was a stand up bass, lots of percussion, a shrieking woman, a kick ass drummer, and a guy who played some wooden flute-type instrument (think Paul Simon in Africa) with much passion. We enjoyed ourselves and boogied down for a couple of hours before hitting the streets again.

As we made our way back towards the tube, we heard some pretty voices singing "Candy Man" from inside of a pub. We decided to check it out and stumbled into the Den of Drunk Irish Men. DRUNK actually is an understatement. These men (and a few women) were career alcoholics and there weren't just a couple of them...it was as if all the people in London who you see staggering down the street in a drunken stupor decided to get together in this pub. It was kind of surreal. But, despite their wasted audience, the three women sang their hearts out to taped background music and the men and women in the room danced (or something...I'm not sure I could call it dancing. It was more like stumbling around while flailing their arms). Then they cheered for more! At one point the singers sang some sort of military song and one of the few women in the place got up and began marching around. She was in stillettos and an army type outfit and was handling herself really well considering the shoes and her condition. Jim and I looked on in wonder, attempted to have a few conversations with some of the people there,confused everyone and then went on our merry way to the tube, thankful that we had all of our teeth. It was a bizarre experience.

Sadly, we forgot our camera again, so apologies for the lack of visual.

Correction: The Dazzlers

Apparently, Jim's softball team is called the Dazzlers (AH HAH HAH HA H HAH HAH HAH!!) and the other team was called the GUZZLERS. Sorry for the confusion.

Antony Gormley with a Hungarian twist

Yesterday was Friday, so we decided to meet after work and go do something fun. We arranged a meeting place near Waterloo station and then headed to a nearby gallery to see the Antony Gormley exhibit, which our friend Vlad had highly recommended. Gormley is focused on the human form and makes casts of his body, which he then arranges in various forms and puts in various places. The most interested part of this exhibit were the sculptures that he placed on top of buildings that were within a mile or so of the gallery.

Some buildings with sculptures on them:









Inside of the building were more sculptures, but the highlight for us was a room called "Blind Light." It was a clear box filled with fog, in which we wandered around, groping blindly to find our way to other people or to the walls. Here is Jim inside blind light:


And then I got in trouble for taking pictures, but that didn't stop us. After all, no one could really see us while we were inside of blind light. So here we both are inside of blind light:


It was so humid inside that we both got small afros and I had to keep wiping off my glasses. A few minutes into our time in Blind Light, we groped some random guy (you really could only see about six inches in front of you) and then then three of us followed the wall to find our way back to the entrance/exit. Then we did it all again (minus the random guy groping part).



There were two car bombs found yesterday in Central London, but that didn't seem to be stopping anyone from having a good time and yesterday evening there were lots of people out celebrating the lack of rain, the Gay Pride Parade and....Canada Day? We stumbled upon a Canada Day concert in Trafalgar Square, where an African Reggae/Rap group was playing...that didn't seem to be super Canadian to us, but what do we know about Canada.



We continued our wanderings into Soho and eventually ended up at a Hungarian restaurant (it was a very multicultural day) where we sampled chilled cherry soup. I wasn't really sure what to think about chilled cherry soup, but my chicken paprika pancakes were DELICIOUS and HEARTY.

Here I am looking not so excited about chilled cherry soup:


After dinner, stuffed and tired, we took the 139 back home again and Jim didn't even leave anything on the bus! It was a good night.

The Bad News Bears of Britain

On Thursday, I was witness to one of the most hilarious spectacles of all times: Jim's softball team.

In England, softball is called "Rounders" and the rules are slightly different than in America. I'm not exactly sure of all of the details of the differences, but I did noticed that if you even touch the ball, whether it goes out of the batter's box or not, you can run (instead of it being a foul). There are also some different rules about stealing bases. Whatever the difference, softball in the UK rocks in my opinion.

Anyway, I wandered over to Regent's Park to cheer Jim and his team on. I was the team's only fan and I was meant to be there to give them lots of support, but, unfortunately I found myself laughing really hard at their antics and I don't think I was that supportive at all. Once I accidentally cheered for the wrong team, which is an honest mistake.

Jim's team(not sure what their name is. We will call them the Bad News Bears of Briton- BNBB-for the purposes of this blog) was playing the "Dazzlers," who were a group of artists. The Dazzlers were getting ready for the game by drinking mass quantities of beer and smoking some cigarettes. When I arrived, fifteen minutes after the game was to have started, only three people from BNBB were there. They had been warming up for about 45 minutes and thirty minutes later the rest of the team finally straggled in citing tube troubles.

Unfortunately for the BNBB, things were not looking good. Grounders are not their strong point...and neither is hitting...or catching pop-ups. The Dazzlers, though, really dazzled with a series of cricket-style hits that went through several BNBB legs and a few more hits that caused some near collisions on the field amongst the BNBB. Then, a couple of the Dazzlers had a collision, as one of their runners didn't realize she could keep going after third and her teammate didn't realize she had stopped. They proceeded to both run to home at the same time, stumbled over a bat, and then fell crashing into the middle of all the BNBB backpacks. Meanwhile, one of the BNBB players was injured and lying on the ground. Her teammate, threw a midirected foul back towards the field and missed her head by about an inch.

When the Dazzlers took to the field, things started to look up for the BNBB. The third baseman, donning plaid pants, shaggy hair, and a green shiny jacket, smoked a cigarette and drank a beer as he waited for the runners to come through. The two coaches got into some heated arguments and, at one point, one of the Dazzlers hit a foul, which one of the BNBB (a rugby player in real life) moved to catch. The Dazzler subtly pushed the rugby player so that he missed the ball and the rugby player, in turn, TACKLED the Dazzler batter on his way to first. The fan was ROLLING on the sidelines. This was, by far, the best softball game I have ever watched. I think everyone should play softball like they do in England!

Sadly, the BNBB lost, but not as badly as I had predicted! And afterwards, both teams went out for some pints.

The Bad News Bears of Britain out in the field:


The Dazzlers at bat. This was the guy who was soon to be tackled by the BNBB rugby player (stationed behind him):


Jim runs in after the first inning.


At bat:


And getting annoyed by my taking pictures:

A day at home (or what our weekends look like lately)

Jim's passport is somewhere between here and the U.S. Embassey (AND, just to cover myself, I would like to say that this has nothing to do with the competency or incompetency of the US Embassy, but is only the standard procedure when you live in London and have to get your passport renewed. We are well within the 15 working day period that was stated on the Embassy's website. Long live the US Embassy! Rah Rah! Please don't leave scary responses on our blog!)

Anyway...needless to say, we can't really go out of the country and lately the weather has been so rainy that we've been spending a lot of time at home. Therefore, we don't have any pictures of beautiful scenery and I give you "Jim and Claire at home."

A pretty consistent weekend event is "Jim takes a nap." In the picture below, you can see the typical look on Jim's face when he is trying to settle down for a long weekend nap, read his book, and generally be left alone


and I start to do what I do every weekend: Clean.


Things really get bad if I am cheeky enough to wash the sheets over the weekend when, at any moment, Jim could go horizontal. This is what happens when I am cleaning and you have the nerve, from your comfy position in bed, which you decided to get into AFTER I started vacuuming, to make comments about how you can't relax because I am cleaning. I get triple chins and then proceed to suck your face with the vacuum cleaner. Be afraid.


But the weekend at home is not all about cleaning and napping. It is also about GROCERY SHOPPING! Every weekend we pull out our granny cart and head up the road to try our hand at getting through crowds of determined seniors armed with larger granny carts than we have, canes, and sharp elbows...all in the name of getting some milk and other essentials. Then, we have our weekly argument about whether we are going to walk the half mile back to our house or take the bus. The 'take the bus' argument is pretty weak now that we have the granny cart, but certain parties still feel the need to argue the take the bus cause. This past weekend it was looking pretty stormy, but we braved the elements and went home. Fortunately for the 'let's walk' contingent, the rain held off until right when we walked into the door. Otherwise the bus supporter would have never let the walk supporter forget it. The granny cart suits Jim.


The weather was pretty wet, so we stayed home for the rest of the day. Here is a picture of the rain from our back door:


Usually, Spike the neighbor cat comes to see us in the afternoon/evening, especially since we got some really disgusting smelling kitty treats, but this afternoon he decided to hang out in the rain. He has a patch under the tree in our back yard, where he stays dry.


And then, despite nearly getting poured on and having his naptime interrupted by the vacuum cleaner (and, I have to mention, the neighbor renovating his bathroom downstairs), Jim cooked me dinner anyway. What a good husband!

Rage against the TV License

There are many reasons why I don't want to get a TV while we are living in England. I don't want to spend the money since we never know when we'll head back home again. I don't want to spend my evenings parked in front of the screen. I don't think TVs are very aesthetically pleasing and I don't want to find myself gorging on British TV when I could be out experiencing British people and places first hand (although I did get slightly addicted to Eastenders when we were living in Greenwich...that's embarassing. And I do like to watch the music TV channels at the gym...but I digress).

The number one reason I never want to get a TV while we are here is to spite the TV licensing people who are determined to harass us into paying a TV license even though we don't have a TV. So far, we have received FOUR threatening letters and, in response to my letter stating that we don't have a TV, we got another letter that basically said they appreciated us telling them that we don't have a TV, but unfortunately we could be lying so they are going to come check. I say BRING IT ON. I think that they should have to pay me the tax for making my blood pressure rise about once a week! If I were an old lady I would feel afraid!

Down with the TV Licensing people. I'm sure this saga will be continued. I'm just waiting for them to show up for an inspection.

Return of the 80's (again)

The 80s are here again and they have been screaming for their leggings (I want them to take them back, too. Enough leggings already!). ANd now they want their Air Jordans, too. If I could go back and raid my 5th grade closet, I would be very in style.

We've seen these before:


Every other woman in London is wearing these (not an 80's look):


I caved and bought Converse again (for the third time in my life. This time,when they go out of style, I'm boxing them up and saving them until the next time they become popular.) Jim definitely is scoping the Vans.