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So back when I was a freshman in high school, I got my first pair of black high top chuck tailors. I LOVED them. I called them my "shiny happy people" shoes mostly because my mom bought them for me only if I would promise not to complain if I was wearing them. I am not sure I was actually able to keep that promise, but I think sometimes  I tried. I wore them with skirts, and dresses and flannel shirts sometimes I would switch up between them and the black Doc's, but I loved these shoes. Then I got a pair of low tops that were green with yellow stitching and those were equally amazing. 

By the time 1995 rolled around, the chuck fetish had kind of worn off, I think it was more about the Steve Madden shoes going into college, but I am pretty sure there are pictures from freshman year of college with the green chucks (and I think a warner bros t-shirt). 

So this past weekend my friend Chris was here and Sunday we went to one of my fav markets Spitalfields market. Chris took some great pictures from the day.

 

Yippee! I am able to make the Graveroff's halloween party! So exciting. Since I am already excited about it, I have started thinking of costumes. I think I will probably go in a little bit of my theme of sports so football fan it is.

So I am very close to taking my summer holiday only 10 more days! I figure I should get cracking on my update from the last holiday. So preview of the bigger  post that I will do this weekend. The lovely sounds of Florence.

So this week I have now been living in London for One Year. Craziness. Some thoughts about my time so far:

• I love living in Islington, it is buzzy and there are people and a park
• I like the bus better then the tube
• TV is really not very good here
• I like my local pub the Duke of Cambridge
• It is great that there is so much thai food options in the grocery store. I love green curry
• Going to the movies here is expensive 13.50!
• I like being able to go to the continent for weekend breaks
• The winter here SUCKS! the sun goes down at 3:30 it is terrible
• I am glad I found a car service that will take me to heathrow for 30 pounds
• I have a great farm share
• I find it weird that eggs are just sitting out - but I am getting used to it
• I HATE my shower it sucks to have to hold it over my head
• I am starting to say words like tube, brilliant, proper, sorted, etc
• Still no accent
• I miss my kitties
• I still feel sometimes that I am on vacation
• I get lost a lot still - but I think that is what makes this place fun

Things I still need to work on:

New map of London making the rounds.

Thank you Flickr and Nan.

So the clocks finally sprung forward on sunday this week and my god! it has changed my life. The sun doesn't set now until after 7:30. Today I left work and was able to walk home the whole way with it still being light out and I even took a detour and walked along the canal and saw a swan. It was great. All the trees have flowers, it is really really nice here now. Now I just need to erase from my memory the November - February and this place would be awesome.

Josh and Megan got here yesterday and we have already done quite a lot, bus trips, Tate Modern, London Eye, Regents Street and amazing indian food. Also a little Wii time. Today is Tower of London, Borough Market, Spitalfields Market, My local pub and Imran's house party.

We all miss you and here is a little ode to Trader Joes. Which I do really miss sometimes.

The summer I moved here it ended up being pretty cold and only really got to 65 all summer instead of the 80-90 that I experienced the last summer I was in London. The fall was normal but this winter was colder then it has been in a while and today it snowed more then it has in 18 years. All buses are closed and most of the tube is shut down. So I walked around my neighborhood and got some great photos of the snow. I take this as a turning point while the weather is cold, it is really pretty.

Since the sun does not come up here until after 8am still. I am having a very hard time getting up in the morning. So I have decided to do something about it. I bought the Philips Wake-Up alarm clock. Exciting. It comes next week.

Just printed my boarding pass for tomorrow. It is actually here! Car rental reserved, I have a window seat for my 8 hour flight - awesomeness.

I am doing happy hour with FH on Friday at 6 at the Big Hunt if anyone wants to come along.

Can't wait to see everyone just have to get through a few more hours at work then off for a long holiday!  

Last weekend I went to Milan to visit my wonderful friend Gita and see a little more of Italy. So I really feel like the universe wanted me to go on this trip because my flight was at 2:55 on Friday from Gatwick and when I got to Victoria Station at 1pm I realize that I have forgotten my passport at home. So to get my passport I have to get back on the tube up to Kings Cross, get a cab to my house and then have him drop me off at the Highbury and Islington Tube so I can take the victoria line back down to Victoria station then take Gatwick Express the 30 minutes to the airport. This journey entails me going from North London to South of London to get to the airport.

A few weekends ago I was lucky enough to go to the Wales vs. South Africa Rugby match in Wales. I had to be at Paddington by 9am on saturday and we got on the train for the 2 hour ride down. It was super packed with people - standing room only on the train and everyone was really nice and happy and friendly excited to go to the game. I ended up luckly with a seat and was next to a really nice South African guy who told me the rules of the game and which players to watch.

We got to Cardiff and went to lunch and there were so many people on the street and the best part was you paid someone a pound and got them to do a little face painting. I got a South Africa rugby mascot on my face. It was funny. 

Went into the millenium stadium and it was packed! 74,000 people and we had really great seats behind the goal. The game is only 90 minutes and it was fun throughout, I was getting it by the end what was going on. Rugby players are HUGE guys. And they just get wrecked at every play. It was really fun to watch. 

Last wednesday was Guy Fawkes night also called bonfire night. All around the country people have big bonfires and hang out outside in the cold and set off a crap load of fireworks. It is like the lake times 1000.

I had noticed in the past few weeks that people were always setting off fireworks, but last wednesday it was great. 

I have been working a lot lately, so I wasn't getting off the tube until around 9 last wednesday night and my walk home was really fun literally 10 separate non-sanctioned just random people who have bought out  Phantom fireworks and just let them all off for hours. Good show all around. 

Just today, I have haven't heard any fireworks, I think everyone finally has run out of screamers and everything else. 

Day two of my adventure weeks ago. We took the train to the first town to start. I have to say, everyone on our train car were americans. It was weird. I heard more american accents in Italy then I have in the past couple of months. We met a lovely couple from northern california.

So these towns are really small and there are a few little highlights in each of the towns. Mostly it is a lot of walking around in these cute towns that sort of come out of the side of the mountains. Also the priests wear the old style robes which my mom thought was adorable and kept trying to take pictures of them. I think it was sort of how I felt about the baby monks in cambodia.