Keys to the castle

Mm, a few days without blogging, might happen.
Recap:

Not much worthwhile going on. Trying to keep on top of studying and living in general..
Was planning to take some pictures, but batteries only allow 5 shots after every re-charge, I'm trying to get hold of new ones.

Bought the great "Bob Dylan, no direction home: the soundtrack", recommended!
Bob

Thought I lost the key to my 'castle' yesterday, couldn't find them anywhere (2 minutes before I had to leave, figures). The thing is, if I lose my keys I won't be able to get in for at least an hour (I would probably have to call some accomodation emergency number, even then it would take a while. Service arround here isn't exactly beating any clocks). I would have to cross 2 closed gates, 1 closed hall door, 1 closed flat door, 1 closed room door.. you get the idea.

Note to self: néver lose key.
(Offcourse I found them in an unchecked pocket after some frantic minutes)

Rissotto for four. I'm betting we had our weekly share of vegetables in one day..
(without any vishy things, veggies, there's no point arguing)

Planning..

Yesterday evening we where going to make dinner (pasta offcourse) with some people from downstairs. That was gonna be it.

Instead arround 6 the fire alarm went of (again), in every room (imagine the constant loudness of a train passing by in every room). So we had to stand in the cold for about an hour (!) before the fire department came to shut it down. If there's ever a real fire going on.. actually it's not even funny.

Made pasta for 5 instead of 2/3 people, luckily we have an industrial-sized stash of dry pasta.
Talking 'till 1 am.

So much for doing anything else, but it was worth it.



On another note, these are the posters hanging on the advertising boards in my neighbourhood and all over the city (probably wherever there aren't any tourists).
"This campaign targets the small minority who break the law" - Home Office minister David Hanson
Makes you think.

Re-cap

(Alberto Ruggieri)

So I got another flatmate! (wasn't too happy with previous residents, so decided too move to our flat). That makes three of us.

I was just wondering about. The people that I know arround my accomodation: one with Indian background, one with Chinese background, one with Brazilian background, one with Zambian background, and offcourse some Britisch people. They all have lived in the UK much longer than me though, my English is worst by far.

There should be one more person moving in (doubt that he/she will actually show up).

That will have to be someone russian/arabic.. interesting

On another note, there's no apple-sauce to be found arround here!

Apparently it isn't too hard to make your own.

(kind of forgot about the picture 'till halfway the meal)

(Tom Proost)

Test audio-theory tomorrow!

Laundry day

Now, that's a first..

After revising some DIY notes I loaded two washer loads, two dryer loads followed inevitably.
Cost: £ 6,4 / 2 weeks. That's gonna add, but there's not really much you can do about it can you?

My ironing pieces-per-hour-rate isn't up to standards yet, but we'll cope.

On diversion

Interesting situations while riding the bus:
Here's the thing: my line is suffering from diversions, there are road works going on all over the route. That doesn't seem to be any problem when trying to get downtown, however, when I try to get back to my flat the following happens about every other three times:

(female voice) "-pling- this bus is going on diversion, please listen for further announcements"
(driver) "R....St... Road is going, we pass by ... with ... , make sure to .... fish .... thank you"
(all passengers start looking at each other, nobody éver gets what the driver is saying)
(passenger 1 goes to the driver) "I'm sorry sir do you go to x?"
(driver gets annoyed because he just announced and reacts in a way so that passenger 1 gets annoyed, he/she then starts complaining too other passengers)
(a few passengers wake up from there Ipod and realise the bus is on diversion, this results in panic and further driver annoyance)
(...this goes on...)

Three times out of ten the bus will suddenly circle round in the middle of its traject and start driving the route in the opposite direction.. right.

I managed to get home every time (there are a lot of busses), but it's always kind of an adventure whenever a diversion is announced.




Made tortillas and risotto (with the downstair neigbour).
Most vegetables in a risotto ever. It was very nice.

Acoustic

I was going through some old 2-track recordings.

"De nuttelozen van de nacht" aka "Les paumes du petit matin" aka "the useless of the night (I guess) ".

My (ex) acoustic band from Belgium. Nostalgia, that's for sure.

Have a listen and a laugh, we never took ourselves very serious though.
http://www.esnips.com/web/JudasProost

Identical

The thing with my accomodation: All the flats are exactly identical
(at first sight).

The problem: There's really no fundamental problem with that.

My problem: I frequently get desoriented whenever I enter somebody else's flat. It is my flat, oh no, it isn't. You get the picture

Citytrippin'

So I went on a citytrip.

The british museum of science was great! No entrance fee, 5 floors, thousands of items, rockets, computers, cars, iron lungs, dna, steam engines, an euthanasia machine (no, really)...
Really nice.

After my visit I had a walk through Hyde Parc (it's absolutely Huge!). The hot chocolat at Lido was a must (burned my tongue though). There was the Diana memorial fountain, the stereotype joggers and skaters, dozens of squirrels, hundreds of people just having a stroll.
It's a real stress-absorbing, perfectly maintained, stereotypical english, autumn-ish parc.


















School is alright, I've got a bit of a head-start on most courses though. No complaining here!

Offcourse, the latest creations:

(almost as good as the pasta at home..)










(cauliflower, chipped & baked potatoes, tomato, herbs)







(this week's winner: peas, carrots wokked, chipped potatoes)













Managed to squize-in a visit to piccadilly circus (just for the fun of it):

flatmate!

Finally, somebody else has shown up.

He's got a name that's kind of funny and has an indian background. But he seems like a really nice guy. Only one more flatmate to arrive!

Yesterday I went downstairs and had an evening chat with the people there, talked for 4 hours, nice folks.


Today I'm planning on going to the science museum and having another city-trip. We'll see how that works out.
objective: http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/