lunard136

London trip,

Day 9: Proposal!

Slow on the updates, sorry! But the days are just so busy that usually every time we have nothing planned, we sleep.

South shore day! We added a bit of money on our Oyster card, because the station we needed to go was right on the limit between zone 2 and 3 and our card only covers zone 1 and 2. I'm still honestly not sure of how their system works but I *think* they take the money at the end of the journey.

Today's mission: National Maritime Museum, Royal Observatory, Imperial War Museum and Churchill's War Rooms.

The National Maritime Museum was nice; the free section included a lot of... figurehead (? Figure de Proue. The thing at the very front of the boat) as well as some other artefacts that were very neat.

After getting sucked into the little shop we went out into the park to go to the Royal observatory. That park is beautiful, by the way. And huge. And also very steep.

At the top of the hill we could see the building with the big red ball on it, that is one of the first markers of time. The ball goes up at 12:55 pm and drops down at 1 O'clock. They don't do it when the winds are too strong or the weather too wet but this was a sunny day with just a light breeze and we had the chance to see it drop while waiting in line to take a picture of the Greenwich Prime Meridian. Waiting in line for an hour to take a picture of an arbitrary line on the floor might sounds silly but it's the sole reason of our trip there, so wait we did. And while waiting, on top of the red ball falling, we got to see a proposal, live, just like that! Never thought these things actually happened to people. I know: they are all over Youtube, but to see one live? Never!

After the picture was a small exposition on "Time and Space", meaning lots of (really neat) clocks and a few very old telescopes.

We got to walk pass the building where Sherlock got strangled by the Gollum (but couldn't get in because it was a paying exhibition) and then we made our way back to the bus to go to the National War Museum.

That place was awesome. I just wish I could go back when they finish remodelling everything for the anniversary of the first world war because so many things weren't in display at the time, but the old tank and the old motorbike (just like Sirius' ... I'm not a fangirl at all, what are you talking about?) more than made up for it. The section about the holocaust was a bit depressing, but so well stocked and documented. Really good museum.

We then went to where Google Map told me Churchill's War Rooms were situated... to find out Google lied. By the time we could get at the actual site, it would be closed, due to a detour we'd have to make because the Jubilee line was closed for repairs. Instead we went out in the park and saw Canada's War Memorial.

...

As a Canadian, I can honestly say I am ashamed. That thing is... Best not linger on it too much.

We then went home, because tomorrow we'd have to wake up early: We're going to see Mojo again!

London Trip,

Day 7: Baker Street, Mojo and Comedy

We woke early to get in line in front of the theatre at 7:30 am to get day tickets for Mojo, waiting until 10 to buy them. Front row, right in the middle (!) and direction “Cool Britannia” to buy my Underground bag (who’s so pretty!). We then left with the mission of a)Visiting the Sherlock Holmes Museum b) going to the Beatles Store c)Going to the British Library.

Arriving on Baker Street, after coming back on our tracks because we went the wrong way, we saw the line. I knew the museum would be popular, I just never thought it would be like that. 1 hour 30 minutes of queue! The queue passed in front of the Beatles Store, so we knocked that one off while waiting.

The museum is really neat. On top of the re-created apartments and of Doctor Watson’s and Sherlock Holmes’ room, you get little replica of scenes from some of the stories. There was a huge dog head mounted on the wall, in a big glass table was the severed thumb of an engineer, a red-headed man was writing at a desk, etc. There are so many details crammed in there I’m sure I missed a few. Then there is the big book that contains fan letters 221b has received, and a place on the wall were you can leave a note. The boutique made me want to buy everything, but I resisted and bought only a pin and a button for my bag.

Coming out we realised the British Library was going to have to be put on another date if we wanted to see the play. I’m not going to review it again, but it was amazing.

After the play we passed the M&M’s Store which was loads of fun (and gosh the temptation to buy one of those huge mugs was big) to look at, but we didn’t buy anything. Going out we saw a cute faire and a guy who was talking about a comedy club. We stopped and talked to him, he pointed us in the right direction and, after a stop for a quick (delicious) bite, to the comedy club we went!

The animator, Inkey Jones, was very good, as well as the first comedian (which I’d really love to remember the name) we had fun. The least said about the last comedian, the better, but the rest was really a lot of fun.

London trip,

Day 8: Old and Dead

left the flat at 11 this morning, trying to not leave too late but not really wanting to get a move on. Today’s mission: a)British Museum b)National Gallery c)Café in the Crypt d)British Library

The British museum was amazing, the details left on some of the pieces were just incredible. We finished our visit around 2 pm, trying to hurry to succeed in hitting all our marks today.

Too hungry to go to the gallery yet, we stopped to eat I think the most delicious hot-dog I’ve eaten, ever, before going to sit (because at that point it was sit or die) inside of St-Martin-in-the-Fields’ Café in the Crypt were we can eat a pastry and drink a tea (or hot chocolate in Ashes-and-Dust’s case) on top of dead people. I defy you to top that.

Next, the gallery! With dwindling motivation, we got up and walked to the other side of the street. Some pretty paintings, some scary painting and I wish taking pictures were allowed because I saw naked Santa, stoned of grapes, heading to an orgy. Nobody will be able to convince me that this wasn’t what the painting was trying to convey.

Of course we didn’t keep to our schedule, so by then it was too late for the Library, which is moved to another day, so we walked down Whitehall to see the Horse Guard Palace and 10 Downing Street and Big Ben again who sang for us at 6 O’clock and then go back home after a quick Tesco stop.

I’m tired and my feet want divorce, but great day!

London Trip,
Days 5-6: The Town that Keeps Lying to Us.

On Christmas Day, with nothing open, no public transport and our plans to go see a movie (as we usually do on Christmas day at home) cancelled due to no cinemas being open, I went to take a walk in the beautiful sunny day to take pictures of the neighbourhood. Found a huge amount of pigeon sitting in a tree, which... They never do back home. Tasted some Big Hoops "BBq Beef Flavour". They taste like a mix of Ringollos and uncooked Ramen. Still not sure if I like them or not.

After listening to some, never seen, birds I went back home, made Christmas cookies in a gaz oven for the first time in my life while my friend made supper and then we got ready to watch Doctor Who with our supper, a Glass of Irn Bru for me and Fizzy Lemonade for my friend, the Christmas cookies, Jammy Dodgers, mince pies and Christmas Crackers.

A few thoughts on those:
1- Gaz oven isn't really made for even cooking, is it? Especially small ones...
2- Ever tried to find Corn Starch in England? All I had was the picture of the back of a box with the recipe of the cookies on it. I asked a clerk, who asked a co-worker who asked their boss, who went to "check" (I'm assuming he has internet) and he came back saying "I knew we had it, only under a different name! It's Cornflour you want!" Finding Icing Sugar was a similar experience. And so many different kind of Flour...
3- I'm slowly developing an addiction to Irn Bru, Jammy Dodgers and Mince pies. Which is a big problem as I a) don't live here and b) don't live in a Country that sells those.
4- The cheesy jokes in the crackers really are cheesy but my friend got the best one out of the box of six ("Q: Which animal should you not play cards with? A: A Cheetah" which only work is you take up the brit's accent) and those little hats and gifts are really fun and not useful at all!


After Doctor Who Shaun of the Dead was playing on the telly, so I watched a bit of that before heading to bed because brutal wake-up at 7:30 this morning to a) Seek info about day tickets for Phantom b) Buy the Underground bag I saw the other day c) See the British Museum d) See the National Galerie e) go drink tea at St-Martin-in-the-Field's Café in the Crypt.

The Overground was closed today, even thought it's not mentioned anywhere, so we took the only bus that we knew would take us to a tube station. After an hour commute, I was able to do B, but all the rest were closed (St-Martin's was opening at 3pm, but by the time we got there it was only 2 and we were too hungry and cold to wait). We did walk on Regent Street (because we headed the wrong way) and saw a huge, five stories toys store (Hamley's) with very cool staff and see the decorations on Oxford Street, as well as one of The Noses of London (which an artist put a bit everywhere as a poke to all the cctv cameras being “nosey”) and we saw many times Leicester Square Station (partly because we were so tired we came back a bit on our tracks for no reason at all), which we tried and tried to hear the recording to know how the heck that one was pronounced (we finally did at the end of the day)

As well as a very intense pigeon fight.

All along during this trip we kept seeing little that ended up being false (a door that isn't one, a public toilet that appeared to be free but wasn't, that sort of thing), but today was the worst. We saw what appeared to be a Cadbury store. I was really happy at the prospect of visiting one. Turns out it's like those "Pepsi" convenience store, only this one is sponsored by Cadbury. Lies.

Waking up at 6 tomorrow to go wait in line to buy day tickets for Mojo. Hopefully they'll have some. And tomorrow is the visit to 221b Baker Street!!

London Trip,
Day 3-4: Braving the Elements (and Dung-Twigs)

We woke up around noon, not having slept for two days, and started our day. Today's missions: 1- Finding out if Phantom sells day tickets, 2- Big Ben to take a picture of me in from of it to send to my family by mail 3- Coming back to the flat to get ready for the 10:30pm bus trip to Edinburgh.

We didn't plan much but we knew where-ish to go. Except I forgot our map. And the address of the theatre Phantom is playing in. Also we weren't certain which tube station to get off at, between Victoria and Westminster, for Big Ben.

When we left it was raining on and off and from what we saw on the street the wind was making the use of umbrellas really not safe. We decided to go without one. And when we got out the light rain decided that heavy rain would be more fun. Well, we wanted the full English Experience... we got it.

So Overground, change to underground at Euston. Getting out at Victoria Station and walking around a bit made us realize it was the wrong stop and, after stopping to ask direction from a very nice man ("you going there on... No, take the bus, I'd take the bus"), we got inside our first double-decker bus! They keep saying, in a little recording, where the bus you just got on goes, which I find so useful! They should do that back home!

Big Ben was pretty, took a photo, crossed the road met two mimes who really wanted us to take a picture with them, which we did, and then tried to get us to pay for the picture. I gave them a pound, which I find reasonable, because "yeah, thanks, something to tell" and they really tried to push us to give them £20! £20!! for a photo! That's 40$ you nutter! I took back the pound that was still in his hand and I said I was deleting the picture because no way it that worth more than going on the London Eye, which we aren't doing because it was too expensive. He said that he couldn't be certain the picture wasn't saved somewhere else and I said it's the pound I gave you or the picture deletion, your choice, and he chose the pound. I was really careful not to take a photo of the guy walking around in a Shrek outfit after that!

When we had our fill of Big Ben for this rainy night we went inside the tube station to try and figure out where to go for Phantom. My film camera wouldn't work for a reason completely mysterious to me and when I saw a little Kodak shop inside the station I tried my luck and asked that, even though it wasn't their job, if by any luck one of them could help me I'd be grateful and one of them could! My camera is working! *pets camera*

We saw a "reduced price tickets" booth for many shows and went to see if they had any for phantom (no) and where was the theatre anyway (this exit, to your right) and we got out at Piccadilly Circus. We never saw His Majesty Theatre but I saw the spot where the dude in a bomb jacket was reading from a padger in Sherlock, the theatre where Les Miserables is playing, and an Underground messenger bag that I was this close to buy online a few months ago but didn't (I'm so going back there to buy it and save the shipping!). It was raining all that time but the weather is nice so we weren't cold.

Came back to our flat after making a spot of groceries (because everything is closed on the 25th) and get ready for the bus without having the info we wanted or having print the photos I need to send. Changed out of our soaked clothes for nice dry ones and then direction Victoria Station where the indication for the Victoria Coach Station stops two street away from the coach station. Not confusing at all. After asking this really nice guy we found it and then we tried to figure out which gate our bus was... not obvious. Two different information got us close to the right door. I was thirsty so I asked the lady at the bathroom pay-point (you need to pay for public bathroom usage here) if there was a water fountain in the bathroom she looked at me with big eyes and asked "a what?!" "A water fountain. You press on a button and water comes out and then you get to drink it?" "... No." But her "no" made it sound like it was something that doesn't exist here which I find sad. We waited in one of the lines we were told was the right one and when I pushed My friend (who had the tickets on her phone) to go ask we realized that if we hadn't ask we would have plain just missed the bus because none of our info was correct.

After one of the most miserable coach rides in my life (like, really. You have a microwave and a sink in those buses but if you sit straight up your knees are poking at the back of the seat in front of you), having had the surprise of having to wear a seat belt on a bus for the first time of my life and eight hours later, we were in Edinburgh! Were it was really cold! (or maybe that's the no sleep/sun not up combo talking)

When the sun finally got up (the lazy thing) we could see this magnificent city all around us. It's really beautiful. Went to the Elephant House (where JKR wrote the first HP) to eat breakfast (they had my favourite tea on stock so who cares it cost us £10 (20$); they had lapsang, I was happy), then direction castle.

Beautiful. And that's without the view and the history taken into account. We tried our best to take outside pictures but the wind was so strong it kept making us move. I never felt winds as strong as those; you would be walking in a straight line and then the wind decides "nope, that direction you go". Quebec is a windy city but that was waayy above it. We went inside the Great Hall for the "A Christmas Carole at the Castle" thing they had until the 24th (which is way our visit was that day) and there was a man, dressed as Dickens, telling us about where some of the traditions for Christmas came from (the Christmas cracker and the tree, etc.) while trying to talk over the noise of the wind (did I mention the crazy wind?) and telling us where the tradition for kissing under the mistletoe comes from and that the name "mistletoe" originally meant "dung-twigs". I had a lot of fun.

Coming back from the castle we visited a few shops, selling mainly insanely soft things make in cashmere in tartans colours (but I didn't have £99 to put on a pair of gloves or a scarf, sadly) and a few Scotch shop were I bought my dad his Christmas present. We ate at a sandwich shop and then, turning the corner in direction for the bus stop to take us to the airport, we saw a Baked Potatoes shop and immediately regretted our choice of venue. Oh well.

Double-Decker bus ride to get to Edinburgh airport (were the gate tells us "Thank you for using Edinburgh Airport. Haste ye back!") to finally spot a water fountain (!!!! they do exist! In Scotland, anyway.) before stepping in our delayed plane (because crazy winds). The small trip from Quebec to Montreal gave us pretzels and apple juice. the small trip from Edinburgh to London gave us chocolate cookies and sprite with alcohol if we wanted and here; have another cookie, and we love our job and merry Christmas. I love British Airways. I might not take Air Canada again. Just for that. Lots of turbulence (because WIND) but no real problem on the flight.

Got to the Tube station to change at Leicester Square to change at Euston to the overground where we had to run to catch what we thought was the last train of the day (turned out to be the second to last.) to get back at the flat. My friend Skyped her family while I checked for cinemas nearby (because no public transport on Christmas and since everything is closed we usually go see a movie on the 25th back home) to realize that cinemas are closed, here, on Christmas day. Bummer. Went to bed. I got up at 11 (because we, again, made a two-days-without-sleeping) and my friend is still sleeping, but it's ok because we have no other plans than Doctor Who tonight, apparently. And gift opening. Let's not forget Gifts.

Also there is a tree growing through the roof of the building in front of our kitchen window...

London Trip,
Day 1-2: Everything That Can Go Wrong Will Go Wrong But Will Straighten Itself Out in the End.

(bear with me this one is gonna be long a lot of stuff happened)

We got to Quebec’s airport way early for our flight to Montreal (that was supposed to get us there two hours before our connecting flight to London) and out flight got delayed. Like really delayed. Like Air Canada took pity on us and gave us another flight so we wouldn’t miss our corresponding flight late.

The plane arrive at 6:45pm, 20 minutes before the Montreal-London flight boarded. We were really hungry by that point (me realizing I hadn’t eaten at all since I woke up at 7:30am and Ashes-and-Dust had just had a soup) so we stopped at the airport’s Tim Horton’s to quickly grab a sandwich and fast-walk to the International Gate where our boarding passes were checked by a very rude lady and just after we crossed that line (the line where you can’t come back from) Ashes-and-Dust realized she left her winter coat at the Tim Horton’s, on the other side of that line.

She went back to deal with the rude lady, who turned out to be not-so-rude-after-all , so she could call another person to describe her coat to so that person could call another-other person to go see if her coat was still there. It was! We got in line for board the plane just in time and then waited for about an hour because we were in line to de-ice the plane because by then the light snow had turned into freezing rain (if that’s the correct term for Pluie Verglaçante… Water that falls from the sky and turns to ice when it touches something).

The Flight Attendant was really sweet (and showed us photos of her stop at Winter Wonderland) and there was a girl that kept whining because she kept being delayed in her flights even though Air Canada did all it could to get her on time to Austria. I mean freezing rain is really dangerous for a plane, lady, and before that it was a snow storm so give them a little break, maybe?

We couldn’t sleep at all in the plane (because plane) but the view! Oh god the view! Over the clouds with the moon lighting our way and so many stars!

Got off the plane, went to get our luggage and mine wasn’t there. (yaayy…) When I got to the counter and explained to the clerk and started to fill the reclaim sheet he went… somewhere… and came back with it (he said it fell off the conveyor and it was out in back, but I think he’s a wizard and made it appear. That’s what I’m sticking with, anyway). Passed the border, got a stamp in my passport from THE NICEST border agent I’ve ever encountered. Got caught for filming in a place I thought it was ok to start filming and apparently it wasn’t (Oops)

Then direction Euston Station to leave our biggest bags to go in search or a converter to plug our computers into the wall (we belatedly realized the one I had was for periods of 10 minutes max and not for bigger stuff than hair dryer) and we got directed there, and there, and maybe there and an hour later we found an electronics shop where we learned computer cables do the voltage changes themselves so all we needed was an adapter which we had already.

Direction Paddington Station because both my mom and I watched Paddington when we were young (so that’s her Christmas gift.) were we saw pigeons. Inside. Very zen pigeon, too. Never got so near to one in my life. And they are *everywhere*. Inside. (ok there is a open door to the outside but some places are so big it doesn’t look like we are outside). And boats, that are shops. Or shops, that are boats.

I thought the “mind the gad” thing was a bit over the top, though cute, thing they did for that tiny gap between train and platform, but Oh Geez that gap is huge sometimes!

Came back to Euston, exhausted, to get our bags back and find the overground station to get to our flat. The overground station isn’t indicated anywhere in an obvious way. Or it is but we missed it. After half an hour we asked and got to the train about 5 minutes too late to get the one that would get us to the flat on time for the keys pick-up at 4pm.

No internet, no phone (well, yes phone but hello long-distance fees) meant we couldn’t text Laurie (the landlord) to tell him. (there is wi-fi EVERYWHERE in this city but you need to be a member on it and we aren’t.) We couldn’t remember the right stop, so we took the first of the two that were the closest to our street. Of course it was the wrong one and we had to fast-walk more then 200 door addresses before getting to our flat where nobody was there (we were 20 minutes late by that point).

We thought for sure he had left and just when we were thinking about either giving up on the no-fees and opening our phones or trying to find a free wifi spot, Ian showed up asking if we were there for the flat.

Ian is our upstairs neighbour, really nice guy (well anybody with keys would have fallen in that category quite frankly at that point) and he opened up for us and Laurie was already inside, still cleaning after the last tenants had left at noon (the ring bell doesn’t work. And the tv. But Laurie swore he’d get it working before the Doctor Who Christmas Special, which is all that matters).

We went to Tesco to buy stuff for breakfast this morning. The cheese. The cheese is SO cheap here! I’m living on cheese for two weeks. A huge triangle of Brie that would have cost about 13$ back home was something like £2!

We went to bed at 9pm after sending word to everyone we were still alive, (or 4pm EST) which means we had been up for roughly 33 hours.

Now we are leaving to see Big Ben under the rain, see if Phantom has day tickets and then coming back to get ready for our 8 hours bus trip to Edinburgh!

Freakking out a big. I've plan (and saved for) this trip for two years and not my countdown says 6 days and it doesn't look real.

All I want to do is pack. Only I can't because I need my luggage this week because work takes me away from town. Which makes it feel like I'm leaving in the longest week possible and also in two days because I come back from work this Friday around 11am and leaving for London Saturday at 4h30pm (dear god I hope the weather won't get us stuck out of town for a day. I swear, if they close the roads I WALK. Also good weather for the flight would be good...)

My friend is loving my crazy planning habits right now because she's the "yeah we should plan our routes and stuff, good idea... Tomorrow" kind of girl (which I totally respect and it's fine) and I'm more the "there isn't enough paper on the planet to plan this" kind of girl which means this trip (should) go a lot straighter than it would have because I've uncovered little stuff that would have bumped us out if we didn't plan at all (as well as ending up doing everything on the last day due to procrastination. I know us).

I refrained myself from doing an actual planning, like "day one is this, day two is this", other than the Fixed Point in Time events because let's be real, it wouldn't work. We'd be tired one day and screw everything up. What I did was put everything that was close to other stuff together, put them on a page along with routes to get there and if we are walking of taking transport and added the transit time as well as the sightseeing time at the bottom of the page. this way we can either put them all in a hat and pick one at random every morning or just look at them and decide which we are doing that day, but without missing anything from out must see list!

So far our Fixed Point in Time are:
22 Dec - Getting there. (I just looked at the renting site and the flat is rented the day before, which means we only get the keys after 4pm. the plane lands at 7:30 am. At least we won't be tempted to lay down...)
24 Dec - Edinburgh (Christmas Eve in a CASTLE! Also: Elephant House; were JKR wrote HP)
25 Dec - The Hobbit (because everything else, including transport, is closed on that day in London)
31 Dec - Winter Wonderland in Hide Park followed by the New Year Fireworks
1 Jan - New Years Parade at Buckingham Palace, some sightseeing and going to the WhoShop.
2 Jan - Fleet Street, St Bart's, Indian food and David Tennant (in the Richard II play)
5 Jan - Leaving (?)*

And we still have to decide when we leave for Cardiff for The Doctor Who Experience, but that's using blablacar.com which means the dates will be at the last minutes.

This is what we'll do (so far. not done yet. and obviously the dates are just to know if we have enough days to do everything) I you want to know It's on goprotravelling.com: http://www.goprotravelling.com/trip/3978b5f7326e2a448d3bde47cc9f71db


And my friend and I will try to film as much as we can out of our trip to make an amazing souvenir of one video-a-day on youtube, but this is coming from two girls who see something amazing, while holding a camera, and realize they didn't take pictures of it because they were too busy being amazed.... so not sure how that will end up but we'll try (this way it's like you are coming with us! Free trip to the UK for you!)

*Yes, I realize that it overly optimistic but hey! you never know! if someone offers me a job and take care to accelerate a work visa for me I'm not coming back :p )

I got home last night to the sight of two meat pucks on the table and two hamburger bread, waiting for someone to do something with them. I jokingly said to the flatmate “ok, you now officially have no more rights to complain to you’re girlfriend about her meals she leaves on the table all day (and yes, she does eat them). “they have just been made” he said “it’s only been half an hour.” meat. half an hour on the table.

He didn’t take it well. He came to knock on my door five minutes later to say “there is a works of difference between half an hour and a whole day, I’ll let you know” to which i said “gosh, i don’t care” and closed the door, going to bed.

He called me at 11:44 pm which i didn’t answer, then knocked on my door three times between the call and 1:15am. I didn’t answer and tried to sleep.

This morning i wake up to for angry notes under my door, all basically saying the same thing in different level of anger, and a fifth note saying he left me notes under my door and I’m cool and we’re alright.

… What?

(The intro is really long, but really this is so crazy I think the end is worth sticking for.)

So Monday I went out of the city for two days with my boss. Only the two of us because it's a special job that only needs two people and we are the one to do it (happens about 5 times a year. If that.)

In the car, on the way (3 hours drive) my boss told me to prepare myself for Wednesday morning because he had to meet MP (co-worker) and I about our not getting together well. He asked me if something happened in the hotels (we stay in hotels for a week every month we we go out of town, always two per room, so we share). I said no, apart from the her snapping at me for waking her up the morning after she asked me to wake her up in the morning, no. (she takes for ever to wake up. so I thought I'd light up the room before entering the shower, this way the light would slowly enter her subconscious and wake her up in a natural way.) I also told him that she came to me the day after (not the same day because she didn't talk to me all day that day) to tell me that it's not my fault: I couldn't have known that being woken up makes her really angry. There was also the one time I mistakenly set my alarm an hour too late (making me wake up 10 minutes before we were to leave for home, but not noticing before entering the shower) that she woke up to my boss knocking on the door asking if we were coming. Not that she bothered to tell me through the door of the shower (or after I got out, for that matter) to hurry up because we were late, no. Instead she decided to be mad at me because what woke her was a knock on the door.

My boss told me "well, it's because she claims you savagely shake her awake when you are in hotel rooms to wake her up in the morning" to which I answered "...whh.. uh what?!" After that first attempt at waking her I never tried again. let her be late for all I care! Also, as everyone knowing me knows, I'm not a fan of touching people. Of all the ways to savagely wake someone up, you can bet shaking them awake will not figure on my list if ever the will takes me. My boss knows this and took my side (apparently even his boss seemed doubtful that I could do this. I bark, I don't bite) but he still needed to talk to us together (so we could magically become best friends I guess).

Thing is: If they hadn't believe me, I could have been in grave danger of being fired because of this. This could be considered assault.

So Wednesday comes and she's sick so the days passes well then today comes and she's there and yay meeting.

My boss tries to tell us (though he later told me it was really to her he was talking, which was nice of him because even though I knew he was on my side, during the meeting I wasn't so sure any more) that it's not always the others that are to blame, that we should maybe ask ourself if there are things we can change and if there are things that makes us uncomfortable, we can talk about it to try and make them better. She talked alright.

• She said she hadn't receive a formation.

I'm the one who forms the newbies. I gave her a formation. Of course, when you make everything in your power to convey to someone that you are not listening to a word they are saying, maybe you might miss a bit of information or two. My boss knows this as I told him so at the very beginning, when I heard him repeat the same things I told her. (The job is easy: point, scan, count, enter number. little things here and there but you don't need a degree.)

• She said every time, especially at the beginning, she asked about something I would answer her in an abrupt way, as if it was obvious.

To which my boss actually said "Really? because I quite remember being uncharacteristically chipper when she started to show you the job and happy to show you new things" (hah!) and I said "And I told you from the very beginning that I was the kind of person who had difficulty controlling her tone of voice" (See Katz? I used it! It didn't work, but I used it!) "I told you not to take it personally and you told me that it wasn't a problem at all."

• She said that she felt really uncomfortable when I told her that next time she would set her alarm, I would use the bedside lamp to hit her on the head.

Hum... Sorry what? "I never said that" "yes you did. I wouldn't invent something like that because that's not the kind of person I am, so it's true."

Honest to whatever deity you want, that is what she said. It's true, guys, because she says it is.

What happened:
The alarm clock: Hers is a very loud, very shrill kind of angry fire-truck sound. And... somehow... she doesn't hear it. (but don't open the light! That she notices) So that one time she put her alarm before mine (one minute exactly before mine. Mine being at 5:45, I find it doubtful it's not done on purpose [because who puts their alarms at 5:44?], but I let it pass) She finally pressed on it two minutes latter. Her alarm is *really* shrill. I was stuck on my bed with both hands on my hear to try and not have my eardrums bleed. Also kind of make me be grumpy all day. Not fun. I asked her not to put it before mine. I specified "put it two minutes after mine if you must, but please never again before!"

Which I don't think is unreasonable.

The lamp: We were in Bonaventure when we saw the most hideous bedside lamp I have ever seen in a hotel. Huge (I think it was twice the bedside table's height), in a faux-rock carved look done in pastel (tones of blue and pink and mauve) and really laughable. She said something about why would anyone ever buy something like that (it's not even a kind of fit-in with a weird décor kind of thing. It's just the lamp. It's ugly! I think I have a photo somewhere...) Unless they were related to the person that made it and even then she wasn't sure it was a good reason. I (jokingly. I never thought I needed to put that here, but apparently I do: I WAS SAYING THIS JOKINGLY) Well, maybe they wanted to be "that motel who had a crime committed in" and they decided to provide us with the best blunt object they could think of for somebody to kill their roomy during the night.

But maybe the chuckle we shared after wasn't a "we are having fun" kind of chuckle on her part but a "omg she's going to kill me I'm nervous" kind of chuckle... But I doubt it.



So that's about what happened. My boss took my side, again, which is lucky because, again, making threats to bodily harm a co-worker is a very good cause for getting fired!

(on top of that she has the maturity of a seven years old and always wants to be told how good she is. My boss was already getting fed-up by her princess attitude, her obvious lies aren't helping her cause.)

I think I've just had the worst customer service. Not in a "He was so rude" kind of way but in a "so not useful" kind of way.
I just bought a ChromeBook from Future Shop (that's like a best buy) because twice in a month my laptop didn't want to booth up and just got stuck going "beep!beep!beep!". They had only one "expert" in the computer section and...

I started with "I have some questions about the Chromebook" and he went "ok!" and started walking towards it. He didn't say another word I didn't coaxed from him. I asked the difference between the 236$ model and the 271$ model (apart from the brand and the price) and he explained that the cheaper one had a mechanical hard drive but more gig space. Well, I say explained... he said just that. and then proceeded to lounge on the counter and give me a smile.

I said I'd think about it and left the store to think about it.

I came back and, after he finished with a previous customer I said I wanted the cheaper one with more space, asked him (because I had time to fiddle on it a bit) how to access the start menu and he didn't know. (turns out on this one what stands for a start menu is visible. It just wasn't on the demo.) I said I'd take it and he then said it was more of a tablet, less of a tiny computer even though it has a keyboard built in and no touch screen. I asked the difference and he said "well it uses apps" after a good 3 minutes of asking the same question in different ways all I got was that it uses apps instead of programs and that I really was the one to know if it would fill my needs. So I ask about downloading torrents and he said "oh, yeah! You can absolutely look at stuff streaming online!" I mention I was more of a torrent user and HE DIDN'T KNOW WHAT A TORRENT WAS! How are you an expert?!?

The guy was a total jock, talking about going to the gym to "build up pipes" to his coworker as I paid. I wanted a geek. I like geeks a lot more. especially while buying a computer.

well, tablet. So far it's ok... but I can't download torrents, apparently, and I can't have outlook, as this is google, so no notifications of new email on that account. I'll have to hope my normal laptop doesn't completely die on me.

Weee! got my new bed (gosh they make mattress high these days) and a side table! I had the most beautiful little lamp, shaped like a lily, to put on it but when I tried to light it flames came out of the switch so that's going to the garbage.

Thinking (but not really) of buying a clap on for the ceiling fixture. That could be fun. Or not. Is it cheesy? It's cheesy. Is it? Anyway it must be too expensive for what little fun it could be.

J and I moved the box ourselves and then Flatmate insisted women couldn't move a mattress, so (because his friend bailed on us) he asked the neighbour to help... the neighbour with half a right lung due to cancer. To go up and then down 4 flight of stairs with a mattress and then up one. Idiot. I was able to convince the man to let me handle the last part of the journey and everybody made it out alive.

I also accidently knocked Flatmate's painting of a cat with flowers downs the wall (not a pretty cat painting, either. Very 80s and almost... abstract) and got him to agree to replace it with one of my photos of his choosing that I will get enlarged to put in its place. He picked the white egret in the lake which is one of my favourite so yay!

Now I just need to kick myself in the back to put my CD shelves up and my room will be done!