Change is good

It's refreshing. The pub I worked at in Clapham has a new manager... my flat-mate Chris. Chris, who was head chef at the pub less than a week ago, left the food for scottish dude to cook and upgraded as new manager. Nina, the old manager was, as they say here, "made redundant" or fired. She brought too much of her personal problems into the pub. She did too much drugs. Funny thing, as much as I should naturally want to see her leave, I feel really bad for her. Nina treated me like shit at times. I often felt patronized when she spoke to me for some reason. I'm not sure what I did to make her dislike me or have her treat me the way she did. Nonetheless, I still feel shit that she's gone. I feel like Chris, Scottish dude, Jeanie and I are burglers. We've robbed her the only thing she knew for 2 years. That pub was her home. She lived upstairs for two years, worked there for two years, was manager for who knows how long! She decided it would be a good idea to move out, but it seems like since she's moved out, we all moved in and taken over. She must feel like she's lost a piece of her. Then again, I think it's for the best, for all of us. She needs to sort out herself and try something new. She got dumped and needs to find a better boyfriend.

As for me, London one of the most beautiful cities in the summer. With all it's clouds and rain throughout the winter, as soon as the sun shined and the temperatures rose, so did people's spirits. People are in good moods. People want to be outside. Its beautiful. 

I've found a new love for good coffee and lattes. I love random cafe shops and charity shops. How unique each one is, the people inside, the things you discover, I love it. 

As much as I love media, I have spent less and less time infront of the television. To be honest,  I really hope America can one day see the newspaper industry rise again to what it once was. Everyone reads the paper here! It's interesting to watch the morning papers being fliped and turned sideways inorder for people to fit on the tube in the morning and evening rush hours. 

I love sitting on my own and writing, I love reading.  I love random chats with random people at pubs. As grey as they make this city out to be, what a social group of people we are. People go to pubs every night of the week, just to chat, to learn, to listen. It's amazing. And now that the sun is shinning and the air is warm, what I love the most is the sight of working men and women in their suits and ties and heels and shoes, sitting on the curb at the end of the day with a pint of beer or a glass or wine. It's awesome. People crowd the streets outside of pubs to drink and enjoy the weather. I'll miss this city when I leave. 

EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH

GUESS WHO WAS EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH!!!! 

WEERRDDDD!!!! and extra 50 to keep me going just a little bit! 

And to think I've only been working here for a little under 2 months! 

Everyone is dope here... I really will miss the people I'm working with

BUT HOLLERR AT YA GIRL MAN!!! IM WORKING HARD!

G20

What looks like a crazy day in London, really didn't affect me much. Actually, it didn't affect me at all. Al was late to work because of the protests, but other than that, I don't think the media could have hyped people up any more than they already had. Half the videos they showed on television showed protesters surrounded by tons and tons of cameras, not small little sony digital cameras, I mean, like a Cannon Rebel DX something or another. People with Nikons were rockin front row seats at the protests today. Guess how many reporters were injured? A lot more than normal civilians! Which brings me to the conclusion that a number of the riot bralls could have been avoided if the damn press STFU for once. In 1990, a protest in Trafalgar Square took place against Margaret Thatcher's taxing practices, and that was absolute insanity: POLL TAX RIOT

But THIS SUMMIT RIOT was nothing like the one 19 years ago...

Hmmm

I've become obsessed with meeting new people. It's exciting! It's fun! It makes me think differently. I often find myself going out of my way to find a new place to get drinks or food or taking a different route home, just to get a new perspective. Then again, I've yearn for stability! I think I just want a job out here already that can keep me for a couple months. I feel like nothing is really promised for me at the moment. I could be out of work in two weeks and then be lost for work and need to hop on a plane. It would be sad considering I've worked so hard at finding work and a place to stay and friends and food and all that good stuff. I crave stability I think just so I can save the money to go traveling some more. I think I've finally started to get a feel for what I want to really do. I just need a video camera, a camera and my computer. I'll travel the world and put it out for the world to see, people need to stop being so chicken and get out and try something new! I can't believe I lived in such a bubble my whole life. It doesn't matter if you've lived in a huge Metropolitan like NYC or the smallest town in Nebraska, it's beautiful to live and feel a new culture. It's not about visiting the Eiffle Tower on your vacation, I mean live and work with the locals, get a pint a beer and find out what pisses off the dude that works at the corner deli shop or the dude at the bank or the woman that teaches. There is always a story to be told. 

Maybe the Peace Corps would be a good look for me. 

I woke up this morning wishing I came from money. How wonderful it must be to pay your bills on time and know you will eat well that night after a long days work. On the other hand, it's the lack of those things that's helped me realize how much I don't need them. 

I watched an old dude sit next to his wife on the tube. A posh sort, he rocked his argil scarf and wool peacoat. The couple read the paper as if they had an exam in an hour. I could tell they were married. Anywho, the dude got all upset because the train conductor had something other than a British accent and it was a bit difficult to hear him. "For Christ sake, can't they at least get someone to speak English!" he said out loud to his wife. His wife continued to read the paper, said something under her breathe as he continued... "They don't even dress properly. At least they could get someone that spoke English." 

I wanted to tell the dude that I spoke English perfectly fine and heard quite clearly what the train conductor announced. Or maybe I just wanted to give him a big ol' slap in the head. Wake up and smell the coffee Mr. Poshity Poshsters! People travel, listen to some other accents and maybe you can understand someone besides you and your wife. 

Hmmm, maybe Americans and Brits aren't so different after all... 

hahahah

Oh, excuse me sir, can you please STFU

It must be a New York thing. Are we that angry of a people? I love it. It's gotten so bad I've been tempted to strategically camp out on a busy city corner waiting for something to happen. 

Car fights! I love them! Not so much in NYC, those can get pretty ugly. But there's something about watching an angry British driver turn to the bike rider that almost caused a five car accident after swerving into the wrong lane to say, "Excuse me, but did you realize you almost hit me." Talk about anger management control. I can't even think back to the last time I spoke that politely to a person I wasn't mad at! Is there really a need to excuse yourself when your heart isn't there. Why lie to themselves? Save your breath London drivers and start speaking without thinking. No need to be polite, you don't like them anyway. The city is big enough, you probably won't run into them anyway... especially considering they ran into you first... (hahah.. I made a funny.) Maybe we should all just drive singing Bet Midler.

Oh I get by with a little help from my friends

Honestly, I don't think I'd be as happy right now or having the experience I've had without making friends. Life lesson dudes... it's no fun experiencing things without enjoying it with someone. It's the most beautiful feeling, giving someone a hug good-bye and thinking to myself, "Shit guys, I have a friend!" I actually found a good number of people who care enough about me that they'd even touch my skin to give me a kiss and a hug before leaving. They even call me once in a while to see how I'm doing. Amazing! Such a simplistic concept... friendship, yet so deep. I mean, think about how successful the show FRIENDS became! The whole show was just about a group of friends... and like woah, shits a hit!

It's been great, I mean, I do miss my plumber dude... he was my first real friend out here, but I've come to grips with it. It's fascinating how quickly people affect other people. All of my relationships here are based on me randomly popping into their world. Even at my new gig I picked up, the whole staff treats me like I've been there for years. Like, they actually care about what I'm doing with my life and I actually give a damn if one of them is having a bad day or stubs their toe (especially if it's the tiny one... those hurt yo!) 

For example, for the past 4 weeks, I've really gotten to know this guy named Tim. He's the other runner at the office. He's just awesome. His girlfriend is awesome... she rocks the dreads look right now. Funny, he's actually the only British dude I've met that doesn't like tea... Who does that? He puts me on all these random media facts in London, which may or may not do me any good in the future... unless I get to be on Who Wants to be a Millionaire?! (watch Slumdog Millionaire and then maybe you'll get my terrible joke/thought process)

Andy is another dude I've become good mates with. Him and his girl have been going out now for 7 years! Wowzers. Andy just looks out for me so much. We have the best chats about life and its great connecting with people who you'd never realize you had so many similarities with. Who would think a chick like me from the Bronx, would share similar goals as a dude from a small town in Devon, England. He's a drummer and I got to watch him live at the pub I use to work at. It's nice going back to the pubs I worked at, especially the one I used to live above. I made such good friends there. My two old Australian flatmates Ben and Anna. I love them and it was just so refreshing to see them as well yesterday. One of the regulars came up to me and bought me a Bulmers and said "Well you seem to be miss popular tonight huh!" Funny, I only worked and lived there a month. 

I can't even begin to explain how awesome my flatmate Chris is... and Jeannie and Scottish dude. Scottish dude is already planning out my birthday weekend. If nothing else works out here, I have nothing to regret or complain about. I've made some life long friends. It's a hard concept to grasp when you have your own circle of friends and you don't really need to find new ones, but for me, popping over here with nothing and finding so much... it just makes you really appreciative of what I have and it's made the relationships I have with people out here a lot stronger. 

No place like home..

I don't think it hit me till about a week ago... I HAVE NOT SEEN ONE ROACH AKA BUG AKA NASTY YUCKY THING AKA THE CRUNCHY SOUNDING THINGS WILL SMITH DID A SMASHING JOB KILLING IN MEN IN BLACK AKA THE CREATURE WE CAN NEVER SEEM TO GET RID OF NO MATTER HOW CLEAN YOU ARE!

Seriously, no lies... and I mean, I've worked in 2 pubs since I've arrived... I HAVE NOT SEEN A SINGLE MUTANT!! I can't believe it! As dirty as I sometimes think British people are (Although I do think it's mostly people from the pub I worked at), I feel like London is a damn pretty clean city. Three months and no bugs! It's awesome! No wonder I'm not ready to leave yet! I LOVE IT! 

While I'm on the topic... here's an interesting story that came out from the Guardian newspaper out here... 

How a cockroach put 30 people out of work

For the viewers of Turkmenistan's popular nightly news program, Vatan, it was another routine bulletin. But as the newsreader began the 9pm broadcast, viewers across the central Asian country spotted something unusual crawling across the studio table: a large brown cockroach.

The cockroach managed to complete a whole lap of the desk, apparently undetected, before disappearing. The program, complete with cockroach, was repeated at 11pm that night.

Turkmenistan's president, Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, was so upset when outraged viewers complained to the station that he fired 30 workers from the main state TV channel.