Since Paris, we've had lots of things happen. Most of you know from my Facebook rants that Phil and I were evicted from our place of residence for a very unusual reason: we complained too much. The other tenants were loud, obnoxious drunks who smoked weed in the house despite our numerous requests to smoke it outside. The boiler rarely worked, so we spend many-a-mornings taking cold showers or boiling the kettle to have hot water. The ultimate showdown happened when I discovered some of my teabags missing from the pantry. We had also had some cans of Coke disappear not long before. Of course, I confronted the people in the house about the missing items, and of course, NO ONE knew ANYTHING about it. I decided to take matters into my own hands and write up some (not-so) nice flyers and post them on our cupboard doors. The "house captain" from next door spotted them and became offended, and confronted me. We had words. Well, I had words. Anyway, long story short, he came back with the landlord later that night after Phil got home from work, and we got evicted for complaining about people stealing our food. The landlord admitted that...we have it recorded on Phil's phone. So we had to move -- quick. We found a place about a mile away from there, and it's a little better. The next door neighbors are a bunch of loud mouth Poles, but we're in cahoots with the Po-Po about that. And I'm the only girl in the house, and the boys (excluding Phil) are all dirty, nasty, icky bachelors who can't work a freaking washing machine and who make the bathroom smell like pee when they miss the toilet and hit the bath rug. But enough of that.
We took a 2-day trip to Phil's sister's place up in Northampton. We had a nice little mini-vacay with Paula, her boyfriend, Scott, Phil's mom, and his godfather, Jimmy. We had a cookout, I was introduced to Malibu and Coke, and topped that off with some vodka & cranberry juice. Yeah, you all saw the picture....
In my increasing boredom sitting at home all day every day, I have developed a new hobby. Pinterest is 100% to blame -- I'm upcycling furniture and household items. I've done a jewelry box...here's the finished product:
FOOD is a big issue here. Let me just tell you what I have had to live without:
1. Ranch dressing
2. Chili Sauce
3. Knorr Taco Rice
4. Cherry Pie Filling
5. Authentic Mexican food (I'm almost dead because of this one.)
6. KFC Mashed Potatoes
7. Biscuits
8. A-1
9. Big Red
10. Mountain Dew
11. Dill Pickles
12. Pork Butt
13. All those fantastic McCormick spice mixes for things like chili, beef stew, etc. (Disclaimer: My friend Nik brought me some of those when she came to stay with us for a week.)
14. Longhorn steak (it's all angus here. Meh.)
15. Brunswick Stew and Honey Cornbread. (I've been craving it for weeks!)
16. Any decent candy and cereal you can think of.
I'm sure there is more to add to this list, but I don't even know what else. I found an American Sweets shop about 8 miles away, where I got a can of Mountain Dew, Vanilla Coke, a box of Nerds, and some Blow Pops. I also ordered some Funyuns, Cheetos, Strawberry cake mix, and pickles from an American foods website....I was desperate, okay?! I've already decided that the first thing I'm doing when I get home (provided I have an appetite) is chow down on some Mexican grub. I need a forreal margarita.
I'll top this blog off with Jubilee Celebration highlights. The first weekend of June, the entire UK celebrated Queen Elizabeth II's 60th anniversary of her reign on the throne of the British Monarchy. She is only the 2nd monarch to ever reach 60 years on the throne, so it's kind of a big deal. She seems in good enough health to exceed Queen Victoria's reign of 61 years, so time will tell what happens next.
There was a 4-day weekend for everyone, and there was plenty to do. Sunday, we made our way down to the Thames to try and get a spot riverside for the flotilla and Royal Barge viewing. Uhhh yeah right. We overslept and got there about 12:30 p.m....and we realized in hindsight that there was no point in even going that late. The sidewalks along the river were 20-30 people deep, and just chock-full-o-Brits. They weren't letting people on the bridges to view (we still haven't figured out why), so we eventually gave up and went back home to watch it on TV. It's truly a shame because I had on a really cute outfit. I was proud of my fashion that day. The good news is I can wear the same thing for my 4th of July party since our country's colors are the same!
We stayed home on Monday night and watched the Jubilee Concert on TV. There was absolutely no point in trying to get a spot on the Mall (short 'a' sound) to see it live, so we had our own little picnic right here on the bed. The concert was interesting. I'll just leave it at that.
Tuesday was the big day. It's the day the Royal Family traveled to St. Paul's Cathedral for a Service of Thanksgiving, and from there, went to Westminster, then came back down the Mall to Buckingham Palace in their carriages. We had a great spot -- right off the Mall on the corner of a side street..had a great view. Until they marched the Irish Guards Band right there. Before that, I managed to get a great picture of the Queen in her Rolls Royce on the way to church.
Throughout the rest of the day, I got some pretty good shots of people all decked out in their Union Jack clothes and paraphernalia. I'll make an album on Facebook for you all to have a gander at. We stuck around for them to come back so we could see the cool airplanes fly over our heads and make lots of noise. That was disappointing...only two groups of planes flew over; we nearly missed them, but I got a decent shot of the last group, the Red Arrows.
I think that's about it for now. I won't be a stranger. I fly back exactly 5 weeks from tomorrow, and Phil and I have lots planned to do between now and then. Next time: I'll write about having a 4th of July party in England. Should be a doozy!
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