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Filler for now

I'll do full updates later, I've got a backlog of notes and travel experiences and photographs from the past few weeks... it's been nearly a month since I posted last, hasn't it? Yikes... I'm sorry...

What have you missed? Jon came to visit and we went *everywhere* (it was amazing), I've been going crazy with how stressed I am, and when my internship is done I'm going to the Alps to finally see Melanie for the first time in ages before I head home.

So, here I am on the second last day of my internship. I'm trying desperately to finish up these promotional videos but I'm not a very good editor. Don't get me wrong, I can edit. When I have the time, I can edit fairly well. But I am *not* a Good Editor. I can't edit amazing pieces in the blink of an eye, I make mistakes and stumble. Sometimes it feels like I'm groping in the dark when I use my editing software... Ellis once told me there are 3 ways you can have editing, but you can only ever have 2 of those three. It'll either be fast and good but expensive, fast and cheap but bad or cheap and good but slow. I am "cheap, good and slow" in that saying. And right now, I'm trying to be fast and cheap... without having the finished product be terrible.

What am I doing right now? Waiting on the render that never ends.

I am so inept that this one sequence I'm working on seems to constantly need to be rendered... ok, so it's not really my ineptness, it's how complex this particular one is... but it makes me feel inept so bleh.

Plus this particular sequence is next to impossible because one interview is with a person who is a constant re-phraser who never actually starts or finishes a complete sentence and the other says 'like' every other word... so beyond the issues of trying to edit a good piece waffling back and forth between two people (one person is easy, 3 has some symmetry, but 2? It's a painfully constant back and forth) I'm dealing with people who do not talk in an editable manner. Blah.

For my next trip, I shall try to edit 2 complete single interview pieces within 4 hours... I need an Amped energy :/

Oh look, my render's finally done... for now.

TTYL... probably very later >.>

Dippy Jones Across the Pond: Day 69 - Happy Birthday to me!!!!!

So, most excellent birthday made even better by the day of my trip it happens to fall on? Yes. My day is complete.


Today, I walked into my office like any other today. But today, someone else had been in my office first...

How did I know? They left a clue:

XD SO ADORABLE! It spells out my name and everything!

I was talking to Miriam on Friday and had mentioned that my birthday was on Monday, I guess she decided I needed an army of cupcakes! Such a great surprise. I love my co-workers! The card was super cute too... I think it's made of fabric or something... it doesn't feel like normal paper.

The cupcakes are not only adorable and creative, but absolutely delicious as well, in case you were wondering. I ate the one on the end with the little <3 flag first. Now I need to decide how to devour my name... I'm thinking of starting with the A. If it were shaped like an animal, I'd have to bite the head off first, it's just the rules... but since it's a name, I think I'll eat it from end to beginning, keep it recognizable as long as possible... Ok, so I'm severely bizarre; your point?

When I got home I went for a run, and you'll never believe it but I managed to jog, not walk briskly or alternate between kinda running and depressing limps, but full out jog for a whole episode of How I Met Your Mother without stopping, or dying of an asthma attack! I've found my exercise muse; television. And people say it's making America fat, puh-leez! I suppose it's partially because I'm used to watching TV with no image that it works for me. I used to stay up way later than my parents thought I was listening to the Gilmore Girls on Global TV once I discovered that my radio can pick it up at the lowest band of the dial. But I digress. A full 20 minutes of proper jogging without immediate ill effects! Go me! It was followed by another 20 minutes of walking briskly and jogging intermittently, yet another episode of HIMYM.

Then, when I was home from my jog, I made myself some smoked salmon pasta, which left something to be desired but still, smoked salmon is delicious! And then ate some of my Ben & Jerry's Phish Food. Mmmm.... The Phish is Delish! ^_^

I also shared some of my cupcakes with Katie and Faye. They're too good to keep to myself! ... I think I should convince Miriam to give me that recipe... I won't say they're better than Heather's, but maybe I just haven't had cupcakes in a little too long :P

But look at that! There's even a heart made of sparkly sugar on a couple of them! Awwwww!

They did look a little nicer in the office though... Transport wasn't great for them. Nor was my relentless picking at the edges of the icing for just one more hit of the sugary sweet.

Anyways, it's well past my bed time. I think it's time to hit the hay... or eat myself into a sugar shock. Decisions, decisions!

Dippy Jones Across the Pond: Day 68 - So far? Best Birthday EVER!

This weekend I had been considering taking a day trip to Newcastle-upon-Tyne (3hrs on a train each way? Yikes..). But I had fallen asleep with my window open, so when I woke up (at 4 am), my allergies were so oppressively bad I couldn't breathe right, I couldn't sleep anymore, my eyes could barely open and my sinuses felt like they were going to blow my head up... it was Not Fun. I needed to do my laundry anyways so I made an executive decision to go to Newcastle some other time.

Having woken up at 4, since I'd gone to bed at like, 7pm the night before because I was so exhausted, I was already awake when Jon called at 7. I suggested he do something (I can't even remember what) and he replied "I don't really have any money". I was taken aback by this.
"But Jon!" I said "You've been saving up money, how do you not have any?"
"I spent it all on your birthday present." he said sheepishly
*shocked silence* "What could you have possibly gotten me that you'd spend that much money on!"
"I'm coming to visit you." he responded.
...
...
...
O.O REALLY!?!?!?! XD *dies*

Seriously though, best birthday present ever!!!! Here I had prepared myself, suppressed my previous hopes that he'd come visit (he'd wanted to come for my birthday so I wouldn't have to be alone) so I wouldn't be sad when he wasn't able to come over, either because the ticket would be too expensive or because he was going to a summer school math class, and then he just goes and buys a ticket!?! ^_____^

So he's coming to visit. His flight leaves on the 13th, he gets here early in the morning on the 14th and he leaves on the 20th. I can't wait! I don't know where we'll go... I mean, I've gotta take him somewhere! Maybe Scotland? Or maybe I'll just take him around to various places kind of close by... I think he said something about wanting to go to Alton Towers; that could be really fun!

I spent the next few hours working myself up so much that I'd have to go to sleep. Then I'd wake up, work myself up again and go back to sleep. Finally, I got up for real and went and did my laundry, grabbed some snackies from the Select and Save and ran into Faye. We wound up talking a bunch and I invited her to come watch Repo with Katie and I later that night.

Now I didn't "force" anyone to watch Repo (so you can bite your tongue mom! XP lol); you see, Katie's sister LOVES Saw, and when I mentioned I'd met Darren Lynn Bousman, and explained how I met him (which is through shadowcasting/making my documentary about Repo shadowcasting) Katie decided she had to see Repo! The Genetic Opera. So we sat and watched it... I tried to bite my tongue throughout, but the urge to do callbacks is just so ingrained now! Now they want to go see the Repo Shadow Cast in Birmingham, so I think if they're having a show in the next month, we may just have to take a trip down there!

Faye and I decided we'd go grocery shopping together on Sunday, since we both needed things. She showed me where the Sainsbury's is, since I've been doing all my shopping at the Morrisson's. I got such a great haul of stuff, including smoked salmon (which our local Morrisson's doesn't carry) and a special birthday treat, Ben & Jerry's Phish Food icecream (my fave!). It's going to be awesome! For my birthday dinner I'll make myself a simple smoked salmon pasta with Phish Food for dessert! It'll be fantabulous! Maybe I'll even buy myself a Fufu Berry Jones Soda as a special drink to go with my special meal!

I made myself a pretty special meal tonight too... I made myself an applewood smoked cheddar grilled cheese sandwich *drool*... it's like there's bacon in it, without there actually being any, you know, bacon :P.

Faye, Katie and I tried to have a Chatroulette party, but for some reason it wouldn't let us do video chat... we could do text chat, and we had some pretty funny ones, but still, no video :(

We did do a video chat with my parents on Skype though! They wanted to wish me a happy birthday and so my friends got to meet the famjam. And now, having seen my kitchen, Katie wants to come visit even more! I think I'm winning her over about Canada being more awesome than the US of A. Although her NYC and Florida obsession may run a little too deep for me to counter >.<

All in all, a pretty awesome birthday weekend for my having not left the Newcastle/Stoke/Keele area!

Dippy Jones Across the Pond: Day 66 - Canada Day pt 2

I realize I never actually explained what I did for Canada Day! I needed to have some sort of celebration, right? Well, Katie wound up coming to my office at the end of my day because that's the only place I have access to my iTunes Library and she wanted my TV shows. So now she's watching New Who from the very beginning (and I imagine, staying up all night to do so) and also has a few other shows to try out. Then we went home and when we passed by the post office, I checked the board to see if I had any packages waiting and I did! But the office was closed so I couldn't pick it up... I had a feeling I knew what it was though... When we got home, we had some of her left over birthday cake as a Canada Day treat and we decided we'd go have dinner and a pint at the Sneyd Arms together as our own little celebration. We both had steak and ale pie. I reasoned that Steak and Ale pie is appropriate Canada Day cuisine as it is as close to tourtière as we're going to get here in England! XD It was totally delicious and totally worth the ~1/2 hr walk to get to the pub :D

Oh and apparently Thursdays are Pie Days at the Sneyd Arms, so even better!

Mmmmm.... Pie....

Today, I picked up the package and I was right! It was my package from the YOWilkies! It contained 4 different boxes of Kraft Dinner; Original, Extra Creamy, White Cheddar and Sharp Cheddar. I ate a full box of the Original for dinner with a bottle of Fufu berry Jones Soda; a truly Canadian meal just a day late for Canada Day. Perfect!

KD is so delicious... but now my tummy is a little angry with me. I think it's bed time...

Dippy Jones Across the Pond: Day 65 - Happy Canada Day!

Happy Canada Day!

If I were home, I'd be watching fireworks tonight. Hanging out in Riverside Park, seeing all my old friends from Rovers and Venturers; one of the few times all year I manage to see them. I'd probably be enjoying a barbeque or something, maybe stopping by the houses of family and friends having Canada Day celebrations and saying hi.

If I were home, on Monday, I'd be eating dinner with my family. Probably at East Side Mario's or an All-You-Can-Eat Sushi place. Celebrating my birthday.

If I were home, I'd have a pool party to celebrate my birthday and I'd invite all my friends; from Guelph and from Toronto.

If I were home, only 4 people would actually come. But we'd still have fun, I've gotten used to the low attendance rate of my parties.

If I were home, I'd be enjoying my family's brand new pool. Well, our old pool revamped. Enjoying the solar heated, salt system water surrounded by mock river-rock pavement.

If I were home, I wouldn't be annoyed that because of that new pool, no one is coming to visit me.

If I were home, maybe I'd have gone to the cottage for Canada Day and put on my own fireworks display from the dock.

If I were home, I'd have Jon by my side, laughing and joking and cuddling wherever I happened to be.

If I were home, I wouldn't be travelling alone.

But if I were home, I wouldn't be seeing dozens of cities I've only ever read about before.

If I were home, I wouldn't be perusing library and museum alike, weekend after weekend. Devouring experience after experience. Learning, seeing, photographing voraciously.

If I were home, I wouldn't be visiting the locations I've seen on the silver screen, big and small, all my life.

If I were home, every other meal wouldn't be some sort off meat filled pastry.

If I were home...

Well I'll be home soon enough.

Dippy Jones Across the Pond: Day 63 - Birthday Celebrations Begin

Yesterday was Katie's birthday! She turned 22 too! Yay for samesies!

Anyways, she knocked on Faye and my door at like... 10 o'clock, offering us pieces of the birthday cake her parents bought for her. Tasty chocolatey goodness!

The next night, we'd planned to get birthday pizza as a kind of joint birthday celebration and watch Sherlock Holmes, the new Robert Downey Jr one. Faye was working a late at her placement, so we had to wait for her to come home for that. While we were waiting, Katie, her friend Chris and I went to the Union to have some drinks, I tried some mixed berry cider with a complex unpronounceable name. Then we headed back to the shed, Faye texted and told us she was feeling sick so she wouldn't be coming. So we ordered Dominos, they have a 2 for 1 deal on Tuesdays. We got bacon double-cheeseburger (my personal fave), and Southwestern BBQ chicken pizza... Soooo tasty.

We watched a few youtube videos before we started the movie. I showed them this funny Kids in the Hall sketch, they really appreciated it. Chris had been telling me how much he wanted to visit Canada, and one of the prime topics of conversation after that is always "stereotypes" so I thought it would be appropriate.

Sherlock Holmes wound up going way too late, but I love that movie, so I just couldn't resist. I rarely ever hope for this, but I really hope they make a sequel to that film! It's delightful :D

Dippy Jones Across the Pond: Day 60 - Chester... Chester... Toe-knee Chest-nut?

Today, I finally went to Chester. My parents have been telling me I had to go, so I finally got my act together and went!

Turns out though, it was the day of the races so there were thousands of people coming through the tiny town's railway station. All of them dressed infinitely better than I was, and so many funny hats! XD

Anyways, Chester was lovely. I managed to find my way walking through their 'subway', along the main street and then I saw them; the half-timbered houses, the gate with the clock. I knew very little about Chester before going, I knew about the black-and-white renaissance, but I didn't know about that clock... it was absolutely beautiful, if a little gaudy. I do love things dedicated to Queen Victoria though... coated in my initials! ^.^

I hadn't had anything to drink all day, so I was very thirsty. Especially since it was sooo hot. It was so sunny; a nice change. Then I saw this cute little place built into the city wall selling Cheshire Farms Ice Cream (a local creamery). I bought myself a cone of honeycomb icecream, and even if it was trying to melt all over me, and my camera, it was so delicious! I ate it as I started to walk my circuit of the walls.

Chester is the only walled city whose walls have survived to form their complete circuit. You can walk around the whole city centre from those walls. And that's not the only surviving Roman legacy in the town. They've also partially unearthed the largest Roman Amphitheatre in the UK. As well, some of the buildings still have their original roman foundations, the building currently housing a jacket potato franchise actually still has the underfloor heating system from the original roman building it used to be.

So cool!

... I'm such a geek. :P

Anyways, I got partway through my circuit and hit the River Dee. For some reason the town really started to remind me of a cross between Stratford, ON and Riverside Park back in Guelph. Made me feel like Canada Day.

I found a great little park across the river with the most fantastic little playground. I wish I weren't there at such a busy time of day, otherwise I'd have had a really awesome time playing. That reminds me, I really want to go to that playground near campus... it's all ropes and stuff, awesome.

Continued my stroll along the river and found the castle and the racetrack. It's actually the oldest racetrack in the UK, it's been there since the 1500s, round about. There were limos and even more people in fancy dress. They've got an awesome museum down that part of town too. It has a period house, local natural history display and the largest collection of Roman rocks (gravestones specifically).

Walked through town a little more and had a Mars bar milkshake from this little milkshake and smoothie shop in the rows. It was tasty, but apparently a milkshake just involves milk there really... no ice cream. Bizarre. Makes it less than the icy cool treat I was expecting. More just creamy and vaguely cool-ish.

I saw the cathedral and decided to continue my walk around the walls. I saw the tower where King Charles watched his army's defeat in the battle of Rowton Moor in 1645, the Water Tower they built to stop the river from silting up and got an even better view of the racetrack, and the last race of the day.

I'd noticed through the day, little cut circles in the stone and concrete on the ground, with little red arrows inset into them. I'd been wondering what they were, and finally I found a plaque. It was some sort of millennium path through the city.

Then I walked, trying to avoid the newly released horde of horse-racing fans, back to the railway station.

Wound up being in time for just the wrong train. I had to wait for almost an hour for the train to get there, then, when we got to Crewe, it was over an hour before the next bus back to campus. What could have been an hour trip, wound up taking 4 hours. Oh geez... I'm glad that I decided to leave at 6, if that had happened leaving any later, I would have been so ticked off... As it was, I'm home so late I don't think I'm going to go to Birmingham tomorrow as I'd hoped... Sleep and Doctor Who sounds like the best plan for my Sunday ^.^

Dippy Jones Across the Pond: Day 58 - This is my life.

It started earlier this week. You know back home, when the snow has started melting, but it's still pretty cold but then, one day, you start to feel it? Those warm little breezes breaking up the cold and letting you know that spring is coming. Well that started to happen early this week. Minus the snow of course. It's been rather chilly, I generally have to bring/wear two sweaters to my office because the Peer Adviser Resource Room where I've set up my makeshift editing room, is freezing. Also, the only bathroom on that side of the building has no hot water, making you feel even colder if you go to the bathroom at all. But then I started to feel tendrils of warmth on a day that was all clouds. We'd already had a few nice bright, sunny and warm days, but the cloudy and rainy days that generally prevailed were still really cold. But almost every day this week has been either really bright and sunny (and of course warm) or cloudy, and rainy but warmer than normal.

I even went out and lounged around on my blanket after work one day... it was so gorgeous! But then my allergies chased me back inside.

Which reminds me, I finally got allergy eye drops this week as well! As far as I can tell, I seem to be allergic to the grass. According to the BBC Weather, the pollen has been "high" recently, but they give no indication of which pollens they're finding. According to Zirtek's pollen map, pollen in my area is "very high" and it specifies that it is grass pollen right now. Grass pollen season from now till August 4th (oh goodie... just when I'm leaving! *eyeroll*). Turns out the eyedrops I'm used to are "available world-wide as opti-crom", but I got the discount brand "Pollenase"; saved me a whole pound!

And that brings me to the grocery store (that's where the only open pharmacy in town was). I've realized why I'm having such a hard time keeping my fridge well-stocked and my meals interesting and diverse. It's not just that I only have a 1.5' x 1' x 3" (no that's not a typo: feet, foot, inch) shelf. It's not only that bread has a tendency to go bad before I can use it (solved now, mostly by my discovery of the existence of half loaves). It's that grocery shopping is meant for families. All the packs of meat or fish, even the packs of bananas etc, are meant for families. I have no room to store leftovers, if I don't eat everything I make, it has to go in the garbage, or I have to make myself eat it. So I can't make food in any quantity. If I buy meat other than for sandwiches, it's a race to try and use it up before it goes bad (a race I usually lose). So I'll stick with my fish coming from a tin, and my protein being primarily in the form of bacon and eggs and then just scarf down fresh fruits and veggies before they start to look off as well. You're only supposed to have one serving of protein a day anyways... it's probably better for me this way. It's just not what I'm used to, and that is very evident.

I've already got a running list in my head of foods I want to have when I get home; waffles with peaches and whipped cream, good marinated steak, Kraft Dinner, mom's home made bread, my home made marshmallows, Heather's cupcakes... Mmmmmm...

I also realized just recently that my birthday will be here in just over a week. No one here knows it's coming, I have no plans, I have to film at graduation all that week, and Jon's not coming up like he was supposed to. I'm preparing myself for this to be a rather disappointing birthday.

And before I go, I apologize. I haven't been updating this blog nearly as much as I would have liked... if you've got me on facebook or livejournal, you may have seen that I've been updating more on my livejournal than I have here (though some of those entries are private, so you might not have noticed :P) It's just been things that really don't fit with this blog. This blog is about my experience here in England. Writing here about my recent interest in body politics, or my random inner musings just doesn't seem to fit. So sorry about that, I'm going to try and make this blog more regular. Even if it's only really for the next month O.O That's right. There's only about a month left in my internship. But more on that later. I have places to go and things to see!

Dippy Jones Across The Pond: Day 54 - Only I could go be a tourist at libraries...

I got out and on my way yesterday a little later than I would have liked. I wanted to be up at 6 and out the door by 7, instead I was up at 7 and out the door just long enough after 8 to have missed my bus by a minute (I calculated it. One minute.) but that still meant I got to Manchester before anything was really open.

For once, I didn't have a printed off map, and I couldn't find a tourist kiosk with free maps as I usually get. I just had preloaded my tourist map onto my itty bitty phone and had google maps open on my phone, set to Manchester, as well. I have enough faith in my sense of direction that I was sure I wouldn't get too irreparably lost, besides which, in cities like Manchester you're almost always no more than 3 blocks from the nearest train station. Lo and behold, I was fine! Go me!

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My knee however was not. Just on my way to the University of Manchester to see it's lovely museum and one misstep and... *pop!* OW! dammit... *grumble grumble grumble*... Luckily my walking stick was enough to get me through the rest of the day, though I did cut it a little short... Steps were a little more impossible than they usually are when my knee goes. But hopping down them on my good foot was an effective last resort.

Anyways, back to the touristiness!

So I went down to the University of Manchester to see their museum, it is such an epic building... it's like the ROM, before that stupid crystal was added. In fact, the whole museum is almost exactly like the ROM, except with a little more rampant, and acknowledged, colonialism. They had a temporary display about Charles Darwin, and after reading the quotes from his writing scattered about the exhibit I've decided I really need to read his books! They had artifacts and examples of culture from every group the Brits tried to "bring to civilization", as well as some they didn't. I was impressed with their collection of Mayan artifacts, and their Egyptian displays were quite interesting. I was especially happy to see how they handled the mummy they had on display... She was removed from her sarcophagi and unwrapped, something which had been done before she came into their possession, and before displaying her, they had covered her up. But more importantly, they had a little sign explaining all this and asking; "Do you think we should keep her covered? Should we even display her at all? Is it right to display human remains in a museum? Tell us how you feel at [URL not remembered] and your voice will have an impact on how we maintain the museum." Marvellous! I've always been rather uncomfortable with the display of human remains, be they mummies, victims of Pompeii, etc. It just feels so.... intrusive. To gawk and stare at these people. People who led lives that were often cut short by tragedy and we're now using them to indulge our own morbid curiosity? Without their permission? I'll admit, I went to see Body Works at the Science Centre, and it was really interesting and I enjoyed it quite a bit, but the difference there was that those bodies were donated. These bodies, on display in museums, have just been found, had their resting places disturbed and been passed around across the globe. In fact, now that I really think about it and am writing it down, the Pyramids themselves are kind of a testament to how immensely a lot of these people wanted to protect their earthly remains from being taken, aren't they? I mean obviously, the Pyramids only really housed Kings, but still.... I really wonder about it all... Anyways, back to the museum. They also had the biodiversity displays, taxidermy and a vivarium and a rather interesting display about money. Oh and when I say it's like the ROM, in every way, I lie... you don't have to pay a ridiculous amount of money to get into the Manchester Museum! It's free!

From the Museum I walked up through town and managed to find my way to the City Hall, which as far as city halls go, was pretty darned impressive! Not to mention huge!! Near by the City Hall is a church called "St Mary's, the Hidden Gem". It was actually the first Catholic Church to be built after the Reformation, so that's pretty cool. I didn't get to go inside because they were having Mass, and there was a huge sign outside that says "NO SIGHTSEEING". Now the thing about St Mary's is, it's impossible to find. They really don't want you to sightsee at this church, so they've hidden it. It actually backs onto a major street, but is inaccessible from there. It's flush on either side with newer buildings that tower over it, and in fact it's front entrance is behind a building on a pedestrians-only street along a tiny, winding, and eventually dead end, alleyway.

From there, I traipsed over to the John Rylands library, which is now one of the University of Manchester's libraries.

You know how Catholics have the Vatican, Muslims have Mecca... well I have this library. It is gorgeous! And has so many beautiful, and old, books! Walls and walls of them!

It was one of the first public buildings in Manchester to be lit with electricity, which was done because they didn't want gas lighting to set the books on fire. It even had advanced filtering technologies on the air inlets to help preserve the books; all this done between 1889 and 1900... It is home to the oldest surviving fragment of the New Testament, which is a little smaller than a business card. It has gorgeous stained glass windows presenting the likenesses of various philosophers, scientists, scholars... And oh so many old books! I was reading the bindings... 1608... 1511... 1726... *sigh* It was fantastic!

Although... ok, so here's the thing... They had this display of book bindings from around the world. A little overview of the dominant styles and traditions of each country. Some countries, like England, had quite a few examples, while some, like Lithuania, only had one. Canada had 3. One from Quebec, one from Montreal and one from "Ottowa"... :/ Ottowa? I'm sorry, but libraries are the one place I really expect to find accurate spelling. I could understand a typo... but it was spelled the same in at least two places, so not so much buying it as a typo. :( Also, Ottawa, Quebec and Montreal? Could they have represented a smaller geographic range in such a large country? They were beautiful, but still, I'm sure other regions like the Maritimes, Vancouver and even the Prairies have equally pretty bindings... I mean especially since there was practically one book from every state in the USA.

At the library, they had a great purple tote bag with "Library Bag" written across it. It was also cheap. How can I say no to the combination of two of my favourite things? Libraries and purple? Yes please! All it needs now is some glitter! XD

From the Library, I went up to see the Manchester Cathedral, which does allow sightseeing. Their choir was in the midst of practicing, so the whole space was filled with angelic voices. It was such a relief from the, but this point in the day, super busy streets surrounding it.

I also checked out the pub Fanny had suggested. It was called the Old Wellington Inn which is literally a very old Inn, repurposed as a(n expensive) pub, and had a newer addition in the form of the slightly cheaper Sinclair's Oyster. Unfortunately, it was such a nice day their whole beer garden was shoulder to shoulder, wall to wall, with people and the inside was no better. Instead I navigated the crowds to the Arndale foodcourt intent on trying the burritos I'd had recommended to me for my trip, though I couldn't find them. I had a steak bake from Greggs instead. Right nearby was the Manchester Eye, it looked smaller than the London Eye, but faster. They also didn't have a price displayed, so I decided not to bother. "If you have to ask, you can't afford it."

I then went to try and see the oldest English-language library over at Chetham's. Unfortunately it's not open to visitors on weekends, so I was SOL. Luckily though, I was able to gaze longingly at it from outside the gates of the music school.

Afterwards, I went down to Piccadilly Gardens. Which as I explained to my parents is north of Piccadilly Station. :P When asked "Oh where's that" I'm terrible at finding points of reference people would actually get. Especially in a town I know so very little about, like Manchester. Really, I don't know what the "big deal" places are there... other than Old Trafford of course.

From there, I went to check out Chinatown. With it's gorgeous arch. The Chinatown itself was a little lackluster and shady (there was even a crowd of large drunk guys waiting for the nearby "gentlemen's club" to open... That was a little disturbing...) but what a gorgeous arch!

The whole day I had my eyes peeled for a Sainsbury's because there were ads in the train station for Terry Pratchett's most recent book in the Diskworld series; "Unseen Academicals" saying that Sainsbury's had it on sale for 3.99. The book's usual price is 7.99. Half price? Awesome! Unfortunately, the only Sainsbury's I was able to find were lacking the "cheap paperbacks" display in favour of cards and cheap English Flag plastered Mars bars.... Oh well... maybe some other time.

Something that really struck me about Manchester, aka. Cottonopolis (I love that nickname!), was that it had really exquisite architecture. All my favourite gothic flourishes and delicately carved arches. It was beautiful.

And given that it's so cheap to go, I think I'll be going back there! Apparently in early July they're having a few All-Stars football matches, so maybe I'll head up for one of them!

Oh! I nearly forgot! I had a group of Spanish stalkers (except not really) on this trip! Ok, so I got on the bus to go to Manchester in the morning, and there was a couple on the bus speaking what I was able to discern wasn't English, but I wasn't able to distinguish any consonants, so I couldn't tell what language they were speaking. At the Newcastle bus stop, another man got on the bus and joined them. He was speaking much louder than they had been and I was immediately able to recognize "oh! Spanish!". When I got off the bus at the train station, they did too. And they were in line behind me waiting to use the automatic ticket machine as well. I accidentally dropped my cane and the third man picked it up for me. "Gracias," I said. He returned to his friends and I I was able to make out him wondering in Spanish "Did she say Gracias? She speaks Spanish? *puzzlement*"

It wound up that they got on the train to Manchester as well, and then at every tourist place I visited, I saw them. The City Hall, John Rylands Library... When I finally took the train home, I didn't see them in the train station. However, waiting for the bus to take me to Keele, lo and behold, who should come out of the train station and start waiting for the bus as well? You guessed it! I smiled sheepishly at them, laughing to myself about how ridiculous it had been. I was far too nervous to start up a conversation though... Mi Espanol es terrible. No he praticado en mucho tiempo!

Finally, being home earlier than I'd planned, I made myself some dinner and wound up sitting around the table, chatting with Faye and Katie until 1 in the morning!

Between the late night, and the wretched state of my knee, I decided to skip Chester on Sunday and go next weekend instead. A very good plan given just how angry my knee was with me for not stopping when I first hurt it. A very good plan indeed.

Also; Happy Father's Day to all you dads! To my dad, my granddad, my grandpa... And of course to Steve, on this, his first Father's Day as a Father. Yay!!!!

Dippy Jones Across the Pond: Day 49 - Don't feed the trolls; it's just common interweb sense!

Things I have learned from my first package in the UK:

-the address I've been giving people is correct!!!
-mail between Canada and the UK is so slow! Like, molasses slow. This package was postmarked the 8th of May and it arrived the 12th of June. O.O
-stuffed animals wind up deformed when crammed into a box so tightly for that long. Poor Slush needed some love before he looked like himself again.
-Cadbury mini-eggs do not travel well. The ones that were in this package are nearly powder, but I'm sure they'll still be delicious.

I do have to wonder who gave up their easter chocolates so I could have them; I'm pretty sure I ate my Laura Secord egg on Easter. But I will enjoy it none the less, maybe it will be my dessert tonight!

In any case, I finally have Slush to cuddle, my Norwegian Troll to keep my company and some easter chocolates I've been sharing around the office (well, with Miriam; she seems to be the only on in today). And now that I know my mailing address is accurate, I could theoretically order things, and people can send me things safe in the knowledge that it will get here eventually!

In other news, exams ended on the 11th and now the campus is rather empty. My house hasn't changed at all because nursing students have classes and stuff all year, but the hours of everything on campus have changed.

Comus is operating at a reduced capacity, and Vite & Eat's selection of sandwiches is feeling rather lacking. Maybe I'll actually start bringing a lunch! I finally have a space in the freezer, so I could start stocking it with foods I can go back to my place and cook for lunch. Peas maybe... or corn. mmmm... On the bright side of hour changes, it means I'm better off buying lunch at the grocery store (better sandwich selection) where I can get Jones Fufu Berry Soda, imported from Canada! XP Love it!

I watched Food Inc. last night. It was really good. If you've seen my twitter, you know my reactions. Basically, when they were showing the poor bay-bee chickens in the factory, going down chutes and across assembly lines, I just about cried. Their demonstration of today's chickens vs. those from the 1950s and previous was really disturbing too, I was feeling really sick from it. I did have one complaint though, when they're demonstrating all the things that have corn derivatives in them (ie/ my nemesis HFCS) they said "Juice" and showed a Tropicana carton. I paused the film a second, thinking "wth, I know Tropicana doesn't have HFCS or anything in it" because I, like anyone else watching, would think Tropicana = their delicious fresh squeezed Orange Juice with only one thing on the ingredients list: juice from oranges. Then I saw what they'd done, oh very clever Food Inc., pull a fast one on us; they were showing Tropicana's Orangeade carton instead of their Orange Juice carton. *facepalm* Well duh! With a name like Orangeade you certainly don't expect wholesome goodness. If it's not 100% fruit juice (with the exception of the occasional lemonade) I would rather not drink it; juice-wise anyways.

As well, I finished reading Percy Jackson and the Olympians and am now on the hunt for a new book. Unfortunately I haven't been able to find a copy of "Talking Hands: What Sign Language Tells Us About The Mind", though I did find "The Language Instinct" so maybe that'll do for now. I'm considering taking on the insane task of reading all the Discworld books. With 36 books in the series, it'll certainly last me longer than the Southern Vampire Mysteries (10) or Percy Jackson (5).

I don't think I've talked about it yet, but at the beginning of the month, I registered for my classes; and man am I excited for this coming year! It's just irrepressible! I suppose I get like this every year, but I'm taking some really rockin' awesome classes! Vampires in Cinema? YES! The Science Fiction Film? Awesome! American Sign Language level 2? THANK YOU! Plus I got into Alt, editing and sound this year, so my options are wide open. I might do the second semester of editing, or maybe sound, or both... maybe even neither. I have those options! I'm also taking a 3 credit course called "Nutritional Anthropology" which is about the relationship between food, eating and identity, which I think will be really interesting, but I'm crazy so... ya. I've even got an emergency list of 3 credit courses running in the Winter semester should I find that I'm short on anything. Fingers crossed I won't have to use it, although I'm not going to lie, Eco-feminist perspectives looks quite interesting. I think my eclectic selection is really telling about my interests; lots of philosophy and politics courses, computers, science, art, religion, language and debate.

Also, my allergies have been killing me! It really got bad Saturday night (I swear my eyes were exploding they itched so bad!) and ever since I'm having to take my allergy meds a little more often than once every 24 hours, otherwise it gets out of control. In fact, right now my eyes are starting to itch and my nose is leaking like a broken faucet; and I just took my reactine when I woke up this morning at 7! Bummer...

Yet again, this weekend I didn't travel. I did however get to go see Darrell conduct the Keele Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir! It was great! I sat (kinda) with Miriam and her sister + friend, the orchestra did a great job and it was just really enjoyable; even if it was during the England-USA football match! I felt like my sneezing was a bit disruptive, but that was just the start of my allergy troubles so I hadn't known it was going to be an issue.

Over the weekend I also went grocery shopping and indulged my unfortunate and expensive addiction: Raspberries. I ate a whole tray of them before I was even home. The second tray is gone now too, but I get to rationalize that with the fact that today was their best before date. Still, it feels like they were gone too fast for such a delicious and succulent treat. Mmmmmmm....

Dippy Jones Across the Pond: Day 42 - Proper Kraft Dinner, the true meaning of life.

So Veronica, what awesome adventures have been keeping you away from the blog this time? What epic posts do you have for us now?

Sorry to disappoint, but I haven't done a thing. And it's been fantastic! I took a weekend off from my constant frantic travelling and it was beautiful.

I finished reading the Sookie Stackhouse novels (aka. Southern Vampire Mysteries, aka. TrueBlood source material) and they were fantastic! I've decided Sookie and Bill should not be together; she should be with Eric, a Were or no one! Also, Anna Paquin is too skinny to play Sookie, though she does a good job, she's meant to be a size 8/10 and that is not where I'd peg Ms Paquin's figure.

I started reading the Percy Jackson series. It's also pretty great so far, though having read the backs of all the novels, I'm concerned about where the story will end up... But for now, a great time. If you're following me on tumblr you probably noticed I put up a quote from the first book. The books are full of great humour like that.

Plus I imagine kids are learning a great deal more about Greek legend from it than they would through other channels.

I also played a bit of Sims 3, but that game needs another speed to go through actions with; like "skip to end".

I also wound up sick at the end of my weekend/beginning of the week. I don't know what happened, but Sunday night I got struck with a sudden, untameable headache accompanied by dizziness so severe I couldn't walk straight or sit up properly. I thought that maybe my dinner hadn't been big enough so I had a big snack, but even that didn't help. While the headache gradually subsided to a dull throb, the dizziness stayed with me through the better part of my Monday in a rather intolerable way.

What else?

Oh, the other day, I made a huge mistake. This was on Monday, as I was recovering from being sick, so it probably wasn't the best time. But I really wanted Kraft Dinner (shown on left), and I've heard (and seen in Scotland) that in the UK, they have a kinda-sorta equivalent: Kraft Cheesey Pasta (shown on right). So I thought I'd head out to the grocery store and see if I could pick some up.

When I got there however, they had nothing of the sort. I looked up and down aisles to no avail. Then I spotted this... abomination:

Of course at the time, I didn't know its status. I just thought "hey, this could be a viable substitute, you can't do mac & cheese wrong, can you?" Yes, yes you can. This coming from the girl who once made KD with vegetable oil because we had no milk, and "margarine's made of oil so it's probably close enough"; AND I LIKED THAT.

So that should give you an idea of how bad it was. Not to turn this into Steve, Don't Eat It, but really, the name "Macaroni Cheese" should have been my first tip. It's not even Macaroni AND Cheese, so you know something foul's afoot.

I had to empty it into my little sauce pan like a can of Chef Boyardee's Mini Ravioli and heat it up that way. That's how much watery sauce was in this thing. Then one taste, and blech! It's like they were burning some garbage next to the factory and just decided to throw it in there to give it "character".

Never again. I just cannot trust the canned foods here. I mean, this is the home of "Potted Meat" if memory serves, so it just cannot be trusted.

In other news, my umbrella broke. Not terribly surprising given the cheapness of the umbrella, and the abundance of wind. The pole actually came apart. I've made it so it's useable, but you can't extend the pole fully without it falling to pieces, so I'd have to hold it above my head, quite literally, as my hand would be level with my ear.

So I've started using the red panda umbrella from the Peer Adviser's office. It's much cuter anyways! ^.^

And it's got a whistle!