A.T.H.E.N.E.

Get Your Cyborg Name

"Not for now..."

Reuben asks me if I want any biscuits.
"Yeah, go on," I said, "I like the butter crunch."
"We finished the butter crunch!"
"How come? I only had one!"
"Out of the whole packet? No..."

This is the thing. I can't eat lots of biscuits (or anything) at once. I have to take my time. Reuben is the opposite. He also doesn't understand the phrase, "Not for now." When asked if I want another biscuit and I answer, "Not for now", this obviously means that I don't want another now but may have one later. He thinks it means I don't want another ever and gives him free reign to eat all of the packet.

So now I'm munching shortbread, kind of annoyed that I only got to eat one biscuit out of the packet I picked out and bought myself...

"Please, see my film..."

“Or I will be execute.” Borat has spoken so we obey his call and go see the latest film by Sasha Baron Cohen. It was incredibly offensive and hysterically funny. I will have that unpleasant image of male nakedness in my mind for days to come…

Bond... 21

Reuben and I took his parents to see Casino Royale today with his cousin in tow. His cousin’s sister and mum went to an Indian film instead. Strange people… How can you pass up the opportunity of seeing a Bond film?!

Anyhow the film was brilliant, the way James Bond should be. Everyone is saying Daniel Craig is the best since Sean Connery (of course) but everyone always conveniently forgets that Timothy Dalton approached Bond in the exact same way. Must be a Welsh thing… It was a fantastic film!! See it!!

Cadbury's

Anne arranged a trip to Cadbury's World in Birmingham for a tour around the chocolate factory there. As the minibus pick-up was at 8am, we decided to skip the bus and travel there ourselves, being faster and obviously more sleep-loving than minibus travellers!

The factory was enormous and smelt of warm chocolate all the way through. There was a little history on the start of Cadbury's and how Quaker Mr Cadbury founded his shop next to his father's drapery. As he made money out of his chocolate business, he and his sons built the village of Bournville as a community for its factory workers and their families. We then saw how chocolate is made and I particularly liked the way they make Creme Eggs. Mmm... yummy!!

We had free chocolate given out during the tour and I ate most of it on the move. The activity room didn't work very well so we had fun in the shop instead, buying some gifts for people and purchasing the new product, Purple Planet. I was in chocolate heaven all day. Funnily enough though, by the time we got to Amanda's, I couldn't face any more and I'll probably stay off chocolate for about a week!!

Moving in

Reuben and I moved into our new flat about 6 weeks ago and we've spent the time between then and now buying stuff for the flat and generally trying to make it look as homely as a new build can be!

We painted before we moved in so that was okay. Not too many discrepancies about colours thank goodness. I think Reuben really just wanted to avoid any tantrums from me and I used my "I have an A level in art" argument to generally win anything decorating-related. :)

First we wanted to get curtains for the patio doors. It took all of our day off work to find any that would have fitted. I measured (correctly!) from the holes left by the previous owners to the ground nad it seems the doors are just not the standard size for drop-curtains. Everything was too short or too long. In the end we bought the longest pair we could find and refitted the curtain pole almost against the ceiling. The curtains slightly brush the floor now. And we have to fill the holes left by the previous tenants because they are just unsightly!

The blinds were another hassle. Our parents gave us money so we decided to buy 'designer' and get them fitted. The guy came round with a tape measure and a catalogue of slats in different widths, fabrics and colours. He casually quoted us £350 for two blinds. Reuben and I smiled politely and said we'd call him. We then drove to IKEA and bought the same blinds for £30.

So its been fun...!

Wedding no 3

Dad and Pam got married today. All the family were involved in one way of another except for me. I guess this is what comes of trying to be independent. Anyway, Reuben and I had to sit separately for the ceremony which lasted about 10 minutes. My mother’s parents and sister were invited and looked as if they’d rather be somewhere else. I know the feeling…

After the ceremony everyone gathered for drinks in the bar. I however had to go and have my photo taken but the photographer didn’t seem particularly interested in having the family in the picture. He took loads of time getting bridesmaids Rosemary and Lynne into place and taking pictures of Dad and Pam on their own. When it came to all of us the shots were rushed. He took three with me almost completely obscured by my dad’s shoulder and Anna’s elaborate hairdo. Ho hum…

Dinner was weird too. It was a buffet table so everyone had a plate and went and helped themselves. However, being on the head table (away from Reuben) (again) we had our plates given to us with everything from the buffet in a big pile. It looked very unappetising and I don’t think anyone on the table ate much of it at all.

As people started to move around after coffee had been served the party started… If that’s what you could call it. It was a so-so pub band singing 80’s songs and they only performed for 15mins before going off for an hour’s break! Some finger food arrived onto the tables and we ate a bit and chatted to Chris and Cem but it wasn’t all that. We decided to call it a day and left about 10pm.

Hoorah!

I know its taken a while but I have been busy - honest! Reuben and I have been looking for places to buy and we finally found a flat we love. It's just like the one we live in now, except the lounge and bedrooms are bigger, its on the top floor instead of the ground floor, we have v nice large patio doors and we have loft space. Yeah! We just have the little matter of paying a large deposit and solicitors fees before we get our completion date...

Turning 30...

A mate of mine emailed me to tell me that he couldn’t bear the thought of turning 30 in the UK so spent a week in Havana and Cancun instead. It would appear that, despite trying to run away from the truth, the fact is that it catches up with you wherever you run off to. Home sweet home and reality sets in… having to tick the next box over on a form asking for your age is when the truth really hits you. Heheheh!!

I told you it would have been cheaper and more fun to have a bash! :)

Superman Returns

Superman Returns is a great film! Bryan Singer kept the original music without jazzing it up and the original titles, although they were admittedly altered to have cleaner lines for more effectiveness. They even found an actor who looked and spoke like Christopher Reeve! It was all pretty fantasmagorical. Not a fan of Margot Kidder, I found Lois Lane was more likable in this film and a bit more feisty; none of this “Superman, save me!” crap. She helped herself thank you very much! My only complaint was Kevin Spacey, usually a brilliant actor I rarely fault. He was just too nasty as Lex Luthor. Luthor had a bit of class to his nastiness - Gene Hackman would have never ordered his henchmen to beat a Kryptonite-weakened Superman to a pulp. He would have just left him to suffer and die a slow death.

Reuben complained that the older series was better. Yeah, I know, I thought so too. You can never beat the originals, although the first Mission:Impossible film was an exception. He then went on to complain about how he could see where the film had been cut up and edited. (sigh) Never content with just saying that original is best, he always has to deconstruct the film. And yet he complains to me when I say anything negative about his gung-ho films, like when I was just commenting that Rambo II was stupid, story-less and just an excuse for muscle-flexing…

Go Button baby!

Jenson came pole position!!

I couldn't believe it! I even had to watch the highlights just to make sure!! I thought I'd never see the day. Only took him 113 races... Maybe he took Jeremy Clarkson's advice and got rid of the bendy windscreen...?

Wedding no 2

Reuben's mate Vish married Anupa today.

We turn up at Vish's place to follow his car to the temple in a convoy. We eat a small dish which was pretty much rice and semolina and drink almonds in milk, both of which are taken for good luck. We drive to the temple in Potters Bar and hang about in the car park for everyone to arrive. After a while, the men followed Vish's car down to the entrance and I walked with the women afterwards. We entered the temple through different doors but we sat together with Reuben's mates from Bolton and Vish's cousin.

It turns out its a Hindu wedding but not a religious ceremony (which would take about 3 hours). Instead a registrar performed the ceremony which lasted 10mins tops. Indian music played and the audience was a sea of colours with women decked out in some really gorgeous saris and eleaborate hairdos. Afterwards the lengthy ordeal of photo taking started and Reuben and I slipped out to pick up his parents for the evening 'do'.

An hour later we arrived and dinner had started. We picked up platters and ate a number of small Indian delicaces including samosas, spicy potatoes and yogurt cake. The nut crush was the best although really sweet and I could feel my teeth loosening from my gums...!!!

Sometime later the bride and groom were back upstairs having photos taken with everyone and guests congratulating them. There were about 100 people at the ceremony but about 400 afterwards! Everytime I looked towards the door more and more people were coming in. It was amazing!! At 9pm they were still coming in and it was a case of queuing to see the bride and groom and then leaving for home! Reuben managed to slip off to the pub with his mates sometime during the 2nd photo session... I was a bit miffed I wasn't invited!

The wedding was super. Now I just have to wait for wedding no 3...

My latest claim to fame

I like Doctor Who a lot. So you can imagine my jealousy when I find out that an ex-classmate (who I was friends with for a bit) is the new leading lady in the new series next year! I only found out because I was trawling the Middlesex University website for postgraduate housing courses and her name sprang up as an ex-graduate hitting the big time.

Ten minutes later, I find that Tara has actually posted on Melissa’s blog about it. Damn! Yeah, I know, always the last to know etc etc.

Hi ho hi ho...

Reuben’s parents have damp coming through the external-side wall of their hallway due to the exterior paint holding in moisture and not allowing the brickwork to ‘breathe’. As a result, the paint in the hallway is blown and the plaster is crumbling away. So while a contractor works on the exterior paint, Reuben, his mum and myself have to strip the internal wall so it can be replastered.

The idea was that we start on the top of the stairs and work our way down, slowly slowly. Reuben sits at the top, dust mask in place, and starts scraping at the wall with a small wallpaper scraper. Reuben’s mum, in the hallway by the door, smashes the paint and plaster away with one sweep of her trowel. So much for the ‘slowly’ idea! Reuben did away with his little scraper and wielded a hammer and chisel.

So we each work on a section, dust everywhere, and having a whale of a time smashing up the wall all the way through to the brickwork. In the end, we were hot and very dusty. My hair was grey and rigid from the plaster dust. It was gross. But at least the wall is now clear for the fresh plaster.

Paris in the summertime?

Today we go home. Nicely tanned from the heat and just itching with anticipation of getting back to a cooler climate. And we're only 3 hours from London. How silly is that?! There are lessons to be learnt - Paris is best seen during Spring or Autumn. Trust me.

le Lafayette

We our spending our last full day in Paris trawling le Galleria de Lafayette because we have 10% vouchers and because its supposed to be a beautiful shopping experience - complete with air con! Wahey! So we take a 20min walk down le Boulevard de Lafayette and reach the junction where le printemps is in full swing! We wander about with me stroking all the designer bags and shoes and Reuben admiring the watches and keeping me from going completely gaga. I mean there was this really nice pair of Chloe sandals and then I saw these gorgeous Gina slingbacks... (sigh)

And that was our day. A lazy walk into shopping central, wander around the shops, and a lazy walk back. I did buy a cut-price T-shirt in H&M because all my T-s are soaked in sweat (eww!) and we did have a fun time walking around a proper French market but that was the day really. Just walking and window-shopping. Perfect.

Le Louvre et le Basilique de Sacre-Coeur

Another hot hot day in Paris and shortly after breakfast we head out to the Open Tour Bus again to go to the Louvre... again! A short queue and we were inside the lovely air conditioning!!

No-one had to tell us where the Mona Lisa was - it was where the whole crowd was surging. Everyone was walking in one direction, right past the Etruscan and Greek antiquities and through the Italian paintings to get to Da Vinci's piece de la resistance. Even then it was behind a thick sheet of glass and flanked by two security guards. We saw it just so we could say we did, but we weren't particularly interested and certainly didn't queue so we could reach the front of the painting and take a good gander. It just wasn't worth it. And there's a good replica in the science corridor of Our Lady's.

I was more interested in the Egyptian sarcophaguses and Greek statues (surprise, surprise!) and I had my picture taken with Minerva. Reuben had his picture taken with a bust of a Roman emperor, possibly Hadrian but I can't remember right now. He looked super cool in his shades next to this head though!!

Reluctantly after a couple of hours we head out again and find ourselves outside the Musee d'Orsay but we are finding this trip a bit pricey and decide to skip seeing anymore galleries. I was a little disappointed but this was supposed to be a cheap break... We can always just come over again when its a bit cooler!

We make our way back to the buses and head up to Montmartre so we can climb up to Le Basilique de Sacre-Coeur. This place was absolutely gorgeous and much better than Notre Dame, even though I thought I would never think that. It was well worth the hill climb in 30C heat! We stood at the top of the hill for ages, able to see for miles across France. We then sat by the fountain at the base of the Sacre-Coeur and dipped our feet in the water. It was ironic - I had just seen possibly the most beautiful building in France and the best part of my day is sitting with my feet in not-very-clean water next to a noisy family from Holland!

Open Tour Buses

We wake up sweating like mad. There's no air conditioning in the hotel room and it's 30C outside. We shower and make our way down to breakfast on the basement level. A little woman looking a bit like Madame Tussaud asks for our room number and we sign our names on her list. She points to a table and we pick up our bowls and plates to see what's on offer. There are three Perspex bowls on a carousel full of cardboard corn flakes. A wicker stand holds bread rolls, croissants and sliced baguettes. Some ham and cheese are inside more Perspex bowls. Orange juice, grapefruit juice and milk stand in jugs by the coffee machine. Bienvenue a la petit déjuner pour quatre jours! All I can say is that the croissants are lovely although it'd be nice if the jam wasn't so watery. The corn flakes are cardboardy (as previously mentioned) and the milk is that longlife shit. However the coffee is the best in the world!

Open Tour Buses are great. For 28€ you get two days unlimited bus rides on Open Tour buses around Paris. Four lines stop at or near all the attractions and you even get personal earphones so you can listen to the commentary in 8 languages during the rides. So we grab our first bus outside le Gare du Nord and make our way to le Madeleine so we can switch lines and go to the Musée du Louvre. Of course, no one told us that all museums are shut on Tuesdays. Bother. We wander around the glass pyramid anyway and then decide that we will walk it to Notre Dame.

Bad idea. It's now 10.30am and the sun is in full swing. We ramble along the bank of the Seine, pitying the people sweltering under the glass on a barge trip and fanning themselves frantically. We arrive at some shade and gasp for breath. Reuben purchases bottles of water and we gulp it down with relish. We pass le Palais de Justice and finally spot le Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris surrounded by tourists in groups and taking pictures from all angles. We are herded into Notre Dame with the crowds speaking all different languages and manage to grab a seat near the pulpit so we can admire the windows. Having cooled down sufficiently we tour the cathedral and head back out into the heat and to catch another bus.

We pass le Institut de France and le Musée d'Orsay before getting off the bus at le Place de la Concorde so we can walk down the Avenue des Champs-Elysées. The shops were brilliant and we popped in and out again to appreciate the air conditioning. I now feel quite weak from the heat and am grateful each time a feel a slight breeze of air. We arrived at le Arc de Triomphe and took pictures before taking our third bus pass the Trocadéro and arriving at le Tour Eiffel.

It is now 1pm and incredibly hot. We walk through the park behind the tower and stand near a sprinkler to cool down. In our search for a bench we end up sitting on newspaper on a 'bird bench' with two lovely American old dears. One said she was born in London and had that distinctive Anglo-American twang in her voice that made her sound Canadian. Her friend was all-out Ohio. We chatted for a bit and ended up travelling on the bus with them pass the Hôtel des Invalides back to Le Madeleine so we could change tour lines and take a bus up to Montmartre.

Montmartre is a bit like Tottenham - it's dirty and you can get mugged in broad daylight and no-one would bat an eyelid. However it is where le Basilique duu Sacre-Coeur is situated, as well as all the sex shops and the infamous Moulin Rouge. As we travel up the Boulevard de Clichy Reuben constantly jokes about going into a sex shop. So we get off the bus and do just that. We decide against buying any DVDs as they all only play region 2 but I was a bit tempted to get my brother a magazine entitled Down the Hatch. Giggling madly we took our last bus back to le Gard du Nord and went back to the hotel.

Its been so hot we haven't eaten all day and have just drank the equivalent of 2½ litres of water each. So we shower for the 3rd time (our 2nd being the sprinkler in the park) and attempt to find somewhere were we can eat small portions. We go to Buffalo Bill and opt for the a la carte menu of burger or buffalo wings with fries followed by crême brulée and expresso. The restaurant had air con but they didn't turn it on, typically tight of Parisians. We did have some very nice Pina Coladas even though they cost 9€ a go. Eating and drinking is turning out to be expensive in Paris. Bottled water is at least 2.50€ a time for a regular 50cl bottle.

Desperate now for some air con we wander up the street and end up in McDonalds. Sitting under the air con slurping a vanilla milkshake was the ultimate feeling. You cannot believe how nice it was. And we decided we must be pretty desperate to be in Paris and Maccy D's being the best place to go.

Bonjour Paris!

No, we didn't see the brilliant film Funny Face but have gone to Paris for the week. We decided we needed a break and ten minutes later we had a week booked up in Paris. Bizarre! So finally the day has arrived and we pack and take a taxi to Cheshunt station. From there we take a train to Liverpool St and then the Underground to Waterloo. ABBA songs aside, we catch the Eurostar at 4pm and take a direct train to Paris. This gives me a chance to try out my bad French (and even write some of my blog in the language too!).

We arrived at the Gare du Nord and were accosted by a beggar asking for money . We said we didn't have any, but then he saw us going to the Bureau de Change so we quickly ran around him when he was distratced by a group of tourists loading a taxi with their cases. We found our hotel really easily, literally just around the corner, and we checked in without any problems. The nightclerk introduced himself as Keith which we thought was rather English-sounding for a Frenchman. Its a bit like a Spaniard being called John Smith. Our room is on the 7th floor and has a lovely view of the Tour Eiffel and Le Basilique du Sacre-Coeur. The traffic however is deafening. In Paris there are no houses - everyone lives in a flat. So all the buildings are built 7-8 floors high. This makes the sounds in the street resonate up the buildings. So you can imagine how loud it is when you are situated on the main road. Nothing but police and ambulance sirens wailing through the air not to mention that Paris has possibly the world's worst drivers and they do nothing but cut each other up and sound their horns repetively.

Tired from the journey and feeling rather peckish, we leave our room and walk towards Le Gare de L'Est in search of food. We find a little Italian-style cafe and order a pizza to share. The waitress looks a bit annoyed by this and prances off into the kitchen. The couple next to us ask if we speak English. On reply, they start talking nineteen to the dozen about how they came to Paris for a long weekend and gave us tips about visiting Notre Dame and the Open Tour buses that dot the city. We thank them as they leave and we order dessert. I ask for fruit salad so the waitress yanks open the fridge door, pulls out some fruit, slams the door shut again and stalks off to the kitchen. It is mega hot in the retaurant and the ceiling fans are just circulating warm air. I think the heat is getting to her...! When it came to paying up, we put down the cash but mistook a 1 cent coin for a 1€ coin and she got really annoyed. "Fifty not five!" she yelled at us. Reuben swapped the cash over and apologised but she wasn't having any of it. Something tells me we won't ever be going back there...

Very hot and bothered now we wander back to the hotel and hope that next day we fare better.

80th birthday

My nan turns 80 tomorrow so my uncle has organised a get-together at the Royal Chase. Reuben and I turn up and mill about waiting for everyone to arrive. I got to see all my cousins (except Hayley) whom I haven't seen in ages, plus my dad's cousin and her family, and my nan's brother and his wife, daughter and son-in-law. Then my dad's cousin's daughter turned up with her 3 girls. I just about managed to name everyone on the table!!

We sat near Chris and Cem on the near corner and had cold meats, salads and jacket potatoes passed round by waiting staff. We then had trifle for desert though it didn't have any cake at the bottom, so we debated whether it could actually be proper trifle or not... and then we had coffee and Elizabeth Shaws. I managed to knock over an entire jug of milk though it didn't drip onto anyone so that was lucky in a way! Nan's brother William, who everyone calls Jock(!) was passing around an old photo of him, my nan, and their other brother and sister, John and Nancy, both of whom have now passed. My Nan is crying in the photo so Jock says that she is always crying, and didn't he look handsome back in the day? It made us laugh a bit and he managed to make my Nan cry (with laughter) so he could prove a point. (sigh) Families, eh?