January 2009
70 posts
We have cheerleaders for that stuff at home.
I live right near a football field (soccer, to the americans reading.) On the weekends, all I can hear is a chorus of male voices singing fight songs at each other. It makes me laugh.
ah-ha
Yesterday, my NHS number and card came in the mail.
Today, I got my NI number. No sweat, no tears. One small paper filled in and here it is. After our Canadian friend told us it took her months of interviews and paperwork to get hers, I am pretty thrilled about this.
Up next, tax paperwork. Neverending good-times around here, let me tell you.
“NHS nurse says: 8.7 stone (this means nothing to me), slightly low blood...”
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Smarter than your average bear.
1. Pretty sure I am getting man-flu.
2. Pretty sure I brought Nyquil to the UK.
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“Some 35% of doners contained a different meat than advertised…”
– saasta.fi » Kebabs fatty, you don’t say
More British passengers died on the Titanic... →
For what it’s worth, I think that “women first” is a stupid concept… at least, it sounds as dumb to me as “men first.”
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Today...
Today I learned:
- That the product being sold as “american” ginger ale at Sainsbury’s is, in fact, nothing like american ginger ale. American ginger ale is exactly the same as british ginger ale, AKA Schwepps. (Which is Canadian but you get my point.)
- One cannot mash chickpeas with a fork. If the recipe says you need a food processor, it probably means it.
What did you...
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Dear Maria Diaz,
Tumblr wants me to know that you are my number one crush. I suppose I could deny it, but then there is that incriminating Facebook photo to account for.
If you’re not following Maria, you are missing out on a delightfully sassy woman.
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Go Team USA!
I said once that Obama winning the election would be one of the only things that would make me reconsider my move away from the states. It’s been a lot of fun to watch the election from a different side of the world. Re-taking the oath to shut people up was pretty awesome and had me rolling in laughter. Closing Gitmo is such a relief. And signing papers which essentially make...
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“Food weirdness of the day:
In the UK, they like Brown Sauce (something like...”
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Welcome to Smallville.
Yesterday morning started with me drinking glass after glass of water in an attempt to produce the requisite urine sample for my introductory appointment with the local NHS clinic. 4000ML of water and a cup of coffee later and still, nothing. I felt like the opening scene of Juno. In the end, I decided being late was a worse offense than being empty handed, and left anyway… only to...
“The veggie pizza I ordered for dinner had pineapple on it.
I’m pretty...”
Specialization is for Insects
Things people have paid me to do:
Spam people on MySpace
Teach small children to play piano
Make hand-squeezed lemonade
Remix music
Photoshop celebrities
Play the organ at funerals
Vlog my innermost secrets for VH1 (never made it to air; they killed the pilot.)
Write erotic fiction
Sell insurance
Sniff out scumbag VCs
Manage an office in Spain (without speaking Spanish)
Assist with...
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Safety Nets
I was thinking this morning about how I grossly underestimated the emotional strain of coming to a new country, and examining where exactly I went wrong. Before I came here, I had this idea that the first year would be very difficult for me, and considered it to be a calculated risk I was willing to take.
What I forgot to consider was how I deal with stress usually. Normally, when anxiety or...
Hobnox.com :: Your Music, Film & Culture - Welcome →
mikesmith:
Fun, fun, fun!!
There some great online audio tools for laying down some tracks!
http://www.hobnox.com/noxtools.902.de.html
Yeah! Hobnox was built by the infamous flash genius andre michelle. He was part of our team at (the dead or dying) Splice, and is an all around incredibly talented coder and lovely human being.
A local town for local people
Getting in the car yesterday morning, a man on a bicycle passed us with a huge smile on his face. My husband said, “That’s the councillor for our ward,” and told me his name.
Today, walking up the road for the market, we passed a man waving his arms at someone we’d just passed. “That’s so-and-so, head of tourism for the town. You met his son last time we...
matmurray:
At Morley train station waiting for my ride, dawg. http://twitpic.com/13t7t
I used to live in Morley, about four months or so last year. I think that’s the first time I’ve seen a UK image on Tumblr I instantly recognized.
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I have Things to Do today, but thought it worth mentioning that the paperwork for my NI number is here already… just two days after I called to ask for it. I have to fill in a bunch of paperwork, copy my passport and visa and bring it all to an appointment with someone. After that, it takes one month(ish) to let me know if I can have one or not.
I am only guessing, but I would imagine...
We live in the shadow of a castle.
Me: Baby, what would you do if you came home one day and I had written "Serf's up, dude!" on the wall above the fire?
He: Insta-Divorce.
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“I just made my husband some microwave popcorn. It’s the first time in his...”
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mmmm proxies
1. Big love to everyone who blogged my news. <3
2. If you are like me, and cannot function a single day without your Pandora.com, I have good news. You can use Anchorfree’s Hot Spot Shield to hide your IP and listen to Pandora from anywhere… even a place like, oh.. I dunno… England.
(Link)
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hahaha
I’m not sure what I was expecting the House of Commons to look like, but it sure wasn’t a bunch of grown men shrieking over the top of each other. Aren’t the English supposed to be more polite than Americans? Even we don’t do that stuff.
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oh and by the way
I debated a bit about posting this here due to privacy reasons but to hell with it. I’m proud of us:
My latest project was featured on the BBC News at 1 o’clock yesterday.
The project is managed through a technology center for schools but my husband and I are the people who are subcontracted to make the actual build itself. I kind of prefer it that way - all the fun of...
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Becoming
I spent today about town, trying to Sort Things Out. Here’s the tally:
- Phone place needs a debit card to open my account.
- Bank needs proof of address
- Council tax will take a week
- The local surgery gave me a paper to fill in and asked for a urine sample when I come back.
- The JobCentre (something like the unemployment office at home) is a dismal place and says I should hear...
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“Someone asked me the other day what I think this blog will look like in five...”
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Win some, lose some.
The bad news: Our Canadian ex-pat friend we know here says it took her months and months to get her NI number, and that it was a pain in the rear to do it, requiring tons of paperwork and several interviews.
The good news: In the interim, they gave her a temporary number quite fast and she used it for a long time whilesorting the rest out.
I’m tired of paperwork.
“the lady on the news tonight said, “proper cup of tea” and...”
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for the record: hot cross buns = cinnamon raisin toast with a frosting X on the top.
carry on.
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thing one: my transformer has issues and keeps almost melting whenever I plug it in. therefore, I can’t charge my camera. therefore, lack of photos.
thing two (much more important): I am about to eat my first ever hot cross bun.
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Fear Factor
I think the think I dislike the most about moving here is that I feel scared of things all the time. I’m not usually scared of anything, and in fact am frequently seen running headlong into uncharted territory, so I just get annoyed to feel like this.
Things that scare me here:
- The post. Every day, I jump out of my skin when the flap on the door clanks. I miss mailboxes.
-...
Do you take pictures? Read this.
saintjustin:
www.polyvore.com
Ostensibly, it’s a site that allows users to create collages of outfits from various online retailers via what is basically a screenshot of an image on a website. Polyvore stores the collages, and shares them. And when a retailer gets a sale from a Polyvore user, Polyvore can get a commission.
Right now I personally know three photographers who have had their work...
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Carry on.
It’d would be nice if getting a visa and stepping off a plane was the end of this brave little toaster’s adventures in paperwork for a while, but sadly, not true.
Today I have been doing some research on what comes next. For starters, I need to apply for the NHS, in order to be able to see a doctor should the need arise. I have the paper here to fill out and it’s disgustingly...
Expat Women - Helping Expatriate Women Living... →
To be fair, I haven’t even looked through this site yet, but all the pink and swirly makes me very suspicious. I see the words Confession, Divorce and Gossip first thing, and while I suppose they are considerations, I’d rather not center my life around negative things.
“There’s a town in England called Wet wang?”
– Twitter: Fraser Speirs
