the visual thesaurus

i love thesauruses. i always seem to have difficulty pronouncing the word, but i love the damn things. and recently, when i was using an online thesaurus, i came across an advert for "the visual thesaurus" ... how cool!!

and we're back....II

well, after a long hiatus, i've decided (with the gentle prodding from others..not just from my own volition this time) to start blogging again.

i'm back in london after a really fun christmas holiday in chicago, which, despite the cold and crazy weather, reaffirmed my desire to move back to the states at some point.

it was strange coming back to london; i don't know if it was the (self-imposed) rough flight or if it was the two idle days i had when i arrived back, but it felt very strange to be in london. i guess once i get back into the cycle of things, a routine, things will feel more normal. and i can't wait until ultimate starts in full swing, then things will really start kicking. sometimes i think it's sad that my life loses a lot of momentum when the ultimate season ends...perhaps there should be other things in life that i could be as passionate about, but then i realise that i'm lucky to have a past time that makes me so happy.

a year in london : america

having lived and worked in london now for exactly a year, i've come to realise that there is a lot i miss about america, beyond friends and family. most of these pangings for america seem to be food orientated, and some of them aren't even specifically american, but just luxuries i got used to when i was there.

ah, i miss them, specifically (but not limited to):

jif creamy reduced fat peanut butter.
chipotle.
einsteins bagels.
free refills.
driving a car.
a large living room.
more than 5 tv stations.
tv shows that aren't about property.
twizzlers.
american tasting cherry coke (all the cokes taste different here).
lounging on the couch all day long.
best buy.
oakbrook shopping centre (who knew!?).
flavored frozen yogurt.
cheap ice cream.
a walk-in closet.
a backyard.
galyans & other large sport stores.
advil.

i'll stop here because the list could go on and on, and i think i've made my point: when i was coming to london, i never acknowledged the fact that it would be the small things that i would miss so much.


***post note***
get this: i've paid £4.85 for a jar of jif peanut butter here. thats nine dollars! holy crap, i've recently paid $9 for a jar of american pb to avoid the crap they try to pass as edible peanut butter over here. and it was totally worth it.

but i know, when i leave london, i'm so going to miss alot of things here. it's something of a 'the grass is always greener' condition i suppose.

a year in london: london

well today marks my first full year of work and living in london. although each month has seemed to fly by, looking back to last year when i started feels like a long time ago.

i've really enjoyed my time so far. overall, my job is great. good hours, good location, decent pay, lots of holidays, and most importantly, good people. one of my absolute favorite things to do is to go out for a drink after work with people from the office. granted some days are a struggle to get through work, but i think that just comes with the territory known as 'work'.

i've been able to travel alot, mostly back to ireland. managed to make a quick trip to amsterdam (with monica!) which was amazing. also went to lille for the christmas markets. and thanks to frisbee, i got to see copenhagen, and am going to basel shortly. frisbee has been awesome too. i've gotten to play with my work team for summer league (a good laugh), the london club team (pretty competitive...it's pushing me hard to improve my game and my throws), and the irish women's team at europeans (what can i say..it was an absolutely amazing experience).

so, in the spirit of making lists, here's a list of things i'm liking about london, a year on:

hyde park
drinks after work
frisbee on the common
the candy!!!! (x10 better than american candy)
touch rugby
watching rubgy
the tube
regents park
the sense of humour
being so close to europe
the eurostar
walking to work
lilt (grapefruit/orange soda)
fresh bread rolls, baguette style
walking by the thames, south bank


it's been a good year, and i'm enjoying london. i'm by no means in love with the city like i was with san francisco, and i can't see myself staying here indefinitely, but for now, its working. pretty well.

The Bank Holiday Weekend Recap.

It was our last summer bank holiday weekend, and the weather finally cooperated. All the previous bank holidays had been rainy and cold, but this one was a beauty! All sun & sunscreen!

Unfortunately for me, I didn't get to see much of the good weather on Saturday, as I only got up around 4pm. Ooops. Friday evening turned from the usual after-work drinks to a longer drinking sesion as everyone headed over to Carl's flat sometime around 10pm. (Carl's one of the guys who works in my group, but he's heading back to australia next week. boo!) A dinner of sausages, frozen veg, and mashed potatoes was prepared for us, but I was a little bit too busy being drunk to be bothered with food, a move which proved to be a serious mistake. all that boozing and no din dins left me quite friendly with the toilet on saturday morning, hence my rather late rising time.

Sunday was the All-Ireland semi-final, with Kerry (my daddy's team) playing Dublin(the thugs). We went to watch the match in an Irish pub in Picadilly Circus, Waxy O'Connors. This was the pub that my cousin wanted to meet up on St. Paddy's Day to watch the Ireland v France rubgy match, and at noon, the pub was already full and had a line that wrapped around two corners! Anyway, it was nice to finally get into the pub (even if was a couple months later). The match was entertaining, and Kerry won! yA! As I've been going to watch these Kerry matches with my dad since I was little girl it was strange to watch the match without his play-by-play commentary. But not to worry, as later that evening i recieved a phone call with with a full match analysis, and all was right again.

And Monday was the absolute highlight of the weekend: the Notting Hill Carnival. Started by caribbean immigrants in london, it has evolved into a crazy two-day festival and huge parade complete with extravagant costumes, street dancers, and music bands. It's now touted to be the "largest street carnival in europe", and from the shear volume of people that I seemed to get stuck behind, I wouldn't doubt it. Fergus, myself, Tom and Jerry (hehe..tom and jerry! they're actually my flatmates, not a mouse and cat) walked from our place over to Notting Hill. We initially stopped at the perimiter of the festival to watch the parade. It was a a fantastic parade, but there were often large gaps between the groups, which made it hard to stay interested. So, we then headed into the centre of the festival, where the food, beer and music areas were located. I still can't get over how many people must have been there. It seemed as if every street we walked through was jammed packed with people, and we would turn the corner, and the next street would be the same! Anyway, it was quite an experience; its not something I'd like to do every weekend as i think i might contract a sudden case of enochlophobia (fear of large crowds, just looked it up), but for one weekend, it was certainly fabulous entertainment.

BLACKLE.COM

If you're a frequent user of google.com for you internet searches, you should really consider using blackle.com instead. Why? Cause it uses a black display screen as opposed to a white one. And what does that mean? It's not only cooler looking cause its black, but it also saves more energy.

As I was just recently made aware of, a white display screen uses significantly more energy than a black display screen. Apparently, the ratio is about 74 watts for white to 59 watts for black, according to this guy who calculated that a black display screen google would save 750 Megawatt-hours a year. Yikes!

Kudos to whoever came up with the idea, cause it's a pretty clever and switched on one. And a black display screen is so much more sleek looking than a white one. Double bonus!

summer! where'd you go?

i keep finding myself saying things like , "oh i'll see them in the summer," or "i can't wait for summer to do this," but seriously, summer is nearly over, and this fact is starting to dawn on me. perhaps because this is the first year i haven't had a proper summer, with a significant chunk of time off doing nothing, my brain never clicked on to summer mode. i really miss waking up late, lounging around the house, watching crappy daytime tv (yea family feud!), and pretending i had important business to do with the list of chores my mother left me.

notwithstanding the fact i didn't notice the summer flying by, i did have an enjoyable past few months. lots and lots of frisbee. euros was such a great experience. although i didn't play my best during the week, it was a blast playing with the irish girls. we had a great time on and off the pitch, and i would love to continue playing with them. our games against germany and gb were pretty much walkovers for the other team. but we had alot of fight in us for the swiss and sweden game; both were equally matched first halves, but the other team managed to pull away in the second half, although we all felt that we could have won the sweden game if we had played to our potential. we did, however, beat austria, latvia, russia, and france pretty handily. but when it came down the last game (day 6!), we were exhausted, and despite having beaten france earlier, we couldn't clinch the game against them for the 9/10th spot, and we ended up 10th place.

oh, did i mention, i scored my first callahan? perhaps i shouldn't mention that the austrian girl practically threw the disc right to me, but whatever, callahan! yea!


anyway, this weekend is tour 3 in cardiff, and i'm back playing with iceni, the london women's team. several key members of the team will be missing, however, because they're all off playing with the gb team in seattle for ECC. i'm so jealous! i want to go to ECC and see SLACKJAW in action! its pretty much all my friends from the pqs playing, and they have a sweet uniform. plus i could see teams like riot, fury, etc. etc. playing. just an extra bonus.


and in other news, there's going to be a shake-up in my flat. i think 3 people are moving out, and we were considering moving out, but have settled on staying for a few more months atleast. i guess thats what happens when you put up the rent on your tenants! such shit! more details on new roommates when they arrive.

the girls & boys teams