Bits and Bots

I'll guess I'll take this time to wrap up the vacation tales. So much easier with a laptop than my blackberry keyboard. This is mostly for my benefit so I don't forget the parts of the trip that weren't spent watching darts, FA Cup coverage or ordering (and eating) food from Idle Balti.

Piccadilly Backpackers
This was the hostel where I spent my first night in London. This is also the first hostel I've ever stayed at and it met my lowered expectations. It was shabby, smelly and dirty but the kids were nice. A few things made the experience memorable:

• The middle-aged Frenchman who offered his room if I needed a place to change my clothes and take a nap.

• Asking for a bed in a female room and getting a bed in a room with three college boys from South America.

• Seeing older German ladies cleaning their ladyparts in the middle of the shared bathroom.
  

• The homeless guys sleeping just outside of the hostel.

As for the Piccadilly Circus area it was fun. Sort of like Times Square meets the East Village. The Gap, Subway, Starbucks and McDonald's are waiting for you when you come up from the tube. Just like New York! Then there are theaters with cheesy Broadway shows (Grease, Mama Mia, Queen - We Will Rock You), T-shirt stands and postcard kiosks. BTW, I bought postcards and actually wrote them out while I was in the UK. I just didn't mail them while I was there. I spent the evening wandering around the Circus taking in all the kids and tourists having fun and then spent about an hour at HMV looking for cool CDs. I bought the TI CD only because it was the UK version and says so, two Led Zeppelin CDs because they were two for 10GBP and the Style Council CMac had in college that I loved and had copied to a cassette tape. Oh, I forgot about my consumption of Coca Cola while in the UK. It has sugar in it instead of HFCS and it comes in a regular 16oz. serving. I think I had three cokes on my first day in the UK.

Train Travel
The trip from London to Leeds is about 2.5 hours. For this I got to take the tube from iconic Paddington Station (the first thing I looked for was the lost bear and I admit that I was a little disappointed to find a bronze statue and not a cuddly bear in a yellow slicker) to Kings Cross which is were Harry Potter and his wizarding friends catch the Hogwart's Express from platform 9 and 3/4. Anyway, it was platform 4 that I needed for the train to Leeds. I was excited about the train ride and the opportunity to see the landscape. Other than Aresnal Stadium there wasn't much to see. I mean, it was the same flat, open space that you see on most train rides. It reminded me of the area between Rome and Florence or the Canadian landscape between Toronto and Edmonton. Maybe I'm spoiled. I listened to my iPod and knitted during the trip. An old woman commented that she hadn't seen anyone knitting in years. She reviewed my stitches and I told her the purpose of my visit. She wished me luck with both.

The trip from Leeds to London was less idyllic. The train was overbooked, I was starving because Gars' tour of Yorkshire didn't leave time for a last trip to Idle Balti, and I just had the classic Hollywood "I've spent a short time with the love of my life and now we must return to our separate worlds" scene at the train station. Please note, G did not run alongside the train while I hung out the window waving a scarf. I found a seat and just stared off into the distance. Wondering why I was going home. The whole thing with G has been so ridiculous the only sane thing for me to do was stay with him. This was no time to start making sensible decisions. When the train gets in to King's Cross a nervous looking passenger decides the people around him aren't moving fast enough. His solution is to break into a full run towards the exit gate. He slips and falls and hits his head on a metal box by the gate and bleeds profusely. No one really knows what to do and the guy is in shock. Some people finally stop to help him.

Earl's Court
I spent my last night in London in what seems to be a swanky neighborhood. Clean, no streetkids and no post card kiosks. Earl's Court is beautiful. But maybe only because I knew I had a bed there. I find my hostel which is so clean and in such a good area I'd actually stay there again. Okay, maybe not but still... The only problem was that by the time I got there at 9ish my room had gone to sleep and seemed pissed to have a clumsy yank rummaging about during sleepy time. Well, I wasn't going to spend my last night sitting on my bunk crying over G. I had a few pounds left and found a jazz bar that stayed open late. Late was midnight. I guess there's where London isn't New York. This jazz bar for whatever reason was actually a Chinese restaurant with a bar. Worked for me. Hot and sour soup, jasmine rice and a cold glass of the house white were just fine at Mr. Wing. While there I impressed a French family with my manners. According to them I had good manners for a "black". I love the irony of people who stared and pointed at me commenting on my manners.

Highlights of the trip
I was pleasantly surprised to run into one of my sorority sisters this week and she asked me the highlight of my trip. I told her I was saving those details for the blog. Pffft.

Besides seeing that goofy grin on G's face when he met me at the train in Leeds I really liked how well everyone treated me. One of G's friends lives on a canal boat and invited us over for a home cooked meal. How cool is that? I love that someone would make that kind of effort for me when I would be happy with a bag a crisps and a pint at the club. New Year's Eve was great,too. Being invited into a home to share the holidays with a family is really generous. So I guess the highlight was being brought into the UK group.

That's that. I'll use this blog to further journal my journeys with G. I can't wait for him to come to America. I'm not sure what he'll make of us.

Sunday, Sunday

I'm on the train heading back to London. Everything with G went better than expected. His mom, three of his brothers and two of children gave their approval. We had no fights and enjoyed just hanging out with each other. G's brother Gars took me out today to show the yank a proper time. We had drinks at a lovely pub called the wool plank. The pub allowed dogs and had a coal stove. I could have stayed there for the rest of the evening. So I didn't get to see a lot of things but I met lots of people and saw how they live. That was cool. Most everyone was excited about the prospect of visiting the US but they didn't want to live there. Well the kids did. They imagine America as this place with no restrictions and lots of cool people. I didn't have the heart to tell them it really isn't much different.

One thing I did notice was the gender roles. Its not quite the US in the fifties but some things were weird. Like drinking lager. Traditionally women drank half pints in public, never full pints. I wondered why G always gave me little glass. Later in the trip I got the okay to drink pints from one of the wives.

So what's next for G and T? He hopes to visit the US in March. I'm on the hook to find a real job somewhere and we can get settled together. I'm getting the fairy tale ending I've wanted for years. Yeah me!
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Chicken tikka masala

It's saturday and my last full day in Bradford. G and I are going to visit his mum and I'm a little nervous.

The trip has been great and G's friends are awesome. We went to two pubs on New Year's and then a party with friends. The English have a custom of wearing costumes for New Year's and there were some interesting ones. There was also a fair amount of women in sexy maid outfits. We watched the UK version of Dick Clark's rocking NYE and it was good because they had talented guests instead of the random collection of b-list celebs. The house where we were is near a canal and there was a great fireworks show to ring in 2009. There was much drinking and silliness and I had a great time.

Jan first was spent in bed watching bowl games. I got G to root for USC and he actually didn't mind watching yank football.

There's a curry shop across the street from G where we eat most of our meals. We finished the night with a movie and a lovely chicken tikka masala and chips. The chips with curry makes me laugh.

The trip has been fantastic and I wish I didn't have to leave. G hopes to come to the US for my birthday and I hope he has as good a time. Okay, off to visit mum. Wish me luck.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry