So you don't know the way to France either - bugger.

Back tracking a bit. The 30th Michelle arrived from the states for a visit. Her first day was full of fun and excitement running around the city with me trying to get some new photographs for our interim show that was Wednesday. It was a very very long and hot day that saw Michelle not getting to sleep until after 10pm. Wednesday should have been a stress-free follow-up with us spending the day in Harrow after printing and hanging my image for the show. Well, it didn't work so well. After a corrupt file, frantic trip to and from my apartment, a minor freakout and Radi putting up my image while I was still en-route rounded out the day. In the end it was ok because the image was incredibly well received, everyone loved it and some couldn't even believe that it was my work because it was so different from what I was doing ealier. Andy, the head of the department, even made a comment about it in the little speech he gave. See for yourselves:



Thursday I had a long day of work so Michelle headed off to do the big bus tour around the city. That night there was a surprise birthday party for Radi thrown by his girlfriend Neha and her family. It was held at her aunts house not too far from us to Andrew and I went over for some delicious fish casserol and wine. Friday Michelle and I headed off to see the changing of the guard before going to Greenwich for a bit. It was more work for me Saturday and Michelle did a tour outside the city going to Bath and Stonehenge. Then we went with Neha to an 80s dance club I love called Reflex. It was incredibly hot, and sweaty, but the music was loud and pumping, the crowd was dancing and we all quickly joined in. Radi went out and joined Andrew and some of his friends in Leicester Square. Such a fun night for all.

Sunday Michelle and I got up to spend the day out in Oxford. It's a lovely little town. We wandered all over, ate in a pub called The Bear which was original founded in 1242, the building it is currently in wasn't the original tavern but the residence of the inn's groom. We sat out in the back garden and drank some Scrumpy Jack with out sandwiches. After that we decided to try punting. Soon after we started I came to the decision that I hated punting with a passion and we agreed to never do it again (on our way to bring the punt back we heard this opinion reflected in many of the other punts around us). The rest of the day was spent wandering into small shops and enjoying the nice day.

Michelle punting

Monday morning we got up to take an early train to Paris. We took the day by charge starting with a visit to the Louvre, we saw all the typical sites in the museum including the Mona Lisa, which was a travesty to see for those who haven't been to visit it. This beautiful masterpiece was roped off and surrounded by crowds of people just trying to get close to photograph it to prove that they were there. They have no appreciation for what they are actually looking at, most of them aren't even looking at it. Slightly frustrating to see.

After the chaos of the Louvre we grabbed some crepes from near-by plus little bottles of wine to go with it. We decided our next step should be to ride this ferris wheel near the end of the Louvre. You could see lots of Paris laid out from there, very neat view. We walked down the Seines, through the Latin Quarter and then took a boat cruise to see and hear about the city from the river. After which we trekked over to the Arch de Triumph. Before we could head up to the top I was put in charge of a minor child. Apparently you have to be over a certain age to climb to the top by yourself, since this young boy wasn't they asked me to accompany him up. My question is since when was it decided that I'm responsible enough to watch after a child? We walked from the Arch down to the Eiffel Tower where we ate more crepes while watching evening fall on the tower. The lines weren't terrible to go up into the tower but it was after 10pm so that might be why. Sadly we were there too late to get up to the very top floor but we went to the 2nd floor which still gave a great view and was quiet high up, about half way up the tower. Once we got down we hurried to catch one of the last trains back to our hotel, final check in and crash for the night.

At The Louvre

On the ferris wheel

Michelle deep in thought

Look forward to lots of pictures of the Eiffel Tower

The stairs down out of the Arch de Triumph

On top of the Eiffel Tower

Our little two star hotel was modest but perfectly suited for us. Very clean with a huge bathroom that was spotless, and the beds were so comfortable, either that or we were so exhausted that it felt so good.

We were up and going early Tuesday morning starting off at the Concierge which started as a castle and became a prison, eventually became the place to hold Marie Antoinette before she was killed. Then we walked down the street and entered Notre Dame. From there we wandered through some more shops and found a little bar that served french onion soup (one of the things I was looking for because it is so delicious). The french do a very nice version of it, go figure :) After that it was back across the river to go into Sainte Chapelle. I never realized how it would look until walking into the main chapel. The whole room is stained glass windows. When we first walked up the stairs we actually paused to stare in wonder at it. It was a strange experience and amazingly beautiful. After that we went to Notre Dame to go up to the top of the tower getting close to the chimeras. After another long day we grab some wine and snacks on the way back to our room where we got caught up watching the Michael Jackson memorial before heading out to dinner, a very very late dinner. We sat for dinner around 11:30 or so getting back to our hotel around 2am, more exhaustion as we fell into bed.

From on top of Notre Dame, you can see why Victor Hugo chose this as the setting for his novel

Wednesday was our last day in Paris so we headed over to the Eiffel Tower to join a bike tour. Our tour guide was an american named Jackson from California. Most of the tour group was made up of americans and australians. It rain occasionally but not enough to cause us to stop. The tour reminded me how much fun riding cruiser bikes can be, I'm thinking of getting one myself.

Michelle being a good student writing notes during our bike tour

After the bike tour we climbed the hill at Saint-Coeur to see the view of the city from there and explore yet another church, so many. We slowly made our way down the hill through the area of Montemare to see the Moulin Rouge and be glad that we decided not to spend the money on going to a show there. We hurried back to our hotel, made a few last minute purchases before catching our train back to jolly old England.

Thursday Michelle headed back to the states and I got back to work. It's been a week of work, meeting Radi and Neha for lunch on Sunday and roaming around Covent Garden a while. Last night Andrew and I went to see Avenue Q, it's pretty much Sesame Street for adults, very funny.

And that's about it for now. More very very soon, and more pictures of Paris too, Michelle has most of them.

Quick moment of zen:

Sainte Chapelle, at least half of it, so image the same thing on the other side

I Rock!!

See just how cool I am: http://lecool.com/cities/london/newsletters/current.html

Nothing like a nighttime stroll to give you ideas.

Last weekend Liv and Rod came to town from Copenhagen to spend some time with everyone. Friday night Rod met a bunch of us down at the Duke to hang out for a while. We were, no surprise, back there again Saturday night with Liv and some of their other friends for more wild and craziness. Nothing to over top but always a fun time with them around. I've been having later nights out with them since Andrew hasn't been around. The flat has been completely empty because our other flatmate moved out so it's been a little lonely here.

Sunday I met up with them yet again to go to a park in Fulham for this aussie girls birthday to play some softball. Not everyone knew the rules which made me feel more comfortable about the fact that I'm horrible. We spent 4 or 5 hours playing and just hanging out in the sun, a great way to spend the day. I stopped by WalkAbout with them briefly with them before heading home to met Andrew when he got back from Egypt.

I've been spending a lot of time the past week on campus scanning negatives I have. It's been really neat to see all these images that I had forgotten I even had, I'm having a blast going through them and fiddling around with working them.

Tuesday night my friend Paul and his brother Andy met me at The Duke after work, we went to a little hole in the wall bar they know of that has a vinyal jukebox for us to mess with. From there we went to another bar just around the corner to listen to this band that Paul is friends with called Me and the Beast. They sounded really good, the lead singer was a mix between Regina Spektor, Katy Perry with some Blondie thrown in.

Yesterday I got a bit of a girlie day, met my friend India for some pampering and then we grabbed a drink on Carnaby Street so we could peoplewatch with all the tourists running around. Relaxing way to spend the afternoon.

Last night Uncle Scott was in town and he took Andrew and I out to this great restaurant not too far from The Duke called The Seaport on Bev's (my boss') recommendation. We ate lots of seafood, drank a good amount of wine and were very very full by the time we left the place.

My major project has changed a bit so I'll be spending the next few days re-shooting and making sure I'm really happy with how everything looks. It's been a bit frustrating because I keep trying to please other people and now I'm not happy with how it looks. Results should be up soon.

Good week last week, hopefully this next one can keep up.

True, true, true. Except for the lies.

Last week I did another one of my photoshoots for my major project. Her name is Marie Berry and she is the editor of a magazine that is against typical woman's magazines called Knockback. She was a lot of fun, we ended up spending most of our time on the roof of her building with bubbles blowing around us, it was a beautiful sunny day.

Last Tuesday night began two days of complete chaos in London. The tube drivers went on strike from 7pm Tuesday night until 7pm Thursday morning, nothing was good until Friday morning. It was a ridiculous strike that made the city beyond overcrowded and incredibly hard to get around. It took Andrew over 2 hours to get to work, I tried to do what should have been less then a half-hour journey and it took well over 2 hours. They were striking because in this time of recession when people are losing their jobs and taking pay-cuts they were demanding a 5% pay increase even though they had cut back their hours. Their other great demand was that two tube drives who were terminated with valid reasons be reinstated to their jobs, one of them failed to do safety checks and he opened up the doors on the wrong side of the tube at the platform which means the doors opened to a drop down to the tracks below. It is all so ridiculous and just made so many of us incredibly mad.

I have had a startling revelation that will shock all of you...I like cricket.

It started on Thursday night when I decided to stay for a drink with the kids at work once I finished up. Since everyone was completely enthralled in the game I was bored so I decided to ask some questions, finally see if I could figure it out. Once I began learning some of the rules it started to get more interesting. It's actually very similar to baseball (although never say that to someone from a country where they regularly play, none of them see the similarity). I worked in the pub all weekend and spent the whole time watching cricket so I've gotten fairly good at understanding it.

Saturday Andrew and I both woke up very early (7:30am, see, I said it was early). We decided to be touristy before I had to go to work so we started with the Natural History Museum where we got to run around with little kids and look at dinosaurs (the best part by far). Once we got sick of tripping over kids and felt a bit hungry we walked back by our place to the Saturday market to get some of the fresh cooked sausages, one of them was boar but they were both delicious. From there we headed to Piccadilly circus for a bit of shopping. One the way home we stopped at this cheese stop next to our tube station, it's my new favorite store. We were greeted by the owner as soon as we got in and he had us taste some cheese while helping us select one. He was so friendly that we'll definitely be going back, they even have tables set up so you can sit down have some wine and a selection of cheeses.

On Sunday Andrew decided to run away to Egypt leaving me to fend for myself. It's the one thing he really wanted to do while in Europe so off he went, I couldn't make it because of the money and I have my final crit for my major project on Wednesday. But from what he's told me he's having a blast so far getting burnt in the very hot African sun.

I had my last crit ever yesterday and now I say, "forget that, I do what I want", which last night consisted of eating chinese food and drinking some wine on the couch and today going to the opening of James' show and grabbing some BK on the way home, lets see where it takes me tomorrow, adventures to come.

www.beautifullyunexpected.net

and go

Dawn seemed to follow midnight with indecent haste.

Quick catch-up that won't be as quick as it should be.

Andrew and I are all moved into our new flat and it is even more amazing than we imagined. I've got some pictures for you to check it out. The place itself isn't huge but our room is so that makes up for it. And it's very comfortable for us.

View of our street
Our front door
Our bedroom, though this only shows about 1/4 of the room, and we're cleaner then that,
this was us trying to unpack
Our tiny little kitchen

The lounge and dining area, the doorway on the other side goes to the single bedroom

I've finally turned in my last minor project for school so now it's down to just my major project. I have 4 images finished, three schedule to photograph next week and then it will just be two more left, so close and yet so far.

Last week, two days after we moved in, I flew off to Texas to go to Midland and then Houston for Ashley Mullings wedding. It was so beautiful and warm and sunny. I got to spend the first day lying by the pool, getting my hair done and doing some quick shopping. Ashley, Joey and I made a great dinner together, mexican themed with margaritas and all. Wednesday started off the same way, lying by the pool, relaxing but then, as is my luck, I got very sick and stayed the way. I was confined to my bed for the rest of Wednesday and wasn't well enough to do anything for the next few days. Midland was very cool, it is so flat that the sky just seems to take over everything. I have never been anywhere so flat before.
Ashley took me to see Stonehenge at the UT campus outside of Midland it was...strange:

I accidentally laid with my hair in a puddle getting water all over myself when I sat up,
I was very mad at the puddle.

Friday the three of us headed off to Houston for Ashley's bachelorette party and Joey's bachelor party. For Ashley's party we went to this nice mexican restaurant where we had our own cabana outside. The service was bad, one of the girls quesadilla came out with one of the slices partly eaten, the food we did eat was really really tasty though.

Saturday we got our nails done before heading out the rehearsal where most of us got to see where they were getting married for the first time. It's a little wedding centre out in Magnolia in the country a bit called Ashelynn Manor. Absolutely beautiful, and they take care of anything you could think of for the wedding because that's all they do.

The chapel where the ceremony took place, yes it really is that quaint

The Main house where the girls got ready

The carriage house where the reception was held

I got to be the first bridesmaid down the aisle with Ashley's little brother Graham who is just like a little brother to me. It really meant a lot to me because I grew up with the kids and really feel close to them so there isn't anyone I'd rather have leading me down the aisle for this, plus he was a smart ass about the whole thing which made me smile and helped me from getting too emotional. After the rehearsal we had the dinner at an italian place down the street from Ashley's parents house, very tasty of course.

Sunday Mom and Dad picked me up Sunday morning so we could spend a bit of time together before the wedding since we knew I'd be really busy after the wedding. Mom and Dad were staying with their friends the Benham's in The Woodlands so we went over there and Mrs. Benham made me some breakfast before we took a drive around The Woodlands to look at some of the changes, I get so lost there now.

The girliness began around 4 on Sunday, all of us bridesmaids in the suites at Ashelynn Manor doing our hair and make-up and prancing around in our dresses. Before the actual wedding we were herded into a small room at the back of the chapel that has a big one way mirror so that Ashley can see out to everyone before the wedding starts.

It wasn't a very long ceremony and us bridesmaids were released fairly quickly from pictures so we could go enjoy the reception. Again good food, we had lots of dancing, and I managed to sneak away from the bouquet toss. My parents ended up sitting at the same table as a cousin of Ashley's who happens to work for British Airways. Well, the next thing I know I've been upgraded for my flight on Monday, yay.

After we finally left the reception most of us headed off to Ashley's parents house to keep the party going. Graham and I were the last ones to finally head to be around 5am. And of course things didn't really slow down the next day either. Monday Ashley and Joey came back to the house to open wedding presents and then we all headed to lunch at a mexican restaurant in The Woodlands before they jetted off to the airport. I ran some errands with my free time before it was my turn to head out.

So, the return trip. Most amazing plane ride of my life, probably never to be topped again. British Airways has 4 classes. I was bumped from the 4th to 2nd called Club World. This meant that before the flight I got to go hang out in the super nice lounge where they had free drinks ranging from top shelf alcohols to juices and teas, free snacks of all kinds, free wireless internet, our own bathrooms and a nice front desk lady who rounded us all up to go to the gate when it actually started boarding, you know, so we didn't have to mingle with the peons and all. We were the first to board with the families with children, though we got our own line. And once we got to our seat we were handed a glass of champagne to enjoy while we waiting for everyone else to file onboard.

Images of the seats so you get a better idea

These are the seats that actually fold all the way out into beds, all the way down flat, incredible!
We had a three course meal for dinner, starting with duck as an appetizer, I couldn't even eat everything, it was too much. I managed to sleep a bit, much more comfortable then trying to sleep in the normal class. Oh, and because it was Club World we got our own special speedy line to get through customs too so I got out even faster.

This week has been much compared to last in Texas, back to work and working on my major project some more. I feel like I'm going to have a good amount of free time on my hands coming up soon. Somehow I'll manage to fill it though, I'm sure.

There will be more pictures coming later I just didn't take too many because I wanted to enjoy just being there in the moment, look for some soon though.

Swank

So this past week I have been working my butt off for a paper that was due on Thursday. I woke up at 7 every morning, spent so much time in the library and as of Wednesday night I had a bit over the 5000 words due. I woke up Thursday morning to put the finishing touches on it and print out mine and my friend Radi's papers. Looking at his got me thinking that it seemed a bit strange and got me thinking. Digging back into my emails I found the one from our tutor with all the info about our paper on it. Turns out we weren't supposed to write a 5000 word paper, but a 3000 word one. I had to spend the next 45 minutes trying to cut out almost 2000 words out, which is hard to do when it all flows so cohesively. No good at all.

Last weekend we had some people over on Saturday for Cinco De Mayo. I made empanadas and Mom's sangria, which is delicious and potent. It was nice way to spend the day, a good break from my paper.

Sunday Andrew and I decided to wander around a bit because I got the day off from work and it was such a beautiful and warm day. Our main goal of the day was to look at some flats, and we found the perfect one. It is in South Kensington, which is a very posh area.

We are just a five minute walk from a whole section of museums and Hyde Park, about ten minutes away is Kensington high street with all its fancy shopping and cafes. Our flat is small but really nice. We have the master suite with our own bathroom and a walk-in closet, the room itself is huge too. There is a single bedroom in the flat as well but the girl who lives there now is moving out June 1st and the new person doesn't move in until the 15th. Besides that the new person to move in is the girl who owns the place's boyfriend. And since she lives elsewhere in London he'll probably be spending a lot of time at her place. But I think we will get on with him anyhow because he is really into photography apparently and likes to shoot in film so we'll have lots to talk about.

We make the move this coming Saturday, so excited. It's a complete 180 from Harrow with nice tree-lined streets and a thriving, trendy neighborhood. There will be many pictures once we have relocated.

This past weekend was a bit more relaxed. I worked the entire weekend. Friday Andrew, Jemma, Aaron and Chloe came into the Duke to have some drinks and hang out once I was done work. We had a late night of it getting home around 4, which made for a tiring day on Saturday. One of Andrew's good friends, Russell, from Australia landed in London early Saturday morning from Thailand. The three of us went for a quick run around of the city showing Russell some of the highlights before going to Fridays for a late lunch. Then we headed to South Kensington to show Russell the area we're going to live in. I headed off to work while the boys headed home to rest up a bit. I decided to see how long it would take for me to walk from our new place to work. I got very distracted while I was in Hyde Park, sat on a bench, watched some puppies playing. Quiet a nice walk to say the least. The night at work was dead so I got to head home early.

More work on Sunday, mostly slow day but Andrew and Russell came in to hang out a bit and Andrew and I had some dinner once I was done my shift before heading home to watch a bit of tv.

A busy two weeks and things will only get more busy the next two. Fun fun times.