Kristen Loves Lately

I’ve been sick lately. Like, really sick.

Well no. Not REALLY sick, but sicker than I have been in a very, very long time (like, I’m thinking primary school).

First was a week of cold/laryngitis (the laryngitis seems to be an unfortunate by-product of every cold I’ve gotten since moving to London). Then, on the first day of half term I contracted stomach flu which literally lasted 11 days. I finally saw a pharmacist and he fixed me right up.

Unfortunately, 2 days after that I woke up with a fever so high I literally imagined things (i.e. calling into work, when I in fact hadn’t). Absolute nightmare.

The only good thing that came of all this illness (depending on perspective) is that I had a lot of time spent on the couch (when able to make it to the couch) watching rubbish telly (when lucid). This meant that I watched 3 different complete series of Heston Blumenthal programs over the course of 2-3 days.

One such program was ‘Heston’s Fantastical Feasts.’ In the 1980s episode he brought out his usual kitchen trickery (using liquid nitrogen and adding popping candy to everything) BUT he also demonstrated the most glorious invention I had ever seen: sodastream. 

I had never heard of a sodastream before last week, but Gareth assures me they were pretty common in the 1980s. Essentially it’s a machine that adds Co2 to water….or at least, you are supposed to use water in them (it carries specific warnings to do so, in fact) and then add flavourings afterward. 

Heston, of course, was not to be held back by these silly rules! He carbonated a bottle of Blue Nun (incredibly cheap grocery store wine) and went to the financial district of London with a class of his homemade concoction and a glass of actual champagne. Surprise! All the fancy banker types couldn’t tell the difference.

Intrigued, I shared my findings with Gareth who informed me that not only were sodastream’s still being manufactured, but that the kitchen gadget shop (Robert Dyas) in Canary Wharf (10 minutes away) was selling them. Huzzah!

It only took us about 3 days to decide we definitely needed to buy a soda stream and then never leave the flat again. And so, yesterday afternoon, we became the proud owners of the most glorious kitchen appliance ever invented.

After several ‘tests’ (first making an extremely flat batch of ‘Sprite,’ then reading the instructions and making a remarkably delicious batch) we thew caution to the wind and filled up our provided plastic bottle with the bottle of wine we got free from Marks and Spencer.

Success! The process was scary (apparently the bottles can explode if you put anything but water in them, although this could just be urban legend) and it was a bit of a learning curve (you need to wait between carbonation bursts to avoid overflowing the bottle), but 5 bursts of cO2 later and we had delicious, delicious sparkling wine. Huzzah!

Needless to say, today’s mission was to go buy a box of wine and some root beer flavouring (though not to use them together). And, as predicted, we now never need to leave the flat again. 

Every year bitter people all around the world gripe and complain about Valentine’s Day. The best part is, it’s not like anyone even asked them their opinion—all it usually takes is for February to approach and the same people start their usually rumblings of “Hallmark holiday” and “commercialism” and “insipid crap” and it drives me slowly insane. Because, you see, I am in a relationship—therefore, if I accuse people of being just a little bit bitter, heck, if I even gently suggest that maybe Valentine’s isn’t so bad after all, they give their little smirk and usual “well you have a boyfriend, so of course YOU would say that.”

And I think that’s unfair. First of all, no one is forcing anyone to celebrate Valentine’s Day, just like no one forces anyone to celebrate Christmas, Halloween or President’s Day. In fact, we are usually very sensitive to people who DON’T celebrate these holidays, but in a way that strikes a balance with people who do enjoy it.

 But  Valentine’s Day (like Christmas and Halloween and President’s Day)  IS a day that SOME people do enjoy celebrating. If we can get annoyed with people who constantly put down Christmas (or the various other ‘cherished’ holidays) why is it ok to rain all over the happiness of this holiday because you disagree with it?

In fact, some of the same people who disregard Valentine’s as being a “Hallmark holiday” still celebrate Christmas, which, if you don’t happen to be religious (and sometimes even if you do profess to be) is even more of a commercially driven holiday. Of course, there is still the “Christmas is about family, and goodwill towards others” sentiment—and that’s fine. But isn’t Valentine’s, despite all of its flowery (and candy) overtones, also about what’s meant to be the most important? Celebrating love and friendship? 

True, for some people, it’s not. For some people, Valentine’s is about begrudgingly spending too much money on roses and a card for your true love because society dictates that you should. For others it is about expecting those flowers and card because…well….because it’s Valentine’s! But for some (dare I say, many?) Valentine’s is just another way that you can remind someone special that they are just that—special.

Which brings me to my second point: people in relationships.

Yes, I have a boyfriend. Yes, I spent part of an absolutely wonderful February 14th with him. But I also spent part of that day sharing candy with my students, eating chocolates with my co-workers, and trying to find little ways to show people that I was thinking of them. 

At 27, I’ve spent many a Valentine’s day with someone special, and those people were not always boyfriends. They were the grade one classmates who I spent  all week making ‘mailboxes’ with to store all of our eagerly anticipated Tiny Toons and Power Rangers Valentines. They were the girlfriends I went to see ‘Guys and Dolls’ with and eat desserts. They were my family that year my Mom surprised us all with a heart shaped cake when we got home from school. Valentine’s Day is not just for people in relationships (at least, not to me) it’s for anyone who you care about, and who cares about someone else (and want’s to find  a way to let them know). It doesn’t have to be a fancy card or chocolates or anything of the sort—why can’t it just be that extra reminder that ‘hey, I haven’t talked to my mom lately, I should call her and tell her I love her’ or ‘I really appreciate my friends. I should let them know’? 

So yes, I think Valentine’s Day is wonderful. I think it’s wonderful to have a day set aside to remind people why they are special to you, and to have the opportunity to be reminded of that yourself (And yes, I do think it’s unfortunate that we live in a world where we need a day to remind us of this—but we do live in that world, and so why not make the most of it?)

Not everyone celebrates every holiday, or if they do, perhaps they don’t enjoy it. And I think that’s fine—to each their own, and so forth. But I don’t like the way it’s become ‘the thing’ to make fun of this particular holiday when to do so about others would almost certainly be expected to cause offence. Yes, I love Valentine’s Day. You don’t, and that’s cool. But if you really hate it that much, please do a solid to those of us who do and shut up about it? 

And now, just for fun (and to end on a happy note) some photos from my own Valentine’s celebrations :)

After my 2 days of migraine last week I returned to work on Friday. Or, I tried to. Since Friday was also the day it started snowing in London everyone (and especially the train network) lost their minds and school was cancelled and we all got to go home. It’s essentially been snowing all weekend but Gareth and I still managed to find time for the Transport Museum and some yummy cake yesterday. Today was less glorious initially(I tried to walk in the snow and remembered that I fall and hurt myself at least once a year due to snow in the most painful way), but lo and behold, we have a snow day again tomorrow! That means pink champagne today and despite my sore limbs I am eternally grateful that London has no means to cope with 2cm of snow. 

Obviously I sort of stagnated on the whole ‘Year in Review 2012’ project I had going on. And while we are being honest, I also broke my New Year’s Resolution of not shopping for clothes….several times (shoes don’t count). Still, if I were giving up smoking people would be applauding me for only slipping up a few times. So really, I think I’ve done rather well.

While I am on the topic of shopping, it has come to my attention that the Transport for London shop is incredible. I have to thank my ongoing migraine for this, as I have been feeling like death on the couch all day with very little do except dim the screen on my laptop and browse the internet until my eyes start to hurt too much and I go back to sleep (tough life). 

Anyway, January 9th marked the 150th anniversary of the tube and no one could be more excited than me. Despite my hatred for being in close proximity with sweaty (and non-sweaty) strangers, the tube has always been one of my favourite parts of London. It’s not very cheap, and rarely cheerful, but it gets me where I want to go when I want to go there (except on weekends when they are doing improvement works, and except when it snows and everything breaks…or when it’s too hot and everything breaks). 

To commemorate the anniversary, the Transport for London Museum (aka “The Greatest Museum in London”—as decided by a poll of one, including myself) has put out all sorts of new items to tempt my dollars away from me. I literally cannot think of a piece of furniture I would rather have than one covered in vintage tube-seat upholstery. Unfortunately, I do need the 1000 pounds it would cost me to buy a sofa in said upholstery, so for now I will just obsess over the website and try and convince myself that a 45pound cushion in the same fabric is just as good/not a ridiculous price to pay for a cushion. 

That said, if anyone wants to buy me a gift, I am happy to accept the chair and/or footstool as well:

http://www.ltmuseumshop.co.uk/for-home/furniture/living.html

Happy Birthday Tube!

2012 Year in Review: Celebrating Gareth’s Birthday at Hackney Weekend

2012 Year in Review: Jubilee Weekend in Brighton 

2012 Year in Review: May & June 

2012 Year in Review: April

Year in Review 2012: March Madness

2012 Year in Review: February in Rome 

2012 Year in Review: Dublin in February 

2012 Year in Review: Winter

Yes, I am fully aware that in the past several months all I have posted is a GIF of one fencer attacking another. Maybe my New Years Resolution should be to stop laughing at inappropriate situations?

The reason I started this blog, nearly 3 years ago, was boredom. Boredom, and the guilt I felt for spending approximately 4 hours a day on farmville. Why not take .5 of an hour away from my crops and blog about all the farmcash I’m saving? But no, it actually was primarily a collection of random things I’d found on the internet (looking up random things on the internet being my long withstanding primary use of said internet). 

Then I decided to pack everything up and move across an ocean and all of a sudden the blog had actually words that at least a few people found interesting about my adventures in the British Isles and beyond. Like my time in London, it was always meant to be a short term project. I mean, I suppose I could have blogged about my adventures in Westport, but there’s only so many times I can write about always turning up at the postoffice just as its closed for lunch. 

Last January I came back to London thinking it would be my last opportunity to do so from Canada—at least to live. I was certain that, like so many of my good friends, I would return to my home and native land once my visa ran up and hope for a miracle in the form of a teaching job—any teaching job.  I kept uploading my photos and writing about my adventures here and there, but it was bittersweet. 

Of course, we know what happened next—I got my miracle in the form of a teaching job—in London. I got the chance to work with a lovely new bunch of students, to explore new parts of London and to attempt to keep my shopping addiction hidden from Gareth (note: that hasn’t seemed to have worked). I found it harder and harder to write, not because I wasn’t doing anything, but because instead of the ‘temporary adventure’ I had been classifying my life as for the past two years, I was suddenly living a permanent life. Without even realizing it, by dream life became my regular life and the roots I had never considered putting down were already firmly embedded. 

Needless to say, 2012 had a lot of ‘ups.’ But, it was also the year I had to say goodbye to many good friends as they moved on from this place. It was the year I left the only job I had ever really known in London to try something new. And it was the year I had to accept that not flying to Canada for Christmas was the financially responsible thing to do. 

I am happy to be entering 2013 with few regrets, although if I have any it has been not updating this as much as I probably should have. In a lot of ways I wrote about my travels, adventures, and day-to-day life not as much for the handful of people who read this, but mainly for myself. I’ve had such a wonderful life in London and when I knew I would be leaving I was scared of forgetting a second of it. Now that I am staying, I am more than ever ‘living in the moment’—but am consciously aware that I can’t possibly remember all of them. 

I don’t usually make resolutions, but this year I’ve decided to try. I’ve decided to try and update this more than I do, but perhaps with not as *much* as I do. I want to remember the wonderful moments I’ve had and will continue to have here, but I don’t want it to be at the expense of really living them.

And, I’m not going to buy any more clothes. Well, in January I am not going to buy any more clothes. Except maybe a puffer vest (it’s important to be realistic and it IS cold). 

Something about this just makes me so happy.