I made this movie using the website xtranormal - take a look!
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Saturday, January 29, 2011
A clean getaway
The weather has been dark and dreary for the most part all week, and in the last 2 days the temperature has dropped a fair bit. I think it was around 0 degrees or maybe slightly below. (I say this knowing that this week it's been as low as -25 in Toronto and -35 in Ottawa, so I realize that this probably sounds tropical!)
We just got back to our flat after spending the day 'uptown' in the Tottenham Court Road and Charing Cross areas. For one of my assignments I needed a copy of an article that unfortunately Brunel's library did not have access to - although their selection of electroni
c journals is really vast, this just happened to be one that they didn't have a subscription to. I was told by the school librarian that I could either order a copy from the British Library for £7.50, or haul myself down to the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine where they have the only paper copy of the journal in London and photocopy it. I opted for the latter - the LSHTM (or just "the London School" as it is often called) is an English institution known very well to public health people (but probably not to many people outside that area). When I told people at work that I was going to study public health in London, the inevitable response was "At the London School?". So I wanted to take the opportunity to at least see this famous educational establishment. The young woman at the desk was extremely helpful, and was actually a Brunel alumni. Unfortunately the one journal issue that I needed was (of course) not in the box because it was away for binding, but she very kindly printed me a copy from their electronic holdings since she knew how far I had come to get it.
We just got back to our flat after spending the day 'uptown' in the Tottenham Court Road and Charing Cross areas. For one of my assignments I needed a copy of an article that unfortunately Brunel's library did not have access to - although their selection of electroni
c journals is really vast, this just happened to be one that they didn't have a subscription to. I was told by the school librarian that I could either order a copy from the British Library for £7.50, or haul myself down to the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine where they have the only paper copy of the journal in London and photocopy it. I opted for the latter - the LSHTM (or just "the London School" as it is often called) is an English institution known very well to public health people (but probably not to many people outside that area). When I told people at work that I was going to study public health in London, the inevitable response was "At the London School?". So I wanted to take the opportunity to at least see this famous educational establishment. The young woman at the desk was extremely helpful, and was actually a Brunel alumni. Unfortunately the one journal issue that I needed was (of course) not in the box because it was away for binding, but she very kindly printed me a copy from their electronic holdings since she knew how far I had come to get it. After our adventure at the LSHTM (and approximately one thousand hygiene-related jokes on Keith's part) we headed to Charing Cross and the National Portrait Gallery. Aft
er a nice lunch across from Trafalgar Square, we spent the afternoon hobnobbing with portraits of the rich and famous (and dead - we were in the Tudor and Regency sections and ran out of steam by the Victorian era). We will head back again at some point and see the rest of the gallery. I think it's one of my favourite galleries - and I liked it even better this time after reading more English history and understanding better who people were, and spending time in the places where these people lived and worked.
er a nice lunch across from Trafalgar Square, we spent the afternoon hobnobbing with portraits of the rich and famous (and dead - we were in the Tudor and Regency sections and ran out of steam by the Victorian era). We will head back again at some point and see the rest of the gallery. I think it's one of my favourite galleries - and I liked it even better this time after reading more English history and understanding better who people were, and spending time in the places where these people lived and worked. Sunday, January 23, 2011
Food, glorious food
Well, maybe glorious isn't quite the right word...
People have been asking us what we cook here and about the price of food, so I thought I would do a blog entry about that. It seems like our grocery bill is less here than it is at home, but that is probably partly because we don't have a car here so we have to carry everything we buy home on the bus - and that certainly makes you very aware of every single item! Keith also has free lunches at work, so this certainly cuts down on our grocery bill and food preparation time.
Here are some of the staples from one of our grocery bills:
Loaf of bread (£1.19)
1L of lactose-free milk (£1.28)
Bag of rice (£1.59)
Can of baked beans (£0.44)
Pkg of 6 bagels (£1.00)
Pkg of back bacon (£2.00)
Jar of instant coffee (£4.00) (This is really expensive here!)
Pkg of 6 salad tomatoes (£0.95)
3lb of carrots (£1.00)
Bag of apples (£2.50) (Apples are expensive here too)
Bunch of bananas (£1.00)
Crisps (£1.19)
Chocolate bar (£0.45-£0.60)
People have been asking us what we cook here and about the price of food, so I thought I would do a blog entry about that. It seems like our grocery bill is less here than it is at home, but that is probably partly because we don't have a car here so we have to carry everything we buy home on the bus - and that certainly makes you very aware of every single item! Keith also has free lunches at work, so this certainly cuts down on our grocery bill and food preparation time.
Here are some of the staples from one of our grocery bills:
Loaf of bread (£1.19)
1L of lactose-free milk (£1.28)
Bag of rice (£1.59)
Can of baked beans (£0.44)
Pkg of 6 bagels (£1.00)
Pkg of back bacon (£2.00)
Jar of instant coffee (£4.00) (This is really expensive here!)
Pkg of 6 salad tomatoes (£0.95)
3lb of carrots (£1.00)
Bag of apples (£2.50) (Apples are expensive here too)
Bunch of bananas (£1.00)
Crisps (£1.19)
Chocolate bar (£0.45-£0.60)
As for cooking (and heating... since I can't claim that we make all these things from scratch), some of our staple meals are: chilli and rice, whole-wheat pasta and meat sauce, meat pies, chicken and vegetable stir-frys, quiche, and (my favourite) breakfast-for-dinner consisting of toast, beans and eggs. Mmmmmm. We are having that now. :0)
Monday, January 17, 2011
A January with no snow??!!
It's been a few weeks since I last updated our blog on New Year's Eve. Unfortunately the next day Keith came down with a very nasty flu which took him out of commission for about 4 days. Immediately after he was well enough to get out of bed I came down with a minor flu and cold. So we have spent the last few weeks gradually getting over our respective illnesses. But we are both feeling much better now!
Since we were sick for about two weeks in a row we didn't get out much (which was ok by me since I was in the final stages of writing two papers that were due last week). But this past Friday we had tickets to see the play War Horse at the New London Theatre near Covent Garden. We bought our tickets back in November so we had been looking forward to seeing the show for quite a while, and we had excellent seats (we normally get the "cheap seats" so it was a treat to be on the same level as the stage for a change!) The show was absolutely fantastic, probably one of the best theatre experiences either of us has ever had. Everything about it was wonderful - the storyling, the amazing puppets, the cast, the staging, the music. If you haven't heard about it look up the trailer on youtube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-bni4QqSv4
And of course what post from England would be complete without mentioning the weather? As this post title suggests, there is no snow on the ground. The birds are singing, the skies are... well, the skies are grey and overcast 99% of the time but the temperature is mild. It definitely does not feel like my idea of January!
Since we were sick for about two weeks in a row we didn't get out much (which was ok by me since I was in the final stages of writing two papers that were due last week). But this past Friday we had tickets to see the play War Horse at the New London Theatre near Covent Garden. We bought our tickets back in November so we had been looking forward to seeing the show for quite a while, and we had excellent seats (we normally get the "cheap seats" so it was a treat to be on the same level as the stage for a change!) The show was absolutely fantastic, probably one of the best theatre experiences either of us has ever had. Everything about it was wonderful - the storyling, the amazing puppets, the cast, the staging, the music. If you haven't heard about it look up the trailer on youtube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-bni4QqSv4
And of course what post from England would be complete without mentioning the weather? As this post title suggests, there is no snow on the ground. The birds are singing, the skies are... well, the skies are grey and overcast 99% of the time but the temperature is mild. It definitely does not feel like my idea of January!
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