…and Happy Chanukah and Happy Kwanzaa and Winterval and Festivus and all the rest!

Merry Christmas!

We took Tippy Toes and Whattas Fattass to the park this weekend.  Bright sunshine and fresh snow – it was too lovely a day NOT to go to the park!  So we thought we’d see how the cameras held up in the cold for some action shots.

No, that’s not a dark and furry cloud – that would be Sadie’s jowly chin!!

They had their coats on, which have a turtleneck, so it pushes the collar up hence also pushing the camera up.  The picture is still pretty good, though, considering it was taken while she was moving!
But, once at the park, she did stand still enough for a nice little landscape!

Sadie stays on a long leash when we’re at the park, but Toby gets to roam free.  (He’s not as brave as her and therefore naturally feels the need to stay close to us.  Sadie is much too independent for that and somehow ‘doesn’t hear us’ when we call her back.  Thankfully, though, she doesn’t even seem to notice she’s still on the leash – she’s just happy to be outside!)

Meandering along behind, Toby got this beautifully murky shot of me and Sadie.

And, unlike his always-on-the-move sister, he got several pretty landscapes.

(Those kids were using garbage can lids as sleds   It was very cute.)

There were a few more shots of our feet/legs when we were sitting down for some tea and cake from the little cafe but, while they were nice clear photos, they aren’t that exciting.  Regardless, I think it’s pretty safe to say that the doggy cams were a good investment!

One of the things that, from the beginning, has stood out to me about British television is the hard-hitting adverts (sorry, commercials) about stuff that matters.

“Stick to the Speed Limit” commercials that show a little girl walking through her neighborhood and getting hit by a car going 40 instead of the posted 30mph.  Her dead body slides in slow backward motion back to where she was crossing the road and she explains to the camera the statistical rate of survival if she’s hit by a car going 30mph (about 80% she’d live) vs one going faster (similar percentage that she’d die).

“Don’t Drink and Drive” commercials that show a guy having a beer in the pub with his friends, and just as he’s about to leave cuz he needs to drive home, he catches the eye of a pretty girl at the bar and tells his mates, ok, he’ll have another.  Suddenly the camera speeds up towards the girl, a look of fear on her face, you hear a squeal of tires and brakes, and she is slammed up against the bar and falls to the ground with blood pouring from her forehead.

There are also commercials for really good causes that are really really well done.

In the past, I’ve gotten pretty burned out by the likes of Sally Struthers and the Christian Children’s Fund.  Aka – the crying children adverts.  I’m sorry, I know that sounds heartless.  And I know those problems are really real and the organisations are probably really good.  But the “We’re trying to tug at your heartstrings” tactic was just too obvious and pretty annoying.

Tonight, we saw a commercial for the NSPCC – National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.  Without the warm fuzzy lighting and the sad music, with simply a matter-of-fact narration, it first showed a little girl hiding in bed under her blankets with the sounds of adults screaming in the next room, then a toddler by himself strapped into his stroller out on the back porch at nightfall, and last, a little girl skipping down the sidewalk in front of her school, climbing into her family car, only to see a man instead of the mum she was expecting (for this one, the narration explains that her mom doesn’t believe that he hurts her), and we see the car doors locking.

Ush made a comment about how good that advert was at bringing to light a real problem and I agreed.  It made me want to throw up; to consider that children really are treated like that, right under our noses.

But then I thought, “Yeah, but what’s the point of a good commercial like that if I see it but don’t do anything?”

So I went to their website and signed up to give £2 a month.  And that’s how you knows it’s a good ad that has accomplished its purpose… You feel moved to help out (make a donation, volunteer, etc), you’re happy to do it, and you didn’t feel guilted into it.

Ush and I don’t really buy Christmas presents for each other (for various reasons) mainly because with his birthday in early December and mine in January (and having just had our anniversary at the end of October) – that’s just too much gift buying in the span of a few consecutive months.  So we skip it.

But this year, we splurged on a couple (admittedly a bit frivolous but still awesome) things just for fun…

<sidenote>

(Did you click that link?  If you didn’t, you should… Have you clicked it now?  Isn’t that AWESOME?!?!  We’re Harry Potter freaks in this house and we’re excited to give this baby a try!)

</sidenote>

The other silly-but-fun thing we bought is two of these!!!  Thought it’d be fun to see what the pups get up to when we’re out – Sadie in particular.  She’s the mischief maker; Toby watches nervously.

Um, Sadie? You probably shouldn’t do that. Mum’s going to be mad.

Oh shut it you silly plonker! I’ll do what I want!!

You can set the camera to take pictures either every 1, 5, or 15minutes and it can store up to 40 photos at a time, at which point you plug it straight into the computer and upload them.

We tested it out this evening on the 1-minute setting and along with the to-be-expected blurry ones and all black ones (when the dog was moving or laying down), we actually got a couple of gems!!

Toby took this picture of our Christmas tree (while he was sitting on my lap).

From a similar position, he also took this one. (You can see Sadie’s camera hanging from her collar. It’s small and very lightweight.. They didn’t seem to mind wearing them or even notice.)

And wouldn’t you know it, while he was taking that picture, Sadie was taking this one!

Fun times.

This song was reintroduced to me recently and I haven’t been able to stop listening to it since…

I particularly enjoy this performance because  I like the way they twitch and jerk around as they’re singing; the song makes me feel that way too.

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I’m kind of in one of those moods today.. Where I just want to sit alone on my comfy couch with nothing but good music and my thoughts.  I have quite a bit that I feel like sharing – or, not sharing at all actually.  Not the details anyway.  But I feel like writing it all out for the purpose of organising and (hopefully) making better sense of what’s running through my head these days.

I’m just a bit confounded by the complexity of relationships and how each relationship in one’s life affects so much more than just that person.  I’ve learned so much more about myself in the last 5 years than I would’ve expected… Certainly the 22-year old me didn’t believe that I already knew everything there was to know about who I am and will be.  But it’s amazing how much living in relationships can teach you.

One thing I’ve been puzzling over lots is selfishness.   Wow I am a selfish person.  I really really am, and it’s appalling.  Thing is, for the most part, I’m the only one who knows that about me.
I genuinely enjoy doing unselfish things (that’s the influence of my incredible family, particularly my parents and their parents) and I do these things often without expectation of anything in return.  (I’m not trying to be all ‘look how great I am’, obviously. That’s just the way it is.)  I like to do things for people that I know will make them happy – simple as that.  I don’t do this as often as I could in as many ways as I could, but that’s neither here nor there.  What I’m saying is that I also have a side of me that is like a egocentric child who wants what she wants and therefore should get to will have it just because she said so.

Aaaaand, that’s basically where I come to the end of the ‘Details That I Am Willing To Share With The World’ road.

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The soundtrack to ‘New Moon’ is another good one to listen to when in a mood like this.  You’re welcome.

Age of Panic was the real birthday celebration, as Ush’s actual birthday fell on a Monday this year.

Although, as luck would have it (and of course by ‘luck’ I mean ‘the generosity of a good friend’), on that aforementioned Monday, our friend Quang gave us two tickets to join him to see Eddie Izzard at the O2!!

First of all, The O2 (formerly the Millenium Dome) is mahooooooosive!  The fact that we were in a 20,000 seat arena which was situated INSIDE another building is just incredible.

And secondly, standing just outside of it and looking up was amazing.  The place is just gigantic… I can’t believe we hadn’t been there yet – especially seeing as Ush’s offices (or, the offices he’s technically meant to be working in, but he’s mostly at the offices in St James Park) are right next door!

Anyway!  Back to the matter at hand..  Architectually, it was stunning.  Coupled with the fact that it was a beautifully clear and crisp evening. It was a fantastic night to be out in London!  I headed straight down to North Greenwich after work and met up with Ush.  We wandered around The O2, watching all of the restaurants quickly filling up and deciding that we probably didn’t have time to wait, instead getting some hotdogs and nachos to go.  (And you’ll never see me complaining when it comes to hotdogs and nachos!)

We went into the arena and walked down to our (most excellent – well done Quang!) seats.

The stage was to our left and the sound techs and camera stuff was set up in the centre, directly in front of us.

Cleverly, Eddie Izzard’s Twitter page was set up on a live feed which we could watch on the big screens at the front above the stage.

In the meantime, we were very entertained by all the people inside the arena that the camera guys were catching in various states of unawares, embarrassment, bravado, etc.  And when they got us up on the screen, I personally was in the embarrassment camp!!!   Big surprise there.  Ush captured my “I’m trying not to look nervous” on camera.  It was pretty exciting, so I figured I’d tweet about it and see if I could get my tweet up on screen too! 

And sure enough, not too much later, after Quang and his friends had arrived,  my tweet popped up!

We just barely caught it in time before it scrolled up and out of sight.

It says, “Just got on the big screen at The O2! Thanks for that, friendly cameraman!! Let’s go, @eddieizzard!“ 

(I was getting a bit bored of waiting by this point.  It was a school night, after all.  Also, I had a little chuckle to myself when I remembered my mom and I waiting for Fleetwood Mac to come on… Mom tapping her watch and calling towards the stage, “I start getting tired at 10!!” )

Anyway, I digress!  I was excited by the prospect of this Twitter fame (ha!) and decided to try again, this time mentioning Ush’s birthday.  I didn’t expect this one to get on there, as it had taken so long for my first one to come up and Eddie would be on soon.  But you never know!

Sure enough, he started on time and there was giggles galore!  I’ll admit, I was struggling to pay attention for the first hour or so because the pint of beer and half-bottle of water that I’d drank earlier had gone straight through me.  When the interval (aka intermission) began, I dashed up the stairs and to the loo, where of course there was already a ridiculously long line!  But, relief was eventually mine and I returned to our seats, immediately learning that the Twitter feed was up again and mine had just scrolled along! 

Again, Ush just barely managed to catch it, as my name is totally cut off this time.  It says, “@eddieizzard, maybe you should wish my hubby a: HAPPY BIRTHDAY USHWIN!!!”

The second half was much easier to enjoy (ie: it’s much easier to laugh without a full bladder!) and we had a great time.

Thanks again to Quang for his kindness and generosity – it was a fun night!

I can’t even remember how it came up.  We were both still in that hazy place between sleep mode and work mode, ie: we were on the train heading into work, my best work buddy and me.

He made some sort of reference to me being a parent one day.  I had to admit, “I still don’t know if I want to, but I know that I probably will.”

“Really?!!!!”  He was pleasantly surprised to hear that.  He knows that I was previously far more averse than open to the idea – a fact which he found hard to accept. He couldn’t conceive (no pun intended!) of me never being a mother.

“You’d be a wicked mum!”**

“I know.”

“…And you’re so modest too!”

“It’s not to do with modesty – I know I’d be awesome at it primarily because the instincts are there.  I just don’t know if my head is in it yet.”

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In making the decision to be a parent, you need to have the whole trifecta solidly in place: head, heart, gut.  You need to want it from the core of all those three places.  Not because all your peers are having kids.  Not because it’s the next natural stage after college>marriage>cat>dog.  Not because your parents want grandkids.  Not because babies are so cute.  No.

I think too often people don’t go into parenthood with the right motives.  And if that’s the case, it’s none of my business.  I’m just saying, that is why I am not ready. Why I don’t know yet if I’ll ever be ready.  Biologically, I want to do it (that’s the gut part – that I have no control over, incidentally).  My heart is only mostly there but my head isn’t there at all.

Anyway!  All that said, after that conversation, I was feeling all warm and fuzzy about the possibility of a future involving children.  And then a few hours later, a client came in with her noisy, whiny little boy. And the warm fuzzies went promptly away.

It just blows my mind how we’re all wired so differently.  A couple friends of ours, whose wedding we attended over the summer, just announced this weekend that they’re pregnant!  They’re each several years younger than me, but we knew they’d be trying right away for a baby because they’re just there.  Amazing!

So there you go.  Who knows what the future holds for us… But for now, I’m totally loving the two babies that we DO have.  (See new header photo!)

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* Well, it’s an 8 minute commute for him – he gets on one stop before me.

** Out of habit, I typed ‘mom’ there but obviously, being English and all, he said mum.

Last night was the third instalment of ‘Age of Panic’ – a 90s rock/metal club held on the first Friday of each month at the Purple Turtle in Camden.  Now, most of you will know that I don’t love metal.  Some of it is okay, but for the most part, I’ll pass.  I spent many a night out, during my first couple of years here, wishing I’d remembered to bring ear plugs, hoping I might recognize (and maybe even like) the next song, waiting for the night to be over so we could go home.  (It wasn’t as bad as I’m making it sound actually.. It was worth it to see our friends and it was worth it when a good song came on!)

Anyway, I’d thus far managed to avoid having to attend Age of Panic .. For the first one in October, I already had plans to go out with work friends.  Ush went, I got texts during the night from various peeps scolding me for not being there, and then (when I had already made it home and passed out) Ush put his hand in some broken glass and ended up sitting in the ER for half the night!   When the second one in November rolled around, we had planned to go, but Ush’s back flared up pretty badly and we gave it a miss.

This time around, it fell conveniently near Ush’s and our friend Simon’s birthdays, so there’s birthday plans sorted!  (Also meaning I was officially obligated! )

We started out the night at a pub called NW1 for drinks and Thai food.

I don’t know why he’s making that face – he loved the tshirt! (Gift from Matt.)

Around 10:30, we moved on to Age of Panic.

I settled myself in and decided to only focus on the positives.  The first and foremost being that there were looooads of friends there that I haven’t seen in too long.  Besides being great to see them, it was also fun to watch them in their element – reliving their glory days!

(When they were all in the clubs dancing to that music, I was in junior high/early high school and living a completely different and much more sheltered life!  Which isn’t a bad thing, don’t get me wrong.. It’s just funny.)

It was also totally worth being there just because of how happy it made Ushwin.  He was thrilled – just because I was there.  That’s amazing to me; I love it

Anyway! I spent most of the evening sitting on the stage taking photos of the carnage dancing.  Oh, and I tweeted a lot – keeping track of how long I’d been there and how many songs I knew.  By the time we’d been there 2 hours, it was only one:  Hypnotize by Notorious BIG!  By the 3 or 4 hour mark, it was somewhere closer to five songs.  And by the time we left (after about 5 hours), I’d heard a total of seven songs that I knew! Not a bad result

So, today I’m very very tired… The doggies (and the inevitable ’spending 5 hours standing next to large speakers’ headache, of course) didn’t let me sleep in as long as I would’ve liked.  And then I sat on the couch worrying about Ush and listening to him moaning and whining from the bedroom.

Ladies and Gents, my dear husband, who will  be 32-years old on Monday, has finally experienced his first REAL hangover.   Despite many a boozy night over the last 16 years or so, he has never been properly hungover.  Tired – yes.  Achy – yes.  Headache – yes.  But never like this.  Today he experienced all at once the head pounding, the stomach churning, the so-weak-he-can’t-move-otherwise-he-might-die hangover.

I’m so proud.

Recent Signs That It Is Winter -aka- Christmas Is Coming (And My Thoughts/Reactions Thereon)

1.  I woke up to frost on the deck/lawn this morning.  As I walked past cars with frost-covered windshields, I was once again happy that we don’t have one.

2.  Tonight, my dinner got cold before I could finish eating it.  This was a clear sign that I need to set the boiler to turn on a couple hours earlier these days!

3.  I put up my Christmas tree over the weekend!!  Seems I was not alone in my endeavours, as lots of Facebook statuses said the same thing.  However, I realised that most of those people were fellow Americans after I was scolded by several people here who said the tree can’t go up until December 1st at the earliest.  I asserted that where I come from, the rule is from Thanksgiving onwards.

4.  I’m quite comfortable, temperature wise, sitting around in a long sleeves, pajama pants, and slippers.  But my nose is cold, like there’s an icicle on my face.  I don’t like this.

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In other news, my lovely 104ians left yesterday morning… I was sad to see them go (especially since they had to do so in wind and heavy rain!), but I was and am so grateful for the time we had together.  I loved having them here and I’m REALLY happy that they got to cross so many items off of their ‘Things We Want To Do In London’ list!!

Here are some more photo highlights of their visit.

3 men with facial hair

Stephanie squared!

We were impressed with how Amsterdam creatively made the most of their space on a vertical scale – taaalllllllllll buildings obviously but also with entrances a few feet below street level.  My roommate knows how to pose making herself look slim and I very clearly and unfortunately don’t!!!  She said it comes from years of watching ‘America’s Next Top Model’.  That’s a sacrifice I’m not willing to make, I’m afraid! Tyra Banks drives me insane and I sorta want to punch her in the face whenever she speaks.

I think Travis was missing his new ladyfriend Awww…

This is a beautiful ‘definitely should be in a frame’ photo…

Aaaaaand, this is my adorably silly husband! (At Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park.. a must-visit if you’re in London this season!)

(PS – I’m pleased to report that he made it all the way through Movember (as did I!!) and the tache is now GONE!!!  Never before has a bald top lip been SO beautiful to me!)

* * *

Finally, this has nothing to do with winter or Christmas or friends visiting from America or moustaches…. BUT, I had a 20+ minute conversation with someone who knows hair about what to do with mine when it comes time for the chop.  She suggested an inch-or-two-longer version of Alice’s hair in ‘New Moon’…

I think that may be a bit too high maintenance for me with the many many layers.  My hair doesn’t really behave when straighteners are used.  It holds curl/wave better than it holds ’straight.’   I wonder whether a bit less Alice and a bit more Ashley might be better???

(click here for a side/back view)

Any thoughts???

I am continually realising (to my chagrin) just how much my self-security has become wrapped up in my long hair!  A chop will do me good in that respect, but it’s gonna hurt.  Still though, I just keep imagining that little girl with alopecia who will hopefully get to have a pretty long hairpiece that much sooner because of my donation! It’s so undoubtedly worth it.

It didn’t feel like Thanksgiving at all this year.   Well, it usually doesn’t, obviously, as I’m in the UK.  But it was especially so this year since I was even further away from any sort of American connections – despite being with American friends!! – in Amsterdam.  A beauuuuuutiful city with mazes of canals, thousands upon thousands of bicycles, and fantastically quirky and very ‘European’ architecture and general layout.  Oh, and also some great coffee shops. (Ugh, I said that in a really lame and loser-y way, I know, but it’s also a fact.  We did partake and it was fun! Totally legal and ‘not something I plan to do regularly so don’t worry Mom and Dad’ fun.)

The trip to Amsterdam was brilliant… and I particularly enjoyed the time spent with Stephanie, Brandon, and Travis.  Yes, we were there to sight see, but it was more relaxed than was the London ‘we must see everything’ frenzy.  We had some good talks and a lot of laughs.

Once we were shuttled to our hotel and settled in, we just meandered around the city and semi-familiarized ourselves with what was where.  (Or rather, Brandon and Travis did.  Steph and I followed.)  After a couple hours at La Tertulia, we stopped for dinner where we all tried a new dish – bitterballen.  It was yum!  We were sufficiently pooped after a long day of walking and headed back to the hotel.  On Thursday morning, once we were all up and ready to go, we went for a super delicious breakfast at a super cute little cafe and then to the Anne Frank House.  And next, as a complete reversal of shall we say tone, we headed over to the Red Light District.  Just for the sake of viewing (as opposed to experiencing, mind you) the other of the two major tourist draws that Amsterdam has to offer.  It didn’t take long.  One stroll down an alleyway and we’d seen enough! We also visited the Rijksmuseum, had a late lunch, and did some more wandering and window shopping.

We got back home around 11:30pm and Friday at work involved plenty of caffeine!  But I survived.  Photos to come, although they’ll be Stephanie’s, not mine.  I took one picture in Schipol airport and then my battery died. OOPS.

Anyway!  Back to Thanksgiving.

I’m genuinely thankful for so much it’s impossible to try and organise it all into words.  The usual of course – my family, my friends, our dogs, our health, our financial security.. Their status as ‘the usual’ absolutely does not lessen their value to me in any way shape or form.

I’m thankful in bold, italics, doubleunderline, and all caps.