I sorted it in Brit speak means, I got it done, i worked it out. In this post I sorted a lot of my flat issues.
at Henry Root in south kensington. Henry Root was some famous writer who wrote funny complaint letters to various companies and corporate entities in the 70's or 80's or something. the restaurant is named after him and is delish. Artichoke, bread pudding
my first round of british groceries. i tried that canned ham in the back hoping it would be like spam and it is a poor imitation. the duck eggs were good, richer than chicken eggs. the cheeses were both acceptable. not something i would buy again given the wide selection at the store. I'm on a mission to try every cheese. seriously i love cheese.
Lucy took me to a slew of these kind of furniture shops in our neighborhood.
everyone knows what this is don't they? its the infamous swedish meatballs which means i'm at ikea.
i had to resort to ikea in the end because of price and need. I have kind of specific needs when it comes to a drawing table because i draw directly on it. so i just went with what i knew would work and what i've had in every country i've lived in. god i hate ikea. this is how i took the whole unweildly thing home. it was kind of rediculous. i carried the biggest desktop, legs, an office chair, laundry rack, and floor lamp. at both stations that i had to transfer at tube or overground train employees helped me along. the MTA could take some lessons in british manners!
it was my mission to review 1 indian/bangladeshi/pakistani/curry place on brick lane a week. I have already failed and am a horrible food reviewr also because i only have like 4 adjectives to describe the food i'm inhaling, unless you count grunting. good, bad, no, yes. No and Yes aren't even adjectives. So the first place is Curry Bazaar, which is Bangladeshi.
i got chicken bhuna, it looks like its tomato based. if you are wanting fatty creamy tikka masala type stuff this is not it. it was nothing special. I guess the first thing i need to do is learn about indian/bangladeshi food first before i can even pass judgement on a restaurant. this was the first time i had chicken bhuna. British people have a far superior knowledge of Indian food than americans. They say Curry is the official food of Brittan (unofficially).
when we were walking along Lucy said all the cab drivers have to go to these schools here in this area to learn the "knowledge". I was like ok sure. she meant the "Knowledge" as in the actual name of the test they have to take where they have to memorize every street in London.
who is that little scallywag under my bed? why it's Wilfred Tanner, affectionately called Wilf. He is a _________ breed?
the book club. opening of this french guy and some other dudes exhibition. the book club is a cool spot and recommended by me. they have ping pong tables too.
the basement of the book club.
we went to Bei Bei's flat which is like 1 street over from the book club btwn shoreditch and old street. she pays 400 pounds a month for this place and it has an awesome 3rd floor outdoor patio thing. so lucky.
Bei Bei is from Beijing and just graduated from some masters in illustration course. Angel met her on Chinese twitter and so i met her through angel. we have pu'er tea on the patio.
she cut out her name for each one of these business cards individually with an exacto blade. crazy.
near shoreditch high street station. they are lit up like its an approved and commissioned street art area....
these taxi stands are few and far btwn in London and there are only a few left. you can hang out and drink tea in there.
oh it's the two people i hate the most from albany in one photo. Johnny ribiero and grace chan. grace passed through london for a day on her way to ibiza, spain.
Masako said there was a double rainbow where she was. DOUBLE!
oh awesome bob lets book out tickets now! come on don't you remember 70 years ago when we used to read agetha cristie novels with a flashlight under the blankets?
oh great attitude as usual Mel. Melissa came to london and paris for a vacation. It was all albany alumni, all day.
the W hotel bar.
my twin, only his shirt is probably better, mine is from uniqlo.
the night bus is not so bad if you know what you're doing. they come about every 20-30 minutes. in NYC, tokyo, seoul, beijing, barcelona, there is no night bus. the night bus is awesome actually. in NY you would be waiting that long for the train, and in the other countries you would out of luck.
Braithwaite Street formerly know as Wheler Street. can they really do that?
I sorted It
Oh, That's Well nice, yea?
"well nice" is a british-ism. like, "that smells well nice".
Borough Market is fully approved and recommended by me. it's awesome. its on thurs, fri, and saturdays. I've been twice now. Pies in britanica mean more than just desert, they are stuffed with all kinds of meals fillin's. i tried the wild game pie filled with, venison, pheasant, rabbit, and pigeon. it was good and fatty. If you've lived outside of the US for a while one of these is a meal. they're like the size of a softball but super compacted with stuff.
add your own jokes
desert wine marinated Gorgonzola. i was in heaven. I loves gorgonzola and the desert wine gave it an extra zing. This one cheese maker there only makes a small wheel of this every week and we got a hunk of the last part and at it all.
this beer stall has everything. even a kind of sapporo i never had.
wild boar (like a real wild boar not that american processed deli meat company) sausage panini with gravy.
grassy area next to borough market. british hipsters look like american hipsters no?
The Gherkin. that's what people call it. it has a real name and its not after a pickle but who knows what it is. its london's modern landmark.
in britania they say joe bloggs instead of john doe.
the Thames river with tower bridge in the back.
millennium bridge is the bridge the death eaters blow up at the beginning of the half-blood prince harry potter movie. it leads to the tate modern.
Death Eaters running about the aspens at the tate modern.
building sand castles on the vast and beautiful beaches along the Thames river
Battersea park south of kensington. we had a few tennis balls but nothing to do with them so i set out to find a stick for some stick ball. all i could come up with is this huge branch that blew off in the storm. So we played huge Un-weildly branchball. baseball is not popular in Britain so people don't know the rules and common baseball terms used in english like "that's strike 3 for you Mr." go over their heads.
Ed liked scoring "stick goals"
Cricket match. i guess they go from the morning till dusk, like 10 hrs or something.
Watch a cricket pitch or whatever you call it when they throw the ball, the field is called the "pitch".
i had to break the huge branches into manageable pieces so we all got scratched up swinging them around.
our Branch Ball league rookie cards
A trumpeter vine for my mother.
My first real mainland chinese food since i lived in China. There are a bunch of people from beijing that live in london now that angel knows. Included is my pal Sophie Wenlin Pan W Wendle who is actually from NY but lived in Beijing when i did and I met her there.
Your parting shot for today is a dead fox on the sidewalk near Johnny's flat in South Kensington. I turned the corner and was freaked out, and then wondered if someone was playing a trick on me, throwing this stereotypical British thing out where i would run into it. In the morning it was gone. Insert BBC wildlife narrator David Attenborough's voice here about how this is the unfortunate consequence of cities encroaching on nature and then stay on this shot for a few seconds and then fade to black, and commercial.