This is from earlier this month but since I missed it while being on holiday, I thought I would revisit my angst. When British PM Gordon Brown visited the US earlier in March, he gave Obama:
“…a pen holder made from wood from the anti-slave ship HMS Gannet. The gift was both classy and priceless, showing an understanding of the significance of Obama’s ascendence to the presidency.”
# Citizen Kane
# The Godfather
# Casablanca
# Raging Bull
# Singin’ in the Rain
# Gone with the Wind
# Lawrence of Arabia
# Schindler’s List
# Vertigo
# The Wizard of Oz
# City Lights
# The Searchers
# Star Wars: Episode IV
# Psycho
# 2001: A Space Odyssey
# Sunset Boulevard
# The Graduate
# The General
# On the Waterfront
# It’s a Wonderful Life
# Chinatown
# Some Like It Hot
# The Grapes of Wrath
# ET: The Extra-Terrestrial
# To Kill a Mockingbird
I would have personally included Matrix, Indiana Jones, maybe some Rocky Rambo. I mean, what is more American than a veteran of war blowing shit up? Hmm, add Armageddon and Independence Day in there also, as they show that when the world is in crisis, America comes to the rescue. All in all, however, you got ET, some Marilyn Monroe, Jack Nicholson…even Psycho and Star Wars Episode IV were on there. Jar Jar Binks has more international appeal than you would care to know. The problem I have is that DVDs are assigned a region, which means only special (or hacked) DVD players would be able to play such DVDs. The fact that you are making Gordy Brown hack his Downing Street DVD player does show some serious cheek on the part of the prez. WTF.
Apparently camels spit and snort at you and generally don’t like people. I can’t wait for it! This Friday we leave for Marrakech, Morocco. It will be the first time to Africa and I’m fully expecting it to shock my system one way or another…at the very least on the way out of my system.
Now, we’ve been travelling all over Europe but this one’s different. It’s Africa. It’s a Muslim country that doesn’t drink yet has an underground nightlife for tourists. There are bombings. There are dead mules in the streets. This is Morocco. Our plan is to head into town for a couple of days then travel to the Saharan desert to ride a camel into the desert and sleep under the stars. No joke.
We’re prepared for the harrassment and people speaking Japanese to us (the Japanese have ruined travel for all Oriental Asians by buying up all the Louis Vuitton bags in every other country. Damn you. We will hence be greeted with Moroccans with Dirhim signs in their eyes. There is a possibility I have to perform some ninja moves on some naive souls in Morocco. Just gotta do it.
Note: Mum, If I don’t blog within a week of this post, call the embassy and come after me. I was innocent!
It’s about bloody time someone charged for the loo on the airplane. I mean, what’s paying a quid when you have to pee? Ok, if you don’t have a quid on you, things might get messy, but just be aware of this and go to the loo before you board the plane. During my last trip, I recall thinking about whether I should go to the loo on the plane or when we land but decided on the plane because it would mean faster time getting to the bus to get back to London from the terrible Stansted airport.
Look, spending money to use the toilet sounds absurd but it is completely optional. It just takes planning, like everything else in flying. You can’t bring liquids over 3oz on the plane, and likewise you can’t bring any urine on the plane over 3oz without paying a quid. Seems fair to me. I do have a love / hate thing going with RyanAir. Sometimes I love them sorta, but sometimes they call me an “idiot blogger” and I get offended. Overall, however, I will continue to fly with them for my entire time in London because you just can’t beat their prices….even if it’s a quid more now per flight.
So the stage is set for the most exciting locations yet! No more going to Venice or Barcelona, no more Paris and Pisa. This is the year we go to the places most Americans don’t ever go to. Bloody excited about all of these locations.
Top 5 destinations 1. Rekjavik, Iceland – Blue Lagoon, volcanoes, glaciers, and the craziest landscapes in the world. 2. Krakow, Poland – Some call call it the new Prague. Not sure what that means but if it means cheap goulash, I’m all over it. Will do a daytrip to Auschwitz, the notorious Nazi death camp. 3. Marrekesch, Morocco – One word: Africa. Hope we make it back alive. 4. Bergen, Norway – Fjords and most pristine landscape in the world. Also the most expensive, but oh well. 5. Split and Dubrovnik, Croatia – They call this the new Prague, except it’s on the water, you eat polenta instead of goulash, and it’s nothing like Prague.
So there it is, 2009 is going to be a good year for the Ninja!
The great thing about the UK is how multicultural it is. By multi-cultural, I mean Indian, of course. London is widely known as having the best curry in the world, including India. It’s a close call between London and India but London edges out India because you don’t get your shoes stolen while you eat. It’s true, they did research on this.
So with all of the Indian influence in the UK, it’s only natural that you get some of this on TV. Michael and curry…I personally can’t complain.
I had always wanted to live somewhere that snowed. I reckon last year it snowed in London once for about an hour…a very exciting hour. This year, however, we have been treated to the biggest snowfall in 18 years. Now, I’m used to driving up to Tahoe from SF and taking in the snow but to do enjoy it from home is something I haven’t had the pleasure of experiencing until I moved to London. I am admittedly cold-blooded after enduring the coldest winters in the world, the San Francisco summer.
The great thing with London is that the entire city shuts down when snow hits. Any snow…and we got the best snow in 18 years. Tube shuts down, buses shut down. Even the chippies shut down. So basically everyone in London went outside yesterday and made snowmen. Not a bad way to spend a day.
Sygirl tumbling like a UFC move gone bad.
I, on the other hand, prefer the ancient ninja art of levitation.
It’s supposed to snow later on this week. Looking forward to it!
As for me, it was tempting to stand in the 0 degree weather with 50,000 other revelers and revel while not being able to actually see the fireworks. It was doubly tempting because the prime areas near the river are closed off after the first busload of fatso Americans revelers arrive. In the end, I decided I would rather stick a stingray barb through my manhood than do that.
What we did instead was actually quite a change from what we did last year, which was survive an orgy of freeflying fireworks in a sea of people in Helsinki. We went to a dinner party celebrated in North London. While we did not get to revel with the revelers, it made for a lovely time with lovely people and lovely Russian Standard vodka.
Question: “Want to grab a pint after work?” Answer: “Is the pope Catholic?”
So it’s answering a question with a question but hey, that answer is never misunderstood. And this, folks, is my typical work day. Alternatively, you could answer that rhetorical question with: “Is Obama African American?”
What is of note is that there is a difference between the American pint and the British pint. The difference is 4 ounces. The proper British Imperial pint is indeed 20oz instead of 16oz. in America. This means two pints adds up to 40 ounces. Yes, as in “foety of OE, son“. What this also means is that people order the 10oz half pint. Yes, half a beer. They do it here. It is perfectly acceptable to order half pints if you don’t want to be downing another 20 ounces.
Now, this does have certain implications. It means if you are drinking with someone and they’re ordering the Skinny Bitch while you’re downing pint after pint, you should probably slow things down as you will not be able to go drink for drink with that someone. And by slow things down, I mean kick this person’s arse for ordering a Skinny Bitch…ninja style.
