While waiting for the Avs...

Hey, it's about 12:15am and I'm waiting for the Avalanche game to begin. I remember saying in my last post, that 'that was it', but then I remembered that I never talked about Brighton or skating. So here we go.

Brighton was a big deal. Kathleen and I went from Friday late afternoon to Saturday afternoon. We went down to see Jen Montague who was our study abroad advisor when we were last here. She and Amaya were close and since it's been a year since Amaya died, we decided it was time to go see Jen. First of all, she has the cutest flat. Rumor on the streets says that Paul McCartney has a place right by hers, you know just beyond the big gate. But her place is adorable. Her kitchen is between the bedroom and living room and in the hall/kitchen is a picture that Jenna drew Jen before we left. It's a great picture. She has a little garden in the back. It's also right by the water. On the first floor of an apartment building (well of course, since it has a garden) but it's very Jenn. Kathleen and I would move in in a second. We got dinner at some Japanese place and then hit a few pubs. We went to a Finnish pub where I got to talk hockey with one of the guys. Always fun. Of course, we also hung out with this guy who sounds just like Borat. I am not kidding. He had Kathleen in stitches just by saying Hello and it's nice. It was a fun evening out with Jen and a different part of Brighton that I hadn't seen yet.



Saturday was about shopping (of course) and going to the Pier. We went to H&M and I got two shirts. Kathleen and I actually got the same shirt, but in different colors of course. We had breakfast at this little place, I got eggs on toast. Of course, I got the eggs off the toast at once (why would you put eggs on toast???), and Jen made fun of me when I got tea. She said I was becoming too English, but then I added three sugars into it and she decided that no, I was still American. We walked around Brighton, went on a ride on the Pier and tried to go to this Chocolate Cafe, but it was closed for a private party. I was in tears. We did go to a cafe, and I got a piece of cake which put me to sleep about an hour later as soon as I got on the bus. It was a really chill but fun time with Jen. I forgot to mention that when we were waiting for her to pick us up at the bus station, we had been waiting for about 10 minutes when a bus started pulling into the spot next to where our bus was still parked. I told Kathleen that when the bus turned the corner, Jen would be standing there waiting for us. WHO WAS THERE WHEN THE BUS TURNED THE CORNER??? JEN! I acted like I won a car on the Price is Right. It was so funny.



I'm not really going to mention Jager, who died last week, because you know, I'm not completely okay with it. I was at work when it happened and thankfully I was going skating on Sunday so that helped me take my mind off it. On Sunday, Victoria and Jenny went out with me and we did a Jagerbomb. Okay, well Victoria downed her shot before I could put together my Jagerbomb, but still. It was nice. We talked, nursed a pint and enjoyed each other's company.

But to skating was good, I wore my Peter Forsberg jersey and I was the only one wearing a jersey. It was weird. CJ came with me. It felt so good to be on the ice and with my own skates. The rental skates have no support are old and just look uncomfortable. So I was happy to have my skates. I jumped a few times before I got yelled at. CJ tried to moon walk on the ice and jump, but he too got yelled at. Not for the moon walk. At the end of the session, we lingered at the opposite end of the ice from where the doors were and we sprinted. It was a very close race. CJ can skate, he has much longer legs, but I had confidence in my skates and my ability to stop. I sprayed the boards really well. I actually scared a couple earlier in the day when CJ asked if I could stop quickly when I was going at a fast pace. So I skated blue line to blue line and stopped and this couple next to me were slowly skating and apparently I made one of them jump. Hehe. At the end though, a woman asked me if I played hockey and would I be interested in playing in the area. I said yes and we exchanged numbers that she is going to pass on to someone named Alice, but I haven't heard anything back yet. I hope to be able to play, it would be a lot of fun. I really do miss hockey.

Work is going well. I'm really stepping up my work out incase I do start playing hockey. I was HURTING on Tuesday. I did a full workout on Monday and yeah, I couldn't move on Tuesday. I'm better now and I walked to the gym ON MY DAY OFF. I know, be proud.

I'm on break right now from school. Going to Malta soon and hopefully will be meeting up with a friend in a few weeks. Fingers are crossed.

Part 2 of my parent's visit

So onto Tuesday. We started a little bit later because today was the day of the Ceremony of the Keys at the Tower of London. We spent the morning at the Victoria and Albert Museum. I wasn't too big of a fan of that museum. It was a little boring and the only good thing was the most haunted bed in England. The biggest thing about Tuesday was Mom finally met Kathleen. Mom's been wanting to meet her since I did. We all meet at the Gourmet Burger Kitchen right by the Tower. I invited Jenny, Montana, and Kathleen to come to the Ceremony. Mom liked Kathleen though which I knew she would. They both like to creep on unsuspecting people in their houses...it's a bond that I will never understand. I hear though that Kathleen and Montana couldn't really understand Dad. I don't understand that since to me he doesn't have an accent, well a Boston one, and hasn't had one for years. Though I still hear it when he says Horse, but that's about it. Sorry Dad.

The Ceremony itself was pretty cool. There was a special party there so it was more crowded than usual, but we still got to see. It lasted about 7 minutes with lots of marching and the yelling of Halt. Apparently, they've been doing this ceremony for 700 years, if I heard correctly. We also got a short tour of the Tower of London, which I've been in before, but I never get tired of the history of the place. It's amazing that's it's still standing and in good shape after 1000 years and the Blitz.

Wednesday was another calm day. I got a new SIM card for my phone since I hate T-Mobile. It would have been easier to rent a car than get Internet on my phone, I swear to God. So now I have O2, and the girls are happy since when we start paying for Internet, it will be cheaper than it was going to be. We have O2 Internet... Anyway, the parents came out to Kingston. They didn't get here until 1pm, and we really didn't do much. We went back to Kings Road since they had the stuff they brought for me, like my skates, and then we walked around Kingston a little bit. Mom cooked dinner for us and Jenny. Yummy. I picked pork. We were on High Street when we saw Judi Dench.

Thursday was Westminster Abbey and the biggest epic fail of my life. But first the Abbey. Again, been there, but still it was nice. So much history in one place. I lost Mom and Dad very early on in the tour, I was doing the audio guide as they were, but Jeremy Irons just talked faster in my guide. Haha. After the Abbey, we got lunch and then MK had to go to Abbey Road. Yipee. It started raining as we got to St. John's Wood and was down pouring by the time we got to Abbey Road. Jenny and I had plans to meet in Leicester Square because of the Alice in Wonderland premiere. Epic fail. We saw nothing. I thought we had a good spot right against the barriers, but all I got for my troubles was the barrier against my rib cage. I heard girls screaming, "It's Johnny! It's Johnny!" and that's it. I didn't see him. Sigh. Jenny had her sister with her, and her sister was tall enough to see Anne Hathaway. I saw nothing. To make up for this, a little bit, I got to see a play. We saw Oliver. It was pretty good. I had Mom next to me singing some of the songs. It wasn't the first time she saw it.





Friday was their last day. Kinda sad, but we spent it in the coolest place. The Tower of London. It was just Mom, Dad, and me. MK went off on her own. We took the tour and then explored on our own. Last time I was there, I didn't go into the Bloody Tower or any tower but the White Tower. So this was cool. The Bloody Tower was cool and I believe it was in there that I met two of the coolest people ever. They were pretending to be from like the 16th century or 17th... I'm not completely sure. They asked where I was from and without realizing who they were, I said Boston, MA. They asked where that was and if it was near Spain. I was a little confused, but when the guy asked if it was near Winchester, I got it. I said yes. We got talking about Arthur and of course I took the position that Arthur was descended from the last Caesar. Yes, I like The Last Legion a little too much. Dad came in at that point and I told him we lived near Winchester. He didn't completely get it either, but we ended up having a cool conversation with them. He thought about them later and realized he could have been really witty with them by saying, he lived in Boston and summered in Plymouth. Which is true and both those are English towns. Haha. If only he thought of it before.




After exhausting the Tower, we went to the Museum of London. I thought Mom would like to see the Lord Mayor's carriage that is brought out in the Coronation of a new King or Queen. So we went to the Museum of London and yeah not there. They are keeping it under wraps while they set up a new exhibition and that is going to be the big head line of it. Thanks Museum of London. But we did explore the Roman stuff, saw one of the shirts Charles I was wearing when his head was detached from his body, one of the death masks of Cromwell, and a small room with stuff about the Great Fire of London. Museum of London is smaller than the British Museum and less crowded. We went to the Hard Rock Cafe after the Museum of London and then I went with them to Camden and back to their hotel.

It was sad to leave them. I enjoyed their visit, though I did like being able to sleep in again and not be in London all day and then go to work. I felt like I was juggling way too much and when I finally got home I just collapsed. Thank God, I didn't even consider going to classes that week. I missed everyone at the pub, but a chance of pace was good for a week. I think they had fun too, though I know Dad was ready to go home. The pace of London was a little too much for him.

Since they have left, I've gotten back in the routine of class and work. I went out with Liz and her friends that following Wednesday and now have been facebooking one of her friends. He's on a mission to research the Avalanche and get me ranting about different topics concerning them. He tried the rivalry between the Dead Wings and Avs, but that really died when Patrick retired. Good try though. I threw a party for Victoria, well I organized a trip to the Mill and then Lloyds. It was fun, especially trying to get Chris to dance. He's so funny.

I'm going to Malta in April! I'M SO EXCITED!!!!!! April 7-10!!! Woohoo. And hopefully Thorpe Park around the 17th with Liz and her friends.

And I think that's it. Lol. My life, now up to date.

I know, I know

I'm sorry I haven't updated in awhile, but the amount of time I spend in my house is rather insane. I'm usually not here in the evening since I usually work or have class. Everything is good.

After Superbowl, I was in a really good mood for like two weeks afterwards. Just the thought of Superbowl brought a smile to my life. Not a lot really happened in the time before my parents arrived. I did break it off with Adrian since well (Jenny insert your rant here since I know now you read this) my pros and cons list told me to. I did one at work and it wasn't good. It was fun and now it's over.

To my parents since that is a little more exciting. They arrived on Friday and I met them at Gatwick. That week was the last one where I went to bed every night at 3am and slept until noon. Boo. But I was at Gatwick before them which I was proud of myself for. I'm usually so late when I meet someone at the airport. I held up a little sign that said FEENEY... I know, I'm a fast thinker. So they arrived and we made our way up to their hotel in Camden. I know, Camden. I love Camden with the markets and the food (those donuts are amazing), but I couldn't see my parents in Camden. But then I don't think they ventured into the markets and the chaos that is Camden. We had breakfast in The Elephant Head which Noel an Julian used for Sweet. I was in heaven.

The first day was rather low key mostly because of jet lag. We took the Big Original Bus Tour around London. Good tour but the thing moves so quickly that one second you are by The Eye and the next Tower of London. But that's London traffic for you...it stops for no one. I saw some parts of London that I haven't seen before. It was sweet. It was nice to see le parents. Mom and MK were pretty comfortable here, but Dad was out of his comfort zone. Haha. He said that London was faster than NY or Boston. Not sure about NY, he has never been in NY with Monica. She runs around that city.

On Saturday, we went to Greenwich. I told this to Chris at the pub on Thursday and he started talking about it like I would if I was going to Plymouth Plantation. He didn't mention that he was forced to go there as a child every year, but he said it was a horrible place and dirty. It wasn't much to write home about basically. I did warn Dad about this, but upon getting there I took back my words. Greenwich is so beautiful. I texted Chris and asked why he was so against this beautiful place and he admitted being forced to go there every year when he was in school. Dad wanted to go here because, of course, it's where Zulu time begins. I stood in both the East and the West. Of course, to get up to Royal Observatory we had to climb up a hill that resembled the hill going up to William Wallace memorial. It was worth going up there though. I need to go back and explore more. Our time there was cut short because I had to go to work. They went to the Churchill Cabinet War Rooms and I left London.




Sunday we went to Ely. That was a pain in the butt. They were doing work on the rails from Kings Cross to Cambridge so we had to go Liverpool Street and take the commuter rail to Cambridge (it stopped like 15 times) and then a train to Ely. It took about a half an hour-45 minutes longer than it usually would have. It was good to see Jenn, her Mom, Jager, and Sophie though. Sophie was so cute; she was having lunch when we came in and she just stared at us wondering what was going on and who was in her kitchen. She smiled at me but stared at everyone else. Haha. Jager was so excited to have new friends to play with. We went into the living room and again I had to divide my attention between Sophie and Jager. Jager, of course, had to stay in the hall, but I still threw him his cat and Sophie would come over, demand to be picked up and we would play with Jager together. She also got a few cookies out of me...um. She just gives that look... the, 'you're eating that cookie in front of me and not giving me a single piece of it???' and I caved. We also went out to lunch while Sophie had her nap and then got a tour of Ely. Ely was more of Dad's pace since it was a Sunday and no one was out. We toured the Cathedral as well. It was a nice relaxing day. As a side note, it was the last time I saw Mr. Jager who just died. Poor little guy. He was the best. Sophie has been carrying around her Jager doll since he got sick. Cute but sad.

Monday we went to the Imperial War Museum. I understand where I get my love of death and destruction from. Dad was all over it. I've been to the Imperial War Museum before but just to the Holocaust Exhibition. We spent the morning there and then got lunch nearby. We went to St. Pauls which was awesome. We saw Nelson's tomb, Wellington's tomb, and of course the Cathedral was so beautiful. Time for me was cut short since (again) I had to go to work.

I'm going to end this post on my job. I got one at the Surbiton Racket and Fitness Club. I basically serve beer to people who just worked out or played squash/tennis. it's fun. I've met some cool people and I like my co-workers. I always get so distracted when Ed is there because he's a Capitals fan. I guess he was on a cruise like a year ago and met some kids who were from D.C. They talked hockey with him and a hockey fan is born. So he likes the Capitals and we talk hockey all the time. He's silly, he thinks the East is better than the West. Sorry, it's not. In the West, right now the Avs are second in their conference and might not make the playoffs. They are three points from the 8th spot. That's how tight the West is. The East is much easier. My favorite co-worker is Liz who I've been out partying with. Oh she's fun! I've been watching a lot more rugby and football since I started working there and it's cool. I like the time I spend at work.

Part 2 will be coming soon.