Next Stop: Normalcy

“Please mind the gap between the train and the platform.”

This will be posted on a different day than it was written. This is due to reasons that will be later explained. I’d like to go on record acknowledging that the save date for this draft is, in fact, the day I promised the next post would be ready for: Wednesday, November 8, 2006.

As my loyal followers (and those who have nothing better to do than be on MSN all day everyday) may have noticed, I have not been on Messenger for almost a week now. Worried? Well, don’t be. I’m sad too. Although, while you’re probably sad because you’re down one friend, I’m sad because I have no idea what is going on outside of London.

Speaking of people coming in to hang out in London (which I realize I hadn’t actually mentioned before that), Mike and Kate (and "the Moose!)(from Calgary) made it over from Tarare, France (where they live) this past weekend in hopes of catching up with some traditional Guy Fawkes (man who, once upon a time, tried to blow up the King of England) festivities.

Instead, we did: a bus tour, a live musical (Mary Poppins), a river boat tour, a walkabout to some pubs I knew, a walkabout to some pubs we just found by chance, a photo session of Buckingham Palace, a carnival in a hard-to-get-to park, and a fireworks show where I reckon we had a pretty excellent weekend! I was really glad to see them come out and invite you call to do the same (although you may be hard-pressed to get me out on another open-roofed bus tour when it’s below 10C!).

Sunday, I moved into a new flat. Rent payments, up until now, have been doing the dishes, mandatory going out for drinks when asked, buying the odd pizza, and keeping the fridge stocked full of a variety of beers and English ciders.
Simple, yeah? I agree. So needless to say, real/money rent hit me like a bag that has been lit on fire and filled with bricks, but then instead of bricks it’s just a big hand that reaches in and takes all of your money… But here’s the situation: I am now living in an area of central London called Euston. I understand that it is officially still in the borough of Camden, but technically in Somerton. What that all means, I still have yet to figure out. I live with a couple (though I have my own room) who are an Australian guy (where I’ll be able to pick up tips for my accent) and a Hungarian girl (who will hopefully one day teach me how to make a mean goulash). So far, they’re cool.

People always talk about getting into a routine, blah blah blah when you get into a job and suddenly everything just becomes custom. You get up, go to work, go home, eat dinner, go to bed, do it all tomorrow. Often, a change of pace is switching from a ham sandwich to turkey, or trying out a Big King rather than a Big Mac (which could lead into me ranting about how crap McDonald’s value menu items are here in London, but that’s another story for another day). And I’ll admit my life, after just one week of working, has become routine.

But get this: Start time: 10.30 – meet up at the office, for a quick meeting, maybe a little bit of recap of yesterday, yada yada… End Time: 9.30 (if we’re lucky). (and you thought you had it bad) By now, you must think that I’m a really hard worker, but when it comes down to it, I’m just average…but you’d do the same if you were on commission. (I still won’t flat out say what my job is on the blog, (maybe because I’m embarrassed) but I’ll let you all guess – that last one was a HUGE hint!) I’ve come to discover that routine can actually be an excellent way to both make AND save money. After all, if you can’t have fun exploring, you might as well have fun working! – or something.


When I moved out, my generous cousin gave me her old TV. Trouble is, it’s either a little bit broken or I’m little bit retarded. I’m hoping it’s the former. Problem: I can only get one station: BBC Two. (And yes, I tried changing the channel…) The way television works here in kind of cool. Non-peasant options for television are plentiful: cable, satellite, digi-cable, etc, but instead of just being able to pick up super fuzzy 4 or 5 channels with your TV antenna (like in Canada) a mandatory charge is paid annually by every home, flat and willing business which gives everyone picture perfect analog cable BBC channels one through four (what they call internal antenna), which gives quality entertainment, news, and sports 24 hours per day/7 days per week. The best part about the BBC (and probably the reason most people get something additional) is that British sitcoms are so great; they make you want to change the channel!

On my first night in the flat, I was told three things: a) that I marginally beat out two others for the room in the flat: an English guy and German girl. I made a joke about how by combining my heritages, you get both of those things… plus Japanese b) pull the handle up to flush, and c) I am probably the first ever Japanese guy to drink Guinness and enjoy it.

Is there any way we could verify that? If true, that would be amazing.

So why haven’t I been able to return your emails, hung out online, or downloaded any new movies, TV shows, or music in the past week? You guessed it! I don’t have the internet. This the fourth full day of living without, and as the minutes pass I become more and more anguished. But we’re scheduled to have it installed by the end of the week, which thankfully means that I’ll once again be able to stay in tune with pop culture. Of course, if this blog is posted before then, I guess I have already found a way…