The transportation here in london couldn't be much more different than sunny southern cali. So cal is like the car driving capital of the world (in my eyes at least). Our cars are out lives. We spend so much time in them and everything is so spread out public transport just isn't very efficient. Never mind the infastructure is total shit. Here it's nice to not have to worry about having a car. Just pop over to the bus or tube stop and wait a few minutes. It was really nice yesterday. We walked for probably 6 miles or so and at the end of the day it was great to just sit and relax on a subway, instead of having to drive home in traffic.
And I love that I don't need cash at all. Just my Oyster card. Not sure why they call it that, but that's the transportation card thingy you charge up with credit.
We've had quite the Christmas experience. I told you guys about christmas eve service... oh wait, no i didn't, that was the 600 i posted in. Hang on...
Happy Christmas everyone! Whether you care or not about the reason for the holiday, may you have a wonderful day and a great finish to the year (blah, blah, lol)
I just wanted to share a funny story that got my day off to a funny start. Me and my wife went to midnight mass last night (actually started 11:30). Anyways, the first thing I thought was a bit odd, which I am getting used to here... is that everyone seems to drink alcohol for everything. And last night they announced after the service there was coffee, minced pies, and mulled wine. Now if you are English I'm sure you see nothing odd about that at all. But where I'm from the idea of a church serving alcohol to the peeps after service, at 1am mind you, is not a normal occurance.
That's not the funny story. The preacher was just too much (in a good way). He spoke very deliberately with a nice thick accent. He reminded me a bit of the Princess bride character who performed the wedding. Maaawidge, lol. So this guy was being a bit of a ham during the service and I was getting a kick out of it. At the end of service after he danced down the aisle, I got myself together.... put my scarf back on my neck for the walk home. My scarf is a Tottenham Hotspur team scarf. They are a football team here in London that I support. And a scarf from what I can tell is like wearing a baseball teams cap in the US. It's how you represent.
Where we stay is Queens Park Rangers territory (another london team).My wife wanted to tell the guy she enjoyed things... she gets a few words out before the preachers turns to me, totally ignoring what's being said to him and he says "Hey!!! What's that scarf?" I say Tottenham and he says "Are we near Tottenham? Huh?" (you fuckin wanker he must have wanted to say). Well the answer is no... we aren't that close. "You know this is QPR territory right? You are lucky I gave you communion. If you woulda been wearing that scarf up to the front I woulda turned you down. Two weeks ago a guy wore a Man U scarf and I wouldn't bless him. The queue was 20 people long as we discussed it. We mix sports and religion here. I don't beleive in that whole 'God in Heaven' stuff. Jesus was sent to earth, and here we are. You are real lucky you took that scarf off."
I was laughing pretty hard. Then a group of 3 aussies pulled into the mix to tell the guy they had a good time and he starts in on them. "You know this guy is wearing a Tottenham scarf? You don't support Tottenham do you (to the aussies)?" The aussie said no, we are from austrailia. To which the preacher said "Well it's a good thing it's not cricket season. We would have thrown you right out the church."
It continued for a few more minutes. Was pretty funny. Maybe you had to be there, lol.
So far the presents are great. I got a little one from the wife and a little one from myself. Here's the pics:
Poster from wife
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Grinder from me. 2 different size screens for two grades of keif. Much nicer than mine at home. Even came with a little plastic squigee (sp?) tool for collecting it
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I don't think I'll get a chance to smoke at all today, so have a little for your boy jig.
EDIT: Carrying a christmas tree on a bus at mid-day is quite an exciting adventure in itself. You should all try it someday, hehe.