In 2009 I started traveling seriously. I still want to visit EVERY country, learn about all walks of life that live on this Earth...
Although pieces of my soul are scattered across the continents in the hearts of others, I will forever leave myself behind in the places that I love.
This year was a full on Christmas celebration for me, filled with tree decorating, shopping, wrapping and being a part of a pile of presents under the tree being opened on Christmas day. I was also fed so full on Christmas day that I faced a food coma. To top things off, Ieven got a job starting in the new year! It was more than festive for me, it seemed like this is how this day is usually spent in non-Chinese homes. I like it. Now for more food!
We can't forget the trifle, I had always wanted to try one since I watched that episode of FRIENDS. (you know which one) Consisting of cream, custard, sponge cake and strawberry jelly/jam. It makes for one tasty dessert.
Pork Pie, a traditional British pie. Dense with pork baked into a thick pastry. I prefer delicious turkey.
Gammon: cured smoked ham, the lower part of bacon.
Caramelized Onion Chutney is amazing. I have never tried this before today, I have eaten the mango chutney before and I thought that was fantastic. Now I know this exists I can make it at home. You should totally try it, they put it on meat here but I read on the interwebs that people put it on cheese and crackers.
I do have to say it is hard not being at home with my mother eating hot pot with FRIENDS playing on the TV, waiting until later hours of the evening when my brother and I would make our walk to 7-Eleven for twizzlers, root beer and something random like cereal.
Stony clouds in Sandiacre, an excellent walk on Christmas day.
Who doesn't love sunsets. The celebration of the day.
A small recap.
Last year's x-mas was spend in Vietnam with my best friend boiling in 30C weather over a Vietnamese ice coffee eating vermicelli.
In 2009 I was in Jilin with many ex-pats and Chinese friends celebrating Christmas the only way we knew how. Lots of drinks and Christmas games, everything from music trivia, pin the tail on the reindeer.
Oh yes, Danny and I bought half a kobo for each other. I wonder now why I didn't have one sooner. YAY, free manga! Everyone wins.
Previous to then I usually worked Christmas at the hospital and then a quick drive after work to one of my friends houses to catch a Christmas dinner and to play with their new toys. Enuff ramblings.
I want to say that every year I have a very memorable Christmas no matter where I am, it is about spending time with the people you love. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
I wasn't planning to write a post about looking for work but in the end I have something to share. When I first arrived I thought that finding a job would be easy since getting my national insurance number was three phone calls, a form and about 10 days wait. When I finally got online and started applying for jobs there were tonnes of postings in every sector that I was willing to work in.
Now it has been about a month and a half I have gotten 11 refusal letters saying they can't take me on at this time. It doesn't sound that bad does it but I have applied for over 80 job postings via in person, email and even letters in the mail. Over the last couple weeks I would like to think that my new skill that I have obtained is filling out forms faster than humanly possible. Time to change the approach.
Off to temp agencies, as we know at home they range from showing up at 6:30am in hopes to find work and end up with some cash in your pocket at the end of the day. I have done this once at home with some free time and insomnia on my side. It doesn't really pay off being sent out to a job site, having them dock you rental fees for work boots, gloves, goggles, etc you end up going home with about $50-60 a day. There are more of course event staff and the clerical/admin work that includes training, testing and all of that is unpaid unfortunately. When you need money anything will do to pay the bills.
I first went into two temping agencies earlier this week in hopes to find something that will by the time whilst I continue to look for work. A possible third if need be. Now after a two hour induction (their British word for orientation) I have a job that I start tomorrow.It has something to do with working in a production lines making bouquets and wreaths for Christmas at a place called Flower World. How fitting. Either way at minimum wage this will have to do, I hope by the new year I will be able to land something better paying.
The next part of this is finding a bank that will let me open an account. They say that direct deposit is the best way to get your money and I fully agree since I don't personally like depositing cheques in person and taking that time out of my day to find out that I have to wait 24 hours before I get to even touch my money. I went hunting for a bank that would take me on. Lloyd's bank instantly refused me, Co-Operative signed me up but I won't know for 10 business days if I have been approved or not, Halifax gave me a website link to do it online and could not help me in person (I have to wait another 7 working days before I find out if I get a bank account with them. I have another appointment tomorrow to find out if Barclay's will take me on hopefully they will. If not, where do all the immigrants deposit their money?
Opening band The Mighty Steff. They have been travelling with Flogging Molly for the past month, they even got a personal shout out from the band.
The Minutes a band from Ireland. (I thought they were a bit generic)
Dave King!
Danny and Nat with Bob Schmidt (I'm not in the picture since I was the one holding the camera.
After seeing Flogging Molly at Sasquatch on a huge stage I was wondering how it is going to be at an indoor venue. I was on the floor dancing so this view is from far up...I did take note that all the band members are quite far away from each other.
Now who doesn't like Pink Floyd? Or doesn't know who they are, fix it now.
At The Flower Pot we saw Fred Zeppelin l put on a wonderful performance tonight we got to enjoy another fantastic evening with eight brilliant performers on stage presenting Floyd's best.
Starting off with 'Shine on you crazy diamond' with the eight member of the band stepping on stage with his saxophone. Followed by 'What do you want from me' off of the division bell. They played 'In the flesh', 'Another brick in the wall', 'Mother' and more from The Wall. An hour and fifteen minutes went by it was time to let the band and crowd gather their thoughts for act 2.
When we returned from intermission we were blown away by their awesome entirety of Dark Side of the Moon. If you closed your eyes it was like you were listening to Pink Floyd in the flesh. After being wowed again and again by the female vocals (you know the song-The great gig in the sky) the saxophone player brings out his alto and tenor sax to fill in where he is needed. The bass player danced intimately with his guitar and the second guitarist amazes us with his twelve string talent. Keyboard/synthesizer and sound effects guy was nothing short but eccentric even with his mac book and the drummer bringing the whole show up a notch with his flawless percussion skills. Don't worry I didn't forget the singer, I have no words. This stage of eight brought Pink Floyd back to life for everyone in the crowd, if you see The Floyd Effect on a flyer as you walk by make you put it on your to do list. You won't regret it.
Oh I almost forgot, they finished with 'Wish you were here' and 'Comfortably numb' with a final encore.
I wanted to post my videos but for some reason I am having troubles loading them. So I will link you to some youtube videos!
Where to start, I had seen Amon Tobin years ago at New City Suburbs in Edmonton throwing down one of the most memorable sets I had been able to witness at the time. I even got to meet him in the VIP room because my friend at the time was working at The Drum Shop, they had lent the equipment for the show giving VIP tickets as a thanks I got to tag along.
When I heard that he was going to be playing in London, I got Danny on the internet to buy tickets to experience the show that I remembered. What I had forgot is that over time artists change to adapt or play to the crowd. I believe the word 'modern' is what he was going for.
Below is the a video I found of the Canadian pavilion rendition of the projectors on the cube structure that I saw at the Shanghai expo in 2010.
To begin with instead of a traditional dj on the stage he brought a new but seen before 3D visual aid to the stage. I'm not writing it off completely but we have all seen visualizations on media players that are all psychedelic and very mesmerizing. Now he has added a live performance...yes yes it was timed to his music.
When he first came onto the set I was a bit wowed by the size of his visually stimulating stage cubes but the music that he decided to play for the first hour was disappointing. It wasn't nearly as melodic as his past work, it was slow inconsistent sporadic sounds. I am a huge fan of IDM but when you attend a show at HMV forum fitting 2350 you expect something you can dance to. The first hour of his set you learn that he plays from within the structure, people applaud their sensory overload with strobe lights in your face and short bass lines. Now people ask yourself would you rather watch a music video like The Wall or would you rather stand that bored stiff (smoking their joints) waiting for the moment when you can break out into that flail tearing up the dance floor. I don't think a single person had the opportunity to break a sweat.Cept for the naturally sweaty people.
I personally thought that after an hour when he escapes his 'dj booth' to take a bow and take in the huge cheers boosting his grand idea that his set was over. Luckily he has a small redeeming factor for his set was he stepped back in a played another 15 minutes with some emphasis and cut his set 15 minute short. Only playing from 9pm-10:15pm his set was over and I felt like there was a gaping hole that was never filled.
BUT he will always have a place in my musical Rolodex for Mission.
Natural History Museum I love the fact that most museums in England are free, unlike at home. I am sure that i have mentioned this before. Since Danny and I are huge dinosaur fans off we went, they had the most complete works of dinosaurs, evolution, underwater, birds, insect exhibit that I have ever seen. If you are ever wondering what you should do in London I definitely would recommend going here. There are an abundance of things to see and touch!
I thought this was a great depiction of England.
In front of Trafalgar Square.
National Art Museum.
National Art Museum: This place is mostly about western European renaissance art from 1250-1900. I personally was impressed by the realistic portraits, unfortunately I don't recognize the faces. There were huge murals that I could never imagine painting myself. The skill and time put into the artwork in these exhibits were fantastic. After so many rooms (about 45 rooms over 2300 pieces of art) of art I wanted to see a different style of work. Off to the impressionist rooms where they featured the fantastically known Monet. They had an exhibit which you had to purchase a ticket to see Leonardo Da Vinci's works. If you are an art lover there is lots to see inside and outside.
A panoramic photograph by Will Pearson (because my camera doesn't have this feature, it will when I buy a new camera :P)
Foodie Note: Sen Viet in London. I was really eager to get some traditional Pho when we landed...so off we went to the nearest place that we could find on google map. When we arrived I very quickly ordered salad rolls, beef Pho and a charbroiled satay chicken vermicelli and an Vietnamese ice coffee. As you can tell I had been thinking about this meal for awhile. When it comes to Vietnamese food I am quite the critic since the month in Vietnam spoiled me.
They were out of Viet coffee, sad face. Their salad rolls were smaller than I usually get back home in Edmonton and the peanut sauce lacked the kick that I am use to. The Pho was the biggest disappointment of the whole meal instead of traditional thin flat rice noodles I got the thick ones, which doesn't ruin the meal but I am so use to the thin kind in Pho and the thicker ones for Chinese style stir fry noodle dishes (picture below). It still came with sprouts, mint leaves and sliced dragon peppers. The chicken was fantastic if you find yourself at Sen Viet order this, the chicken was melt in your mouth and was marinated in a very mouth watering sauce.
Now for the lack of better words here is a picture Chinese beef stir fry noodles.
( ngàuh ròuchǎo ho fěn) Literal meaning:
Dry-fried beef rice noodles.
I have always loved the idea of travelling by train but as most Canadians know that yet it is comfortable but because everything is so far apart that it is also very expensive. Unless you are only travelling around Ontario and Quebec. ViaRail has their moments when they post deal on their website but you would have to watching very closely with vacation days in the pocket to benefit from those.
Now I have heard from many residents of the UK and Europe that travelling by train is where it is at. Since there is a show tomorrow that is located in London this is the perfect chance to test the waters. We booked through East Midland trains at first I thought that the tickets were quite expensive then with the cheap tickets we got a pair for £12 each not bad! After a 2 hour ride we saunter our way to a new hostel.
Sticky rice FTW!
FOODIE MOMENT: I didn't know where to recognize these two facilities so here it is.
Thai Boran: This is the first place that I have eaten authentic Thai food since Thailand and that was very sad to say. Since it is very expensive at home and through time spent in Thailand you just don't want to pay what the market wants for it. Since the lacking in Dim Sum, Japanese and Vietnamese food post arrival I have yearning. There was Thai Boran that I walk by almost every time I leave the house, so it was time to explore what was inside.
An old picture of a Pad Thai taken in Pai.
We ordered a Singha, Thai style spring rolls with plum sauce (Por Pai Gai), ribs marinated perfectly (Cee Crong Moo), Pad Thai Gai cause it was unavoidable, Masaman curry an excellent curry with sticky rice (Kao Hneoy) which strangely enough came in a plastic bag in a bamboo rice steamer.
Got to love mouth watering spare ribs!
Love coconut milk based curries with cashews.
Everything was fantastic but the part I would like to make note of is the Thai music, embroidered elephants on wall hangings and the velvet paintings of traditional Thai markets. Not only that the waiter had the Thai accent and we very much polite and accommodating. The timing for our food was a bit on the slower side but then again life in Thailand was slow paced there isn't any rush to go anywhere when you are sitting on the beach. The whole meal costed £24 and tip =1170 ฿!!! Then again I am eating it in England. Now I'm hungry again. Here is a shout out to all those in Thailand, EAT THAI FOOD and send me pictures!
That was my foodie moment. If you can't go to Thai let Thailand come to you!
Before we get into the food I wanted to state that I am not only paying attention to the eateries.
Pasties: Not the the nipple tassels that are associated with the word pasty but actual pastries. They can be eaten hot or cold! I have had a chance to eat a couple different variations it is something amazing, a light round pastry with filling inside folded to look like a pizza pocket or a calzone.
French fries on bread, you heard me folks this is a real dish here in England but they came up with a fancy name for it. CHIP BUTTY...don't worry it makes me giggle too.
Now chips on bread, you heard me right once again! Crisp Sandwich! I can't believe that I found both of those things on wiki, in the end I have learned that there are stoners everywhere in the world. Sounds like something I already knew but must have forgotten along the way.
Today I went to investigate a plant that I thought was mint but NO it wasn't....I was stung by a Nettle plant, wiki tells me that they are found in North America but I can't recall ever being stung by any plant in my life. Giving me little burnie bumps, with out antihistamines or cream lets apply a home remedy. Vinegar to the rescue about an hour later it subsided. I have posted a picture of Nettle plant and a mint do you know which one is which?
