Work at Academy Music Group has been going well the last few weeks. I've worked through the backlog of press archives, and finished a good load of research on the Liverpool demographic we're encouraging to come to the On Song Festival this fall. This coming week, I'll be working at our Shepherds Bush Empire venue doing general administrative tasks, but doing something different will be refreshing, however enjoyable the marketing office can be. There won't be any shows to work during the week, but being in a venue will make me extremely pleased!
Maria and I saw The Lion King on Thursday; the production was very well done. Maria liked it more than Wicked, but I have difficulty comparing the two, given how different the intended audiences are and the sort of humor involved. The animal costumes were so intricate and complex; the elephants were gigantic and needed a few people to run them. Unfortunately I don't have photographs, since the theatre did not allow photography. The interesting choices made by the producers could be seen in the dialogue and song: some pieces were kept from the Disney movie; however, a lot of new material was introduced as well.
Saturday was super fun! Sort of. Pavel, Maria, and I woke up at seven o' clock to get to St. Paul's Cathedral for their morning tour time. We spent a good two hours exploring the cathedral, which is absolutely beautiful and majestic. Here, photography was also not allowed, but with my no-flash, quiet digital camera, some pictures somehow appeared on my SD card.
Even though they're awful for you, they taste amazing. I'll look forward to having them in the States and see if they're much different. After lunch we braved the lines at the London Aquarium, filled with screaming children and couples thinking that the aquarium is an awesome place for a date and make-out session. Luckily, we purchased advanced tickets and beat everyone else to the front of the line. To be honest, I was not impressed by much other than the sharks and turtles. Seattle has a much cooler aquarium, but even Seattle's could be better. This is a very beautiful zebra shark; she actually has leopard spots, not zebra strips, but her cream and brown colouring might remind someone of a zebra, I suppose.
Today is a hard-core paper day, with the rest of my research and writing to be completed by the end of this afternoon or evening. This is the last piece of my University of Washington undergraduate work; it's thrilling and yet, I'm feeling something else resembling relief and disappointment? I expected the relief, but I guess I really am done with my degree after this. I must be a grown-up now, I suppose! Is this when people feel it? Perhaps not many or even no one ever really feels it, since the idea being a grown-up is a social construct which not everyone can fit into, despite their age or life experiences.
So last night there was a bee in the room. Maria and I were up until like 12:30AM, but this happened about 11:45PM. I heard this persistent tapping, and I had had a few, so I thought it was just me. And I was drinking Bailey's at the time. So, I investigated and found out that there was a bee slamming itself against our bedroom light! Oh no! I do not like bees at all.
I alerted Maria to the presence of the bee. She was like, "Uh oh!" And so my first plan was to get a security guard from downstairs (like I said, I had a few) and get him to get it out of the room. But that was silly. So instead, Maria wanted to turn off all the lights and have it attracted to her computer screen, which was bright, and have the window open so it would fly outside. But the only problem was she was still seated in her computer chair at the time, so the bee would have flown right into her face! No good, right? Also silly. Logical, but silly.
So a second course of action: opening the door to the hallway to let the bee into the hallway to terrorize someone else. Our doors won't stay open, so we had to prop it with a rollie chair in order to create the passageway. And after furniture was moved and we were peeking through the doorway watching for the bee, you couldn't hear the tapping anymore. Was it gone? We went back inside, and looked around the light, but no bee was to be found.
In order to coax the bee out of its hiding spot, we decided it would be best to throw pillows and other light objects at the lamp. First was Maria's pillow. Twice. But nothing happened! No bee ejected itself from the safety of the fixture. Just in case it was hiding in the window shade, we threw pillows at the shade. Nothing! Pillows, cardboard rolls, and paper towels flew across the air! Maria was content to accept that the bee had gone out the window at some point. I doubted this, and continued to push, smack, and investigate other areas of the room such as our beds, the pantries, and the radiator, to name a few.
These are the sort of midnight adventures to be had.
Today has been a bit disappointing so far. Didn't get enough sleep last night. My hair is not blonde, for some reason the colorist thought it would look better brunette? WTF. It doesn't look bad, just wasn't what I paid £140 for.
Then lunch at sushi was atrocious; don't ever eat at the Samurai sushi chains if you don't have to. They leave their stuff sitting too long, and they can't even do the cooked fish pieces right.
Things have gotten better, despite the unyielding rain. The cafe has Twizzlers and Red Bull, and Sharon's doing laundry with me.
Today is one of those days where being in London isn't enchanting. I think it will be better tomorrow! Because tomorrow's another day, and saying cliches makes us feel better, yeah? Make your own fun!
X
Hello all!
This week has been a very lovely week. Monday was work and low-key.
Tuesday, four of us saw Wicked, The Musical, a performance based on the book Wicked by Gregory Maguire published in 1995. The production was absolutely fantastic, with lighting and special effects that were very well done. Sharon loved it because she had seen the Boston production, but she said the London was a bit better. The lead male also had very tight pants. Unfortunately, I don't have any photographs, but there are some to be found online.
Wednesday was also low-key. Didn't do much of anything really. I believe you have to have some days like this though, in order to keep your wits about you and to stay mentally fit. Sleeping in is also good for that.
Thursday was cool at work; I went in early and left early, got a lot done, and was feeling very satisfied about it. Then I ran tons of errands! I'm putting together a packet for the UK Customs office so I can get a refund on the customs tariff I paid for Mom's package. Also, I went shopping and picked up some fabulous curry and noodle soup at Wagamama's, which I found out has some locations in the States. It's very good Pan-Asian food, but it's mostly Thai and Japanese, my two favourites!
Friday (today) has been a hardcore paper writing day. I've got about 7 pages, which is half of what I need done this weekend. If I'm able to finish the other half, then I'll have Sunday free to hang out. We were thinking about renting bikes and going around Richmond Park, which has herds of antelope and deer stocked from King (cough cough)'s old hunting days. Tomorrow, the plan is to go blonde at Aveda! Then go to the Cybercandy store with Sharon to stock up on licorice. We're trying to pick between two shows: Fat Pig and Avenue Q to see that evening. Tickets are over £20 for each show, so I kind of don't care much which one we see.
Hope you are having a good summer, and I look forward to seeing you when I get back!
Oh, also, I found a job I think I might like to apply for! It's at the Bellevue Convention Center as an Events Assistant. The nice thing about it is that there's a balance of my qualifications with my low years of experience, so I'll be able to be trained and learn a lot, but I also have a bit to contribute. Other positions that I've looked at don't provide much training, but expect a high level of experience in addition to my degree.
Really! It is so beautiful! Seattle is very green, but it's a dark, forest green. Scotland is the brightest emerald green, and The Highlands have rolling hills and textured mountains. Loch Ness is a lake; that's all I have to say about that. The cities have buildings that are so old, made of stone, and still standing with McDonalds, Boots, and other modern shops inside.
Our first day was spent on the train heading to Edinburgh, where we walked around and visited Edinburgh Castle, which is smack in the middle of the city on top of a plug of volcanic rock. We also trekked the Royal Mile, down which the royal family would be moved from their two homes back and forth.
Day two was The Highlands and Loch Ness. Visit my Flickr page for more details. It's the only way to go!
Our last day in Edinburgh was spent largely on Princes Street at the National Galleries of Scotland and the Royal Academy's Impressionism Exhibition. We also had chai and a latte at the Starbucks on Princes Street, where from the second story you got an amazing view of Edinburgh Castle.
Just absolutely amazing. That is all I have to say.
Go see the pictures!
Hey all!
Today was a pretty awesome day, if I do say! I got to sleep in until 10AM, then ran up to the post office to pick up my package from Mom! It had my proper backpacking backpack for Scotland this week, and tons of licorice, chocolate, and cookies for me and all of my friends craving food from home! My bag's all packed, and you'll hear tons about Scotland as soon as I return.
Today was a purse-less day, which 1) is awesome because it's one less thing you have to worry about when walking around, and 2) it makes you feel like a Londoner in that you can get yourself around without needing a bag full of stuff like maps, booklets, etc. At work, we verified listings for the venues and uploaded gigs recently listed in the e-flyers from about 2:00PM to 3:45PM, then from then on, I basically shadowed our venue manager, Nigel, who I must say, is an awesomely chill guy. I also worked in the box office for three hours or so, and it was insane! It was totally the "event" thrill I was looking for when I came here. It's not something I'd love to do everyday as a job, I'm sure it's extremely frustrating and at times, customers all start to seem like big assholes, but today it was a rush.
Check in Sunday night (your Sunday morning) or Monday sometime for Scotland photos and such!
Love,
Julie
Yesterday, I signed the application for the apartment and our credit and such was approved! We won't need a guarantor on the lease, which makes me feel like a full-fledged adult. All that's left is to actually sign the lease, but we have the unit reserved and the apartment managers won't pull out since our backgrounds have been verified. I'll probably end up signing the paperwork and PDF-ing it again, like with the application and credit check stuff. But it's ours in our name, yay!
Tomorrow is a late start day at work since I am working at the Billy Idol concert in the evening. Then Friday morning, Charlotte and I leave for Scotland and we'll get back Sunday evening. I'm hoping that I'll have fun, but at the same time, time will go by very fast! I miss Seattle and everyone so much (especially Kitty!) and I have 37 days left, about one month and one week.
This evening, Pavel and I hung out at Starbucks and talked for like an hour, and then some of us are going to the grocery store in the evening. I just found out this week about a lot of causes of death on my mom's side of the family that were previously unknown to the rest of us, and it's mostly diabetes and cancer. So. Julie's diet is going to lessen the consumption of carbohydrates, starches, sugars, etc. because they contribute to weight gain when not in moderation, and if I am unable to exercise regularly (as I've found to be the case here, given a rigorous work and paper-writing schedule mixed with a buzzing social life), I need to not eat whatever I want. And "whatever I want" tends to be healthier than average anyway, but still, some changes should be made if I'm twenty pounds or so overweight. No diabetes for me, I have decided. I could go to the gym tonight, but then I couldn't work on my paper. These are my dilemmas.
We have an apartment, yay! Tony put a deposit down on a two-bedroom unit today! See the link below and the "Jade" floorplan.
http://www.riverstoneres.com/Brisa/FloorPlans.asp
Everything is extremely new, "gold standard," hardwood floors in the kitchen, bathroom, and foyer. We have a deck!
I'm very happy!
So I did fall asleep last night. Or this morning. It was at about 5:00AM. I took a sleeping pill at 3:00AM, but it took quite a while to kick in. I woke up this afternoon at 12:00PM.
London is really hot, and I've been drinking tons of water, but my throat is still super scratchy and I feel lightheaded. Hm. Probably a bug mixed with the heat. The girls at work and EUSA were really nice and sent me very understanding response emails letting me know it was fine not to work today. I don't really trust myself to leave the apartment (if you can call our tiny room that), so I might ask someone to pick me up some throat lozenges on their way home today. Tea isn't helping much, but we don't have any honey either.
I think I'm going to put on a hoodie and run downstairs to check the mail. Mom's package with my backpack for Scotland and some yummy stuff might have shown up already. We get our mail in the morning, but sometimes it can take them a while to sort the stuff.
I am awake and it is 3:51AM. I don't know why I'm awake, but I really, really do not feel well. My throat is swollen and scratchy, I've got an awful headache, my eyes hurt, and I just can't fall asleep. It could also be that our window has to be open all the time when we're sleeping, because my roommate is allergic to something in the room and needs the airflow. However, there is a lot of traffic and noise outside the window since we're on a main arterial and on the first floor, and you can smell the pollution from the street. All combined, perhaps that's why I'm not sleeping. I've taken a sleeping pill, which from the UK pharmacies will knock you out for a good twelve hours. So I've emailed work and let them know I'm ill and will need to sleep through most of tomorrow in order to be good the rest of the week. Just waiting for the pill to kick in.
Could happen any moment.
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