Waiting for handsome man carrying coal, money and bread

Well somehow it is New Years eve already. With all the excitement of Christmas still fresh in my mind we are having a fairly low key evening in with friends, champagne and a curry takeaway (England does Indian food like we do Chinese…cheap, cheerful, available by delivery and open every day of the year). I am going all out for my guests eh! If I get home early enough I might take the food out of the containers and pour them into real glass bowls but we’ll have to see. I heard there are some pretty neat fireworks near Big Ben and the London Eye tonight – as luck would have it, we can see the eye from our spare room window so I might set up a few chairs so we can watch the festivities from the warmth of our flat….the excitement doesn’t end does it!

I did do a bit of googling to see if there were any UK New Years traditions I should know about and found one that was too good to not blog about…I am not sure it’s actually true, but I loved it..

England
The custom of “first-footing” is important. To ensure good luck for the inhabitants of a house, the first person to enter on New Year’s Day should be male, young, healthy and good-looking. He should preferably be dark-haired and carrying a small piece of coal, money, bread and salt. These things symbolize wealth. Women and those people with blonde or red hair are considered unlucky “first-footers.”

Oooh I can hardly wait…how can I sleep tonight knowing a hot male carrying carbs and money will be coming by tomorrow morning!!! I love England!

So far there isn’t much on the 2009 calendar but I plan to continue to collect and regurgitate useless information via my blog and bumble along as usual….on that note I am going to head home to prepare the dishes for dinner. Wishing y’all a happy and healthy 2009…

The joys of airline travel

On top of the gale force winds I mentioned earlier, our flight was once again, filled with kids…but not just kids…babies, and crying ones at that.  My favourite bit was when a woman sat down behind me in the window seat with her 2 year old on her lap…she then continued to speak to him as an adult trying to reason with him to make him stop screaming and kicking.  She repeated over and over… ‘what is the matter, you have never done this before’…as if to console the whole airplane that in real life he’s a great kid that never cries.  Really, I don’t care if he is a perfect angel on the ground, if he doesn’t stop kicking my chair he’s going to have a rum and Coke on his lap courtesy of the nice lady in front of him….oops sorry ma’am…I have never done that before, I am not sure what’s the matter with me.

As I sat trying to think up a gadget that you could attach to an airplane seat that absorbs the force of a child’s kick without pissing off the person in front of them, the pilot came on telling us that there was severe turbulence ahead….which lasted for 3 hours. At least the turbulence bumps lessened the impact of the 2 year old feet in my back.

Because of the 3 hour turbulence they kept the seatbelt light on…which was strange as the air host/hostesses weren’t particularly bothered if people were going to the toilet while the seat belt sign was lit up. On other airlines, they scream down the aisles or get on the intercom and demand people get back in their seats…on this one they just sat in their jump seats comfortable in the fact that if anything happened their bodies would be way more recoverable in the crash than the losers standing in the queue for the loo’s.

I, having one two many rum and Cokes as part of my plan to get me to sleep,  had to go to the bathroom.  I figured, if no one else was being shouted at that I would take the risk.  Just as I shut the door we hit a huge patch of turbulence and I was convinced that the back end of the plane was going to break off and I was going to plunge to my death in an airplane washroom.  Finishing my business as quickly as possible, I washed my hands (alternating washing with holding on to the holy sh*t handles conveniently located in the loos) I unlocked the door and made a mad dash down the turbulent aisle diving across the hubby to belt myself in…for some reason the prospect of dying in my seat was better than the loo…go figure.

Anyway I am happy to be on terra firma…until April when we do it all again for a wedding back in Canada…hopefully by then the pneumonia, laryngitis and stomach flus have cleared up and the chances of a snow storm are greatly reduced (reduced but not eliminated).

Home for the holidays

Well, we are back from our whirlwind and mildly chaotic trip home for Christmas.  We finally did receive our bags…2 on Christmas eve and one on Christmas day.  The vodka bottle was still in tact however the chocolate mousse cakes I had frozen and packed in ice packs for  Mom, sadly didn’t make it…they were a little too warm to be deemed safe to eat.  We had a lovely Christmas with the family…and I even received some blog related presents including 2 Coronation Street tops which I love and my very own Slanket hand made by my Mom!   I will start early next year hinting about stuff as it worked well.

On top of the delays and lost luggage we had a few family illnesses to contend with –   Mom with laryngitis (a Christmas present from Santa to Dad perhaps?), Mother in law with a cold, Father in law with pneumonia and Mom with a Christmas Day 24 hour stomach flu meaning she missed out on dinner.  The hubby and I did catch something as we both had stuffy noses and sore throats for most of the trip and the hubby had a nice big nose bleed  Saturday night….fa la la la la, la la la laaaa

Needless to say once Sunday arrived I was mildly looking forward to heading home to my own bed.  When we woke up on Sunday we were greeted with a loud rumbling noise, like a train going by…I opened the curtains and realised it wasn’t a train, just gale force winds bending trees and knocking down my parents outdoor Christmas tree…perfect flying weather.  As we drove to the airport we saw fallen down signs, trees and debris flying everywhere (dad almost got taken out by flying styrofoam at the gas station).  This did make for a fairly bumpy flight from Toronto to Detroit but we arrived safely.  I won’t bore you with the details of the return flight….I’ll save that for tomorrow.

Until then, some pictures of our white Christmas (click to make them bigger).

All I want for Christmas is…my luggage

The trip so far:

Friday
- Arrived in Detroit to catch connecting flight…Snow Mageddon hit canceling first flight out
- Stood in a 2 hour queue to be booked on a new flight only to find out 5 minutes later that it, and the next flight out were cancelled, couldn’t get rebooked until Sunday afternoon
- Luckily, the brother in law had booked us a room in the hotel in Detroit airport in case such conditions arose…checked in, called Dad and begged him to pick us up in Detroit the next morning
-Knowing we weren’t flying again went back to the airport to get our luggage back and were told we couldn’t, it would be flown over the next day

Saturday
- Super Dad arrives at 9:00 and drives us home
- Spent remainder of afternoon buying clothes and toiletries as we were lugageless

Sunday…luggageless, ran out to buy clothes as we had a dinner to go to with a dress code of  ‘no jeans’ and all we had were…jeans
Monday …luggageless
Tuesday …luggageless but drove to airport to yell at luggage manager…still luggageless and it started to snow again

Today, we have heard that our luggage  is meant to arrive (by Santa perhaps?)…at this point I really don’t even care, I am getting emotionally attached to my 3 outfits and think that the bottle of vodka we were trying to sneak home in our luggage will have broken all over everything anyway.

WTF? Friday

So by the time you read this I should be on a plane heading home for Christmas. Yes, that is right I am going to Canada in the winter and everyone I tell that to, gives me the same response….oooh I bet its freezing and there is tons of snow in Canada in December . I then try to shrug it off and convince them that no, it doesn’t always snow in Canada and that I wont need to pack my winter boots and parka. Then I read this

…yes folks they really did make up a word for a snow disaster…it’s going to be snow-mageddon (ooh will Ben Affleck and Bruce Willis be there?).

Here’s a the bit I love….Friday and Sunday could bring an additional fall totalling about 40 centimetres, accompanied by plunging temperatures and high winds.

Oooh you mean Friday, the day we are arriving in a big airplane that doesn’t usually land well when in snow, ice and wind?  fab….Where the hell did I put my parka…

Happy Crimbo

With my birthday over and farther away than it will ever be…it’s time to celebrate Christmas!!  Although on the surface I am finding most of the Christmas traditions the same there are a  few words that I have been introduced to over the Christmas seasons

Crimbo - a slang way to talk about Christmas. In a sentence: Do you have your crimbo decorations up yet?

Baubles - the round decorations that you hang on your tree…in North America, referred to as ‘balls’  (on a side note they have nice plastic hooks here that you attach to your bauble/balls instead of those wire ones you can poke your eyes out with.

Where's the fun in not being able to poke your eye out?

Sledging - the travel down a decline in cold weather (thanks Wikipedia) although we call it sledding, sledging sounds like something you do with a sledge hammer…somehow I don’t think the slide well on snow.

And now on to Santa…or Father Christmas as he is referred to here…they do call him Santa but they interchange it with Father Christmas far more than we ever do.

Father Christmas apparently lives in Lapland  – what?  All these years I have been sending him letters to the North Pole and now I find out I should be sending them to Lapland.  Tour companies even offer tours to Lapland…why were we never told of Lapland!

6,000 got to see the REAL SANTA??!!!?

Also when you get your picture taken with Santa you go to Santa’s ‘Grotto’ doesn’t that sound a little dingy?  I picture it having bats and rock walls that drip, hardly somewhere I want my kid to sit on Santa’s lap in!

Also…did you know that you can book your picture with Santa online??!  In Harrods and Selfridges you go online to book your time with Santa, I can just see one of his Elves opening the Grotto door saying ‘Santa, your 10:30 is here’ …who books in to see Santa!  Isn’t the best bit of seeing Santa when you stand for an hour in a queue watching the kids ruin their ‘good Christmas outfits’ by drooling, spilling and rolling around on the dirty floor to the point that when they do get on his lap him they look like little drunken adults who just woke up after sleeping the night in a dirty puddle?  Surely you would miss that if you booked online and skipped the queue!

Twice as old as a 15 year old?!

Birthday card from my hubby

So today I am officially 30 which means I have lived twice as long as a 15 year old but only 1/3 the life of a 90 year old. I am older than most of cast of friends was supposed to be when the series started, but younger than all the ladies on Golden Girls. I am older than the guy who started facebook but younger than …aaah let’s face it, I am older than anyone who has been successful at the dot com stuff.

At 30 I have had to give up hoping for a few things like growing taller, I am pretty sure I am at my adult height now -  I can no longer wish to be an inch taller.  I have  also given up on having a brother or sister.  I think after 30 years of being an only child I wouldn’t adjust well to having a sibling…those two things I will officially let go of today.

I won’t however stop the following just because I am 30…trying to fit into a girls size XL clothes as sometimes its cheaper than buying a ladies small, eating cotton candy whenever and wherever I see it, ordering a Happy Meal at McDonalds when I am not hungry enough for an adult one, calling my mom and ask her anything about baking/sewing or calling my dad and ask him anything about cars, money, golf.

A’ight better get back to work, it may be my birthday but I still have 35 more years until retirement.

In the papers…1978 style

Sorry have been on a bit of a blog holiday as one of my best friends from Canada flew over Thursday night to surprise me for my 30th. The hubby also arranged for me to have Friday off of work so we went to Westfield to shop (what else are girls to do on a day off). Anyhoo I have had a fab weekend and am enjoying my last day in my twenties.

Not surprisingly my very organised Mom had the paper from the day I was born so sent it to me to have a look at. It was a bit of a slow news day but there were some interesting bits…like the exchange rates, not sure we will see a $2.34 to £1 again for a while.

Anyone for a record player…doesn’t $700 sound expensive?…it was 30 years ago.  Kids, records were like DVD’s but with grooves in them that when you spun it music played…neat eh!

Check out this rather odd ad…at the top hockey skates for sale and at the bottom a gun clearance.  Nothing says Christmas like a semi automatic…I didn’t think you could buy guns in Canada…we have to buy them off our American neighbours and sneak them across the border.

Want to party like it’s 1979?  Randy’s Chalet Cabaret is just the place…

Happy Sunday…

Secret Santa ideas

Well, it seems the season of office parties (if it hasnt’ been cancelled by the credit crunch) and the ever-dreaded office gift exchange.  I have to say though, that office Christmas parties here are pretty wild..the stories I have heard come out of a few of them are shocking!  The first office party I attended here was great, there were actual drinking games, it was like being back in University….It was a far cry from the office party that I went to once in Canada that ended at 10 and had a Shaina Twain impersonator (that could have been why it ended early).

Anyhoo the thing that I find most stressful is the present purchase…I always end up getting the quiet ones I know nothing about and end up having to find a £5 gift.

I was racking my brain and haven’t come up with anything yet but figured I would regale you with some of my favourite secret Santa gifts.

Inflatable boxing gloves – nothing better than grown adults beating each other up with giant gloves

A Swear Box (this may or may not be a shot of my desk as I may or may not have received it as a gift last year)

And my favourite…

Tattoo Sleeves!  They were a big hit at the marginally swanky bar we went to for my birthday last year (and by big hit I mean the bouncers kept a pretty close eye on our group).

Less tax, more fries

So, a few weeks ago I mentioned that the government were proposing a cut in the VAT and I thought it wouldn’t happen.  It was mainly due to how much of a pain I figured it would be as VAT is included in prices vs added in at the tills.

Well, they did it and cut a whopping 2.5% off to bring the VAT down  to 15%.  This has has meant that stores and restaurants have had to reprint menus, price tickets etc to reflect the (whopping) difference. I can see it being annoying for  retailers as per the sign here in McDonald’s telling customers to bear with them as they have to change their menu boards to reflect the new 2% reduction.

To put the reduction into perspective, I bought something at Marks & Spencer last week for the ticket price of £5 and it actually came out at £4.98…oooh talk about a boost to the economy!  Seems like more of a nuisance than huge savings…unless you are buying a Lear jet or an island then the 2% might seem like more.

On another note…yes, I did go to McDonald’s today and no it wasn’t just to take a picture of their sign but because it would probably be the last time I would eat at McDonald’s in my 20’s!  Anyway I noticed out of the corner of my eye their fancy french fry basket fill-er up-er.

When I worked there we had to open a big plastic bag of frozen fries then shake them ‘evenly’ into the baskets. This process apparently can now be done by a fancy machine that measures out the right amount of fries for each basked.  The empty baskets are sent down a chute and once they get under the the machine dumps a pre allocated amount of fries in the basket.  The basket then slides down to the bottom row ready to be removed and stuck in the fryer….okay this thing maybe not totally necessary as the whole process didnt’ take that long in human hours but it looks fancy so I like it.