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10 things I need to do to survive in London Town

If all goes to plan, two months today (August 21st) will be my first day waking up in the city of London. (UK, not Ontario, which I need to clarify often). It’s come up so fast and so slowly, all at the same time. “Yikes!” it’s the best way I can describe it at this point.

Disclaimer- It’s still not official. My application and passports have been in NYC for weeks now and I’m just waiting for final word. Through this entire process I have been assured that my chances are good, but I still can’t say for sure which way the cards will fall. I’d say I don’t want to get my hopes up, but let’s be honest here- My hopes were up a year ago, the second I decided I wanted to do this!

Anyway, I’m currently trying not to succumb to heat exhaustion, and realized I hadn’t blogged in ages, so here we are!

10 things I need to do/learn to survive living in London:

1. Find a job. I’m poor. Actually, I passed by poor about 5 years ago and can’t even see it anymore. But, such is life after 6 long years of post-secondary, so I’m not going to spend too much time fretting over it. However, I’m also not going to get myself in denial about it! I need to find a job within 2 weeks of arriving to London, and I have every intention of doing so. I’ve been applying like a mad woman, and am h0ping to have something lined up with a temp agency right away. Finger crossed.

2. Become fashionable. I like to imagine that I’m not completely fashion inept, but there’s a good chance I might just be. However, Canada itself tends to be a little fashion inept, so it’s never been an issue. London, however, is not. It’s fashionable, trendy, and my poor little Canadian self will stick out like a sore thumb. Thankfully London seems to also make being fashionable very cheap and accessible, so I hold out hope of this being a possibility. Dear Primark and New Look: I see a great friendship in our futures.

3. Get over my irrational fear of public transit. I have this completely irrational issue with public transit that I’m going to need to get over if I’m to survive in London. It’s not the public transit itself- I can manage on timed things like Coach Canada and GO just fine. It’s the not-so-clear ones like subways and buses and streetcars that get me very anxious. I think I might be okay to handle the Tube and National Rail, but the buses might take some time. But, I think I can handle it! I hope so anyway… Heh.

4. Drink tea. So, I’ve never had tea. Ever. And I feel this may be an issue. I’ll work on it, I promise.

5. Don’t overdue the traveling. One of the amazing things about London is that you can travel to almost anywhere in Europe for next to nothing. As I have a bit of travel addiction, I’m going to need to work on spacing out trips, setting aside money for it, and, generally just remembering that I have 2 years so there’s no need to pack it all in the first 4 months.

6. Learn the slang. Thanks to many of my closest friends being from the UK, I have some slang down. But, I’m sure there’s a hundred more things I’m going to get there are be completely lost on. However, Orla did buy me an Irish slang dictionary for my birthday, so any trips to Belfast are taken care of.

7. See Jedward live. You’re probably asking why this is necessary as a survival technique in London. Well, I suppose in the grand scheme of things it’s technically not, but how on Earth can I spend 24 months there and NOT see Jedward? That’s just unacceptable! As such, it’s on the list. If you don’t like it, tough.

8. Get out to the country whenever possible. London is a big, lively, and sometimes overwhelming city. And the English countryside is only a short drive or train ride away. I feel that short breaks from the craziness of it will be necessary, easy to do, and good for my general mental health. Unless I wind up in that town from Hot Fuzz.

9. Stay in touch. I’ve lived away before, and have friends all over the place, so I know how easy it is to stay in contact. I also know how easy it is to not. So, I need to make sure the former is how it’ll go. If we’re not on each others Skype, that needs to change. I’m also a huge fan of snail mail, so don’t be surprised if your mailbox if constantly being bombarded. I also love getting snail mail, so, keep that in mind… ; )

10. Visitors! You! Yes, you! Come to London! I’ve had so many people tell me that they’ll come to visit, but I know that for many of them it probably won’t happen. I hope to be proved wrong, but I also know that life happens, and money stuff happens, so while I’ll be upset, I completely understand. I will be working and can’t say whether or not I’ll get time off, but you’re welcome to stay and see the city that stole my heart!

So, as you can see, if for some reason my visa is denied, I’m going to be completely heart broken. But, let’s not cross that bridge until we come to it. Which will hopefully be never!

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June

I’m equal parts excited and mortified that it’s June already. This year seems to have flown by! There’s also so much happening in the next few months that I have no doubt it’ll be fall in the blink of an eye.

My post-grad program finishes on the 27th of this month, and the next day Sally flies in for the start of our summer adventure, which will take us to the end of July. At that point I’ll have just a few weeks before heading off to London. And I’m sure those weeks will be quite frantic!

I don’t have an exact date yet for when I’m leaving, but my UK visa will be valid starting on the 16th of August. I don’t want to wait too long after that, as the clock for the expiry date on the visa starts counting down then, and I want to make the most of it! I’m also still anxious about this whole thing, and likely will be until I have the visa in-hand. I received word that my application arrived at the UK consulate in New York City yesterday, at which point I was immediately booked in for an appointment in Toronto. The appointment is on Monday, after which my passport will be sent to the consulate and the visa will, hopefully, be issued!

This has been such a lengthy (and expensive) process, and I’m so glad to be nearing the end of it. Now, if I could just find a job!

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An Open Letter to the Ontario Ministry of Health:

I am angry. I am frustrated. And I am fed up.

For six years I have been dealing with mental health issues. For the entirety of this time I have been actively, and aggressively, seeking treatment for these issues, and am refused time and time again. The refusal is not a blatant denial, but rather a long drawn out process that lulls you in to a sense of security before pulling the rug out from under you.

For six years I have gone from doctor to doctor, and received nothing more than a fake smile and a gentle shove out the door.

The first psychiatrist I ever met with told me after a few months of observation that I’m obviously “cured” because I enjoy traveling.

Another told me that I should stop my whining, as the referral I requested did nothing more than bog down the system.

And yesterday I met with  a new psychiatrist who told me that I wasn’t extreme enough a case to be taken on as a patient. And that I was more than capable of monitoring my own medication increases and reactions. So, after one appointment filled with condescending comments, I was handed a prescription for Prozac and told to have a nice day. She said that if I really felt I needed a psychiatrist I could request a referral from a family doctor to see someone else.

Gee, thanks. Can I mention that it takes at least six months to get in to someone after a referral is submitted? And that I’ve tapped out my options, as OHIP will refuse to cover a psychiatrist visit to anyone other than the one closest to the address on your health card?

So, basically, I’m not sick enough to warrant treatment. Mental health services are not important enough to warrant province-wide coverage. Oh, and as a student with no income I’m not poor enough to get help with covering the costs of my prescriptions.

There’s a flaw in this system.

There has been so much talk in the media this year encouraging openness and understanding when it comes to mental health. Yet the very system we’re to seek help from couldn’t give less of a damn.

Today, I am ashamed. Not about this disease, a shame that took me many years to get over. No, today I am ashamed of my government, and my country.

I know that in spite of these obstacles I will be alright. But I also know that because of them, so many others will not.

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It happened again…

Update: This blog was a bit of a teaser. You can find the full story (with loads more pics) here- The Jenna Fischer Adventure.

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That’s right, New York City. I found myself in the Big Apple yet again this past week. For those of you planning the intervention, let me assure you that this time was for completely different reasons, that I just couldn’t resist! (Hmm, I feel that is the type of thing one would say at an intervention though… Ah well!) And, really, 3 times in 2012 isn’t *that* bad, is it?

Anyway, as I said, this trip was completely different. After what has been an, overall, shit (pardon the language, but, it’s really the best description I could come up with) year so far, my friend Sally convinced me to take a break. So, after my semester at school wrapped up, and some personal stuff was over, she headed over and we hit the road.

I’ve never driven to NYC before, but after a recent rise in the price of flights it became the cheapest option. Our wonderful friend Carly offered us a place to crash, and we were set for a few relaxing days out of town. And I must say, it was a rather fantastic holiday.

We went to the Tribeca Film Festival, saw Once on Broadway, did some window shopping (as actual shopping involves something I don’t have- Money! Heh), and took in the sites around the city. Oh, and we met Jenna Fischer. Multiple times.

Sally on The High Line:

Tribeca Film Festival

Once

Jenna Fischer-

On our first day in New York we went to see the premiere of Jenna and her husband Lee Kirk’s new film “The Giant Mechanical Man”. It was a lot of fun. After the show the cast got up to do a Q&A, at the end of which we were surprised by a shout of by Jenna asking if we were there. After the show we went up to meet her, where we received an invite to the films after-party. It was at a roof top bar in Chelsea, and was awesome. We spent the entire night star-spotting! In the days following we were able to see Jenna and Lee a few more times. Her publicist helped us get in to an event at Apple, and the filming of Live! With Kelly. It was all very exciting!

I just realized I never finished my last London blog. Woopsie. I’ll get to it, eventually.

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25 days ago

This is something I’ve been wanting to write for a few weeks now, but haven’t been able to. I’m giving it a shot tonight though.

I had a very… uneven childhood. It was part calm, part chaos. Those who know me well will likely know what I mean by this. To anyone else, the details aren’t at all important.

What I want to talk about now is the calmest of the calm part. The two people who were a constant source of love, acceptance, joy, trust, and goodness in my every uneven world: My grandparents. I was very close to them growing up. My grandma was my caregiver while my mom was at work, and I spent many weekends going on all sorts of adventures with my grandpa. Many of my happiest memories growing up were with them.

25 days ago my grandfather passed away.

Vern Bradley was a remarkable man. He was smart, caring, creative, and, simply, good. From debating the best donut flavours with him as a child, to debating politics as an adult, he always remained the most important man in my life. Though he was my grandfather, he was very much my father-figure growing up. He was always there, my trust and adoration of him never once wavering.

I had a lot of self-confidence issues as a child. I didn’t know where I fit in to the world, or even how to go about trying to. So, one day (when I was around 10 or so) he took me out to the back of their farm to show me something he’d made for me. Nothing could have prepared me for what was waiting. My own world. In a wooded, overgrown section of their property he’d created series of trails, clearings, and climbing areas, with a sign at the entrance welcoming guests to “Spencer’s World”. He gave me my own corner of the world, filled it with things I loved, and even provided signs to navigate me home in case I got lost. It is, and I imagine always will be, the greatest gift I will ever receive.

25 days ago the world lost a great man.

He lived a long life, and was ready to go. He told me he was ready to die, after struggling through years and years of sickness. And as one of the people who sat in the room with him when he passed, I can assure you that a more peaceful end there never was. He didn’t struggle for his last breaths, which as a sufferer of emphysema was a great fear of his. He simply went to sleep, and after hours of restful, light breathing, he simply let out a breath and was gone. He was surrounded by so much love the last couple of days, and I couldn’t have asked for anything more for him.

I wanted to speak at the funeral, but was having a lot of trouble in the days that followed, so I decided against it. I’m still having a tough go of it, to be completely honest. But, I wanted to write a little something, just to solidify my own thoughts.

I’m not religious, and I don’t believe in heaven. But, I do believe in the soul. And I like to think that somewhere in this vast universe, his is residing, spreading, and carrying with it his wonderful, imaginative spirit.

I love you, grandpa.

 

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Entracte

I can’t seem to get any of my London pictures to load for Part Two of the post. I’ll try again tomorrow. In the meantime, I found some pics this past weekend on my Flickr of the Paris opera house. They’re edited ones that I hadn’t posted, so since they’re working, I thought I’d throw them up now!

Opéra de Paris – September 18th, 2010

I spent hours and hours and hours wandering around the opera house. These pictures don’t even begin to do it justice. So, next time you’re in Paris, be sure to visit!

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London 2012, Part One

It’s closing in on 2 months since my London trip (WHEN DID THAT HAPPEN?), so I figured I should probably get the promised blog up! It was a rather long trip, and I’m not too sure if WordPress will let me put all the pictures I want to in a single post. We shall see!

I left for London on February 14th, and came home on the 26th, making it the longest single trip to London I’ve ever done. And I had a marvelously wonderful time!

I landed on the 15th, stood in line at immigration for nearly 2 hours, and then headed out in search of Sally. 3 trains, and 2 extremely graceful falls later, I found myself Hertfordshire, in North London, where an extremely cold Sally sat waiting for me for hours (I didn’t anticipate the 2 hour immigration line and had no way to contact her!) We then made our way back to her house where I promptly collapsed after 15 hours of travelling.

The next day (Thursday) Sally, Michelle, and I headed to the country for cream tea, shopping, and lots of general tourist-y things.

(As always, click on pictures to enlarge)

Cream (Creme?) Tea:

The Roman ruins at St. Alban’s:

That night we decided to take on the daunting task of making Orla a TARDIS cake for her birthday as a surprise!

And the finished product, a good 6 hours later:

(Don’t laugh- making a TARDIS cake is not as easy as it seems!)

Picture Op!

The next morning, after a whopping 2 hours of sleep I headed in to central London to meet up with Orla and Aideen. With two pieces of luggage, a backpack, and an enormous tupperware container holding the cake, I ventured out solo and somehow managed a bus, two trains, and about a kilometre of walking. Eventually I made it to our hotel to find Orla semi-conscious in the lobby waiting for me. She was early, I was late, and the hotel was in my name. Woops! But, we checked in, managed to not pass out, and actually ventured back out to find food!

Later in the day Aideen arrived and we set out on an evening stroll, got some dinner, and headed back for some much needed sleep!

St. Paul’s Cathedral at night:

Saturday was jam packed. It was Orla’s birthday, so we’d planned a pile of fun things to do! In the morning it was raining, but we headed out to Camden regardless to wander around the markets and grabbed some lunch.

After Camden we headed to Oxford Street to find the Hummingbird Bakery. Unfortunately it was packed, so we opted to come back another day! Still, the rain had let up, so we wandered around shops for the afternoon. That evening we headed back to the hotel to get ready for the birthday festivities. Cake, out to dinner, cake, GloZell, cake, out dancing, and, of course, more cake!

(Please ignore our friends behind us: Mr. and Mrs. Dryhump)

Sunday was the last full day with three of us, but we were also exhausted, so we opted to have a full, but relaxing, day. We headed to Kensington Gardens, saw Royal Albert Hall, wandered through the shops in Kensington, and then went to see The Muppet Movie!

Monday we headed back to Oxford Street to get cupcakes at the Hummingbird Bakery. Well worth going back for!

We then walked to Covent Garden, and back to our hotel. A carnival set up under the London Eye:

Aideen headed back to Dublin that evening, and Orla and I transported ourselves from our fancy birthday weekend hotel to the Travelodge. And we, thankfully, had a much better experience that this Travelodge (Southwark), then we did on our last trip to London (Travelodge Waterloo). On Tuesday Orla and I headed to the Olympia for.. *drumroll* THE DOCTOR WHO EXPERIENCE!

Mock us all you want, it was amazing! They had everything there. We even got some sort of Platinum package, which means we also got a bag of nifty-gifties, including a certificate saying we flew the TARDIS. That’s right, be jealous.

WordPress is starting to freeze, so I think it’s time to end this one. More in Part 2!

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April Challenge

So, I’m currently waiting for WordPress to upload a ridiculous number of pictures for my London blog(s), so I thought I’d get started on my next planned blog: Monthly challenges.

Now, I’ve developed some not-so-great habits lately and have decided to challenge myself each month to make meaningful changes.

April’s Challenge?

Shopping.

I’ve always been a bit of a shopper. This past couple years I morphed in to an advanced level shopper, and in 2012 I turned Pro.

Now, I’m not talking anything extravagant. The one Cynthia Rowley dress I picked up was a steal, and I justify the Toms as being worth the cost for the comfort. Most of my shopping has occurred in one spot. My new best friend/ worst enemy: H&M. I’ve always loved H&M, but this year we’ve seemed to become pretty exclusive. I blame that entirely on it’s rather remarkable Square One shop.

But, no more! For the month of April I will not purchase any non-essential items. That includes online shopping. Which, after H&M, is my second greatest vice. Modcloth.com: I know you’ll miss me. But, you’ll survive, I promise. I’m sure with the 100’s of people I’ve convinced to visit you, you won’t even notice my absence!

So, that’s the plan. And I already know it’s going to be a bit painful, as April includes some time in New York City… Sigh. Not going to think about that now! One day at a time. And my bank account will surely thank me at the end of it.

I’m instituting another partial challenge, this one dietary: Cheese is only allowed twice a week. This is going to be more painful that the shopping! But, again, very worth it. I was going to cut it out entirely, but after numerous failed attempts, I’m seeing that that’s just not realistic yet. While I’ve been able to cut out milk easily, cheese is just a little bit much right now. But, I think cutting down to twice a week is doable.

I think that’s more than enough for April. My last two purchases for the foreseeable future (made at end of March):

Toms’ Cordones:

ModCloth dress for NYC:

Hopefully their pretty will hold me over for a month ;)

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And now for something a little different!

I’m home from 12 glorious days in London! Perfect weather, amazing friends, delicious food, I couldn’t have asked for more! Although Orla and I did come down with cold/flu bugs in the middle of last week, which made the end of the trip fly by far too quickly. I could have done without that… But, all-in-all, it was a wonderful trip!

But, that’s not what I came here to write about. I will get a London blog up, just not this soon!

Tonight I wanted to write a little about two of my dearest friends and a little adventure they recently had!

Laura and Melissa are identical twins that I met while studying in England back in 2005-2006. They’re the sweetest, kindest, warmest people I have ever had the privilege of knowing. Although we were only together for that one year, we’ve managed to stay close friends since!

Here we are in Greece back in 2006:

And here we are about 3 weeks ago (same order too!):

Anyway! Laura and Melissa recently found themselves on a rather exciting adventure! Here’s an excerpt from their blog about it:

Here’s how it all went down…

Tuesday, January 17th: 7:00 pm

The phone rings. It’s a number no one recognizes…who would be calling with the area code ‘917’? Not another telemarketer! We don’t answer. Instantaneously, it rings again – same number. Come on now, if we didn’t answer the first time, why would we again? We don’t. To our surprise, yup, it rings again – same number!!! Mom finally agrees to answer, with a rather short and harsh tone, ‘HELLO?’, trying to put this ‘caller’ in their place. Immediately, Mom’s facial expressions perk up as she hands me the phone. Huh? Who would really be calling me on a Tuesday night? I mean, really.

…

AHHHH!!!!!!!!!! OMG!!!!!!! WHAT IS GOING ON?????? THIS CAN’T BE HAPPENING!!!!!

Turns out that ‘that caller’ was a producer from the Rachael Ray Show, asking if Laura and I were available to fly out to NYC the next day for makeovers!!! No, this was a scam, a joke, a horrible prank – it had to be! But it wasn’t!! Can you imagine if no one had answer that phone call…..??? Don’t want to think about it….

Rachael's Daytime Talk Show

After the initial shock and rush set in, the rest of the evening we went into overdrive. We were communicating back and forth with producers from the show as they booked our flights and hotel. We took horrible ‘before’ pictures, which really solidified why we really did need these makeovers!! Somewhere in there we managed to pack (and not forget anything!), plan a few days in NYC on our own and send them pictures of ourselves over the years. Ugh…makes me exhausted just thinking about it!! (We even had to miss Glee that night and had to wait an entire week to see the best episode of the season – that’s dedication on our part!)

SIDE NOTE: We had written into the show about two and a half years ago about getting makeovers. Since then though, we’d pretty much forgotten about it. So, needless-to-say this came out of the blue and was completely unexpected! We were actually able to find that letter – quite amusing to read!!! Unfortunately, not a lot had changed in 2 years!!!!

Wednesday, January 18th

We leave for the airport at 7:30 am (just over 12 hours after receiving the call!). We won’t discuss the flights, as they were rather rough…..rollercoaster-like….but we made it to NYC by the evening and were able to catch our breath that night before the craziness that was soon to ensure!

Thursday, January 19th – THE BIG DAY

We must admit that we were rather nervous/scared/anxious for the day to begin as not only did we not know (or have any control over!) what was going to happen, but we really hadn’t had much time to think the whole thing through. Everyone was so welcoming, friendly, and enthusiastic, which helped us feel comfortable and right at home. We tried on a ton of outfits, some we liked better than others and all of which we would never have chosen on our own. We taped a quick segment with Rachael Ray (yes the Rachael Ray!!) where she asked us about being twins and why we wanted to get makeovers. Then, we were whisked offstage and separated for the rest of the day. They were very serious about keeping us apart – we even had escorts to the bathroom!!

This was a huge ordeal for us – looking the same had always been ‘our thing’, basically our identity. People knew us as twins – what would happen if we looked different?? These were all questions swirling around our brains as we had our hair dyed and cut, our makeup done (complete with fake eyelashes!), and a spray tan (which was an experience in its own right!). Putting on my outfit at the end of the day and looking into that mirror, I wanted nothing more than to see my sister!!!! If I looked this different, I couldn’t imagine what they did to her!!

When we finally made it to ‘the reveal’, words can’t describe the emotions! We were both in shock, overwhelmed and frankly amazed!! How did this happen? The rest is basically a blur!! Before we knew it, it was all over! Besides a short plea to not have my hair cut so short, which was quickly shot down, I must add, the whole day was a smashing success! As we walked back to the hotel that evening, and shared a celebratory dinner, we couldn’t help but stare at each other – who was the person looking back at me? A little weird – definitely something to get used to!

So there you have it – a chance telephone call, a spontaneous decision, and ultimately a life-changing experience. You see, we can say with much certainty that we never in a million years would have drastically cut our hair or dyed it (at least not until age required us to!) on our own, never mind in different ways! But low and behold – we acutally like it! In the end, it was this opportunity that really proved to us that life’s about taking risks. Life’s too short to sit in the comforts of your own home and wait for things to happen. It’s about seeing the world, learning new things, challenging yourself and making the most of every experience. Even though this isn’t some state of the art revelation, it took this Rachael Ray makeover for us to realize its importance. And for that, we couldn’t be more grateful!

The show aired today and it was all very exciting! Here’s a clip from their portion of the show:

And their “After” shot taken backstage!

They’ve also just started their own blog, and I encourage everyone to check it out:

The Drive to 25

That’s everything, I think. I’ll try and post London in the next week or so. But maybe don’t hold me to that… Heh.

~S