"See you never" and a new piece.

I got a job! Finally, after applying to many over the past couple of months. I am going to be working part-time, which is all my visa allows, at Anthropologie. Of course as soon as I got the job I also got an interview at a school teaching art one day a week, but I think the flexibility of Anthro and the fact that even thinking about teaching a demo lesson on the Great Fire of London stresses me out makes it a good choice for now. I am oddly excited to be trying something new and totally different. I am not allowed to write about it on facebook or blog about it or anything like that so this is it for online sharing when it comes to work.

I am feeling like with a part time job and full time school I am going to be way busier than I have been but at the same time WAY more productive. So, my social life may suffer but maybe in a good, focused way. Here's hoping!

Also, I finally made something that I don't hate. It measures about 1 foot long or 29 cm. Here it is:

The Regency Cafe

We started a birthday ritual at college which is going out for lunch at the Regency Cafe to celebrate our birthdays. The Regency is sort of an institution in our neighborhood (Pimlico) and is frequented by local business people and workers from the area. It is always packed and the food is fast and reliable. You have to go up and order then find a seat and then wait for your order to be called. The guy who works at the counter calls you 'love' and has this deep, booming voice that he uses to call out the orders. Here he is:

The food is classic Enlgish greasy spoon- traditional fry-ups with loads of variations. The classic is a full English breakfast consisting of eggs, bacon or sausage, baked beans, toast, grilled tomato, maybe some black pudding, and of course tea. I had an omelet with chips and salad, last time I had beans with it as well. Carla, the birthday guest of honor and on the right in the photo below, had the scampi, which is some sort of fish fried in a ball. Mate, on the left, had the same. I can't remember what Kayde had, but there were a lot of chips involved in everyones meal. It's a classic place with good, cheap food, and a great atmosphere.

C is for Cookie

I mentioned that I made my first batch of my peanut butter chocolate chips cookies recently and now I am on a roll. I spent the night at Lee's last week and made some cookies for Liza and Glen, who just welcomed a baby boy into the world. I left the cookies at Lee's for her to deliver and am not sure that any actually made it over.

Exhibit A: Ellie (Lee's very adorable 10 month old) stuffing cookies in her mouth.

I came back from Denmark saying grazie.

I just got back from a wonderful 3 nights in Copenhagen, Denmark. I was visiting an old friend, Tamira, who studied abroad with Nettie and lived with us for the summer of 2005. I hadn't seen her since that summer: she was just learning Italian for her then six month old relationship. I remember her saying "I'm just not funny yet in Italian." She is now fluent and has since earned a second BA in London, worked in Milan, and is now getting an MA at a school in Sweden (only 40 minutes from Copenhagen by train). Her boyfriend, Adriano (same one!) and her now live together in Copenhagen and were very generous hosts. It always felt like I had been friends with Tamira for ages, and the same went for this weekend. It was great to see her and finally meet Adriano and see Copenhagen.

I got in Friday afternoon and we spent a few hours catching up (Tamira: "Whatever happened to that guy who had come in from somewhere in South American that August?"). We all went for dinner at a restaurant near their apartment called Bio Mio - all organic, etc. and they even had sugar and gluten free carrot cake that was extremely tasty.

Saturday we went on a day of sightseeing. We took the bikes and headed to the harbor, the shopping area, a contemporary art museum called Charlottenborg, had lunch in a cafe in Christiania (a self-proclaimed autonomous commune in an old military area), and lastly to the Royal Palace with views of the Opera House (we were FREEZING by then and had to ditch the bikes because of a minor accident. Which, may I add, had nothing to do with me. Adriano skid on some ice when standing up on the little green bike and fell flat on his face and the handlebars broke off! He is okay, the bike, not so much. Fingers crossed).

Before the incident: Cutest Bike Ever. Adriano schlepped it all the way from Italy for her.

At the old Harbor:

A guard at the Queen's Palace:

Tamira cooked dinner and we were joined by some of Adriano's colleagues (who are both Italian as well). Not much English was spoken but between Tamira translating and some words being similar to Spanish I did pretty well. We then went to a bar and met up with some more of Tamira's friends. Fun night out ensues.

We slept in on Sunday, I made some breakfast, and around 2pm we piled into the car to go to Louisiana, an art museum about 40 km north of Copenhagen. It is an amazing space and right on the Øresund, the body of water that separates Sweden from Denmark. You can see Sweden when you are driving up the coast to get there. The cafe was amazing too, good snacks and great atmosphere. Warm candle light and cool ocean vistas, what could be bad?

Giacometti's at Louisiana.

I want my Mommy.

I had the "uh-oh" moment last night when my nose was running a little more than usual and I kept drinking water to clear my slightly sore throat. So naturally I ODed on vitamins, took nyquil and hoped for the best. My efforts were futile and I woke up with the same ailments. I think this is officially my first sickness in England. Luckily I have some soup in the fridge and my flatmate gave me a Lemsip, sort of like a theraflu but supposedly better (will get back to you on that).

And since my recent progress review left me a bit stranded on the art front and frustrated with my program again, I am happily taking some time to do reading and have a think. Maybe its not so bad that I am sick today. I just need to feel better by tomorrow or at least Friday when I am off to Copenhagen. Oh, and it's raining/snowing and tylenol is called paracetamol, FYI.

Follow up: Sorry for the pity party of one post. I am on the mend in time for my trip and I love Lemsip. It is effective without the drugged out feeling I get from other cold medicines. Also, I wanted to make my self proclaimed famous Peanut Butter cookies for Tamira, my lovely host in Denmark, but I was a little nervous to bake here. Which was silly because they came out fantastic. Now I have to not eat them all before I leave tomorrow...