So This Is Goodbye

Dr. TOH and I have two more nights left in our apartment. This is the apartment in which we first lived together. Now, it's hard to imagine a time when we didn't live together. But this was our first home. So it will be sad to say goodbye to it.

Living in that apartment opened up not just another chapter in our relationship, but opened our eyes to a whole social world outside our university-based friends, simply because our neighbours were friendly when we moved in, and we jumped on their overtures. Together with them we tried out restaurants, took swimming classes together, did football training before work, ate marvellous food, played ping pong. That simple generosity and open nature is something I hope I've taken on, although our lack of familiarity with the current neighbours belies that hope. Nonetheless, I want to take it into the next building we live in. Because I have learned, finally, that neighbours should be there for one another, and that's when good neighbours become good friends.*

So while it's sad to leave it, it's worth remembering how much we valued being next door from a wonderful set of people. Because now we're off to the outer boroughs, we get to be a lot closer to a lot of people, including our former neighbours. We get to explore a new neighbourhood, a new park, a new set of shops and restaurants. Find our bearings there.

Five years is a long time in any place. It's time to move on.

*Sorry, could not resist it.

You're it!

I was tagged at the start of the month, and therefore it's obviously fitting to actually respond a mere month later. Oops. Still, as it gives me a fabulous opportunity to procrastinate, porque no?

Five Things on My To-Do List for Today:
1) Pick up passport from Mozambican Mission and take to Kenyan Consulate to get a transit visa for the summer trip (DUNZO!)
2) Go to the gym - today is a back & cardio day.
3) Sort out my fantasy baseball team for this week - had a bit of a disaster this week, as lost mucho points and Mags got put on the 15 day DL, the git.
4) Watch an episode of The Wire - we've just started Season 3 and am desperate to get home for it!
5) Do many, many, many practice essays in preparation for Wednesday's mock exam. Done thus far: 1. at 4pm. oops.

What are five snacks you enjoy?
1) Wasabi peas
2) Baby tomatoes - grape, whatever you call them - awesome!
3) Wheat Thins
4) Bagel chips
5) Grapes

What are five things you would do if you were a billionaire?
1) Buy several aeroplanes' worth of condoms and birth control pills and airdrop them over those countries where they are unavailable thanks to the good old global gag rule.
2) Go to the entire cricket tour when England visit each of Sri Lanka, the West Indies, South Africa, India, NZ and Australia, and take my mum to each - having paid off her mortgage.
3) Buy a house in Covent Garden / Waterloo big enough to have a library with one of those ladders on wheels and built-in shelves. Sigh.
4) Buy holiday homes in Barcelona, Paris and San Sebastian.
5) Fund scholarships for girls who are generally forced to help at home with the younger siblings / household work in Malawi.

What are five of your bad habits?
(I can only have 5? really?)
1) Picking anything I can
2) nailchewing
3) interrupting - constantly
4) snoring, if you believe TOH
5) sleeping like a starfish - again, if you believe TOH

Where are five places you have lived?
1) London
2) Cambridge
3) Barcelona
4) New York
5) San José, Costa Rica

What are five jobs you have held?
1) Merchandise vendor at Wembley Stadium - oh, those acid yellow sweatshirts... such memories
2) Translator for escort ads while in BCN
3) Body Shop Christmas worker - included working on NEW YEAR'S DAY - effers
4) English Language teacher
5) Personal assistant - many, many places for far too much of my life

Five people you'd like to tag
Not sure I have five.
1) Beth
2) Soph
3) Portax
That's about it. I don't know enough bloggers!

Tag Team

My lovely Xopo tagged me for this fabulous list - fabulous, because I get to talk about myself. Less fabulous, however, as I reveal just how much tv I watch to thems who I might want to protect from the knowledge (i.e, TOH).

Still, I have finished writing a statute on termination of at-will employment in NYS, and after that monumental achievement, I feel I can a) be a little self-indulgent and b) I should write it down to make myself face the facts.

Books I Have Been Reading: For once, I get to feel a little smug as I have actually done some reading of late, what with me doing Law & Lit. However, now I read them, it's a bit embarrassing I'd not read them before, but beggars can't be choosers and all that.

1. The Stranger. Albert Camus.
2. The Ladies of Grace Adieu. Susanna Clarke (the volume of short stories that is a quasi-follow up to Jonathan Strange and Mister Norrell, which I utterly adored).
3. The Poisonwood Bible. Barbara Kingsolver (every American I know seems to have read this, so thought I'd give it a go).
   
4. The Trial. Franz Kafka.
5. Bartleby, Scrivener and Billy Budd, Sailor. Herman Melville.

Music I Have Been Listening To Far Too Much: Fortunately, I have scrobbling to help me determine what I've been listening to a lot of, so here goes:

1. Idealism. Digitalism. I wasn't sure about this at first, but am now a huge fan and extremely peeved I'm not going to the gig here in May.
   
2. Cease to Begin. Band of Horses. Came late to it, not sure I'm overwhelmed by it, but it's interesting, at least.
3. Old School Drum & Bass. Seriously, I've been listening to a lot of J-Majik, Photek, Roni Size, that sort of thing. I'm really back into it, and hoping to get my arse back out on a dancefloor or two for a bit of a dance to it in the very near future.
4. Falling off the Lavender Bridge. Lightspeed Champion. Because it's just lovely.
   
5. The Outsider. DJ Shadow. Endtroducing... remains one of my favourite albums of all time, and I do like the other ones, although less so; this is growing on me.
   
6. Lupe Fiasco's The Cool. Lupe Fiasco. Because the first album was utterly lovely, and this is proving equally so.
7. Love is Hell (pts 1 & 2). Ryan Adams. Again, late coming to this; most of it's pretty good, but his cover of Wonderwall is one of the most beautiful things I've ever heard.
8. General listening to plenty of LCD, MC Solaar, Jamie Lidell, and a recent downloading of the Cure and Pet Shop Boys, for old times' sake.
   

Movies I've Enjoyed Recently. This is where I really fail. I saw none of the films nominated for Best Picture,* the first time since I was about 14, I imagine. Ugh. But, if I have to, I have seen and enjoyed:

1. Network.
2. The Godfather.
3. It Happened One Night.

TV I Love. This is where it gets nasty. Are we including dvds? I hope so.

1. Veronica Mars. Someone thought I'd not seen the finale of Season 1, and so lent it to me. Unfortunately, she'd misunderstood that I'd seen very few of the first half of the Season. That, however, has changed, as I've now seen nine. Ulp. It's utterly addictive, brilliant, but something I'd forgotten was how great the music is on it. In the first episode alone we have a lot of Air, Weak Become Heroes by the Streets... all good.
2. The Soup. I've now managed to get TOH into this. It's glorious - thanks L, always, for pushing me into obsession - I was frighteningly grumpy when it turned out they'd changed the time last week and so my flipping DVR had recorded a half hour E special on the "troubles" of Amy Wino. Not that I don't love her, but still...
3. Weeds. Genius.
   
4. Coupling. I'm watching re-runs on BBC America and absolutely loving them.
   
5. The Wire. We've been holding off on Season 2, but hopefully tonight is where we re-start.
6. For shows that are STILL not back, I am in mourning for Pushing Daisies - seeing Kristin Chenowith last night made me long for it.
7. Boston Legal. Mostly because it's about lawyers, but a lot has to do with William Shatner and James Spader, and Candice Bergen (she ROCKS).

This has made me realise how no one I know blogs other than the person who tagged me and the people she tagged. But I'll try tagging DR ANDUS and BEAN and PORTAX and LIGHTTRIPPERS/BEAN GROWERS anyway... just to see if they're out there.

* As penance (and for enjoyment, obviously), TOH and I are at least going to the movies on Wednesday to see which of them we can catch.

Silver(ware) Lining

Today, the mighty Spurs (TM - me?) won the League Cup for the first trophy since 1999 (also the League Cup). We beat Arsenal and Chelsea to do so. I got up after five hours' sleep and a minging hangover* and trudged to the Official Home of the New York Spurs Supporters' Club in Brooklyn Heights** with a wary heart. I was (and still am) wearing my Spurs top from when I was mascot, aged eleven.*** And we won. Somehow, we won. This may mean nothing to you, but it was fabulous.

It was a wonderful, brutish reminder of watching sport in England. We did not cover ourselves in glory - the "imaginative" insults I remember fondly when at baseball matches ("Yankees suck; You suck" - not exactly inspiring) were, essentially, variations on "you adjective c-word" (fat and fucking being the favourite adjectives"), you wanker, etc. It was pretty revolting. Yet, it was home. It smelled like it - beer everywhere, and the smokers outside were in sufficient number that their stench filled the bar. Not something I'd want to do every week, but it was joyous, briefly.

* Bought a friend a frozen margarita maker - best present ever. Seriously. Look at it - it's BEAUTIFUL.

** I think. I find Brooklyn neighbourhoods so confusing.

*** Passed the ball around with Gazza and got dubbed Gary Lineker's "lucky mascot" - by the grinning eejit himself. We won 2-1.

Priorities

A couple of things have quite severely upset me over the past few days - the crap Lewis Hamilton has had to endure, plus me reading the comments on Marca which seem to indicate that the people posting really do not understand that calling someone a "fucking black" or a "black shit" is a problem, not that using the word "black" is a problem; also apparently he's "not really black" so it doesn't count. Also, I keep stumbling upon this ad - when reading sports pages, reading about dining, whatever - in the nytimesonline for Secondlook.org, which simply reads "Roe v. Wade allows termination of a pregnancy throughout the nine months. Isn't it time we rethought?"

Ugh.

And then, someone you love goes through something awful and you realise that all this anger really is something for another day.