After my last blog on Tuesday I met up with Sam, Susie, Meredith, Ben, Josh, Rob and Sean.. and we went to Kiss the Sky in Crouch End for Acoustic night. It was pretty fun, some of the acts were kind of boring but there were a few standouts... like the guy who played "Eye of the Tiger" on the electric violin. After being there for a bit Ian and Jamie met up with us, and we toasted to Meredith's birthday at midnight.

Wednesday was HECTIC... I really want to know when AIFS thought we were going to have a break to eat! Went to the Tate Modern in the morning, but only had about 25 minutes in there before we had to leave... I did get a really cool Russian Propaghanda poster though. After that we went to ULU for a quick lunch and then a great guest lecture by the one and only Bob Craig about London and the Blitz (World War II). I swear he knows everything there is to know about anything, and can make the most boring information interesting. It also helps that he knows little random facts about stuff and most of it is really cool and good to know. After the lecture we proceeded onward to the Imperial War Museum... great museum, good artifacts from both World War I and II, but I wish we would have had more time. I can always go back because it's free, but I won't have Bob Craig's expert knowledge to tell me about it!!! I got the poster I've been wanting since last year, Winston Churchill with fighter planes and it says "let us go forward together", just what I needed... another poster. My walls are going to be completely covered! After the museum we hopped on the tube, got a quick dinner at Pret a Manger (Swedish Meatballs in a tortilla, kind of wierd but delish) and then proceeded to the theatre to see Wicked! I've seen it before in 2004 with the original cast (Kristin Chenowith, Idina Menzel) but I was so tired that I fell asleep during the last part of it... thankfully this time I stayed awake and I really enjoyed it! Probably number two behind Spamalot in my opinion. After the play I was so beat from the days activities I just went home and went to bed.

Thursday morning I woke up semi-early to get to ULU for the guest lecture by Dr. Alex Seago on British Media. It was very similar to the lecture he gave last year, but he is downright hilarious so it was very entertaining. I didn't know that pretty much all of central london is owned by like three people, The Queen, the Duke of Westminster and someone else I forget, but WHOA they're richer than I've ever imagined, more money than they know what to do with. He gave us papers to analyze, and I unfortunately got to analyze the Sun, a sleezy daily with a bunch of crap.. my favorite story was "MAN RIDES TO PUB ON A ZEBRA", come on. Afterwards I got some sushi from Pret, (I eat there way too much) and ate it on the train too Windsor Castle. Windsor was very beautiful but I was kind of disappointed... the part you could tour was reletively small. My favorite part of it was all of the swords and guns, there were over 1,000! There was also some very beautiful chalices and portraits of Henry VIII, Mary Tudor, Edward VI, and Elizabeth VI. For some reason I find the Tudors very interesting...
Beside the point Thursday was the first day I didn't feel rushed to do anything, which was good. I went home and made some food and relaxed, and then met up with Meredith, Susie, Rob, Josh, Sean, Ian and Craig in Alexandra Park to hangout. We decided to go to kiss the sky for a beer but Rob and I left early because we were tired, and that's the end of that night.

Friday morning I woke up and remembered that I had given all of my clothes to mags to go in the wash, so I threw something random on and went to Primark. I love this place.... I got Three tanktops, a plain tank to go underneath stuff, a shirt for work, shoes, and a purse with the Union Jack on it all for 34 pounds. I stopped at Tesco on the way back to get some pies and something for lunch. I proceeded to get ready for the day and then left for a tour of Parliament. I think by Friday, everyone was so burnt on tours... I tried to pay attention and I did as much as I could but I found myself drifting off. The most interesting part of it to me was the room with all of the portraits, starting with Henry VII/Elizabeth of York, and then down the line. Our guide explained when and how the United Kingdom first came into existence, and that was something I had never known. After Parliament, Susie, Sam and I were craving a burrito so we went to this place called Tortilla that we found earlier on the trip... SO DELICIOUS!!! I had definately been craving mexican so that was certainly needed. While eating dinner, I got a call from Justin Frye saying that he had arrived in town and got my name on the guest list for this show at ULU. Sam and I went to that which was really fun, I had'nt seen him in almost a year because he moved to Brooklyn. He is going to be back this month before going back to the states so I hope I get to hangout with him again. After the show, Sam and I wondered where everyone was because no one would pick up their phones... but finally Rob called me back and they were in the Duck and Dive the whole time.... like two rooms over from us! We went there and had a few pints of Strongbow (my favorite!) and danced, so much fun. I met some dude from Iceland that was very entertaining. They played my favorite song just before closing (don't stop me now by Queen) and that was just a great end to the night. We took the 134 home and I went to sleep immediately.

This weekend was quite uneventful. I had a bit of a lie-in on saturday which was nice, and then Andrea and I went to honeymoon for some Chinese food. I took a nice long shower and then went shopping in Muswell Hill for shits and giggles. I then met up with Meredith, Susie, Sam, Rob, Josh and Sean at ULU and drank strongbow for a few hours, got a pizza, and then headed home because I was tired.

On Sunday I met up with Rob so we could take the Tube to meet with Meredith for lunch before she caught her flight. Again, we ate pizza. Afterwards Susie, Sam, Josh, Sean, Rob, Ben and I went to Chorak for tea and then to Wood Green to see Terminator Salvation, quite disappointing to be honest. I then went home and made a Chicken and Broccoli pie, watched Dogma and then went to sleep because my internship started today.

My internship is kind of cool. Today was my first day, so it was reletively boring... all I did was keyword photos for 6+ hours and listen to a Parisian radio station, but I think it will get more interesting as it goes on. Antonia was talking to me about how they need help marketing the Royalty-Free photobank, so I'm going to do a bit of brainstorming on that tomorrow, and then Brett asked me to figure out ways to market the treasure hunt to americans. WOOHOOO

I met up with everyone for dinner at O'neills and now I'm sitting here. Time to watch the rest of Dogma and then go to bed.

I'll update soon!!!

Cheers,
Alison