I ditched work today to go visit at my old army unit, Yohalan at the Kyria base in Tel Aviv. Why would I do such a masochistic thing? Well... one of my friends from there, Yael, was finally released today and Ifelt obliged to be there on her glorious day of emancipation as she was for me.

I caught a bus to the Kyria at around 11:15am and was there by 11:30am. Got in without a hassle because Oren, Yohalan's head of office, took care of my entrance permit for me. The weather was chilly (or as the Brits put it "nippy") today, and there were some killer winds that kept us all frozen. All in all a good setting for the day, just as Yael wanted it. I then headed to Yohalan where I caught up with my old friends from there - Or Keren is an officer that will never be released (take my word for it, he'll be Chief of Staff one day) and has always amused me greatly. I always enjoyed talking to him, he's a good conversationer. He's also a smug little bastard, which makes him even more amusing. Maayan is an Academic that studied biology on the army's expense and now has to serve an absurd amount of 6 years to pay it back. She's back to being a student studying something completely different now heh. I missed her because she's always been awesome to me and I enjoyed talking to her too (in general I made more friendships with officers and academics than with regular soldiers).
Then there was Yael, the newly released, but we'll get to more about her later. Other than that there were: Moral, my replacement who has learned well from me, she fucks off home at 2pm every day and sits reading books all the time. Mietal who seemed to me like a right tosser at first but turned out a pretty decent girl who is fun to talk to. Helly, who made my life HELL at Yohalan and with whom I couldn't stop butting heads with. After I left I heard she still relished our very final arguement and instead of hitting me back with her frustration, she hit back the other soldiers with it (just because you signed up for extra time in the army and got an administrative position, doesn't make you God). When she saw me, she asked me if I missed her. My reply was "Yes, Helly, I was crying into my pillow every night screaming 'Helly, Helly, where are you?!'" She told me I was lovely, I rolled my eyes. I'm sorry Helly, I don't forgive when not asked forgiveness, and I never forget anyway. And I'm certainly not a hypocrite like you.
Then there was also Oren, the head of office for Yohalan, and the most retarded (and GAY) guy you'll ever meet. A typical conversation between him and me would go like this:
Me: "Oren, there are rumours you're gay"
Him: "YOU are the one SPREADING these rumours!"
Me: "I know. They exist nevertheless. So are you?"
Him: "Urgh!"
Hahahahaha....
Then there was also Shelly, an Academic who was meant to be released about 6 months ago and is still there, signing more and more simply because she's too afraid of the real world to be released even though she has an MA and can go make loads of money outside... She decided upon hearing my university plans to have a little career-advising chat with me. I declined, several times until I was finally able to shake her off.
Other than them, there was a handful of newbies that I didn't know because they all came after I was released, and two girls who were released but came to Yael's release party: Hadas who was released a month after me and Sivan who was released 2 weeks ago and was, as usual and typical, late to the party!
So it was a nice little reunion. Everyone and their mothers asked me what I'm doing with myself and what are my plans further. Some of the senior officers paid various degrees of attention to me: Liora greeted me, asked a few questions and was done with that, Yael (the officer) attempted to question me but I fucked off because I don't owe her nothing anymore. Zevic was mostly busy with his kid that was also there, Maggie only greeted me hello.

The actual party was pleasant. The officers stammered their way through pointless speeches and didn't really say anything of any significance, Madam Yohalan was unfortunately not there as she was ill, as I'm sure she would've pulled up a far superior speech, even if she could hardly remember Yael's name.
At the end of the party we all feasted on traditional Yemen food which was awesome and then I went off with Yael to do her "travels form", the one you do when entering and leaving a base, as a leaving form is always a happy occasion. We were joined by Sivan and Maayan for various parts of the form, and met up with my cousin Dor who now serves at the Kyria as a boss-driver for the military advocate general.

Now, for a bit about Yael. Yael is just as bitter as I was, and with that we instantly hit off and became friends. She is able to accept me with all of my crazy obsessions (Cookie, Coca Cola, crossword puzzles...), she actually LISTENS and REMEMBERS what she's told, and for the most part I tried to do the same for her. That's why it meant so much to me to come and be with her in this very important day of liberation. Because she was a good friend, and kept me mostly sane at Yohalan for the short time I spent there (roughly 4 months).

Other news in brief:
* I've seen the Twilight movie thrice now (over a 5 days period). Edward is just too darn irresistible. My sister saw it twice. She loved it this much. Hadar loved it so much she snatched the book from me to read. Efrat was literally dancing in her chair out of joy and enjoyed herself immensely. Edward wins at life, clearly.
* I've lost my bagrut diploma which forced me to go to my high school, get a copy of the diploma, go to freakin' Petah Tikvah to get it photocopied and stamped for 35 shekels by the ministry of education, and return it to the school. Unfortunately, I've met my old headmaster, David Heruti, on my second visit to Shavatz high. Ah, and the visit to Petah Tikva was less than pleasant...
* I've finished reading "Wicked" the book and am addicted to the soundtrack. I've also ordered and read "The Tales of Beedle The Bard" by JK Rowling, which was a lovely book, and am now reading "The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas", when I can find the time to.

Our office has 2 storage spaces. The "small" storage space, a closet-sized room in which recent files go to die and the "big" storage space, a room that was probably a shelter at some place, but I'd rather face nukes than stay in that shelter.... here is why.

Cockroaches EVERYWHERE.


Files in complete disarray. There's no real way of finding anything down there. And my boss sent me to find a file there....


Wanna hear the funny thing? I fucking found it.

Hello!
It's been a very long while indeed and loads has happened. So here I am, catching up. And there's much to catch up on. I've been to 2 gigs in the span of 6 days, been to London and dully living life. Here goes, the interesting parts of the last few days.


Nov 25th.
This was a crazy day. A day before my trip, I had a ton of work to do. Seen as though it was the end of the month and there's always a lot of work at the end of a working month in insurance, I had to do the work of the coming 3 work-days all in one. So I sent too many letters to costumers, filed too many documents, answered too many calls, bought too many stamps at the post office and! Picked up my copy of the special edition "Everything In Transit" album by Jack's Mannequin, with its awesome DVD full of live footage of Andrew and co. performing the first 2 gigs Andrew did after his bone marrow transplant (the Dec 2nd LA, California show and the New York show that followed a while later). In the DVD, Andrew performs gems like "You Can Breathe", "Miss Delaney", "The Mixtape", "La La Lie", "Holiday From Real" and more. Brilliant DVD, and the album sounds somewhat better when played from a CD on my DVD player. So woo for that.
After I got out of work (half an hour later than I should) and got brutally injured from filing (I always get injured while filing, I have such a secretary's injuries - cuts from the files and shit), I left home to rest for a few before jetting off to "THE PLUCKER" to get my eyebrows done and my 'stache removed. Yes, it hurts being pretty. And it sucks being a woman.
Came back home and started a frenzied packing. I started getting stressed out that I still didn't know where to go to on my days by myself so I also did some websearching on how to get to all sorts of selected sites as well as prices of entrance and opening hours. That calmed me down a little but I still reasoned myself that if I buy a London travel book at the airport, I'd feel better. Then I went to sleep as early as possible...


Nov 26th.
Set my alarm clock to 5am. Didn't know there WAS such an hour. It was still dark outside as I headed upstairs to wake the parentals up and went down to get dressed and ready. Said my goodbyes to mother and sister (who woke up especially to say bye to me, bless her) and then dad took me to the train station. He wouldn't take me to the airport because he wanted to just go back to sleep and sooner the better. Lazy git.
At the train station, security went overboard and x-rayed my bags and went on to looking through my backpack for my camera, to make sure it's not a weapon of mass destruction. Sorry to disappoint, assholes. I've met a nice soldier girl on the platform that also got irritated by the train station security. We had a nice chat and I realized I STILL better relate to soldiers than anyone on the "outside world". She's a secretary just like I was and she thinks it sucks just like I did and we shared experiences and stories. It was a nice way to wait for the train. You know, rather than just stare gloomily at the dark platform.
The ride to the airport took about 10 minutes. That's the good thing about the train, it gets there fast. And the train was pretty deserted at such absurd times of the morning (5:52am) so I had where to sit, and seats for my bags as well. Heh. I soon found myself in the airport waiting in line for security check (you wouldn't believe how many there are).
All us "regular folks" (the "riff-raff") stood at our "regular folks line" while the slick business men strolled onto their first class line that should've been quicker only to be held and delayed more than the rest of us. That amused me to no end. So, first up, a nice lady from airport security came to check my passport and ask me various security questions. Answered honestly as that's always the best policy. When she was done with me, she gave me stickers to indicate I've been questioned and I proceeded to get my bags scanned AGAIN. When they saw all is well with them, they put even more stickers on them and I proceeded to get rid of my bags and get my plane ticket.
The nice dude gave me a window seat and weighted my bags and sent them off to be put on the plane as I headed through the doors and onto a shopping area in which escorts can say goodbye to the travelers. There was a massive window overlooking the airplanes outside. I wanted to take a picture but, you know, state security and all. I went on off into the personal security check where I had to scan my backup and empty my pockets as I walked through a metal detector.
After that, it was all smooth sailing to the duty free! I wandered around some, bought my London travel book, and headed into the James Richardson store for chocolates and loads of them. I got kitkats, skittles, Kinder Bueno, M&M's and candy boxes for the office and my grandmother. I bought a lot of stuff for little sister, because she gave me $50 and a list. Heh. After some more wander in the bookshop, I went and bought myself a repulsive sandwich at Arcafe and ate it unwillingly. I was hungry and I didn't know what I'll get on the plane.
Eventually, I headed to gate D6 to await my flight. The flight felt like it lasted forever. I read through my London travel book faithfully, making mental notes to where to go to. I also watched "Halfon Hill Is Not Answering", a classic Israeli movie from 1977 (I think). I've seen this movie countless of times, I can quote most of it, but I still laughed my ass off (the girl sitting next to me gave me weird stares). I also watched a bit of "The Dark Knight" and started re-reading "Invisible Monsters" by Chuck P. All the while I was keeping track of the flight anxiously through the channel on the plane's entertainment TV's (there were tiny screens on the seats in front of each of us and we could channel surf and pick whatever channel we wanted to watch) and counting down the minutes...


When I landed, I had this feeling of utter surrealness. I was in London, it was cold outside. Cold enough to wear a long-sleeved shirt, a hoodie and a coat. And I was in a different country. Alone. Without my parents. I was finally feeling like a real proper adult.
The plane took forever to park and let us off, a United airplane was taking our spot. When we finally got off it, I rushed towards passport check. There, the guy at passport check questioned me about my visit and when I told him I was going to see McFly at Wembley he went "McFly? How could they fill Wembley? They're rubbish!!" I told him I'm not going to argue with him, though I did find it highly amusing that a grown man was trying to pick such a childish fight.
After that, it was off to get my bags, not before buying a bottle of REAL mineral water at the airport. Not the crap we have here that are tap water in mineral water's bottles.
David was waiting for my outside, looking bored (and slightly handsome, I'll admit). He was surprised at the amount of luggage I had, despite the fact I warned him the night before about it!
We took the tube to my hotel. We took the Piccadilly line to Holborn and from there, changed onto the Central line to Marble Arch where my hotel, Mostyn hotel, was, just behind the glorious Oxford street. The trip took forever but David took comfort in the M&M's I got him and I took comfort in the view from outside (the train was cheating, it went above ground half the way).
After checking into the hotel, David and I headed out to the Imperial War Museum. It took a while to find the museum, and we got a bit lost.... but David assured me he knew where we are ("roughly... in London").
When we got there, we wandered off in the free part of the museum for a little while and went into a weird submarine sort of exhibition where we could see, hear and, er, smell stuff. An interactive sort of thing. I think David had a lot more fun than the kids roaming around the place.
We then proceeded into the Ian Fleming/James Bond exhibition where we played roulette, checked out international covers of James Bond (including an Israeli one), saw a picture of Eva Green and got utterly disappointing at the tiny Aston Martin model. We expected the real deal.
After we were done with that, we headed into the Holocaust exhibition, which was rather shit in comparison of other Holocaust exhibitions I've seen. And while at the James Bond exhibition David got to show off his knowledge, the Holocaust one was my turn to shine. Not that we got through it, because it was a quarter to 5pm and we were supposed to meet Uma at an undisclosed (read: unknown to all 3 of us) location at 5pm.
We went off back to Marble Arch to find out Uma was at Green Park for some reason. So we stood like two morons out in the cold outside KFC waiting for her for a good 15 minutes. When she got there, we took forever to decide where to eat, until eventually I allowed them to drag me halfway down Oxford street and into John Lewis, a department store that had a cafeteria. We (David and I) had horrible mashed potatos with horrible sausages with sauce poured on all of them (and coca cola in cool bottles) and Uma had the same horrible mashed potatos and sauce but with vegtables (vegans, go figure).
Whenever David left Uma and me alone, we instantly started talking Westlife, it was kind of funny. Uma was gutted that this Christmas is Westlife-less. I suggested she bought the DVD ("Live At Croke Park"). That was as far as we got before David got back from the loo.
After John Lewis, we rushed over to Wicked, "before the tickets melted", according to David. The tickets didn't melt, they were fine. And the show was fantastic! It was such a different experience, seeing a musical as a live show at the West End rather than at a movie. The crowd claps and cheers after each song, the set leaves you in awe at how elaborate and into details it is, the costumes and make up look fantastic (especially the green makeup of Miss Elphaba) and you can't help but get excited, laugh, and just have fun at the show. Big ups for Wicked! I had such a good time I've bought the book and am now reading it. And I prefer this story to the "Wizard of Oz" story any day.
We said goodbye to Miss Uma after Wicked, I was a bit sad about that because I got to spend, AGAIN, so little time with her. I wanted to see her more, but she's so busy! :( David escorted me back to the hotel (he can say he's not a gentleman as much as he wants, he is. He's British, the British politeness is imprinted in him whether he likes it or not) and exhausted I collapsed on the bed and went to sleep (I did shower... the shower there is crazy! I couldn't figure out how to mix the hot and cold water to be the way I wanted it to be. It was either freezing or boiling, nowhere in between) after being up for 20-21 hours!


Nov 27th.
David and I agreed on a late start, so I can sleep and recover, but I got up at around 8am anyway (despite planning on waking up at 9:30 at the very least). After watching some GMTV, talking to my mum and getting dressed and ready, I headed out to McDonalds and had my very first Egg McMuffin. The morning after, I went for the "Egg, sausage and cheese bagel". Behold, I took pictures.
David had texted me informing me he needs to help his boss with the computer, so we shall meet at midday. So off I went to explore Oxford street.
I went down the street and headed into Marks & Spencers and bought a bunch of Christmas-related snacks, in 2's, for both of my sisters. That included snowy balls (those were amazing), Santa-shaped chocolate, a Ginger-bread man, Jellybears and a stocking with choclate and marshmallows. After that (and geekily browsing through the supermarket-area of the store because I love observing other cultures and nothing teaches you more about a culture than their eating habits) I headed back outside and kept wandering on, eventually walking into HMV.
There, at HMV, is where the real fun began. I've bought the book "Rant" by Chuck Palahniuk, 2 copies of McFly's "Radio:ACTIVE" for 10 quid (both of them, the second copy is for my friend Hadar), a McFly 2009 calendar and a "Friends" 2009 calendar for my little sister (it was a "get one, get the other at half price" sort of sale and my little sis loves "Friends") and probably more stuff I can't actuallt remember at the moment. All in all I spent 40 quid at HMV and 20 more on breakfast and M&S. So 60 quid and that's before David ever got there!
When I headed back to Marble Arch at 20 minutes to 12, I went on the tube alone for the first time ever from Oxford Circus to Marble Arch (too lazy to walk) and when I got off the train and back where there's reception, I saw a text from David telling me he'll be there in 25 minutes. So I went to the nearest book shop to browse (proudly, I did not buy anything at that point).

When David finally showed up, we went to KFC to get the poor kid some lunch (which was the only thing he ate that day as far as I'm aware) and headed into Hyde Park for "Winter Wonderland". We went on a big-ass Ferris wheel and had a splendid view of the park. It cost us 7 quid each and we had 4 full spins. In quick math we figured we're not very good in quick math. Heh. After that we went wandering around the Winter Wonderland area and encountered a molesting Santa Claus (molesting his reindeer), a lot of German beer, cheese bagels and a lot of cool stuff offered on sale, including a pimp-hat for David and some ugly sweaters which he said he would wear. Brits, go figure. I also gave him the present I got him, 2 "Where's Wally?" books (regular one and one in Hollywood) in Hebrew, he collects them in many different languages (well not many but he's working on it). He already knew where Wally was in each picture!
Winter Wonderland also had an ice-skating rink, a slides area, flying chairs and elastic bands that sends you zooming into the air and back down and repeat.
After Winter Wonderland, we went wandering around department stores, looking at toys and Christmas stuff. Then, there was Elmo. A cute Elmo robot that talked and sang and danced like it was nobody's business. He told David he was his best friend and giggled. Eeeee! I WANT HIM!


Elmo - The Movie.




Some more snaps from our department store fun.


We went to McDonalds for lunch. I had the Chicken Select which we also have here, but also had Cheese Melt Wedges off the festive menu. It went with onion-and-something-else sauce and it was amazingly tastey. David had a strawberry milkshake. We sat at McDonalds for a while, just resting from the long day and getting ready for a long evening. We then went and dropped off my bag at the hotel because I didn't want to drag it all the way to the concert that night, and headed to John Lewis again to get gloves for David. As soon as he bought them, he never took them off!

We headed off on the Victoria tube line to Wembley Park station, glancing at random people on the train and guessing which of them are heading for the McFly concert. We were fairly accurate in our assessment.
When we got off, a brisk walk was all it took to get to the arena. It looked marvelous with colorful lights and a fountain. We went to the box office and got our tickets and then headed off inside.
Wembley looked smaller than I thought it'd be, but it was still wonderful and surreal being in there. Standing was not as crowded as I feared it would be and we managed to be pretty close without having to dive into the moshpit.
We saw Fletch (Matthew Fletcher, manager of McFly) coming out of the backstage area (we were right near the entrance, on Dougie's side) several times - at one point he even blocked David's view of Reemer, the support act. We also saw Tommy Jay (Smith, tour manager of McFly) a few times, he even bumped into me at some point.
We said hello to David's friend (Laura I think her name was) and saw Sophie, Alex and Sophie and Sophie's brother, as well as Carmen, Alex's friend. Carmen is totally awesome and a whole load of fun.
Avenue were the first of the support acts, they sucked and sang the song "Can You Feel It" previously done by V. Speaking of V, Ant from V was one of McFly's backup singers and got a chance to shine during McFly's set when they did a cover of Michael Jackson's "Black & White" and he rapped away as Danny was going from the B-stage back to the main stage. But more on that later.
Reemer were up next. They were better - their singer was quite the lively little thing and he had a thing for the guitar player, he kept throwing himself all over the guitarist. It was cute. They were decent, I actually enjoyed their set.
While waiting for the show to start, they put videos on the screen. Whenever McFly's logo came on the screen, people started screaming. They also screamed when an advert for the "Camp Rock" DVD came on (Jonas Brothers) and when some Beyonce video was on. Teenyboppers, go figure.
McFly were... brilliant. Dougie pretty much made my night. He looked incredibly handsome and adorable. He jumped around, he joked around (Tom: "I have an announcement to make" Dougie: "HE'S GAY!" Tom: "Apart from that..."), he cut off Harry ("Dougie, I'm not finished!" so dirty) introduced us to his new blue bass ("Benjamin, he's my favorite!" mine too, Doug) and rocked out. Danny was also surprisingly handsome in real life, and really pulled off "Black & White" all on his own and instrument-free. Tom was all hair rocking hard on his guitar and Harry was funny as ever, making fun of Danny for getting the text thing for Do Ya live wrong.
They played most of Radio:ACTIVE (not in order: "Lies", "One For The Radio", "Everybody Knows", "Do Ya", "Falling In Love", "POV", "Corrupted", "Going Through The Motions" and "The Last Song"), as well as "5 Colours In Her Hair" to wrap up the night, "Room On The 3rd Floor" (BEAUTIFUL!), "That Girl" and "Obviously" off the first album, "All About You" off Wonderland, and "Transylvania" and "Star Girl" (while flying on their flying stage) from Motion In The Ocean.
I had a good time singing along, attempting to take pictures and just smiling and laughing at the boys being random on stage. Dougie took liberty with his water bottle and splashed some at the audience. He then sprayed the audience with water from his mouth - gross! Dougie spit! When the audience sprayed Danny with water during 5 Colours, he looked shocked and mouthed "MOTHER FUCKER!" at them!
Fortunately, the entire show was filmed for the DVD, so I'll get to relive it. It was an awesome show and the boys were on top form. THANK YOU MCFLY! For making it worth it all. I just might have to do this whole thing again.

After the show we rushed over to the tube (with me nearly losing one of my gloves and paying way too much for a water bottle) not before buying a tour book (I asked David to "be tall" and go over the crowds and buy it, he ended up getting one for himself as well) and getting our tickets back as they were taken from us at the entrance (we got an ugly pink blood-flow-blocking bracelet instead). David and Carmen walked me to my hotel room and David grabbed his stuff that he left there (fake snow! Woo! And his Where's Wally? books) and we said our awkward goodbyes and off they went, leaving me exhausted yet again.

Nov 28th.
This was my real chance to prove that I'm a real grown up, all on my own in London. After watching some more GMTV and getting dressed and ready, I headed to McDonalds for that Egg, sausage and cheese bagel (as pictured above) and then to The London Dungeon where the guy at the entrance called out "we have a suicider here!" upon discovering I was in fact alone there and then I took part of the tour of the Dungeon, which proved to be a lot of fun with live actors and a chance to learn about Jack The Ripper and sit in Sweeney Todd's barber shop! There was also a ride I wouldn't normally go on, on which we sat in chairs strapped tight and it took us upwards where we saw a woman pull on a lever which sent us diving down really fast. I actually flew up in my chair, scared the crap outta me. But it was a lot of fun! The gift shop was also full of all sorts of cool neat (overpriced) stuff, I had a fun time prowling there.
After that I went across the street where a man gave me a 5 quid off discount cupon for the London Bridge Exhibition and pointed me in the right direction so I went there, got a ticket and had to wait a while for more folks to arrive. When there were about 10 of us (far less than the Dungeon tour that was a big group) we were taken in by a pretty cute actor who was the butler of the man who designed the bridge. We then met an actress who spoke in a funny accent and was a viking and another who was a chavvy lady from back in the days and was pretty funny. Learned a lot about the bridge but it wasn't really scary, just awkward at times (I'll admit, I kept being worried the actors would pick on me and put me on the spot... I'm an observer, not a participator). After that, a bald creepy guy dressed in normal London Exhibition tour uniform "tempted" us to go to the London Tombs, where we wore a helmet and shiny yellow vest and went into the tour in total and utter darkness where more live actors did mostly jumping at us and screaming in our direction. What made it creepy is the still darkness in which you couldn't see a damn thing. It did have a feature called "the great squeeze" in which you had to squeeze your way in a tight area (like massive poofy things you had to squeeze between), could get a bit claustrophobic.
After that, I went into an exhibition room there that had some more info on the bridge (everything we learned on the tour just in an extended version) and looked through the (again overpriced) gift shop and ended up deciding to head off to Leicester Square where, after getting a bit lost, I finally found the square but after going round it once and looking around, I decided to move on and walk to Covent Garden. There, I looked for the HMV forever till eventually giving up and texting David for help. As soon as I hit send on the message, I looked up and saw the HMV!! He did send me a very descriptive text so if I hadn't found it, I would've with his instructions. Longest text I ever got. Well, disappointment it was cause they didn't sell singles and I really went there looking for McFly's Children In Need single, "Do Ya" (HMV are supposed to sell CD1 & the DVD single while other stores only sold CD1). On my way out I found a shop selling t-shirts and hoodies with awesome prints on them so I got a "Spider Pig" shirt for my friend Maya who specifically asked for "a cool t-shirt", and a Cookie Monster t-shirt. Behold the image.

I also had lunch at the Covent Garden area McDonalds, which was a weird one as it hardly had any seats, it was mostly takeaway. Again, I disappointed with a predictable McNuggets but I was too cold and wet to be experimental.
After leaving Covent Garden (I did walk around it a bit browsing but most stuff were uninteresting and overpriced) I headed on a quest for McFly singles. So I went to Piccadilly Circus. When I got there, a girl was picking up a copy and left just one CD1 on the shelf. I was supposed to get 2 of each, one set for Shirley from my McFly forum, so I went to ask the HMV staff about the singles. The guy there told me the only place that had the DVDs in London close to us was Islington and showed me that on the tube map. He also said CD1 can be found in Oxford Circus (I've looked for that store the next day, didn't find it). So I bought a copy of "Wicked" by Gregory Maguire for 5 quid (not bad!) and left the store without getting that one copy of Do Ya CD1.
In the stupidest move in the history of EVER, I took the tube to Islington. I took the Victoria line, which sucked, to the Islington station, which sucked even more. It was dark by the time I got there and there were mostly foreigners on the streets and none of them even knew what HMV was let alone could direct me there. I've decided it was not worth it getting lost in Islington for McFly so I headed right back to Marble Arch where I collapsed, exhausted on my bed at the hotel. After resting and recovering and watching some shit telly, I went to get McDonalds for dinner. I got the same as I did the evening before - Chicken Select, fries, Cheese Melt Wedges and coca cola. They didn't give me a bag for my cola like they do here but with gloves on, I didn't mind carrying it. On my way back I've met Danny, one of the workers of the hotel, that helped me earlier with locking my door. He asked if he could have McDonalds with me. How cute. I told him there's not enough food to go around. Awww.
So I sat at my hotel room, had McDonalds, watched the news and caught up on the news of the terrorist attack in Mumbai (been a bit cut off from news these last few days) and then watched "A Question of Sports" some. I also watched some Paul O'Grady with the Sugababes as guests. Fortunately, I missed their performance.
I wrapped up the evening by reading "Wicked" till I got too tired to carry on, and went to sleep.

Nov 29th.
Bit of a sad day as it was my last. I got ready slowly, watching TMi (God that show is getting worse and worse... Sam & Mark did a "I'm A TMi Presenter, GET ME OUT OF HERE!" game) and packing my stuff, sorting through the room. Checked out at 20 minutes to 11am, so missed breakfast at McDonalds all together. Oh well.
Decided to head to Westminster Abby. The line to get my tube ticket that day was ridiculously long and frustrating but I braved through it. As I got there and got off the tube (had to take the circle line there because Jubilee in that area was closed for the weekend) I felt the utter freeze of being by the river Thames. I went into a Tesco's simply because I've never been in one (again my strange fascination with supermarkets) and then headed off flowing the mass flock of tourists to the Abby. On my way there, I could also see the Parliament and the Big Ben, not to mention a view of the river and some of the London Eye.

Some snaps of the Abby taken as I got there and while waiting in line to get in.

There were no cameras allowed inside but I assure you, the Abby looks spectacular from inside. So much history in there - graves of many kings and queens of England, the crowning chair (that has been collecting dust for a while, waiting for Prince Charles to finally have a stab at Kingness) and incredible works of art, with great attention to details. Like most big impressive churches, this one has lived up to the expectations of being marvelous. There was also a minute's prayer on the hour, every hour. I was there to one of them and it was so beautiful it made me tear up and choke, and I pride myself in being a none-believer! But it wasn't a preaching kind of prayer, more of a universal sort of sermon that speaks to everyone, no matter what their religion is or what they believe in.
After leaving the Abby, I decided to head for the British Museum for the Babylon exhibition. I didn't know exactly where to head but as if someone was watching me, I started receiving signs. As I walked into the tube from Westminster Abby, I saw a poster advertising the exhibition that said which stations to get off at! For some strange reason I decided, out of all the stops given, to get off at Holborn. I got outside and lo and behold, a McDonalds! A black one, which was strange, but in there I had a Chicken Delight I believe it was called, which really was delightful (here's me experimenting with new stuff on the menu) and after my well filling feast, I headed outside to see a Sainsbury's. Another sign, I thought, so I headed inside to see what the big deal about Sainsbury's is. I couldn't find it, but I did have a good time observing yet another supermarket (I'm deranged, I know) and getting some cute elf Cadbury's chocolate with popping candy inside.
After that I headed outside in search of the museum. I eventually found it. It was massive and beautiful and awe-strucking. I got inside only to be disappointed to learn they were only selling tickets for 4:10pm, which was too late for me considering I had to take the tube from Marble Arch at 6pm to get to Heathrow. So I ended up walking around the free areas of the museum, looking at mummys (Cleopatra herself was there... she was short), the Islam room (boring) and the Mayan culture room in there I met this friend:

And smack down below him, was this weird mask:

Under it, it said it's called "Ron Mueck Mask II". It was very life-like, it had actual stubble!

When I got bored of the museum, I decided to go back to Oxford and have one last wander around Oxford street. I got off at Oxford Circus under the intention of walking my way back to Marble Arch, but got into Regent for a while instead. The streets were PACKED with people. It was Saturday afternoon in Christmas-shopping season and there were people everywhere. Could hardly move. This is why I had a hard time properly looking for the HMV even though I knew I was in the right place.
At Regent, I attempted to get into Hamleys but again, it was so packed I gave up after a quick browse of the first floor, but I did get into the Apple store on Regent, which was very purdy with many MacBooks around for me to drool over. And drool I did.
Before leaving Regent street, I took time to marvel at the Regent Street lights (as turned on by McFly) and took some snaps on my phone.

After that I got back onto Oxford and worked my way back to Marble Arch, getting into John Lewis again to buy some cool socks I saw while there with David the other day (luckily for me, I got a 10p off discount on each of the pairs - got a pair for myself and both my sisters, three different pattens and I let them choose which they wanted). At HMV I got McFly's "Motion In The Ocean" album, as well as a "Where's Bin Laden?" book I've seen all voer London. It's a fun "Where's Wally?" sort of book, just with Bin Laden.
I then went into a book store and went book crazy. I've picked up "Lullaby" and "Diary" by Chuck Palahniuk, "Lord of The Flies" and Westlife's autobiography "Westlife - Our Story". Since none of them were on sale, I managed to score a 20% off on full-priced books cupon and lower down the costs.
I got back to my hotel at Marble Arch, sat and rested in the lobby for a bit and then got my luggage and headed to the tube for a train to the airport. Took the Central line to Holborn and then hopped on the Piccadilly line to Heathrow. That was a long and tiring trip...

The security at the airport was somewhat absurd. After going through the El-Al team's security checks (the routine questions, the routine bag checks) I was told by the dude at the tickets place I am getting an aisle seat because he doesn't have window ones left, but that there won't be anyone in the middle seat, so that was a bit encouraging. After giving him my bags I went on to the physical security check where they made me take off my coat, put my stuff in a box and take off my shoes (that's new). When the grueling security tests were over, I headed into the duty free area. First thing I did was look for fast food joints. There weren't any. When a security lady confirmed there aren't any, I went into one of the restaurants at the airport only to find out they were too rich for my blood (after my book store adventure, I was left with only 20 quid) so I went into a store that sells freshly-made sandwiches and bought a sandwich and a coke. I took out all my small change and paid with that - just that I was missing something like 7p but the guy at the store let me have it for what I had. So I thanked him and went to find a place to sit and eat my dinner.
After I was done eating (avocado & chicken sandwich) I went into the WH Smiths book store at the airport and ended up buying 3 more books (got to chatting to one of the store workers and she recommended one book and I got a third one... eventually I got the first book at half price and a 3.5 quid off the other 2 because they were promotional priced books so it turned out I bought 3 books for the price of one in Israel) and with the 5 quid I had left, I went into the magazine WH Smiths and bought 2 cheesy teen mags for my little sister. With the change left from that, I went to the sandwich guy again and gave him all that was left - 72p. A bit more than what I owed him (and he never asked me to come back with the money) but I figured he can have it for a tip or something for being so nice to me. I had no use for 72p anyway.
After that it was off on the longest journey ever to the very last gate (65 I think it was) where El-Al security closed off the area and did some more passport checks on the way into the gate area. After that we waited some and boarded the plane.
The flight was unpleasant. It was cold, I could hardly sleep, it felt like it lasted forever and there were 3 morons that kept talking through half the flight. Well one of them did most of the talking, one was the "leader" sort of fella so he replied, and one ignored them both. Eventually they all fell asleep though so I had some peace and quiet and managed to sleep for a little bit.
When we landed, I practically ran through passport check, collecting my duty free shopping and getting my luggage (the Brits broke my suitcase! Fortunately it was just the holding handle). I was supposed to get the train back to Tel Aviv and get a taxi from there - would be cheaper - but I was so damn tired I just took a taxi from the airport, which was only 85 shekels instead of the 120 assessment my mother made so that was good. We pulled up back home around 6am just as the bus came up the street getting annoyed with the taxi for delaying it. Woops.
Got home, my little sister woke up to greet me. I gave her all her presents - the chocolates from the duty free, the Friends calendar, the socks from John Lewis, the Christmas candies, the teen mags - she loved them all! Think for a moment there I was the coolest sister ever. When my other sister, Lior, woke up - I gave her the things I got for her and she was also grateful (though still dazed and half asleep) and eventually after sorting through my stuff (couldn't go to sleep in that mess) I went to sleep at around 8am as Sharon went to school, Lior left to the army with dad giving her a lift on his way to work and mum going to work.

Dec 3rd.
The big day - Simple Plan playing a show at Hangar 11 in Tel Aviv! Mostly it was just another dull day at work, expect for Stalin coming to town and me having to deal with the pain caused by that (2 advil issued by my boss did the trick). When I left work, I ran off home, got ready and left to Tel Aviv Harbor with my sister. Between walking to the bus stop, waiting for the bus, riding it all the way to the last stop, and finding our way to the Hangar - it took us an hour to get there. When we found our way there, we got the tickets (not before the lame girls giving the tickets accused me of being too young for a credit card and that my credit card is after my mum's name. Who is called Sylvia. Israeli tramps, go figure), went and found a bathroom to use (we tried to go to Aroma but there was a massive line so we went into a sports store and the nice guy at the counter let me use the workers' toilets) and went and grabbed a sandwich at Aroma before the show.
We then went to the entrance line where millions (okay, only a couple hundreds) of people were already waiting at around 7:30pm. Which was strange as gates were supposed to be opened at 6pm. It turned out they closed the gates after it got a little "murder-in-the-mosh" inside and didn't open them again till after the support act ("Got No Shame", never heard of them). There was a stupid policeman outside yelling at us to get out of the line and onto the other side of the road. Eventually people listened, but I told Sharon (little sis) that we're not going anywhere, we just got us all the way to the front of the line. The cop went about his screaming and the show security told us the police "closed the event" and wouldn't say if they're actually planning on opening it again to let us in, which led to much anger and frustration.
Eventually, they opened the gates again and after much pushing and shoving and me falling against a barricade and blocking my sister's fall at that, we got inside... no, sorry, RAN inside. We made our way around till we found a place in which we had a decent view of the stage and stayed in that area, moving throughout the show to better our view all the time.
Simple Plan were FANTASTIC! Their bass player, David, wasn't there due to family emergency so the guitar player Seb played bass instead, and they played just the four of them. They played the following songs: "Generation" (opening the show), "Take My Hand", "Shut Up", "Jump", "When I'm Gone", "Addicted", "The End", "Me Against The World", "Your Love Is A Lie", "Time To Say Goodbye" (which they eventually changed to "time for me to say SHALOM!"), "Save You", a song about Israel ("Izrael... where the girls are pretty"), "Promise", a dance-songs medley (with "Low", "I Kissed A Girl" and another song I didn't recognize), "Welcome To My Life", "I'd Do Anything", "Untitled" (which Pierre sang on a b-stage at the back of the arena), "I'm Just A Kid" and "Perfect".
The show consisted of a lot of jumping, dancing, singing along and pumping my fist in the air and screaming like a maniac as Hayley from Paramore would put it. Sharon and I had a fantastic time. Especially with all of Pierre's attempts at Hebrew. He said there are "Banot yafot" (beautiful girls) in the audience, that "Ben zona poh halilah" (son of a bitch here tonight), "toda raba" (thank you very much), "shalom" (hello) and other bits and bobs. All in all they were charming, adorable, energetic and put on a great fun show.
Some fan videos of the good moments can be found on youtube: Israel song, Ben Zona Poh Halilah & Perfect, Doing "The Fergie".

Dec 4th.
It started out as just another work day when a pigeon flew into my mum's part of the office. She came into the room my boss and I sit at and went "I have a pigeon in my office, what do I do?" so I got up to shoo the bird away and it just wouldn't fly! It ran off to the filing room where I snapped a picture of the poor bird.

My boss Avital went hiding in her brother Avi's office "the only room with a door" she reasoned. She was living in some paranoia that this is going to be a Hitchcock movie and the bird would attack her. So Avi and I cornered the pigeon with two cardboard boxes and set her free. The whole ordeal didn't end with that, because Avi made a run into his office with the boxes and gave out a screetch as if he was setting the pigeon free in his office and at Avital - she bought it and gave out the mother of all screams. Freakin' hilarious how grown ups behave, it's as if I never left the army.
Then a bit later, one of our costumers called and started talking English to me. Knowing we do have costumers that can't speak Hebrew, I went along with it but picked up on his accent pretty quickly that he's Israeli :P So eventually I went "can you talk Hebrew and you're just making fun of me?" :P He was. He was trying to wind me up, problem is I can speak English better than anyone else in that office (I've heard my boss in action, that confirmed the matter) so he chose the wrong person to pick on. NER!

That is all the catching up, PHEW! It took me two days to write this blog, can you believe it? At present I am ill with a runny nose and a lot of sneezes and the general feeling of blah. Hopefully this improves. Oh, and I just spilled some M&M's on the floor. I wish I cleaned the floor earlier, that way I might've still been able to eat them :( I did not, however, so to the bin they go :(

So, new layout, Cookie style! I really like Cookie's new album, and the song featured in the layout -- "Bar-Ba-Sol" -- must be one of my favorites. I shall babble about the album and write my very biased review soon, when I have a free minute!

In other orders of business, my London trip. I am going to see McFly at Wembley arena on Thursday the 27th of November (THIS THURSDAY!). I'm stoked. I'm going to spend 3.5 days in London, 5 days off work, I'm going to go to a place where "winter" and "Christmas" have a meaning, do some minor shopping, see some good friends (David & Uma), see a musical ("Wicked") and just chill and try to draw emotional strength to do all that I have to do (that is, figure what I'm going to study at university, and then start figuring out how to apply and also get a visa to the US and start working and organizing the trip). I've been needing this vacation so badly for so long that it couldn't have come at a better time. And hey, I'm finally going to see a live concert of a band I actually want to see! At Wembley-freakin'-arena! And we're so standing on Dougie's side. Yeah.
I even went shopping for the occasion, and actually bought clothes! I hate buying clothes. I even bought a new coat at long last. It's been years overdue.

Other than that, another big thing is happening currently in my life and that is what I call the boiler saga. Below is a copy of what I just typed as an e-mail to my friend, so I won't have to re-type it. I might've edited it a bit.

A week ago, our hot-water boiler stopped working after my little sister Sharon took a shower in the morning, forgot to close it, and left it working for about 8 hours. Turns out the part in the boiler that's supposed to stop the boiler when all of the water have warmed up (not sure of the name), didn't work, so it kept getting hotter and hotter till the pipe that's connecting the boiler to its water supply exploded, and the water started splashing out along with a lot of smoke, because they were freakin' hot.
That all happened on Friday last week. So on Friday afternoon I took a shower with the hot water that were left, and on Saturday I had to go shower at my aunt's, who, luckily, lives across the street from us. On Sunday, a man came and fixed the pipe and we were back to normal.
Then on this last Friday, a week later, mum and I were watching Survivor when the entire apartment's electricity fell at the most suspenseful moment. At first we thought it might be a thief knocking down the power to make us open the door because different areas of the apartment are connected to different grids and it takes the mother of all problems to knock the entire thing down. It wasn't a thief, it was the boiler! Turns out it didn't work at all and didn't warm any water. So it was a sunny day and my mother and sisters got to shower with the hot water from the sun but I was left with no hot water. So with a headache and with the annoyance that a week later the boiler is AGAIN broken, I went to my grandmother to shower. It was 10:30pm, which was why I went to my grandmother who is further away and not my aunt. My aunt has small children, didn't want to intrude at that time. I did go to her yesterday, Saturday, to shower though (and regretted it at once, there were so many kids there running around and screaming that I had a terrible headache).
This morning dad brought an electrician. He had described the problem to the boiler-repair-man and he told him an electrician is needed. The electrician was there for 2 and a half hours and did nothing to solve the problem. Furthermore, he also did a no.2 in my bathroom's toilet which I wouldn't entirely have a problem with if not for the fact my toilet has been broken for over a month now!! It's been leaking for over a month and about 2 weeks ago the water supply to it just stopped working so now it's not usable at all.
My father believes that if something is broken and can still be used - why fix it? And if something is broken and cannot be used - only fix it if it's uber-important. If not, it can wait. And while we do have 3 bathrooms in the house - one of them is on the second floor and I can't climb up there every time I need the toilet, and the other is my sister's, and is in a unit inside her room so I need to ask for permission to enter her room just to use the bathroom every time. It's a drag, it's annoying. Why do I have my own bathroom which I bother cleaning every week when I can't even bloody use it?!
We had a blocked-up sink in my bathroom too which my dad refused to hurry up and fix so we had to buy one of them killer-poisons that unclug sinks. It produced hot gray/black bubbles, a lot of smoke, and a smell like you wouldn't know. I had to wear protective gloves for it! Me! Because God forbids my father does something for this family. All he knows is to complain...

Sigh. I had more to say, but the boss has returned to the office (I'm at work) and it's all too bluntly obvious all these typings are not work-related! Oh well, will be out of here in an hour.

Very very cute. Go Rob Pattinson! Go Hayley Williams!

Video HERE

It has always been embarrassing for me to look bad at e-mails I wrote or blog posts I made years ago. Mostly it has to do with my poor grammar and being naive. These last few days, after upgrading my Yahoo! mail account (after using it for 3 years now), I decided to delete my old sent e-mails, I had stuff dated back to 2005 and for some strange reason, I started reading them all.
I've discovered that at the age of 17 I was not only naive and childish, but a real pain in the neck, vain and arrogant, self-indulgent, quite moronic and in general, not a nice person. I would like to believe that 3 years later, I'm miles away. You know that Relient K song "Who I Am Hates Who I've Been"? That certainly applies here. Oh yeah, I was also a believer in God back then. Oh, how things have changed!
It also took me back to different days. The days when VJS was my life and I was pathetic enough to suck up to everybody and their mothers, including indulging John like it was nobody's business. I was such a kiss-ass it makes me sick. It also took me back to the good days of DP.net, the border-line times of my Westlife love (somewhere between the fading obsession and the cover-angst), and my days in Dorkville. Friendships with so many people I didn't even remember till I read their e-mails were brought up from the dead.
Sometimes I was happy to discover some things were put behind, at other times I felt sadness and regret.
I've still got about 180 mails there to go through, who knows what else I'll learn about myself? This has certainly been an eye opener.

PS: I know I've been a bad blogger again. I keep promising myself it'll change, and then I break that promise. Lets see if I can rectify this situation again.

I'd like to say I've had such busy and full life and this is why I haven't blogged... reality, however, is far from it.

What I've been doing is watching movies/TV shows that I've downloaded, continuing to work at that gray insurance agency (I deal a lot better now... as long as I keep my distance from the Dementor that is my boss) and carrying on with attracting trouble.

Also, we have 2 new sofas in the living room! Woo! Another step in making this new house a home. They're leather and therefore reek of it. I love the smell but my mum doesn't. It'll pass. I call them the two cows. Hah.

That's about it, I think. I can't remember any more monumental moments to share. Maybe if I blogged properly I wouldn't have missed them. Oh well.

Whoa! Album details for David Cook's new album. It's self-titled (bummer) in the end, and does have "The Time Of My Life" (as a bonus track but that was expected) but also 12 new tracks!

Go Andrew McMahon. He issued the following statement, and I couldn't agree more.

To all considering to vote in this upcoming election: DO! We are in the midst of one of the most important elections in history right now. I am the first to admit that I believe all politicians are flawed and the system is broken, but the only way to affect change is to take a stand and vote. We owe it to ourselves to watch these debates and cut through the massive amount of bullshit and try and find the candidate that speaks most clearly to our own core values. We can argue that neither of these men or their tickets represent us as a country and while that may very well be true, I dare say that it's best we all find one that gets close verses allowing either to take a pass and become our next president because we did not stand up and let our own voices be heard. Every persons politics is their business and my goal would never be to try and force mine, the only point worth forcing now is getting informed and getting to the polls.

AHHHH! "Deathbed" by Relient K, live on the Uncle Fest Tour! GO RK!

(In two parts...)

Look! Cookie recording "Light On" and hittin' the board (the skateboard that is) outside the studio. Cool kid.

Click HERE for the video

In other news, another hard day at work. I was on the verge of tears. Actually I did cry. I disguised it as choking on my sandwich and being unable to breath (I did choke on my sandwich and unable to breath) so mum won't get too worried (one of the downsides of working with your mother). I could tell none of the other office-folks gave a fuck. I guess they just assumed that if I had anything to cry about, my mummy is there so their comfort is not needed. And it's not. So glad we're on the same page.
I was just never been talked to like this in my entire life, never been so humiliated, never been treated like this. Avital, the boss, is just a bitter old bitch that likes making people feel small and insignificant. She's a Dementor, I swear. Her office is ice-cold and she sucks out all the life force out of me. As soon as I leave and go sit in the other office (that doesn't have air-con), it's warmer and I feel human again. It appears she and her brother (second boss) are always looking for faults in me and it annoys me. I keep so many things I want to say to them bottled up because I may be a temp and don't care if they fire me, but my mum's been working there for over 20 years and she's going to probably work there till she retires. So I have to keep my mouth shut, and that takes a toll on my sanity.
I was ready to quit by midday. I was depressed and in tears when Gilla from my aunt's traveling agency called. That call saved my day. It reminded me WHY I was putting up with this crap. Cause I need the money to go to England.
So Gilla and I booked a flying ticket for November the 26th, 9:05am, El-Al flight leaving from Terminal 3 in Ben Gurion airport and landing at Heathrow at midday. Woo! I just need to sort out my credit card because it was denied when she tried to charge it. I know what the problem is, nothing major. It's just time to sort it out. Damn Yom Kippur. Damn those religious assholes.

In other-other news, Dad finally bought a table and some chairs for our roof. Now we can sit and chillax up there. How cool is that?

I got my copy of "The Glass Passenger" CD/DVD from Amazon today. So sure, it's minus the signed poster and digital copy of the album but fuck it, it's $30 less than it would've cost ordering from JM.com.

As per usual, listening to "Caves" made me tear up. I thought I'd get over that by now but I didn't. The rest of the songs are just as magnificent as they are on the leak. But the real deal here is "Choke, California" DVD. The movie itself is a surreal sort of short film, no longer than 20 minutes long. In it, Andrew is shown packing his gear in an old truck, and driving to the middle of nowhere, staying in a model, and driving to nowhere again. In the end, he ends up getting his gear up a hill and plays a beautiful piano melody (on a keyboard) facing the sunset. Through the short film he tells of how he started playing piano and writing songs. Whether it's a real story or a script for the movie, I'm not sure. The spoken parts are done in voiceover. Andrew doesn't speak on screen the entire film. It's all very artsy in the way it's filmed and presented. Quite nice.
The DVD also includes a too-short making the album feature (Andrew air-drumming to Bloodshot Eyes and recording piano for Swim are my favorite parts) and a photo gallery that runs the lengths of 3 songs (Swim, Hammer And Strings and Annie Use Your Telescope) with quite a few artsy pictures that follow the mood of the film and album.

All in all a good package and a great album. Now I just need to get my hands on Everything In Transit special version and I'll be good to go.

Relient K started a new tour with House of Heroes, The Province and Ludo. Never really listened to the latter two but I'm a big RK fan and love House of Heroes. So it's bad enough I don't get to see RK and HOH on the same bill but now I hear they played "Deathbed" live for the first time! I freakin' love that song! And they did all 11 minutes of it! No fair, no fair, no fair! I wanna live in the States, dammit. I wanna see this tour. I wanna see RK. And I wanna see them do Deathbed! Where are all those youtube links when you need em'?

In other news, all work and no play is in the very literal sense. I woke up yesterday to hop into my clothes and go work for dad for 9 and a half hours. That killed my Saturday. This morning it was back to the insurance agency where my new boss talked my ear off with her annoying boring crap stories about her kids and grandson. And tomorrow we're gonna do it all over again. Not to mention Israel is now on winter clock, before everyone else, because of the damn religious assholes and their Yom Kippur fast. So it's on the verge of darkness when I leave work at 5pm.

On the plus side, the parental unit has agreed to let me keep my computer open on Yom Kippur. So no fast, no boredom. We're looking at an extended weekend (Wednesday is a two-hour workday, from 8:30am-10:30am, Thursday is Yom Kippur and Friday is no work and Saturday is work-free. WOO!). Looking forward to that. I need some chill time.

The Word Nerds have crashed the BMG database logging onto DavidCookOfficial.com. Go Word Nerds!!

Cookie has done yet another video blog, looking hot and sexy (with a weird background, in an awesome hat) thanking the fans for the database crashing and the support with Light On. I bet he must be ecstatic looking at the charts as the single is currently at no.3!! Climbing 30 spots in 2 days (he climbed from nowhere to 33 on the first day so...). Go Cookie! Go Word Nerds! If you haven't gotten a copy of Light On, snatch one now! Cookie deserves a long run at the top! Lets get him there.

Behold, pretty Cookie!


In other news, today was the first day of work at the insurance agency mum works at. It was dull and boring and gray but went suprisingly rather fast. Jenny, the woman I'll be replacing for a few months, is a bit odd. Mum likes her because she's nice and the other people in that place are... not very nice. Plus Jenny is literally the only person in a status that is lower than my mum's in that office. Not by much, but by enough to make mum feel not completely worthless. But I'm not a big fan. Sometimes she has her annoying moments, like when she says things about my mum that she means to sound in good spirits but her bitter tone reveals her true colors. Thank goodness she'll be fucking off soon. Not that I'm sure how I'll cope there but I hope they'll go easy on me with their demands. I'm a newbie, still learning.

Also, I asked my cousin to reformat my sister's computer (my old computer). The computer got back yesterday but since I didn't have the time to even look at it yesterday, I started setting it up today. After an hour on the phone with the internet provider (who was nice and pleasant and fun to talk to. Always a plus when having such a long conversation), we got the internet there sorted and then I proceeded to install an anti-virus (NOD rules my world), anti spyware (Ad-Aware rocks), Winrar (always useful) and MSN Messenger (so my sister can now talk to me while sitting in the other room!). I will do more tomorrow, all of this took forever to get to, and sister wanted to go to sleep. So I had to call it a night early. Oh well, leaves me more time to catch up on all my movies/TV shows downloads. Tomorrow, a fresh batch of Survivor, Smallville, Supernatural, Ugly Betty and Secret Diary of A London Call Girl are all coming. So best make the most of tonight.
Speaking of which, it's 11:17pm. Time for shower, tea, and to finally finish the Survivor season 9 finale I stopped halfway through so I can put Survivor aside, least till the TV season is back on hiatus. So, nighty!

Work is tiring. Money is good. That's today's conclusion.

Today really flew by. I struggled out of bed at 11:30am, checked some e-mails and stuff, and went to Jaffa to work with dad. I was meant to go to a BBQ some of my extended-family were having but I figured money is better and I invited myself to the BBQ anyway, they didn't actually WANT me there.
I arrived there at 12:40, 10 minutes late and right on time. There were a ton of people and they just kept on coming all the way through the afternoon. We only really got our relief at around 5-6pm. It was almost impossible to fill up all the refrigerators and sort out the place while people just kept on coming. My feet hurt so bad I don't even feel them. I have definitely earned every dime today.
At some point, some dude even tried chatting me up. His friends were getting directions from my dad and he started talking to me, complimenting my accent and my English level, and recommending movies to me. Weirdo. I guess he's one of those people who are so bored they'd talk to just about anyone.

I can't think of anything else of any importance to say. But I felt the urge to blog anyway today, which can only be a good thing. I'm getting back to it. Ah yes, "Heroes" this week was again, uber awesome. Peter is the shizzle. Angela is pure evil. Sylar turns out to be a pretty cool dude. And somebody smack Matt Parkman.

Tomorrow is going to be my first day working at the insurance agency my mum has been working at for the past 20+ years. I plan on being full of life, upbeat and very very useful. Wish me luck.