Fake Birthday Recap in Pictures

Western themed menus

Sara finishing off the ice cream sundae

How to eat a burger the American way....not with a knife and fork like the Brits

Stephen enjoying his ribs

Jenny and Harm

Birthday girl with Harm

Drewsopher

Emma and Alan

A bashful Harm

The last couple weeks when anyone says pretty much anything I can think of a corresponding song. Well, apparently I've been saying "I know a song about that" too much since people have started asking me if I know songs about various topics. of conversation.

Me: "I have something in my eye."
Catherine: "Blow your nose."
Me: "What?"
Catherine: "It's all connected." (making a circular motion around her face)

So there you have it, the next time you get something in your eye, be sure to blow your nose and poof it will be gone. Man she's funny.

A Lovely Day

Yesterday Harm, Catherine and I visited a nearby castle in Arundel. We arrived at a descent time and set off to view the fortress, dungeon, keep, and state rooms. The visit ended up being very nice and also served as a moderate level butt workout thanks to the many sets of stairs throughout the castle complex. All of the areas of study at West Dean were represented inside with various tapestries, clocks, metal work, ceramics, furniture, instruments, paintings and even a couple books. Arundel is also filled with many antique shops and after careful consideration I have decided that my house will be filled with antiques I will slowly collect over the course of my life, now I just need to figure out a way to make enough money to make this dream possible.

Thank You Credit Dauphine

Well this weekend is a long one for those of us living in England. It's a Bank Holiday weekend, a day when banks used to be shut, causing all other businesses to close as well. Lucky for me this tradition has continued on giving me Monday off. I'm not sure what I am going to do with that extra day, but I'm sure I'll figure out something.

Dear Maroon 5,

Thank you for finally releasing your second album.....and thank you for not producing a sucky record.

Love,
Kristi

Boredom at West Dean

Well last night for the first time in a long time I was bored. It was a strange feeling due to the fact that things have been quite lively since I returned. At one point Catherine and I were discussing our opinions on text message smiley faces (something she apparently does not tolerate). The next best moment was when we started watching a show in the telly about romantic fiction, sometimes I think I'm deluded by the idea of what love should be, I no longer feel that way.

I've said before that the students at West Dean will use any excuse to have a party, and this weekend was no exception. First of all we had a fake birthday party for Catherine where we visited Smith & Western which was pretty much amazing. Next we headed off to another party commemorating the eruption of Mt. St. Helen's.

That's right, a party celebrating a volcano, complete with a bonfire surrounded by painted sheet metal to depict an actual volcano. It was an interesting evening and I must say the best Mt. St. Helen's party I've ever been to.

I'm Back!

Well we arrived back from Amsterdam last night after having a fantastic time. We had several visits that obviously revolved around books which turned out to be ok, aside from the boring bits from a couple scientists (sorry Jackie). Anyway, we arrived a day early and had some time to have a nice meal out and then the next day the book stuff began. We took a train to the Haag and saw the National Archives, then we went to the Museum of the Book which I would say was the highlight of the trip. The man in charge of the collection knew every detail about every book he showed us which is a rare thing. The second full day we visited the Amsterdam Conservation Institute and were able to see another conservation lab with working students which was interesting. Finally we went to a windmill built in the 1600's that still makes paper.

The final morning we had some free time to shop and enjoy the city and then we were off to West Dean again. All in all it was an excellent trip filled with fun and lots of laughter.

Pinwheel I bought at the paper mill made from their paper.A crazy book exhibition that reminded me of something out of a science fiction movie.Jenny...haha.

Off to Amsterdam!....again

Well today I leave for Amsterdam with the rest of the bookies. We are leaving around noon and will be returning on Thursday afternoon. The trip should be interesting and hopefully pretty fun...although probably not as fun as Amsterdam with Jackie. Anyway, no posts for the next couple days, sorry Jenny. I'll be sure to take lots of pictures.

Eurovision

Last night was the final heat for the famous Eurovision Song Contest what can roughly be translated into the Europe Battle of the Bands. It was a very entertaining mix of music including a French man running around the stage with a stuffed cat attached to his suit jacket and a very dramatic Spanish man using some special effects to let us know his heart was bleeding. Needless to say it was an amazing show. I was rooting for either Ukraine or Russia, but sadly neither of them won. Instead the contest was won by a woman from Serbia who frankly was a little scary and very serious.

If you are really bored I highly recommend watching or at the very least listening to a couple of the songs.

I recommend these three:
Ukraine
UK
Russia

Fat Face

Many of you may not remember the episode of Sex and the City where Samantha has fat transplanted from her ass into her face and I can't blame you for that. However, last night I was reading an article in April's Vogue about aging and people having injections in their faces in order to look younger. Just in case you were wondering as you get older the apples of your cheeks get smaller, your eyes sink into your head and everything from your forehead to your chin starts workin' it's way down. Needless to say this was possibly the scariest article I have read in quite some time. And the real kicker is that if you go in to have some of these things pumped back up things could go horribly wrong and you could be walking around with a fat crazy face for the rest of your life. So now that I've thrust this horror on all of you all I have to say is I can never get old. Period.

Catherine was talking about how amazing it is that we walk into the dining room and food is magically there, and it's true. Sometimes what you need is a little perspective. I live not in, but very near a castle. Someone cleans my room and brings me new clean sheets and towels weekly. Everyday I am given three cooked meals plus tea and biscuits. I guess what I'm trying to say is that this is an amazing point in my life and sometimes I worry I'll never be able to top it. I mean the words "the castle is closing" are actually in my vocabulary, and when I say them it doesn't sound weird. It makes me worry that I'm going to max out at the age of 25 and end up living in Dallas commuting to work for an hour for the rest of my life.

An Excellent Day!

Well I am happy to say that yesterday was an awesome day. First of all I slept in until around 11:45....something I haven't been able to do in a while. I fell out of bed headed to the shower and was able to get ready in time for lunch, which I didn't completely hate. Then I went to Chichester with Catherine and Jenny for a usual run of the mill trip into town. However I was plesently surprised with lots of funny banter, good music, my first delicious java chip frapaccino since last summer, and I even managed to find a summery dress which I purchased!

There has been a surrealist convention type thing going on here the last couple days and we were invited to the disco they were having. I ended the night wearing said new dress and dancing the night away to ABBA, Whitney Houston and even a little Shakira. And to top things off I was led out onto the dance floor by a really old surrealist guy who insisted I dance with him. Due to the fact that I never do that I had no idea what to do with my feet so I spent the majority of the time being spun around by this dude until the song ended and he danced me back to my friends. Needless to say it was all very surreal.

Remember two days ago when I said this:

"I think a huge piece of me would have dropped dead if I had opened up NBA.com and found out that my boys were out of the playoffs thanks to Golden State and their nasty throw back uniforms."

That piece of me is now officially dead.

No Longer "On Notice"

I am very happy to announce that Maroon 5 is no longer on notice. They have been on the rocks for a couple years now, but thanks to their new single "Makes Me Wonder" I have decided to let them off the hook. It's about time boys! I expect big things from this album since you've been riding the coat tails of your previous album for the last 5 years!

So who or what will be replacing them on the list, that's a tough one, but I expect to suss that out in the next day or so, so it would be wise to stay on my good side until the final decision is made. Golden State Warriors, that means you, although I think you would bypass being "On Notice" and head straight for "Dead to Me".

Round 1

Kristin made a comment to me while I was home that thanks to the NBA playoffs starting up again she now has a reason to live, I couldn't be more agreeable on this subject, even if I don't get to watch ANY of the playoff games. (although I am looking into what iTunes has to offer in the way of Mavericks entertainment) Frankly the NBA highlights loop just isn't cutting it, I need more.

Well, the time difference is taking its toll on and last night I was so nervous about the game and even more upset that I wouldn't be able to check on the Mavs fate until the following morning...unless I was willing to wake up around 3am to find out (not gonna happen). But to my relief they won, thank goodness! I think a huge piece of me would have dropped dead if I had opened up NBA.com and found out that my boys were out of the playoffs thanks to Golden State and their nasty throw back uniforms. I'm a fan of the throw backs, I mean the Mavs have some sweet uniforms, but Golden States looks like it was printed by the PSA uniform center.

Anyway, I just wanted to say I miss the days of watching every game with K&J, yelling at the refs and the players, those were good times. Think of me tomorrow while you watch the game and make sure to do some extra yelling on my behalf.

Sooo Sorry

You may have noticed that my previous post was entitled "So Sorry" and this post is very aptly called "Sooo Sorry", while this may not make up for my lack of posting for the last three weeks, it's the best I got. Well I'm finally back at West Dean safe and sound and ready to start the bloggin' again. A lot has happened in the last month aside from the convienence of endless choices when it comes to hot beverages.

I've already told most of you about my little trip with Jackie, but let me give you a little run down in case you didn't hear about it. Jackie arrived in Chichester and got to spend several days with me at West Dean. She got to see the castle, gardens, our workshops and have a meal with everyone. We took a day trip to Brighton and had lots of fun shopping, eating by the sea and riding several carnival rides. Next we headed for London where we saw three shows in three days! First was Spamalot (hilarious) then Lion King (good, but a little weird) and finally Wicked (AMAZING!!!!!). I would have to say that seeing all of the shows with the major highlight of the whole trip. I also took her to all my favorite London places, Tate Modern, National Gallery, Cafe Diana, Tragalgar Square, Parliament, High Street Kenn., Thames boat tour, the list goes on and on. Needless to say we packed those three days full and saw lots of good stuff.
Next we winged our way to Amsterdam for some good old fashioned Dutch fun. We took another boat tour down the canals, visited the van Gogh Museum, Ann Frank House, Rijk Museum, lots of shops, a traditional Dutch village, a windmill, a wooden shoe workshop and a cheese store....plus many other things. I would have to say the highlight of this part of the trip was a day trip we took to an incredible garden called the Keukenhof. Lucky for us it was the perfect time of year to go and we were able to see fields of tulips and acres and acres filled with amazing flowers. I've never seen so many different kinds of tulips it was incredable.

Needless to say the whole trip was fantastic!