"Right here beside me"

Catherine and I had a conversation once about her need to have people right beside her at all times, when she mentioned this concept to me my initial response was one of repulsion. However after nearly three terms of being with the same people nearly every moment of everyday I find myself quite worried when I think of being without them. I have become a person who exsists in a state of coexsistence at all times, I usually have one of the following people by my side: Catherine, Sonia, or Jenny and the idea of having that empty space next to me when I leave is truly worrying.

Bringin' a little Texas to West Dean

Sunday night I brought a little Texas to West Dean, in particular the Dower House. We played a game of Texas Hold'em, something I haven't done since last summer. I didn't remember how fun it is to play or the entertaining banter that the game tends to bring about. I taught several people the game and we played many rounds filled with ridiculous bluffing, blind hands and impossible wins. Needless to say it was a pretty fun evening and one that reminded me of some really good past times.

A childish dream has been fulfilled

In general people tend to carry their money neatly stowed in the safety of a wallet or money clip. People that don't want to carry a wallet will often fold their money in half or quarters before placing it in their pockets. Now think about how kids carry a couple bucks. Even if it's handed to them clean and crisp fresh from the mint within a couple minutes it seems to become a crumpled up ball inside their pockets. I for one love this, and find it highly entertaining for some reason. So, to celebrate this I decided to crumple up my tenner and stuff it in my pocket, ready to be used as payment for my next purchase. I entered HMV and took advantage of their two for 10 CD sale and picked up Blondie and Pink (I'm partial to people with one name these days for some reason), headed to the counter and waited for my total to come up. It went a little something like this.

HMV Dude: That will be 10 pounds please
Me: (Removes wad of money from pocket and gently places it in the palm of his hand)
HMV Dude: (Looks at me, looks at the dough and then proceeds to flatten out the money before placing it in the till.)

I nearly peed my pants.....yes I'm ten years old.

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!

So sorry

First I would like to apologize for the lack of posting, but as I've told you all many many times the dial up situation at the Westberg home is less than stellar. So needless to say, you shouldn't expect any greatness from this mother for another couple weeks. Once I'm back in West Dean I will be sure to post each and every picture from my splendiferous escapade with Jackie and will fill you in on several memorable moments. But for now I just have to put this one comment out there.

America is one amazing place. I was reminded of this the other day when I was on my way to Lifetime Fitness (stories about that place to come) with Jenna to watch her at her tennis lesson when we decided to stop for a beverage. It was a little cold so I thought I would get a hot chocolate. I figured our local Conoco station would have maybe one coffee/hot chocolate machine that I could use. So I walk in and what do I see? Not one, but FIVE coffee/hot chocolate/steamer machines! PLUS each machine has at least three if not four options. We're talking nearly 20 different hot beverages for me to choose from. I sat back and looked at the plethora of beverages and had to laugh a little to myself, because America can be such a kick-a place.

Couldn't be happier

Well Jackie is in England baby! She arrived on Tuesday around noon and I took her straight to a pub called The Fountain for a serving of fish and chips. After that we visited several shops and made a couple purchases, just basic stuff, and things that were forgotten. We went to Waitrose for a few snacks and things just in case we missed breakfast and then got on the bus and headed towards West Dean. The evening was spent having dinner and introducing Jackie to my friends, Sonia and Catherine described her as "a breath of fresh air" so I think she made a good first impression.

Yesterday after I took my science test we took the train to Brighton and had a lovely day. The weather was perfect, sunny, warm, by the sea. We walked down to the pier and went on a couple fair-type rides, had lunch by the sea and did some shopping. Jackie bought some really pretty earrings with leaves on them and I got a pair with enameled bits of color in greens and yellows. After a quick train ride back to Chichester we got to watch Harm and my tutor David in a race called "The Chichester Challenge" and had a great time cheering them on. The evening ended with a meal at a restaurant Harm and I had been wanting to go to that is "American". It was filled with American flags and lots of cowboy gear which made all of us laugh. Needless to say I'm really happy Jackie is here and can't wait to see what the next week or so brings.

YIPEEEE!!!!!!!!!

T-minus 11 hours until Jackie gets here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wack

I had a dream last night that I died (which could be considered a scary thing), but here's the thing. Apparently in some deep recess of my mind I have a belief that when you die you go to the pedestrian portion of the Brooklyn Bridge. And while you're there you run in place in marathon clothes with rain pouring down on you. And then someone shows you a bike and says nobody has ever used it. Then I say f that and take the bike and go for a ride on the Brooklyn Bridge. Where does this stuff come from?

"Black Jenny"

Well I tried to suppress it as long as possible, but there’s something about Spring time, the NBA and March Madness that brings it out. Not to mention all the dance parties we’ve been having as of late. We’ve all had many a discussion about “Black Jenny”, how she talks, the music she listens to, the pursing of the lips and bobbing to the beats. I lost that little piece of me that loves rap music and takes pride in knowing all the words to most EMINEM songs, not to mention the rap wars J and I used to participate in.

Well, I compiled a playlist recently that I listen to while working in the workshop and I must say it has brought back a joy in my life that I had forgotten. Songs like Chris Brown’s “Run It”, Ludacris “Number One Spot”, and Jay-Z’s “Dirt Off Your Shoulder”. Priceless pieces of lyrical magic that seem to be able to rhyme any two words together. I mean, where else would you hear the phrase “drove through the window the industry super-sized me”, “explora like Dora” and “you disagree take the Tyson approach and bite me”. Any musician that manages to combine Spanish-speaking girls with talking back-packs and ear biting wife beaters has my vote. I’ve always been a big believer in the idea that rap and hip-hop were the sounds of summer. I realize it’s not summer yet, but my iPod thinks it is, so who am I to say no.

Kiss Me I'm Irish

Ok, maybe I'm not Irish, but I'm sure if I looked far enough back in my family history there would be some kind of link. But lets face it, "Kiss me I'm a quarter Swedish, quarter English, half Norwegian" just isn't the same. Maybe "Kiss me I'm human" would work better.

Anyway, as I'm sure you all know St. Patrick's Day was on Saturday, and lucky for me I got to spend it with some Irishmen. Catherine had some friends visiting from Dublin and we decided to have a party in their honor...and St. Patrick's honor. As usual there was plenty of booze, chatting and dancing.

These are the Irish Girls

Me and Jenny

Harm & Catherine looking very festive

Everyone dancing!

I must say it was the best party yet. A special thanks to Harm for being our party photographer.

An Excellent Trip

Well, I must say the trip went much better than expected. We arrived just outside of Cambridge by noon and had a lovely pub lunch with the owner of the tannery before venturing off to see the place. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that the skins they receive are already tanned (as in they don't smell of dead animal) and then they re-tan them and dye them various colors. We were able to see how the whole process works and I even bought two skins. One emerald green and a second deep purple/maroon. They had an amazing shocking pink (a rare color for quality book binding leather), but it was a special order from America and they were not sure if they would have extras so I will be emailing them later to find out if I can buy one off them. I really hope they have a spare.

The sleeping situation was fine and I got to sleep in a full sized bed which is always nice. The next day we visited Cambridge University Library and were shocked to find conservators that did not whinge and moan about their jobs, they actually seemed enthusiastic about what they were working on (a rarity in this field I have found). We saw all sorts of books and manuscripts and even a set of very early bones that were written on. This was the only visit we went on this term unlike last term where we went out nearly every week, so I'm really glad it turned out to be such a good experience.

Road Trip

Well tomorrow 6 of us plus our tutor David are going on an overnight trip to a leather tannery and Cambridge. I gotta say I'm not too excited about going to a place that has been described as smelling like dead animals. We saw a slide show about how leather is tanned and frankly that was enough for me, but I guess seeing as the trip has already been planned and the rooms booked I can't back out now. What is far more scary is the idea that we will be together for 48 hours straight....and I will be sharing a room with someone who is not Sonia as she paid a bit more to have her own room (that Sonia's a smart cookie). Anyway, it should make for some interesting stories and I'll be sure to take pictures and fill you in when I get back.

Confession

After recently watching the movie "Brick" I couldn't figure out what else I had seen the character called "The Pin" in. In a last stitch effort to figure out why he looked so familiar I looked him up on IMDB. Turns out I recognized him from his acclaimed role in Material Girls....wow, how sad am I.

(side note: he was also in 3 episodes of 24 in 2005, don't remember that)

Dear Readership,

Should I pay out and attend the Mavs v Spurs game while I'm home or pay less and see Mavs v Jazz? Which game would be better? How are each of these teams doing this season? How badly do I want to see Tony Parker, TD, Finley, and Ginobili cry? Please help.

Love,
Kristi

I miss the NBA

I recently decided to catch up on some Sports Guy columns and had the privledge of reading his Hip Hop Woodstock article. I'm sure everyone has read it and knows how amazing that weekend must have been. This article caused me to check up on my dear friends, the Mavs. 16 wins in a row!!!!! I mean I've been checking all season and slowly watching their skill reach new levels, but I couldn't be happier that they squashed D. Wade's big ass ego and sent him crying to his mama. Way to go guys, I have never been more proud.

Spice Up Your Life

Well last night was round two of girls night and I must say it was superb. We started out by going to a pub for drinks and then took the party back to Jenny's room. Several things happened that I found very entertaining.

1. We blasted Backstreet Boys, Spice Girls, and various other quality music and belted it out at the top of our lungs
2. Sarah was jumping on Jenny's bed and we were egging her on to "do something cool" and she did a massive seat drop breaking the bed
3. Three people got pushed out of Jenny's first floor bedroom window into a bush
4. We re-enacted several Grease moments including the hand jive, the Better Shape Up dance sequence, and the song where they make fun of Sandra Dee
5. The evening came to a close with a 5 person rendition of Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'"

All in all an excellent girls night.

Head Gear

This weekend Harm and I were on the tube and this guy got on with a huge silver box that was a really odd shape. Naturally we were curious as to what was in this box and we made several guesses from a single shirt to a huge cake. (when he dropped the box we hoped it wasn't a cake) The name printed on the mystery box was Philip Treacy. Harm looked him up and as it turns out he is a fantastic hat maker. The picture above shows just four of many many hats on the site. I can only think of one event where these would be worn, and that is Ascot (a really really posh horse racing event). This lead me to the conclusion that I one need that polka-dot hat and two need to figure out a place to wear it.

Someone stop her!

Last night I entered the Dower House common room to find 5 people sitting in chairs typing on their laptops...a very rare thing for that room. It is usually filled with tv watching, loud music or drinking, so as you can imagine I was pretty shocked by the silence. Well, they finally installed a wireless network in the Dower and last night was apparently the time to use it. I chatted to Jackie and got our hotel stay in London squared away, then had the joy of listening to some Stephen Colbert (who I miss soooooo much) and I was finally shown this video which blew my mind. I realize that I'm in England so you may have seen it, but if you haven't seen this bride go psycho and cut her own hair one hour before her wedding I strongly recommend viewing. It's basically a car crash that you can't look away from. Enjoy.

An Excellent Weekend

Well this weekend turned out to be pretty sweet. Harm and I arrived in London on Saturday around noon and headed right to Portobello Road. We walked all the way down to the bridge and had a lovely lunch at Falafel King which was excellent. Next we went to Trafalgar Square and visited the National Gallery and National Portrait Gallery. You will all be sad to know that the David Beckham portrait is no longer there. After that we had dinner at Bella Italia followed by a movie in Leicester Square. (a long but excellent day)

Next we headed to our hostel (YHA Thameside) where Harm was given his own 6 person room with ensuite bath, and I was handed a key to a room with 5 other girls. BUT thanks to some shameless eyelash batting I was able to secure my very own empty 6 person room as well.

Sunday Harm went to a 2 hour church service called Hillsong which I believe was basically a christian rock concert (if there is such a thing)...needless to say I opted out for that part of the day and went to Covent Garden where I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I also went for a slice of 1pound pizza and was shocked to find out that it is now 1.49 now, so if you are planning on eating nothing but pizza next time you're in London make sure to account for this price change. Next we headed to the Tate Britain (which I haven't visited in a long time) and I remembered why as it is mostly filled with Turner paintings. All in all I must say it was an excellent weekend filled with museums, good food, and excellent company.

I'm sensing a good weekend ahead of me

Well 10:30 tea break just ended and Harm and I managed to suss out the fact that we both desperately want to go to London. So, tomorrow we will be taking a little trip to London town and probably staying the night there to make the trip more worthwhile. Just talking about going to Portabello Road, Evensong at St. Paul's, and the National Gallery made me deliriously happy. Needless to say this should be a kick-a weekend and I can't wait for it to start.

Jesus Walks

Yesterday amidst my half day off I was reading some articles about malachite and listening to some tunes. For some reason I decided to organize my music by songs most played just to see how much time I had wasted listening to my top played songs. Turns out I have listened to Jesus Walks a grand total of 189 times. 189 times!!!!! Let's consider for a moment that that song is roughly 3 minutes. This means that I've spent nearly 9 hours of my LIFE listening to this one song. It was at this moment that I truly believed my blog subtitle, "A blog devoted to useless dribble, incoherent thoughts and general ridiculousness" was the new tagline I should start attaching to my life. That said, I think I'll listen to it one more time.

Lazy Wednesday

Well Wednesday is the day where we have a science lecture in the morning, work for a couple of hours and then have free time after lunch. I gotta say West Dean has some genius ideas when it comes to educating people.

Stormin' Norman

Well yesterday I received a lot of information from my family, including the fact that my cat Norman was put to sleep. Norman was a 10 year old fluffy white and gray Persian who enjoyed waking me up in the middle of the night by letting his long whiskers tickle my face. He was a good kitty and I will miss him. I know this seems like some crazy cat lady's freaky cat entry, but I just wanted to mark the day somehow.

R.I.P Little Red

A sad sad thing has happened. Last night Catherine's little red Micra was stolen by a couple of bastards and taken for a serious ride. The police found her in a ditch in Lavent and the damage was so bad that they won't even let Catherine see it yet. Needless to say it is a sad day for Micra's the world over. May she rest in peace.

A Surreal Evening

Michon made a comment once that my life should be a reality tv show. Now I’m not saying that my life constitutes having an entire show devoted to following me around or even considering the fact that I am that interesting, but last night would have made a pretty sweet episode. Several of the instrument makers have been working hard on bring their dream of having a good old-fashioned American jug band complete with washtub bass. Well, last night that dream came true. I sat in the Dower House common room and played the jug while the rest of the real musicians made music. The band consisted of a washtub bass (which was made from an oil drum cut in half with a stick and a string) , banjo (made with a large tin that used to house cookies), mouth bow (made of a stick, string, and a tin can) guitar, two sets of spoons (one set wooden another metal), the jug, a cheese grater, and a shaker. And you know what the craziest part was, all of the instruments actually made music that sounded like music. At one point I was sitting there playing the jug in a state of shock because I couldn’t believe this was going on around me. Needless to say West Dean can be a pretty strange place, and last night it was taken to a whole new level.

Warning: Boredom May Occur

Well I was thinking about the things I've seen here and what we do and I decided I needed to mention it at least once in this blog if for no other reason than to avoid being called a transponster in the future. Last term we saw a lot of pretty amazing things that I managed to take some pictures of, so I thought I would share a few of them with you.

I thought this book was interesting mostly because it looks like a patch work quilt. I fully intend on trying to produce one of these some day.

The cover boards of books used to be made of old waste papers laminated together with paste or glue. This cool looking guy used to be part of a cover board before the board was humidified and the sheets of paper making the cover were separated. I think it is a sketch of one of the carvings on Canterbury Cathedral.

This one is a super fancy book with really heavy silver embellished covers. Really amazing and really heavy. I'm pretty sure the original owner of this book would take one look at me and ask where her tea was and why I am so slow at answering her every beckoned call.

This is what happens when a velum book comes in contact with a fire. Not pretty. Sadly there isn't a way to make this one go back to its original shape, the plan is to humidify the pages enough to temporarily flatten them and scan them so that the contents will still be available for readers. The binding itself will go back to this shape once it drys out.

Ok, hopefully you made it through all of that without suffering some sort of head injury from your melon hitting the keyboard. Then again maybe you learned something new, maybe that thing was that Kristi is boring and should never talk about conservation again.

Girls Night Out

Last week amidst my mental breakdown Sonia insisted on taking me out to dinner, and I must say it was exactly what I needed. Once it was over we decided that it should be a weekly event. Girls night out. This week was the first time we tried it out and it went really well. We ended up with 6 girls; Sonia, Catherine, Jenny, Sarah, Emma and myself. You wouldn't believe how many people (men) we had to turn away from our fun. We went to The Fox Goes Free to have drinks and were rudely interrupted by "quiz night", a game English pubs like to play where everyone puts in a pound to play and the winning team gets to keep the money. I have played this game once and did horribly due to the fact that most of the questions are about English history or sport, making it hard for a team of Americans to play. So after listening to the quiz-master repeat the same question three times we decided to head to another pub, The Earl of March. We spent the next three hours exchanging stories and laughing A LOT. All in all a fantastic evening. Long live girls night out.

Silence is Golden

This morning I sat eating breakfast at a full table with 4 other people. We spent the entire meal in silence. No talking in a room filled with chatter for 20 minutes. I'm not sure which is more strange, the fact that we sat there for so long with no words, or the fact that I enjoyed it so much.

I long to go to Brighton

Well I have to say this has been the best weekend I've had here this term, not too bad considering it's the end of week 6. Harm and I decided to take a little day trip to Brighton to get out of West Dean and do some shopping. By mere chance we got to the train station just in time to catch the express train, shaving 30 minutes off our journey time. When we got off the train and starting heading down towards the sea I couldn't stop smiling. We were in Brighton! We started the day off right with a nice cup of coffee and a muffin then headed to Gap. I know I should be going to English stores and getting cool stuff, but sometimes you just want the classic stuff and that's what I found. Next we went to a pipe shop because a friend of Harm's has a pipe with a missing piece so he was called upon to find a new mouth piece. Once that was done we had a fantastic lunch with Stephen and Sonia and then spent the rest of the day shopping. When it came time to go home we once again caught the express train! What are the odds!?

There was a party at the Dower House last night and apparently the drinking started around 5pm, so by the time we arrived at 7 everyone was already pissed. It was hilarious. As the next 5 hours passed by things slowly got more and more out of control. It went from people chatting and smoking, to all the wine, tequila, rum and absinthe is gone which lead to karaoke singing followed by lots of dancing to various tunes with the evening culminating in a sweet drunken rendition of Thriller.

All in all a sweet weekend, one I really needed after such a shitty week.

Text message log:

Me to Sonia: "Harm is smoking!"

Sonia to Me: "Smoking hot? or smoking a cigarette?"

Man she's funny. And by the way, smoking a cigarette. He was feeling like a rebel. It was funny.

Dear Readership,

Sometimes life pats you on the head and sometimes it kicks you in the shins. My shins hurt.

Love,
Kristi

Expelliarmus!

Something I forgot to mention about paper marbling. To apply the paint you use a wooden stick, similar to a wand. By the end of Saturday evening Sonia and I were casting every spell we could think of as we applied paint to our scummy surface. Have I mentioned how much I love Harry Potter?

Seaweed and Splatter Paint

Well this weekend several of us bookies participated in a marbling short course. Sonia and I were marbling partners so needless to say we had a grand time. Basically the way it works is you flick paint on a surface of seaweed goop, swirl it around and make a pattern and then place a piece of paper on the surface and the paints print on the paper. A pretty mind boggling thing really when you consider you're using seaweed scum what is essentially spatter paint. This is a picture of me with my first try at a pattern called "flame". As you can see I was pretty excited about this one, so excited in fact that I made Sonia go and get my camera and take a picture of me. We spent the next 5 hours trying all different patterns and exclaiming the same thing after each one was pulled from the bath, "that one is my new favorite!". All in all a pretty kick-a weekend.

BRAVO

Wow! I couldn't stop laughing at all of your answers! They were all fantastic! Can you imagine if that was the number of times someone sneezed? or the number of felony idictments I've been working up to? And may I just say Annalise that now more than ever I really wish I was going to Cracker Barrel and a movie with you, and of course the rest of the crew would come along. Anyway, none of you were correct, but many of you were close. 49 was the number of times that particular person said "ummmm" in the 15 minute presentation.

Les Triplettes de Belleville

Last night we "rebelled" and decided not to eat dinner at the college...I know, getting pretty crazy here at West Dean. But anyway, we went to Marks & Spencer and bought a bunch of Chinese take-away and had a lovely dinner back at the student accommodation. We decided to put on a film and ended up watching a fantastic animated story called "Les Triplettes de Belleville". It is a French film and has very little subtitles, it's mostly music and events. I highly recommend seeing it if you can find a copy as it was BRILLIANT!

Air Loss

Today I sat through 5 presentations about how to monitor and control humidity, temperature and moisture in libraries. Needless to say my brain has turned to mush and I am slowly sucking all the air from the atmosphere due to excessive yawning.

Quick game: I counted to 49 during one of the presentations....what was I counting?

"wishing i was somehow there again"

Am I a member of the cast of Buffy the Vampire Slayer?

The other day I was going to the bus stop and my friend asked if I wanted to take a short cut through the grave yard to get there faster. It was at that moment that I heard that little voice in my head screaming "don't do it!" We've all seen this scene in movies and tv shows and I think we all know what happens when the short cut is taken. So in true horror movie fashion I ignored the voice, opened the gate and proceeded through the sea of tomb stones. It was pretty creepy, but I made it out ok.

Music Update

I'm not sure if this song is popular in the states or not, but I really like it. It's a little Scissor Sisters-ish, very happy and upbeat. It's by a guy called Mika and the song is Grace Kelly.

Dear Jackie,

James Morrison is the free song of the week on iTunes!

Enjoy.
Kristi

Dear Kristin,

Where has your blog gone?

Love,
Kristi

This weekend I went to a barber shop concert....I know, how weird is that. There was a 30 man strong barber shop choir at West Dean this weekend for a workshop with some American barber shop extraordinaire and on Saturday night they had a one hour concert. It was one of those moments in life when you're sitting there wondering if it was a dream or reality. Imagine 30 grown (and many retired) men belting out Zip-a-dee-doo-dah in 4 part harmony while doing jazz hands and making uncomfortable eye contact with you, it was awesome.

Do You Segway?

I was doing pretty much everything I could think of today to not make my Powerpoint presentation about how to safely regulate the temperature and moisture content of a chained library (still there? did that put you to sleep yet?) when I came across a Segway tour of Amsterdam. I really wanted to go on one when I visited the W's in Balboa, but was informed it was quite an expensive day of ridiculousness. Well, I looked into it and apparently Balboa isn't the only place ripping off people. It costs 60 euros to go on a Segway tour of Amsterdam! At a loss about this I decided to visit the Segway website to see how much these mothers are. They had an option to "build your own Segway" so I clicked and made my own that will set me back a mere 5 grand! It's times like these I wish I was rich so I could buy a fleet of Segways and start leading people around West Dean for 60 pounds a pop.

I have a question

There is an episode of Sex and the City where Carrie is dating a European man that is very old world romantic. He does things like read her poetry, write her songs and dance with her in front of the Met. When I write all of those out in a list like that it seems romantic and exhilarating yet cheesy and ridiculous. I would like to believe that if that were to happen to me I would be able to contain my inner teenager laughing and pointing, but I'm not sure I could do it. This whole thing started when a friend of mine well call her "Phonia" began receiving love poems from someone quite frequently. While I enjoyed hearing about how thoughtful they were I couldn't help thinking to myself how cheesy this was and how I had no idea what they meant. Could you handle being romanced like this?, cause I'm pretty sure that I couldn't.

Retraction

I recently posted the release date of the new Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows....I was wrong. Apparently Amazon.com had the wrong date listed on their site, it will not be available on March 31st as previously specified, but come July 21st you will not be able to pry that book from kung-fu grip.

Quick question....Sape Friend of Foe?
I say friend. Kristin I expect to read a kick-a blog entry with your answer and a detailed list of reasons why you made your decision.