A Slightly Boring Sunday

I was elated to wake up without having a heart attack this morning. It is so peaceful to wake up naturally and not jerked awake by an alarm clock, or very real fears of your building crumbling with you inside it. It was a pleasant morning. After a shower and some skyping I headed out to do my weekly shopping. There wasn’t any good deals which is always a bummer for a student. I don’t understand how one can feed a family. I walked by carts BRIMMING with food and I had a tiny basket that cost me 14 pounds. How do people do it? Probably a job helps, but still. I don’t want to find out anytime soon. Im quite happy feeding myself and me alone. That costs me enough!

Speaking of feeding myself… this is the longest amount of time (consecutively) that I have been outside of the 14710 zipcode. Im not complaining!! I think it is a mile-stone though! I getting old and have moved out of the nest!!!! (except for the time that I live with the parents after London. No offense mom and dad, but Im hoping that it isn’t very long…) Anyways I am excited! Rome was Jan 16th or so until April 20th, so I have officially bypassed my previous record today! It is the 4 month mark as of today!!! There are some downfalls to this. Wings for one. I haven’t seen a chicken wing that has been deep fried and covered in hot sauce in about… well FOUR months. I haven’t been in a car let alone driven one. As soon as I throw my suitcases in the house, get slobbered on by my buddy Coopie, I am hoping in Lucy and driving her somewhere! (for those of you who are lost, Lucy is my cherry red Toyota Yaris. Basically the best car ever and she better last forever consider she has missed two WNY winters!)

I actually got a lot of work done today, which I was pleasantly surprised by! (I LOVE impressing myself!) I cleaned the bathroom, did never ending loads of laundry (and then realized I didn’t have room to hang it all. I miss dryers), did some school work, and for fun read back issues of all the magazines that I (sorry to interrupt but “I” was my 100,000th word in my blog!!! Woo!) fallen behind on. I ended up tearing every yummy looking recipe out of the Sainsbury magazines and by the end I was craving a legit meal. Instead I had a tv-like dinner planned. I pulled out my beef lasagna and noticed that instead of the “best Before” date being May 7th (which I thought it was) it was May 4th. So not only did I have a tv dinner, I had an expired one. Gotta love being a student. I wish I had cooking implements in my flat. Im sick of pasta, tv dinners, pizza, meatballs, rice and chicken. When I go home Im going to learn to cook for realeezes! Thanks to my sister I have Julia Childs cookbook waiting for me at home!! Hopefully that will help! I do not recommend looking through food magazines if you have a tv dinner lined up for the evening. It really is a letdown, especially when it is 2 days old. Just saying.

I think I learned today than I do most days sitting through class. The first thing I only half-learned and actually I need to look into it more. (OK OK… So maybe I didn’t actually LEARN it) While reading my home/food magazine I kept coming across this word “bunting”. All I could think of is softball and I was pretty sure people don’t bunt softballs during Jubilee street parties. Then I thought of bunt cakes but didn’t see on in the picture. Gah what was this “bunting” and if it was so important for the perfect street party why wont they tell me what it is!! Well…. I think I figured it out. I THINK (that is the key word) that it is those strings of triangle flags. Like the ones in the pool that when you swim under them you start counting your backstroke strokes so you wont bash your head into the end of the pool. I would love to know why they are called bunting and if we have a name for them in the States. We probably call them a string of flags which I think is very sensible and doesn’t cause confusion for foreigners who are attempting to plan a street party (or at least read about how to throw the perfect one just in case that they will need to someday!)

The second thing I learned today I actually learned, and it is more useful than identifying some flags. My magazine taught me how to keep flowers alive longer. (if you are rolling your eyes and could care less about flowers feel free to skip to the next paragraph) Basically all you do is stick a penny in the bottom of the vase (apparently copper is a fungicide) and crush up an aspirin (which kills bacteria) and put that in too! Oh an instead of flower food you can put in 2 teaspoons of sugar and 2 teaspoons of vinegar and that will keep the flowers full and the water clear! Im sorry if you veteran housekeepers knew that already… just remember Im young and a newbie at such things like keeping living things (including myself) alive. So my pound splurge today from my food money taught me more practical things than the course that I am going to have to sell a kidney to afford. (no worries. I wont be able to do that. Im going to make it through life without surgery or an iv in my veins and removing a kidney would cause both of those things to occur)

Well I think that it all that is new for the day. Exciting life I lead huh? Tomorrow is a Bank Holiday (about time that I get a federal holiday Britain… about time) Im off to bed without setting my alarm. What a life!

P.S my picture today is extremely random, but I was searching through my pictures and this one just stuck out at me! Im knocking at Privet Drive #4. No one answered...