Phone woes

I think I just managed to order a new phone.

Of course, I think that means my number is going to change. Again.

Blast it all. Cell phones are so much easier in the US. And the customer service is much much much much much much better. I suspect that I might receive worse service simply because I have an American accent, but that could just be the paranoia popping up to say hello.

Found out today that my medieval history class is going a field trip around medieval London, starting with Westminster Abbey. I am so thrilled. No really. I'm thrilled. I just can't show how excited I am because they'll tease me. Again.

I've decided I like the double decker buses a lot more than I like the bendy buses. I like sitting up top, preferably in the back row, just so's I can stare vacantly out of the window and not really have to worry about anyone staring back. Being stuck on the ground floor in a bendy bus just isn't as entertaining. Although, if you can manage to get that very front seat opposite the driver on a bendy bus (especially if it's way past your bedtime and you're fighting to stay awake), it feels like you're driving the bus. Sort of. You have to be really really really tired.

There was something else I wanted to write about....I've forgotten it now. Got sidetracked cutting off all my nails so I could type faster with fewer mistakes. Silly.

Excitement is starting to build for Doheny. Especially since my mother has given me the okay to splurge on a first-class upgrade due to 50+ cheerleaders being booked on my flight. Might even actually sleep on the flight back if I get to sneak into first. Though I'm not sure if anyone will really be awake when I get in at around 11 pm on that Thursday, so there's probably no real need to feel rested once I arrive in Orange County. But I can hardly wait to fall asleep to the sound of the ocean that first night... And if the weather's nice, I won't even bother putting up my tent until the next day. I'm still hoping to talk one or two of my London friends into coming along. Not sure if it'll happen though as students tend to be a pretty broke lot, even though they'd be flying on my super-cheap rates. Oh well.

I have a new weakness: Sainsbury's caramel shortcake bites.

Just in case you didn't already know, Fidel Castro has resigned. If he'd stuck it out until the end of the year, he'd have been in power for 50 years. Outrageous. I can't even fathom being in my 40s and having had the same head of state for my entire lifetime. I don't even know how many US presidents that covers. My guess is 10, but I couldn't list them in chronological order. I should've tried to buy my dad a Cuban cigar when I was in the duty free shop in Lyon. Though maybe now he'll be able to buy his own. Probably not, since Fidel's younger brother (who, by the way, is a sprightly young thing at age 76) is going to be the one taking over.

See? I'm not talking about American politics. Told you I was finished with it.

Anyway, my weird one-sided stuffy nose continues to annoy the crap out of me, so I'm going to take some Nyquil (again), and hope that it works so I can go to sleep.

Hasta luego...

Wasting time...

Okay, so I've been trying for a week now to get into To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf, but I just can't seem to get there. I actually decided to clean my room today instead of have another go at Lighthouse. That's how bad it is.

But now my room is clean, dinner is done, I took a long bath, and there's nothing left really for me to do other than read the stupid book.

But then I remembered that I've yet to do sort of a final post on my trip to France, so here I am.

I am happy to report that it appears as though I made it through the trip without any serious injuries. However, a lingering ache in my left ankle is worrying me a little, although it might be just from wearing heels out last night. I also managed to walk away with only one bruise, which I didn't even notice until yesterday in the shower. Amazing stuff, I tell ya. And nobody ran into me on the slopes! All in all, it was a very lucky trip.

Went to a party last night with a friend I hadn't seen in a while. Things were going well until I got cornered by this Scottish guy whilst I was out having a cig. Next thing you know, I'm debating US politics (again), and despite multiple attempts to shove the conversation elsewhere, the Scot just wasn't having it. At one point he bet me a pint of bitter that McCain is going to win the election. I am so tired of these sorts of debates, the next time somebody asks me "Clinton or Obama", I'm going tell them I only ever vote for Nader, and he's not running this time. Hopefully nobody over here has heard of Ralph Nader.

I mentioned already that I cleaned my room today. I don't think that really adequately describes the Herculean task that cleaning my room can sometimes be. Sad as it is, I still was not completely unpacked yet from Christmas. Having solved the logistics problems with my clothing before I went to France, all that remained for me to sort out was my shoes and my school stuff. I have way too many pairs of shoes. But now everything is stowed and securely fastened, so I can sleep easy tonight knowing I don't have a messy room to deal with in addition to all the ironing I'm going to have to do tomorrow (oh the joys of returning from vacation).

Anyway, I've got this weird half-stuffy nose thing going on, so I'm going to take some Nyquil and call it a night. I'll deal with Virginia Woolf tomorrow.

C'est bon!!!!

So. I am in France right now. Meribel ski resort, to be precise, about two hours outside Lyon. In the Alps. I am so beyond ecstatic to be here...words can't describe. The scenery is so beautiful it hurts. Every morning I am torn between going snowboarding and just sitting on the balcony of the chalet in order to stare at the scenery (and work on my tan). The weather is perfectly sunny and just cold enough to require a ski jacket.

Meribel is part of the Trois Valees ski area. I've only ever been out skiing in Mt. Charleston in Nevada and Big Bear in California. It's such an ordeal here to get from place to place, I'm a bit overwhelmed. There are bucket ski lifts and chair lifts and button lifts and everything else, so to get from place to place you sort of have to figure out where you're at and figure out what lift will get you closest and then ski from there. It's confusing but well worth it as all the restaurants are nestled along the different runs (though here they're known as "pistes").

Right now I'm chilling out with a glass of good white wine with Jack Johnson rolling on the stereo in the living room (everyone else has gone to bed). We have a "chalet girl" who also happens to be a trained chef, so dinners and breakfasts have been amazing and wonderful and make me want to buckle down and go to culinary school. Anna, our chalet girl, has given me a few recipes and I can't wait to try them out.

I love "Banana Pancakes". I so very much want to close the curtains and pretend like there's no world outside. But that's an entirely separate blog....

Anyway, the ski runs are absolutely lovely. Some spots are icy and really hard-packed, but on the whole, it's been decent powder to go tooling around on. I am so sore from my exertions, but the exhilaration of skimming down the mountain has thus far outweighed most of the muscle pain I've suffered through since Monday morning. Tomorrow is our last day for skiing, and I plan on staying on the mountain all day.

Again, the views are so amazingly breathtaking I find myself wanting to just sit down wherever I'm at and just take it all in. I love mountains and snow and watching the sun sink behind the neighboring mountainsides.

The chalet is amazing as well. As I've mentioned, chalet girl Anna cooks incredible meals that manage to be both filling and good for you. I may have an advantage when it comes to baked goods, but that girl definitely has me beat on dinner courses. Everything she's prepared has been superb.

Lordy. I should probably go to sleep. More about France (and more pictures on Facebook) later. ....For now, il est temps de dormir. Et je dois certainement apprendre plus français. Bonne nuit et rêves doux !

Excitement abounding....

Despite the fact that I only got about six hours of sleep last night (I purchased hangers and under-the-bed storage thingies from Woolworths and went to town finally sorting out all of my clothing), I am painfully wide-awake at midnight, and this is without benefit of a midday nap. A couple of weeks ago, after remarking to a classmate that I couldn't figure out why my sweet tooth had decided to go on such a rampage, it was suggested that my California body might not be fully acclimated to London gloom and thus sluggish due to lack of vitamin D. So to compensate, my mutinous body sent my sugar cravings into overdrive in order to get some quick energy. Not sure about the sugar part, but the vitamin D made sense. So I went out and bought a boring generic multivitamin supplement from Boots, and sure enough, I feel peppy again. Might just be a placebo, but I'm willing to take what I can get.

I might also be up due to massive sugar intake this evening. Conrad announced yesterday morning that I needed to make a cake for the charity cake sale at his school. Excited to be able to bake without getting yelled at for contributing all those calories and fat grams to the family's diet, I eagerly dove into all my cookbooks and recipes. I wound up decided on the "Triple Layer Lemon Cake" from my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. After reading the recipe through a couple of times (and over-indulging in some very delectable chicken enchiladas), I decided that I really didn't want to make the cake just to hand it over to be sold for charity. I wanted a piece too. So I doubled the recipe. Well, I'm pretty sure I doubled the recipe. Rather than six, I only managed four layers, and they were pretty thin layers at that. Not sure what happened, because I know I did all the math right and doubled all the ingredients. Anyway, because I doubled the recipe I ran out of butter just as I was getting ready to make the frosting. Rats. The two cakes would have to wait....

I picked up some butter on my way home this afternoon and waited until I picked up Conrad and his friend, Jack, thinking that two boys would love to help make frosting, especially when I get towards the end and have to test it for taste and consistency. They did. I didn't do anything fancy for the cake I made for the family, just slapped on some frosting.

The cake for the sale, on the other hand, is really quite fancy-looking. The decoration itself was easy to do, just little rosettes using this nifty reusable piping bag that Sonja has. The finished product, however, looks like I put a hell of a lot more time into it:



















I am really quite proud of myself. And I had loads of fun along the way. I always tell people that one of the big reasons why I'd never open up a bakery is that I love baking way too much. If I had to do it for a job, instead of just for kicks, there's a high possibility that it would lose its fun-ness and I'd no longer be interested in it. And those of you that have tasted any of my baked goods would agree that a loss of fun-ness would be a terrible thing indeed.

By the way, the cake is beyond fantastically tasty. It tastes exactly like Costco's Lemon Cooler Cake. Oh yeah. It's amazing.

Wave of the future....

So while looking for pictures of Doheny to show a friend, I stumbled across a very interesting bit of information...

THE DOHENY STATE BEACH SNACK BAR NOW OFFERS WI-FI

What the hell?