London Obs #2

I need to test out why my last e-mail post got eaten, so here goes an attempt at another.  I'm going to stick heaps of links in this post to distract you and cover up the fact that I don't have much to say...

Things what I am doing at the moment:

~ Painting a miniature, this one to be precise, only in different colours and with less skill.

~ Wanting stuff, like this & this, and this, even this.  I can't afford any of this stuff cause I am unemployed, and I fell that I can't spend NZ savings on that kind of stuff.  Just you wait till I have a job!

Things that I will eat tonight:

~ Deep fried, home made, tempeh.  Sal bought some yeast from here and we made some VERY ugly, but QUITE tasty tempeh.  Hopefully it won't kill us, cause scientifically we have NO way of knowing what bug we just grew!

~ Pound-a-bowl tomatoes.  There is a wicked wee market called the Ridley Road Market (or Dalston Market as it is locally known) open every day just down the road from us here.  The dudes selling the produce are great, "Come on, only a pound!", and there are other cheap stalls selling pots and pans and other assorted goods too, great if you are o a budget.  Only trouble is that all the vege stalls are in proximity to butchers and fishmongers and while I'm not squeamish about this it makes me really want to wash all the goods that I buy from there.  I was brought up in a just eat it family, and I don't like the fact that I'm now concerned about contaminated goods.  On the plus side, it may well mean that my pesticide levels will at last decrease...

~Sag Paneer (with tofu) - there was some cheap spinach going at the local supermarket here (which I really dislike, but shop at anyway).

Things I want to know;

~ If there are only recycling stations for Green, Brown and Clear glass bottles, which do I put bottles of these into?  I am waiting for the manufacturers to get back to me on that, and while I do I crave my first pay packet so that I can afford to replace it...

Know this about the place I live in:

I currently live in an area in East London, called Hackney.  It was an area extensively bombed and damaged during WWII because of its proximity to the docklands. i.e. German bombers would naturally funnel up to this region with any undelivered ordinance, and well, they dropped it.  I learnt of this by visiting the local museum here. 

Did you know that:

The US of A used Laos as their undelivered ordinance dumping ground during the Vietnam war.  The sterile patches of earth and the legless, maimed population are testament to this.  You can read about the removal of mines at an interesting place that I went to in Laos that was supported by NZ here.

The last things I...

Read - The Handmaids Tale, M. Atwood - very moving and interesting (now reading Wonder Boys).
Seen - The Grudge (Japanese version - OK, but not fantastic), Fight Club (memorable quote "...the Queen is their slave"), Pride and Prejudice (not BBC version, on Valentines day no less - good but not as good as BBC), Persuasion (BBC version, interesting)
Heard - Audio book: ...curious...dog...nighttime (read it or hear it - it is bloody brilliant); CD - NIN With Teeth (shite really, but I'm sorry to say that I'm still addicted),

My, my, what a busy wee post...

Oh , and finally, I like London - yes, that is an observation, number two in fact!