they're really saying "I love you!"

I totally jumped the gun on that one because it snowed proper this morning!



Snow on the front lawn!



Snow on the ground!



Snow on the grass!



Snow on the cars!



Snow on the trees!



Snow on Air Studios!



Snow on my shoes!



Snow on the flowers!



Snow on Pax Lodge!

Today was like Christmas and Halloween - I woke up happy, it snowed, I went to church and then I got a lot of chocolate. (We did a proper Easter egg hunt with just the volunteers. It was good fun!) Happy Easter!

Yes! Snow! Snow flurries in the morning and a bit in the afternoon as well. I apologise for the image quality - my camera is broken right now so I was using my phone. But yes, it snowed in the morning and then again while I was out at the National Portrait Gallery (wonderful, wonderful collection) - I stepped outside and there was all this sharp white in my face. Totally awesome. And, freezing. I love it. None of it stuck as London is quite warm, but it was so great.

Also, we have some lovely daffodils in the front yard right now.



Also, there is an Easter funfair up on Hampstead Heath this weekend! I went up by myself today (not much fun) and it was very cute and empty. And I really liked this house:

when the moon's in the sky I like it

I went to Nottingham for the weekend. My friend Nell had bought Panic at the Disco tickets so I went with her and her lovely friends. Nottingham is so cute and pretty and so was Panic at the Disco. Though their set ended at 9:30 and then no one really knew what to do afterwards. We went went back to Nell's flat and argued about lyrics and drum fills, actually. That's what happens when nerdy music people get together.

Anyway, I was just really happy to be among friends and to be in a house and to be fed food for three and not twenty and to sit around and watch television about cars without the feeling that I was meant to be doing something else.

It rained like you would not believe, however. We were soaked when we got back from the venue (we had walked.) And then I got back to London and I could see my breath though it was 5 o'clock in the afternoon. Goodness gracious, welcome to England.

tea tea and coffee

My local library is so amazing. Even though its selection is small, it trumps all other libraries I've been to, by sheer fact that it has a) a coffeebar, b) a cat, c) my name on its cards. (I love the place I live in.) It is based in Keats' old home. I've been so many times in the past two weeks. It turns out that without a laptop to slow me down, I can do five books a week. And ok, some of them I had read before but I like to think that Tender is the Night is not an easy read under any circumstance. Also, I've been getting into comics, graphic novels, and Neil Gaiman.

The cat fact is especially special to me because I once wrote a story where a little boy was babysat by a cat who was really Edward Lear and ever since then, I have been convinced that all dead writers become cats. So hey, I've met Keats. He's orange and he sheds.

sound sound all around

Pax Lodge, where I live and work, is set in Hampstead, an affluent, suburban (or as suburban as London gets) area outside of central London. Right next door is Air Studios, one of the best recording studios in London. In my first week here, iTunes was hosting a series of concerts at Air Studios and, thanks to our close proximity and the mad connections that the girls here had made, we managed to score passes for a number of nights. In my first five days days here, I managed to see the likes of Daniel Merriweather, Tawiah, Jason Mraz, Ron Sexsmith, Julia & Angus Stone, and Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly(.) I can't imagine a better way to start off my first week in London - for someone as musically geeky as I am, free music from indie artists in a top notch studio is like my own personal candy shop. Also, iTunes gave out passes that gave you ten free songs on the UK iTunes. I went three times. :)

However, having Air Studios in such close proximity does have it's banes. For example, the whiplash I've got casually peering at the fence as I pass by, trying to see into the studio. (It's said that George Michael has been holed up there for the past three years and that they're recording the soundtrack to the next James Bond in there!) Or, my favorie, the classic Justin Timberlake Panic of 08. Last Sunday I happened to stray from the dining room (where I was meant to be working) to reception where I was accosted by Hca (a fellow volunteer from Canada). She informed me that our housekeeper had just phoned while walking home. He told us that there was a great queue outside Air Studios and that Justin Timberlake was purportedly recording there that evening.

Do you know who you do not casually unleash that information on? A house full of girls. The handwringing and squealing was intense. Justin Timberlake! Right next door! He was so close we could practically touch him!

(None of us met him, not for lack of trying on the other girls' part. They did manage to get into the iTunes concert that night, though. I was working that night.)

And the lesson in all of this is that once a child of the nineties, always a child of the nineties, no matter what country you're from. Justin Timberlake. I can't even believe myself.

what a shame, she was just getting comfy

Primrose Hill. The mythology behind it, as I understand it, was that a young couple in the early nineties were painting their flat. They had extra paint cans leftover and, being somewhat intoxicated, went out to the park up onto the hill and painted "and the view's so nice." The members of Camden (the area surrounding Primrose Hill) since then, have made a habit of looking after that bit of hopeful graffiti, repainting and so forth.

Then, legend goes, Damon Albarn and Graham Coxon were out walking one night (around Christmastime, if my rumors are correct), again, in the early nineties, discussing whether or not to continue on with their fledgling band Blur. They came across the graffiti and went off and wrote the 6:02 minute long "For Tomorrow" which turned out to be, not only a favored song of fans, but the song that really thrust them into the British limelight.

The last part is only interesting to Blur fans such as myself. But the view is so nice, one of the best in London, I think. The city just looks friendly up there and when my friends and I were in London last summer, we found ourselves hanging out at Primrose Hill whenever we got homesick or there was sun. (Which was all of twice. But we also had Harry Potter for whenever we got homesick.)

walk!

I went on a very, very long walk today. Because I got lost, partly, but also because it was just a very long walk through Hampstead, which is where I live. Anyway, I went through Hampstead Heath which is this big big park and all their tulips and daffodils were blooming and they looked very pretty.

So it turns out I picked a ridiculous day to arrive - Thinking Day, which is only Saturday, but Pax Lodge does things for the whole weekend and yesterday when I arrived, the whole place was preparing for a massive onslaught of young girl guides. There were about 200 people around? I mostly just drifted from room to room after I woke up from a nap, drinking green tea. The busiest day all year, I was told. Apparently it is usually only 20-50 people hanging around, depending on how many people are staying at Pax Lodge. They have boy lodgers staying here! I thought that was bizarre, but maybe they were girl guides in their past life.

Then in the evening I watched Family Guy with some of the other resident volunteers and fell asleep around 11. I'm acclimating fairly quickly. I start training on Monday, which will be good because I hate being useless and right now I'm just aimless.

Also, another thing I found on my walk: random Spice Girls graffiti! Amazing!