A Most Irregular Choice

As if my infatuation with Manolo Blahnik and Christian Louboutin shoes wasn't enough, I have recently discovered a new love. OK, maybe love is too strong a word here but serious like is not far off. About 3 weeks ago, I mentioned one a forum I frequent that I wished there was something like www.zappos.com in the UK. To my delight, someone mentioned a website they thought was along those lines and I checked it out. On their main page; staring at me, were the funkiest shoes I had seen up until that moment. I clicked on them and though "WOW, that's different!" I started browsing the rest of the shoes on the site and I kept seeing these incredibly funky shoes that I really liked. I started paying attention and they were all the same brand.....Irregular Choice.

I googled them and went straight to their online shop where they had even more styles. They had camel toe ones, heart shaped toes, etc. All of the shoes are definitely not your average kind, they are very, very....well.....irregular! Some are just too much for me but there are others that I really liked and couldn't wait to get.

I am a bit wary about buying shoes online these days because of the sizing issues I'm facing. I am US 7/7.5 or a UK 5 or a European 38 judging from the shoes I have actually tried on before buying but it seems lots of the stores can't make up their minds when it comes to size equivalents. For example, some places say that a US 7.5 is a European 37.5 and not a 38, etc. So, after drooling over a pair of shoes, I decided it was time to go to the store and get them.

I got there and it was heaving. There were many other brands of shoes but I headed straight for Irregular Choice. There they were, in real life. I asked for a UK 5 and tried them on. They fit perfectly and they were pretty comfortable too. The pair they brought out was a bit scratched on the tip so I asked for a different pair in the same size. After a few minutes, they came back and told me that was the last pair they had, not just in my size but in that style period. So, I went home with no shoes.

I went back a few days later hoping they had stocked up but no luck there. So, after much deliberation, I ordered them online late last week. They showed up today and they were just as deliciously weird as I remembered them and scratch free.

In buying these shoes, and in liking the brand, I am taking a HUGE leap from my regular purchases and taking a big chance. I normally buy traditional(ish) shoes and these are definitely like nothing I have ever bought before. I thought it was time to expand my horizons and take risks with my shoe purchases. I aim to slowly stray from my comfort zone.

Foodstuff.

When I went to water the veggies today, I was very pleasantly surprised to see that some of the seeds we sowed on Sunday (the mixed salad ones) have already germinated and are showing through the compost! That was quick!

I was craving some Cuban food so I took matters into my own hands and did the best I could with what I had available. I made red beans, rice, steaks in a pot with tomato sauce (Cuban style) and fried plantains. For dessert, I made a Cuban bread pudding, which is VERY different for the American and specially the British stuff. Things didn't taste as good as my mom's but hey, she has decades of practice!

Just One More Thing....

On the 2nd of April, the US Embassy charged $190 to our credit card and on Friday 13th April I received a postcard from the Embassy saying the I-130 was filed on the 2nd. YAY!!!!!!! The process has officially started and we are being allowed to file here in London which is MUCH quicker!

OK, one more thing.....really. We ordered a Wii today!!! It won't be here for another week but better late than never!

Shopping, Shopping and More Shopping.

It's been a busy weekend! On Friday, in hopes of staying up after a night shift so I could get back into sleeping at night, I went shopping in Oxford Street. I shopped until I very nearly dropped. It's still a mystery to me how I was able to stay awake for so long and not just collapse in the middle of H&M. I was shopping for well over 5 hours and in all that time I only walked up and down two blocks once and bought just 4 pieces of clothing.

On Saturday Matt and I decided there was still more shopping that needed to be done. We went in search of smart trousers for him and anything for me. We walked up and down the mall and came away with his stuff and only a pair of yellow jelly flats, some white skinny jeans and a top for me. For a woman, I'm a pretty lame shopper! Unless it comes to shoes of course.

After all that shopping, we dressed up and went to dinner at an American style diner/bar in Covent Garden. The food was pretty good and the place had a party atmosphere which I suppose is why it's so popular, specially for hen nights/bachelorette parties.

Today there was even more shopping but this time it was for garden supplies. Seeing that the strawberries are blooming and the carrots are actually growing, I decided to try my luck with other fast growing veggies and herbs. We bought some grow bags to plant in because pots are just too expensive. As for plants, we bought a pack of 9 young cabbage plants, some herbs and a balcony hanging pot to plant them in.

We came home and planted the cabbages in one bag and in the other we sowed some romaine lettuce seeds and mixed lettuce seeds. If all goes well, we should be eating lettuce in a month or so. We could only plant 3 cabbages in one grow bag so tomorrow I'm going to get more bags to plant the rest of the cabbages. The herbs; rosemary, sage, parsley and chives; only took up a bit of the pot so I'll get either more herbs or a couple small tomato plants tomorrow to fill the gap.

I can't wait till all this stuff is ready to eat!

This is what the carrots look like now.

The "garden" The plastic pot is the carrots. The middle bag is romaine lettuce on the left hand side and mixed lettuce on the right. The bottom bag is the cabbages.

Close up of the cabbages.

Herbs.

What the strawberry plants look like now.

The Agony and The Temporary Relief.

Problems have a way of surfacing when there is absolutely squat you can do about it. Take toothaches for example. This past weekend was a long weekend in the UK, with Friday and Monday being bank holidays so it turned into a very long weekend. After a normal day and a hot air balloon ride on Friday, I woke up with a freaking toothache on Saturday. To make matters worse, I worked the weekend so I had to suck it up.

On Saturday, it was bearable. I knew I had a toothache but it wasn't anything to whine about. I didn't even take pain meds, I just worked. Sunday morning I still had the toothache when I woke up, but again, it wasn't TOO bad. During the afternoon though, it started to get really bad, bad to the point where I decided I'd see the emergency dentist at the hospital where I work after my shift. In the meantime, I took drugs....lots of drugs.

The dentist said I had a small cavity under one of my fillings and I needed to see my regular dentist to get it fixed. Of course, that wouldn't be till Tuesday at the very earliest because everything was closed for the long weekend. She gave me some antibiotics and sent me on my way.

I really thought I'd be able to wait till Friday when I got off work again to go to my dentist because the pain wasn't too bad but by midday on Monday, I was ready to reach in there and pull the damned tooth out myself. I was taking meds but they weren't helping, they weren't even lasting the full 4 hour dose; two hours after taking them I was hurting again. We were supposed to go to Matt's parents' for dinner but we had to cancel because I was so miserable. I was able to sleep through Monday night, unlike Sunday, but I was awake and hurting by 7am.

I managed to get an emergency appointment for today I 10:15am with my dentist. I showed up and they saw me promptly. Turns out she couldn't see any decay on the xray and when she removed my old filling, she definitely saw no decay. She couldn't see a crack in the tooth either so we don't know why I was in so much pain. She replaced the old filling with some sort of soothing layer and a new filling on top of that. I'm supposed to call on Friday and tell them whether the pain's gotten better or not and depending on the answer, we may need to consider a root canal....which the NHS doesn't cover of course.

So, here I sit, with the right side of my face numb, probably drooling due to lack of muscle control and it is the best I've felt in days. I wonder how much longer the anesthetic is going to last.

Died And Gone To (Designer) Heaven.

Yesterday was one of those days you just don't see coming. It started out just like any other day except I decided to bug Matt (again) about "letting" me buy some shoes I had been lusting after for a while. The shoes in question weren't any old shoe mind you, they were incredibly expensive Manolo Blahnik and Christian Louboutin respectively. After hours of sweet talking without actually saying the words, he agreed and off we went to Chelsea and Knightsbridge.

The Manolo Blahnik store closed earlier so we went there first. We took the tube down to South Kensington and somehow he convinced me to walk (it's quite a walk, don't do it!). On the way there, I was a nervous wreck; at one point on the tube, I almost burst into tears. How sad is that? I had been waiting for this day for so long that it just didn't seem real that I was actually on my way to come face to face with the creations of the shoe god himself. All these just for a store; a very exclusive boutique mind you, but still, just a store.

We got there and of course, we had to ring a bell to be let in. I was there and I really couldn't believe it. I didn't know what to do with myself or even worse, how to behave. I was expecting the attendants to be snobby but they were quite the opposite. They treated me very nicely and sure made me feel welcome. I had a look around the store and, much to my horror, I was pretty disappointed with the selection. I wasn't looking for day shoes, I wasn't looking for trendy shoes; I was just looking for a nice pair of d'orsay pumps or something classy like that and...alas! they didn't have any. Turns out, as the attendant kindly informed me, this is the store where God, I mean, Manolo Blahnik experiments with new stuff and that I'd have better luck in the US.

Nonetheless, I tried on some shoes which the attendant happily put on my feet; they were so incredibly light that it almost felt like I was barefoot. They weren't right for me so he showed me another pair he thought might suit me better but again, failure. I have to say, I was gutted, gutted beyond any gutted feeling I had ever had before. I felt my little heart just shatter into tiny pieces as I walked out of that shrine empty-handed. The service on the other hand, was superb. I was the only customer in the store which made the experience a lot more surreal. Again, the attendant was great and treated me with great respect even though I didn't "look the part" and was wearing my clunky Clarks clogs. He even informed me that they change all their stock twice a year, in February and then in August and that I should come back in August and see if I had better luck. Well, I sure as hell will!

After this bittersweet experience, we took a taxi to the slightly less exclusive Christian Louboutin boutique. We got there and there was one other customer who had several boxes of shoes spread out on the floor, mostly espadrilles....to each their own. Looking at the shoes on display was almost like a visual orgasm. No other shoe has ever exuded so much sex appeal as the va-va-voom red sole beauties. They were everywhere, all heel heights and even different colors. I had my heart set on a black pair of pumps because I think the red soles are better highlighted by black uppers. I tried on several pairs but they didn't have my size in the really hot shoes, which is understandable as I have a pretty common size feet and those are the most popular shoes they have.

I tried a pair of black pumps with 120mm (4.7inch) heels that were just sex toys for your feet. I had never in my life worn hotter shoes. I had never in my life felt so incredibly sexy. Matt said I should definitely get those because they were HOT! As my luck would have it, they were a bit too tight in the front. The attendant said that patent leather gives but I don't know just how much and that's a lot of money to spend on a pair shoes that may or may not fit after a couple of wears. I ended up buying a pair of kid skin peep toe mary janes with a 100mm (4 inch) heel that while not as sexy, as very nice and fit quite comfortably. We paid (don't ask how much) and of we went. I was clutching that bag as if my life depended on it and I had a HUGE grin on my face.

I wanted to see if Harrods had those sexy heels in my size (they didn't) so we walked there as we were pretty close. On the way though, I got distracted walking down Sloane Street, by the likes of Jimmy Choo, Prada, Chanel, Gucci, Roberto Cavalli, Louis Vuitton, Versace, Fendi, Hermes and countless others. I had never seen so many designer boutiques lined up like that. Heck, I had never seen many designer boutiques to begin with! I kept wishing I had married a millionaire! It's tough to walk by so many nice stores and not be able to buy anything. It's like taking a kid to a candy store and telling them they are not allowed to have any candy, not even a piece. In my next life, I will marry a millionaire and live in Knightsbridge. In the meantime, all I can do is lust after those ever elusive Manolo's and admire my gorgeous Louboutin's. Come think of it, I think I will be getting those 120mm pumps after all.

More Planting and More Cooking.

Carrots, Week 1

We went out and bought those carrot seeds and planter today. We went to B&Q for a change and I have to say I wasn't impressed. After lunch at TGI Fridays (confirmed....they are the same everywhere!), we came home, put dinner in the oven and went downstairs to plant the carrots. It was a little less intimidating for me this time but of course it brought its own little issues to the equation.

I put dinner in the oven at 3:30pm because I made a beef roast with potatoes and carrots in a clay baker that required 30 minutes of soaking and 4.5 hours of slow cooking at a very low temperature. When I opened the pot and poked the meat, I couldn't believe how incredibly tender it was; so much so that I didn't even need a knife to carve it, I just pulled it apart. The veg were very tender and sweet too. I have to say I am impressed with this clay cooking thing, I wasn't so sold on the idea but I can see why people get hooked on it, you can make even a cheap cut of meat taste like heaven. Delicious.