Last Minute Journey

Well, I'm off to Tunisia this evening. After a series of events I do not care to mention at this time, I decided I needed some time off so I booked the flights last night. I'll be gone for two and a half weeks and I doubt I'll blogging much if at all. I hope to be back with a new outlook on life and lots of pretty pictures!

Yesterday In A Nutshell

After months of moaning and threatening to quit, yesterday was my last day at work. I am technically on annual leave until the 30th of this month but I don't have to go in anymore. I am SO glad it's over! I hated the 12 hour shifts, I hated the commute, I hated working nights and the pay wasn't that great. However, great or not, it was pay which I will no longer have. That is freaking me out a bit specially since we are planning the move back to the US which will no doubt be expensive. But hey, what's done is done. I will start looking for something closer to home next week.

Because they owed me 6.5 days of annual leave, I only worked half a day yesterday so I was outta there at 2pm. This gave me plenty of time to go shopping for a pair of red shoes I have been looking for ever since I bought a cute green dress last week. While looking around, I came across a very pretty and feminine pair of pink lace shoes that looked very vintage. I tried them on and I had to have them, so I did. I kept looking in the same store and, as I turned around a corner, I came face to face with a pair of Irregular Choice shoes I had been lusting after for a while but the IC online store was out of in my size. I tried them on and they fit like a glove AND they were the last pair in my size so.....there was no way I could leave them behind; They came home with me. By the time I got to the red shoes I wanted to buy, I couldn't because I had already spent way too much money. Next time :)

Faith

Irregular Choice "Kezia"

Office "Bewitched"

These came in the mail today. I ordered them last week and I have to say, they are even prettier in person than in pictures.

On The Floor, In The Round.

For some reason, I have been into Michael Jackson a lot late, specially "Billie Jean". I have had it stuck in my head for weeks. I downloaded it from iTunes and listened to it lots. A couple of weeks ago, Matt bought me a couple of MJ CD's and I listened to it some more. I even watched the video on YouTube. It's like a mini obsession I just can't get enough of. It's weird, I know. Well, today, on the way back from the mall, we were driving and guess what came on the radio........"Billie Jean"! It's not just that I am seeking it out, it even pops up when I am not! It's crazy, crazy, crazy!

All of this has of course, had me thinking about Michael Jackson himself. Personal issues aside, the man is a performer like no other. He's second to none at what he does and no one can take that away from him. He can sing like no other, dance like no other and put on a show like no other. I mean, how many singers can you name that had a single enter the charts at #1??? That's right, just Michael Jackson.

So, the man has issues.....but then again, don't we all?

Of Veg and Shoes.

You know, I make no excuses for not blogging more often. I have periods where I just don't feel like blogging; not because there is nothing going on but simply because I'm too lazy. This past few weeks was one of those periods. I did mean to post, I even took pictures to post but just didn't. There.

As you can read back and find out, I sowed some lettuce on the 15th of April, which, much to my surprise, were showing above the ground just a three days later. Well, they are pretty big now and I think we'll be eating our first salad from them in the next couple of weeks. One of the rows of romaine lettuce didn't germinate though, which is a shame. The romaine that did germinate is doing well too but they will take a bit longer than the other mixed lettuce. The cabbages are doing good too despite their slug issues at the beginning which nearly killed them. One of the plants is really big and the other two are not too shabby. The strawberry plants now have two strawberries and many, many, many flowers. The rocket, which I thought wouldn't make it, has sky rocketed....pun intended! I think I'm gonna have to move it because it's overshadowing the rest of the herbs. The carrots are doing very well too, we have thinned them out a couple times and there are still plenty of them. I think we will start eating baby ones sometime in June and make room for the rest to grow more.

I have to say, that even though I'm a self proclaimed city girl through and through, seeing all this success with growing these plants is pretty amazing and enjoyable. I can see how some people can get totally hooked. I am not obsessive about it like I have been with other hobbies but I do wish I had more room to grow things. If we were to stay in the UK, I think I'd try to get an allotment. I am hoping that when we move to the US we find a place that has a big enough backyard for this and that the landlord is kind enough to allow me to use it as a vegetable garden.

Well, enough with gardening and on to girly things. I have, for the first time, actually counted and photographed all my shoes. Before I started, I thought the count would come to 50 something but I was off, way off. I counted a total of 74 pairs including flip flops and sneakers. In actually, it's 76 because I left two pairs out, one intentionally and one accidentally. I didn't realize I had this many, but, when I look at the pictures, it doesn't really seem like that many! I guess that does make me a shoe addict but there are people worse than me out there....and not all women! Here are the pictures: Shoe Inventory

Keeping with the theme; to make a long story short, a couple of weeks ago I placed a bid on a pair of Manolo Blahnik shoes on eBay thinking I'd be outbidded but won. The shoes arrived and they were actually very nice on me but they had a bit of sharpie graffiti on the bottom which I thought was strange cause the auction didn't mention anything about any writing. I was a bit peeved and I contacted the seller asking for a refund. A day or so later, I was looking at some pictures of a shoe signing at the new Manolo Blahnik boutique in Dubai when it hit me......"Could this possible be a signed shoe????" So, I looked some stuff up and it is! It is Manolo Blahnik's signature on my shoe! I still can't believe it specially considering the shoe was a bargain and new although it was listed at "gently worn". Some luck that!

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.