still running...no time to write!

dear lord, what a pace! i'm not surprised i'm feeling a little run down but with 5 weeks to go, i can rest on the flight home :)

i went to a play on tuesday called birdsong (the 5th) - an adaptation of perhaps one of Britain's most beloved books by sebastian faulks. for some reason, i was fascinated by watching a play where for the majority of it, we'd be in the trenches and the tunnels of war...the set and the lighting were bound to be a challenge, and indeed they were! so quickly...the story is about a young man who falls in love with a married woman. when she leaves him, his loving heart goes cold and he joins the war, and while at war he learns a few things about life and by chance, ends up in the same town as his runaway love. he learns of her fate, and nearing his own, he loses his coldness and finds warmth again. i'm not going to dwell on the subject because that's not what fascinated me. the set did.

the first act (there were 3 dear lord) was minimalist with clever use of projections to move the scenes from garden to sitting room to riverside and with a big bang and crash of the screen at the end of the first act, we move to war. yet again, with not a huge set we moved from trenches to underground tunnels to captains quarters to hospitals to bars. it was great to sit so close to the stage to take it all in (especially the gorgeous cast) BUT, i think i missed out on the brilliance that was the lighting. so if you go, sit further back or 1st balcony front row...that's how the play is meant to be seen (just ask the designers ;) )

afterward i ran into the cast, said my hellos, great show, blah blah blah... but my fave character was jack played by a guy named lee ross. he's somewhat of a local celebrity (as was the female lead) but me being me didn't know (nor care) so told them what i thought of they play. i think they figured out i wasn't a stalker and actually could talk to them about theatre and i got into a great discussion with one of the cast members about how they can come out so cheery when the last scene of the play is so emotional. but i digress. it was a great film. if i can dig up pictures i will post :)

I then made my way to headmasters for my second cut in 5 weeks...mainly because the rush shop in clapham totally BUTCHERED my hair. man i was pissed but luckily i was referred to a good place and the hair was saved. don't you hate it when that happens? so anyone...if you are in Clapham, save your locks and NEVER EVER EVER go to rush.

so friday the 8th lead us to yet another one of the epsom crowd to leave. this time the lovely georgina held a leaving do at pause on leadenhall. definitely a club and not a pub, but it was fun. some of you may recall that georgina is the friend who made my dodo bracelet for me for my birthday last year. she will be sorely missed! so we're coming into the 5 week stretch for me so we'll see if anyone else decides to bail before i do! so let's see, we have had the following departures: rob, erik, basar, erik, bim, georgie, and then me....and then, rob comes back (just before i go) and my friend james said to me 'maybe this means everyone will slowly come back'. ah, there is wishful thinking! although you never know what can happen in a couple of years time!

i ducked home early that night as i was feeling a little down...a little sad that my time is coming to a close and because i felt like i was fighting a cold. and guaranteed, i woke up the next morning completely stuffed and blah. but nothing was deterring me from coffee. i grabbed some sinutab or whatever 's' named cold/pain killer solution and made my way to richmond to meet up with some canadians for thanksgiving. my friend laura brought me to her friend jay and christine's house for dinner (they knew eachother from highschool back in brampton ontario) and christine's brother was in town, and there were a couple of kids and so there we were...7 of us, cooking a turkey, lounging on the couch, drinking beer and champagne, watching looney tunes. i felt like i was at home. amazing. after lounging and drinking and eating guacamole with nachos, we got up and threw some veg in the oven, steamed some brussel sprouts, blah blah blah and voila, a turkey dinner.

although the highlight of the dinner was when we stuck the thermometer in the turkey thinking 'when is it ever going to get to its right temperature...it looks done!' only to discover we were looking at a farenheit temperature but reading a celcius recipe. ya...turkey was waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay past done. we never had such dark gravy from turkey before, it almost looked like beef. ha ha ha. but we didn't care, it was fine anyway, and EVERYONE got some crispy skin. ha ha

the next day i had to cancel on a london walk with one of my calgary colleagues that was in town. i still wasn't 100% but the day before sure did help so sunday ended up being yet another relaxing night watching the return to cranford. dear god why do i love those bloody period dramas so much? past life experience perhaps. but i can watch those all day....and in fact i did, along with all 4 episodes of emma, the newest bbc version with jonny lee miller as knightley (um, the best male character ever written. he's a dream!).

on the 11th i met up with larissa for dinner - man i'm going to miss that girl but i keep asking her when she's moving back to calgary? does she really want avery to go to school in london? what if he becomes an essex boy/chav? blah blah blah...i hope i'm wearing her down :)

and finally, i went to go see charlie st. cloud this week (not bothering with the title of the film cuz its too long). what a lovely movie and stuck fairly close to the book. they made some adaptations but that's ok, but i do wish they would have kept charlie's connection to dead people in there a little more. i think its what made charlie so much more sympathetic. but hey, i was impressed with efron, he did a good job. he played a romantic lead which isnt' easy to do at a young age (and i don't know why people mock him for doing this kind of performance...um, 2 words: leonardo + titanic). i'm not saying that zac efron is an amazing actor, but i am saying they have to start somewhere. besides, he became cool in my books when he guested on entourage. i love that show.

so tonight i'm off to prague with aleksandra and hoho. its our last trip together since they're off to ecquador right after, and i won't see them until the week before i leave. oh my...its kind of hard to think about that right now, but then again, i'm already making lunch dates for my return!

its funny, i thought it was tough when i left calgary because i didn't want to leave my family behind, but was looking forward to the adventure ahead of me. but this time, i'm excited to go home, but the adventure that was mine for two years past was more than just an adventure. i'm leaving my family here behind as well.

sigh...one day i'll return.