Yummy Wakame

You know that weird thing that happens when you’re talking to someone on the phone, and it takes you a while to realise that the call’s accidentally dropped because you were so busy talking… to yourself! What is it about that that is so personally embarrassing? Even if you’re in a room all on your own and nobody else witnessed you talking to yourself like a damned idiot… what is it that makes you feel embarrassed for yourself?

Afro Celt Sound System – Release

Just gorgous!

Let me know if you’d like to hear more of my all time favourite tracks featured on La Femme Nikita ;@)

A new Dutch website launched this weekend — www.dier-en-mens.nl — is helping animal lovers get together and even find find love – from finding the perfect person to look after your piglets for you when you go on holiday to a partner who’s also batty about snakes.

What a great idea. I wonder if there is something like this in the UK or the States yet?

“I just ate an egg… and my belly sounds like the ocean.”

~ Nykki Swartz

Coconut Monkey Rocket -
Bloops, Bleeps, Bongos & Brass
Nouvelle Vague -
A Forest
Steve Eliovson -
Venice

(For those who know me. Only.) more…

Seriously. I haven’t watched anything close to this funny in so long. Kenna, I owe you big time!

Oh and by the way, definitely not safe for work. Unless you have headphones.

What is it about this picture that makes me want to gently take up this little thing in my hands, curl it into a ball and squeeze it to my heart?

Its shiny little eyes and wild matted hair fill me with admiration, because even though we have tried to domesticate this creature for countless generations, it has never lost it’s wild spirit or desire for freedom. Almost every hamster I have ever known has spent countless hours planning and scheming the Great Escape, and most succeed. I only once ever had a hamster as a pet, when I was small and didn’t know any better, and it was the grumpiest and angriest creature I have ever cared for. All night long he would throw things around in his cage in fit or rage, chew at the plastic base relentlessly and rattle at the door, until finally one day his cage dropped off the table, split apart and released him to his freedom… sadly he ran towards freedom straight into the path of my stone blind cat Leila. My mother and brother discovered his toyed with, bloody body lying limply on the floor when they returned home a few hours later. He had come so close… and fought bravely for his life, but with the determination of a man who was also fighting for freedom.

Knowing what I know now, I would never have kept a hamster in captivity. And if for some reason I have to look after someone else’s hamster for a while while they are away, I would do a lot of things differently to make its captive life a lot more enjoyable… more…

Work it baby!

That’s right, an orchestra made up entirely of elephants!

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I heard its triumphant little song this morning… which means… Spring has officially broken in England! The timing couldn’t be more perfect :@)

I just checked National Rail to simply get a price on traveling from where I am in Stevenage to Brighton so I can plan my travels over the month. A simple journey with one connecting stop at Kings X. £28.90!! That’s just one way by the way. Their “Cheap Day Single” offering, which doesn’t include travel during peak hours. Are they insane? Seriously, are they MENTAL? I could fly from Pittsburgh to Chicago for less on a good day. That includes jet fuel people!!

Here’s what I just found with a tiny bit of research: How much would it cost to travel today by rail from London Kings X to Manchester? £109.50 for a Standard Open Single (each way), a 2.5 hour journey. You might, like most people, prefer to opt for the planet destroying option and fly from London Heathrow to Manchester: today’s prices, leaving today – £40 each way all incl. with British Airways. A nice comfortable 1 hour journey. BMI offers fares as low as £28 each way if you plan ahead.

It’s just WRONG how greedy the rail system is. You know something’s waaaay screwey when it costs less to fly somewhere that it does to catch the nation’s default public transport option. I’m not really sure how I’m going to be able to come and go to Brighton as freely as I’d planned… so I have to fashion another solution. Ehh! This leaves me slightly miffed.

** UPDATE **
I nearly forgot about Megabus!! I can ride between Brighton and London for just £3 each way. There’s a choice of 3 journeys a day, and from Kings X I can catch a train to Stevenage for £10, cutting the overall cost right down to £13 each way for just 1 extra hour in transit. I’m annoyed I have to use the rail system at all, but YAY for Megabus! You’ve rescued my UK adventure. I LOVE YOU!!

Ooh I just LURVE this LifeHacker tip:

Its a fine 10°C today in Hertfordshire. I’m starting to really feel settled in now. I have a good 8 hours of work from home ahead of me, my piggy hot water bottle pinned to my belly, the cozy ruby red slippers Nykki gave me for Christmas and… wow I’d just about forgotten how much I’d missed it after I moved to the States – my sleek little digital DAB radio!!

It took a good few months to become accustomed to working with no radio. I’ve REALLY missed the BBC channels, especially BBC Radio 4 which keeps me entertained enough to focus my wandering mind into 8 hours or more of solid work… and I get to float asleep late nights with DAB Chill. I also miss Brighton’s Southern Counties Radio station, another talk channel that kept me abreast of all the happenings in my favourite seaside town. Back home I sometimes listen to the TV while I’m working, but it can be visually distracting. And I can listen to BBC Radio streaming for free online, but the quality changes while you’re listening and that distracts me too. These days I find it hard to achieve more than 4 hours of solid work – and previously I could go for 12 quite happily with my radio to keep me company. I wish I didn’t have such impossible ADD. more…

Let today’s lesson begin:

This morning I woke up at dawn’s cranky old crack to prepare for the first leg of my flight to the land of the Queen. 4am – dressed and wide awake, I decide to check online for the flight status 5 minutes before my favourite cab driver plans to collect me – and discover the entire flight, from stripping to the essentials at the gates to the part where you squeeze between new intimate friends… has been “CANCELLED”!!! No reason given. No alternatives mentioned. PANIC!!!!

A few fanny-flapping calls and some long waits later I find out that United Airlines has already booked me on a later flight late this evening to Heathrow via Chicago and pushing my arrival into the next am. Boo. I anticipate the jetlag and go back to bed, grumpy and already hating the journey ahead. more…

Italy won’t split up its Stone Age lovers.

Reuters:

In a Valentine’s Day gift to the country, scientists said they are determined to remove and preserve together the remains of a couple buried 5,000 to 6,000 years ago, their arms still wrapped around each other in an enduring embrace.

Instead of removing the bones one-by-one for reassembly later, archaeologists plan to scoop up the entire section of earth where the couple was buried, they told Reuters. The plot will then be transported for study before being put on display in an Italian museum, thereby preserving the world’s longest known hug for posterity.

“We want to keep can them just as they have been all this time — together,” archaeologist Elena Menotti, who announced the discovery a week ago, told Reuters.

more…

Little boy pointing to portabella mushroom: Mommy, what’s that?
Tired mother: It’s a mushroom. Someday I’m going to make you a hamburger for dinner, but instead of meat, it’s going to have one of those mushrooms in it.
Little boy looking back at mushroom, terrified: Why would you do that?!

Overheard, Beachside Produce Plus, Melbourne Beach, Florida

Me: “… I’m just saying, he’s better at CSS than both of us.”
Nathan: “Nah. I doubt that. I’m better at CSS than you are anyway.”
O: “Whatever. You know I’m the best.”

N: “Im just saying… I’m better at being a boy than you.”
O: “Whatever. I’m way better at being a boy than you are. You’re just better at having a weiner.”
N: (trademark scrunched-up-smile) “That’s true. Well that part is true.”

A big arms up to yinz’all Pittsburghers out there and fans of the Pepper Home Improvement ad. I can think of little else right now but…

“Pepperrrrrrrrrrrrrr!”

Yay for tall old men with crazy long arms! Yay for Saturdays! Yay for sugar in all it’s rushy goodness!

Swedish guy: Are you the hippies?
Dreadlock guy: I guess so.
Swedish guy: So, you hippies, do you have the orgies?
Dreadlock girl: Um… We decide that on a hippie by hippie basis.
Swedish guy: Oh, because you say ‘Yes,’ and I sign up now.

Overheard, Queenstown, New Zealand

Let today’s lesson begin:

Fix your peepers on this three-wheeled scooter that swaps out the double set in the back and, using high tech suspension like a room at the Motel 6 could only dream of, throws them onto the front.

Features

• Up to 244 cc
• Enough storage for two full helmets and your backpack

And Transformeresque to boot!