Sunday, February 13, 2011

13/2/11 - Getting ready for guests



     Today was overcast and drizzly and a good day to sleep in.  The weekend hooligans are calming down out there but a few were lingering about last night.  We fell asleep with our skylight open and I'm pretty sure we heard some foxes mating out back.  It was followed by a little dog barking; also upset that he was woken up in the middle of the night.  We were warned about these mating foxes and the noises they produce.  I'm wondering if that's what I really heard.  It was quite a unique sound.  If it weren't mating foxes then I don't want to know what it really was...it haunts my ears.
      Our only plans for today were to head to IKEA to grab a couple of items to top off the downstairs bedroom/office and get it ready for our first house guests.  After lazing about the flat and eating our daily dose of multigrain-cheerios we headed out to the tube.  I grabbed my camera to test some of my new knowledge.  I had that Jack Johnson line in the back of my head..."clouds bring the F-stop blues."  Not quite sure if I understand it all yet, aperture, ISO, f-stops, etc etc etc.  We waited a bit for our train to come so I had a chance to play around on the platform:

Our stop. 

Playing around with passing trains.

I kind of like this one. It's ghostly.  

A handsome man waiting for the next train.
A couple of stops down.  Not a very cheery scene.  I see this photo
and Beirut's song  "Mount Wroclai (Idle Days)" pops into my head.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1QYXlRzNS0

    
Sean on his iPhone, double checking our route. 
      We rode the train to the end and then had to hop on a bus for the final leg of our journey.   Last time we tried this route it had been snowing.  We passed hundreds of snowmen rolled in the parks and got kicked off the bus about a half mile into our trip.  That was the day we trudged 5 through snow in sneakers, uphill both ways, with a bear chasing us, swearing off IKEA.  This time things went smoothly.  I even had enough time to study the road while waiting for the 112 bus:
Waiting for the bus.  They have yellow lines here.  They also have red lines and zig zag lines.

      IKEA was packed but after three previous trips and a shopping list in hand we went straight for what we needed.  We knew that place so well that we even went off the arrowed main path and zig zagged first off to the book shelves.   We got the "Billy" in red.  Yes, red.  It is bright.  But it's cheery.  There was no time wasted upstairs and we booked it right down to the furnishings where we picked up extra towels, compforter cover, pillows, bed sheets, and more picture frames.  The total trip time was 3 hours from door to door. Not. bad. at. all.
      Tonight we're just hanging out.  Washing all the new linens and making a list of things we need to do before my parents come to visit. (sooooooo excited!!!!!!!!)  I built the bookshelf and did a pretty shotty job.  I wasn't following directions well and the rich yellow tail wine went straight to my head.  Whatever. It's a red bookshelf.  You can't take it too seriously.
     We don't have anything big planned for Valentine's Day.  We've treating each other to little surprises throughout the weekend; bottles of wine, wine glasses, reams of printer paper, and brownies:

I got this idea from the almighty Smitten Kitchen blog.....

  
Belly button brownies.  Chocolate brownies and white chocolate brownies
with hearts cut out then swapped around.
That's two batches of brownies.  They are almost gone.  Wayyyyyyy too good!
       This time next week my parents will be here visiting.  We are both so excited to have guests and to "show" them around London.  By then the brownies will be gone and I think I'll be caught up with laundry.  Yes, laundry hangs over my head like you wouldn't believe.  But yes yes, can't wait for guests!   Sean and I will get to do sightseeing, go to pubs, take walks by the river and just get out there. So excited. This is the mood I'm in right now:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMu3MahqXUg

1 comment:

  1. Your photos are excellent. I especially enjoyed the brownie photos. The lighting was good. I need to work on my food photography!

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