Hey! It's England! And the morning! And the BBC! This is fun! I love BBC in the morning at my grandparents' house. I just ate a croissant. America's croissants aren't nearly as good as those you get in Marks and Spencers, and it's such a shame. My family are discussing whether the thing they can see in the garden is a fox or a flowerpot. I'm watching a cooking show. Could this BE more English?!
I've decided to blog to you intermittently over the course of today, as today is going to be a little bit crazy and rushed. Nevertheless, I'm extremely excited. Jet lag is a wonderful thing, if only because it allows me to get up earlier in the morning and watch crappy TV and go outside when it's cold. This is a great morning. Hey, my grandmother has just presented my mother with three bottles of white wine. Why this is happening at 10 in the morning, I couldn't say.
Anyway, I should back up a few days first.
On Tuesday, I went to Concord in the afternoon with my mother, as she was looking for 'quirky' gifts for some English friends of hers. 11 months she has to buy gifts, and she starts looking literally on the last day. We didn't have very long to look, but she found necklaces in a place we've been to before. I had to get back quickly so I got a drink and we left, when a thunderstorm started. I had a few minutes after getting back, and then in the evening I went to my friend's house. That was a whole lot of fun. It was with some people who I'd only met like once before so it was a bit weird at first, but it got normal pretty quickly. They all swam but I didn't feel like it, so I just sat on the side for that first part of the night and listened to music. After that we went inside and had food, and observed his younger siblings being hilarious(ly awkward). Afterwards we went outside and played Manhunt in the dark and again, Manhunt isn't really my thing but I hung out on the deck for whichever team was convenient at the time. After everyone left I played Animal Crossing for a few minutes. That was a really awesome day.
My family always pack on the last day. it may sound nightmarish, and trust me it is, but since we didn't have to go until the late afternoon this could have been worse. It turned out I couldn't really fit all my clothes in my suitcase, so that was a problem, and there were issues with electronics and what have you, so that took away most of the day, though there was a bit of time after to read. Headed to the airport at about 5 ish. Not too busy and no flight delays, got through security quickly, had dinner, and got on the flight.
It's always fun, hearing English accents on the cabin crew on Virgin Atlantic flights. We got off the ground quickly and were faced with a surprisingly short flight(5 and 3/4 hours. Thank the jet stream). Luckily, I got the good entertainment system this time round so I got to actually choose what I wanted to watch. The first thing I watched was this documentary called the Only Way is Essay, which I've heard loads about. Basically, it follows the lives of a group of 'chavs' in Essex, a place infamous for its poofy-haired, orange-skinned, high-heeled white trash residents. I'm actually from Essex, but I just take that in my stride. The show was brilliant and I can't wait to watch more while I'm here. Unfortunately the Office wasn't on the plane, but THEY ADDED PEEP SHOW TO THE LIST. First year they've done that! It may have taken seven years, but Peep Show has reached that milestone. I also watched 30 Rock(my 2nd time--pretty okayish), Family Guy(getting progressively less clever and funny as time goes by, it seems), the Simpsons(still going strong, if largely ignored, like the opposite of Family Guy), Modern Family(actually not bad), and the Inbetweeners. Oh my god, the Inbetweeners. Everyone in England's been crazy about that show, and this is the first time I've watched it. It's not like comedy genius but, wow, is it addicting. My mind was blown by how awesome Will is...and whoever plays Jay, they're brilliant, that was amazing. But wow, WILL. He's like a young Mark Corrigan, and it's great. Hopefully I can watch more episodes again. The show's like crack. Oh yeah, and my mother accidentally ripped the upholstery off the plastic part of her chair, and there was this god almighty tearing sound throughout the almost-silent cabin.
We had to circle about a bit before landing, Heathrow being insanely busy as always. Getting out of the airport, however, wasn't nearly as bad as it sometimes is. Got our luggage quickly. My grandparents had ordered a taxi for us, so he picked us up and we drove for 90 minutes to get to the house. I listened to Manchester Orchestra and slept for the first time in almost 24 hours. We finally got to my grandparent's house, and I felt dreadful so I forced myself to fall asleep in broad daylight. That afternoon I went down to the corner store, and bought English candy and music magazines. Very interesting to see how things change over the course of a year. We got back and had dinner.
On Friday, we went into the center of town for the afternoon after a slow morning. We're at a tourist-y beach town so naturally we dropped by the beach for a few minutes, which I guess was nice. Then we went food shopping, and went into Boots, where I spotted some lipgloss in every color under the sun, placed with no irony intended among pictures of pouty-lipped women. Then, finally, after 11 months of waiting, I got to back to my favorite store in the entire world...HMV. Oh my god, it's like heaven. Unfortunately I think they're planning to shut down some HMV shops(loss of income, illegal downloading, competition from iTunes, digital generation, you've heard it all before). And I honestly don't know how I'll be able to survive without it in future years. It's like bliss, they have SO many CDs and DVDs and they play awesome music and they have such great deals. I've mentioned the Two CDs for 10 Pounds deal before, and it's great because you can go in there and just buy something you never even considered buying, and you might end up loving it. Also, I got Imelda May's record for three pounds. Three pounds! How about that? Also, the new Kaiser Chiefs album. But looking through the selection, in that moment I just wanted infinite money so I could walk out of that place with twenty CDs--Wild BEasts, Patrick Wolf, Jamie Woon, James Blake, the Horrors, the lot. But two for now will suffice. Oh yes, and my mom bought something by Them Crooked Vultures. Honestly not something I would listen to otherwise, but it's a very slick record. Also I finally found Amlie on DVD! Ahh, the endless list of wonderful things about HMV. One of the things in England I still miss. I think it'd just make being a music fan so much more enjoyable, cause it's something I could do regularly--once a week or something--and I could buy new releases or I could buy old stuff so cheaply, and I would feel like I actually lived in a culture that cares about music. And I mean caring about it in the way that people who are really into music do(not just the godawful pop/emo/shitty gross commercial rock crowds). That would be so, so wonderful. Anyway, enough of HMV for now. In the evening my aunt came by, and I had a great night from then on.
Now, it is currently late in the evening of today. I had a pretty decent day. After that morning I ate lunch outside as a picnic, on these retro picnic mats that are from the actual 70s, and are covered in flowers and swirly patterns and they're just the coolest things. In the afternoon I went shopping at this really cool town near here, mostly to allow my mother to buy gifts for her friends again. So, we went into quirky shops and they had a market, and markets are pretty amazing. We went into furniture shops and I bought stuff at an old-fashioned sweets shop, which I ate secretly in a local cafe. I ended up walking through a lot of the town barefoot. We went swimming at this public pool and it was late so it was really quiet and nice, then in the evening we walked around a park outside. We had curry for dinner and watched trashy TV. The perfect English evening, no?
This is getting pretty ramble-y, so I'll get back to you later in the week. I'll quickly tel you I've been listening to a lot of Arctic Monkeys, Katy B, Them Crooked Vultures, et cetera. Not reading anything terribly interesting at this very second. That's it. Goodnight. Enjoy your summers.
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