I'm currently watching Have I Got News For You, still at my grandparents' house. Show of the summer? Maybe? As well as the Inbetweeners and TOWIE? Probably. I've seen this before but I'm only really getting into it now. I'm also way into QI at the moment, I couldn't say why, it just seems to be the cornerstone of my evenings at the moment. I love UK television so much it's pathetic.
Anyway, there have been ups and downs to my time spent in England so far, but overall it's been great. I'm just trying to soak up the atmosphere, the culture, the summer. All the music I'm into, the food, the HMV, the Radiotimes, the unusually and wonderfully warm weather. It's all a lot of fun, and I'd better savor it as much as possible because I haven't got a long time here, have I? August 3rd. Wow.
Today, my mom got a little rental car to last us till Saturday. We're getting a different one for our time after this week. This one is small, and black, and a VW, with a working radio and CD player. Could be a hell of a lot worse, I've found! Like last year's which, if nothing else, was beige. Beige! I know! Like a crime against humanity. In the afternoon we went to a town round here in said new car. Hello, Radio 1! For some reason, I miss you every year. The town we went to is pretty old, and we also went round a small art museum(my mother's choice). Pretty good place, they had a Freida Carlo and Diego Rivera exhibition which was really great. Remarkably, I finally found the John Betjeman book I've been looking for in the gift shop! That was a great twist to the day. We got a drink then walked around the town a bit, found out a fairly well known theater club are doing Sweeney Todd there in September, and I was so incredible disappointed that I'll be back in the States at that point. They had an 11th century church round there, it was amazing, one of the best churches I've ever been into. They even had a guy playing the organ right there, it was an incredible. We walked around the outside, and it turns out some people have houses, right next to the place. We went to Tescos later, came home, had dinner, and watched TV in the night.
On Tuesday, I went to the beach with my mom, my sister, a couple of my mom's friends, and the sixteen-year-old daughter of one of said friends. They've known each other since they were very young, and I'm dragged along to say hello to them every summer. It's more then sufficiently awkward but I suppose it could be worse. We had picnic by a bowling green, which seems to be the local hangout for the elderly. My sister branded us 'characters'. Also they discussed the time when my mom played George III in a school play, which was news to me. Afterwards, we went down to the beach. I went in the sea. It was typically cold and a much less appealing color than it is on the other side of the Atlantic. Afterwards we got ice cream--how I miss Cornettos--and walked by the coast. This is a very quaint, very old-fashioned seaside town, and it's one I've always liked very much. I'd never live here but an afternoon by the seaside is bliss. I came home listening to Eliza Doolittle, and stayed in for another slow night of TV. A good day.
On Monday my aunt went back to work, and I went to a lake round here that we've been to a couple of times now. It was a fairly hot day, but luckily the place wasn't that busy. We fed the ducks, went for a row on the lake, and got ice cream. (America needs banoffee ice cream desperately). We then walked around a nature reserve a little way down the road from there. I can't say I'm a fan of nature reserves(if one can say such a thing) but at least the weather made that portion of the day bearable. I had a great day, finally had a really good TV schedule that night. God, I love QI so, so much, I love watching it in the evening and must get every single episode on TV right this instant. I laughed so, so much at that episode. Oh, and here's one more funny thing I discovered that day, to do with the show Who Do You Think You Are. I guess it's pretty popular both sides of the pond, but it's a genealogy show where each week they trace the history of a celebrity. They listed the people featured on the show in a magazine, which just happens to include the one celebrity my family think we might be related to. Unfortunately, my mother happens to hate this guy soooo it's a pretty funny coincidence that we might find out for sure whether he's related or not.
And on Sunday, I went to a charity polo game with my mom, sister, and aunt. I suppose this is with a touch of irony but I'm not certain. It raised money for a good charity so I can't complain, though. We got there and walked around the stalls, most of which were pretty typical, but one of them was a 'Silent Auction', where a set of prizes are lined out and you write down a bid and, naturally, the highest wins. Things included football shirts, signed books, et cetera. One of them was a set of things signed by Peter Andre. Yeah. For those of you not familiar with Peter Andre, he's a singer meets reality TV star famous for dating a glamour model and being the dead end of society. He also fell out of the public eye(if you can ever really say he was in it) about five years ago. Now, someone only bid ten pounds for this, so my aunt bid twenty out of sympathy. Unfortunately we've heard nothing yet so I suspect we lost, but it was a very funny moment. Since the place was fairly empty, someone even let us go in the VIP area! Benefits included being behind a white picket fence, sitting on chairs, and being surrounded by people far wealthier and more cultured than yourself. Seriously though, that was a lot of fun. I had fun watching the game, though I can't say polo was really my sort of thing! Overall though that was a different experience, and good fun.
My only additional thing deserving of mention is my interest in the Inbetweeners, which I would say has evolved into a full obsession. I can't wait for the movie in a couple of weeks, also I can't wait to buy it on DVD and watch it back in the States. My mother is surprisingly okay with this, considering some of the language in this show. But yknow, British comedy, censorship or moderation really aren't fashionable things. Although this show probably takes the cake for crudeness, as my mom was speechless for much of the first scene of her first episode the other day! It's an awesome show and I'm loving it, can't believe I never watched it until now! Especially when there's a Mark Corrigan-esque character, wow, it was made for me.
I'm off to a night of yet more comedy TV.
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