No pictures today

5/1/09 11:03 AM

I'm on the 11:20 train to Salisbury, luggage stowed, and I'm waiting now for 11:20. These trains certainly are punctual, I'll say that! British trains are almost as fun as the tube and just as useful.

I got my luggage on the train all by myself! Either I've gotten stronger (hah, yeah, right), or my bags aren't as heavy as they were the last time I travelled. I'm leaning toward that one myself.

So, one bathroom, four girls, and everyone decided to wake up early to take showers. With my alarm set for 9, I was actually the last one scheduled to wake up! (we had no shower schedule--probably a stupid idea in retrospect). I woke up at eight, though, and ended up third in the shower. I had wanted to be first, so my shower stuff had a chance to dry a little before I threw it in my bags. Oh well. Kate almost used my towel, though. She couldn't find hers, so Kathleen said, "Oh, there's a towel hanging in that wardrobe you can use." Yeah--my towel! I had already showered, though, so it wasn't there. I was trying to pack it. Since when was it appropriate to offer someone the use of a towel that's not yours!?

Ugh. I'm gone now. No more sharing that room. I just hope my accomadations keep improving.

As a bit of advice--do not eat 2+ cups of yogurt quickly followed by about half a bottle of water, unless you finish off the combination with some Dramamine. I suppose that's what I get for trying to use up my food stores before leaving...

While waiting for the taxi and train, I FINALLY started reading Red Seas Under Red Skies. It's just as good as the first so far. My favorite line, from Locke Lamora (roughly equivalent to Danny Ocean, from Ocean's 11, 12, and 13) to Jean Tannen (John) (his Rusty) in retaliation for some sarcastic praise given: "You're just farting out of your mouth because you're jealous."

5/1/09 11:02 PM

I'm at Mother Ann's house now. It's quite large, with at least four bedrooms and three bathrooms, a spacious kitchen, dining room, sitting room, and office. I have my own room with a bed, a little table and two chairs, and place to hang and store clothes. It's quite a nice little room, really. There are no mysterious stains on the carpet and I'm not afraid that the ceiling will break apart above me from the overenthusiastic usage of water by the people above. Distantly, every hour, I can hear the bells of Mother Ann's nearest church. It's quiet and pleasant out here.

I'm currently writing this from Mother Ann's computer, which is very nice, except it has a British keyboard. There are a few key but subtle differences. For example, the " and the @ signs are switched. My email addresses turn out blahblah"hotma.co.uk, while my quotes turn out as @You're just farting@. The left shift key is half the size of a normal shift key, with a \ key taking up the other half, so some of these sentences had started out with \while waiting until I corrected them. The 'Enter' key is also oddly-shaped, being bigger on top than on the bottom. # ~ key is beside it where the bigger bottom would be, and I've been hitting that sometimes accidentally. There's also another key, where the ~ key usually is, that has ` ¬ on it, and finally, the 3 key has the pound sign £ instead of the hash sign # and a way to make the Euro mark, except I can't figure out what key to press to get the third symbol on a key to show up.

Tomorrow, I plan to go into Salisbury and wander through recruitment agencies. I hope to get some job stuff started soon. I'm also going to talk to Linda at Sarum College and visit Barclays (I hope), to get my account straightened out. I might be able to visit Margaret as well, and give her her Christmas present.

It's getting late, and I'm rather tired. I did have a nap earlier today (fell asleep on the couch here, but Mother Ann fell asleep herself in the chair, so I didn't feel so bad), but it's really time for bed. Good night!