Soho Village

A few weeks ago, I was in Europe (well, I was also in Europe again last week, but that’s a whole other story). I had a job interview lasting two hours in London which necessitated me going there for the day from Brussels by train. That was an exhausting day.

Soon after, I was asked if I could delay my flight home to Canada and come back to London for a second interview. I did just that, taking a train in from Paris for another two hours of interview, staying overnight, and then taking the train back to Paris the next morning to catch my flight. That was a really exhausting day.

I was really hopeful about the job, they seemed very interested and it fit both my qualifications and personal interests very well. It would have been a fascinating job in a great city with good pay in a major, respected multinational company. I kept my fingers crossed, and yet the hardened cynic in me held on tenaciously, warning the rest of me against getting too optimistic.

It seems my cynicism took the day on that one. I won’t be going to London for that job after all. Back to square one on that front.

Deciding I needed to spend some quality time with my girlfriend while I still had the money and energy, I went back to Belgium last week to be a good person and caring companion. It was a very nice and relaxing week, despite being informed that I didn’t get the London job in the midst of it. I didn’t let it get me down, I have a lot going for me and I’m motivated to pursue a fulfilling career in my field.

Upon my return to Canada the other day, however, the border agents decided they wanted to spend some quality time with me and dampen a bit of that positive energy. Apparently, visiting a girlfriend in Europe while ‘unemployed’ (c’mon, I just finished my Masters barely two months ago, and I haven’t even officially graduated yet) allows one the opportunity to be ‘interviewed’ for an hour, have all one’s bags thoroughly searched, get frisked against a wall and be thoroughly intimidated. It’s kind of scary how a few people in uniform can so easily crush your dignity for no reason you are aware of. If there’s a law against being well-traveled, no one told me about it.

I got my marks, and I passed with distinction, something I should be (and am) quite proud of. So there you have it, I now have a Masters degree from the London School of Economics. And yet at 25, I find myself nearly broke and back in the old family home. Oh well, the Dandy Warhols are in town next weekend and I can, at least, still afford a ticket to that.

World marathon record holder Paula Radcliffe withdrew from the London Marathon on Thursday because of a toe tendon injury, but is still expected to recover in time for this August’s Beijing Olympics.

Radcliffe said:

I am desperately disappointed that I have to pull out of this year’s race.

I love running in London and this race would have been the perfect test for me before the Olympic Games.

After injuring her right toe while altitude training at her base in Albuquerque, N.M., Radcliffe said:

In marathon training there are no short cuts and there is simply not enough time to be in the shape I want to be in to run well in London. Now I must concentrate on being as well prepared as possible for Beijing.

Fingers crossed for a speedy recovery. I know Paula is desperate to make up for dropping out of the marathon at the 2004 Athens Games, despite winning gold at the World Championships in Helsinki, Finland a year later.

I completed the Hammersmith and City line today.

I had initially planned to run it as a single long run but in the end I took 3 attempts at it. I’m trying to take it gently with my back but today it was seizing up every time I stopped to take a photo and then I couldn’t get going again, as a result todays run bore a strong resemblance to walking in many parts.

Still, I did have to stop and take those photos, it’s not often that you get to look up a lady’s skirt without getting on your hands and knees.

This mid section of the H&C line was a visual treat. It started with the fantastic St Pancras building which is an absolute beauty from the outside and has now been renovated internally.

I can’t walk past the station without nipping in and gazing up in wonder at the roof and the clock. Strangely enough I manged to resist the longest Champagne bar in the world, I probably wasn’t dressed quite right anyhow.

Immediately after leaving the station and while the garmin is still attempting a lock on, I stumble into the grounds of the British Library and get acquainted with Newton.

I bet he’s got a bad back.

There are loads of interesting buildings to see on the Euston/Marylebone Rd so long as your vision is intact. All this running along busy highways is chucking all sorts of grit and general atmospheric pollutants into my eyes and I can feel my corneas abrading as I move.

This building is the St Marylebone Grammar School or Philological school, set up in 1792 to support families suffering under unexpected misfortune. Directly opposite this is the Samaritan Free hospital for women and children, where “Admission free, without letter of recomendation, poverty and sickness the only passport”.

It wasn’t all that long ago that life was tough.

Heading left, away from the grotty dual carriageway, I veered towards Paddington station. Here’s another area of fabulous architecture but shamefully it is one that has worked hard to develop a shabby overcoat. St Mary’s Hospital must have been imposing in its day and you can look up to the second floor window and imagine Alexander Fleming poring over his agar plates of penicillin.

From Paddington onwards, the interest in the route declined for me. The stations were such a flippin faff to get to. Royal Oak for example, is almost an extension to the platform at Paddington, I’ve often wondered what it’s point was but when you try to get to it by road you have to wiggle in and out of streets for about 2k. Ridiculous. Royal Oak to Westbourne Park is even worse and really, why would you want to bother. Get the tube that’s my advice.

Ladbroke Grove is the home of the Portobello Road market so there was a bit of colour here, but I’m disappointed that I wasn’t able to hire a nice red Ferrari.

Salomon XT Wings Challenge
Today:
10 Tube Stations
10.84 km
Sports Tracker map with photos

Cumulative:
38 Tube Stations
36.56 km
See the combined progress map here.

Warriorwoman vs Jogblog 100m Challenge Combo
23.9 miles total

Universities were asked to provide information concerning the number of students graduating from the university with an LLB degree with each of the following awards:

[a] First class honours
[b] Second class (upper division) honours
[c] Second class (lower division) honours
[d] Third class honours
[e] Pass degree
[f] Other award

for each of the following years:

[a] 2007
[b] 2006
[c] 2002
[d] 1997
[e] 1987

If the university did not hold the information requested for some or all of the years indicated, but did hold the requested information in respect of other years, it was asked to provide information in respect of the year(s) closest in date to that/those requested.

Where appropriate universities were asked to provide information which they held relating to precursor institutions, such as the former polytechnics.

Based on the information provided, the table below shows, as a percentage of the total awards, the awards for each class in each of the years indicated.

..

–

Links		Click
	CRIMINAL LAW RECORDED LECTURES, QUIZZES AND POWERPOINT PRESENTATIONS	Criminal Law Online
	REVISION SEMINARS FOR LLB AND GDL STUDENTS	QED LAW REVISION

–

–

So there I was on the Central line this morning, still trying to wake myself up from my usual morning stupor. Opposite me was a blonde woman, who was probably a few years younger than me but was smartly turned out.

It was shaping up to be the usual non-eventful journey into work, when it happened.

Blondie yawned.

And blow me, but did she cover her mouth? No. Which meant I got a full view of her tonsils. Ugh. This bothered me so much that I became like those people who slow down when they drive past a crash scene. You know, morbid fascination. I suddenly found that whilst I was totally grossed out by watching her open mouth, I couldn’t keep my eyes off it.

She yawned again. I noticed it.

A few moments passed.

Then she gave another yawn. I was even more grossed out when I noticed that she had two thin saliva lines connecting two of her bottom teeth to her incisors (on either side of her mouth). Yuck. Why couldn’t this woman cover her mouth when she yawned? And why, goddamit, could I not look away when she yawned?!

Feeling really quite yucky about the whole thing now, I endeavoured to look in a different direction when her next yawn arrived. I really, really tried. But you know what? Short of physically turning my head away, I could still spy her yawning out of the corner of my eye (blast that periphery vision of mine!).

By this time not only was I grossed out, I had also started a rant in my head. What was wrong with people nowadays, that they could not do the simple courtesy of covering up their mouth when they yawned? What, I wondered, would she do if I leaned across and politely asked if she could cover her mouth when yawning next? Would she be pissed off? (Actually, being British, she would probably be so gob-smacked and so embarrassed that she would maybe just do it). If we’re all told it’s not polite to chew with your mouth open, and to keep our mouths covered when we cough and sneeze, then why can’t people work out that it’s polite to cover their mouths when yawning?

Grr.

Still, by the time I’d exhausted my rant, I’d reached my stop, so I left feeling slightly more energetic than when I boarded my train.

Yawn.

Peter and I attended our very first pizza on rails event and have to say had a really good time. Grows on you is written in Ruby on Rails and we got a few tips and also met some interesting people working on interesting rails projects. One of the nicest applications is Adrian’s WWF (wildlife, not wrestling) footprint calculator. Try it out. My footprint is a terrible 2.74 planets! Sign up and start following it’s suggestions to bring your footprint down.

By the way… We are looking for a Rails developer. Ideally someone we can work long term with us and who believes in what we are doing.

I work at the corner of Spring and Varick. Next door to the new Trump building that’s going up. When
my coworker heard/saw the collapse, he yelled “oh s**t!”. I sit right next to the window, so i turned
around and started seeing large chunks falling to the ground. We looked up and saw this:

notice that a good chunk of the 42nd floor collapsed.

Norman, one of our friends and coworkers, saw the debris fall from above about 10ft in front of him.

We’ve been watching the ambulances and fire trucks come and go. So far we think that one person
died and a few others have been injured.

For more information: Gothamist, NY1

(…)Read the rest of Trump Soho Collapses (0 words)

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Yesterday afternoon, just as the sun was coming out, I was wondering mellow-minded down Mulberry Street, where I encountered a man handing out candy stamped with cartoon mushrooms. I gathered this was connected to the giant pile of pulsh, adorably demonic Japanese ’shrooms I spied through the storefront, so I decided to investigate. I made my way past the sculpted tumble of stuffed mushrooms, beyond a post-nuclear soft-drink refridgerator stocked with mushroom-printed aluminum cans, and down a flight of stairs to a plate of biscuit-colored mini-mushrooms labelled “EAT ME.” I plopped one into my mouth, thinking that the sense of taste ought to be incorporated into conceptual art more often. As the super-sweet candy dissolved, it released a sugary cloud of powder that somehow lodged in my windpipe. I couldn’t breathe.

Red-faced and wheezing, with my panic deepening by the second, I made a dash for the exit and worst-case-scenarioed down the street onto a 6 train just as the doors whirred shut. I realized I had unconsciously steered myself toward home. Better to die unobserved in my studio apartment if I could manage it, I guess.

I slumped across from the loudest trio of tourists in Manhattan. Doughy and middle-aged, but giddy and dressed in spangly denim, their cocktail-fueled screeching filled the car. “OHMYGAWD you were so right ON. Everyone was wearing JEANS in that place!” I focused on the toe-cleavage on one, who’d crammed fat digits into her narrow high heels, in a zen-like effort to quell the unsatisfied coughing fit. Somehow they must have taken this as a sign of friendliness. One of them, a frosted blonde no older than forty but whose face furrowed like a pug’s, handed me a camera. “Can you take our picture?”

I was still convulsing, and it was hard to hold the camera still. “When were the subways built?” Toe-Pudge asked after I snapped the picture, as if the exact date was something I should know. I actually did, but would be deliberately vague about it to my dying breath. “Around 1900,” I choked.

“1900, that’s impossible,” Pug-Face said. “They didn’t have subways back than. How would they run?” I stared at them, purple, snot running uncontrollably down my face. “Steam!” said their friend. They all found this uproriously funny, laughing with their faces pointed at me. “Steam!” Toe-Pudge squealed, kicking her porcine feet. They were still cackling as I fled the car at Astor Place, hacking out the last of the mushroom-candy dust.

How to Cook Dokomodake?

The East London Community Recycling Partnership was founded in 2001 as a not-for-profit community organisation. Based in Hackney, London it has grown considerably over the years. The partnership now has food waste processing sites in the London Borough of Waltham Forest, the London Borough of Barking & Dagenham, and the London Borough of Hackney. On top of this they have a large scale green waste composting site on the Hackney Marshes which deals with 100’s of tonnes of waste each year.

ELCRP can provide a number of services to Government Departments, Local Authorities, Social Landlords, commercial companies and organisations, and charity organisations.

These services include:

Food waste recycling

Green waste recycling

Dry recycling, including. paper, glass and cans (for estates)

Dry recycling including paper and cans (for businesses)

Consultancy and workshops

ELCRP for more information

This is our first guest recipe on this site and hopefully not the last. McMommy from The McMommy Chronicles offered up this “heaven on earth” London Broil recipe to share with our readers and to make my mouth water!

Here is her recipe:

This recipe is heaven on earth:
An inexpensive cut of meat
All the ingredients are probably right in your kitchen already.
Requires use of BBQ….which right there tells you this recipe is going to kick ass.

• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon ketchup
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 4 pounds flank steak

1. In a small bowl, mix together garlic, salt, soy sauce, ketchup, olive oil, black pepper and oregano.
2. Score both sides of the meat, diamond cut, about 1/8 inch deep. Rub garlic mixture into both sides of the meat. Wrap tightly in aluminum foil or seal in a Ziploc bag, and refrigerate for 5 to 6 hours, or overnight. Flip meat every few hours.
3. Preheat an outdoor grill for high heat, and lightly oil grate.
4. Place meat on the prepared grill. Cook for 3 to 7 minutes per side, or to desired doneness.

Please visit The McMommy Chronicles for a honest blog about being a mother. McMommy is the mother of two young children and married to McDaddy. She also knows how to cook a mean London Broil.

If you would like to contribute a recipe to this blog please email us at chef [at] twotonguesup dot com.