My Mumbling Thoughts

This past weekend I went to the Notting Hill Carnival with Helen, Louisa, Trish and Lorna (although Trish and Lorna didn't join the festivities until Monday). It was...brilliant, to say the least. And that's all I'll say, because what happens at the Carnival, stays at the carnival. Capiche? Capiche.

Swiftly moving on...

I'm currently typing this here post up at work, even though I'm not sitting in my Super Awesome Desk that allowed me free range on the net without any paranoia. I guess I'm living on the edge today, but mostly I just wanted to write a little update, because LORD, I have no time. Well, I do have time, but the majority of it has been spent traveling from ZONE 6 TO ZONE 2.

Three hours, my friends. Three hours every. single. day. I am either on one of the THREE trains that I have to take to get from Helen's house to work, or I'm walking. Lots of walking. All the time. I walk.

I must mention these birds that I see every morning after I leave Helen's house to go to the first train station, though. Apparently (from what Alex has told me), a couple of years ago, some exotic birds escaped from the zoo and are now flying all over the place in random parts of London. I think that a wild bunch have made their new home in Helen's neighborhood, because I see a large handful of these parrot-looking birds that are a vibrant green color and make the most annoying noise in the early morning. It felt like I was in some kind of Disney movie with all of them swarming above my head.

Right.

I don't really mind the journey itself. Yes, it's long and I have to wake up at 5 o'clock in the morning in order to catch my train at 7:26a.m. on the dot. I'm just not used to it, I suppose. It was so easy when we lived in the flat, because I jumped on one bus and stayed there for a maximum of thirty minutes (even with traffic) until it was time for me to hop off and walk the three minutes to the flat door. Easy peasy. I certainly took it for granted.

With the longer journey, though, and the fact that I'm on the overground and the underground, I get to see a variety of more people all heading into Central to go and do more important other things where they are required to wear fancy suits and shiny shoes. No more chavs/chav mothers/chav children for me to block out.

I go into work looking like I'm headed out for a day at the beach, regardless if it's sunny outside or not (which, recently it hasn't been so bright). I feel like I should make more of an effort now when I go out to be with the "fancy travelers". It's partly because now I'm living out of my suitcases while I stay at Helen's house, and digging through the never ending abyss that is holding all of my "office clothes" is just far too much effort for me to muster after I've woken up and fallen out of bed. I just can't be bothered.

I have also traded in my morning music whilst getting ready, and now instead listen to the morning news on the TV in the downstairs office while I fuss with my hair dryer and try to keep quiet from waking everyone up. It's different, but I feel more like I'm being kept up to date on my current events, which is a lot better than me listening to The Subways latest album for the hundreth time. Or maybe not, depending on who you're talking to I guess.

With all of this extra traveling time, though, I feel like I'm going to burn through all of my books in no time, leaving me with nothing to read, and "old" music that I've already listened to on repeat until my ears started bleeding. So I'm asking: y'all have any recommendations for me to keep me occupied? Music? Books? Funny magazine articles? It can be recent or old; so long as I've never heard of it, it'll be new to me. I just hate those annoying little newspapers that those guys are always handing out in front of the train station; they piss me off and I feel like I'm reading the same thing that everyone else is reading (hardy har har)...I like to be different.

And if you don't hear from me in a week or so, send out the search party. I probably got lost on one of the trains.