//red tide: the phenomenon.

a couple weeks ago kelly and i were sitting in her flat when out of the blue she asked me what is/causes red tide. now, being the knower of all things random, a title upon which i pride myself, i tried to bs my way through it, but gave up when i realized that i had no idea what i was talking about (sadly, not an unusual occurance). i ended up asking dad as he is the original knower of all things random and obscure, and after a week of what i'm sure included many sleepless nights on google.com, i have an answer.

from dad himself, the answers of red tide!!
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it is actually an algae bloom that happens from time to time when the ocean warms up in the summers. it is called red tide because the algae often has a red tinge to it so as it rolls in with the tide it can look reddish. the problem happens when the bi-valves like clams and oysters feed on the algae, the toxin that this type of algae has in it naturally builds up in the clam. it does not bother the clams/oysters at all but can poison and kill mammals (including humans) and birds if they happen to eat to much. the old wives tale is no never pick and eat clams/mussels/oysters and such during months without an R in them (namely summer months may-august) . now a days though the fisheries test the water for signs of the algae regualrly and post warnings if it is starting to build up. it has always been around, there are reports of crew members on Captain Vancouver's ship dieing after eating mussels they found on shore and from the discriptions in the ships doctors log they are sure it was from red tide. (they do think that polution has caused it to be worse and more frequent though)

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oooh, pretty.

//...

BUGGER LEONARDO DICAPRIO.

and never try to do an african accent again.

//our savage frontiers.

this made me lol.

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2007/01/12

//...

charlie and the chocolate factory

+

baileys milkshakes

=

happy maria and amanda.

//"i'm getting really friendly with the photocopier..."

"well, at least i'm not asking you to laminate again!"

That is the conversation that Lynette and I have every day. Lynette is the ayatolla of st. swithuns resources and i'm her go to girl when the work starts to pile up.


I'm currently sitting in the resources room waiting for the mammoth of a photocopier to finish printing off job number 7 of today. Eight 30-page booklets on light yellow paper, double sided, whole punched, not stapled.


I've decided to fill you in on London. Christmas break was Scotland, Spain, France, London/Rickmansworth. We arrived in England on the night of the second and spent the next day or so recouping from our adventures. my birthday was really low key which i spent with kelly and katrin. we went out the next night on the 5th to London's Ice Bar. Yes, this is literally a bar made of ice. well, an ice room, rather. the chairs are ice, the walls are ice, the glasses are made of ice - it's crazy cold too! but they give you these brilliant silver poncho things with fur hats and arctic trek gloves, so it's pretty cozy, aside from your feet... it's was really fun and the lot of us had a great time, except for the little bit about us missing the last train home and having to taxi from harrow-on-the-hill. but it was only 25 quid between the 5 of us, so it could've been worse.

I went home saturday morning and spent the weekend cleaning my flat, dancing to the sweet sounds of justin timberlake and sean paul, watching movies and washing every item of clothing i own. believe it or not, this was relaxing compared to the madness of the prior three weeks. monday night, however, was back to the madness. kelly, katrin and i went out for my birthday present. kelly bought me tickets to see Chicago on the west end.

we also had supper at Porter's restaurant before the show. it was so much fun. my recommendation of the week is to come to london and see this show. it'll pretty much blow your mind.

then, the most glorious thing happened. i was heading home, waiting for the train at the undergroud, passing the time by looking at the big ass posters everywhere. (this is the good part) i see a sign. it's justin timberlake. futuresex/lovesounds. i get all giddy. then i realize that it's not promoting the cd. it's promoting the tour. the tour that's coming to london in july! the tour that's coming to london in july BEFORE i go home.

he's bringin' sexyback.

HOLLA! so, it's been decided, written in stone and spit-hand-shaked on that we're going. my life is very soon to be complete.


best birthday ever? pretty much.

// we'll always have paris...

and the fond memories of loosing absurd amounts of money. allow me to start from the beginning...

we land in the early morning hours of december 30th at paris, orly. (we being kelly & i). we get all our crap together and head straight for the metro. i had gotten uber dodge directions from the hotel website the night before, so we were finding faith in an airport, praying that they were correct. we decide to buy and all day metro ticket as we foresaw a long day of sightseeing ahead of us. €17. 'nuff said. we hope on the metro and eventually find our way to "the nearest metro station" - la defense. we hop out and begin our search for the elusive D7. (allow me to make it clear that we did not know if D7 was a bus, train, metro, or road...) we searched for a solid 45 minutes before learning that Suresnes was infact an outskirt of paris and that we were actually 15 miles from it. yeah.... super!

we then went on a hunt for the bus. (with a solid 25 kilos of crap luggage strapped to our backs, mind you.) to this day, i'm still not clear on the events that lead up to us not taking the bus and walking 10km, but somehow, this is what happened. after an exahustive 3 hour (give or take) walk, we finally stumble upon our hotel. with tears in our eyes, we check in and haul our sorry asses up to the room. katrin (one of kelly's beloved germans) was already there and all rarin' to go. we quickly got changed, and then realized that the insessent growling was not eachother's subtle hints of frustration, but rather our stomaches as we had not eaten in more than a day.

thus began the hunt for mcdonalds. yes, we ate mcdonalds in france. yes, it was because NOTHING else was open. god knows why... between the three of us we ate enough for six. no i am not kidding or exaggerating in the slightest. it was revolting. but i ordered in french, so i still take a certain pride with that meal. needless to say, after a 10km+ root march and a french burger feast, we headed back to the hotel and crashed for the next 15 hours or so.

the next day was new years eve. this, in summary, consisted of ridiculous amounts of rain, 12 stops at the self-cleaning port-a-potty, 6 really drunk but amanda saving czech republicans, one bottle of unopenable vodka (katrin, i still love you for that phonebooth miracle!), and one very unenthusiastic parisian new years (unenthusiastic by paris - we rocked the kazzbah!)

now this next part, i wish i was making up, but alas, it is all too true. throughout spain, kel and i had just been going to coach stations on the day of and buying tickets, no problem. we got tickets on christmas eve, so all was good in the hood, or so we thought... ended up that every single coach for the next 4 days was completely booked. there were no trains, planes or automobiles for days. actually, that's a lie. as it turned out, there was one really flipping expensive plane. yay....... by really expensive, i actually mean that mum and dad had to take out a second morgage after i charged it to their visa as i was s.o.m(oney). (tbh, i'm paying them back in full, so there no "daddy's money" in this scenario... i've screwed myself this time!) there was also the additional ordeal of booking the flights seperatly, and the price jacking up for the second ticket... my ticket. this led to me taking a later and cheaper flight, and just barely catching the last train to kelly's place in london. gong-show. i'm sure something else went horribly awry, but i'm currently blocking it out.

don't get me wrong though... on the whole, paris was great. we all had fun, despite the weather, and are hoping to go back before year's end. t'was good times in the land o' france.


EDIT: i forgot to mention. i also got ripped off €17 at a convienience store. officially the most expensive water and apple that i've ever boughten. but seriously, you try arguing with minimal french/ zero english and jack help from your friends. i finally just swore and stormed off with my €18.55 apple and water. tasty.

//bausch and lomb for the wealthy.

so... i just spent £9.95 on a 240ml bottle of bausch & lomb contact solution. I could have gotten a bottle of dodgy british stuff for a quater of the price, but considering that i've been using kelly's for the last 2 weeks and it nearly turned me blind, i decided to pony up the cash and stick with what i know. curse my sensitive eyes. curse the british import cost. impaired vision be damned, that was expensive.

//...

oh hizza.

it's my birthday.

party party 19 party.

aka legal in bc.