Birthdays, Work and Diesel

It's Izzy's birthday today - YAY! She's now officially joined me in the Land of Those Who Have Live a Quarter Century. It's a mouthful of a name, I know - we're working on an acronym. Or something. Point? HAPPY BIRTHDAY, IZZY!!

On a less exciting note, I worked five days this week, which is nice. Four full days - two at Mount Stewart Junior School (which is quite the fun little commute), one at Gayhurst, one at Three Bridges. Tuesday I had a half day of TA work at Holy Trinity, a school over in Richmond.

Last night, after working over in Southall, I couldn't take the waiting any longer and dragged Christa to Shepherd's Bush to see Fast and Furious 6. We met up first at a pub - Oneils - where I had fish and chips, in case you're wondering. The movie more than lived up to its predecessors. It was set in London - or at least a large chunk of it - and it was beyond nifty. I mean, just imagine sitting there in the theatre and up there on the screen Vin Diesel and Michelle Rodriguez are racing down streets you regularly walk. It's just surreal. Whenever Montreal is used as a filming location it tends to get featured as a backdrop pretending to be somewhere else...or just plays host the green screens so this was a new experience.

See? This is me at Piccadilly Circle. Behind me? Those would the neon billboards and Piccadilly Circle's claim to fame. Well, one of its claims to fame. Now, pan out a lot, picture it at night, cut down on the traffic, and throw in Diesel and Rodriguez racing through in some fast cars and you get...

How bloody freaking cool is that?!

Plus, you know, this is a movie where Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, and others drive around London and Spain in fast cars  to defeat a bad guy and reunite their family. Need more really be said?

Okay, one more thing needs to be said. This movie had the best opening credits of the franchise, hands down. Actually, in terms of methodology, it may have had the best opening credits of any sequel yet thrown on the screen. They combined clips from the all the previous films, giving you a montage of key scenes that set up the story about to be told. It was a clever bit of genius on the part of the director (or, you know, whoever it is who gets credit for the credits.)

Epic.

Star Trek into Shoes

Yet another awesome weekend.

Guess what I finally saw? Star Trek into Darkness! Went to one of the early shows over in Shepherd's Bush with Christa. It was awesome; well worth the freaking FOUR YEAR wait (and if there is a god in heaven the next sequel will not be in 2017 but some time a lot sooner, please and thank you). I loved seeing how the story continued to build on the first movie, prodding the characters closer and closer to the heroes fans expect them to be. Best part of all, however, is how the films keep twisting the established mythology. They take what's been done, what viewers expect, shake it up, and spit out something that's familiar yet unique all at the same time. The death scene, for instance, totally blew my mind. Plus, you know, Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto are just plain yummy.

I hate shoes. You ever read MaryJanice Davidson's Betsy Taylor series? The main character, Betsy, is a shoe addict with whole rooms devoted to her shoe collection. I am nothing like her. I am her polar opposite. I do not wear heels. Or sandals. Or slip-ons. Or clogs. Or stilettos. Or...well, the list goes on. I wear sneakers. Just sneakers. And, okay, one pair of black knee-high boots, but aside from that I'm strictly a sneakers girl. Sneakers are awesome. They're comfortable. They can suit most outfits. Most importantly of all, they can fit both my lift and my foot with relative ease.

That being said, want to take a wild guess what's next to impossible to find in London? Sneakers. At least a reasonable price - they, of course, have Nike and Adidas and such but for like £50 and more. I checked everywhere and the closest I found were high-tops which don't fit with my lift. Finally resorted to some extreme Google hunting and found a store called Shoe Zone that seemed to sell what I was looking for. Trouble was finding the store in Hammersmith - always a fun area to navigate. Christa came along to help and, eventually, we found the store and, more importantly, the shoes. That did indeed fit with my lift. Mission accomplished!

We grabbed lunch at Nando's there in Hammersmith but the chicken they put in Christa's sandwich was teeny tiny and the waitresses were rude. Wasn't impressed. Returned to my place afterwards for some hanging out before Christa went back to Forest Hill.

Pretty awesome weekend all the way around.

Gold Lining

Gah. Another GPS void week. Well, sort of. It was May Day on Monday, so it meant that GPS was condensed to a 3-out of-4  deal instead of 4-out of-5 as per usual. Guess who only worked 3 days? Two at Gayhurst, one at St Mary's. Bright side, last week I worked all five days at Gayhurst and last Wednesday I signed my GPS renewal contract. My silver lining is gold, honey.

On Tuesday, since I had the day off and nothing much else to do, and because I love my brother, I went to (= braved) Leicester Square. What, you ask, does this have to do with my brother? Well, since the world premiere of Fast & Furious 6 was set to be held there that night, they had a collection of cars from the movie parked there on display. Got pictures of the main cars driven by Walker (the blue) and Diesel (the black) ang got elbowed in the side by one overeager fan for my troubles. Opted not to stay around to see the actors - crowd was already pretty deep anyways. You're welcome, JR.

Totally made the short work week worth the while. Told you my silver lining was gold.