I'll Be Damned

You ever wonder what happened to old friends from public and/or high school? Well, Eva just sent me a link to update me on one of my old friends Tracy Brookshaw. Yup, that's her.

I used to go over to her farm and slide down her stairwell on a mattress. And we used to ride the pigs. I guess she probably wrestles them now. In a hot pink bikini.

Good for a laugh after a decidedly somber week.

More Canadian Humour

For those of you who think that Canadian humour is limited to the rural Great White North (ala Trailer Park Boys or Corner Gas, the only Canadian shows that seem to be attracting international attention right now), here's an example of a more urbanized form of Canadian humour.

Kenny vs Spenny Short

OK... you will notice that this short has obviously filmed in Los Angeles (as is evidenced by Spenny's romantic stroll along Venice Beach). But these guys are Canadian through and through, and this short is the predecessor of Canadian Showtime's Kenny vs Spenny, which includes such great contests as "Who Can Drink the Most Beer?" and "Who Can Live In a Van the Longest?". All filmed in Toronto.

And the first season is coming out on DVD in one short week. Booyeah.

Engerland and Home Again

Let me start this post off with a word of warning: I am MASSIVELY sleep deprived. I am doubting my abilities to string more than 4 coherent words together. Of course, this lack of logical abilities at the moment is making it very difficult to get programming done at work. So to make use of my time, I am going to post some pictures of note from my trip that I promised that I would get up, and attempt to fill in the holes of my final few days in Engerland.

First, some pictures of activites that I have already summarized:



This is the greeting I got at Heathrow. (Kidding: this of course would be Guy Fawkes festivities. I thought that I wouldn't be so cruel as to put the picture of Simon in his tux up).



This is Matt, Simon and I at Guy Fawkes after most of the festivities have taken place.



And this is Vivian, Mark, and Matt at that random house in the country that we ended up staying at.



This is Becky, Ryan, Emily and Glen at the Red Bull, the pub across the way from their college. The Red Bull is the #1 alternative when the college bar is rented out for other activites (e.g., Sweaty Salsa night, which is quite truly quite sweaty I learned later in the week after having to walk through the Sweaty Salsa-ers)



This is where we had Formal Hall at Oxford. This picture was taken pre-dinner, as I was expressly told that whipping my camera out during dinner was not proper etiquette. So unfortunately I have no photographic evidence of actually sitting high table.



Here are Ryan and Glen in the Bear for a pre-dinner pint. Note the ties on the wall behind: the whole place is covered in tie clippings which the pub owners apparently like to collect off of their patrons.



This is a picture from the patio outside of Ryan's new residence room. A few months ago, Ryan and the Finn moved into a little cottage that is just behind the college itself, and is much nicer than the room that he had before. Also, it has a patio. And is about 4 times the size as his previous room. Brilliant.



And this is the cottage that said room is located in. Nikie, you will appreciate how much better this place is than his old room. You may want to consider another visit out there to take advantage of the accomodations alone.



Here we are giving positive reinforcement to James whilst he is carrying out his Portering duties. Explanation: at all the colleges in Cambridge (and Oxford), there is a Porter on duty. At the vast majority of colleges, these Porters are hired as full time staff, and effectively act as Guards for the College. Wolfson has the unique distinction of also having 2 student Porters on staff: those Porters would be James and Ryan. So they have universal access anywhere on the college. And control of the security cameras. And intimate knowledge of the going-ons behind the scenes. And power beyond their wildest dreams.



Here is Ryan giving a brief tutorial on the Trailer Park Boys to Nick and Simone (not shown). This will come in handy in the next couple of weeks for the "Best of Trailer Park Boys" showing that will be occuring in one of the common rooms. I wish I were there to see it. Hessels and Conrad: Ryan may well be joining us in Halifax for NYE so that he can make a pilgrammage to the Trailer Park where the Boys is filmed. Should be good times.



Here are Ryan, Becky and James after the Wolfson formal hall. A considerably different experience than the Christ Church formal. Much more wine and Port.



For my final evening in the UK, James and Becky had us over for a fantastic chicken dinner in their new flat. This is Becky and I after dinner. And after 3 Yorkshire puddings.

Mmmm. Yorkshire Puddings.



And here I am with Emily (who I finally got to meet this trip... even though we stayed at her place last time I was in Cambridge) at a Wolfson party on my last night there. Emily: you will note that I HAVE NOT put the ass picture up. But I do have it, and may be forced to use it as collatoral in the future. Hee hee.



And finally, a picture of Ryan, Simone and Emily during my last few hours at the college. Shortly after this, I went to bed. For 2 hours. I then picked up the 3:30am bus for Heathrow, took said bus, got on the plane, arrived in Toronto, was driven home by Vik, and found a (very hungover) Lynne on my couch. Out for the evening to Fion Maccool's, where an early evening turned into one that saw me in bed after 3am. 30+ hours after I got up. Yesterday was a bit of a blur, as I think I was only awake for about 8 hours (pretty much long enough for me to give Lynne a ride to the airport). Hence the fatigue and lack of creative thought whatsoever.

And as promised, this morning sees a new Anderson with a healthier lifestyle. We'll see how long this lasts.

Engerland: Vol. II

Sitting here and sipping coffee as I'm looking over the courtyard from Ryan's new room is making me re-evaluate some of my lifeplans. I understand that viewing the country from the eyes of a tourist is considerably different from actually living here, but still...

As I was mentioning last time, we headed off to Oxford to meet up with Glen (who is from Moosejaw BTW), a fellow at Christ Church at Oxford. After a 3 hour bus ride (that wasn't nearly as bad as Ryan warned), we arrived in Oxford early afternoon. Brilliant city. Much like Cambridge, but larger. After a few items of business (Ryan had to drop an application off at Jesus.. Hee hee: the college is called Jesus), we headed over to what was touted by the Canuckers as being 'The Best Bar in the World', The Turf. This is apparently where Clinton didn't inhale. 'Twas a very cool pub indeed.

From there, we headed over to Glen's office at Christ Church. Sadly, I will never, ever have an office as cool as his (Sigh... THAT'S how the other academic half lives). After a tour around the college and surrounding grounds, we headed over to The Bear (which both Simon and Matt insisted I must go) and the White Horse (another tiny pub). Side note: if ANY of these pubs were in the Tdot, they would be my favorite bars in town. Hands Down.

And I'm listing every place that we went for the sole purpose of making Cleavers jealous.

Sitting high table was also ubercool. The hall is exactly like it looked in Harry Potter, and, to put things in perspective, I would have been seated right next to Dumbledore (come to think of it, I think I was in Snape's seat). Instead, I was seated beside Glen and another fellow, who I failed miserably at making small talk with. The conversation went something like this:

Me: So what are your research interests?
Him: I'm interested in the Social Relationships between religions in the 15th and 16th century.
Me: Huh.
[long pause]
... so, you like stuff?

Not so good with the small talk, turns out. So instead, I talked to Glen and Ryan most of the night. Although at one point the chap beside me had to turn to me again and tell Glen to hurry up and finish eating, as the entire hall must wait until everyone at high table is finished eating before the next course is brought out. Hee hee. At least it wasn't me.

Afterwards, we ended up in the Common Room with the other fellows for after dinner drinks. While we were sitting around talking, an article about Oxford in The Economist was pointed out that started off with the line: 'When people think of Oxford, they typically think of Fellows sitting around in robes while sipping port in a wood panelled room'. We read this while surrounded by Fellows in robes, and sipping port in a wood panelled room. It was funny. We booked it about an hour later, headed back to the Turf (2 visits in 8 hours, I think that's pretty good), and then back to Glen's apartment for sleep.

Back on the bus yesterday morning, got back to Cambridge early afternoon, at which point I came back to Ryan's room and crashed. For about 3 hours. Last night was a casual one, which involved:
1. Going to the Red Bull (the local pub across the street) and talking research with Ryan (I really do think we may be able to collaborate on something sometime soon)
2. My first (and definitely not last) exposure to MonkeyDust
3. Sitting with Becky (British) and Lauri (Finnish) and watching Trailer Park Boys (apparently everyone here loves the Trailer Park Boys: this is the impression that they have of small town Canada... which in reality isn't that far off the mark).
4. Street Meat.

And today, after going to lunch with Ryan, Becky and James, I'm going to explore Cambridge. I think I'll go to Marks and Spencer to get some underwear.

And I'm going to hunt down the PostDoc adverts in London that were forwarded to me. I've got some serious thinking to do.

Engerland: Vol. I

While I didn't plan on blogging during my vacation, I realized yesterday that I should keep some record of my goings-on. I had this epiphany yesterday morning, when I woke up in a cottage somewhere in the South England countryside. And no idea how I got there.

I knew it was going to be a good 'un when I was greeted by Simon at the airport 9am Saturday morning in a tux. Still drunk. And we had to navigate the public transport to Sydenham, where they are apparently having a problem with large black cats at the moment. Good times. Simon has got a great place right on the train line, making it very convenient to get to. This will come in handy for me during subsequent trips, I'm sure. Met up with Matt (Simon's friend from Grad school: good people), and took off for Lewes. With no sleep to speak of. But there was burning to be done.

The Guy Fawkes celebrations truly are something to see. We ended up incredibly drunk with fire all around. And we met a couple who lived just ouside Lewes (hence the cottage in the country). Man, do I have pictures. What a fantastic random evening with drunk Englishmen (who also turned out to be multi-millionaires, ubercool).

Yesterday, we had to navigate our way back to London, meet with Lynfa and Simon and Simon's friends for lunch, eat said fabulous lunch, and I had to jump on the train to Cambridge. I don't think that I want to travel that hungover again. I really don't know what I'm doing when I have those amounts of vertigo. Vertigo was cured by more beer however when I arrived here in Cambridge. Nice to see everyone again, and I smell one hell of a week coming on.

Now, off to Oxford to go to formal hall in the Harry Potter dining room. We get to sit at High table, as Ryan's friend Glen in a Law Prof there. Gotta run to the bus, hence the quick ending. Will post more later. I'm sure tonight will provide excellent blog fodder.