 Highlight of the Day - Free Egyptian food from a new 'street food' style place that's just opened on St Martin's Lane called Koshari Street. I'd never had anything like it - it had pasta, rice, lentils and other beans topped with a tomato sauce. I love lentils and beans etc., but I was thinking when I looked at it that it might be a bit flavourless, but it was really delicious. Not sure if it was partly because it was free, because free things are always better! Embarrassing Moment of the Day - Stayed so late at work on Thursday (2.30am!) so I could've taken Friday off, but I had a meeting at 10.30. It wasn't that important, but I thought I'd go in for it, just to show willing and then go home. I ran in, completely knackered and looking a state, to find the meeting had already started. I burst in with my coat still on and had to go and sit at the table next to the person who was talking as it was the only seat left. 2 minutes later the meeting finishes. It was 10-10.30, not 10.30-11. I'm an idiot. I did something very brave on Friday! I'm very proud of myself. I did some stand-up comedy! I talked for 5 minutes at an open mic night about family holidays, caravanning in Hastings, or somewhere on a layby in the Hastings vicinity. It went pretty well! The audience was very small, but very supportive. It was at a night aimed at comedians who have only been going for a year or less, called Underdogs at the Blue Posts on Rupert Street in Soho. Some of my jokes went well, some fell flat on their face, but the big problem was that I didn't ask the friend who came with me to record it, so I have no idea which ones got laughs and which ones didn't! I'm definitely going to do it again, as I had loads of fun and I met some great people - everyone was surprised it was my first time when I told them afterwards, so that was great! I just need to be a bit funnier next time - sort of a key point! I'm working on it!
That's one of my 30 things ticked off though! Go me!
Now then, now then, I've been an awful blogger and haven't blogged about my today's world for an entire week (nobody emailed to check I was still alive - thanks for that!) I have spent the vast majority of the week at work (including until 4am (!!) on Tuesday. I've also spent the week experimenting with double denim (decided I like my black denim skinny jeans with normal blue denim shirts, but not too sure about any other combo) and becoming addicted to app wordgame Ruzzle and convincing myself it's not a waste of time, because I can do it in French and German, so I am learning something. Anyway, let's go into a bit more detail about Friday, Saturday and Sunday. This post is about Friday. Highlight of the day - the end of the week and the knowledge that I didn't have any work to do over the weekend - bliss. Lowlight of the day - being caught in the kitchen at work (which is miniscule for an office of any size, let alone a building of 6 floors!) whilst getting my breakfast with the only girl at work I don't like. She announced (quite literally into my ear, as there was no space for her to annouce anywhere else) that she was having her second breakfast of the day. I didn't ask further. She announced again. I didn't ask. She naturally didn't take the hint and continued to tell me about she'd had poached egg and avacado and homemade chilli jam - it was like Nigella had walked in. I just can't cope with that sort of thing at 9.30. After finishing work, I went to a restaurant on Cambridge Heath Road called Italina. Not too cryptically, it's an Italian restaurant, for which I'd bought a Living Social vouhcer (I may or may not be addicted to Living Social). The pizzas were huge and really tasty, the staff were friendly and the atmosphere was very warm and homely. I'd go again. I had several plans to get chores done on Friday before a busy weekend, but, I accidentally conked out 10 minutes after getting in. Bless.
 Highlight of the Day - Getting up early, without a hangover, and being super-productive. I felt like I could've seen Heather Small interrogating me with a warbling "What have you done today to make you feel proud?" and answered very successfully even at 11am. I went into Oxford Street, which is uncharacteristically bearable and sparse before 11 and got my refund in River Island (open open open this time) and then scurried around M+S, House of Fraser and John Lewis looking for the biggest plain white plate I could find. It was for work (I had to drop it off at work before 2). My work's a bit confidential, so I can't really divulge what it was for, but it had to be huge, flat, round and plain white. I also couldn't tell any of the very confused sales assistants what it was for and I imagine they were talking about crazy plate boy all day. John Lewis was the winner. Pizza plate - 35cm diameter, in case you ever need a ginormous plate. Embarrassing Moment of the Day - Apart from forcing people to measure plates, it was my unexpected item in the bagging area at Sainsbury's. I mean, pray tell self-checkout lady, how unexpected can a bag of carrots in Sainsbury's really be??
So, after my proud productivity, I did some work at home and then went out in the evening with friends. We first went to Yauatcha, that beautiful glass restaurant cum aquarium on Broadwick Street with all the macaroons in the window. It was very posh (lovely sinks in the loos). It was the sort of place where they place the napkins on your laps for you, which I hate. I prefer to keep my lap to myself, thank you very much, stranger. We had dim sum, which was delicious and it wasn't actually as expensive as I'd imagined. The service, however, was really slow. The waiter asked us if we had any allergies. My friend said prawns and he wrote down and read out "Seat one, prawn allergy" in a slightly awkward, proud way (Heather wouldn't have been impressed). He asked if we had any celebrations. We were sort of halfway between two of our birthdays, so we said it was both of our birthdays. At the end, they brought us one macaroon to share between two. I suppose I shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth, but ONE macaroon? It was covered in hundreds and thousands and was bubblegum flavour and frankly quite disgusting. I'm 26, not 6. The rest of the desserts looked INCREDIBLE though and I will have to go back to try one (or some).
After that we went to what was my real highlight of the day, which was a play by the theatre group Cheek by Jowl at the Barbican. Me and my friends all speak French (not EVERY friend of course, but the ones on this evening), so when we saw that a French play, Ubu Roi, was playing, we thought we'd go and check it out. It was quite astounding. At time hilarious, at times terrifying and certainly quite surreal throughout. It's sort of theatre of the absurd style, in that a lot of it doesn't make a lot of sense with several nonsensical words (not just because I didn't understand the French!!) and fairly unconnected references. He was constantly talking about his Chandelle Verte (Green Candle). It reminded me a lot of Ionesco's, La Cantatrice Chauve (The Bald Primadonna), which I adore. The acting was incredibl (much of it was really physically challenging) and it really kept you on the edge of your seat for the whole 2 hours. It also had English subtitles, so you could go if you don't speak French. I recommend it highly.
The only negative would be that the Barbican can be a fairly stressful place. I love the stuff they do there, and it's really reasonably priced, but there are so many buildings with so many entrances and it said on the ticket (in pretty big letters) "Latecomers will not be admitted." We arrived with 10 minutes to spare, one friend went for a cigarette, the other two to the toilet, I strolled up to the ticket lady to check we were at the right door and she said "Oh no, that's a different theatre." Cue panic. Then there was announcement saying performances begin in 5 minutes and all of sudden there were lots of people running around. Two friends came back, they went to find the actual theatre and I was waiting for the other friend, who was on the wrong floor. We ran to the theatre where a ticket lady was calling my name. She'd been waiting for me (it must have been 7.31) as they were closing the doors and my friends had left my tickets with her. It was all quite stressful. Apart from that and the odd bubblegum macaroon
 Highlight of the day - Victoria Wood documentary about tea on BBC iPlayer - really, really, really funny...really. Loved her falling over, loved her highlights and I just love her general attitude to everything. She's also very good with words. She just chooses words so well. Minestrone is a funny word (from yesterday), tomato soup wouldn't have been funny. (My favourite funny word is woggle). The documentary was interesting. I loved that she went inside one of the green cabbies' tea huts, that only cab drivers can use (one at Embankment, one at Temple - there used to be almost a hundred around London, now there are less than 20). The Embankment one used to be on my tour, so it was great to finally see what one looked like inside!
Lowlight of the day - thinking on the way home what my highlight of the day was going to be and realising that it was being able to get out of work in time early enough to put some laundry on (was about to run out of black socks, my favourite sock colour). Luckily I found Victoria Wood when I got in.
We are actually on yesterday now. I got out of work at 8.35. That's the earliest I've been out all week. I've had a shirt from River Island in my locker at work waiting to be taken back for a refund and I thought I finally had my chance. I work on Charing Cross Road. I nipped up Old Compton Street, whipped down Dean Street, slipped through Soho Square and BARGED my way down Oxford Street, taking no tourist prisoners. I arrive triumphantly at River Island (at 8.50, website says it shuts at 9) for them to tell me it was already shut. This lady doth protest, but they doth protested more. "Close close close close" was what he said. I think that was the only word he knew. I am still with shirt. After that, I went to M+S who actually shut at the time they say they are going shut and rather depressingly bought a meal for one. I then popped into Boots to by a new toothpaste and toothpaste (quite a novelty for them to run out at the same time, such is the level of drama in my life). I then spur-of-the-momentedly (still in post-River-Island-stress-disorder) bought some Rowntrees Pick n Mix. It's a big bag of Tooty Fruities, Fruit Gums and Fruite Pastilles for £1!! Bargain and so yummy. I then made a joke with the assistant (for once they didn't force me to the automatic lady) about the irony of buying toothpaste, a toothbrush and a huge bag of sweets. I say "with", but I joked at him. He didn't laugh. In other news, they now have toothbrushes with vibrating bristles - they cost 6.50! I got one for 1.50. I make them vibrate when I move them! LAZY!
I had a weird freak purchase in Boot's a few weeks ago - I bought a home tooth-bleaching kit. I always worry that my teeth are a bit yellow-ish, that's why I buy things like Rowntree's Pick n Mix. You're supposed to use it twice a day for a week. I've been a bit sporadic. I reckon I've used it about 8 times in a week and a half. I haven't had time otherwise. You have put these gum shield things in (like from rugby at school) and leave them there for 5 minutes each time. I moulded them and they didn't mould very well (like from rugby at school) and so they hurt. I then thought I'd multi task by wearing them in the shower once, which led to:
a) me dribbling bleach down myself
b) the heat making the plastic go funny again, mishapring them even more
c) me running late and leaving my gum shields on the side in the toilet for my poor flatmate to discover.
Needless to say, that was £12 down the drain. I should've just bought a vibrating toothbrush!
Sorry, no updates so far this week. So far, the highlights of my day every day this week have been in bed. With a wicked man between my thighs like Bridget Jones? Sadly not, with a fluffy pink hot water bottle against my chest. The lowlights of my day every day have been work. And that has been my whole life: work, sleep, work, sleep. It's been a wleepy week and it looks as if this may continue. The slight upturn in the weather is nice, even if I've had to watch it from my desk. Will give proper update at the weekend. UpDATE - hopefully meeting him on Saturday for
 Highlight of the day: I watched a man apologise to an empty pram on the tube because he trod on it...I'm all for gentlemanly, but that seems a bit extreme!
Embarrassing thing I've done today: we got a letter through to our flat last week telling us not to use any water (taps, shower, toilet!) between 9 and 12 today as they were doing something to the pipes and we would flood our flat and die a horrific death, or something or nothing. My flatmate and I made a great plan for using the shower in turns to make sure we were out in time and had been talking about it all evening yesterday and also this morning. Then, I unwittingly (thinking that I'd finished the pre-9 shower/coffee/brush teeth/toilet challenge) used my super sticky Lynx hair gel cum cream and needed to wash my hands before stickifying the tube. My housemate told me not to worry as she had that weird hyperclean hyperclear sanitising gel thing that you can use instead of soap and water. I used it, chatting away to her as I rubbed it in, proud of my non-water-using abilities. Then, whilst telling her how proud I was, instinctively turned on the tap to wash it off as if it was soap! Entire point of the exercise lost in a split second. Turns out that nothing flooded and we didn't die a horrific death though, so, you win some, you lose some.
Why was today so reunited? Because I went for a leaving drinks for a girl who's leaving my old job at my previous company. I had a lot of fun. I only left a month ago, but it already felt weird to see people. One guy (who I love) told me how sad he was when I left and that he was going to go to the head of the company and ask him to give me a payrise to convince me to stay, until he heard that actually I was going to a better company with better pay anyway. He was really nice about me and my work, so that was truly lovely anyway and it was also great to see some people I haven't seen in a month, who I used to see every day - very reunited.
My day was also reunion-esque as I had a good giggle and PJ + Duncan being number 1 on iTunes after their rendition of Let's Get Ready to Rhumble on their show last week. I'm not a huge fan of them, but seeing them dance like that as if they were 12 (?) again gave me a right laugh! On top of that, it's so funny how that skit was a medley of the other acts from ITV's Big Reunion show (like Atomic Kitten and 5ive) but that they have all been on that show for weeks and laid their souls bare, only to have Ant + Dec perform for 1 minute on the end of their medley and get straight to number 1!!
I am keeping every finger and toe crossed that they do another series of reunion and have ETERNAL on it. I haven't been watching it, because I couldn't care less about Atomic bloody Kitten. If Eternal were on it, I'd be Just a Step from Heaven and would Stay with that show every night. I loved Eternal so much.
I also studied a bit of Japanese today. I should be doing that every day, but, as it stands, it was a reunion after a good couple of weeks of laziness - natsukashi!!
 Highlight of the day: see right. Bugolgi (Korean beef dish) for dinner...something tells me my highlight of the day may often revolve around food.
I've done something stupid today: accidentally pressed the cold water button instead of the hot and made a cold cup of coffee in front of my boss at work (I'm brand new too...way to make a good first impression). I was so embarrassed about telling him and making him wait even longer for the machine, that I just took it away and drank a few sips until I could run to the toilet and pour it down the sink! Not sure what my other colleague thought when she saw me coming out of the toilet with an empty cup...and it's only just dawned on me now that I could've thrown the cup away in the toilet instead of carrying it back into the office! That really was a 3-minute part of my day where all my brain celles deserted me. Either she thought I'd taken my coffee in to drink on the loo or that I'd pissed in a cup at my desk and gone to pour it out!
Work wasn't much busier today. I spent two hours stuck in a room with the only colleague I don't like and listened to her tell me (for 2 hours) about her current woes, which mainly centre on her boyfriend adoring her SO much and she's worried he loves her MORE than she loves him (must be awful.) Somehow, I survived those two hours and came out the other side in need of a coffee (which turned out to be cold) and some alcohol (which I am sorting now).
The reason my day was Hurwundeki is because I went to a rather random salon cum fashion shop cum homeware shop cum cafe cum restaurant near my flat in Bethnal Green called Huruwndeki Cafe today after work (that sentence is the closest I've come to sex in months). Hurwundeki means "hair" in a dialect of Korean. Not that my day was that hairy, in fact, if anything this evening I am far less hairy than I was this morning as I had a haircut there - it only costs £9 for guys. I then got some bugolgi to takeaway. I love Korean food (I've been to Korea twice) and looking at the menu made me very tempted to go again and sample the other things they have. It's BYO booze too, so should work out really cheap. Meals were mostly under a tenner. I definitely recommend it.
 Highlight of the day: See picture. Hummingbird red velvet cake (with added chocolate chips...naughty me) and wine. Lowlight of the day: Getting coughed on on the tube...always nice. Why unexhaustingly exhausting? Because I had NO WORK to do. This is pretty rare at my job and, without sounding incredibly selfish, I really didn't want to let on before somebody shat a great load of work on me from a great height. I had a long week last week, so I thought I deserved a down-day. The thing is, it's actually incredibly exhausting trying to make yourself look busy all day when all you are in fact doing is checking your facebook and opening the same email again and again and staring at it intently (with the occasional chin clutch for good measure). Another thing I did today was read the news from the BBC that in a crazy health and safety push, a school has banned triangular flapjacks after a child threw one and it hurt another kid. Am I the only person thinking that a better solution to the problem would be to do something about the kids lobbing things rather than changing the shape of things to make them slightly less dangerous when lobbed. I don't imagine they've banned cutlery or trays or any of the other things that are surely more dangerous than triangle flapjacks!! If they banned everything, they'd only be allowed plain soft white bread (cut into oblongs, not triangles of course). Maybe it's time we went back to turkey twizzlers in the name of safety! They are nice and soft after all, even if they are probably more E-number than meat. In other safety news, I also had the tube announcer man today telling me "for my own safety" I should not leave newspapers on the station...is that really for my own safety or is it just because it's lazy, rude and dirty? It seems like they'll (not really sure who "they" are...the man or something) put anything down to safety...it's really a bit of an empty phrase now. What's your craziest safety announcement experience?
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