I'm Looking for Love This Time...Sounding Hopeful But It's Making Me Cry

Hey Mr. Curiosity
Is it true what they've been saying about you
Are you killing me
You took care of the cat already
And for those who think it's heavy
Is it the truth
Or is it only gossip

Call it mystery or anything
Just as long as you'd call me
I sent the message on did you get it when I left it
See this catastrophic event
It wasn't meant to mean no harm
But to think there's nothing wrong is a problem

I'm looking for love this time
Sounding hopeful but it's making me cry
Love is a mystery
Mr. Curious...

Come back to me
Mr. Waiting, ever patient can't you see
That I'm the same the way you left me
In a hurry to spell check me
And I'm underlined already in envy green
And pencil red
And I've forgotten what you've said
Will you stop working for the dead and return
Mr. Curious well I need some inspiration
It's my birthday and I cannot find no cause for celebration
The scenario is grave but I'll be braver when you save me
From this situation laden with hearsay

I'm looking for love this time
Sounding hopeful but it's making me cry
And love is a mystery
Mr. Curiosity
Be Mr. Please do come and find me

I'm looking for love this time
Sounding hopeful but it's making me cry
Trying not to ask why
Cause love is a mystery
Mr. Curiosity
Be Mr. Please
Do come and find me

Love is blinding when the timing's never right
Oh who am I to beg for difference
Finding love in a instant
But I don't min, at least Ive tried
Well I tried, I tried...
(Mr. Curiosity, Jason Mraz)

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Am I Just Old-Fashioned?

I've been noticing a trend around me and it's got me wondering why. So many people around me are having babies! They're popping out of the woodwork! Not only that, the people who are having kids aren't married. Now, don't get me wrong, having babies is all fine and good, and I'm not being judgemental. It's just...why? Why don't people get married first before having kids? Marriage is a big commitment, yeah I know, but kids are a huge commitment. I mean, come on! They're kids! So why? That's what I wanna know. If you can't commit to marriage, why are you committing yourself to creating and rearing another human being (or 2)? Which one entails more responsibility?? And these new parents are all young people; none of them are even 25 yet! But then this got me thinking some more...am I being silly? Am I being too traditional and stuffy? Am I just too old-fashioned??

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More Pix!

Here are some more pictures of my place...the little details:







The pictures above are of the cabinets in the kitchen. Note how Neil put the stuff in there and arranged it so it looks nice, like what they do in showrooms. (Those are bottles of water in the picture on the right.) Hey, you can kinda see me in the reflection!

The swirl design is on all the plates and cutlery AND it's on the kitchen curtains! How cute is that?! I love it!








The bottom 2 pictures are of the bathroom lock. See? Vacant. Engaged. It's cool. (The pictures a bit blurry because I had to take them without the flash and my hands weren't too steady...)

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Victoria's Secret (US) and La Senza (UK)

Victoria's Secret has a bra called Secret Embrace from the Angels sub-brand.

Chosen "Best Enhancer Bra in America" by SHOP Etc.® Revolutionary new one-piece padded bra uses seamless technology for the smoothest, most comfortable fit and a barely there feel. Seam free. Label free. Scalloped front. Twinned adjustable straps with back closure.

That's copied and pasted directly from the website. It is such a nice bra; I own one, haha. (Of course!) It's the best-fitting bra I've ever tried and believe me, I've tried a LOT of bras. (Did you know that over 70% of women wear the wrong size bra?? Goodness. It is SO important to wear the right size and kind of bra.)

Anyways, I was window shopping yesterday and wandered into La Senza. They're like the English equivalent to Vickie's...and up until yesterday, I hadn't realised how true that was. Check this out: La Senza has a new bra out called ITEC and this is directly from their website:

The microfibre La Senza ITEC Bra has been designed to look invisible under clothing. The one-piece padded Plunge Bra is SEAM FREE, STITCH FREE & LABEL FREE.

It has concealed underwiring and smooth moulded cups with incorporated foam padding to boost cleavage.

Look familiar?? Check out the pictures! They're the same!! What a coincidence! They're both push-up bras (oh pardon me, I meant cleavage enhancing bras), both use the same foam-like technology, both are tagless, seamless and stitchless, both are twinned strapped, AND (this is the cherry on top) both have scalloped edges on the front! The same style of scalloping (is that even a word?). I know this for sure because I was wearing my Vickie's one when I tried the La Senza one. There is one difference, however: it doesn't fit as well. The edge of the cup kind of dug into my breast, leaving a (very) slight indentation. Granted, most women would shrug and just say it fits fine. It doesn't. A bra should sit smoothly against your skin and it should be an almost seamless transition from bra to breast. Try your shirt (hopefully you're wearing a fitted t-shirt) to see the end result. I did and that 'slight' indentation was clearly visible (from the side) even though I was wearing black (it hides a multitude of sins, by the way). That is a big NO-NO. End of discussion.

Oh, the La Senza one is a bit cheaper, too. Vickie's has theirs for $42-$44; La Senza has theirs at £20. (The £ is a little bit less than twice the $ at the moment.) If I bought the La Senza one, I'm pretty sure it'll stretch out and then it'd fit fine...but do I want to do that? (I do need a new nude bra.) Well, I may go back later and try it again. To be honest though, I'd still rather have Vickie's cuz I know theirs will fit and it will fit perfectly. We'll see.

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I Should've Become an Interior Designer

My room is my canvas and it's blank. That means I get to decorate and 'Jessify' it. FUN! First I need a focus point and since I have lavender curtains, I've decided to focus the room around that. (No pink, you exclaim?! Yeah, that's right: no pink.) It's a nice colour and I can't wait to get going on this project! Lush lavenders and sumptuous violets, rich amethysts and oputlent plums, contrasted with...? Greys, perhaps...mostly pale greys I think, like pewter and chalk. Off-whites, like ivory and porcelain. Yes, I think those colours would work reallly well. Oh I'm so excited!

I'm shopping around online for art because I'm definitely putting something up on the walls, and I came across this one from Habitat that caught my eye:


I think it's lovely...all those colours... It's called Joshua Tree by Katy Lynton and it's running at £40. Black & white prints would also look really well on the walls I think. Maybe I should just turn some of my pictures from traveling into black & white and have them reprinted. It's a thought... Definitely a possibility... Actually, the more I think about it, the more I like it. I just have to get my pictures transferred from my desktop back in the States to my laptop here... Yeah, I'm definitely going to do that. Black & white prints in a room of purples, greys and whites. Nice. :D

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Flowers in My Hair

Well, actually they're flowers in the living room. I picked a couple of branches of sakura (cherry blossoms) and stuck them in the two vases sitting on the dining room table. They're small white blossoms and I also put some branches with small tufts of green leaves to compliment the blossoms. It looks very nice if I do say so myself! The colours go very well. Reminds me of home.

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Inspiration from Cameron Diaz

Odd, but true. Something along the lines of "Forget Mr. Right. Look for Mr. Right Now." (The Sweetest Thing.) You said it, girl.

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The One That Got Away

It slipped through my fingers. I should've held on when I had the chance and now...well, now it's too late. BUT, Fate has smiled upon me and given me a second chance! Yes, that's right, a second chance. Can we say woohoo? 'Woohoo.' Niiiice. That's right folks, there are second chances in life. Just get a load of this: right before I left the States again, I was shopping at Forever 21 (I had some merchandise credit) and found the cutest dress! It was all black, empire waist, and was pleated georgette from the waist down...best of all, it was the only empire waist top/dress (an empire waist dress is also known as a babydoll) that I've tried that didn't make me look pregnant! (It's a known hazard with that style of top/dress. The pregnant-when-you're-not-pregnant look is not cute. Don't do it.) Well, I really didn't need that dress - I could've used it, mind you, because you can never have too many black dresses and I only have one, which is long-sleeved so it's only good for cold temps - so I didn't buy it. Oh, fool that I was! Anyways, I keep thinking about it but as it was right before I jetted off, by the time I decided I wanted it, it was too late and I was half-way across the world in England (but yay for that!). Even if I tried ordering it now over the phone or via a proxy shopper, it's too late because of the rapid turnover of their stock. The stuff there never stays there long. Now here's where the second chance steps in: I just found the exact same dress at a shop here. Dorothy Perkins has the same black pleated georgette babydoll dress! Luckily, Dorothy Perkins doesn't go through their stock like there's no tomorrow so it'll be there for a while. Unluckily, it's £35. What's more, you know how my shopping motto is 'never pay full price for anything'? I can get a student discount of 15% off there. Suh-wEEt. I'm not a student anymore you say? I have an ISIC card. (International Student Identification Card.) Ha. Don't know if I want to spend that much on a dress that I may not be able to wear often enough...but if I can find a very girly cardigan to go with it, to tone it down a bit for more everyday wear, then it's a more viable option. Hrmm!

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Meet the Design Team

I went to London today to meet our design team. They were great people and as they were giving me an overview of what they do, I found myself quite envious of their job. That's not to say that I don't love what I do - I do love what I do - but theirs is so much more creative and the artist in me wants that outlet. Oh, I get to do it from time to time at work but only to such an extent. I'd love to hold the Project Coordinator position because I know I'd love organising all the accounts and making sure everything's on schedule and I know I'd kick ass at it. Ah well, I've got a good job now and let's just start with that. Traipsing around London took up most of our day; I also had to finish getting my visa sorted. Oh, didn't I mention that? Ha. Well, it turns out that the immigration officer at Heathrow totally didn't know what a Blue Card visa was and although his colleague knew, he still ended giving me the wrong stamp in my passport! So to correct it I had to actually leave the country and come back in and make sure that this time, I got the right stamp. So I had to go to Dover, England, and take the ferry over to Calais, France, and then come back. As it turns out, the crappy way they had the train and ferries scheduled didn't sync up so I literally had to get off the ferry and get right back on the next one coming back. And I barely made it to catch my the last train back to London. How crappy. Anyways, now that I got the right stamp, I had to get my visa properly validated and checked over to make sure that it was all a-okay. And it was. Phew.

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Pictures of My New Flat

Woohoo, pictures. We always like pictures right? Well (that's the third W word in a row...) I have raved about my new place and here are some pictures.

The lovely bathroom. It's kinda Art Deco in style and it's what really sold the place to me. It's so clean and neat! And the shower - aahhhh - feels so good! Power showers are the best because it gives my hair the best clean; I need power to rinse my hair!











The lovely kitchen. And look: sunshine pouring through the window! The kitchen and bathroom were done by the same guy - a friend of Neil's who does really amazing work - and they're both sparkling new (or, new-looking at least) and really tied the whole place together. My favourite part: the pattern on the window shade matches the pattern on the dishes which matches the pattern on the cutlery! Neil's quite meticulous for a heterosexual male. Ya gotta love a man with style!


This is the lounge/living room. At the moment it's only got one two-seater couch but he's ordered a new set and it should be here in a couple of weeks. I don't know what colour he ordered but I do know it's leather. Ooh, yes, sumptuous leather. How luxurious. Well, I'll be glad to have a whole couch to myself and not worry about being a couch hog when I'm on the couch and he's sitting in one of the chairs (out of the picture). The whole place gets tons of natural sunlight - yay - and the floor's laminate (I believe). It's a small flat but it's perfect for two people. I didn't put any picures of my bedroom because it's so Spartan at the moment; once I get a couple more furnishings, I'll put a picture up.

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It's been 10 days...

...since my last entry. What the hell have I been up to you ask? Good question. I moved into my new place on Thursday. The good news: I've a home and what a lovely place it is. The bad news: I didn't have internet. The good news: Neil's got a gazillon (well, more like 800+) channels on his digital cable tv box. The bad news: I didn't have internet. The good news: I had a a 4-day weekend because of Easter and bank holiday. The bad news: I didn't have internet for the entire 4 days. Get the picture? Yeah. I went 4 whole days (well, technically 4.5 since I didn't have it starting Thursday afternoon when I officially moved in) without internet. I felt like I'd lost my connection to the outside world and in some ways, that was true. Granted, I still had my phone but, let's be realistic here: the phone only connects me to so many people. What about the people who I can't call? Exactly. However, I got by by becoming a couch potato for 4 days. Oh man, that was tough. No, seriously, it was. I don't see how people can be couch potatoes because by the end of the second day, I was going a little crazy. CRAZY I tell you, but I managed to get through the entire weekend with my sanity intact and now I'm back online! Woohoo!

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Success!

I went up to Cambridge today to check out some places and FINALLY success! I viewed 6 places and found the 6th place to my liking! It's a 2-bedroom flat (apartment in American'ese) and it's all new. The landlord owns the place and is doing it up all nice: new paint everywhere, the kitchen looks all new and bright and shiny (very modern, minimalist style), all the doors are new, natural pine, good lighting and the bathroom is REALLY nice. Now if you know me, then you (should) know that the bathroom means a lot to me. I prefer nice loos because it makes it feel cleaner and therefore makes me feel cleaner. Hardwood floors and lots of natural sunlight, the entire place was just clean and sleek but not cold and aloof. The only amenity that isn't there (yet) that I need is internet but that's easily fixed. Also, his carpenter friend is gonna redo my entire wardrobe so that the doors and shelves are of the same pine as the room doors. I also need to ask him about getting a desk and maybe some shelving on the walls. Anyways, my landlord and flatmate's name is Neil Loughnane and he's Irish (he spelled out his last name to me and I'm like "...How do you pronounce that..."). He seems really cool and really easygoing. He's also young - though I haven't asked his age yet - so that's good because then I'm exposed to other young people and it makes making new friends easier. :D Granted, I don't know what his friends are like but we'll see. It's about 15-20 minutes via bus to the city centre but biking it would take less than 15 minutes. The bike trail runs behind the flat and he said that it's a nice trail and that a lot of people use it; good, then, that it's not really isolated. The neighborhood's quiet enough with mainly families and professionals living around. Since it's a ground flat, there's a nice and surprisingly large garden in the back. Can we say BBQs? (Hopefully, yes.)

I should be able to move in by next Thursday or Friday and definitely by Saturday. I am SO relieved and excited and happy that I'm no longer homeless. The last two weeks have been a bit hellish and stressful, just running around trying to find a place to live and calculating budgets and all that crap. But I've survived it all, of course, and am all the wiser for it. Yay.

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Stress

House hunting is a bitch. I am so frustrated and pissed off about not finding what I want, what I need and basically not making any progress at all. This is ridiculous! I'm frustrated with myself mainly because I should've found a place to live by now and I haven't; I'm still, essentially, homeless. I've come to face the harsh truth: I can't live in London. And I really want to. If I'm only going to be here for 6 months then I want to milk London for all its worth. The rent and the cost of living I can totally afford; what I can't afford is those two plus the cost of commuting to work. Transportation is not cheap. Damnit. Thus, I am forced to look further north and I've got my eyes set on Stevenage in Hertfordshire. It's smack dab in the middle of the direct train route from London to work (Huntingdon); it's about 35 minutes to either destination and there are late trains from London to Stevenage. So that's the plan: find a place to live in or near Stevenage. I've made several phone calls and am just twiddling my thumbs waiting for replies.

Work is going well though. I like the environment, the people I work with and the actual work itself. They gave me a phone with seemingless unlimited free calls (seemingless because as far as my boss knows, there are no restrictions) and a laptop (that I haven't completely Jessified yet). The big boss of the office (I've forgotten his position/title) is real good friends with my dad and upon meeting me, reminded me of the time he spoke to me on the phone when I was living in Hull when he and my dad were in a "druken stupor" (his words, not mine). Haha. I remember the conversation - he'd told me to go visit Scarborough - and I'm surprised he remembered it in his state at the time. Apparently he knows my dad's boss - a family friend - real well, too. What a small world.

Oh yeah, and a lorry (a semi-truck) toppled over outside our office when it sped through an amber light around a roundabout. Oi. Those lights are supposed to prevent such things from happening but the lorry drivers just speed up instead of stopping...and you get this:

That was the view from our office windows. The long dark rectangular shape is a lorry on its side (it looks like it's attached to the yellow lorry but it's not). It happened in the morning, maybe around 10am or so and they still hadn't flipped it back up by the time I left at 4:30. One of the guys called 999 and said that a lorry had flipped over and the operator asked who we wanted to call for: ambulance, police or the fire brigade. What the hell? All three? Shouldn't they know?? After he got off the phone with the operator, we had a good laugh about it. No one got hurt; we saw the driver climb out alright.

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