The Most Awkward Conversation Ever

While Craig and I were waiting for our taxi, a woman walks up to me and asks...


"Are you Chinese or Korean?"

"No. I'm American."

"Are you Korean?"

"No. I'm actually Filipino but I was born in America. I'm from California."

"I have a friend who is Korean."

"Uh-huh."

"I've always wanted to go to Korea."

"Uh-huh."

"Well, good luck."

"You too."

WTF?!?!? I should have said, "If you give me 20 quid, I can be Korean. I can be ANYTHING you want!"

This is Why I Hate my Housemate!!!

She leaves her alcohol everywhere!

Would it kill her to empty the trash?!?!? How hard is it to put cans and bottles in the recycling bin?

She expects other people to wash her dishes.

I have already mentioned this to her before. I don't think she gets it. Anyone have any suggestions on how to handle a noncompliant housemate by nonviolent means?

Craig's Cupcakes

In honor of our engagement and to make up for my birthday, Craig (world renowned Michelin Star pastry chef) baked me cupcakes. Below is the master at work:

It takes a great deal of focus and concentration to frost his cupcakes!

A blank canvas to express his creativity!

Master pastry chef Craig places milky buttons and smarties on the cupcake ever so carefully and intently.

Voila! After 2 and a half hours, he creates his masterpiece! (This is just the one cupcake)

He creates more with variations on a theme!

Bon Appetite!

The Day After

Today wasn't too bad. We saw Dark Knight at Storm Cinema, VIP seats again. We were 25 minutes late but STILL caught 5 minutes into the trailer. Can you believe that? I wouldn't say it was the best movie I've ever seen but Christian Bale is too hot. Heath Ledger as the joker did a fine performance (too bad it was his last).

After the movie, our original plan was to go to La Tasca and have Spanish tapas. We noticed how empty it was and went to the Red Panda instead. We learned quickly after the Giraffe incident...Empty restaurant = sucky restaurant. Craig had been boasting about the Honey Chili Chicken for some time so I was anxious to try it. Although the place was packed, we were seated right away and we didn't even have a reservation. Service was prompt. In addition to the Honey Chili Chicken, we also ordered Sui Mai for appetizer and Mongolian Beef as the other entree. Mongolian Beef was out of this world. It's the best Chinese food I've had in Belfast, I must say. The Honey Chili chicken was sweet but had a mild spicy kick to it. Chicken was juicy and moist. The beef was tender and the sauce was gorgeous. Craig wanted to appear all cultural and civilized, so he ordered green tea. The Chinese waitress gave him a talking to and said they don't have green tea but the Chinese tea (meaning green tea is Japanese). She came out with a tall mug of steaming hot water with a ball of green prickly stuff. The prickly stuff started to unravel and bloom into a beautiful flower. It was neat!!!



Food: 3 1/2
Customer Service: 4
Atmosphere: 2 If it weren't for the blaring ABBA music, I'd give it a 3.

I was craving for a chocolate sundae with a cherry on top. So we went downstairs to the American Diner and guess what? IT WAS CLOSED!!! I was just about going to lose it. My eyes were going to well up in tears but I held back. It was 9PM and Craig didn't know where else to get a sundae so we just took the taxi back to stranmillis and had chocolate cake and milkshakes. I was picking at my chocolate cake and Craig said, "You don't look to happy. Are you sure you're going to last six weeks?". I just sighed and frowned.

I went to Centra to get some junk to stuff my pathetic face. Craig hobbled back to the house. We planned to have a pity party fest and watch cheesey romantic movies. Tonight he was going to be my girlfriend and consoling shoulder. Everything started to become a disaster again. Him hobbling up and down the stairs to the bathroom cuz he has the runs (must be the milkshake). I gave him a fright while I was getting glasses out of the cabinet. I dropped a glass and it smashed to the floor. I was like just great, my nerves are hanging on by a thread here. I wanted to burst out crying. I sweept the glass and headed back upstairs. Here is Craig again hobbling up from the bathroom. He's out of breath and sweating like a racing snake. He just stood there looking at me trying to catch his breath. I asked if he was ok. He held out his arms and told me to give him a cuddle and he said, "I appreciate everything you've done for me these past few months, and what you've sacrificed to get here. I know I've ruined your trip and I'm sorry. I want to spend the rest of my life making it up to you. You are special to me and I love you with all my heart. Will you marry me?" He reaches into his pocket and takes out a gorgeous ring. I say, YES! and he puts it on my finger. A perfect fit! I love it. I love him more than anything. Even though it has been shitty most of the time due to outside circumstances, it was all worth it because we have each other. I'm actually grateful for all these shitty events because it made everything else all that special and I am confident we can handle anything that comes our way with laughter and a smile (even though sometimes it can be hard, we are there for each other and that's all that matters). I know it's not the grand romantic storybook fairytale. No trips to exotic places and proposing in front of an island sunset. No fanfare. Just simple and real in our wee room in South Belfast. I couldn't have asked for anything farther from perfect.

A ruby (my birthstone)encircled with diamonds (his birthstone) represents me being the center of his life and his continous loyalty and love for me.

I've Turned Into An Old Fart

It's 3:30AM and it looks like quiet Connie has turned over a new leaf. She invited her mates over for a houseparty. All night, I heard door slamming, girls giggling, baby elephants running, chatting about god knows what in their pseudo English accents (seems to be the trend of Belfast youth these days) screaming off the top of their lungs the worst song in the historyr of songs, "Lollipop", by Lil Wayne. Ugh! I will be surprised if I still have hair left to tear out Dawn.

All my hard work today has gone down the drain. Today I spent the whole morning washing down the walls in the living room (previous food stains from student food fights), wiping the skirting board full of black mysterious soot, and mopping the hardwood floors. This labor was obviously fruitless. It all went to shit around 8PM when they walked through the door.

Craig and I went downstairs to get ourselves some hot cocoa and I nearly fell on my knees when I saw the mess! It has been the messiest the living room and kitchen has ever been since we moved in. Vodka bottles strewn everywhere as well as crisp bags. Now they are eating takeaway and I whimper at the thought of greasy chinese food falling on the floor that I JUST MOPPED!!!

Farewell to the tranquil bliss of Stranmillis. I'm sure there are many more parties to come. Oh well, it will give me an insight on what this house will be like when we leave and the other students move in. It will be fivefold. This house will be very, very sad to see us leave. We gave it as much TLC as we could and I'm sure it appreciated it.

All I ask is that they don't fuck with my spices! If they do, they'll have hell to pay!

What's for Dinner?

For dinner tonight, we had beer butt chicken (only with a sprite can) with sauteed greenbeens w/ almonds, cornbread stuffing and cranberry sauce. In Craig's house, his mom always makes a roast on Sundays and I wanted to keep that tradition. This was my second attempt at making beer butt chicken. The first attempt, I burnt it to a crisp. But this time around, it was perfect. The meat was so moist and juicy that it was falling off the bone. I asked Craig, who made the better roast. He said with a mouthful of chicken, "I don't want to get in between you and my mom with the chicken war." He seemed to like it, since he got several helpings. There's hardly any chicken left!

Who woulda thunk that sticking a beer can up a chicken's ass would make it taste sooooooooo good?

Under House Arrest

I've been under house arrest all day waiting for the cable guy. Around 2pm, Craig texts me and says the cable guy wasn't coming after all, there has been a mix up. Just great. :/

Today I made up for our household strike this weekend and have been very productive. I finished the laundry and ironing for that Craig left off yesterday. I've also made lumpia (Filipino springrolls). Wrapping them is labor intensive. The wrapping paper is so fragile you have to be careful not to tear it and you have to wrap them perfectly or else they will not cook right. They are then fried until a perfect golden brown and eaten with a sweet chili sauce. It's the first time Craig has ever eaten filipino food. Lumpia is a great introduction to Filipino cuisine. It's a no brainer since everyone who tries it for the first time loves it!

My first attempt at wrapping lumpia! It doesn't look as good as my mom's but it will do.

The finished product! My mom would be so proud!

Looks like we have a new housemate. Her name is Connie. Craig calls her goldilocks because she has blonde hair. She is moving in her stuff w/ her friend as I type. A very giggly bunch. They sound like Craig's sister and her friends. Oi vey! I just hope she isn't like Laura. Laura is the main reason why we had to move out in the first place. She was way too wild and loud. She just didn't give a shit about anyone else but herself in the house. Just concerned about partying with friends, clothes, makeup, and boys. She never lifted a finger to help around the house and left a trail of mess all over the place. Craig appropriately coined her "Paris Hilton". She's a nice girl but a wild teenager! I am surprised she gets away with so much. Everyone caters to whim and spoils her. If I shouted, 'Where's my vodka?!?!?' all over my parents house, I'd get knocked upside the head.

Oh well, at least we had it good for a month. Connie's room is right below ours. The poor girl. LOL!

Cabin Fever

We have been shut in this whole weekend. Our bed has been unmade for 3 days. What's the point? We've hardly gotten out of bed and if so, only when necessarily like eat, go to the bathroom. What a bunch of lazy bastards we are! Housework has come to a standstill we are both on strike. Oh, the things you do when you are bored!!!



Fenian Balloons!

Arranging loose change by size and value

Happy Feckin' 4th.

Independence Day went off to a great start! There were much fireworks in the household today.

First off, I woke up early in the morning to go to the bathroom. On my way there, I slipped down the narrow stairs and cut my wrist on the fire extinguisher! I panicked at the amount of blood coming down the inside of my forearm. Running up the stairs with toilet paper over my wrist, I turn the bedside lamp on. Just as I turn it on, the bulb burns out! FUCK! Craig wakes up and wonders what the racket is. I tell him I fell down the stairs and cut my wrist! He says, "Good One!" and rolls back to sleep. Here I am seething with anger and possibly cutting a major artery and bleeding to death (I didn't it was just a surface wound but I was a drama queen!), he rolls over and goes back to sleep?!?! After I finally found a bandaid, I go on his computer because I couldn't stand to crawl back in bed again. He rolls over again and was like, "What are you doing, it's 6:45 in the morning?!?". "I'm on the computer, what does it look like I'm doing?!?". He rolls back over and goes to sleep again.

After browsing the interwank, I got bored and went to bed. Apparently, I didn't shut his computer down, so he gets up, turns his computer off, and says "You're gonna burn out my screen!" I lay there seething but told myself it's July 4th and I refuse to make this day shitty and make a nice yankee doodle breakfast even though he doesn't deserve it. So I got up and went to Centra hoping to get whipped cream, blueberries, strawberries, and sausage for our pancakes. They didn't have blueberries even though I walk in there everyday and see blueberries and rasberries. Of course! Of course today there wasn't any because I NEEDED them! Whatever!

I go back and make the pancakes. All is well and beautiful in the world again. I set the table really nice. I go upstairs and he's asleep STILL. I seethe again. He gets my goat when he does this because every single time the night before he burns the candle at both ends and doesn't wake up until 1PM and a whole day is wasted! He set his alarm at 9:00AM so we could do things today but he turns it off and rolls over to sleep and doesn't wake until the afternoon! It was 10AM by this time. With clenched teeth, I nudge him, "I made you breakfast!". He wakes up and we give each other a cold stare for what lasted like 3 minutes.

We go downstairs and I was hoping that STACKED fluffy, buttery pancakes and REAL maple syrup would cheer us up and sing to the tune of yankee doodle dandy! But it didn't. He sat there grumpy and sleepy. I asked him in a bitchy tone, "What day is today?!?" He retorts, "Friday." "No, I mean what date is today", I retort back. "July 4th", he says. "What happens on July 4th", I ask. "I go to work", he says. He's on the afternoon/evening this week and I notice he becomes a real grouch and does not allow himself nor anyone around him to have fun because HE has to go to work. The day is a countdown for him where he constantly looks at his watch. I roll my eyes and say, "You know damn well this is an important day for me."

Mr. Crabby pants himself. Can you tell he's really excited about his Yankee Doodle Breakfast?

He takes 3 pancakes and says, "They're stacked!". Then he slathers them with a bunch of warm maple syrup w/ melted butter. Takes a bite out of the pancakes and a bite out of the sausage. His eyes roll to the back of his head and says, "Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm". Then he says, "You were annoying earlier this morning. Banging around the house, making all kinds of noise, turning lights on, and using the computer. You know, SOME people have to get some sleep and go to work." Yes, I was making noise because I fell down the stairs and cut myself on a fire extinguisher, and looking for a bandaid. I couldn't turn on the bedside lamp cuz the bulb burned out. I was making all kinds of noise because I wanted to cook your ass a special breakfast, and I would work if I could but I quit my job to travel 5,000 miles spend quality time with you, you ungrateful *&%&$**£&!!! I thought this in my head but decided to keep it curt and said, "I fell down the stairs and cut my wrist. I could have had blood squirting out of a major artery and STILL you would roll back to sleep." He says, "Yup, I would!!!" I pushed my plate, "I'm not hungry anymore!"

I stomp back upstairs, got into bed, pulled the covers over my head and started crying. Telling myself I want to go home now and this was a big mistake. He was downstairs washing dishes. I hear his footsteps and he gets into bed again. After awhile, I couldn't stand it and got out of bed to take a shower and go somewhere away from him. He was hiding under the covers hoping I wouldn't murder him. Before I dressed to go out, I went on expedia to book my flight home. I booked it for September 4th. I cooled off real quick by then, and realized that what we were doing was petty. We were both at fault. I was being a drama queen bitch and he was being a jackass. And in essence, he doesn't give 2 shits about July 4th. He's not American nor does he want to be! I forgot about that! I looked over to him and realized that the clock is ticking and I don't have much time with him. A month and half will come and go quickly. I hopped into bed again and gave him a big hug. He wakes and kisses me and then we made our own fireworks. Pyrotechnics so mind-blowing that it made you want to hold your hand over your heart, say the pledge of allegiance and sing the "Star Spangled Banner". U--S--A NUM-BER ONE!!!! YEAH! ALRIGHT!!!

In honor of Independence Day, I shall close this post with a pic of a crazy Shankill kid. I don't think he knows what happens on July 4th nor would he care. He's got July 12th on his brain and on his face! Whether it's the 4th or the 12th, same difference. After all, America's founding fathers did descend from Ulster. Fuckin' Right!!!

Chop Sticks on Stranmillis Road

Dine About Town #2...

Every Wednesday is our takeout night. I get a break from cooking and I get to sample the food out here. Last week, we had a hankering for Chinese food so we decided to check out the local Chinese takeaway in our neighborhood: Chopsticks

Inside is your below average joint. Most main entrees come with a choice of boiled rice (white rice), fried rice, or chips (plain, garlic, or curried). To save ourselves some money we opted to just order the main entree. We could make our own rice at home. We ordered the honey chili chicken and mixed vegetable stir fry. £9.40for the whole lot which is the average price for Chinese takeaway here.



If this doesn't look appetizing then you are correct! Both dishes were drowned in sauce that it over powered everything. The Honey Chilli Chicken was way too sweet and the mixed vegetables were way too salty. After awhile, it just tasted like sauce over rice. Food wasn't inedible but I'd only go here if I were stuck in the middle of a desert and that was the only place to eat.

Food: 1 star for the free tupperware they give you w/ entrees
Customer Service: 3 stars for politeness, fast service, and efficiency

Christmas in July!

We finally slept at a decent hour last night and got up before 1pm. We had breakfast at Giraffe on Stranmillis Road. Review on this later. Then we went to the post office to pick up my parcel! YAY!!! I love care packages especially from my mom. She goes way overboard. When I lived in Africa, she actually sent a portable toilet. Now THAT was humiliating! But she still rocks cuz she sent proper organic maple syrup from Quebec (which is hard to find here. The only place I found maple syrup was at Marks & Sparks. Even then it tasted watered down. Not good at all) and packages of mac & cheese, pancake mix, crystal light (which is now Craig's favorite), cornbread mix, and stove top stuffing!!! After we dropped the box at our house. We went for a walk across the Kings Bridge to find my teacher's house for my bodhran lessons. YES, I WILL BE LEARNING BODHRAN!!! I finally got in touch with a teacher yesterday after month of back and forth emails between the Crescent Arts Centre and The Belfast Traditional Music Society. I'm so excited!!! I feel like I'm back to my old ethnomusicological self again. Craig wanted to walk back on Stranmillis Road and people watch. We sat outside at a cafe and soaked in the atmosphere. We saw a lot of interesting people. Such as this guy with spiked hair. There were also a lot of young adults in hooded robes. I guess commencement for Queen's University is today. I found the hoods fascinating. Some were trimmed with white fur others just pink and blue satin. What is that all about? In the states, if you graduate with a B.A. you don't get a hood. You just get a gold cord around your neck (like a nuce) if you graduated with honors. All the other higher degrees (ie MA, PhD) receive a hood. I never really understood the whole academia pomp and circumstance. I didn't even walk in my graduation. I got my diploma and ran fast and as far away from campus as I could. So far that I ended up in Cuba!

The Difference Between Shankill and Stranmillis Girls

Aye! I'm comin'!

Yes! I am arriving!

The First Day of Summer

We decided to spend the first day of summer indoors (out of the pouring rain) and watch a movie.

I discovered that the Queen's Film Theater was in our neighborhood. When I looked at the website, I immediately knew that this place was right up my alley. They show an array of independent and foreign films which I am a big fan of.

Looks can be deceiving. The facade mimics a narrow brownstone home...



Suddenly to your dismay, is a very modern, ultra hip, and magnificent lobby where you can enjoy a glass of wine which you can take in with you to the theatre. Imbibing alcohol during a movie! Who woulda thunk?!?!



After the movie, we walked through the university grounds at night. Looks like the rain decided to take a break.

Our House

Below is a virtual tour of our house in Stranmillis...


Living room view from kitchen


Kitchen


An example of Craig's obsessive compulsive disorder


Stairs leading up to the bathrooms


Second floor Stairs


Stairs leading up to third floor


Stairs leading up to our room



Our Penthouse suite


Dresser Mirror


Our Bed


As you can see, he's very proud of our bed


Opposite side of the room



Penthouse view