Can a full moon affect the Underground?

Yesterday in my office we were talking with one of my colleagues who is about to burst with child about tube etiquette. Now any decent person would give up their seat in the tube for a pregnant woman, especially this one who might have her kid in the freaking tube. This however is not always the case as many people in London are highly selfish and quite unobservant. Taking note of her personal woes with the transport, I told myself that I would begin to watch for opportunities like these where I, an able bodied person, could give up my seat for someone who actually needed it either due to pregnancy, illness, physical handicap, etc.

Tonight, I actually came upon my first chance to put this new found cause into effect. I had just jumped on the Piccadilly line at Kings Cross and was headed south to Earl's Court. We are talking 12 stops, so this isn't a short ride. I was fortunate to get a seat right by the doors with one empty seat beside me. At the same time that I boarded the train, a blind man also boarded. This man was properly blind. He had a walking stick and the pupils of his eyes were silver. As I sat there, he sort of fumbled his way towards the seats, but instead of sitting down, he stood directly in front of me with his crotch in my face. Remembering my decision, I asked him if he would like to take my seat. I got up and let him know it was vacant, and then took the seat next to him.

This is when it gets weird. This is when he started to touch me. Ok not down there like a pervie, but as I had my hands on my bag, he actually hooked his hand around my arm. Instantly I was VERY uncomfortable. Thoughts started flooding my head. "Ok buddy I gave you my seat, not my arm." or "He's blind, I can't say anything" to "This is all a sick trick and those silver eyes are contacts" back to "He's blind, how can I think these things? I feel so awkward."

The expressions on my face must have been priceless as he started to really wedge himself under my arm. So in a very tactful manner I tried to remove my arm by non-nonchalantly sweeping my hair away from face. As I repositioned my arm, here came his little sneaky blind paw wrapping himself around my arm once again.

I looked up at the tube map in a panic thinking surely my stop was near, but I still had 8 to go, and I really think the blind guy was with me for the long haul. So I made a decision, a decision that I'm sure some of you will judge me for, but it had to be done. I mean I had entertained this for about ten minutes too long as I considered all of my options, but I did the only thing that I could think of. I pretended Covent Garden was my stop, got off the train, and waited for the next.

Now all of you that think I am heartless, this is fine because you are ignorant. When you have a random pseudo hand holding session with a blind stranger whose finger tips look like they've been freshly inked, then we can talk.

Brooke

Every Rose Has Its Horns!!

Texas Wins 41-38!

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Living in London during College football season has been a difficult time. First no one really understands the game, then they gripe about how American football players wear pads and stop the game all the time, and of course there are the awful start times because of the time difference. This has kept me from venturing to see any of the big games, but that does not include the Grandaddy of the All, The Rose Bowl. Our beloved Horns faced the USC Trojans in a highly anticipated match up.

I must say that I showed nothing but pure dedication as the game started here at 1am, and I did not get home until 6:30am. To make matters worse, yes I am at work! It was all worth it however, because of the awe inspiring last 19 second game winning touchdown. Never in my life have I seen a more exciting game (I think I pee'd my pants a bit :) ). The Texas Exes London chapter and the USC alumni association rented out the local sports bar, and the place was packed with about 150 people who stayed until the end. There was a sea of burnt orange that was a fabulous site to see for this transplanted Texan.

That first fumble on Texas' first possession really made me nervous (hell the whole game made me nervous), and I thought it was going to be like bowl games in the past, where the team just could not deliver or live up to the hype, I should have known that Vince was better than that. With a Heisman trophy defeat staring in his face, he delivered the National Championship to the Longhorns with true leadership and style. I'm still so elated by the outcome that it has cancelled out the exhaustion I should be feeling from pulling an all nighter. I have yet to hear from my father, who I'm hoping survived the extreme excitement and celebrations that I'm sure followed. I can't imagine what it must have been like to have been there, but since I wasn't, London turned out to be a pretty cool place to watch the Horns put the hurt on the Trojans.

Hook 'Em Horns!

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We are having a Temergency!

After relating to all of the fam about my office's ability to consume massive amounts of tea per day, I thought that the following email, addressed to the firm's London marketing department, would be a funny and apt addition to our little blog:

I have spoken to Alan Brock to try and find out what's happening with our tea machine. There is a replacement machine ready and waiting to be installed but there's a problem with the connection so we are waiting for the maintenance engineers to come and fix that before we get the replacement machine.

Unfortunately we're stuck with just the kettle - or a walk upstairs - for the time being.

Julia Targett
Publications administrator
Acting departmental coordinator
+44 (0) 20 7427 3284

Yeah...that's right, I work in England.

To further understand the crisis of this situation, please refer to the following description of the UK security levels:

The British are feeling the pinch in relation to recent bombings and have raised their security level from "Miffed" to "Peeved." Soon, though, security levels may be raised yet again to "Irritated" or even "A Bit Cross." Londoners have not been "A Bit Cross" since the blitz in 1940 when tea supplies all but ran out. Terrorists have been re-categorized from "Tiresome" to a "Bloody Nuisance." The last time the British issued a "Bloody Nuisance" warning level was during The Great Fire of 1666.

Happy New Year 2006!

I guess that everyone should enjoy a big city's New Year's celebration. London celebrates with a huge fireworks display by the Thames. It really is surreal to count down and then have Big Ben strike midnight right next to you. The firework display was the most amazing that I've ever seen. This year they chose to have the central focus be the London Eye, and they utilized the Eye within the show. I got a bit of footage so that you can see what I'm talking about because seriously words cannot do it justice. Enjoy and Happy New Year!

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