Ahhh nice. Karen and Charlie's photos from Guatemala are up. And they look really great. I have to admit, I'm a bit jealous! Oh well, living in London is still in a novel stage, so I'm enjoying a bit like a vacation. Rock on K & C...

Well, once again I misread dates here and 11/9 to 12/12 actually means Sepember to December so the utility bill was for three months, not one. Still really expensive, but I'm sweating less.

Someone got me a gag gift yesterday: a book called "Ripoff Britain", a purported guide to avoiding high prices here. Looks like I'm going to need all the help I can get. Our electricity bill for last month was $240 and the water bill was $160. This is for a two bedroom apartment. Pardon my french, but what the fuck is going on??? That's close to 10 times the price I would expect to pay in the states. Unbelievable. I think there must have been some kind of mistake, either that, or its time to reduce my showering to weekly, and invest in candles.

Forgot to mention - Stonhenge was as impressive as expected. Unfortunately, it's also full of tourists with an admission fee and an awful gift shop, but what can you expect? Well, I was suitably inspired that I now have as a goal in life to incorporate some sort of celestial feature into my lodging at some point. A shadow or a ray of light on the summer solstice would be really cool...

... furthermore, don't forget to check out this year's Google Zeitgeist, as fascinating as ever.

The first time I saw a Peruvian musical group performing on the street (incidentally in Peru), I thought it was pretty cool. Now it seems wherever there are gatherings of people, in any city in the world, there is a Peruvian band playing the exact same pan-pipe tune and hawking CDs. I am now convinced it's actually the same 4 guys that by some kind of ancient Incan teleportation system are actually able to be, simultaneously, everywhere at the same time.

A summation of the strangeness of the new global economy: The green beans I have been buying at my local shop come from Zambia. They are very cheap too at only 99p for a pretty big bunch of them. The most amazing thing is the label says "flown in for freshness." In other words, it is cheaper to grow beans in Zambia, then crate them up onto a cargo plane and fly them to London (at least 8 hours flying time), than it is to grow them locally. It would be really fascinating to follow these beans from field to plate. Anyways, I hope at least a few Zambians are making a decent living off this scheme.

I can't believe I've been here for 3 months and have not yet left London. (well, went to Brussels, but I mean in the UK). So I rented a car for tommorow with the intention of going to Stonehenge! I am really paranoid about driving on the left side of the road, and dealing with British driving. I only realized the other day what the white triangles painted on the street mean: Yield. I rented a smartcar, which is another thing to look forward to!

10% Juice is definitely wishful thinking. I've just spent 25 minutes on the CocaCola website and the Fanta website and cannot dig up a list of ingredients or anything that describes Fanta as anything other than an "experience", "association" or a "brand." It's actually really fascinating how these things are created and marketed.

Among the more interesting quotes: "Consumers around the world, particularly teens, fondly associate Fanta with happiness and special times with friends and family. This positive imagery is driven by the brand's fun, playful personality, which goes hand in hand with the bright color (particularly orange), bold fruit taste, and tingly carbonation. "

As for me, I clearly associate Fanta with gangs of hot chicks dancing on the beach. Every time I open a can from now on, I will be swept away to the Caribbean. Ah... yes, that explains my newfound fondness.

Good lord, I've become a Fanta addict. I always hated that stuff, but I just started drinking it the other day, and now I can't stop. It's awful. My rationalization is that it's slightly better than Coke, and slightly better than coffee. And I find the sugar rush far more effective in getting work done than caffeine. Maybe this stuff has caffeine, it dosn't say anything on the can. God only knows.

I was wandering through Clerkenwell today in the cold, bundeled up in a long overcoat and a bright red scarf today. I decided to amuse myself by peeking into offices and inspecting their interior. Most of the offices around here are ridiculously hip, with lots of designer furniture. I wished I had my camera because I found one that had a camper-van suspended over a big hole in the floor. The van had a conference table inside, and the rest of the place has decorated with all sorts of kitchy furnniture. Pushing Eurochic to new levels...

For the third time in a row, the bottle of coke I bought at the shop is labeled in a language other than English, this time Slovak. At first I thought this was some kind of European Union thing about equalizing languages or something. But then I found out that the British are quite keen to travel to Calais, France to load up on beverages, which cost less than 50% the price in Britain.

I don't know about soft drinks, but some friends just got back with 80 bottles of wine and and an enormous beer supply, which is all perfectly legal. But it's not legal to resell it. Anyway, the cops can't keep track of all the shopkeepers in London, so it looks like those rascals at the Video Shop are Eastern European coke smugglers too. Oh well, tasted fine.

British thanksgiving turned out to be a resounding success. I was going to post photos, but people seem to be potential embarassed, so here's the pie. Despite creating a huge mess in my roommate's formerly spotless oven, the Turkey was excellent as well, and I am still enjoying daily turkey sandwiches, made all the better by red-pepper hummos, which I highly recommend. Even our experiemental Pumpkin pie, which was made without several key ingredients, inluding pumpkins, turned out great. (we found a squash that looked more or less like a pumpkin.) Depicted below: