day 1 - 17 may
flight was nearly 10 hours long. i left at 4:30 pm from sfo and arrived at heathrow mid-morning so i basically went into the future and flew past any darkness out the window along the way. virgin atlantic's a pretty nice airline but it wasn't as great as i hyped it up to be since the first time i went to london 4 years ago. for some reason the airline attendants kept thinking i was with the 2 indian girls that sat next to me. anytime they were sleeping, they would ask me what they wanted to eat or drink. when they said they didn't want wine or tea, they assumed i didn't want any either. and when they were giving out custom papers to fill in, they gave me one and said it was good for the whole family...um i wasn't aware of how indian i looked (and not the native american kind). i thought it was pretty amusing. also amusing was v.a.'s personal interactive video screens. i watched soooo much crap that i sort of impressed myself:
"There Will be Blood" - a quirky tale about a tween oil prospector dealing with the adolescent woes of turn of the century america. ok not really. actually a tale about a crazy guy with an oil drill who is just as scary as Chigurh (No Country for Old Men) but even more human thus perhaps more scary? well u can be the judge of that. definitely an interesting watch even though it's pretty hard to swallow. i did appreciate the fact that they didn't have to be as gory as No Country to get their point across. though now that i think of it, the violence in No Country was pretty amazing.
"Arctic Tale" - a very sad tale about polar bears and walrus' and the effects of global warming on their very existence with a couple of "oh no u diint's and oh girl's!" interjected when u think u might start to cry, compliments of narrator, queen latifah.
"America Unchained" - a documentary focused on a british guy trying to drive cross-country in his newly acquired used station wagon without giving any money to "the man." along the way, he can only spend his money at "unchained" places (independently owned and mom/pop-ran) for gas, lodging, and food. it was really interesting to see how far he had to go to get gas from non-chains and in the process, he met tons of nice folk who were content with simpler lives. it really made me see how hard it is for these independents to keep running when chains run America.
"How to Look Good Naked" - yes this is a show about how to indeed look good naked. you can tell it's a british show by how many boobs and "muffs" (as they call them here) you get to see as you watch a gay asian man's quest to make women feel confident with what they got. it was pretty inspiring although pretty naked.
"The Girls of the Playboy Mansion" - yet another insightful show...okay not that insightful. it was also a make-over show but the premise was about giving one of the playgirl's little sister a hoe make-over. she looked really cute after her make-over but it was really gross seeing Hugh Hefner eyeing her from his silky robe.
"The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" - okay this one was amazing. i definitely recommend this one to anyone looking for a fresh look at a movie experience. it was pretty difficult to watch but i feel like it was worth the emotional rollercoaster. this movie is based on a true story about the editor of french Elle magazine. he suddenly has a stroke that leaves him paralyzed except for his left eye. the story follows his inspiring journey to survive and want to survive. unfortunately i didn't get to see the last 5 minutes of the movie because we started our descent just as the story was going to end. boo!
okay so i finally landed after my marathon. took the underground to my dad's place. it was only one train (no transfers) but getting off the train and onto the street proved really difficult. now keep in mind i had two luggages (one was more than half as tall as me and one was a carry-on suitcase). together they weighed about 75 lbs. plus a purse and a heavy backpack with a lap-top in it. so i get off of the train and i come to find that i have to climb two sets of steep cement stairs to get to the top. yeah, not so fun. and plenty of people just walked passed me and scoffed. oh u british are so generous...
anyhow, i got to my dad's flat. it's actually his good friend's house who is renting it to him while he lives in germany for work. the great thing about it is that i get my own room and bathroom. the house is really nice and a lot more "homey" than my dad's last flat since i guess it is a home. although it is a little weird staying at someone else's home cuz all of his stuff is in storage. the architecture is quaint but nice. i love the spanish villa type feel of the decor.
the rest of the day i just hung out and took plenty of naps since i hadn't slept at all the night before. that was day 1.
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