Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, so cool, yes, yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh yes. This is perfect. I might really grow to love this place. Starting July 1st (it has already started) nearly all pubic places indoors will be smoke free according to law. This is sweet. Obviously I'm not a smoker. This is just as cool as when California became smoke free just before I turned 21.
Smokers in England, worry not, in California they have found ways to side step the law, such as outdoor "garden" areas that are attached to bars/clubs, designated smoking shops/cafes/hookah lounges, and there is always smoking outside.
It seems like there is going to be pretty stiff penalties for breaking the law
Here are the specs:
Non-compliance will be a criminal offence
Smoking in smoke free premises or work vehicles: a fixed penalty notice of £50 (reduced to £30 if paid in 15 days) imposed on the person smoking. Or a maximum fine of £200 if prosecuted and convicted by a court.
Failure to display no-smoking signs: a fixed penalty notice of £200 (reduced to £150 if paid in 15 days) imposed on whoever manages or occupies the smokefree premises or vehicle. Or a maximum fine of £1000 if prosecuted and convicted by a court.
Failing to prevent smoking in a smokefree place: a maximum fine of £2500 imposed on whoever manages or controls the smokefree premises or vehicle if prosecuted and convicted by a court. There is no fixed penalty notice for this offence.
Yikes. I don't think its that bad in California. It doesn’t seem like there is any enforcement actually, but it works, people comply. Apparently New York and Dublin are smoke free as well. Is that really true?
http://www.smokefreeengland.co.uk/
What with NHS, legal gay marriage, all sorts of cutting edge art, and now this I may never want to leave!
Thursday, July 12, 2007
In my dreams...and then I woke up
My first dream in London!! I was wondering when it would happen, then sure enough. It was glorious. Mind you I have never been to London ever in my life. I've seen pictures as everyone has, I suppose.
It was a short dream between 7:30am-9:30am. My damn alarm woke me up from it. Don't you hate it when you have your alarm from the day before and you forget to turn it off or change it and you end up waking up before you really need to? I love sleep. I love dreams.
The people in my dream had a British accent, fun. Wait, now I feel like I had a continued dream. You know the kind where you wake up from the dream then go back to sleep to find yourself back in the same dream where you left off. Ever had one of those? I love those, when they are not nightmares.
I got woken up by a phone call on my cel. I didn't recognize the number so I didn't pick it up. I was curious who called so I waited for a message. That was around 7:30am. And guess who it was: some bloke calling from Sir John Cass Hall, the residence hall (dorm) I applied to in Hackney. He wanted to talk to me about what I'm getting myself into by living in the hall. I'm not used to hearing British accents so it was a treat to hear. He was trying to leave a number for me to call but kept on messing it up. I was thinking about calling right back but instead I went back to sleep. I'll call early tomorrow morning if I can decipher the number he left me. I might have to go to the website to get the number.
Okay so back to my lovely dream. I remember driving in one of those small European cars with either 3 dudes or one female and 2 dudes not sure. Things get fuzzy the longer I'm awake. But the steering wheel was not on the right side and we were driving on the right side of the road so I got quite a bit wrong in my dream. Sue me; I haven't been there yet so I don't really know what it's like. Well my dream places aren't even close to the real places no matter how well I know a place. I think I just got picked up from the airport and we were on a mission as I often am in my dreams. There was one guy who was hanging out the window most of the time who I think I was flirting with. We drove past this checkpoint where I had to show my passport and the agent ended up getting in the car and showing us his gun, you know just for fun. We ended up picking up this little girl who just lost her family and Dakota Fanning (how she looked like when she did 'Taken', the TV series in 2002) we went the beach or some pool, I dunno. Did we go to the Thames? I'm not sure, again its all getting fuzzy.
What does it all mean? I have no idea. I'm no good at interpreting my dreams. I'm just stoked that I visited my own personal, weird, convoluted London in my sleep.
It was a short dream between 7:30am-9:30am. My damn alarm woke me up from it. Don't you hate it when you have your alarm from the day before and you forget to turn it off or change it and you end up waking up before you really need to? I love sleep. I love dreams.
The people in my dream had a British accent, fun. Wait, now I feel like I had a continued dream. You know the kind where you wake up from the dream then go back to sleep to find yourself back in the same dream where you left off. Ever had one of those? I love those, when they are not nightmares.
I got woken up by a phone call on my cel. I didn't recognize the number so I didn't pick it up. I was curious who called so I waited for a message. That was around 7:30am. And guess who it was: some bloke calling from Sir John Cass Hall, the residence hall (dorm) I applied to in Hackney. He wanted to talk to me about what I'm getting myself into by living in the hall. I'm not used to hearing British accents so it was a treat to hear. He was trying to leave a number for me to call but kept on messing it up. I was thinking about calling right back but instead I went back to sleep. I'll call early tomorrow morning if I can decipher the number he left me. I might have to go to the website to get the number.
Okay so back to my lovely dream. I remember driving in one of those small European cars with either 3 dudes or one female and 2 dudes not sure. Things get fuzzy the longer I'm awake. But the steering wheel was not on the right side and we were driving on the right side of the road so I got quite a bit wrong in my dream. Sue me; I haven't been there yet so I don't really know what it's like. Well my dream places aren't even close to the real places no matter how well I know a place. I think I just got picked up from the airport and we were on a mission as I often am in my dreams. There was one guy who was hanging out the window most of the time who I think I was flirting with. We drove past this checkpoint where I had to show my passport and the agent ended up getting in the car and showing us his gun, you know just for fun. We ended up picking up this little girl who just lost her family and Dakota Fanning (how she looked like when she did 'Taken', the TV series in 2002) we went the beach or some pool, I dunno. Did we go to the Thames? I'm not sure, again its all getting fuzzy.
What does it all mean? I have no idea. I'm no good at interpreting my dreams. I'm just stoked that I visited my own personal, weird, convoluted London in my sleep.
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Maiden Journey
First post, first post, first post! I wanted to do this for a little while, since I've been reading An American in London for maybe a couple of weeks. It's a blog, here at Blogger written by an American PhD student at Kings College who talks about her experience about being, well, an American expat living in London, fancy that. She has been there for 3 years and blogging strong. I don't know if I'll be as prolific as her or sound half way intelligent, but hey, not like anybody is going to read this anyways, right?
There are numerous options for blog hosting and I couldn't decide where I wanted to post. I've blogged before, not with any consistency on a few other sites, live journal and My Space to name a couple. Well, since I already had an account here because of school, well, here I am.
I'm still here, in the States as I call it, but not for long. I'm off to the UK, specifically London September 10th. I'll arrive there the 11th. Hmmm, I'll be arriving on foreign soil on the 6th anniversary of 9-11. That is going to be interesting. Wonder if I'll be considered a terrorist. I dunno, just a thought. The time is creeping up on me. All I can think about is the move. It's all I can talk about as well. I must be really boring people with London this and UK that. Lets hope this is a good outlet for me to blah, blah, blah-dee-blah about everything British that I'm obsessing over.
What am I obsessing over at the moment? I've been spending a lot of money lately. First was my round-trip plane ticket for $684, which was a big milestone for me, signifying that I'm actually going, things are serious now, say goodbye to California and Mexican food serious.
Then there was the faxing of the registration form for the classes I'm going to take in the fall, or as they call it autumn. Oh yeah, currently I'm an undergrad student at San Francisco State spending my senior year abroad at London Metropolitan Uni. It took me a full day to navigate London Mets website to come up with my schedule, a nightmarish day, where at the end I didn't care what classes I was taking as long as I had classes. I had to get a signature on my form from my academic advisor who I think wasn't actually in town. I emailed a PDF of the filled out form to him, he printed it out, signed it, scanned it and emailed it back to me, where I printed it out and faxed it to London, twice. Yeah, the first time I faxed it, I sent it to the wrong office. Ordeal! That didn't cost me much; set me back 5 bucks, but another big fat nail in the coffin. I mention coffin and allude to death because death as prescribed by tarot card readings means significant chance. As a human, a creature of comfort I dread change, no matter how positive it may be.
Next on spending agenda, registration fees for London Met, £390 (~$780). This is on top of my tuition fees. Most recent hefty fee (it just never ends), the visa application fee costing me only $208. I paid online yesterday, all furrowed brow and bated breath, when I finished my application. Thank you C. for letting me use your address on the form. You are my only friend in London, UK, or Europe for that matter. I made the mistake of choosing to submit the application along with all of the related documents in person. What was I thinking? This is what I'm obsessing about at this particular moment. I don't think I can even go back on that decision.
I needed to make an appointment at the consular office in L.A. I don't even have a car. I made an appointment in two weeks but I cancelled it. I'm still waiting for my unconditional acceptance letter from London Met. I need this for my visa. It would be too much of a pain to take bus or plane there because I still have to find a way to get to the British Consular by car (I wouldn't even think of public transportation, probably would take me 2-3 hours to get to my destination). I could rent a car but I don't have a credit card (I cut up my cards a year ago). I don't think I could use my debit card. I'm looking at spending $150 for the rental and gas, at least. Why? I don't want to go in person. I would have an appointment in the morning and would have to wait till 2 or 5 till I could get my visa and could leave. I want to send my stuff in the mail.
I had a cheap attack when I made my decision to file in person. I was thinking, oh I don't want to spend another $12 to send it by mail, I'll do it in person, there’s a British Consular office in San Francisco, right? Well, yes there is one but they don't deal in visas. Your regional consular is in L.A, a 6-hour drive or an 8-11 hour bus ride away. Remember you don't have a car anymore; you sold it before you moved up to the bay area. They have a visa help/question line, good place to call, right? I could ask them if there is any penalty for me sending it in the mail when I stated I was going to go in person. Oh yeah, it cost $2.49 per minute to call this phone number. Bloody hell!! I'm afraid to send it in the mail with a $12 check. They might turn down my application because I didn't go according to policy or something. I could be freaking out over nothing, maybe. Why does it seem that a big move always ends up costing more money than you plan on spending because you don't know better.
There are numerous options for blog hosting and I couldn't decide where I wanted to post. I've blogged before, not with any consistency on a few other sites, live journal and My Space to name a couple. Well, since I already had an account here because of school, well, here I am.
I'm still here, in the States as I call it, but not for long. I'm off to the UK, specifically London September 10th. I'll arrive there the 11th. Hmmm, I'll be arriving on foreign soil on the 6th anniversary of 9-11. That is going to be interesting. Wonder if I'll be considered a terrorist. I dunno, just a thought. The time is creeping up on me. All I can think about is the move. It's all I can talk about as well. I must be really boring people with London this and UK that. Lets hope this is a good outlet for me to blah, blah, blah-dee-blah about everything British that I'm obsessing over.
What am I obsessing over at the moment? I've been spending a lot of money lately. First was my round-trip plane ticket for $684, which was a big milestone for me, signifying that I'm actually going, things are serious now, say goodbye to California and Mexican food serious.
Then there was the faxing of the registration form for the classes I'm going to take in the fall, or as they call it autumn. Oh yeah, currently I'm an undergrad student at San Francisco State spending my senior year abroad at London Metropolitan Uni. It took me a full day to navigate London Mets website to come up with my schedule, a nightmarish day, where at the end I didn't care what classes I was taking as long as I had classes. I had to get a signature on my form from my academic advisor who I think wasn't actually in town. I emailed a PDF of the filled out form to him, he printed it out, signed it, scanned it and emailed it back to me, where I printed it out and faxed it to London, twice. Yeah, the first time I faxed it, I sent it to the wrong office. Ordeal! That didn't cost me much; set me back 5 bucks, but another big fat nail in the coffin. I mention coffin and allude to death because death as prescribed by tarot card readings means significant chance. As a human, a creature of comfort I dread change, no matter how positive it may be.
Next on spending agenda, registration fees for London Met, £390 (~$780). This is on top of my tuition fees. Most recent hefty fee (it just never ends), the visa application fee costing me only $208. I paid online yesterday, all furrowed brow and bated breath, when I finished my application. Thank you C. for letting me use your address on the form. You are my only friend in London, UK, or Europe for that matter. I made the mistake of choosing to submit the application along with all of the related documents in person. What was I thinking? This is what I'm obsessing about at this particular moment. I don't think I can even go back on that decision.
I needed to make an appointment at the consular office in L.A. I don't even have a car. I made an appointment in two weeks but I cancelled it. I'm still waiting for my unconditional acceptance letter from London Met. I need this for my visa. It would be too much of a pain to take bus or plane there because I still have to find a way to get to the British Consular by car (I wouldn't even think of public transportation, probably would take me 2-3 hours to get to my destination). I could rent a car but I don't have a credit card (I cut up my cards a year ago). I don't think I could use my debit card. I'm looking at spending $150 for the rental and gas, at least. Why? I don't want to go in person. I would have an appointment in the morning and would have to wait till 2 or 5 till I could get my visa and could leave. I want to send my stuff in the mail.
I had a cheap attack when I made my decision to file in person. I was thinking, oh I don't want to spend another $12 to send it by mail, I'll do it in person, there’s a British Consular office in San Francisco, right? Well, yes there is one but they don't deal in visas. Your regional consular is in L.A, a 6-hour drive or an 8-11 hour bus ride away. Remember you don't have a car anymore; you sold it before you moved up to the bay area. They have a visa help/question line, good place to call, right? I could ask them if there is any penalty for me sending it in the mail when I stated I was going to go in person. Oh yeah, it cost $2.49 per minute to call this phone number. Bloody hell!! I'm afraid to send it in the mail with a $12 check. They might turn down my application because I didn't go according to policy or something. I could be freaking out over nothing, maybe. Why does it seem that a big move always ends up costing more money than you plan on spending because you don't know better.
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