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By Jess, October 25, 2007 4:40 pm

I mentioned a few posts ago that my favorite view of London was West from the Waterloo Bridge. Well, this is it. You can kind of see everything all at once and as the bus moves across the bridge, everything is framed a little differently. Here, you can see the Golden Jubilee Bridge, Big Ben and Parliament, and a bit of the London Eye. And the clouds look pretty good as well. Eugenio took this picture, but it’s what I look at every day on the bus. Jealous?

It’s a bit chilly and I find myself pressing the Boost button on my heater constantly. It turns on automatically if it falls below 16 degrees Celsius (60.8 degrees Fahrenheit!), otherwise, you have to press a button every hour. That’s no good for me. I am intolerant of indoor temperatures below 65, but I suppose it’ll toughen me up a little. The weather is starting to cool down meaning that under no circumstances will I be dressing up and wearing skirts unless absolutely necessary. A friend of mine is in town from Oxford and he called me from a bar to ask me to meet up. I knew the bar was more bar and less pub (read: more classy, less casual), and pretty immediately turned him down. I’m willing to bear the cold for short walks to and from places. But for a half hour or more of transit? No. I’ll see him this weekend anyway; I’m not that mean or lazy.

Today, I have sustained myself on two TV dinners, a bowl of cereal, and the rest of a bag of crisps (chips). I chewed two pieces of gum as well. I love gum, but when I choose to chew it here, it’s a very conscious choice. “Will I eat soon and will I have to spit it out before it loses flavor? Do I need fresher breath? Do I really need to chew a piece now?” So… chewing two pieces today, in my opinion, was extremely extravagant. I’m living it uppppp. I finally did some work , probably the most consecutive hours of reading I’ve done in 5 months. Insane right? It’s still not the workload of Georgetown at all, but some of the material is more challenging. I think they might be on to something here. I’m getting smarter, presumably, by doing less work. Amazing. I can go rock climbing 2-3 times during the school week! Speaking of rock climbing, I broke in my new pair of shoes on Wednesday. I was a little timid wearing my own pair of shoes and even more timid about having my own chalk bag… so timid that I kept my chalk bag in my locker. It was a good day though and as usual, I have big, colorful bruises that indicate I’m more hardcore than I am in reality. Oh well.

I have an interview tomorrow for a job to make some extra cash. So if I don’t write about being employed within the next two weeks, it means I’ve not been hired. I’m excited for money, because then I can more guiltlessly do things that are fun. I want to go to concerts or something. The prices for shows are similar to U.S. prices, but then you multiply by the exchange rate of two and are instantly depressed. Alright. I need to work on an earlier bedtime. Good night.

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By Jess, October 9, 2007 9:27 am

I think that one can judge the wealth of others by what cereal they’re buying. If they’re buying that grainy crap or 2-for-1 of something that’s clearly not delicious, then they’re poor or frugal. If they’re buying delicious sweet things, then they’re looaddded. I’ve been trying to save money wherever I can here, whether it’s ordering a cheese omelet rather than a ham AND cheese omelet to save 40 pence or opting out of seeing Spamalot with friends. Today, due to starvation of two days, I finally went to the grocery store and continued my streak of frugality.

There are several problems I encountered. One. I picked up a 99 pence bag of frozen peas. Awesome. Wait… I don’t have a bowl. Or a fork. Or a knife. Or a spoon. Since realizing this, I’ve been on the look-out for something that will make do, but I haven’t seen anything yet. So… for now, no peas. I did, however, buy cereal even though I don’t have a bowl. I did the 2-for-1 thing. Milk. Orange juice. Four microwave dinners. A bundle of bananas and five nectarines. Fourteen pounds, an arm, and a leg.

In another effort to save some money, I sought a grocery store where I could top up (the over-used phrase meaning “to add money to”) my Oyster card, which is used for buses and tubes. Then, I thought, I could charge the 20 pounds for the 7-day travel card AND buy some food, and it would make the credit card transaction fee all the more worth while. That was a failure. An utter failure. Also, my phone service, a failure. I regret not getting T-Mobile or something, not because it’s cheaper but because for some reason, I can’t top up online and am going to have to go to a Carphone Warehouse every time unless I call the Mobile World people and sort this out. Sorting out is what I’m tired of doing. I still have to sort out my health registration stuff, but it was raining today and I couldn’t find its road. So I’ll have to do that tomorrow.

Eating is terrible when you are counting the pence of each bite. I think that biggest failure of my being an adult, as I’m supposed to be at this point, is eating. This summer, if I was too tired from work or too busy, I just would delay meals until late. And I find that the same thing happens here, except now even worse because each bite is so damn expensive. Anyways, money sucks. Send relief aid to Citibank.

Edit (05/07/08): Once there was a picture of cereals on this post… but then 40 people a day came to this entry because of… no more.