for sale

i've moved! check out my new digs at amarikot.carpeannum.com noel's site has a bunch of blogs on it. access it here www.carpeannum.com
onwards and upwards!

monkey bars and superfurry scurrying things

an eventful week. mostly full of dinner parties, strangely enough. so much so, in fact, that i'm looking forward to cooking for myself again. dinner at brian and mahalia's last week was very nice - love hanging at their place. they have couches, a living room; very conducive to hanging (though not literally. but imagine a living room with monkey bars... think of the parties!). anyway, we watched the fog of war. very good. went over there on saturday night for another movie evening. watched the last of the mohicans and all about my mother. though wasn't the biggest fan of last, loved all (ha). so good! now i really want to see la mala educación.
most of the week was spent struggling through ulysses. the wednesday class was awesome; basically involved me ranting and refusing to be convinced of joyce's greatness. our professor randall later commented our class was always very "energetic," to which drew responded, so he tells me, "blame andrea." oh yes, stirring da shit in edinburgh. what can i say? it's the scarlem in me.
but, ah, definitely saving the best of the week for last. came home from work on friday night and went to the kitchen to put something in the fridge. as i was opening the fridge door, i saw something on the floor, scurrying. something furry, grey, and scurrying. oh yes, a famed marchmont mouse. i started screaming and jumping around like an idiot, waking up all my roommates who initially couldn't understand what i was saying. the men of the flat looked around, reassured us - oh the usefulness of gender roles during rodent infestations... don't think manos, whose girlfriend had arrived that evening from greece, appreciated the disturbance... no further spottings but now i can't enter the kitchen without first peering around the door.
after the mouse sighting, i booked my ticket to greece! i'm leaving on the 20th and returning january 6th. so excited! though it would have been nice to go home... oh well. greece will have to do :)
last event to report: made a japanese meal for caroline, will, and chris last night. went over well, i think. made miso shiro, yakitori, and sushi. bought some fresh tuna and salmon from eddie's, considered the best seafood shop in the city. quite impressed, actually. oh maguro - how i love you. also had way too many kir royales... a very enjoyable night.
well, off to work. happy monday!

at long last...the haggis post

so, i've decided to post after a longish absence. i've been busy and somehow posting always seems slightly indulgent: a chocolate milkshake instead of the balanced meal that serious booktime represents. not that I really like chocolate or milkshakes. a better indulgence for me would probably be a huge bowl of warabi mochi or anything filled with red bean. what can i say? i like me my japanese desserts :)
anyway, continuing with the culinary theme, had haggis for the first time last night. went to caroline's for dinner and her cousin will made us cullen (creamy fish soup) and chicken stuffed with haggis in a whiskey sauce. i had requested a scottish meal last week (caroline made us tuna meatballs with pasta), so will, being the true scot he is, rose to the occasion. i confess it was vegetarian haggis (the meal was already really rich). a bit of a cheat, perhaps, but my taste buds got the idea: haggis = herbed oatmeal stuffing. a very nice sunday evening that ended, as always, with an intense game of trivial pursuit. and a few rounds of jenga. (round one saw me knocking the tower over into my glass of red wine, staining caroline's new set. oops. my defense? like my dinners of love, i was engaging in my favourite pastime: the building of character).
slightly worse the wear this morning, i staggered through work. not a bad day. been reading rushdie's shame, and avoiding ulysses. joyce - if only he were still alive... i would give him the verbal and physical pummelling he deserves. grr...
well, off to brian and mahalia's for dinner. not sure what they're making but i'm sure it'll be tasty. (yes, indulging in my other favourite pastime: being a dinner guest).
the week's round-up: went to karaoke and sang "i'm too sexy" (yes, it was as bad as you're imagining), saw the constant gardener... that's about it really.
oh crap, i'm going to be late...

apologies in advance

oops. yes, it's been a few days since i last posted (sorry allison! how are you, by the way? i miss you). apologies, apologies. again, not that i've really been doing much, just reading and working. ugh, in the middle of a portrait of the artist as a young man and i keep falling asleep. joyce - ick. really, not a fan.
and this city has turned blowy! the wind is insane. i'm going to get dashed against a wall one of these days.
there's probably a lot i could write, but i'm too tired to string witty and amusing thoughts together.
next time, i promise.

just because...

...i'm procrastinating and miss japan and have not fulfilled my promise of a photo-plentiful blog, here you go:


oh tsunakawa sensei and rose-flavoured ice cream, how i long for you both!

fire, hobos, but no marshmellows

mystery revealed: julian is my stalker! he confessed at the brass monkey over drinks celebrating his b-day on sunday (i'd mentioned writing a blog at his dinner party and, naturally, he was deeply curious). so welcome, stalker julian. though i have to admit i'm a little disappointed you're not say, someone serving time in a federal penitentiary (do prisoners even get internet access?). oh well. next time.
it's been a pretty busy week. working on an annotated bibliography of h.d. for my research methods class; reading midnight's children for the first time (so good - yes, yes, yes!); making noel read my poetry (randomly started writing again on the weekend. not that i've produced anything of particular interest - had a moment rereading this afternoon where i thought, "holy crap - no, no, no!" here's hoping i'm like sean connery and get better with age - edinburgh native!); generally kurfuffering (interpret that as you will).
went out for halloween dressed as a ballerina/dancer. lame, i know, but i had no other ideas. was going to go as a dead ballerina (à la my dead hula girl costume of a few years back) but had no black make-up. hit up a bar where they had fire dancers. well, not really fire dancers, just people swinging flaming chains around. and a fire juggler who kept dropping his torches. glad i didn't come doused in kerosene as costume idea number two: hobo heater.
hmmm... what else? can't think of anything, really. oh, my mom sent me a package today! awesome goodies including tubed wasabi, a walrus t-shirt, oat squares (yes, wilson, stop laughing - you know they're good), hot lips, korean seaweed, the new york review of books (best magazine ever). feel free to be inspired, people.
also like to point out my love of comments. was awesome to get messages from shu (so you're not avoiding me, as you've led me to believe for the past year) and john (come, come visit!). again, inspiration, dear readers, inspiration.
and, of course, here's the yuki update of the day:
"Let's go skiing with me someday !
and I love you."
if i were fifteen again, i'd be set.

hats, cannibalism, and derrida

almost thursday already? crazy. and what do i have to show for it? a broadened mind, one would hope. isn't that the goal of education? though my head needn't expand too much; still want my hat to fit. because i do have one rockin' hat. my classmates don't seem to appreciate it, however; whenever i wear it they either ask me for a newspaper or start yelling at me in cockney accents. haha drew and jim, funny. jerks.
spent all of today discussing books and contemplating the state of the world. we're all going to die in oil wars, it seems. or start eating each other. it was drew's birthday today and, at a kebab restaurant, our fellow classmate andrew turned to everyone and asked "if you died today, who would you want to eat your body?"
hmmm...
saw a history of violence yesterday and really liked it. is violence necessary in order to fulfill the american dream? interesting how tom is posited as an immigrant figure; must immigrants effectively kill their pasts to fit in? also, how does violence affect the domestic sphere? how is it intertwined with sex and gender roles?
i love deconstructing pop culture.
(coincidentally, part of this afternoon's conversation involved a prolonged analysis of sex in the city. are sam, carrie, miranda, and charlotte liberated feminists or are they merely female consumers? although the show seems to claim that the characters' preoccupation with shopping and lunching is empowering - women can actively participate in the marketplace - aren't these women playing into a capitalist system that will ultimately cause the aforementioned oil wars and thus the destruction of the entire human race? are sam, carrie, miranda, and charlotte not therefore anti-christs?)
what an awesome day.

welcome, stalker

well, i didn't climb any peaks. weather was sucky so chris and i postponed. instead, his sister (and my co-worker) caroline made us an amazing meal: roasted red pepper and fresh chilli soup, homemade bread, roasted butternut squash, spinach, and mushroom lasagna, salad, and an insanely decadent chocolate cake. that girl can cook. with the wind and rain carrying on outside, the meal more than made up for any mountain adventures. plus we played trivial pursuit. the british edition. so i got my ass kicked in the sports category. how am i supposed to know the name of a former cricket player turned priest who did something significant on may 8th, 1998? jeez.
had quite the embarrassing shift on saturday night. let's just say it involved me bringing a customer my dirty water glass and telling him it was port. oops. at least he didn't drink it. i am never going to live that one down.
the greek party was funny. reminded me of a high school dance: huge hall, bad lighting, girls getting their diva on (not their revolutionary on like some people i know, justin la rose. i highly enjoy random drunken e-mails).
on a bizarre note, adrienne e-mailed me this morning to say someone searching "andrea+edinburgh+thanksgiving+mcgill" found his/her way to her blog. ummm... what? someone is internet stalking me! ha! and, because i had to check, if you actually conduct that search it will take you here. weeiiirrrd. so which one of you is googling me? busted! if i know you and like you, welcome (also, fess up). if you're a creepy moron, pllth. (that's me sticking my tongue out at you).
also found this e-mail from yuki in my inbox this morning: "Iloue All over the would for many people."
i think we found our culprit.