My first full day in the countryside and, to be honest, it’s not been that eventful. I had a pretty disrupted nights sleep, constantly waking up and falling asleep again, the kind of sleep where you get up in the morning thinking you had no sleep at all. I figure it has something to do with sleeping in new surroundings, I always find it hard to sleep in a place that’s entirely new to me.
Eleanor’s parents went away to Exeter today and left pretty early, I woke up and heard them leave before falling asleep again; I think it was like 5 am at the time. Eleanor came in and opened the curtains letting the sun, literally, pour into the room at about 8:30. No matter how I tried to get the sun out of my eyes, I just couldn’t, so I figured it was time to get up and have a shower. For a house in the middle of nowhere it’s actually a pretty decent place, with a better shower system than the one I have back home in the London ‘burbs.
The room I’m staying in reminds me of staying at my Gran’s house before I lived in England. I don’t know what it is about it, but it just has a smell and vibe to it that reminds me of being 10 and vacationing here. It’s nice. It also looks like a real B+B bedroom, which is pretty cool. It gives the whole trip a ‘Steve’s Country Getaway” kind’ve feel.
We went to Milton Keynes today, supposedly the longest shopping mall in Europe (or the world, I can’t remember). To be fair, it was pretty long! Definitely a different mall than the triforce shaped Bluewater. I always find it really weird being out of my comfort zone, and this is pretty much the furthest away I could be from it. I had no idea where I was, with no sense of direction or anything. Eleanor thought I was mopey and grumpy while we were walking around, I wasn’t, I was just feeling really out of place due to my lack of comfort zoneness. Milton Keynes is a pretty impressive place, especially the insides of the Snow Dome where there was a wealth of awesome skating/surf/snowboarding shops. Literally brand name shops dedicated to nothing but that product. Billabong? Yep. Hurley? Sure. Roxy? You betcha. Atticus? Um, no, actually. Quiksilver? Yes. It was pretty cool, but some of the prices these places were asking for were fucking insane, it seems the recession has not been affecting Milton Keynes. £78 for an awesome black and grey striped Quiksilver hoodie (with a random, but cool, purple stripe along the middle), my reaction was a fair, justified; “Fuck you, I’m not paying that much.”
I went to the American Import store that they have, it’s very much like the two ‘Sweets From Heaven’ stores in Bluewater, but that much better. For one thing, like how they roll in the USA, it’s bigger. There’s also a much wider variety of stuff, including an American brand Macaroni and Cheese that I grew up with (Kraft!), I was pretty excited over finding it as I can’t get that from the ones near me and I haven’t had it since I was a kid.
I didn’t pick any up in the end, but if we go back I may. I also picked up a can of Moutain Dew: Code Red, which I’ve had before in Bluewater. It’s good. I picked up another drink though, one I haven’t seen, or heard of, before. An energy drink that is ridiculously large (695ml!), like ‘If I were to drink that in one sitting my heart would stop’ large. It’s called Jolt and I got the grape flavour because grape soda is awesome and it’s something we’re all missing out on in this country. That and Lucky Charms, Fruit Loops and Fruity Pebbles, all of which we could get, but only at a high price, a price I’m not willing to pay after being able to buy them for next to nothing for like 13 years of my life. Jolt is a pretty tasty drink that’s a deep, unnatural purple colour and contains not only the ingredient Red #40 but ALSO Blue #1. Additive awesomeness!
This place also sold food; I’m talking American sized cupcakes. I wasn’t sure if they would taste like the cupcakes and muffins I had when I was last in the States in 2004, but considering I didn’t have that much in the way of funds after buying a £1.20 can of Mountain Dew and £2.65 can of Jolt, I didn’t pick anything up. I wanted to though. I saw they sold savoury food too, but I didn’t really have a look as Eleanor and her brother, Duncan, seemed to want to get out of there. It was only in the car ride on the way back to their house (a trip that takes approx. 20-25 minutes) that I wondered whether they did Corn Dogs in there. If I ever go back I’ll be sure to look, because Corn Dogs are little deep fried pieces of heaven on sticks. If I could clog my heart with one thing, it would be Corn Dogs.
Anyway, that’s about it in regards to Milton Keynes. Nice place overall. The inner mall is a strange mish mash of old and new, you can see the original mall walls, etc (looking as though they were circa 1980. Quick Wiki search shows they were initially built in 1973 and the mall opened in 1989) but also the new wave of technology throughout, like the electronic store finders/maps, which were pretty neat.
So, we got back from Milton Keynes and just kind’ve relaxed. We made lunch, from scratch; a pasta with white cheese and bacon sauce, which was pretty awesome. I’m not so good with remembering to take photos of things, else there’d be one here. I’ll try and take more photos in the next days to come.
Eleanor has since gone to work for the night, which sucks. I won’t lie, it fucking sucks. Not only because it’s Valentine’s Day, but also because I came all the way up here to see her, to not get to see her. See? Kind’ve very lame. As far as today goes, in a Valentine’s Day sense, not so eventful. Eleanor is the kind’ve girl that doesn’t really do gifts, something I guess that stems from her childhood and lack of gifts growing up. That being said, I would’ve thought she would be consistently stoked whenever I get her anything, which I did/do. I had to ask her if I was getting a gift, kind’ve lame to ask, I know. But it was out of curiosity and the fact that I, unlike her, like getting gifts, and that on commercial days such as these, sometimes it’s fun to just lose the inhibitions and easy judgements about the Hallmark-holidays and just go with the flow. Sometimes it’s okay to get the lame cards and the sweet gifts. Unfortunately my girlfriend doesn’t share this opinion, so it wasn’t til about 3:30/4pm that I actually got a “Happy Valentines Day” from her. The same ideology applies to birthdays, Christmas and pretty much every major holiday; she just doesn’t do gifts, and again, as somebody who does, it kind of sucks. Not in a ‘I love material goods’ way, just in a general ‘presents = fun’/‘presents = thoughtful’ sort of way. Buying a present, or receiving a present demonstrates, to me, that someone has taken the time out to think about what you would like, find it, and then exchange cash for it – all to make you happy. And I believe that’s not something to just brush off.
Anyway, long story short I got her one of the Dexter books, as we’re both fans of the show. I also picked her up City of Angels today cause she wanted it. In turn she ordered me the original Playstation version of Resident Evil. Awesome. It arrived on the day I was leaving to come up here, not awesome. I was originally concerned with the disc, it looks pretty scratched up, thankfully it seems to play fine, super bad acting and all!
OH! Also, before I sign off; I bought a 12 pack of Budweiser’s from the Sainsbury’s here. They’re American style cans! Like, beer in the size of Coca-Cola cans, which I couldn’t believe! I see them all the time on TV and movies and such, but I’ve only ever drunk the huge pintish can equivalents. Anyway, I’m going to go back to reading Batman: ‘The Long Halloween’. I don’t think I’ll be updating everyday because, just looking at this post and the way it’s ballooned, I just don’t think it’ll be that interesting. If I do anything that deserves talking about, I will. I’ll start carrying around my camera with me too.
OH! (again) One more, final, thing. I had dinner with Eleanor and her family yesterday. That was pretty awkward. I find her dad really weird, not intimidating in any way, he just has the potential to be pretty odd. Eleanor said I looked unimpressed through out again. Again, I didn’t mean to, I just didn’t know how to react to the stuff he was saying with out bluntly saying ‘that’s not funny, be quiet.’ The first thing I noticed about country folk is, like I mentioned in my Prologue, they all very knowledgeable about one another’s business. Not only that, but also the fact these people love bitching about each other. A lot. Like, a lot a lot. Like, they have nothing better to do than judge the other people around them; some of them, you have to assume, being their friends. They also always, ALWAYS, refer to the person they’re bitching about by their full name. So, if it was about me, a sentence may be structured as such; “Did you see Stephen Russell today?” or “Stephen Russell pushed over Mrs.Thompson today!”
Weird.
No comments:
Post a Comment