Networks

To be honest, I don't understand why all the major networks now try to integrate into each other. For example, LiveJournal now allows you to comment with your Facebook ID even if you're not a registered user. Even some smaller forums try to do the same. Why? Why would someone want to give their real name while talking about some weird stuff?

I tend to separate my real life and my internet life. There are intersections, I know many of my online friends in real life, and I did post some of my photos under my nickname, but I don't want people whom I initially know from outside of the web to see what my interests and hobbies are by just googling my name. Thank you very much.

And what makes me angry even more is that some services include this "comment with your Facebook ID" without even asking whether I want to associate my email or their site account with the Facebook one, like Photobucket, for example. That's annoying.

Telephonophobia

I really really hate to admit that among my fears and uneasinesses there is a fear of making phone calls. It's ridiculously stupid, but I can't get rid of it no matter how hard I try. Every time I have to call someone I fall into this weird nervous state when my voice changes, my heart begins to jump to my throat, and I generally feel sick. I'm fine with calling my family or close friends, but every time I need to call a stranger, IT happens. I forget everything I had to say, also my accent becomes really heavy if I speak English. Don't know what to do. This stupid phobia ruins a lot of opportunities, especially job-related ones, because I can't make myself call recruiters or potential employers. I have no problem with talking to the same people when meeting them face to face, but sometimes I just can't force myself to take a phone and dial a number. That's totally frustrating...

Lancaster

It was my Birthday on last Saturday, so I was taken to Lancaster for a weekend. And I must say I loved that short trip. Hiking, sailing, sightseeing - I had everything. In addition to Lancaster itself we visited Lake District, which was absolutely amazing. Also the weather was fantastic, so we could see the sea from the high hills.

Lancaster itself doesn't offer much (besides being a nice quiet small town), but it's a good place to stop on your way to the lakes. Oh, and it has some nice restaurants and cafes.

Why oh why did Current TV stop to produce "Target Women"? It was such an amusing series. I think that their "Modern Lady" is not as good, and I think that Sarah Haskins is a better presenter than Erin Gibson. Erin is fine, but sometimes she plays too much while Sarah's jokes sounded more natural. Anyway, both are worth watching.

Russian pancakes with curd filling

Yesterday we made really nice pancakes. So I decided to write down the recipe.

Batter:
1 egg
1 mug (250 ml) of skimmed milk
14 tsp self-raising flour (sounds weird, but I like adding flour little by little)
2 tsp of sweetener
1/2 tsp of baking powder
1/2 tsp of vanilla powder
2 tsp of corn oil

Filling:
1 pack (250 g) of fat free Lithuanian curd
2 tbsp of fat free natural yoghurt
1 tbsp of dried fruit (sultana mostly)
Some lemon zest (to your taste)
2 tsp of sweetener

Making:

1. Beat the egg with sugar.
2. Add milk and beat again.
3. Add dry components and mix well.
4. Add oil and mix again. The batter will be liquid, but it won't stick to the bowl.
5. Heat a big pan, spray it with some olive oil and start making pancakes. They should be large and thin. Think of crepes. Don't over-fry them, they should be yellow. Let them stay for 10 minutes to cool down.

6. For the filling, just mix all the ingredients together.
7. Put two table spoons of the filling on each pancake and roll them in summer rolls style. You may have some pancakes left, eat them with a filling of your choice, both sweet and sour would work perfectly.
8. Back to our pancakes. Put the ones you're going to eat on a pre-heated pan sprayed with oil and fry for one minute on each side.
9. Eat whem while they're hot.

You can keep the leftovers in the fridge or even freeze them, the taste will remain great.

Also you can replace fat free products with full fat ones and sweetener with sugar, but I personally think it's great as it is.

There are two fashion disasters I see all the time - uggs and flip-flops. Seriously, most of the time they look out of place/time/whatever, and simply look awful. They become horribly misshapen in few days of wearing because they are not fixed on a foot, and it always makes me sad when I see a young girl in a nice dress and something that ugly on her feet.

When I was younger, flip-flops were considered to be a footwear for a beach or a swimming pool. Now they are everywhere. Why don't people believe in sandals any more? What's next? Furry slippers? Sparkling flippers?

I may sound like an old bore now, but I really don't understand this "fashion" trend. Where did all these girls get the idea that these types of footwear are beautiful? Last time I checked fashion magazines (yesterday) there nothing even close to that.

/rant

From Wimbledon to Richmond

We did this part of the Capital Ring Walk on Saturday, and it was really good. Despite being the longest single piece of the route, it was not as long as our previous walk, so I was not as tired at the end. The views were amazing. I especially liked the fern valley, really really beautiful place.

The Fern Valley

Richmond itself is quite a unique place in comparison with other parts of London. It was my first time there, and I couldn't get rid of a feeling that I'm not in London, but in some Mediterranean seaside resort. Or, at least, in Brighton. There are a riverside promenade, many somewhat-expensive restaurants, dozens of shops packed into few narrow streets, and generally it looks like most of the people there are on holidays.

Initially we wanted to reward ourselves for finishing the walk by buying something from William Curley shop, but their chocolates were way too expensive. If there would have been only two of us, we'd buy some desserts (which looked delicious) or ice cream. But we were there with a couple of friends who are not such fans of sweets (and expensive sweets in particular) as we are. So we had to go to the train station instead.

Anyway, it was a good day.

Just a thought

Some time ago I saw a girl on a street of Central London. She was young and pretty, wearing stilettos and a pencil skirt, her hair was flawless. She was rushing from one office building to another, holding some documents and not looking at anything around her.

For a moment I thought that I want to be her. Young, beautiful, successful, knowing what she wants to do with her life.

And then another thought came to my mind. Probably behind this nice façade there is a person that wants to have flexible working hours, wants to be able to wear jeans and flats, wants to sleep in the morning instead of putting on her sophisticated make-up and doing her hair. Probably she wants to be me.

Probably not. But this thought made me feel very comfortable for some reason.

Bateel

Today I accidentally walked into a chocolate shop and accidentally bought some chocolate.

Jokes aside, I was really impressed by Bateel shop in Central London (138 New Bond Street). They have a wide variety of chocolates and cookies, including a sugar-free line. The shop assistant convinced me to take normal "sugary" ones though, but probably next time I'll get a "light" version to compare. I got a small bag of assorted chocolates, and the ones I already tried were delicious.

The only minus I can mention is a price as it's quite expensive. Otherwise, a really great experience.

Capital Ring Walk

I'm not the fittest person in the world. In fact, I'm not a fan of exercising at all, despite occasional tries to prove the opposite. But I like walking, especially when a route goes through some nice places. So yesterday we decided to try walking a couple of sections of the Capital Ring Route which goes around London. We started at the Crystal Palace and finished at Wimbledon Park.

At first it was just fantastic. There were a lot of parks and the view from hills was absolutely stunning. The route was very well marked, so we didn't even need a map. Some of those parks had hidden gems such as rose gardens and small, but beautiful old mansions.



We ate pizza and salad in some small restaurant, which was quite good. They also served so called "heavenly" smoothies, but those were strange. There were big pieces of fruit in it, so it was somehow difficult to drink. But the taste was good anyway.

The second part of the route went mostly through the residential areas, which was interesting at first as it was different from what we're used to see, but then it became slightly boring. Moreover, I got tired, so it got harder to be impressed by small things such as rose gardens or well-decorated houses. So when we got to Wimbledon station, I was totally exhausted.

But all in all, it was a very interesting experience. Now my SO wants to go from Wimbledon to Richmond, and I think it might be a good idea. However, our weekends are already planned well ahead, so I'm not sure when we'll be able to do that.

A new start

Imagine a person who grew up in a big city, surrounded by multi-storey apartment blocks and wide roads with a non-stop traffic. The said person got a good education, firstly at school, then at a University. Then they got a job at their father's firm and worked there for several years. They had a lot of friends, including those they knew for the entire life. And then the said person decides to move to another country to follow their dream (and their love).

That person is me.

I moved from Moscow to London to be with my SO a year and a half ago. Getting here was quite easy as I had a good education (I'm an architect), good job back at home and I was young and hopeful. But after moving everything was not what I expected. Soon I realised that I'm almost alone in a foreign country with my level of spoken English far from desirable. I can write pretty well, but I've got a heavy accent and generally feel quite uncomfortable when I have to speak. Of course, there was (and is) my partner, and I know some other people, but I don't actually have friends here, which is sad.

I tried to start blogging about my life here and about some random things few times, and I had "thoughts" suitable for blogging much more often, but I don't know how to promote myself without annoying people, and it's not even half as interesting to write without being read. So I guess I'll try again, and, maybe, this time I'll be able to create a blog worth reading. And, probably, get some new friends. We'll see.

Wall-E is love

I've finally watched this movie, and I must say, it was amazingly cute. Both Wall-E and Eve were really sweet. Moreover, I can easily imagine humanity turned into what was shown here. Another fact that I liked was that there was no real evil. I'm so tired of stories that are centred on fighting with an unspeakable evil!

Here, Wall-E is the last remaining cleaning robot that collects trash on Earth. People left their home planet many centuries ago because of the pollution. During his long life Wall-E develops a personality, a naive and simple one, but still. And then one day a space ship appears to drop a robot, a new and shiny one, that has to collect an information about the condition of Earth. Wall-E falls in love with her at first sight. She (her name is Eve) initially sees him as a piece of junk, but eventually develops some sort of a "feeling" for him. Wall-E presents to Eve his treasure - a tiny green plant he found among trash. And then we find out that Eve's mission was to find a life form. Now, having found it, she must return to the space station where all the humans live. Wall-E decides to follow her. So, the adventures begin.

This story kept me interested from the beginning till the end. All the characters, even the human ones, are pretty loveable. Somehow the fact that people don't see anything around them, looking only at their computers is similar to my own thoughts about us hiding behind our music players, books and laptops and not seeing the real world.

The animation is just perfect, but I didn't expect anything else from Pixar. However, I wouldn't say it's a movie for a big screen. Thre is nothing epic in it.

London

I'm currently in London, and a couple of days ago I "discovered" Soho. It's not my first visit here, and I walked very close to it many times, but on Saturday we finally went "inside". I must say I fell in love with its insanity. When a gay strip-bar is standing between a posh restaurant and a drug store which is followed by a Chinese take-away buffet and a manga shop, it's not your normal street. When an old unpretty woman is sitting under a sign "Hot Horny Girls" (she's selling tickets, but anyway), it's not your normal street either. And that's fantastic.

Sex and the City

A couple of days ago I've watched "Sex and the City" movie. Surprisingly, I enjoyed it a lot. It's surprising because I haven't watched the series, not even one episode, and I was afraid that I wouldn't understand anything. I've read the book, but it's a collection of short stories about characters mostly not shown in TV/movie adaptations.

So, what we have is a story of four women in their 40th. Only one of them is happily married, one is not-too-happily married, one is not going to marry even though she lives with her man-friend for 5 years and one who gets married in the end of the movie. So, yes, it's all about being married. :) And it's also about the importance of sincerity in our life.

To be honest, I just don't know which character seems more appealing to me. Carrie is too obsessed with her wardrobe and brands. If her obsession was "tamed" by years, I'm afraid to imagine what it was before. Samantha is too obsessed with sex. Yeah, I know, it's in the title of the movie, but sometimes she goes too far. However, of the main four she's the most interesting character. Charlotte is too loud, and her voice is horrible. Also I hate people saying "I won't eat here, it's not made in America (or any other place)" while being in a 5-star hotel abroad. Miranda is a cold fish with wrong priorities. I think, the best character after all is Louise. She knows what she wants and she goes for it.

The story itself consists of few smaller stories. Samantha is trying to realise what she actually wants in this life. Charlotte lives in her ideal world with her ideal family and tries to show to her friends that such ideal life can exist even in New York. Miranda is crazy about her job and doesn't see that her husband is very unhappy. Carrie is planning her wedding as if it's not for herself and Mr Big, but for being published in magazines. Of course, in the end everyone is happy, but there is a long way before they get there.

All in all, this movie is a good thing to watch. Now I want to see the TV series as well...