Maurette's Adventures

As I am telling you about my last months I have to also tell you about the things I see on my travels with public transportation. I could tell you about the friends I made, the one who got off at the same stop and stared until I rounded the corner, the one who wanted me to punch him in his mouth and the one who wanted my number but didn't want to give his. I'm sure I am forgetting loads of them. Today however I will tell you about the bus station supervisor. A few months ago, the Edgware bus station decided they needed a supervisor so they built a nice kiosk for him. It has a microphone and everything. Really nice. The problem is more often than not, there is a sign saying that the supervisor is patrolling the station. The station is not that big, he can see everything from where he is sitting. I'm not a supervisor so I probably have no idea of all that is involved in the art of patrolling. During the snowy days we just had, he was even harder to find than usual. I'm...

Last night I started investigating this speed dating phenomena. How does it work? Do you just turn up? I discovered there are quite a few out there. Some of you might think that is a good thing but my antenna went up immediately. Because if there were many, it means there are also many sleazy ones. For example, sugardaddies host speed dating events, cougarswanted hosts events. After the initial chuckles and coupled with the knowledge that I'm not patient enough to be researching all of them I decided to go with my guts. The one that looked the most professional. That decided I settled for speeddater.co.uk. It ticked all the advertising boxes: it had a name that tells the customer what they do, the first page was inviting, there weren't any hidden messages, and I got what I needed in the first couple of clicks. Did you know there are all kinds of different events? There are events for normal people, college graduates, international professionals, professionals, religion and eth...

What a wonderful couple of days. First lots of girly laughs on Friday night and then culminated with a nice BBQ under the sun while sipping .... Cola. I know you guys expect me to put getting drunk on my list of Crazy-Things-I-Would-Never-Do but that is not going to happen. I am sure I can come up with other things that are more fun for me. Besides work, which I had to remind people not to talk about, this is a list of some of our conversation topics: elbow skin and what it resembles when you pull it down, what we would do if we were men, being lesbians since it seems to be more easy, men and how they expect relations every night and the excuses we use, casual encounters, platonic souls, and operas. After an authentic Curacao BBQ food, a cake with half a bottle of run and many bottles of wine, I remembered the potato salad that was still chilling in the fridge. Not to despair I thought since we still had lots of steak, chicken and ribs left we can have the potato salad later or even ...

Occasionally I will introduce one of my friends to you. They will all have Code Names so you can't harass them or more importantly I cannot be sued. My friend The Inquisitor is coming over this weekend for a girly weekend. Most of my friends can be described in a few words but The Inquisitor is quite unique. Popular science has us believing that men think about sex every 30 seconds. I believe that whoever conducted that test has not met The Inquisitor. I guarantee that within 5 minutes of talking to her you would have heard at least one sexual reference. Take any topic and it will turn into sex. I dare you, leave me a comment with some random topic and I will have her make it sexual. Mostly because of her reputation of Queen of Raunchiness, The Inquisitor is one of my closest friend. I can always count on her for some good therapeutic shopping in those special stores. So this weekend is going to be fun. I already know that. Spontaneous, adventurous, and always a great laugh. I thin...

Those who know me know that I have moved quite a bit in my life. This is the longest I have actually stayed in one apartment. Even in my student years I changed quite a bit. Now I don't like moving. Especially since around moving day most people seem to find somewhere else to be. The one thing that always keeps me carrying boxes .... decorating. I looove decorating .... choosing colours .... I think my bed has seen every wall and every corner of my bedroom. So as soon as I had the tiniest bit of hope that the big move was coming up I decorated my new apartment. Mind you, I don't have one yet but whatever or wherever it is going to be, it is decorated. Last weekend I decided to go idea shopping. See, in my head I wanted a corner sofa. Ooooh the endless possibilities of draping one's body on a sofa. I always enjoy having options when watching TV. North, South, upside down ... comfort being the end goal. Corner sofas are a bit expensive so I had to come up with a plan B. Som...

Y'all will not believe what happened to me. At 2 p.m. I left work determined to get to Wimbledon and brace the queues. Hoping that everyone was too involved in the World Cup and England's eminent departure I put on my glasses and tripped to the stadium. I got to the station and made my way to the shuttle buses. And this is where the magic really began. Standing in the line, a guy asked me if I already had a ticket. When I denied with a very sad face, he offered me a spare one he had. I couldn't believe my luck. Here I was prepared to get a ground ticket and sit on the grass and drift from one unwanted place to the next and I get offered Centre Court ticket. Icing on the cake: Roddick was struggling a bit and Venus hadn't even started yet! After having my weekly team meeting sitting on a bench inside Wimbledon Park, I made my way to the best seat I have had yet. The Gods that are were really smiling at me. Not only did I get to see some nice matches (I passed on Federer...

Yes, I can watch it on TV and Yes, I have been before but if you have never been you won't understand the energy and the delight in being at Wimbledon watching the balls go flying by. This year I said i wanted to go twice, once in the first week and again the second week. So I've started my quest last weekend. I don't queue. I don't want to queue. I feel I should be able to get tickets the normal way and not stand for hours begging to be let in. It is the British way, but I am not British. Again, one of those statements I made that might just come back to bite me. I am still not queueing but I will be passing by looking to see if I could maybe just walk in. Murray Mania is driving me crazy. It's like a flu virus; people who don't care about tennis suddenly find it extremely essential that they go to Wimbledon making it impossible for me to get tickets. So I try to avoid Murray days, unfortunately that means avoiding Nadal this year. Shame! And on top of all that...

I always said I wouldn't be doing a blog. "People don't need to know what I do. If I want them to know I will tell them". Never knew those words would come back to hunt me. As the author, do I get deniability? Anyway, so here I am writing about the things that I will be doing or have done on my way to a new adventure. Last week I accepted a position in the Statistics Bureau on the beautiful island of St. Maarten. It means a new start but also an ending to my European travels. But gosh, one part of me is happy! No more coats, no more boots (unless they are fashionable and have a fan built in), no more socks, no more gloves ... you get the point. I'm done with being cold. Papa is a rolling stone ... wherever he lays his head is his home ... that should be my life mantra. It seems like I am always rolling to another place. Psychologists would have a field day with that statement. I know none of you is a psychologist, so I don't want to hear anything. Ten weeks fr...