neilandia – Page 141 – EatingLifeUp

August 23, 2008

Good Kisser, Bad Kisser?

Are you a good kisser?

I recently asked someone this question and as soon as I asked it I realized I don’t think they are qualified to answer that question. If you ask anybody what they like best about kissing, the answers are very different.

Think back to the different people that you have kissed in your life, each one of them had a different kissing style. Some people like to connect,some people like to lightly peck at your lips. Some people slobber, some are dry. Someone tried to eat my entire face once I think.

Sex and the City had a good episode in an earlier seasons about kissing that made me laugh. The problem in that episode was Charlotte new guy was licking her face. Then the next morning at coffee the girls were talking about the different kinds of bad kissers like the lazy tongue, the tongue flicker, and the face washer. Their advice was varied but I believe they were all pushing Charlotte to dump him.

So is being a good or bad kisser subjective? What happens when two face washers hook-up? Are they in heaven because that is how they like to be kissed? Do they realize the error in their ways, or do they secretly think the other person is such a bad kisser?

Is the mark of a good kisser someone that senses the kissing style they are being attacked with and adapts to match, assuming the way someone kisses is what they want in return? Or is there a kissing style with an 80% success rate that a good kisser does and sticks with in hopes of teaching the other kisser?

I don’t think I am done my research in this department so for now I will just bite my lip. (Oooooo yet another kissing action some people like and others don’t)

August 21, 2008August 21, 2008

London Travel Tip

So you are going to London and are looking for some tips and tricks:

“Piccadilly Circus” is a great tube stop on the “Circle Line” to get off at if you want to just branch off in any direction for some walking. From here you are near the river, near Buckingham Palace, and near Trafalgar square. It is possible to get a bit closer to these items individually but Piccadilly is central and the walk is interesting if you are out for a stroll and want to save money. The British National Museum is at Trafalgar square, and so are the giant lions. The gardens of the Victoria embankment along the river are nice to take a break in. From these gardens you can see the Eye of London across the river, Big Ben right next to the Westminster bridge just south of the gardens, and Westminster Abbey is just a bit more South from there (though I never did go to the Abbey).

Piccadilly Circus

Eye of London & Trafalgar Lions

Big Ben & Phone booth & Victoria Embankment Gardens

There is a Statue of Eros in Piccadilly Circus and as the story goes if you sit there for 15 mins you will see someone you have seen before. I gave it a go and sure enough I saw 2 people, one guy from the airport the day before and another girl from the train.

Eros Statue & Red Double Decker

There is good shopping/looking in this area and one store I really enjoyed was the Piccadilly Waterstone’s. According to research I did when I got home it is Europe’s largest bookshop, and has eight floors open to the public, six of which are dedicated to 150,000 books and eight and a half miles of shelving. Anything you are interested in and I do mean anything will be there. I spent a long time in photography and art sections.

The National Gallery is FREE as are most of the museums in London. It was at the National Gallery near Trafalgar square where I got to see, right in front of my eyes, Vincent Van Gogh’s original Sunflowers! That painting is very special to me and it sent chills down my spine to see it live. Other famous pieces of art I saw there were “Venus and Mars” by Botticelli, “Self portrait at the Age of 34” by Rembrandt, and “Bathers” by Cezanne. Another picture I really liked I don’t remember who it was by but it was called “Time demands Old Age steals beauty”. It had Father Time telling a lady named Old Age to pull some beauty from a girl in her 20’s. This gallery also has controversial pieces of the Acropolis from Greece.

Acropolis piece & National Gallery with Trafalgar fountains

If you are looking to see a play I have a “Wicked” tip for you to try! The play “Wicked” at the Apollo Victoria Theater is AMAZING and you will never look at “The Wizard of OZ” the same again. I found out that each morning they sell off the front row tickets (only 24 seats) for £25 normally £80 tickets. Now I can’t remember what time I got there but I think I got there at 8 am and the doors opened at 10am. I was 9th in line to buy tickets and found out that you can only buy 2 tickets per person! I needed 5 tickets for myself and my flatmates. So I made friends really quick with the people in line and had one couple buy 2 more tickets for me and a single guy buy an extra 1 in addition to my 2. An amazing deal to see such a great play and FRONT ROW!

Food tips…Two food memories that really stick out in my mind were the “Bacon & Cheese Pasties” for breakfast from the local bakery (most bakery’s where I was you could buy your entire breakfast), then for supper any pot pie I tried was amazing. On in particular I remember, it was the Steak, Mushroom, and Onion pot pie with mash and string beans at a beautiful restaurant named Brown’s in the Canary Wharf district. Lots of great restaurants in this area all near the water. Some can be pricey, others are a good buy, but regardless a nice treat.

Cherrie & I at Brown’s & Vivi, Ben & I at Hardrock Cafe

Another FREE and beautiful/interesting place to visit is Greenwich! Greenwich can be reached on the DLR (Docklands Light Rail) which be warned is a bit more than the regular tube ticket. Once in Greenwich there are amazing markets, antique fairs, and unique vendors galore. The beauty of Greenwich park stays fresh in my memory with perfect trees, gardens and endless trails to explore. Sunny days are popular for families, couples and the younger crowd from the college to hit the fields. Everyone is sunbathing, playing Frisbee, playing soccer or just strutting around shirtless looking pretty. You can hike up to the Greenwich observatory and see a beautiful skyline view of London. Also the observatory is where observations were used to measure GMT (Greenwich Mean Time).

Antique Market & Mirrors & Greenwich Streets

Greenwich College grounds & Greenwich Observatory

Other random thoughts are to take a visit to Hyde Park (Check out speaker’s corner), go to Harrod’s if you love shopping (it’s an amazing store that boasts that if it is legal, you can buy it from them). Something I found out later that I wished I had tried was the Circle Line drinking game. The circle line is the yellow tube line that runs in a circle through downtown London. Apparently people try to get off at each stop on the Circle line and have a drink in the local pub at that stop. It isn’t supposed to be a task you can finish so if you attempt this please attempt it with friends and be safe.

Those are some of my tips and tricks from my 5 days in London. I hope you were able to take something from them! 🙂

Oh and if you come from a country that drives on the right side of the road… LONDON does NOT and has painted the crosswalks with <-- LOOK LEFT and LOOK RIGHT --> markers. Pay attention to those. They saved my life twice!

Look Left & Look Right

August 20, 2008

Are you still hopeful?

Sex and the City Status:

So I am rather enjoying Season 5 of Sex and the City. Season 4 was starting to put me in a funk. This season is full of finding “Mr Right” type scenarios. You have the on again off again but still very deep love of Samantha with Richard. You have Charlotte going through all sorts of love courses, self help books and she gets a bit scared but in the end she still believes in love and remains an optimist. Then you have Carrie. She meets Jack Berger the charismatic writer that gives Carrie that “spark” feeling. I also love that he collects lost playing cards he finds on the streets of New York. He tells Carrie that once you know they are out there you see them everywhere. Sure Jack has a girlfriend so at this point we don’t exactly know what role he will play in Carrie’s life but he still gives her that “spark”.

Now let’s take this home. Like Carrie I have the Mr Big type that knocks me off my feet (2 in fact), I have also met the Richard that Samantha deals with. Like Charlotte, I too remain an optimist but have been scared a few times lately that what I want isn’t out there. Now the Carrie and Jack Berger lesson… just recently a few people have given me that “spark”. I also seem to be seeing more people that deserve a second glimpse. Now that I know they are out there I am seeing them everywhere!

There is retro Adidas swim trunk dude at the pool (Wow!)
Sweater guy in the food court (I have been dared to ask him out. So unlikely but I love accepting challenges)
Awesome dresser at the bus stop (He seems like a great guy but has a hint of crazy to him and isn’t approachable)
Today there was “I can’t believe I talked to him” guy from the elevator LOL

So are you a Charlotte? Are you still hopeful?

P.S. “Adidas Adonis”, “Suave Sweater”, and “Deadly Duds” if you are reading this, consider this my first move, Your turn! 😉

August 18, 2008

Naked!

In honor of the orange “full moon” tonight I ask this question of you…

What kind of naked are you?

This random question comes to you from the experience I just had at the pool. I am the most comfortable person when it comes to a nude beach or in the case of Colorado, nude caves. I have even been to nude beaches with friends. I admit, before my first visit to a nude beach I was a very nervous walk down the 450 stairs to the secluded beach. However, when I got there it was the easiest most natural thing to shed my clothes.

Now take this nude thought indoors and the rules start to change…
My house? Definitely OK with being nude.
Gym change room? I can do the walk to the showers with my towel in hand, however changing I usually turn my back to the room???
Steam room / Sauna? No problem sitting on my towel… that is if everyone else is.
Public pool change rooms? For some reason I shower with my swimsuit on… even if others aren’t. Yet I still change out in the open and don’t use the change rooms.

Now let’s add friends to the mix. I will quickly drop my trunks to the floor and change quickly with my back to my friends. My friends seem to range from:

drop trou right in the middle of the change room while talking to everyone
changing with their back to everyone
changing by doing that awkward dance of pulling up their pants while still wearing their towel, sometimes resulting in them flashing everyone anyway unless they fall flat on their face
or running to the nearest change room

Now we finally get to my experience at the pool tonight. I walked into the showers to do my mandatory pre-pool shower and there is a co-worker in the showers. There they are! My worst naked fear! The dreaded co-worker. Even though we were both wearing swimsuits, combined with the fact that I don’t even know them (we just work in the same building) suddenly I felt like my swimsuit wasn’t enough coverage. What is with all these silly “in this situation yes” or “in this situation no” rules??? When we were both out of the showers and in the pool area it was fine… I just got the heebies showering with them.

How can someone so free to frolic on the beach have so many other levels of “naked”?

So in closing I ask once again What kind of naked are you? Do you get the mail wearing only a towel in the morning or do you take baths wearing a suimsuit in the comfort of your own house?

August 17, 2008

Sunday Update

Welcome to readers from Belgium, Russia, and now Japan! 🙂

My roller coaster weekend:

Friday was great, then it got bad, then it got great again. Seemed that set the tone for weekend. Saturday I had my third chiropractor appointment so my back was feeling great, but then I went to the cabin and performed a lot of back-breaking yard work with my mom. So I drove my sore back and scraped up body (from working in the bush) back to the city. Showered off, felt refreshed and headed to Club Fabulous for a BBQ. Today I slept in, watched some Sex and the City which actually bummed me out. A lot of stuff the girls are going through in Season 4 hit home with bombs that have been dropped on me lately. Being in a funk I got angry and worked off some steam roller-blading around Beaumaris lake. I was loving that and was about to make my 3rd lap in the 32 degree heat when I came around the corner and 15 teenage girls were standing on the path on BOTH sides of the yellow line. So I flew off into the grass and in my attempt not to fall I pulled my back again. So I got back in the car, came home and basically killed time until Big Brother. That was my crazy weekend. Now for some updates…

Sex and the City status:

I am fast approaching the end of Season 4 and will probably finish it tonight before bed. I loved watching Carrie find the ring that Aidan had in his gym bag to propose to her. She opens it up and immediately is sick to her stomach. Finally someone with more commitment issues that I have! LOL On the flip side of that I loved watching Carrie later on tell Aidan that she need him to not talk for 1 hour when she got home. He agreed and within about 30 seconds she got the quiet time she needed and crawled back into his arms. Commitment issues aside I would love to have that.

Big Brother quickie:

There is something about winning an HOH competition that just goes to a person’s head. Nobody ever seems to win Head of Household, enjoy the privilege, seek opinions from their alliances on who to put up on the block and leave it at that. Renny was no different. She got on her high horse, started to challenge and threaten her own friends. She really stirred the pot by pushing for Memphis at one point. In the end she put up April and Jerry. Ya, it is nice to see Jerry on the block but with against someone like April it would take a lot of work for him to go home. Good luck to April in the power of veto or following through on her plan to set Jerry off on someone so they get a reminder of how crazy he is.

Olympics:

Whooo Hooo Canada finally has some medals! They seemed to come in one swoop but we are now up to 7 medals which puts us now tied for 15th place (using Gold medals).

Neil’s Travel Tip #6:

Get in the habit of putting your leg through at least one strap of your backpack, daypack, or bag when you sit down (On the train, on the bus, at a park bench, sitting at a restaurant or cafe). Do this even at home so it becomes natural. There are many reasons for this act:
- Thieves will grab someone else’s bag because yours is attached
- It often keeps your bag from getting dirty laying flat on the ground
- If you fall asleep on the train, bus, bench, picnic it is more likely it will be there when you wake up
- When you get up to leave you will be sure to take it with you. I even do this when I get into a cab. You are already paying attention to so many other things it would be easy for you to get out of the cab and leave your bag.(This recently happened to a co-worker)
If you have a small daypack and you are sitting for an extended period of time I recommend that you put one leg through each strap of your bag so it suspends between your legs. Give it a try, I guarantee that if the strap around your leg isn’t enough of a reminder, the first step you take will be something you won’t forget. 😉