| October 20, 2007 - The Killer Seagull |
| Dear Friends, I apologize for not writing in such a long time. Unfortunately, when one has had a fabulous summer, it's difficult adjusting to the daily hummy-drum-drum which is my boring life here in the States. Let's just say I had a really great time and can't wait to go to Europe again. Sadly, I can't list Dublin though as a place where I had a good time, but that's a story for another occasion. Let me tell you that I absolutely loathe seagulls! Don't you? I took my usual trip over to Helsinki this summer and while I was there, a group of us decided to eat at a little place whose name I've since forgotten, but which was highly recommended by the director of our program. Anyhoo, I was there with Hans, Lisa, and Morten. Lisa and I had bought soup and were sitting outside and eating; I can't remember what Hans bought; when Morten came outside with a small plate with some pralines on it. He then went back inside the restaurant to pick up his pasta order. While he was gone, the three of us were just sitting there chatting, when a giant seagull suddenly landed on our table with a huge crash, snatched a praline, and flew off! Lisa let out a scream while I just cursed up a storm. It was truly frightening. Our director joined us later and told us that once a seagull stole an ice cream cone away from her while she was walking down the street. They are filthy and horribly aggressive! In Iceland you can take a boat ride out to an island where puffins nest. The time I did that, there were rangers out shooting the seagulls because they were spreading some kind of disease among the puffins. Now puffins are sweet little things; I don't mean taste-wise although the Icelanders do eat them; while seagulls are just nasty, nasty things. I loooooaaaatttthhhheeee them. My latest really big news is that I've been doing an exercise boot camp since the beginning of September. I get up every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 4:00 a.m. to get there in time. My friend K. is doing it with me. A couple of weeks ago he said, "You know, JOHNNYLEEN, with all this running we're doing, our legs are going to be beautiful." And I said, "Well, if that's the case, it's too bad we can't run on our faces." And then we just laaaafffed. Boot camp ends next Friday and I can't say that I'll be disappointed. It isn't easy getting up at 4:00 a.m.! Another bad thing about it was the mosquitoes. I finally had to start spraying myself with Off, because my legs were covered with huge welts! A friend of mine who's knowledgeable about such things, told me I'm probably immune to West Nile virus after being bitten so much! Thank God for small favors. I had really hoped to go to Merrie Olde England over Thanksgiving, but as I was booking my tickets through Orbitz, a message popped us saying the ticket was no longer available at the price I wanted. That just pissed me royally off, so I've cancelled the trip since it would practically bankrupt me! I just hate it when things don't go my way, don't you? Well, maybe I can get over there in the spring. Now I'm looking at maybe a weekend in Canada; possibly Toronto since the flights to there are cheaper than to Montreal. I wish I could get "O Canada" as a ringtone on my telephone; that would be cool, eh? Next entry Previous entry Go to diary entries Go back home |