internet, sweet internet

greetings from discovery coffee. there is no longer internet in my sublet, due to c.a. (my roommate in whose name we had cable and internet service) departing to ottawa and our time in the apartment lasting only til the end of may. yesterday, i was at discovery coffee from 9:30 am to 3:30 pm and that was truncated only because i had an appointment at 4:30 pm. i have been drinking more latte than i ought to for the "free" internet.

so, there's been a lot going on.

first, i report on awful people i have encountered.

:: yesterday at discovery coffee, i was seated next to a table of 3 horrible women. they were all real-estate empire moguls or something and were going on and on about their vacation property rentals, the things that suck about living in france and such and sundry. on first blush, these topics don't seem all that annoying, but the voices and the laughter! oh the laughter. so annoying, and they just sounded SO entitled. i kind of hurled a little in my mouth. they had that real-estate smarminess thinly varnished with well-coiffed hair and coordinating accessories.

:: today, while waiting for n.b. at de'lish for lunch, i was seated a few tables down from another annoying duo. two women who were going on and on about their time in the u.k. one of them had an english accent of some sort, so i guess she's originally from there. the other was going on and on about being mistaken for being a canadian, and how she got bitchslapped by some scottish lady on the train. again, i love a good moaning & groaning session as much as the next person (maybe even more than the next person), but not from the mouths of self-important brats like these two. the non-british one said something like "and now [fill in name of husband here] wants to go somewhere where no one speaks english! can you imagine!" i can imagine double punching you in the throat and gut, lady. shut up!

:: today at discovery coffee, there is a seriously gross man who is (a) singing along with the music - poorly; (b) sneezing and rubbing his germy paws everywhere (mental note: never sit at the table he's at ever again) and (c) generally being creepy and serial-killer-ish. ugh!

now, on to more pleasant topics.

a few weekends ago, i joined a.e. and her family for the rahat nusrat fateh ali khan show in vancouver. it was fantastic! fantastic! the only blight on an awesome evening of qawwali and sufi music was the row of f*ckwits sitting behind us. who apparently believed that they were in a starbucks since they proceeded to loudly talk and laugh like hyenas through a once-in-a-lifetime performance. some people are like donkeys; they should not go bucking and hee-hawing just anywhere. harrumph.

if you don't know the music or the musician check out this link.

i am learning a lot about the city of london thanks to the wonderful book by peter ackroyd (no relation to dan, as far as i can tell), called "london: the biography". i will be sharing amazing tid-bits about london from the book as soon as i finish it. there is some truly fascinating stories in the history of london, and i am excited to report that i have seen some of the places he writes about!

i love history!