The Not-So-Secret Diary of a Bad Luck Girl

Last night I took some Nyquil, which evinced by the fact that I had to show ID before I bought it, is basically blue Jack Daniels. Sensitive to all things stimulant/depressant, I took a fraction of the recommended dosage – 7 ½ ml as opposed to 30 – and it still knocked me on my ass. Less than an hour later I couldn’t keep my eyes open, and when I woke up a while later to pee, I could barely walk straight.

From the time I was a kid, I’ve had a love/hate relationship with cold medicine. The moment my brother or I showed any symptoms, our mother would say, “Kuai chi yao!” Quickly, take medicine! as though some Tylenol Cold (which my mom called “Co-Tylenol”) could stop one of a billion viruses in its snot-inducing tracks. While I loved that the stuff knocked me out when I wasn’t feeling good – the way I loved the “sweet air” at the dentist’s, so much so that I hoped for cavities – taking too much could leave me a bundle of nerves.

For standard colds, there was “green yao yao,” chinglish for green medicine (in my house there were actually two green yao yaos, one for the sniffles and the other a menthol gel that my mother insisted cured everything from bug bites to pimples to infected cuts ). I don’t even know what it actually was, but I do remember it was the least foul-tasting of the bunch and the mildest, putting me to sleep in a soft, slow way.

Sometimes for a mild cough my mother gave us pi pa gao, a syrupy Chinese herbal concoction, which I found really disgusting and literally had to choke down. For the cough that wouldn’t quit, there was Contact, red and gross. My brother and I would take the dose fast, always in a Chinese soup spoon, and grimacing and convulsing, immediately afterwards gulp a tall glass of water.

Contact not only made me drowsy, it made my whole body feel strange, like I was wearing a giant body-sized glove made out of my own skin. And too much of it gave me the jitters. Nowadays we know about the dangers of giving kids too much cough medicine, but back then my mom thought, She’s still coughing, she needs more medicine.

When I was 8, I had the flu and lingering hacking cough. Contact to the rescue! But as the weeks went by, I developed a bad case of insomnia. I had strange dreams and a continual ringing in my ears. Already a nervous kid, I was even more nervous, bursting into tears for no reason. It didn’t help that around this time I watched the Exorcist for the first time, or at least part of it, and managed to convince myself that I was possessed, and that soon my bed would start shaking and I’d be ramming crucifexes up my crotch. It got to the point that I couldn’t sleep alone, and made my brother sleep in the same room with me, to his annoyance I was sure. But I didn’t care.

The insomnia and fear of sleeping alone lasted a good year, maybe longer, till finally I decided to wanted to be back in my own room, which my parents would have to pry me out of for the rest of my adolescence.

Today, while occasional sleeplessness and catching z’s solo don’t bother me, I’m still wary about the likes of Robitussin, Sudafed, and yes Contact and green yao yao. I take it only when absolutely necessary (ie, when I feel like a pillow has been stuffed up my nose and sinuses) and in very small doses, though sometimes I still wish for a cavity.

We have this vociferous airshaft neighbor.  Sometimes she blasts music and sings in Spanish (badly) at the top of her lungs.  Sometimes she has a girlfriend over and they chatter loudly for hours.

And sometimes she screams and moans for seemingly no reason.

MB said one night she was moaning and saying, “No, stop, no, stop.”  Of course he assumed that someone was hurting her.  Another neighbor called out, “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine,” she said, turned out the light, made noises like she had left the apartment, and proceeded to start moaning again.  MB said it seemed like there was no one else there.  I heard it myself sometime later.  It was pretty disturbing though she was clearly alone.

Last night she turned on loud music and proceeded to scream.  Not horror movie scream, but scream like she was in tremendous pain.  We looked out the window and saw her lying on her couch with her feet propped up, totally alone.  The screaming was intermittent, but still blood curdling, like she was really being hurt.

I wanted to yell out, “What the hell is going on over there? Are you okay?”  But she was clearly there all by herself, kicking back.

Who lies there with their window open screaming at the top of her lungs?  Of course your neighbors are going to think you’re being murdered.

It didn’t last too long, maybe 30 minutes, but if it happens again, I think we’re going to have to say something.

And I’ve been up since about 5 this morning.  Not just up, but WIDE AWAKE.  I lasted till about 9 last night before passing out.

My trip back was fine, though of course it felt like I was traveling for hours and hours, which I guess I was.  Grabbing a taxi on Tottenham Court Road was pretty easy and cost about 12 pounds to get to Paddington.  I know that’s expensive, but I thought it’d be more like 20, and it was worth it to me not to have drag my stuff around the tube.

The express train to Heathrow was 16.50 pounds, but they didn’t even collect my ticket.  I guess it’s the honor system?  Either way the ride was very nice and fast, and if I ever go to London again, that’s what I’m taking.

I think Heathrow is the worst airport I’ve been to.  I mean, there are some in the U.S. that are pretty crummy, but at least they tend to be spread out enough so that you don’t feel like you’re trapped in a writhing sea of people.  Everywhere I went was people – there was no escape.  Still, I managed to grab a sandwich and stuff from Eat, a book for the plane, and gifts for my parents (biscuits and tea).

My flight was at 2 but the gate wasn’t posted till almost 1.  I guess the gate areas are so small that they don’t want people mobbing the area.  And once they announced the gate, we didn’t have to wait too long before boarding.  The plane took off about 45 minutes late, which in the scheme of things, isn’t too bad.

I had a window seat this time, which in some ways is good, though the poor guy next to me had to get up several times for my small bladder.  Realizing I hadn’t watched TV for two weeks, I settled in for some movies: The Young Victoria, which was pretty good; He’s Just Not that Into You, which was better than I expected (I actually cried) though I thought it was incredibly lame – here comes a spoiler – that the Ben Affleck character ended up proposing to Jennifer Aniston even after she realized how meaningless marriage really is, and that a ring on a guy’s finger doesn’t necessarily equal a good partner; and The Day the Earth Stood Still, which was just as bad as thought it’d be.  Keanu is perfect however as a robotic alien.  I got pretty antsy towards the end of the flight, watching the time tick down: 1 hour, 30 minutes till landing, 1 hour, 15; less than an hour.

Then it was more waiting.  Waiting to get off the plane.  Waiting to get through immigration, where a random airport worker with a frigging foreign accent asked me if I was sure I was a U.S. citizen – Are you, dude? Let me see your papers.  Then the big wait: for my baggage.  It took AGES.  I don’t know why I was surprised.  JFK is always like that.

Then waiting for a cab, and finally waiting through a massive traffic jam.  As we inched along, I thought I’d die.  I was soooo thirsty and so very tired of waiting and so anxious to get home.  The driver was very nice though.

While we were driving, this crazy downpour hit us.  It was basically like a tropical storm.  Raining raining raining while in the distance we could see blue skies and the sun.

Luckily it stopped by the time I got the apartment, and then there was MB, a sight for sore eyes, coming downstairs to help me with my luggage. 

~ ~ ~

One thing I forgot to mention in all my London posts is Michael Jackson’s death.  Crazy, to say the least.  Apparently Thursday night, a few of my classmates came back before 10, one went to check her email, then her door burst open and she was shouting, “Michael Jackson’s dead!”  Chaos quickly ensued.

Not feeling well, I had gone to bed early that night, and I remember hearing all this noise and thinking, What the hell is that?  Then all annoyed put in my ear plugs.  I finally saw the news the next morning.

It’s such a strange feeling to know that he’s dead.  It would be like if Madonna or Prince or Cyndi Lauper were dead.  I’ll always remember being 9 years old, roller skating at the Y, where they played Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough over and over, so that till this day when I hear that song, I think of a dinky disco ball and blisters on my feet.  In the sixth grade we all wanted to be him, or at least dance like him.  One kid actually had one of those crazy leather, zippery jackets, and could moondance pretty well (skinny white kid btw).  Then the disturbing transformation began, and soon none of us wanted to be him anymore.

It’s really sad how messed up he turned out to be.  No grip on reality (ie, best friend = chimp), addiction to plastic surgery and who knows what else, probably a pedophile.  But of course not everyone who’s been abused as a kid turns their abuse on other children.  Our pity for him is no excuse.

It’s like two Michael Jacksons, the one putting veils on his kids’ heads and the the Beat It-Michael Jackson, the Thriller guy, and even sadder, that little kid singing and dancing his heart out.

My last night in London!

Today’s sessions were somewhat better.  I think it helped that I had dressed more comfortably and the weather was cooler.  David Nichols spoke again, and while his presentation had elements from the one he gave us at the beginning of the course, he made it specific to academia.

His most interesting point was that while there is all this data about what users are doing, no one is using to data to improve systems.  The focus is on Web 2.0 – Twitter, Facebook, blogs – because it’s new and easy, and it’s much harder to change existing systems.

I totally agree.  Every presentation had its arbitrary Web 2.0 slide, but it was always, we know it’s out there and we should be using it but we don’t know how.  Then later someone mentioned a patient education system, and I thought, That’s what Web 2.0 should be used for.

Academics resist commenting on each other’s papers, at least publicly, so why not use blogs or Twitter to help educate patients and the average joe.  Anthony mentioned Patient Inform, in which experts basically translate heavy duty papers for the lay person, but it’s dying because these experts don’t have time to do it, even though they’re getting paid to do so.  I’m not sure how to solve that problem, but it seems Web 2.0 would be better used for educating others rather than trying to create a social network where the participants don’t want one.

At the end of the conference, there was a panel to discuss whatever topics people were interested in.  I had been wanting to hear more about technology, and so when someone asked, “Does technology really change behavior?” I perked up.  He used PowerPoint as an example, that while it helps make you more efficient, it’s still a series of slides.

Someone argued that PowerPoint has ruined writing, and that some people can only now “write in bullets,” when actually the problem is a lot of people don’t know how to write for PowerPoint, and throw up full text on a slide so you can’t get anything out of it.

Rather than technology changing behavior, I think the more provocative question is if behavior shapes technology.  Look at e-ink – it’s been developed to be easier on the human eye.  Look at the cool tech that British Library uses to let you turn the pages of rare book you’d never be able to touch in real life.  Look at the audio tour of the Tate Modern, which is actually an audio and video tour because they employ a smart phone with a touch screen, where you can see other works of art to compare to the one you’re looking at in real life, as well as “touch” different parts of the work to hear more about it.  It was really awesome.

That was sorely missing from this conference – designing tech to fit humans, rather than retraining humans to fit tech.  Then again, this wasn’t a tech or design conference.  The only thing someone was said was that the systems haven’t been designed with the  way scholars work kept in mind.

Afterwards, our class and some faculty had a farewell dinner at the Spaghetti House right on Goodge.  The food was very good.  I had the puttanesca, which I basically inhaled, and cassate, a sort of ice cream cake with layers of Italian ice cream and sorbert.

Near the end of evening, Andy sang us a funny song, and then we all got certificates and wee gifties for having completed the course.

It was all very sweet.

I left pretty early, along with a few others.  I always have a hard time saying goodbye.  I get embarrassed, but I did manage to give out all my Moo cards.

I’m basically done packing.  I’ll be up early tomorrow to throw in some last minute things, and then I’ll leave here at 10.  New York here I come!

Hey whaddya know, I still have internet.  I thought it would be shut down by now.  Maybe I have it till midnight.

I’m totally coming down with a cold.  At least three of my classmates are either getting over and are in the middle of colds.  I asked the one who’s still suffering, “You came down with something?” and he said yeah, it seemed a bunch of people are sick.  I thought, Not me! and literally an hour later my throat started hurting.

The sessions today were boring as hell.  I thought the e-publishing conference would include more about books and trade publishing, but it seems to be all academic, which in small doses is fine, but for almost eight hours, is way too much.

It didn’t help that the room was too warm and I had dressed too warmly.  The temperature shot up to almost 80 today, though it’s cooler now of course.  And I was sitting next two people who didn’t think to move down into the empty seats so that we three weren’t sitting right next to each other.  As soon as a seat opened on the other end, I got up and moved.  The woman kept looking at me, and I was like, Fuck you, you didn’t think to move, I’m not going to sit up right up next to a 6 foot tall man radiating body heat in this 80 degree room.

So the cold is making me grouchy.

Afterwards I stopped at the reception for a short time, and then had dinner with one of my classmates.  We invited people, but no one showed up, and sometimes it’s easier with fewer people anyway.  We got Szechuan food, which was pretty good.  I had a sweet corn and chicken soup, very nice for my throat.

No pictures today.

A day behind.

Today’s my last day with internet since I’m a cheapskate and refuse to pay for a full extra week when there are only one and a half days left of my trip.

Yesterday was just a regular day of lectures.  In the morning we had Camelia Csora from Elsevier and Ruth Jones from Ingram Digital.  Both presentations were very good, but Ms. Jones’ had to be the best of the course.  She didn’t just pimp her company but talked about e-publishing in general, trends, and her opinions about what was happening now.  She was really smart and funny.

The afternoon visit to Nature Publishing bored me.  Not sure why.  I think because the room was so warm, it was after lunch, and the presentations were sort of general.  I find that when marketing people speak, it’s not as dynamic since the marketing people don’t work directly on the projects (at least in my own marketing experience).

But when the people who are directly involved in the projects speak, like the guy at ProQuest talking about the Paley Center database, then it’s interesting because they’re excited and know all the cool stuff about the project.

I’ve also found the Scottish speakers to be much livelier.  Though a few of the Brits were good, a few were basically talking comas.

We were near King’s Cross train station so I went in to find the Harry Potter replica.  There were some girls there also taking pictures, and one insisted on taking mine:

I think you can see me blushing from here.

From King’s Cross I walked to Russell Square.  I had heard there were a lot of shops around there, but there weren’t, at least not that I could find.  It was no loss because there was a pretty park with a lovely arbor:

From there I walked to Somerset House, which one of my friends had recommended.  I walked on King’s Way, which totally got me lost the last time I walked it, or rather  I got myself lost.  But this time I knew where I was on the map and made it to my destination.

It was a beautiful day.

It’s only as I’m nearing my stay that I’ve finally figured out my immediate area.  In the beginning I’d keep walking all the way down Tottenham Court Road, past my turn off so that I ended up looping around to get to Charlotte Street.  Finally yesterday I realized where to get onto Goodge Street, where all the restaurants are.

For dinner I picked up a curry chicken katsu for 4.90 with a side of Japanese pickles for 1.90.  In the morning I had an OJ for 1.50, lunch was Pret for 3.94, and then a snack of Pret yogurt and water for 3.49.  Grand total: 15.73, still under budget.

I spent the evening doing laundry, Skyping with MB, and playing with my pictures.  This morning I ironed my outfits for the rest of my stay.  Today and tomorrow we have an e-publishing conference, and I’m wearing business casual, though I’m not sure what the dress code is.  We don’t have to be there till about 10.

This morning I also Skyped with MB one last time.  He was still up at 3 in the morning.  I heard the weather is awful in New York, rainy and chilly one minute, then rainy and hot the next.  Bummer, but I’ll be so glad to be home.

All London Day 11 pictures.

From yesterday.

1) Remember that woman I wrote about who’s not a student but very involved with academic journals?  Well, she was in fine form yesterday.  While we were at ProQuest, she completely took over the question and answer portion of the presentation.

First she asked a long drawn-out question that wasn’t really a question but a comment.  The presenters  responded, then she counter-responded, back and forth, till it was basically like her own personal meeting the rest of us were forced to listen to.  Of course the ProQuest people were too polite to say anything.

Finally Anthony interrupted and said, “Does anyone else have any questions?” and of course someone did.

That woman gets on my nerves.  She has this snotty look on her face all the time and walks around like a princess.  During lunch when she went to get some fruit, she asked, at large, “What are these?” without looking at anyone but with an attitude like she expected everyone to answer.

2) While we were at the pub yesterday in Cambridge, we were sitting next to these young people, probably students, from the area.  There was an Asian woman who was really loud, and at one point she said, “Idaho? That’s not a real place, is it?”

Cambridge – isn’t that in Massachusetts?

Ten days are more than enough in London. I am so ready to go home.

Today was a good day. We went out to Cambridge and heard presentations from ProQuest and the Royal Society of Chemistry. All were very good. ProQuest talked a lot about their project with the Paley Center, putting the center’s seminars, interviews, and show/movie clips online in a database, all with transcripts and subtitles, and indexed. You can even download clips, edit them, and email them.  It’s pretty neat and launched today, in fact.  I think it’s only available through universities, and maybe the NYPL.

After the talks, Anthony took us on a tour of Pembroke College Cambridge, his alma mater.  It was very pretty.

After the tour, we all went off on our own, basically splitting into two groups.  Of course in library school there are a lot of women.  Today it hit me that I’m used to hanging out with men, between MB, YP, my brother online, hell even my boss.  Of course there are all my other good friends, but I don’t see them as much.

So when I somehow ended up in the group with three men and one other woman in her mid-40s – ie, a grown-up – I felt a huge sense of relief.  I think it helped that there were just five of us as well, instead of a giant group with three or four conversations going on at once.  It was very relaxing sitting there with our drinks and chatting.

For dinner we went to Queen’s Head.  It was a very nice pub.  I got the fish and chips since I’ve been wanting to try it all this time.

It was GOOD, especially after having had a drink.  I got a nice big piece of cod, and the batter was crispy and thin.  The fries were tasty as well.  9.95 pounds.  That plus 2.75 for the wine made a total of 12.70 (they gave us lunch at ProQuest).

While hanging out at dinner was fun, I was ready to go back way before most of the others.  I’m definitely someone who needs her quiet time.  It’s tough to spend a nearly solid two weeks with the same group of people, and to be away from home.

Tomorrow is a lecture in the morning and a visit to the Nature Publishing Company in the afternoon.

All London Day 10 pictures.

Now I have to two days to write about.

Day 8

Again I had a leisurely morning, getting up at 8 and fooling around on my computer till I left at 10.

The tube to the Natural History Museum was much calmer than the one to London Bridge. Once I got out, however, I was as always confused about where I was, but managed to figure it out. The next problem: hungry and not wanting to spend a lot, especially after the previous night’s expensive dinner. I was still on a grilled cheese sandwich kick so I got one with a mocha from a café nearby for less than 5 pounds. Not bad.

I meant to go to the Natural History Museum first, but ended up in the Science Museum (which explained why I kept thinking, This is a lot like the Science Museum in Boston). It’s very much for kids, but it was very good. I liked the History of Medicine exhibit, though it starts out chronologically then gets totally mixed up, and the Listening Post, in which bits of real chat room conversation are captured via light and sound. It was pretty neat.

After finally realizing I wasn’t in the Natural History Museum, I headed over there, and was immediately overwhelemed by the zillions of kids. I kind of zipped through it, though I did go out of my way to see the animatronic dinasours, the coup de grace of which was T. Rex:

It was pretty neat despite the mob. One little kid got really scared when he turned the corner and saw what he was in for.

I also wanted to see the Blue Whale, which is touted by my Time Out book. I have to say: an utter disappointment. It’s humungous, of course, but the room is so tiny and jam packed with other mammals. It’s not like the American Museum of Natural History, where you have this enormous room and the blue whale suspended from the ceiling.

Next was the Victoria & Albert Museum. Thankfully there were no kids on the top few floors, only running around the ground floor. I loved looking at the royal collection and all the Victorian-era stuff. It was such a peaceful atmosphere, a huge relief after the madness of the Natural History Museum. My energy waned as I made my way down so that by the time I reached bottom, I’d see yet another wing and think, No more!

There’s a nice courtyard, where I sat for quite some time, eating my Balance bar and chilling.

Afterwards I walked over to Hyde Park, through Mayfair, where I found another nice courtyard to sit in, and over to Picadilly. Used the bathroom again at the Meridian, and was much less conspicuous this time around.

Over the weekend I had suddenly remembered that I regularly read a blog about food in London, duh! Su-Lin’s latest post was on Malaysia Kopi Tiam, which I realized I’ve passed a billion times since I’ve been here. I was excited to try good, reasonably priced food so I made a beeline there after all my sightseeing.

It seemed authentic what with all the Chinese-speaking people hanging around, and, unlike that damned Japanese place from yesterday, there was no minimum. I wasn’t sure what some of dishes were so I went for the menu with the pictures and picked the laksa mee with chicken, basically a mildly spicy coconut curry noodle soup with chicken on the bone and fish cakes.

It was soooo good, and at 7.50 pounds definitely the right price. Since I was well under my 25 pounds for the day, I got a lychee drink too – with real lychees – for two pounds.

My total food spend for the day: 13.49 pounds! A huge improvement from the day before.

Day 9

This was today. Lectures were really boring. This morning’s was supposed to be a discussion but it just meandered and never really focused on one topic. It was really torture, to be quite honest.

This afternoon we went to the Office of Public Sector Information, where the guy talked about government documents. Again: snoresville. I mean, the information was somewhat interesting, but he was such a dry presenter.

I felt so burnt out on sight seeing today that I did absolutely nothing. After lectures I went with one of my classmates back to our dorm, and hung out playing on the internet till we went to dinner.

Finally had Indian food: Diwana on Drummond Street, as recommended by Anthony. It was very good! We shared a chef’s sampling of appetizers for about 4 pounds, got paneer dosas for 7.05, and a mango lassi for 2.

Chef's sampling of appetizers

The coconut chutney was so good; I’ve never had it before. And the dosa was extrememly filling and tasty.

My total food spend: 16.30.

Tomorrow we’re off to Cambridge.

All Day 8 and Day 9 pictures.