The Flash wants Steers

There is no Steers in England. They could still sell bacon avocado burgers though but they don't do that either. The waitress didn't want to believe when John told her  and kept giggling when he said he had to come here from London to have a nice burger.

Even The Flash wants Steers.

Batman - The Forgotten One

Yet another good movie got wasted on me. We went to see the new Batman (The Dark Knight Rises) today. Even though I really liked the film I often wonder what the hell is happening and who are these people.

So at the end I just questioned John for further details. "Haven't you seen the first movie?", he asked.
"You meant the first one with Christian Bale?", I asked suspicously.
"Yes", was his reply.
"Oh, sure, I've seen that. Don't remember much though... Or let's put it that way: the only thing I remember is that Christian Bale was in it."

I think that explains a lot.

I guess in two months time I won't remember this movie either. However after John's detailed explanation there might be hope for me.

Not amused

Today I'm flying to the Land of Huns. However this trip is as far from a holiday as it can be. My passport expires soon so I need to sort it out. That means sitting hours in the registration office and paying three times more than I could have paid if I go to the embassy here in London. That was the plan, but I haven't taken into consideration that they have absolutely no sense of urgency and the first appointment they could give me will be at the end of August. Also from there it still would be 5-8 weeks. Meh.

So in the next few days I'll be camping in my friend, Eni's lounge, and also be working as well so I won't need to take holidays.

I'm not amused...

Image: Alice Jiang

Good morning

Picture: Food and Cook

Sooky in Kingsmouth

After playing for a week I must say I'm really addicted to The Secret World. Spent almost all my free time questing around, solving mysteries and killing weird creatures. Even when I was sitting in the office my mind kept wandering over the unfinished investigation from the previous night.

The Kingsmouth Code was especially great fun as I missed the first set of hints. By missed I mean I completely misinterpredted it. However I still got to the next location, but instead of following the actual sings, I started thinking what the place could be. I was the most surprised when I found out I was right. *Proud*

My character, Sooky, is progressing nicely. She looks really badass with two pistols hanging from her hips in the gunslinger style, and since she got herself a new pair of shades she really looks like some secret agent. Or maybe the female Horatio Caine... but without the actual dramatic look.

So far we only managed to do one dungeon, the one called Polaris, and I have to admit, I really enjoyed it. Got really surprised when I realised: can't just simply run back after dying. It was strange, yes, but just made the whole fight even more tense. The other thing I have only noticed after about 10 minutes was that some of my team mates were actually not from my faction. I play Illuminati, but two of our groupmates were Dragons. Nice, I thought, we can still be friends. That will surely make group finding easier.

So, we meet again

On Thursday I didn't really feel like going to the social night with some clients. But then I thought, fine, why not, they might have spicy wings like last time, so I can just occupy myself with the snacks if it's really boring.

They were also showing the football match in the pub where we met so most of them was turning their back on us to watch it. It was a bit awkward. Rebecca, Cara and I were just talking among ourselves, when one of our clients, Mr. Giggles turned around, looked at us, and said, "You have really small teams in your office."
We hadn't the slightest clue what he's talking about or how has he any idea about our teams, so just  muttered something. He didn't wait too long to add, "Well, you are not very tall, are you?", and winked.
True, we three are almost like hobbits, so suddenly all of started giggling, but he didn't stop there. "I don't mean to be rude... but you are small." Ok, got it. Hilarious.

After I spotted a familiar face. So, we meet again, I thought. On the last meeting he was really strange. When I introduced myself, he just kept staring at my hand sticking out, then turned to my colleauge, who was standing next to me, and shook his instead. So I just call him The Weirdo ever since. I was quite sure he will do something like that again, but to my biggest surprise he grabbed my hand and shook it quite vigorously.

Later he asked me where I'm from. When I told him, I'm a hun, he just went silent. I was prepared for horse jokes, but none came. Mr. Giggles said, "You are the first hungarian I've ever seen", and stared at me, leaning forward slightly. Well, of course you have to take a really good look, don't you, like in the museum at the mummy of the first iceman. These are the situations when I have absolutely no idea what to say, so most of the times I just smile and nod. Smile and nod.

When finally the food arrived I managed to grab only one chicken wing. It was quite popular, so to avoid fights I decided to stick to chips and scampi because noone really seemed to go for them.
I also tried a new beer, Mac's Gold, from New Zealand. It was really nice. But came with a freakin' heavy beer stein, so it was quite an exercise just to hold my Kiwi drink.

When we left, one of my colleagues, Martin Awesome grabbed my hand and said, "It was really nice to meet you." No idea what was so nice about it. He meets me in the office every day and won't even say hello.

The Secret World Beta Weekend #3: Hell Raised... also we can be pretty now

As a girl gamer I not only need a good story and atmosphere in a game but the characters should be pretty too. The Secret World Beta Weekend #3: Hell Raised started yesterday and I was really happy when I saw the new shirts, skirts and shoes in the character creator.

On the first weekend we didn't have a lot of options, so my poor Suzy had to run around in a funny looking red shirt, and ridiculously big cowboy boots while chasing zombies because the rest of the clothes were even more horrible.

My new beta character, Sue Ellen, on the other hand got a lovely pair of jeans and a nice white shirt. Blood looks nicer on white, doesn't it? Unfortunately in this game we won't be covered in blood from head to toe after a killing spree. Shame.

It's also interesting to see what others are wearing. I bet that behind those skimpily dressed female characters, walking around in high heels and tiny skirts, a guy gamer clicks the mouse more often than not.

So we have options. We can dress up our characters quite respectably, or decide to put on something a stripper would beg for. This is how it should be in every game. It really annoys me in games like Tera Online that my options are slutty, or sluttier. While I don't mind others prancing around town flashing their underwear, I like to look decent. Even if it's just the virtual me.

This time I played a Dragon, so my story started in Seoul, not in London, but after a few minutes I found myself back in Kingsmouth. This little town is still charming. Even though the streets are swarming with zombies and other yukkie creatures.

I also dropped the assault rifle and learned spellcasting instead so this time I managed to enjoy the actual gameplay as well, not just the beautiful landscape and the creepy story.

Moonrise Kingdom

Darjeeling Limited was the first Wes Anderson movie I've ever seen. Also this was the first movie I've ever seen together with John when we first met at my place instead of the usual pub dates we'd been doing for a few weeks. He still refers to it as "the movie that got me laid". I liked it a lot. The film was also quite good...

So the director's new movie, the Moonrise Kingdom, is in the cinemas now.

Set in 1965, the film tells the story of two teenagers who fall in love and run away together.

They do this in the beautiful New England, in soft, golden tones and faded, retro atmosphere.

I love the clothes too...

Boring

There are two possible scenarios in the office.

I'm either so busy that I have no idea where the time just flies away and everything is happening at the same time, or it's so boring that I don't even mind when some of my weird colleagues show up at my desk with something silly to ask. Normally I would just give them a funny look but on boring days even this seems more interesting than the greenbean recipes I was checking out today just to pass the time.

How sad...

28

The older I get the less I want to do something special on my birthday. So this year when John asked how I want to celebrate I didn't say anything for a few days. Eventually I told him yesterday that I just want to spend the evening at home, eat pizza, drink beer and watch a movie.

At the end we watched How I met your mother, because I couldn't make up my mind on movies. I must say the last episode of season 8 was kind of a facepalm one but on the whole it wasn't a bad season.

As usual John gave me awesome presents. It's like he knows me or something. So he got me those pie dishes (the very patriotic pie dishes as I was referring to them) I kept pointing out to him in the last few weeks every time we walked past the shop, and also the latest George R. R. Martin book, called A Dance With Dragons, which is on my reading list for this year.

Aww...

The time traveller's wardrobe

If I suddenly found myself in the '70s somehow (weird lab accident, black hole, strange space-time continuum), I think I could totally blend in wearing my new vanilla dress. I would just hop on my pink bicycle, with a book in my bag (Breakfast of Champions maybe) and would just cycle away in the sunshine.

Your laugh is... by mnory featuring clutch bags

Call me Roy

John says I look like Roy Orbison...

 

Heh...

Good morning

Picture: Globaldish

A Feast for Crows

I finished reading A Feast for Crows a few days ago. Took me a while, mostly because I just simply couldn't stop being online and messing around on the internet, playing MMOs, or just staring at random pictures on Pinterest. Ehh...

As George R. R. Martin said at the end of his book, this one was a bitch. Indeed.  

Where's Tyrion? What the hell is going on with the dragons? What is up with all these zombies, seriously...

I'm just glad I didn't have to wait 5 years for it, and also don't need to wait for the next part. I started to read the Song of Ice and Fire books only last year, right before the TV series had started. Although I'm taking a little break before jumping into A Dance with Dragons.

I remember last summer we were at the airport, waiting for our flight to Hungary, just a few days before the official release. The bookshops of course had the book already in stock, haven't even tried to hide it too much. John spotted it under the till and started bargaining with the shop assistant. Needless to say, it didn't work. Still, he was adamant to get a hardcover copy, but had no luck in the bookstores in Hungary either. Eventually he broke down and got the Kindle edition.

So up to this day we don't actually own the physical book yet. It's on my whislist, but I need to finish other books before I order it. Knowing myself by the time I start reading, I will forget half the things that had happened before, even if it's only a few months waiting.

I suspect I'm not the only one who have marshmallow instead of brain. I just found this website, called Tower of the Hand, with summaries for all the chapters. Yay, I'm saved. But to be honest I think this will also take ages to read through.

Discovering...

Just discovered Bloglovin...
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This is not Wonderland

I explained to one of my clients this morning that the first phase of our project is now done and we need 8 hours to prepare phase two, so get ready, we are starting tomorrow.

Two hours later he dropped me an email,"So, we are ready to start, right?". He was truly surprised when I replied, "No."

Just hanging

... after taking the snack from our hand this little fellow just simply climbed back to his tree, and started munching. Hanging upside down.

Isn't he absolutely adorable?

Inspired by Arya Stark

Inspired by Arya Stark by mnory featuring slim jeans

Secret World

I pre-ordered Secret World so could participate in the beta weekend that started on Friday.

From the three factions this time I could try the Templars. So far the Illuminati were my favourites but I think apart from the faction story line there won't be a big difference in the quests. Although I must say I haven't read much about this. I try to avoid spoilers.

The atmosphere in the game is a little bit depressing. Like a combination of the Walking Dead and an oldschool detective story.

The Templar's headquarter is in London.

My character, Susie, started there and was soon sent to Kingsmouth, New England. This little town with the nice little houses, white picket fences, an old diner and a lonely lighthouse looks like a place from a Stephen King book. Apparently it's mostly based on Innsmouth, a fictional town created by H. P. Lovecraft. So yes, it's quite creepy.

... and they have zombies.

Hell, yeah.

Unlike in other MMOs, we won't level up in this one. (Why I don't have a girlfriend? I'm a level 80 paladin...) Instead we get skill points to spend on powers and abilities. No restrictions. We can choose to master a specialization or learn multiple at the same time.

We can learn to fight with swords, guns or magic powers. I usually play spellcasters, healers in other games so decided to spice things up and train for assault rifle. After half an hour realized this is still not something for me. Heh. I want to toast people with lightning. Simple.

Anyway, I'm glad I bought the game and can't wait to find out the theme of the next beta weekend.

The Hun

Inhaling jalapenos is not really a good idea. Thanks to Rob for demonstrating it to us yesterday. He was taking out the pizzas from the oven when caught a whiff of the stuff, started choking, almost dropped one of the plates... Well, probably this is not the first time he is doing this... In a few second after some swearing and fighting everything went back to normal, we opened a few Banana Bread Beers and were happily munching our pizzas like nothing happened.

Melinda and Rob invited one of their friends I never met before.
"I think we are still waiting for someone", I said to John. "But I don't know him."
"Yes, Rob told me." he replied. "He's called Attila. With a name like that he must be a hun..."

Heh...

Apple crumble and coffee

I made some apple crumble for breakfast. Then I was just waiting, waiting and waiting for John to finally get up. Even brought some coffee for him to bed... He just mumbled from under the covers that I'm more than welcome to start eating without him.Sure, like I could stop... Seriously, sometimes I think he doesn't even know me.

Café Nori

Oh, these Romans... They named a coffeeshop after me. How sweet.

Well, that wasn't the only reason we went back every day while staying in Rome. Even though Italians are proud of their coffee, in the hotel we only found some weird mud in the jugs every morning.

Lucky for us, we discovered Café Nori on the second morning and became regulars. Not only the coffee was great, and the pastries delicous but the staff was also very friendly and that wasn't that common either in other places. Polite, yes. But in a weird, unfriendly way most of the times.

Our barista was also the chatty sort. "Are you from New Zeland?", he asked.

"No...", we said, looking at each other raising our eyebrows.

"Then you are from Scotland", was his next guess.

"No, we are not", we had to smile even more.

"Ok, ok... you are English", he was getting desperate.

"No, not even that..."

"... so you said you are not Scottish. Are you sure?" he asked while staring at us in a very suspicious way.

"Well, yes, quite sure..." we were laughing by then.

Finally he gave up. Without actually finding out the truth. Poor him. Maybe he honestly thought that Scottish people forget sometimes where they are from.

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Bar Nori - Via Tuscalone, Rome (near Termini Station)
Images: by me

See you on Tatooine

We are moving office in June. The new place will be nicer, bigger and we will have three new meeting rooms. The Boss sent us an email a few days ago asking for name ideas. I choose the nerdy way and suggested Tatooine, Nar Shaddaa and Alderaan.

It would be so great telling my clients "See you on Tatooine".

Anyway... I bet they will choose something boring. They always do. Our current meeting rooms are named Don't worry and Be happy.

Images: Justin (flickr)

I can see again

With my new glasses finally I can see again. At first it was quite shocking. I felt dizzy and weird. The trees have leaves, the people have faces, and even the colours are livelier.
It's almost like in the cinema when I put on the 3D glasses. The things actually stick out from the background.

Now I just have get used to my new look...

Inspiration - Glasses

I spent almost one hour trying on different frames in the shop before I finally decided to get a classic frame, and another little bit funkier one.

 

The shop assistant tried to convince me to try on one of those big 80's style frames too, but I'm not brave (or cool) enough for those...

Maybe next time...

Can't see it - can't get it

On Saturday I finally went for an eye test. Got fed up that I can't see anything. Mostly because every time I ordered food or drink I kept picking the usual. I just couldn't bear the thought of staring at the menu, blinking like a mole while the queue is just getting longer and angrier behind me. It was quite annoying at the airport too, or anywhere else where they have big boards with important information.

My new glasses will be ready tomorrow.

I think I will have a whole new world to discover...

Sometimes...

Image: flickr