This is a cop-out post, since I haven’t posted in about a month. It contains no substance.

My terrible excuse: I’m having a delicious bowl of soup right now and have been spending much of my time at the gym, outside running, or inside recovering from either of those two activities and consuming food to excess.

I should have posted this bad-ass 1680×1050 wallpaper sooner:

Currently listening to the new album from the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s (It’s Blitz!) — I am enjoying it so far.

It was definitely exciting to come back to land at the Ottawa airport and know exactly where I would be sleeping that night. Nothing beats knowing precisely where and how you are going to get to the place you will be sleeping later that night. Bliss. 

Anyway, here are some of my favourite photos/moments from across the pond:

Yeah, there’s lots. I think I uploaded over 1,250 photos to flickr. Bwhaha.

1. Too much neon orange and yellow. Seriously, have never seen so much in my life. I hate it. So many people where it as part of their jobs, or if they’re cylists, or running, or it’s on police cars and ambulances. Blah blah blah. 
2. Amazing architecture. Surprise! I’ve barely seen a tenth of the city and I still love most of it. There is a HELL of a lot of red brick. Almost … too much …
3. It’s not very clean. Call me crazy, but in all seriousness I have never seen someone my age outside of a convenience store or something who finishes a can of whatever and then just throws it on the ground. There was a garbage can nearby, too! Indeed, things are quite dirty. In the core it’s fine, but my hotel appears to be in a rougher area of town I guess? 
4. This hotel cannot give directions. I have literally spent at least two hours walking around the streets close to my hostel. Supposedly there’s a “The Source” (omg!) and a Postal office. I found neither. Apparently we have mixed perceptions about distance,  
5. This hotel has a POWERED revolving door. 
6. There’s something weird about the British and their signage. The primary colours + black + white. I used to like it for it’s simplicity. But now I just find it a lazy and poorly executed means of conveying messages. Almost none of them are graphic. It’s white text on a red background that says “Sidewalk out of service”. That was fine when I only saw a couple, but when you walk down a street you are INUNDATED with them. THEY’RE EVERYWHERE. And some of them are seemingly redundant and a waste of money. Eg: a construction site with signs posted on the 2/3m high fence around it that says “Parents don’t let your children play in here” (something to that effect). D’uh? 
7. I really like their rail transit system. It looks really complex and crazy, but after you ride it for maybe an hour or two, screw up a couple of times — it’s a breeze. Buses are kind of flawed: seems like you require tickets or a pass to board, but only major stops have tickets. Ugh?
8. I only saw one homeless guy. 
9. WAY TOO EXPENSIVE. 
10. Note to self, they have an equivalent TravelPlanner, called the ‘Journey Planner‘. Wish I knew that sooner. 
11. Difficult to find places to eat, places to withdraw money.