Nearly Taken.

Perhaps that's slightly dramatic but I did have a somewhat creepy encounter yesterday. I met up with my friend P yesterday afternoon and we headed out to a place called Shepherd's Bush to look at an apartment (P is moving to the UK - jealous!). On the way we got a little lost trying to find the address. P said "I'll ask this guy" - a guy that as soon as I saw him I got a bad feeling about. He looked a bit meth-y: not that I really know that well what methamphetamine-riddled people look like, but he just seemed cagey and scattered and was glancing around in a paranoid way. He also had a recent cut on his face that looked to me like it could have been from a knife slash. Before I could say "not him!" P called him over. His response regarding directions was to suggest we follow him into an alley to ask someone there (we could clearly see there was nobody in the alley - well unless he had friends hiding). Thankfully P shouted out "that's OK we're in a hurry" and we ran off. 

Kidnappers: 0, Lozzz123 (and P): 1.

[via IMDB]

Anyway P liked the apartment once we found it and is planning to apply for it. After that we had dinner at a pub in Notting Hill (the movie was actually on TV here the other day and I totally stayed up til 1am watching it - I'm such a rager). 

In other news I've now had three meetings and a phone call with another person about future research work here in London. Everyone has been so nice and helpful, which is really encouraging considering I'm a total stranger to them. Nothing concrete has been determined job-wise, but two of the people seemed willing to help me write an application for funding to come research here, and all said they'd keep me in mind if any positions came up. One did remind me though that in the UK they're cracking down on hiring non-UK/non-EU people which sucks. 

Today is the first day I don't really have any plans or meetings to study for, so I'm really going to try to do some thesis work and also prepare for my course next week (there are SO many readings to do). 

Obviously since I'm writing this, so far not so good.

Quirk.

I am afraid of feet. Thankfully it's winter here so feet are covered generally and I don't have to see or think about feet much at the moment, but seriously they freak me out. Generally I think most people's feet are pretty unattractive (no offence), but that's not what bothers me. What I really can't stand is having people's bare feet touch my skin. It actually happens more than you'd probably realise (if feet don't bother you) - under the table when eating, people sitting closely on the lounge or on the floor - it's creeping me out just thinking about it!

AAARGH they're coming right for us!!!! [via]

As someone who studies psychology, obviously I've considered that perhaps I had some sort of foot-related traumatic incident in childhood that haunts me to this day. The thing is, I really have no recollection of such an event. Maybe Freud was right and repression is real, and I'm just that good at making sure this foot memory never comes to the surface... NEVER! 

I also can not endure shoe sharing. The reason I bring this up is that yesterday my sister nicely lent my mother some of her slippers to wear since it was cold, but it really freaked me out. Other people were very shocked and confused at my reaction that I would refuse to give my poor mother some slippers to borrow if she were cold. Sorry Mum but knowing our feet skin cells would be interacting makes me want to vomit. 

Baby feet: allowed.

The problem with telling people is, they then seem to think it's highly amusing to go out of their way to TOUCH ME WITH THEIR FEET. Boy feet are definitely worse, and they are the feet that have been shoved in my face. The thing is though, if someone says they are scared of spiders, do you rush out and find a spider to dangle in their face? I hope not. So what gives? Perhaps the difference is that a spider phobia is really quite reasonable, since well the spider could bite you and you could die (or at least experience some pain). The consequence of people's feet touching me is... tinea or something I guess. Yeah I realise this is a stupid thing to be afraid of.

Ahem. Anyway, sorry about that crazy rant. I will say that for some reason I can tolerate baby human feet (not sure why) and I've forced myself to become accustomed to Husband's feet - though this has definitely not generalised to other people (even his identical twin who genetically has the same feet). 

Do you have any quirks like this that people love to tease you about? Would you try to touch me with your feet if you were to see me in person?

Weird Searches

If you follow me on twitter, you'll know that every now and then I mention weird google searches that seem to bring people to my blog. Here are a few I found particularly amusing, and my thoughts on those... 

"How do I get the smell of burnt chocolate out of my house" - Haha sorry I only cause burning smell problems in my house, my blog is not the place for solutions, I'm afraid!
 

Or if you do find out where to buy them, come back and tell me. They are super cute.

"Where can you buy a pygmy hippo" - I know I said I want one, but I didn't actually get one, and even if I did YOU CAN'T HAVE IT! 

"mr hand addams family" - Well I assume this person found my blog due to my post on Alien Hand Syndrome. For future reference googler, it's called Thing, not Mr Hand! 

"strange things were afoot" - At least they aren't afoot anymore? Also, perhaps you mean this.

"annoying friend of spouse" - Please come back and tell me if you found my conditioning post on 'fixing' annoying people useful, or at least that you liked the picture of the rat playing a pan flute. 

"nyan cat website" - I just find this amusing, because if you google "Nyan cat website", the first option is of course, the Nyan cat website! How did they end up at my blog post on it then? Perhaps a more appropriate search then would have been: "Nyan cat, and those who love him" (or her?). I think I might just say Nyan one more time for good measure: Nyan. 

"i am a zombie" - Well don't come looking for me - aargh! And definitely don't read my post about where I plan to hide in a zombie outbreak. Also, I know I make a convincing looking zombie, but that's just a costume. I don't want to be friends at this point, sorry. 


Do you know of any particularly odd google searches that somehow led to your blog? I'd love to read about them in the comments! 

Strange things are afoot...

Just thought I'd share three odd/cool things I came across the other day.

The first: love a bit of alien conspiracy!

"there will be space ships by then"

The second: I'd just gotten off the bus at uni to see this - an elderly conga line! So cute, and yet entirely random.

sorry for crappy photo quality - had to covertly snap on my iphone!

The third: thanks to @cestaz for pointing this article out to me on twitter... apparently some zombies got injured on the set of a movie. Paramedics arriving at first thought some terrible catastrophe occurred and couldn't immediately tell all the blood was fake! It's funny to me especially, because the other night when I was dressed as a zombie I said to husband: "today would be a really bad day for a car accident - paramedics would have no idea which were my real injuries!"

That is all.

I am a Loony Beacon.

Right this way, weirdos.

By that I mean, there seems to be something about me that tells stranger-than-average people (particularly on public transport) that they must come interact with me and make me feel uncomfortable. When you combine this with my accident proneness, absent mindedness, and curse you can see why I've got some issues!

Allow me to give you a couple of examples...

Internet Purchase FAIL.

One midnight a few months ago, I was bored and very sleepy. This is a dangerous combination. Exhibit A; I thought it would be a good idea to buy clothes on the internets from the US. This has not always worked out so well in the past - I once received a custom made pair of shoes about 3 sizes too big for me, and they wouldn't let me return them even though I was pretty sure I could prove they made the size mistake. Part of the reason though that I try to internet shop is I don't really like interacting with shop assistants (I used to be one and I didn't like interacting with me then).

Anyway. I came across this picture:

[source]

And I really liked that outfit so I decided to buy the same yellow coat so I could look EXACTLY like that. The sleepy Lozzz123 obviously did not consider that I may not actually look like that in reality:

excuse the iphone blurry photo quality!

The thoughts that come to mind are: banana (this may in part be due to the fact I'm posing like a banana), and hazmat suit. Actually going to a fancy dress party as a banana, or for lab emergencies may be the actual times I'd ever consider wearing this out in public.

P.S. Husband was quite bemused with my insistent demand to take a picture of me being a banana.
P.P.S. Feel free to also pose like a piece of fruit and put it on your blog. That way I won't feel so awkward. You know you want to.  
P.P.P.S. Bet you didn't think this post was going to say the word 'banana' that many times. BANANA. 

WTH Wednesdays

Now I've heard before of who people look like their pets, but this is taking it a little too far!

Fans of Twilight be prepared to meet Robert... Cattinson?

[source]

[pic via here]

I'm not usually a fan of those furless, wrinkly kitties at the best of times, and I can't say this helps. People are weird.

Thanks to my cousin Nat, who first brought this to my attention!

Friends?

original moustache-free pic here

On the bus to uni today a girl got on who was dressed like she was from the 1930s*. It was awesome, and I immediately thought I should be friends with this girl, because she must be interesting.

However, I did not talk to her; I've had my fair share of experiences of bus weirdos, so I don't want to be a bus weirdo myself!

It did make me think though about how difficult it is to befriend people in adulthood. Everyone is very busy with their own lives, and often already have 'enough' friends. I know I don't make it easy for strangers to talk to me!

What would you do? Would you talk to strangers if you thought they looked interesting or would you think that's weird? ...If I tried to talk to you on the bus would you think I was a looney??

*I've added this pic of Angelina Jolie because she is kind of dressed like how my bus friend was. I however don't care much for her, hence the moustache.