1. Same shape

2.

3.

4.

5.

I am a self-confessed cinnamon addict so when I saw the lovely, alluring picture in Ikea of the cinnamon bun I just had to buy it.

The disappointment was overwhelming when I saw that these ‘buns’ looked like. They didn’t taste very good either.

I can’t blame Ikea too much cos I literally make the very best cinnamon buns in the world – when I have access to the right ingredients. The trouble with living in the US, it is difficult to find fresh yeast. I’ve been to the upmarket food store Whole Food and asked their bakery if I could buy some fresh yeast but no, they don’t use it.

These are made by me:

So the recap is that since my teens I have this ‘you are grown up if you have the following items …’

Last outstanding item on this list is owning a car. Sadly.

But after living in SF for a 1,5 years, the conclusion is I/we need a car. We have rented cars so often at occasions, the $$ are piling up without us getting the benefit of the 24/7 access.

Public transporting in SF is alright but it is too limiting. And also, anyone with some money owns a car so the people on the Muni is either politically motivated, very poor, weirdos and homeless = kind of extreme people on there. I have seen a homeless piss in a crowded bus, a rat almost showed in my face. All that stuff makes muni-riding unpleasant, unpredictable in bad way.

So a car it will be. I have a few don’ts regarding this too. I don’t like driving American cars, instinctively once I sit them it just feels so wrong. I don’t like these big fuck off cars either. If these cars don’t have a utility usage for them, then I think they are completely unnecessary.

Plus to state the obvious, gas prices will only go one way and that it up-up-and-UP.

An European or Japanese car is what I am after. Most likely it will be a 2nd hand car. Even though new cars in the US are waaaay cheaper then in the UK, at the moment we don’t have that kind of money. If a car cost £20,000 in the UK, then the it will probably cost in the US $20,000 and just remind you £1 = $2

Next thing to decided is lease or buy …. but that is for another post.

I am back in SF from London. In the end I had to go via an estate agent to find a new tenant. The estate agent actually found a tenant who was prepared to pay the estate agent’s fee on top of my preferred rent. Un-bloody-believable. This is London rents I am talking about.

I’d like to say that this flat was done up for me and MH living there so it is in a very good shape. The flat is also v close to two tube stations and got a 24 hours bus just outside. We are not doing this to make ‘a shit load of money’ but are looking to cover our costs. We actually lost some money last year on our previous tenants. But after all that, the rent is pretty high.

I guess it is a trade off with how time you have to spend finding a flat and how much you can pay. If you have the time and wants to pay no more then necessary, then try to find a private landlord.

Gumtree is the No1 site that I got response from: http://www.gumtree.com/

Craigslist is ok but not so well used: http://london.craigslist.co.uk/

Loot is another site to use. It is more difficult to find flats on here I think. Still a good place to find private landlords. I paid around £40 / $80 to place an ad for 2 weeks. http://www.loot.com/

For me, the value I get for using an estate agent – hopefully – is that once the current lease expires and the tenants are moving out, then I don’t have to deal with any of the crap that I had to do this year.

It was one of the most boring I have ever done. The things that made me continue on were; no-bloody choice, loosing money for each day not having a tenant, our place so all the scrubbing, cleaning, painting is to keep the value of our investment. Owning a property is not a ‘free lunch’ thing

I think I fairly good with keeping my head down and get on with things. They won’t disappear by themselves so …

The good thing is of course being back in London. Oh so I have missed this city!! Crazy huh? But compared to SF, well they don’t really compare since they are two completely different cities.

It is the small things I have missed. And Boots. And M&S. The people and all that fun stuff they are doing like sexual acts on the Tube, the card scamming on the street.

I walk quicker in this city, I eat less and I manage to loose weight *woohoo*

BUT now I want to head back to SF. Feels odd. MH is there, our life is there, our future is there. London will be here when I am ready to move back.

I have been busy doing dull things. A lot of them – never ending it felt like. But now, I see the fruit of doing all that dull stuff.

I have to admit that I have been muttering that next this needs to be done – it is my husbands turn. I have done this twice now – his turn next. And since he actually reads this … heh … message delivered!!

Being busy and just about stressed enough about things – excluding the drama of the first day – it felt good getting the things done.

When going back to London, of course I told my friends I am in town and want to meet up. This has been a real stressful part because I have busy and (many) unexpected things have forced me to cancel and/or re-schedule to meet up. This is not a social trip so all that is second priority. I need finish it all up asap so I can head back to SF and get on with REAL important stuff.

This blog makes zero sense, does it? I am basically slouched down on the sofa with some in-between time and thought I should produce a low-quality post. Mission: completed

My dance card is getting filled meet-ups with friends, ex co-workers and visiting friends. Obviously, I need to get on with the actual tasks so it will be full on.

My new, improve blogging commitment might suffer a bit but as always, it is easier to Twitter then to blog. I shall do my best.

What touristy thing should I do when I go to London?

Tower of London, Tower Bridge, take a leisurely scroll down Oxford Street (HA impossible), visit my beloved Green Park. I think I should do something. Any suggestions?

There is a few fav food place I will make sure I will stop by. It is the small, almost silly things that I miss. Like Nandos (the pitabread chicken fillet), Pizza Express, Zizzi and a great little Turkish restaurant near Brick Lane.

YAY!!

Anyways …

Before incorporating a company other points to review are of course if any of the different company company structure is more tax efficient = less tax to be paid.

Tomorrow, we are having a quick chat with our US Tax Accountant if LLC or a Corporation have any advantages.

Gotta say, there is a lot of bits that has to fit in before the thing can get launched. This is fairly familiar ground to me since my background is within in Finance.

One thing I am not so good at is coming up with a name. But we are getting there. All good domains (especially the .com) are taking. Husband sent an email to this guy asking if we could buy the domain and the guy replied … sure for $40k. No go there then.

To be continued …

There are so many dos and don’ts. The real tricky part … once you created the perfect company – is the domain available?? Especially the .com domain!

Being dyslectic, I am used to spelling names wrong but for the normal person out there … the company name should be fairly easy to spell and search for.

The name should be something that people easy can remember and not too long. It either has to describe the business or not at all. Half measure won’t do in my opinion.

Of course, no one else should have used the name … or similar to it. Like change a letter or two and people end up on a porn site … not so good

Guess what we are doing now? Yup. I am not a creative person in this sense so the pressure is on my other half.

It is very American thing that we are going to do, but hey … when in Rome (so to speak). We are planning to start our own company. It makes sense cos it will give us the freedom to control our work situation and that HUGE fact that I can apply for a visa too.

Of course there are high hurdles, rules and stipulations but I think there is a good chance to be able to meet them. But until we got the confirmation and the visa in our hand, nothing is certain – we are well of aware of that.

We have had our initial meeting with the lawyer, and the first action points are on the list. Now the choreographing of the tasks can start I am looking forward to do all of this, and organising, checking and then double checking are just something that I can rather good at.

As for the creative part like name, design, logos etc – my husband is so much better then me when it comes to stuff like that.

He works so hard so the scarcity is the time we have to discuss all of these things. I am sure it will be a journey with ups and downs – and I will try to blog about it both this time around – joy and frustrations but we gotta try to it!

moar funny pictures

But some duties in London is calling so I will be making a trip back at the end of the month and hopefully will get that done in 2-3 weeks.

I knew about this for a little while but there was slight possibility to push this trip forward a few months but there I go…

It is not a big deal. And going back to London is not a chore – just the flight

My keywords / life goals are independent, self-sufficient and in control of my situation. In London, I had my job and was paid pretty good. I had some friends, a more carefree life.

2007 I was unpaid housewife, being dependent on my husband and also on external parties through my husbands work situation. Quite frankly, I hate all of the above.

The one thing I didn’t have a problem with was to taken the step to start-over again with life, live on v little money. I am talking basic here, for the first months our only furniture was a mattress on the floor. After a couple of months, 7 boxes with stuff from London arrived which made life easier. Gosh when we bought our sofa, what a day it was when it got delivered!!

I have been in unfamiliar situation continuously during 2007. Seriously considering a few times to head back home, start again for the last time. This usually happened after arguments with my husband. Our difference has more come out during this time.

My blog during 2007 has gone downhill. Not willing to write about this stuff, it became superficial and impersonal. With the obvious result, losing most of my readers.

However, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Husband and I are about to start the process to apply for an another visa. This visa will generate better working conditions, renewal is every second year. I will get an universal work visa and/or be able to work though our new company that we are about to set up.

After being in passive mode during 2007, if this comes through, the possibilities are almost blinding.

Got a cold, deep cough, blocked nose … and flying – especially landing – is not fun. It was me and the kiddies that were crying & moaning.

Anyways, Xmas was great and I had a good time. Here is some pics:

I can not wait to be home, seeing my family and I have a meet-up with my bestest girlfriends next Saturday for lunch.

I am a 100% Xmas person, I loooove Xmas, the decoration, the food, spending time with family, the same stuff each year. I don’t associate Xmas with anything religious – but hey thanks for a great hols

And the opposite is true for New Year Eve celebration. I don’t like, don’t understand what the big deal is, don’t see the point with it but I am ok for the rest of you to enjoy it.

Going home this year is extra sweet since last year we had to stay in SF. That was one of the two worst Xmas ever.

But this year, I am going home *is v happy*

Blogging will be minimum except for the twittering. That is easy to keep up.

Have a fun & joyful Christmas everybody!!

If you popped over to my site to see who behind the request to join your group etc … well, it wasn’t me.

It is easy to fake the email header ie who the email was sent from. And there is nothing that I can do about that.

I have said the following over and over and over again:

People that reply, click or in anyway interact with a spam email are the ones guilty for keeping the spammers in business.

Do not do anything with a spam email, and never reply to them saying “Take me off your email list”. If you do this, then you have just verified that the email address is live.

And for you spammers: – stop pestering us!!

With the current system, it is not a true representative of One man/woman for One Vote as it depends in which state you live. Being a Democrat in Texas or Republican in California … well that vote is not being fully weighted as it is usually a minority in those states.

With two opposing candidates, a voting system with proportion voting (I think it might be called National or Popular vote here in the US) is doable, more fair and more representative of the political landscape of the US.

I am not a huge fan of the UK voting system either. It produces an executive government at the cost of votes are not being equal. I prefer the proportion system but that has the risk of less executive power for the ruling party so consensus is important.

The only US candidate that has reached me is Barack Obama. No other candidate has reached me with their message. I watched Barack’s speech in South Carolina via Ustream today. I got that info from his twitter.

The speech was good, no fear mongering. He talked about what his solutions to the current issues are. No trashing other candidates, in general it was a positive attitude. If I could, I would vote for him.

Hillary does not appeal to me at all, that would just be 4 more years with the same corporate / lobby power houses in charge. Afterall, she took money from the insurance industries after they almost tore her to bits a couple of years ago. Where is her morals? Corporate America has disproportion influence of American politics and I think it is hurting the US. If something is hurting the US, then the rest of the world gets some that too.

Seven things about me:

1. I am a very happy Twitter user. I have used Twitter for a year now – I believe it is my one anniversary today. Yay to Twitter!

2. I love Christmas – but I do not care about New Year Eve. Just another evening for me. As for Christmas, to me it is all about spending time with my family and eating lots of good food. It has no religious tone for us but I am grateful for the holiday so thanks!

3. I am not a patience person (I have some buffer but not much) but when I am in airport or traveling then I can wait the time needed without any problem.

4. I like Britney Spear’s new album Blackout – am listening to it while writing this.

5. Daily sites I visit are: icanhascheezburger – a good LOL & they are on Twitter too, BBC news (my start page), TMZ, Gmail, TheHungerSite and a few more.

6. I would a great tester for the warm water supply in a building. All I need to do is to take my usual looooong shower and I can tell you. I have been known to finish off the warm water supply.

7. My dream job is either to be a Diet Coke quality tester or the guy (girl in my case) that wipes the helmet visor on F1 drivers.

Gotta say that I was quite impressed by the street lights on Rodeo drive:

It was very nice and tidy – everything gear up for a pleasant spending experience (not that I have that kind of money) 

Santa Monica beach was beautiful and not many people around when I was there, which of course helped I believe it is Mailbu in the background. Some smoke was still lingering after the wild fires.

Ok so I was slight naughty and took some pic while the car was not a stand still. This pic I am turning and taking the corner too narrow and I saw in my mirror a police car so I swiftly put the camera away.

I know I have seen LA from its best side but I can’t help but look at the difference between LA and SF. I twitter’d it while thinking about it – this is why I love twitter, easy way to express my thoughts.

The weather is so much nicer in LA, kind of easy cos with SF’s wind and ever changing weather is difficult to be worse. There were hardly any homeless people around, I saw only one and he was doing pushups on the pavement – ha like to see that happen in SF! Few people walk in LA, whereas I feel I see and notice more things while walking. Absent in LA is the people & cars smelling of weed, which is frequent is SF

Campaigner: Impeach Cheney

Me: That’s would be a good start

Campaigner: Do you have any money for our cause?

Me: No, just got me credit card with me (me thinking: as if I would give you money!!)

Campaigner: Can I have your credit card?

Me: No (and starting to walk away)

Campaigner: Can you buy us dinner?

Me: No, I am not that rich

Campaigner: Here take some literature and spread the word.

Me: Grabbing papers and walks away.

I didn’t look at the stuff until I came home and I wish I had done that while I was there cos there would have been WORDS in a total different way.

So this is what I got:

Seriously, WHAT THE FUCK???

Skimming through the paper – just so I can write this post – basically the British BAE with high level inside US help ‘did the 9/11′

Oh I am going to talk about this but not in the way that would suit you, Campaigner of nutty nuts! But first off, I don’t disagree with his rights of saying this shit … I do disagree with the shit.

I have been blissful unaware of this group Larouche. Correct me if I am wrong but this seems to be a extreme left-wing with an overdose of the USA is supreme.

According to them, the British is behind the bad reaction and situation the US is now involved in. Well news flash, the USA got themselves in to this bad mess all by themselves. Take the responsibility of your own action and work out an acceptable solution rather then to point fingers at another party.

This group is blaming the Bush admin for crating an fake enemy … but read your own words, you are doing the exactly the same by blaming it on the Brits.

Britain has suffered badly by going down this road with the US. The one thing I would say it the start of this mess was un-democratic. I believe that Tony Blair made a promise to GWB that he could not keep by following the democratic rules.

Either impeach the current admin to verify if the democratic rules were followed to start this war or move on. I believe it should be tested.

I like reading blogs that has another political stance then my own. Incognito, a republican, has a great blog and on some issues we agree and other we don’t. It is good to read things that you don’t always agree with.

Reading drivel like this: “the operation (me: 9/11) was run against the United States by whom? It was run against it by the British Empire” The sad thing is that this group are serious with this statement. No facts are to back up their case are stated.

Another outrageous accusation: London is behind the continuous war to Iran. “Cheney, the friends of Cheney in London, In BAE and the Saudi accomplices in the BAE-the same crowd that gave you 9/11, are behind it all”

Next bashing point is the European (me: democratic) system where there is a upper ruling (hmm, they just have to use loaded statement to get their so called message across) that dominates the society. If anything, the US is a closer at the top then in Europe. If you are not a white, rich WASP with Harvard/Yale etc background you do not stand a chance to be in higher office. In Europe, it is much more open so their argument is 100% wrong.

“We’re living in,essentially, a British Empire. That is, the world us run by a money system, called a “free-market system”" There is a higher power then government in Europe called Central banking, which is private central banking.

First, the central banks in Europe are NOT private.

Secondly, and the US has not the same institution? I believe there is such a thing called the Federal Bank that sets the interest rates.

This group needs a reality check, stop with the fear-mongering and add something more positive to society.

I have not quite yet worked out how all of them work

New GTD (Getting Things Done or as I chose to say, Get It Done) services are popping up more and more.

Jott is a service that you can call (free 866 number) say your massage either to yourself and to any of your registered contacts and it will convert your message to an email.

The scenario I see is: I am busy doing something and then a random To Do thought pops – these thoughts always have a bad timing. The idea is then to take 1 minute out, call Jott and leave my message and then deal with the remind once I am done with the current task.

Jott is also linkable to Twitter, Yahoo Groups, Blogger, WordPress and a few more.

iwantsandy.com (Sandy) well I managed to get my account activated while writing this blog post I think this probably a young site which needs some patience. The way this service work is that you can cc or email directly your appointments / action points and it will send you reminders via emails or txt/SMSs.

Jott and Sandy are connected so I can add Sandy to Jott contacts and get my reminds that way.

Now over two Twitter application.

Snitter is a really sweet app. You can tweak around with the setting and choose the colour you like, for how long a the notification will display, sound or no sound. It works well and hog a bit of memory but not a show stopper. Easy to send Direct msg or replys if I want to that. The only negative I can say about it is that the notification does not always show the whole message.

Spaz is good too. I like the layout. However, it is more unstable then Snitter. Sometimes it hogs lots of memory (195MB is the high score so far). I really want to like this program so I am being patient as I can be. I think it will improve over time There is less tweaking re layout, and notifications etc

He just does not get it – he asking the British society to change to Islamic standards rather the urging to Muslim community to fit in better with the British society.

He implies that the UK society could be like the 1930s Nazi with “people’s minds can be poisoned”. This makes me angry (maybe his intention) and it is one of the worst insults that can be said about the British. The British stood up and fought the oppression of the Nazi domination. The cost in both lives and financial burden were enormous. If Britain had not won – you, Dr Bari, would not be allowed in Europe and certainly not be allowed to exercise Free Speech or Islam.

I honestly believe that the British society has been very accommodating non-British culture – all that is expected is that UK laws are being followed. Is that so damn hard?

He goes on to say:

Everybody can learn from everyone. Some of the Muslim principles can help social cohesion – family, marriage, raising children with boundaries, giving to the poor, not being too greedy

Sounds good at first look, doesn’t it? BUT this is not just “Muslim principal” it is implying that no other faith or society have these principals. Also, where is the tolerance for the non-traditional families and the homosexuals? No promotion of diversity either. As for giving to the poor, the Islamic states have massive oil resources that brings in huge incomes … how much are these states giving to the poor in their own countries? Or the problems in Africa? Or the UN?

This is another quote far away from enlightenment:

Dr Bari believes Britain would benefit from a little more morality: “Religion has principles that can help society … Sex before marriage is unacceptable in Islam … On adultery and living together we should try to go back to the religiously informed style of life that helps society”

I do not think for a minute (or a second) that they live as they practice. There are already Islamic States and if these ‘benefits’ are so superior – then why not move there? Like the Western values and comfort too much?

Abortion should also be made more difficult. “By the time a foetus is 12 weeks old our religion says that the child has got a spirit.” Homosexuality is “unacceptable from the religious point of view”.

Is stoning ever justified? “It depends what sort of stoning and what circumstances,” he replies.

Abortion is legal (up to 24 weeks?) and should remain so! Respect the UK laws – they are based on medical facts and voters opinions. And homosexuals are humans too (!!) and with this statement he does not give them the same respect as he ask for himself for being Muslim. Stoning? Yeah let’s mob mentality rule (sarcasm).

The benefit of a free society is that Dr Bari can say what he thinks, very nice freedom isn’t it? Should really be implemented in whole world! He agenda seems to be to restrict the British society rather then to make the Islamic part of the world more free.