Goodbye

For the past four years I have maintained a blog aptly titled "Not in Oil Country Anymore..." after my exit from the oil rich province of Alberta, Canada.

This title is stolen directly from an experience I had in November 2007 when Wing and myself flew to Vancouver for the opening night of the Spice Girls Reunion Tour. The main arena in Edmonton is Rexall Place, and the hockey team in Edmonton is the "Oilers" and when you go into Rexall Place you are greeted with the massive sign stating "This is Oil Country." Most of the concerts I had attended up to that point had been in Rexall, and so when we entered GM Place that November evening the design of the arena was nothing like Rexall, and we joked that we were definitely NOT in oil country anymore. It stuck.

However as a title, while I was living over here initially and when moving back to Calgary was in the immediate foreseeable future, it seemed really appropriate, and even a bit clever. However as I can now look back on three and a quarter years here in the UK, it is quickly becoming apparent that my time in Great Britain is fast approaching the time I spent in Edmonton.

I moved to Edmonton in September 2003. However, I only lived in Edmonton as a student, in eight month chunks for five years - totalling 44 months. This really only amounts to 3.7 years. Therefore it hardly seems appropriate that I maintain a blog that is based upon my temporary existence outside of Alberta, when as the years go by this seems to be more permanent situation.

As well I find myself now less than a month before my twenty-sixth birthday. Officially I will no longer be a 'young-person' I will no longer be privy to official discounts such as the Young Person's Rail Card, or be able to volunteer for things like V-inspired. If I were still a student I would no longer be covered under my Mum's extended medical. Sure, I might still be able to get away with illegitimate claims to being a student, or under 18 (thank you Whistler) due to my youthful looks, and trans-atlantic accent (Why else would I be here if I wasn't a student??), but I will no longer be able to get into the Louvre for free.

On December 16th, 2011 these events collide as I will be 3/4 of the way through my fortieth month of living continuously in the UK. Only four months short of the time that I lived in Edmonton, and I will cease to be a 'young person' as deemed by both the Louvre, and National Rail Services (and possibly STA travel, I find the phrase "under 26" very ambiguous) Therefore I will no longer be contributing to this blog, and instead you can find me on my Tumblr where I will attempt to navigate through life as an adult: http://miraclepie1.tumblr.com/

Hope to see you there!

Guess Now It's Official...

I've gone and got myself official party membership to the UK Conservative Party.

I was told that I could do anything when I was little, and I was always encouraged to work hard, and that while school always came first, that didn't mean that I skirted my other responsibilities - like spending 19 hours a week in the pool, and making sure my goals were up to date. I grew excellent at time management, and only now really value what I learned through those four awful years at Claremont. I couldn't wait to 'grow up' and have the ability to 'foster' a child in Africa and put money towards retirement. When I moved to Edmonton for University I was just 17, and so I hadn't thought a lot about politics, but in 2004 there was a Canadian Federal election, and I was able to vote for the first time as I was 18. I did my research and read the manifestos of all the different parties: Conservative, Liberal, NDP, Green... In that first election I dutifully crossed X next to the Green Party. Of course they didn't win in my riding, but it was a great feeling.

At University while I was 'technically' an Arts student (at least for the first two years), a common conversation between Gillian and I would go along the lines of ... "He's cute... but he's in poli sci." I would respond with a foreboding... "Oh, I know what you mean." How unfortunate. People in Poli Sci all seemed to be arrogant and obnoxious. However, as I gradually became more involved in the Students Union, mainly through the Centre for Student Development, volunteering with programs such as Orientation and Campus Ambassadors I began to meet people in every department of the SU. I also became much more interested in who was running the show making sure to attend at least one forum every year be it on the main SUB stage, in the Myer Horowitz, or in the Lister Cafeteria. As my involvement increased so did my interest in both student politics and politics at the provincial/federal level.

While I was increasingly involved with the Students' Union I was also increasingly involved with my friends' causes and Gillian's main cause was LGBT Rights. As I finished classes in December 2007, and found myself working as a cashier at Safeway for the next six months I also found myself attending more and more LGBT Lectures, and learning more than I could have ever wished about Foucault. These social values that I adopted as my own - ex: calling people out on the use of the word 'gay' as a derogatory term - now trumped the fiscal conservative views in which I had always believed. In addition to my new understanding of the struggles within the LGBT community, I was also very aware of the issues south of the border with the attempt to have abortion once again illegal, and the ongoing debate about universal healthcare.

Then I moved to Britain. The country where of course there is universal health care, and of course gays have the right to (at least) a civil union, and of course abortion is legal. All of those social issues that I found important had already been addressed, and there is no way that the people of the UK would allow any government to revoke any of these laws and rights.  The longer I lived in this "Welfare State" though, the more it wound me up. In 2010 the UK had a National Election. Sam, my flatmate at the time came into my room and asked if I was allowed to vote... and so kicked off my interest in British Politics. After doing my research, and reading up on all the policies I attended a few hustings with Josh, and even helped push some leaflets and flyers through peoples mailboxes. However, I still wasn't completely convinced. The term conservative has such negative connotations, and while I was ready to give them my vote, I wasn't yet ready to actually say I was a conservative.

Throughout the next academic year at Swansea (10/11) I worked, and with all my friends as students, I also attended and participated in student groups. I had after all just graduated in July 2010. I became a member of Swansea Conservative Future, however I still wasn't totally convinced. I was actually quite freaked out when on a train ride from Swansea to Cardiff for some Sushi, Josh and Matt told me I had been added to the national registrar of Conservatives. I definitely wasn't ready for that... I was ready to attend 'meetings' because I liked the people, I needed the friends, and I thought it was funny because they were all so wildly into it, but that was all. I started watching Question Time, and Prime Ministers Questions weekly, and actually started having quite strong opinions about things, which included both agreeing and disagreeing with fellow members in the group.

Then I moved to London. First mission: to find friends. I took every invitation that I got from anyone that I knew in London, but I knew that if I wanted to make my own friends, I'd also need to branch out - alone, so I attended a "Back Boris Bootcamp" in April. I was disappointed when they turned out to be mostly students. I stuck it out though, and have met a few interesting people. After attending so many events I started to struggle with the fact that I wasn't actually a member of the Conservative Party. I was an imposter. I was afraid to actually join the party, because did I *really* share all their beliefs. Then I would read a headline on a newspaper article, or watch a segment on BBC Breakfast and would become angered by sentiments expressed. I found myself reading the opinion pieces in the Metro and either shaking my head or nodding in agreement. I started attending more and more of these CF events, and most recently went to an event where the Minister of Work and Pensions - Iain Duncan Smith made a speech, and although after two glasses of wine I found myself nearly unable to contain the giggles erupting with every 'hear hear' I still found myself in agreement with every word, and if I didn't think it sounded so pompous I would probably be joining in.

Most recently we've been hearing (and in the Metro, debating) David Cameron's suggestion to reduce the amount of aid that nations get if homosexuality is illegal in their country - (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-15511081,) While I obviously don't know the ins and outs of the policy proposals, as I am just a newbie when it comes to this whole political ball game, to me this sounds like a great idea! It's a human rights issue right, so how can people possibly have a problem with that? The other big issue at the moment is the Pensions and the Unions, and the striking.... We are a nation in debt, we need to reduce that debt, one way is to make pension reforms. I work in the public sector, ok, I'm only 25, and have many years before I retire, I obviously contribute to my pension - remember what I said about  not being able to wait to contribute to my retirement fund? The government has come up with a really reasonable pension package (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-15549321). No one who's within 10 years of retiring will have to work any more than they would originally! This allows people at least ten or more years extra to contribute to your own private retirement fund, in order to prepare for the final stage in their life, as well the cost ceiling is raised so people will get more based on their final salary. How then, can the unions snuff at this and say 'no thanks?' and  then still lobby their members to go on strike November 30th!?

Therefore, with these two policies which, daily have me talking to my Metro as I walk into work, it only makes sense to finally, formally affiliate myself with a party which seems to match my beliefs when it comes to fiscal policy as well as mirroring my values on social issues. So today, November 3rd, 2011, I became an official member of the UK Conservative Party.

If it's not one thing... it's another.

It's hard to believe that it's almost November, I feel that my time so far in London, and especially in Clapham has flown by. I was living in Tooting Broadway from March 21st to July 24th, however I was obviously out of town from July 2nd to July 19th. I have now been living in Clapham Junction since July 24th. It is crazy to think that the time I've spent in Clapham Junction is almost equal to the time I lived in Tooting. I can't even begin to express how much happier, and more fulfilling life is since moving into the "Claphams." However, as I've described before, we have had our share of problems, and guess what - there's more.

About a week ago, a little yellow slip came through our door titled "URGENT" please call this random mobile number. It also came with a letter addressed to our landlord. I thought it might be something to do with the street. Maybe they were doing electrical work, or had to do some digging, or there was a gas leak or something, so I called the number. Everyone at work had a go at me, because if it was any of these things, then the note would have been delivered on official letter headed paper. I'm terribly sorry, but I've only been living in the "real" world for 2 years... I called at 7:30am, as I assumed if it was urgent, there should be 24 hour answering. There wasn't. I received a call back later at work and this guy was asking me all sorts of questions about who lived in the house, how many people, who I was, where I lived, and when I stated how uncomfortable I was with all these questions, and asked why he wasn't contacting the landlord directly he said that the landlord could lie to him. This sounded dodgy immediately, and so I asked who he worked for, and for a legitimate business number. He couldn't tell me, and he wouldn't give me a number. I emailed my flatmates immediately, and Katie got on the phone to him, and told him that if he didn't tell us who he was, and who he worked for she was going to call the police. He finally coughed up that he was a contractor hired by TLT Mortgages, and there was a repossession charge against our landlord. Of course there is.

The next day, through the post we received the official letter stating the Repossession Hearing was going to take place on November 23rd, 2011. We haven't been paying rent since August. We also hadn't heard anything from him in response to our initial "we're not paying" email, and so had continued to withhold rent. After three days of email threads between Katie, Caleb and I, we finally drafted a letter to Jon - our landlord, to explain that we had hoped that with-holding rent would act as a catalyst to move him to action, in order to have things in our house repaired. The bathroom and the front door are two things off the top of my head which need replacement. This time, we promised to pay full rent for November, but this is with the idea that he will fix the door and the bathroom in November, and if this isn't fixed that we will fix it ourselves, and take the cost off of December's rent. It's unlikely that we'll hear back from him in the month of November, so I think in that case we're going to wait until after the hearing on the 23rd of November and see what the situation is, and if we are going to stay in the house - for long term, we'll go ahead and replace the door, and fix the bathroom upstairs, but if we're going to be chucked out, I think we'll sit tight and look for somewhere new in Clapham Junction.

This comes only a week after we finally found and announced our Housewarming Party - November 19th. We literally have just put in on Facebook - obviously making it official - when this letter has come through. Therefore, the theme has become an Eviction and Repossession party...

Well that's all for now. This weekend is Halloween, and tomorrow night is the big party with Marlene and her flatmates. I was actually quite worried, because I'm not really a huge partier, and they like to go out quite a bit, and I often only go out to their events once in a while. It's actually not their party this time, but their neighbours, and I was so looking forward to it, because their parties are legendary. And I hate using words like legendary or epic. I was actually quite stressed out these past few weeks that I wouldn't get an invite, Marlene haven't been in touch lately, and with Johanna not in town, and living up in Durham, I don't really hang out with them as much as I did before summer. However, today Francis' texted me with the details, and I am now so excited. As usual, I don't have a great costume, but it's sort of caberet theme.

Living in the 21st Century... Finally

I just re-read my last blog post, which although I wrote on September 4th, I wasn't able to 'publish' until today due to our lack of internet. However, as I am now writing another one, to catch everyone up on all the happenings in the month of September, I'm sure you can surmise that we now have internet! Success! 

I am also aware that my last post finished mid sentence... which I can only guess was due to laziness because we didn't have internet, and I figured that we would have in only a few days, which would mean I'd be able to update it at that point. Now, almost a month later, I most certainly have lost my train of thought. Thus, we start anew. 

What has been happening in September?! Living in London sure has its merits, on September 10th, Ross and I attended Proms in the Park, which is the final night of the BBC Proms. Last year I went with Ross and his parents to the event in Swansea's Singleton Park, but as we were in London this year, we splashed out on tickets to attend in Hyde Park. As we have been to events like this in the past, we came prepared, and spent the morning at Borough Market by London Bridge shopping for food to eat that evening. We picked up tons of fruit, and really nice bread, and an absolutely delicious Mushroom Pate. We then called in to a little cafe bistro for breakfast - without looking at the menu. This was a mistake. I was unfamiliar with almost everything on the menu, and it was all super weird. Every dish had something I fundamentally disliked - Tomatoes, Pineapple, Peaches. So I went for the green salad, and Ross got Parma Ham and pickled peaches, and actually once we put them together, it was quite a delicious lunch. So, as pros we had a delicious basked of goodies for the evening, however as newbies to the London performance we arrived just 30 minutes before show time, and were left sitting with the rif raf in the back. The people to the right of us spent all night talking, and the people to the left spent the whole night drunk & dancing. Next year, we will arrive right at opening time and sit right in the front. If we're paying 30GBP I'd like to be able to enjoy the concert.

At the end of the concert on our walk back to the tube station I realized that my BlackBerry was missing.  We walked all the way back to where we were sitting, but of course we couldn't find it, so I was left using this crappy extra phone that I give to visitors when they come and visit me. I have never been a fan of contracts, the reason being is that the phones that you receive for "free" are usually not that expensive anyways - 120/180GBP, and why you get for your payment each month is actually not as good as what you would get on pay as you go. So that's why I've always bought my phone outright, and then gone on P&G. However, O2 was having a flash sale, and I was able to get a BlackBerry Bold, white, for free, but I had to sign up to a 2 year contract. It's the first thing I've really done that has sort of cemented me here in the UK, which is a bit scary. I pay 26GBP a month now, which allows me 100mb internet, unlimited UK texts, 200 UK minutes, all the blackberry services, and insurance for everything. This BB also has 3G. I would never be able to go back after having this phone. 

Spontaneously in the past month I've also had the opportunity to see: Love Never Dies, and Million Dollar Quartet. Both really good, but both shows I don't think I'd see again. Love Never Dies is the sequel to the Phantom of the Opera, and what was interesting is that as soon as the show started you could tell that it was an Andrew Lloyd Weber production. None of the songs really stuck with me though, but the story itself was riveting! Literally on the edge of my seat. Million Dollar Quartet on the other hand was completely different, and focuses on the one night in 1956 when Elvis, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Carl Perkins were all in the same studio. I guess many people have compared it with the Jersey Boys, but it was nowhere near as good. I was familiar with the songs, and although the musicians were wonderful, and the guy who played Jerry Lee Lewis was absolutely phenomenal on the piano, we're pretty sure the guy playing Carl Perkins forgot his lines at one point. Hired for their acting skills, we suspected not. 

In September we also managed to see a few museums. One rainy Saturday, after an unsuccessful visit to Borough Market we headed to the V&A museum and then did the Natural History Museum, we still need to see the Hollywood Glamour Portraits at the National Portrait Gallery before the exhibit closes October 23rd. Ross won tickets to this lecture series from BAFTA, so we got to see Moira Buffini give a lecture, and then watched a live interview with her in the BAFTA building. Unfortunately after dinner on the walk home, Ross was attacked just outside his house, and mugged. Luckily he wasn't hurt, but what a terrifying experience. 

On the 17th of September I actually met up with Patrick, a friend I had known at the UofA, but we were sort of periphery friends. We ran in the same circles of the SU, and we had a number of friends in common, but we weren't really close. He moved to Birmingham in 2009 to complete his Law degree, and while I said I would go and visit, and we texted once or twice, I never ended up seeing him. Just recently he has moved to London to complete his Legal Practice Course (LPC) at the London College of Law, and so we finally arranged to meet up in September. I was a bit dubious if we'd actually have anything to talk about, and if we'd be friends, but while we met up for coffee in the morning at 11am, it wasn't until 7:30pm that we parted ways! It was great to catch up, and I'm so happy to have another friend in the city. 

I haven't spoken to any of my friends on Skype from back home since I returned from Canada because we haven't had internet. That has been a bone of contention in this household, but I won't dwell. However I have been in correspondence over email, What's App and Facebook, and felt extremely substandard when Katie told me that she was going to be sitting on the Board of some Children's Festival. It also made me miss being involved in something outside of work, and I am just not sure if this Conservative Party involvement business is cutting it. Therefore, I signed up to volunteer for the Alzheimer's Society Memory Walk as a volunteer. I stood at the north end of Lambeth bridge and cheered on all the people who took part in the walk as walkers, telling them they only had 3 miles to go! It was a lot of fun, and while I didn't meet anyone particularly interesting, it felt good to have something else to do. I also signed up for volunteering for the half marathon next weekend. This is especially important because I haven't heard anything about volunteering for the Olympics next year. That could have been because I forgot to put down that I speak English... 

This last week of September has been Orientation for our Study Abroad Students at work. I absolutely love my job. This week of course has been tiring, but it felt so good to be back in the swing of things, in the academic calendar. The Orientation itself, was nothing like UofA of course, but working with Harriet has been great, because she has really good ideas, and because she's only 2 years older than me and we seem to have similar personalities in terms of working etc, she will probably change a lot of it to make it better/more exciting, or something. We had three presentations to do, and then on Friday we had appointments all morning to re-arrange peoples' schedules. Everyone seemed to have legit reasons to change, and there really hasn't been any problems. Classes start on Monday. Also this week it has been absolutely boiling here in London hitting temperatures of over 28C! This will most definitely be the last weekend of Summer, but yesterday was great as I spent the day with Patrick and his friends in Hamstead Heath in the sun. I hadn't been that far north in London yet, so it was really cool to see a bit more of the city. 

There's going to be a riot

It's September 4th, 2011, and I'm sitting in my house still sans internet, still sans new couches, and with a second bathroom which could effectively double as a storage cupboard. We've paid three weeks rent in total, and it's been difficult trying to figure out how to deal with our landlord. He .... eventually... gets around to completing the tasks that he says he will, but it wasn't until four three weeks after we moved in that we finally received a working fridge - prior to that we were using two freezers, and quickly discovering that you can freeze just about anything... We also finally after five weeks received a working washing machine. However, as we move into September I began freaking out about what our plan of action was with rent. Were we going to pay it?! Were we going to pay a reduced amount?! After several long email threads between housemates, we decided that until the following were completed we were not going to be paying anymore rent:

1. New Couches (which was originally in agreement, as the previous tenants were disgusting.)

2. Fix the Dishwasher (You all know my feelings on dishwashers ;o)

3. Fix the Door

After that we agreed to pay 0.6x rent until the second bathroom was restored. That was sent on August 31st. Today is September 4th, and we still haven't heard anything. 

What was interesting however, was the visitor I had last night to my house. I had a rough day yesterday after getting two fillings from my new dentist in Raynes Park (Confident Dental), whom I love. But because of the dentist, I was out on 2000mg of Xanax, and Ross had to escort me to and from the dentist, and then stayed with me the whole day until the drugs wore off. Now that's what I call a good friend!!! Anyways, after a lovely snooze in Clapham Common, in the unusually warm 23C heat, listening to a brass band play, I headed home stopping at Waitrose, and Asda. While eating my BBQ Chicken, Chocolate Milk, and Spinach/Avocado dinner, and watching House (now that's what I call a great Saturday night!) the door bell rings... all the self help dating books I've read have said say you shouldn't stay at home by yourself because an attractive man is not just going to show up at your door and ask you out... 

With my face covered in BBQ sauce, hair up, in lulus and a DP tank top, I answered the door to a relatively attractive stranger. He was actually our neighbour, and lives in the basement of the converted house of which we rent the top two floors. He had a leak, and wanted to see if it was coming from our house at all. It was not. But then we began chatting about the landlord, and how we were finding him. I regaled him with our tales of woe, and he presented me with the great news that he had lived under landlord Jon for three and a half years, and that actually he's a really nice man but a terrible landlord - which I'm pretty sure we already knew, BUT that if we decided to get things fixed ourselves, and presented him with receipts, he would be happy to take it off rent. Of course I 'didn't hear it from him' but it's definitely something to start thinking about. I am now wondering how far we can go - can we replace the kitchen with an IKEA kitchen!? That would be amazing. Perhaps I would start to like this place... He also said we should go for drinks - of which of course he means our entire house, because it's nice to meet neighbours - but still, wouldn't it be nice if an attractive, single stranger showed up at my door and asked me out? What fairytales are made out of. 

As for how everything else is going though, it's great. I am absolutely loving the location of where we live at the moment. It takes about the same amount of time as when I lived down in Tooting, but I feel that my standard of living has increased so dramatically. Living in Clapham Junction means that I'm less than 10 minutes walk to a 24 hour Asda, a Whole foods, a Lidl, and a Waitrose. I'm less than a 10 minute walk to the high street where there is a Debenhams, United Colours of Benneton, a TK Maxx, Waterstones, and all the other lovely accessories - Starbucks, and Costa. Along Northcote road, the road that connects Clapham Common to Clapham Junction there are dozens of chain and independent restaurants and pubs. Independent in the Vancouver sense of "we're too hip & cool to eat at a chain" not in the Holloway road sense of "we can't afford a $3 coffee". So of course, just beyond the stores is the gigantic Clapham Common, which includes a band stand, where we sat yesterday with a little cafe. If you head to to the west of my house about a 15 minute walk is a mall with all the chain stores that you so often need including: GAP, H&M, UniQlo, as well as another Waitrose, and a large Cineworld; where Ross and I went to see "One Day" on Tuesday. The transport links are fantastic, I live a 6 minute walk from the busiest train station in the UK, which means I can get almost anywhere I want relatively easy. I'm a 30 minute direct train ride from Gatwick Airport, I'm also 6 minutes from Victoria Station, and 10 minutes from Waterloo. It is a central hub for the entire south and all the commuting regions, so if I ever want a day out, it's just a quick train journey away. Ross and I were going to head to Brighton last Sunday as I've never been, but it started raining and didn't stop to the mid afternoon. Instead of eating ice cream on the beach in Brighton, Katie (my housemate), Ross and I managed a House marathon. 

Of course I can't mention living in Clapham Junction without mentioning the London Riots which took place the second weekend in August. I believe the Sunday or Saturday was the first night of riots, but I didn't pay much attention to them. As far as I was concerned it was just gang related, and - especially after living in Edmonton - everything violent is generally gang related, and is no danger to the general public. Basically if you're not up with your current events, a man who was in a gang was shot by police for whatever reason because they had reasonable suspicion that he was armed. Did I mention he was in a gang.  So family members of this man killed stark kicking off and blaming the police, and then others use the event as a catalyst to wreak havoc in the streets of London. Monday, August 8th, we started to see things happening while we were at work in Hackney. A deprived area, probably full of gangs I thought, and so I didn't pay it any credence as I headed off to my monthly Ex-Pat Wings meet up. After leaving I met up with Ross at Waterloo and I received a phone call from Toby, inviting us to join him, Caleb and some work friends in a pub in London Bridge. After probably an hour or so at the pub, I check my phone, and it's riddled with messages of "Are you ok!?" "Is everything alright?" ... well yes, of course, I'm fine... why wouldn't I be? So I text back, and find out that the looters have moved themselves to the Clapham Junction area, the train station is closed, and everyone is freaking out. Then Ross gets a phone call from his brother in Newport, at which point I started freaking out a bit, as I did not know the extent of what was happening, and to be honest, had never been in that situation before. Caleb, Ross and I headed home. Luckily, the train station was still open, but the police had basically blocked off the road, so we weren't able to go down towards the looting to see what was going on. On our way home, as well after we got home and looked out our windows, we definitely saw several people walk down our street put their hoods up, and tie bandanas around their face as they were obviously going to partake in the looting. Twitter was not working for me, and I kept thinking it was because of the location of our house, but I think now, it's because it was bombarded with messages from people that night. 

The next day at around 3pm, we were told that the police were closing Archway station and Angel station, which basically hug the street Holloway Road, on which I work. The police were also going down the road telling people to close their businesses early, and we got word that Greenwich University had closed early, so we closed our doors at 4pm and headed home. It was an eerie feeling going home, as it felt like there was a sense of urgency in the air, but it wasn't a frightened feeling. Once I finally got home, there was nothing to do, as we didn't have internet, and our TV barely worked (we hadn't tuned it properly), and all the shops were closed. Even the pub at the end of the road was closed and we are a 6 minute walk from where all the action was. After tuesday, the government had increased the police presence and so the looting basically ceased in London, but then it spread to the rest of the UK. Mindless violence for no purpose except to get things to sell on ebay. It was disgusting, but no longer in my backyard. Over the next few weeks it has been interesting to see how the high street has changed. The boards went up over the windows, and people started writing messages of love on them, and within a week Debenhams had re-opened, and several other stores had re opened their doors. Several shops had "Come in we're open" on the boards, but glass had not been replaced, and TK Maxx still has the boards up with the messages of love. Directly following, the police presence remained high, and