Sunday, May 31, 2009
A Vlog! ♥ 5:58 AM
The End.
Friday, May 29, 2009
I'm Gonna Rouge My Knees and Wear My Stockings Down, And All That Jazz! ♥ 4:00 PM
Today was a rather expensive day in London.
We had our British Life and Culture class this morning until one, which was vaguely interesting but not enough to last for two hours. After class we went home for lunch and my flatmate Kristin who, as I've said before, isn't doing the internship program but is from another school taking classes here said that for her theater class she had to see a play by Monday. So while eating lunch we also looked at theater tickets and were thoroughly confused.
Afterwards we went down the street to STA and booked a weekend trip to Paris for next weekend, leaving Friday the 5th after class and coming home on Sunday night. It was quite expensive, but it's a student travel agency so they were good prices and we were able to book our flights, hostels and a day long guided bus tour where we can get on and off at our leisure.
Then four of us combined our laundry at the laundromat and Claire C. and Linden stayed to wash the clothes while Kristin and I went to the TKTS booth which is an official seller of discounted tickets and we bought tickets for the four of us to see a West End s
howing of Chicago at 8:30 for 32 pounds.So we headed back home helped the other two bring the laundry in, ate dinner and got ready for the play. West End is like New York's Broadway and it was an absolutely wonderful play. I was feeling a bit guilty about buying the tickets after booking that trip to Paris but I've wanted to see Chicago for years, and after seeing it I know it was worth every pence!
The dancing and singing was wonderful and it was a pretty small theater so our balcony seats were excellent. There was a very small cast, no real costume changes, no set changes other than chairs. It was fantastic. It's amazing that they can put on such a great performance with so little props and decoration. All in all, a spectacular day in London!
The End.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Hi, this is Shandi with Professional Beauty Magazine. ♥ 3:34 PM
Well, today was my first official day as an intern at Professional Beauty. Claire and I started work at 9:30 this morning. When we got there, we were introduced to our editor who was traveling during the interviews so we didn't get to meet her then. She seems just as cool as the assistant editor who interviewed us and it sounds like her only major rule is no personal facebooking. She also told us that they are in the process of reformatting the magazine, so we will be doing the July issue in the current format and then switching to a new format for the August issue. After being given a very brief tour of the printers, loos and coffee room we were put to work.
I don't remember if I mentioned this before, but it is a very small company with only three full time staff. There is a monthly column done by a freelancer and one other intern besides Claire and I named Agatha. There are also only four desks, so Claire and I shared a desk that had a PC and a Mac on it. Despite all of this, it really is a large magazine though the small staff would lead you to believe otherwise.
Claire and I spent the morning working together on filling in the pre-designed layout for the readers panel. It is a section in every issue where six salon or spa owners answer 7 questions, and 4 of which are featured in the magazine. Claire and I got to cut all their answers and choose which questions to use for each of them and put them into InDesign. It looks really cool that on the first day we have a page of the issue done! By the time we finished that it was nearly 1, so we went to lunch. Since it was our first day and we didn't know if there were refrigerators or microwaves we hadn't brought anything and went to the Crescent Pub nearby and got some cheap sandwiches.
When we got back we were given a list of salons that had been voted into the to 50 salons in the UK by the readers of the magazine. Claire had to send them all emails with a link so that they were able to vote on the order of that top 50 and I had to call the ones whose emails we didn't have an get an email. I absolutely hate calling people. But by about the 5th salon I was much more comfortable with it, and having some credentials such as a magazine they all know helps quite a bit. Eventually we finished that and were asked to send them all another email saying that we would need photos of their salon. After that we corrected some mistakes on our readers panel and went home.
It was really a very long day, before we were allowed to break for lunch I thought I was going to pass out. From now on I'm going to have to snack! We spent the rest of the evening relaxing at the flat since all of us were exhausted from our first day of work.
The End.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Divorced, Beheaded, Died. Divorced, Beheaded, Survived! ♥ 1:47 PM
This morning we went on the trip that I've been dreaming about for year, we went to the Tower of London. This is where the prisoners and were brought and many executed in the days of the Royalty, and there is a palace there as well that is from around 1081. I have an obsession with the time of Henry VIII and his wives, especially Anne Boleyn and her daughter Elizabeth.
Anne Boleyn was brought to the tower and there is a memorial build on the place where she was beheaded. The whole tower experience was everything I hoped for, I could just imagine what it would have been like back then for the prisoners and the Kings and Qu
eens to be walking around the Tower grounds on a cold, rainy London day like today was.We walked through all the Towers and White Tower the palace, there were a lot of engravings on the walls from prisoners famous and unknown, many were priests. We also saw traitors gate, which is original with the original steps which was absolutely transporting. It was so easy to imagine any number of the King's ex-favorites coming through.
Unfortunately, though we were following the Yeoman tour we l
agged behind while trying to take a picture, and they wouldn't let us through a chain gate to catch up even though we were only a few steps behind. This lead to the chapel where Anne Boleyn and Jane Grey are buried. It was really very rude of him since we paid 15 pounds to get into the tower and were literally just a few feet behind.The Crown Jewels were there as well, and they are absolutely gorgeous. The biggest diamond ever. The most beautiful crowns and rings.
We also had class this afternoon, which is the focus group for our internship, but since we didn't have anything to talk about other than our interviews. Our professor made us write about our goals for the summer for an hour and a half. It was quite a waste of time.
Tomorrow is my first day of work and I'm so nervous. We work from 9:30 to 5:30. Don't forget to check my pics! (Just click on the words "my pics")
The End.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Pink Nails and Fashionable Tails ♥ 9:01 AM
We all had our interviews this morning at 11, so we woke up and got ready (per the request of my mom we took pictures). Claire C. and I got the the Greater London House where all the EMAP publications including professional beauty are about thirty minutes early so we stopped in a coffee shop to wait. When we got there were were given visitors badges and the Assistant Editor Laura Mcreedie came down to interview us.
Clair and I got lucky because there weren't other programs that were competing with us for the internship places, but we were still expecting a somewhat formal interview. When she came down she really just took us upstairs, told us about the magazine and then talked to us both individually about ourselves and what we were hoping to get out of the experience. She said that because they are such a small company we will definitely be doing some writing and will hopefully be able to write a feature article together by the end of our internship. That's absolutely amazing for an internship and should be insanely helpful when we actually want to get a job.
The EMAP offices are very large and it is the largest publisher of professional magazines in the UK. It's a very modern office and really quite intimidating, but very cool too. I'm really excited to be working there. Everyone dresses really trendy too, so we'll be making a few more stops at Primark to keep up with this crazy London fashion.
After our interviews we came home for lunch and met up with our flatmates. We were then going to try to go on a tour of St. Paul's Cathedral at 2 but because of traffic in the tube we missed it by a few minutes, so once we got down there we decided to go to the British Museum instead. It was very, very big and we probably didn't get through much of it but we looked at all of the Greek statues and some Roman
and Egyptian statues and carvings and such.With aching feet we arrived back at the flat not too long ago and are planning on going to a pub called King's Head tonight which has been highly recommended to us by many people. And tomorrow morning we're planning on going to the Tower of London in the morning before class, and I'm sooooo excited!
I'm starting to really love it here. I really like the tube system, its so simple and you can really get anywhere you'd like. I can't shake the expectation that when the wind starts to blow through the platform as the train is approaching that everything is suddenly going to turn into Narnia, but I love that feeling. It's really a great city, and my flatmates are great people to see it with.
The End.
Monday, May 25, 2009
My Poor, Aching Feet ♥ 11:37 AM
Yesterday morning we woke up to go to Covent Garden, which was another market type area. We took the tube up there and once we arrive we realized that there really isn't that much of a market and that the stores are more aimed towards an older crowed. So we ate lunch at a little restaurant called Boswells. I got a really excellent sandwich, which was a bagel with cream cheese and smoked salmon on top. Their smoked salmon is quite a bit different, it almost seemed raw but had a slight smoked taste to it.
We then attempted to go out to Abbey Road where the Beetles recorded and take our picture crossing the road, but we had some bad information and ended up in the wrong place. Apparently it's in the Camden borough and we thought it was at the Camden town tube stop. So really we kind of failed at all things but we still had fun and it was our first time really messing up.
On the way back I stopped and grabbed mass amounts of water because I'm always so thirsty. Then we all grabbed some blankets and books and headed out to Hyde Park because it was such a beautiful day. Claire C. and I read some of the issues of the magazine we have that were interviewing with so that we had some background information on the company. We were out there for several hours until we all got hungry for dinner. Then we updated our blogs and such at home and had an early night.
Today was a bank holiday so we didn't have any classes and most people didn't have to work. So Clair C. and I got up early to take the tube out to where our interview and internship will be so that we would be able to find it tomorrow for our interview at 11. It takes about 40 minutes to get out there with out anyone else in the tube since no one had to be to work.
We met our flatmates back at the flat and we all went shopping down on Oxford St. either for clothes/shoes for our interview or just to have some more London like clothes. For the bank holiday they closed the street to traffic which is why we decided to go. It's one of the ritzy - er shopping spots but they have places like H&M and a store called Primark which are both huge and really pretty cheap.
At first I thought that H&M was overwhelming, with a lot of people and 3 floors, but Primark was absolute insanity. It was nearly impossible to move and there was so so many clothes everywhere. I found quite a few cute things, and I was looking for something for my interview. I had to queue (stand in line) for about half an hour just to try them on and it was so hot in there. Then once I tried them on, I picked the dress and a sweater for my interview and had to queue to check out for at least another half an hour. I took the tube home by myself because it took so long and the other girls either went to different stores or went back to the flat.
When I got home we went over to CAPA to print off our CVs (resumes) and some clips for our interviews tomorrow and then went to pick up a few things from Sailsbury's. Now we're probably just going to shower and head to bed early tonight since we have to get up for our interviews.
The End.
Saturday, May 23, 2009
"London is a Roost for Every Bird" ♥ 5:31 AM
After going to bed far too late last night, we had a bit of difficulty waking up at 8 to be at Portobello Market by 9, but we still got there fairly early. It was just a few tube stops away at Notting Hill. It was a really fun market experience, there were a huge amount of people, stalls and stores. There were a lot of very, very cute dresses and tunic type tops but we decided to pass on them until we get to Primark. I also very nearly succombed to my shoe weakness, luckily for me they didn't have the color I wanted in my size however they were absolutely adorable heels and very low so they would have been comfortable. Alas, I'll have to find another pair but seeing as how it's London I'm in I can't say I'm concerened.
I have my first official blister on my pinky toe. I'm suprised I've manage
d to go this long before getting one and it's actually quite small, so I'm very lucky.The market had everything; antiques, clothing, jewlerey, fresh fruit and vegetables, fish mongers, street food. It was packed and very city-life ish and I think that we will absolutely be going back there. We stopped at Gourmet Burger Kitchen for lunch and it was good, but huge. I got an avocado bacon burger with chips and couldn't even finsh half of it.
Also I've uploaded my photos onto Google's Picasa so you can see all of them now rather than just ones that I post in the blog. (Just click on the words "my photos" it's a link but doesn't look like one.)
The End.
Friday, May 22, 2009
Mind the Gap. ♥ 3:31 PM
Picking up where I left off this afternoon...We spent a very long time at the flat resting because everyone was very tired from a week of walking and staying out late last night. We finally made it back out at around 7 and got on the tube to head for Kings Cross station. We were all very excited to take pictures at platform 9 3/4 and it was everything we hoped for. It's just a little sign on the wall and Kings Cross doesn't really look like it does in the movies but it was still really fun and something I really wanted to do considering how much I love Harry Potter.
After taking some pictures we got
back on the Tube and headed up to a town called Primrose Hill in Camden Town where there is a hill that gives you as good of a view of London as the London Eye. When we were getting back on the tube we got the rare chance to see a man get his backpack stuck in the door of the tube so it was unable to leave and they had to call someone down to bring it out. Once we got there it was quite a walk up the hill, and we got a little confused on which direction we should be watching. It was absolutely beautiful up there. I think we were ruining a couples romantic outing, but there were a few other groups of tourists up there too so it wasn't
just our fault.The tube was very packed on our way back and we barely made it on before the doors closed, but we did make it! We also stopped at a bakery by our flat on the way back for some pastries. Sadly since it was about closing time they weren't fresh and I don't think it would have been the best even if it were.
Tomorrow morning we're planning on going to Portobello Market in Notting Hill (like the movie).
The End.
There's No Place Like London ♥ 5:58 AM
Yesterday morning we had our individual meetings with Boyana who is in charge of finding us all our internships. Mine was at 9:20 and my flatemate Clare C. had her's at 9:10 so we walked to Imperial together. When she came out apparently they had accidentally given her a map with my name on it, so before I went into the meeting she told me that we were at the same place which was exciting. Clare and I are going to be interviewing at Profession Beauty on Tuesday at 11. It is a magazine catered towards the owners of salons and spas to tell them how to get more customers, the latest treatments, colors etc. It sounds like it will be a lot of fun, Boyana said it would be mostly writing and editing which would be really exciting. We do still have to interview, but we at least aren't competing against each other or against other programs like some people are in their interviews.
She gave us each 3 issues of the magazine and their website so we have to read those closely and get to know a lot about the company before the interviews, but I'm thinking it will be a really great experience. We're both very, very happy to actually be working at a magazine since it's an experience that we cannot get at Mizzou.
The rest of our flatmates are working at MSN UK, and they do pre-screening interviews so they all knew before coming over here where they would be interviewing. They had their interview at 12 so Clare and I went back to Imperial with them so that we could go to the Natural History Museum once they were done. We got a little turned around on our way their, but not too badly and stopped at a little café called Afternoon Tea for lunch. I got a salami sandwich and iced tea which was really good.
The NHM was pretty cool. It was absolutely enormous and so we couldn't walk through the whole thing but we went through most of it. They had a dinosaur section, a human body/evolution section, a section of animals, more animals, geology sections, a recycling and pollution section, and a stones collection. There were adorable little English children everywhere in their so cute school uniforms. By the time we walked through it our feet were very very sore so we decided to
use our unlimited Oyster card pass for the first time and take the Tube home. It's strange because the tube is almost silent, its so quiet which I really didn't expect. It drops us off literally feet away from our flat so that's amazing as well.After several hours of resting our feet and eating at the flats we decided to go out with a big group of students that we live with (mostly all in the internship program and from Mizzou). The tube stops running at midnight, so when we left we had to find the correct bus stop which was a little difficult, but not too bad once we figured out the bus maps. While sitting down to read a map we realized we were outside of a movie theater that had some celebrities hand prints like Hugh Grant, Colin Firth, Helena Bohnam Carter and Emma Thompson which was cool. We took the bus home (which we also get to use our Oyster cards for) and went to bed since we had class in the morning.
Our BLC class wasn't very exciting, our professor introduced himself and told us what we would be talking about. Unfortunately it doesn't sound like were going to be going on any fun trips, but at least we know that now and can plan them on our own. Our professor seems nic
e, he's Irish and has lived in England most of his life but it takes him a while to finish a sentence. We had a guest lecturer today on architecture who was supposed to talk about British buildings and we hoped maybe he would show us pictures of buildings and tell us where to go. Unfortunately he kind of just talked about architecture in general and therefore we didn't really know what he was talking about. We got out of class about half an hour early and went back to the flat to eat. Were still here now, probably about to take a nap before walking around this afternoon!The End.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
It's Not Just a Walk in the Park ♥ 3:57 PM
This morning we woke up at about 7 because we had to be at Imperial College for more orientation. We met outside the flats at 7:45 and followed our RA on the scenic route to campus past Hyde Park. It was really confusing and I had no clue where we were because it was such a round about way, but eventually we ended up back up the college. The professors introduced themselves and then we split up into our classes and our journalism professor talked to us about our class. Our reporting class will be on Monday afternoons an our internships on Monday mornings, and all day on Tuesday and Wednesday. Thursday afternoon's we will have an internship seminar where we all get together and discuss what's going on in our internships. Friday's we have British Life and Culture in the morning, and we actually start that one tomorrow. BLC is supposed to be a class that has guest lecturers and takes us on excursions, but ours is going to be a bit different than normal because it was set up last minute to give us the 9 credits we were supposed to be getting from just International Issues Reporting and the Internship, but earlier this spring visa permissions cut internship work back to 20 hours per week instead of 40.Then we went on a little tour of campus which was a little silly because our classes aren't even going to be there. We had a bit of a break then and since we were all starving and still half asleep, a few of us went over to Starbucks, but they like had a sit down section, so we unwittingly sat down and it took forever to get our stuff and our bill and then they don't split bills over here so we had to figure out how to split it about 8 different ways. I guess we still aren't used to how much time it takes to sit down someplace here, we though since we had 45 minutes we would be alright, but we ended up just making it back in time and only because we rushed the server.
When we made it back we had a travel orientation where people from three different travel groups came and gave us brochures and little speeches about what they offer for traveling in and out of England. It was really nice because it gives us some ideas of the things we could do and got us to start really thinking about where we'd like to go.
We had about a 2 hour lunch break after that so we went back to the flat where Linden and I finally finished unpacking so that we don't have to dig through three suitcases to find what we were looking for and we actually have some room to walk in our bedroom. I don't know if I've explained this before, but we have six girls living in one flat, three in each bedroom and then we have a common room and a kitchen and a bathroom. One bathroom for six girls, it's going to get crazy when we all have to be to work at the same time and look nice. At 2:15 we had to meet our professor outside of our flats so he could take us to our internship orientation with the woman from the International Enrichment program about what to expect from our internships and the interviews. That was in the CAPA building which is the English program involved in our trip and that is where all of the journalism classes are being held. It's much nicer and much closer than Imperial College so were all very happy about that.
CAPA is also right next to Sainsburys, the grocery store. We actually found out that the one we went to our first day here is called Sainsburys Local and is very small compared to the huge Sainsburys. So after our internship orientation we went grocery shopping, and my mom will be glad to hear that I bought a lot of water because I've been very lacking in that since I left home. I also bought a loaf of fresh baked bread, however it's not sliced and without a bread knife I'm beginning to regret that decision...
When we dropped off our groceries we rested our feet for a bit, we have been doing so much walking lately I can't even estimate how much. Amanda, Linden and I then went off with our other flatmate Kristin, who isn't doing the journalism program and is just staying until July, to find the Hummingbird Bakery in Kensington since our friends here last semester spoke so highly of their cupcakes. It was quite the popular place and about a mile walk, but the red velvet cupcakes were excellent and very worth it. After that we headed back to the flat and Kristin stayed behind while the three of us went off to explore the area around our flat. Beyond Earls Court Road, which is where the Tube station is and many restaurants and stores it is mostly a residential area, but all of the buildings are so gorgeous and there were a lot of private gardens we couldn't get into. It's so pretty because nearly every person has their own little mini garden on their porch or the entry way to their flat depending upon which floor they live on. The Londoners certainly love their gardens.
When we got back to the flat again we ate some dinner (Linden and I made sandwiches out of our bread that were really good because of that bread) and Linden and I then sat down in our room to come up with a list of things we want to do within London and England. We got a pretty long list and I'm sure it will just keep growing as we become more familiar with the area. We also tried to figure out rail passes but it was just too confusing, so we gave up for the time being. After a while we met up with two of our flatmates, Claire (two of our flatmates are named Claire actually) and Kristin at the Earls Court Pub for a drink and then the four of us headed home to chat in the kitchen a bit before going to bed.
I have some exciting news about my internship, but I'm going to hold off on that and try to write about today this evening since this is already a pretty long post.
The End.
London Bridge is Falling Down, Falling Down... ♥ 5:31 AM
Today we had to be out in front of the flats by 7:45 for a sight seeing tour on a coach. It was nice because even though we didn't really get to get out to look at anything besides the dome of St. Paul's Cathedral and Buckingham Palace it was a good way to be reminded of all the places that I want to see. We drove by the London Bridge, Big Ben (which is actually the name of the bell, not the clock tower. Apparently the man who put it up there was a bit robust so they nicknamed the bell Big Ben), the Tower, Tower Bridge, Westminster and a few other places that are hard to remember because it was all so fast.Afterward the coach dropped us off in Piccadilly Circus which is basically just a lot of shops and a rather expensive area. Linden, Amanda and I walked around for a while and then stopped for lunch at an Italian restaurant. It was really good, I got Gnocchi with cheese and broccoli and it was fantastic. We waited around for about half an hour, maybe more, for them to bring us a check before the people next to us noticed our American accents and started talking to us and told us we had to ask for the check. After lunch w
e decided to head back to the flats, my roommates still being jet lagged. We tried to get our Oyster cards (basically just a monthly pass) for the Tube (the London underground system) but we failed because we couldn't remember our address. The program suggested that we write down our address and put it in our purses in case we ever get lost, I thought it silly but now I know why... So instead the nice man at the window wrote down which platforms to get on and which changes to take and gave us a single pass to get home. Amazingly we made it without problems. The tube was really quiet and quite easy to figure out but I think I'm going to need a map to know which route to take where.Once back at the flat we took a few hours to relax and I took a shower since I was too lazy to get up earlier in the morning and fell asleep around 8 the night before. We went out for dinner around 7:30 or so and decided to
go to O'Neils pub which is pretty close to have our first pub experience. Linden ordered a burger, but I felt like I had to order something different so I got an Irish Breakfast which was pretty good. It was just ham and sausage, eggs, beans and soda bread. I also had my first Guinness, we both got Guinness red, but Dad it was not warm it was "extra chilled". After we ate I think we must have sat there for about an hour slowly finishing our beers while waiting for the check, but we never got them so finally at 9:40 we got up and went to the bar to ask for it.It's definitely hard to get used to different customs, the restaurant at lunch included tip and it said on the bill and you aren't supposed to tip at pubs. I think the one thing that I have learned so far is if you want to eat out in Europe, make sure you have a lot of time set aside and be assertive. It isn't like in America at all where they want people in and out as quick as possible for tips.
The End.
Monday, May 18, 2009
Made it here! ♥ 8:54 AM
Okay, well I made it to London safe and sound! I'm going to do my best to remember everything that has happened so far, but I'm so exhausted that I'm barely conscious of what's happening.
First off I have to tell the story about my passport for those who haven't heard. Saturday morning I woke up and realized that I didn't have my passport at home. I was of course panicked and I thought I threw it in the trash, but realized I had left it in the scanner when I went to make copies. So my friend Lacey luckily had the key because she's subleasing my apartment, and since she had to leave for work she gave Candace the key who then went to find my passport. Having found it, I had to find someone to bring it to Kansas City or St. Louis as a VIP (Very Important Package) on a NorthWest flight. Luckily I got a hold of Jordon just as she was about to leave Columbia for Kansas City.
Sunday Mom and Jeff drove me down to Chicago for the group flight from O'Hare, so I got in the car at about 9 and we got there around 4:30 or so. I got on the flight at about 5:15 and we took off a little before 6. The seats were pretty cramped but I got lucky enough to have an aisle seat with an empty seat next to me so I had a little more room. I waited until after dinner to sleep because they usually pass over you for food if you're asleep. By that point there was about 5 hours left of the flight so I tried to sleep for the rest of it but it was so uncomfortable that it didn't work very well, even my neck pillow didn't help. They served a egg muffin for breakfast and then we landed about an hour later around 8.
We waited around a while and then got on coaches to head to our flats. When we got there we had to haul our luggage up the stairs, luckily ours is only on the second floor. We had a few minutes to settle down before we had to leave for lunch and we used it to exchange our dollars for pounds (the exchange was bad today, about 1.6 plus a service charge for changing). We walked to Imperial College and had fish an
d chips for lunch. Then we went and had about an hour and a half of health/safety/information orientaion.Then we walked back to our flats and I went with Linden and Amanda (my roommates within the flat, there are three other girls in the flat too) to get go-phones and groceries. When we got to the grocery store we realized that most of their food expires within a day or two because of the lack of the use of preservatives. So for right now were somewhat stumped and are going to have to go to the store nearly everyday.
Now we're back at the
flat for the rest of the night. There is a pub crawl starting at 6 but the three of us are so tired we decided to pass. I think that a pub crawl is the last thing I need to help me get over jet lag, but a lot of people are set on going. Overall an uneventful day and I don't really feel like I'm in London, but I'm sure tomorrow once the fog of being tired wears off I'll be much more excited.The End.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Getting Ready to Leave! ♥ 8:41 PM
Hey everyone!
So this is going to be my blog for my trip to London, I'm going to do my best to keep it updated as often with whatever I do and wherever I go. I wanted to name it the dodgy loo, but I figured that might set a bad tone for the trip... My flight leaves at 6 pm on Sunday and we arrive at Heathrow around 8am on Monday. There's not too much else to say right now, but check back after Sunday! I'll miss you all! PS. If you want a post card email or facebook me your address.
Dodgy - If someone or something is a bit dodgy, it is not to be trusted. Dodgy food should be thrown away at home, or sent back in a restaurant. Dodgy people are best avoided. You never know what they are up to. Dodgy goods may have been nicked.
Gen - Gen means information. If you have the gen then you know what is going on.
The End.