Job interview tomorrow morning and I’m sitting here at 2am trying to stave off a hangover by inhaling junk food – what a wonderful life!

“Why?”, you might ask. Then again you might not, but I’ll ignore you and continue on with my little rhetorical spiel. Why? Because Gary, the bloke from NZ I met in Nuremburg was in London tonight promoting his latest movie and he wanted me to star in his next production.. (end drunken imagination). Actually, he just wanted to have a few beers with some mates and people he’d met during his travels (like me). Who am I to deny him this simple pleasure?

So, it was off to the Hogshead pub in Leicester Square (did I spell that right? Fuggit! Stupid English place names..) where a small group of us imbibed our chosen brews in a continuous stream of amber loveliness. Boddingtons was my choice for no other reason than I like creamy beers. I later found out it was one of the cheapest pints going. My Tightarse Radar still works! Bonus!

Another of the Nuremburg crew, Carly, was also on hand, rounding out the number of Aussies at an all powerful (cough) two. Outnumbered by Kiwis.. NOOOOO! 😛

Blah, blah, drink pints, talk sh1te, you know the score. Swapped a few phone numbers so maybe instead of sitting here all day moaning about not having a job I can arrange some more London pub tours? If only I was that organised.. Did I mention blah blah blah blah blah blah blah ?

Friday

Met a “directionally-devoid, drinking-since-lunch” Dan at The Volunteer, near Baker Street station after walking up a thirst following his directions :P. Beers with some of his workmates and friends: Sean, Kieren, Natalie(?), Renee(?) (I suck with names) and was introduced to Sophie who works behind the bar at The Volunteer and originally hails from Melbourne.

To Tottenham Court Road station, where we leave Dan’s work crew and meet Adrian and Rebecca. Bec was turning 21 (wink, wink) today. Went to Brick Lane for dinner at ‘that’ Indian place. It was four months since I’d been here last and hasn’t this area changed!? Looks like the developers have noticed its popularity and moved in. The restaurants now have guys out front to entice customers in, like that street in Carlton that I’ve temporarily forgotten the name of..

Our place was full (blame Lonely Planet) but we waited outside for a couple of minutes and got a table. It was BYO so the others had bought some wine whereas I scored a 4-pack of John Smith ale from the same mini-market nearby.

After dinner we all went to the flash Commercial Road(?) apartment of another of Dan’s mates. Irish brothers running their own Agile/XP programming consultancy company. Earning good money from it too, it seems!

After some more beers, a bunch of us left, with Dan and I going off separately to meet Sophie somewhere. It was after 12pm so all the pubs were closed. We ended up walking to Soho and paying 5 quid to get into a bar. Multiple rounds of Hoegaarden followed.

I don’t know when we left but I remember the illegal cab ride back to Dan’s – mainly because it was driven by cool dude with funky top hat who was all too pleased to play a CD for us. Apparently, there’s a whole bunch of drivers operating cab services in private vehicles. They aren’t licensed cab drivers, hence the illegality. This guy was fine but I’ve heard some horror stories.

Spend the rest of the night talking sh1te until Sophie had to bail to get lunch ready for work around 8am?

Saturday

Slept on the futon at Dan’s, waking around 3pm. Killed time until it was dark, deciding not to bother going back to Ealing. Instead, shower here and then head in to The Volunteer around 9pm for dinner – a tasty but very oily plate of wedges w/ cheese and chorizo sausage for 3.50UKP. I prefered the flat-bread (pizza) thing Dan had. Washed it down with a pint of Bombardier and an old German favourite of mine – Erdinger Weiss beer!

Interesting mix of tunes was pumped out by birthday-boy DJ Chris during dinner 🙂

Initially Dan had told me we were heading to a small party but when I checked on the web, it turned out to be the “event of the year” – Chemical Warfare’s 3rd Birthday @ seOne.

(Click to enlarge)

He checked with another contact and yes, we would be able to get in. Yay!

Bigger than expected was okay because I was cashed up and could actually afford the 18UKP door charge. Walking in, it was immediately obvious I “wasn’t in Kansas anymore Toto!”. Decore and lighting was more than a step above most Melbourne parties, the music was already hard and fast AND there were four rooms of it (Electro, D&B, Techno, Acid Techno)! Me likey!!!

Toilets were manned by a big dude who frequently cleaned them, provided deodorant and personally handed you paper towel after you washed up. It was posh even though it wasn’t, well, posh.

If there was a queue he’d often dance while waiting for patrons to exit the cubicles – cool! 😀

I tipped him a couple of quid during the night.

Another little change from Melbourne..

Red Bull: 3UKP/can

Beer: 3.50UKP/can

Nitrous Oxide: 2UKP/balloon

Ecstasy: 5UKP/pill

Beer is obviously legal, NO2, unlike in Oz is apparently legal – they have frickin’ stalls selling it to punters! I couldn’t believe it!

Pills are not legal but you wouldn’t think so given the number of totally obvious deals going on and the veracity of the dealers.. “You right for gear mate? Need anything?” Fsck me!!!

(I’ll admit to drinking Red Bull and beer)

I spent most of my time in the main Techno room, veering off into the other rooms now and then for a change of pace.

Highlights: the DJ playing at the start of the night in the main room – not sure if it was Jack Luppi or DJ Knights?, Marcello Perri in the Acid room rocked!, Geezer was off his head and rough as guts – I just couldn’t get into his set until near the end, but he was funny to watch!, Anderson Noise from Brazil kicked arse! Chris Liberator was the headline act and played on the main stage. Problems were, he started at 8.30AM! and EVERYONE moved into the main area before he started (did they close the other rooms?) and it was too packed to really dance. I was totally wrecked by then anyway and ended up leaving Dan to chase his rather lovely looking, um, what was her name dude?

Alex and I left around 8am and headed home. She had to work and I needed sleep badly so I left Dan’s and headed back to Ealing.

Anyway, fscking awesome sets the WHOLE night in ALL FOUR rooms!! Even the D&B room had me going and I’m not a huge D&B fan. One London club down and I’ve already formed the opinion that they are totally crazy compared to Melbourne. Sorry Oz, maybe if you were 15,000k closer to Europe with 20-60 million more people you could compete? Fscking awesome night! Another level compared to Melbourne parties for sure!

While the GT lays broken and unloved in the lounge.. I went for a.. I’m not sure I can say it.. I went for a… a… rum..

No, no, not a rum.. it was that evil activity where you put one foot in front of the other in a more rapid fashion than walking. I like to refer to it as RUINING (that’s not a typo).

Gym’s cost money and my bike needs fixing, so the only remaining option to get sweaty was to “ruin”. It was bloody good to get a sweat up for the first time in a week or two, but it does come with at a price. My poor wittle leggies go hurtsies now! It’ll take a week before I can walk without feeling the after-effects in my quads.

I only ran for 30-60min (I don’t have a watch) but that’s enough for a first-time-in-a-long-time go. I brought my runners to the UK fully expecting to use them – weather, work and living arrangements might prevent me from cycling as much as I’d like to and I want to remain ‘somewhat’ active. “Traitor” you’re all thinking.. 😛

I don’t know why but I worked up a nice little blister just behind the ball of my right foot. This is odd because I’ve run in these shoes quite a bit (relative to running in any shoes, I mean) and I’ve never had a problem with them. Perhaps four months in ill-fitting shoes has panel-beated my feet into a new shape? I’ll see what happens when I go again.

Job Hunting

With some time to think, I’ve decided to focus more on getting IT work rather than bar work. I know I crapped on about doing “something different” and all that but living with a bunch of computer geeks has started to turn me. There are more advantages in IT than hospitality, not least of which is the fact that I’m not the bubbly, happy, enthusiastic person most bars are looking for.

I’m thinking of IT roles with less development work and more contact with people, like DBA, Sysadmin and Support stuff. Actually getting one of these jobs will depend on what sort of sh1t I can spin in my resume and interviews. I should start a self-help group for indecisiveness sufferers..

www.banksy.co.uk

I think this site is worthy of a proper blog entry, rather than just a comment, given my as-yet-untreated obsession with stencil art.

Thanks El Seano and “Nice one!” Banksy.

Melbourne: Bread is sold in plastic bags with a nifty plastic clip that holds the twisted bag closed.

London: Bread is sold in plastic or foil bags but the “twist retention device” holding the bag closed is tape. Not just sticky-tape because that would almost always be a single-use design. This tape isn’t sticky in the middle, where it wraps around the packaging and it’s not sticky right at the ends, where you open it with your fingernails.

I’m still trying to decide which is a better system. I’m veering towards the Aussie method for two reasons:

1. You can collect those little plastic clips (Don’t think I’m crazy, I’ve seen people’s collections!).

2. The plastic clips are quicker to install and remove.

In London’s favour, the tape doesn’t fatally wound the plastic/foil packaging if the operator is a overzealous during bag opening/closing.

Perhaps a more interesting observation is how easy I find it to talk about utter rubbish when I should be finishing this frickin’ resume and getting my backside into a job!

I was multi-tasking, honestly!

Whilst preparing a new resum? (because, like a d1ck, I left mine back in Oz!) I watched “28 Days Later”, a very nifty movie about a deadly virus that sweeps over the UK.

The virus spreads rapidly and is ‘just a little bit’ deadly. Taking hold in under 30 seconds, infection causes victims to “flip out” and turn violently upon anyone not yet infected. This turns out to be a rather effective way of spreading the virus across the entire country in a matter of weeks. Whoops!

I was told it was a zombie movie and, not being big on horror flicks, dismissed it a little. Actually the film is much better than that and highlights a potential post-apocalypse scenario (with a bit of gore thrown in).

It didn’t make me laugh a lot, like most horror flicks do and could actually be considered thought provoking – “What would I do if I woke up and everyone was dead or worse, trying to kill me?”.

It is set in England, which is cool for me, because I actually recognise some of the London scenes – quite amazing how they cleared busy London streets of people!!

ObBike: The lead male character “Jim” is a bike courier.

For more info:

www.28dayslaterthemovie.co.uk

www.imdb.com – 28 Days Later…

Rating: 3.5/5 Hippies

Not me, I’m still scattered, but Xmas and NYE are done deals. Happy happy joy joy!

Prague for Christmas

Edinburgh for New Year’s Eve

Flights are booked. Some accommodation is booked. Now I just need a job to pay for the overdoses.

Party was good fun – the evidence in the empties.

Real English People(tm) were in attendance!

5am sleeping pill alternative: silly quantities of Jameson while talking bollocks with Adrian and Grant 🙂

But, earlier that night..

More photos from the trip will be appearing soon, but not before I watch the latest episodes from the 2nd series of LOST. I’m totally addicted to this awesome show!

(See also: www.lost-tv.com)

Strangely, I’m still pleased to note I haven’t touched the bike. Broken spoke, trashed headset, bent pedals and bent seat will be dealt with (perhaps – maybe I’ll just let it rust and buy a road bike).

Bloody hell is it light when it’s unloaded! The dude in Luxembourg that replaced the front wheel nearly folded in half when he tried to pick it up. “Man, what does this weigh?!?! Must be 30-40 kilos!“

Torment is.. having so much cycling on TV, in the papers, in the streets..

and not speaking Flemish or Dutch or German or French..

so not understanding a damn thing!!

I am sure every person in Europe can speak two languages (usually it’s about five!!) and I feel like a tool only being able to speak English. Why can’t they teach us a second language properly in school, instead of a half-arzed effort, fifteen years too late?

/rant

I know I am late, but as I explained to Dan and Mum, I.. well.. um.. I.. I suck alright! Just let it go! 😛 Happy Birthday! 😀

Hope you found something nice, shiny and bike-related waiting for you when you got home, not from work, of course, but from a day long tour of the brewery of your choice.. 😉

Sorry I forgot about you. I forget about my own Mum though so you shouldn’t feel too bad..

Dan turned (how frickin old am I?) last Thursday, the 8th of September. I would’ve remembered but there was no cake. No cake means no comment. 😛

SCANDAL! Cake for Comment!