The Bellow hole

Friday Night

2010-07-24T15:27:00.004+12:00

Dinner with some ppl.

Metal club.

Get home at 4am, make tea and renew my library books online.

ROCK AND ROLL!

Night bus

2010-05-08T13:56:00.004+12:00

The guy next to me seemed to have no qualms about splaying his legs and adjusting/scratching his, uh.. 'business' through the trip. Mildly disconcerting.

Perhaps more disturbingly; the smell of burnt sausages (seriously: BBQ style) seemed to get stronger and more pervasive over time.

Please someone have a valid explanation.

Ages

2010-04-30T05:33:00.007+12:00

That's how long it's been since I've used this thing properly. Nearly a year since my last post, and that was perhaps not *that* in depth or informative.

My sister's recent efforts have impressed me greatly, however, and I was reminded that perhaps I should attempt even just the odd cursory effort at babbling coherently (just to keep with the previous style, of course).

Still, without much to actually pen onto said e-parchment (oh how wanky, /groan) I will have to suffice with musing over why this particular post seems to, for whatever reason, get special attention from spammers...

Weird.

Although, I particularly like the following:

"Your blog keeps getting better and better! Your older articles are not as good as newer ones you have a lot more creativity and originality now keep it up!" (surely this wasn't actually someone being serious...)

"Dear Ally,"

"BECOME ENTHUSIASTIC ABOUT YOUR INFERIOR DEFAME TODAY"

Also, can someone define an "Infatuation casino" for me?

Slightly Paranoid

2010-04-30T05:24:00.001+12:00

To kill a demon made of wet sawdust. This sort of demon is almost impossible to kill the only way to do it is to cover its face with wet bread and karate chop its head off otherwise you are in trouble and so is the neighbourhood. Wet sawdust demons like to terrorise. N.B. pressing its face into wet bread that is on the ground works best though you can get a result just by throwing the bread at its face

Hee. Fun

New Words

2009-07-16T01:51:00.000+12:00

Remote Control is out.

Remote Commander is in.

Sell me something amusing

2009-07-08T05:07:00.004+12:00

Some of you might remember that gag on trademe where the guy was trying to sell the (unfinished) time machine...

Looks like a touch of that same brand of homour is back, but with a different product.

This time its a Scary Washing Machine

Amusing as it all is, I can't believe he actually got over $5ooo for it. Impressive.

Assisting with investigations

2009-07-01T00:41:00.003+12:00

So. I got to spend yesterday afternoon doing the 'pick the criminal from the police linuep' thing.

Vaguely interesting, but apparently I'm a terrible witness, though, as I couldn't spot the guy at all. I think someone else there managed to though. Hurrah.

On the whole; better than spending the day at work, if I'm honest.

Drinking with Poles: addendum

2009-06-28T04:23:00.001+12:00

The tube is godawful when you have a hangover.

Drinking with Poles

2009-06-27T11:58:00.002+12:00

They made me post.

AND to do so with a keyboard with no 's'. Ridiculous.

Uuugh, this is harder than I remember.

Lovin the vodka, though.

Is anyone still reading this (points if you are, btw).

Random Observation: Cat People (putting out fire)

2008-09-27T05:54:00.002+12:00

So. Very brief observation:

It occured to me that the song 'Cat People (Putting out Fire)', by David Bowie, is very reminiscent of the Doors. There's a real Jim Morrison thing going on with the vocals and in places it practically sounds like they've hired John Densmore (Ha! I didn't even have to look that up) to do the drums.

Plus, its the eighties so there's practically guaranteed to be a keyboard in there somewhere (which is pretty close to an organ...)

Anyway. Maybe I'm just talking crap again. Thats what you get for coming here :P

(P.S. Just realised that I'm on 81 posts now. I wonder if I can be screwed to make it to 100)

Weird guy from Bitterfilms

2008-09-21T12:33:00.002+12:00

While I'm at it, i might as well quote this passage from Bitter Films guy. (bitterfilms.com).

I'm not sure he would care that I can't be bothered to find out his real name right now (if at all).

july 6

cough
we might still be under evacuation warning but i think things are beginning to clear. blankets of ash continue to snow all over the cars and bushes and it's humid all the time. the sky has been spectacular and muddy, i drove around thursday and hadn't yet realized the full extent of it all, roads closed, firetrucks whizzing in all directions, the hills all lit up demon red, a big fat guy jogging aimlessly in front of my car with a big gulp cup. there's been three days in a row with long blackouts, often right as the sun goes down and you can hear the whole neighborhood groan each time it happens. it's over 80 degrees in the middle of the night and the stars come out brighter than you've ever seen them if you can find them through the haze and neighbors knock around in the dark with candles and dead mobile phones. i'm told people are getting stabbed, and everyone drives their cars very strangely. there's also short, intermittent blackouts throughout the day so i can't really get a lot done on the soundtrack without risking losing my progress or frying my gear. i made it to the grocery store on a very orange evening for more candles and batteries and decided to buy ice cream so every time there's a blackout i can say "well, i guess i better go eat the ice cream before it melts". the regular candles were long gone so i had to buy a giant old lady one that smells like melon.
today ive been feeling sort of bored and happy which is actually notable because i think i'm mentally done with the movie. there's still busywork to do but the familiar feeling over the last 18+ months of having your head pressurized and focused only on one thing seems to have passed, and now i want to go outside and climb on rocks or something. there is a weird moment at the end of the leni riefenstahl documentary where she's 90 years old and sitting at the bottom of the sea stroking the back of a giant black manta ray, and in a sleepy state for some reason i interpreted the ray as a long dead and reincarnated friend of hers, possibly hitler, now gliding around the dark ocean floor from unknown decades ago. i've noticed i seem tospend a long time on flickr looking at strangers' vacation photos.

crazy.

I didn't even know that there was any sort of thing going on with fires or whatever it is that he alludes to. Too many 'disasters' these days... (or maybe I just have a sparse attention span when it comes to global current events).

Spanish Restaurant

2008-09-21T11:58:00.002+12:00

So. Believe it or not, I still remember the login for this blog. Hurrah, and stuff.

Thought I might post about my evening spent restauranting Spanish style.

My prior knowledge of Spanish cuisine was pretty much the idea of Tapas (my experience of which was pretty much various breads and houmousy dip, or something similar) and piella, which I had never actually eaten. Plenty of room for correction, there, it seems.

Headed to a place in Portobello road (for those of you who know London). When we got a table, we were givin a bunch of tapas dishes (I didn't actually order these, nor actually saw the menu, so, 'approximate descriptions' ahoy...:

Squid in ink sauce
Choritzo sausage in red wine sauce
King Prawns in Garlic Sauce
Meat Balls
Octopus (Slices of tentacles with with paprika and maybe something else)
Thin slices of some sort of cured bacon/ham
Battered calamari rings (the best I've ever had, ie: not at all chewy)
Some sort of tuna pastry slice thing
Green peppers with some sort of dressing (not actually hot, interestingly, but quite a bitter aftertaste...).
Potatoe pancakey thingies (someone said they might be thick potato tortillas?)

After munching on these, of the 20 or so of us about 3 ppl were keen to actually have a main. Noone had dessert.

Good impressions.

Victoria Park with the Gimp Dance Quintet

2008-06-27T08:05:00.006+12:00

Not much to say really (or maybe there is and I'm lazy), but £50 got me in to see Radiohead and it was pretty good times.

If they actually make it over to the arse end of the world where you down-underites are; go see em. Perhaps you had no doubt on that score, but I'm just saying.

Didn't memorise set listings or anything, but why do that when you can steal one.

/google
/yoink off some other guy's blog

So, here's the (stolen) unofficial setlisting:

Radiohead Setlist 6/25/08 - Victoria Park, London, England:

Set 1: Reckoner, 15 Step, There There, All I Need, Lucky, Nude, Weird Fishes/Arpeggi, Myxomatosis, National Anthem, Faust Arp, No Surprises, Jigsaw Falling Into Place, Optimistic, Videotape, Everything In Its Right Place, Idioteque, Bodysnatchers

Encore 1: House of Cards, The Bends, Bangers + Mash, My Iron Lung, Karma Police

Encore 2: Go Slowly, 2+2=5, Paranoid Android

So yeah, some interesting choices in there. Was pretty sweet to hear a bit of the old stuff that I obviously didn't get the opportunity to hear when it was new.

Also, as you may have guessed from the title, there was a good portion of everyone's favourite: Thom York dancing. How awesome.

One more thing: Paula Z is a champ for hooking me up with a (fairly) last minute ticket. Wooo!

Exciting news

2008-03-29T12:00:00.002+13:00

After all this time, I can still beat Galcon on the hardest difficulty.

First go.

Ha!

Others things may or may not have also happened since my last post. Who knows.

Drunken Injury

2007-12-16T08:16:00.001+13:00

So, after getting a bit boozed with some work ppl, I managed to have a bit of an oopsy in the Shepherds Bush tube station.

Fell on the stairs and cut my head open.

Bit of the old bleeding-down-face made for some interesting looks on the bus on the way home (as the tube was apparnelty not running in the end).

Also made a pretty grand entrance upon arriving home :)

Work still sucks on a hangover/sore head, as you would imagine...

France. Well...Paris

2007-12-16T07:57:00.000+13:00

So, having come to the realisatikon that Europe is obviously too lazy to come and visit me, well, I guess I need to go and visit it.

...starting with a trip on the Eurostar to Paris.

After a few "Bonjour"s and "Merci"s later, I'm back.

Managed to pack in pretty much all the standard touristy sight thingies into a couple of days, including:

Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, the Louvre (well, some of it), Basilica of the Sacré Cœur, the Arc de Triomphe and the Champs-Élysées. Also caught a few other things like and old French cemetary and some random modern art installations on the seine.

Food was expensive and it was bloody cold. Otherwise, fun times. Good to finally get across to the continent finally.

A bit weird to feel like a tourist again. I even took some photos, which I've not done for ages.

Halloween

2007-11-02T08:54:00.000+13:00

...and we even carved a pumpkin.

In fact, there was even a couple of little kids that came to the door to get lollies (luckily I don't yet call it 'candy')

I was, in fact, big enough to let Natalie go and tell them that we didn't have any. What a champion.

Does this make me Americanised? (the halloweeniness, not the 'being slack and letting Natalie give the bad news to little kids' thing).

Also, you reckon the folks over at Halo (Bungie, isn't it) are going nuts with this?

Hmmm....

Where's my Radiohead?

2007-10-11T06:55:00.000+13:00

So. Was going to make use of the very novel phenomenon thought up by them Radiohead boys and fire up an arbitrary amount for the download.

I was, however kinda lazy and have only just bothered to go there and actually DO the download (it was due to be released today, right, so why go there and bother with pre-ordering or whatever nonsense...)

But, I can't find any download link anywhere.

Have I missed something incredibly important and just shown myself up as a massive chump?

I guess we'll see.

Someone sucks arse (Public transport ranting again)

2007-09-04T10:17:00.000+12:00

I'm not sure who it is, but for some reason it took me far too long to get home, because the tubes were almost ALL out of service due to strikes.

From what the grand and mighty BBC had to say about it (remember, I'm allowed to by cynical if I work there), it was something to do with some contracts changing and drivers not being guaranteed some pension plan for 10 years service. Or something.

Whatever it was, I'm sure it was highly necessary to fuck around literally MILLIONS of people.

FUCKING FUCK!!

and now I have to get up way early because they're going on all week, apparently.

Sometimes.... this bloody city (and maybe this country, but I might be stretching it with that generalisation)...

..WELL.

Crap at Blogging

2007-08-24T13:56:00.000+12:00

So, I've not posted much recently, have I?

Perhaps it's becuase I haven't done much thats noteworthy.

But yeah, it's nightshift time again and I'm looking for time-wasters.

The difficulty is, of course, it's difficult to stretch a blog post out of, essentially: nothing.

Having said that; I've watched 5 Dvd's in the last 2 shifts, and I'm planning on another 2 tonight.

Hectic!

Triumph over public transport

2007-07-29T12:14:00.000+12:00

Going home on saturday night is usually a bitch; But not when you...

Catch the last overland to waterloo
Catch the last train to Piccidilly Circus
Catch the last Picadilly line train home.

Skarnz: 1
The demons of public transport: 0

New Flat

2007-07-22T06:16:00.000+12:00

So. I have finally made it out of old stinky flat and into a new one (which has substantially less stinkyness).

Natalie and I are likely to have some boozing-up soonish, so those of you who are around these parts can prolly expect some late-minute bullshit party hit-up.

Be prepared!

Also: The summer is sucking balls over here. There's a bunch of flooding and crap like that.

Its also the name of a Cafe in a place called Shannon, I believe

2007-07-03T15:56:00.000+12:00

Check out the excellent usage of a old favourite:

/points at DrMcninja

(check out the mouse-over thingy)

More nightshifts = more linkage

2007-07-02T14:15:00.000+12:00

So, Was randomly trolling through wikipedia, as you do..

and managed to stumble upon an entry about 'hack circle'

It seems that it has an actual 'name' and is some sort of local 'phenomenon' or something.

Could signal good things...

2007-07-01T16:23:00.000+12:00

(from radiohead:)

Wed 13 June

a word from the studio

Yes I know its been a while ..... but we've been working on this album for a while ...... BUT WE ARE NEARLY THERE .....

Ed

The mad linkage just goes on...

2007-07-01T06:05:00.000+12:00

Not sure if you guys read Penny Arcade, but I'm just passing this link on, 'cause its pretty mad business.

If you can be bothered with 7 pages about a linux programmer... :P

Would you believe... Surfing Mice?

2007-06-29T10:21:00.000+12:00

Hmm. I was a touch skeptical, but you can judge for yourself.

Pretty cool!

Holy Crap

2007-06-28T00:20:00.000+12:00

This woman just sounds feral.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/merseyside/4253849.stm

Ow.

Rating my blog thingy, stolen from Jon

2007-06-26T04:32:00.000+12:00

So, i get:

Mingle²

Although its a big bright red (DANGER!) thingy, its actually quite lame when I've gotten the rating for having, somewhere along the way, included these things:

This rating was determined based on the presence of the following words:

hell (4x)
piss (3x)
shits (2x)
assholes (1x)

Thats all that I can manage?

In other news, I just noticed in the communal mail scramble at the front door that there's someone in the building with the first name of 'Kobra'.

Dear god I hope thats not a pseudonym. How awesome.

All dressed up...

2007-06-23T04:44:00.000+12:00

With no interview to go to.

Cool, huh. We love the last minute cancel. I had arranged for an hour and ahalf off work, gotten dolled up and was just about to order tea in a cafe just down the road from the place when I get the phone call from the agency.

At least, they did say they have another position to put forward, paying about the same.

But anyway, slight irritation.

Still; I was sitting on the tube going home, and was thinking of how much fun it would be to get a real serious pink bunny suit and wear it to a metal night at the electric ballroom sometime. Then I remembered that Jon's kinda done a similar thing, but with only the ears (what a pussy :P). I seemed to recall it went down a bit of a treat, actually. But yeah, that kinda cheered me up.

God. Work again tomorrow AND sunday, at 9am.

Crap

Comic Illustration a la Questionable Content

2007-06-21T23:11:00.000+12:00

So, for all of those who are kinda a bit bemused by Jon's ramblings about weird time signatures, here's a comic illustration thereof (sorta).

(Not sure, but I'm wondering if the mention of Rush is demerit points or not. I'm sure Jon will know :P)

Birthday

2007-06-18T05:50:00.000+12:00

Well. Just yesterday I tipped over the 25 year mark. How exciting.

Haven't decided how I feel about that yet. Well, im not thinking 'Cool! now I'm 25. how awesome', or anything. Its more of a case of 'am I bothered about reaching another milestone on the way to being old, or am I just not really caring?'

But yeah. As you can imagine, at least some boozing was pretty much compulsory. Friday night (night before) saw a pretty cruisy boozing session with Rob and Tim. Managed to find some ridiculous lolly water perry to get into, and wound up a bit wobbly on the morning/avo of my actual birthday as a result.

On the actual evening a bunch of us went and kiwi-ed it up at Jake and Aly's place, mostly because it was also his birthday, but also because I hadn't officially organised any sort of formal birthday celebration (whereas he had). But yeah. Pretty much an old-school Rent-a-crowd gig, with a small amount of attempted clubbing/pubbing afterwards.

Some bar charged me way too much for a cider, so I helped myself to a glass as a birthday prezzie, to make up for it.

Good times were had, all in all. Now im quite tired.

Hamlet

2007-06-14T06:41:00.001+12:00

So. As the incredibly creative title (inspiration gained from the great bard himself, perhaps) might suggest, last Saturday I caught a production of Hamlet.

That's right. I donned my best, uuh... long-sleeved black t-shirt; and prepared to get all cultured-up.

It was produced by a bunch of ppl known as the Creation Theatre Company and, while I'm no master of Shakespeare, I thought they did a pretty good job. In particular: given that I hadn't read the play, and had only some brief plot synopses to go on, the fact that I could follow pretty much everything that was going on is definate bonus marks.

While the language was, at least to my ears, original, they used something of a modern slant on the costumes and props: pulling out the old 'replace the long pointy metal thing with the small black pistol' trick, for example. . However, I'm perfectly happy to overlook any minor (and perhaps major) blemishes, due to the fact that they managed to squeeze in, usually between scenes, bits of APC's version of 'Imagine', 'Eraser', from Thom Yorke's album, as well as a bit of Muse (among other things). Unexpected, but awesome.

The production was in Oxford Castle. On first impressions it didn't, to be frank, feel entirley castle-like; with a big restraunt and shops and stuff. Also, having surprisingly little in the way of old castley-looking walls, etc didn't help a great deal. Although, this tower WAS kinda looming in behind the stage, which was prolly enough.

Anyway. It was outdoors, the weather was brilliant for it and the sun kinda finished setting just before the last act - which was perfect (cue: stab and poison-fest). Pretty nice work all round on the extra-stage setting.

So, although it wasn't the Globe and nor was it stratford-on-avon or whatever, it was still pretty cool.

Pattern Emerging

2007-05-28T00:58:00.000+12:00

Being around other Kiwis = Muchos drinking.

Work was LESS than fun this morning. Had a quick chat with ralph this morning, via the big white phone. Not optimal.

Still, happy birthday ZZ.

Other observations:

Lost my jersey, which is a bit poos.
Also, I dance real stoopid when I'm quite boozed (and I believe ZZ has some photographic proof, thereof).
Other than purloining my sobriety, Clapham seems kinda nice...

Update-ness

2007-05-23T01:49:00.000+12:00

So. Whats up with me? you might ask.

Typically, I'd say: "Bugger all!". In fact, thats pretty much still the case, but I'm going to try to stretch it into some sort of blog that seems like its ABOUT something...

Most of what I've been up to is going to work. Thinking about how much I need a new job, as I'm wildly sick of saying 'Good morning BBC' all day, having to be smarmy to people and occasionally deal with assholes.

THEN, going home and sending a few apps away via reed.co.uk or Monster.co.uk or jobs.guardian.co.uk or something like that.

So, im fairly hung up on getting the right job, now. Firstly, because it seems like I've been doing it for ages, but also because I've been reflecting on how much of my waking hours we actually spend at work.

How depressing.

Something else occurred to me, also: On the switchboard, there's a big difference in how my day goes, depending on who I sit next to. If its someone I can yarn away to between calls, the day goes quick and its all good, but if I just sit there in silence or piss about doing Sudoku or something, its way more crap.

So.. Presumably this is something to look for in a new job position. But, how the hell do you try and determine if you're going to get on well with people at a new job based on the interview. Can you legitimately say, "can I just go and hang out with some of the people I'm might be working with for a little bit" at an interview?

yeah. So. I'm all about the job thing at the moment. Boring, huh.

Oh. I guess something else interesting did happen recently. As London people know, I've spent quite a few weekends out in Oxford recently, and I was at a club night there recently. So. I HAVE done SOMETHING interesting. Slightly unusually, for me, it was a trance club night. So, I was forced to move away from the mindless thrashing favoured by metal clubs towards something more appropriate (well, an attempt at, anyways).

Also, perhaps less unusually for me, I took the opportunity to fit in with some of the more outlandish people there (of which, incidentally, there were a number) and went for some face-paint, which is always fun.

Anyway. Had a good time. Jumped around a bit. Not sure I convinced that many people that I was a native to the environment of the electronic dance club scene, but never mind.

Oh. in other news. I just managed to spill watermelon all over my legs. How sticky.

The Walk from Coz's

2007-05-06T17:51:00.000+12:00

...was fairly long, in the end.

In fact, my legs might be filing for divorce, but nevermind.

The party itself was pretty fun. A touch of over-indulgence, perhaps, but otherwise pretty good times. I'm sure Coz's neighbours just LOVED it too, in hindsight.

The original idea was to get a night bus, but... yeah, sometimes I just dont have the tolerance for public transport. Ok, I can concede that its probably not the safest idea: walking around in the middle of the night, but I think walking through Chelsea and Fulham (or wherever the hell I was) is relatively safe.

Also, I think its kinda nice to see the loud city grow quiet . Its like it's waiting for someone to turn some giant key somewhere and wind it up again.

Windows Live Messenger

2007-04-20T06:57:00.001+12:00

Just while im sitting at a computer that will ACTUALLY LET ME POST THINGS, I thought I might rant about something else, while I'm at it...

This thing (Windows live messenger) has been giving me the shits, to be honest.

I, like a good boy, kept up to date with new releases, and they went and shafted me with a release that is completely poked.

Now, instead of holding a proper conversation with someone, I just keep signing in and out yoyo-style (well, every couple of minutes or so).

Thus, I'm currently going back a step to a previous version that hopefully wont piss me off.

I couold probably use something different, like Gaim, but last time I installed that I never bothered setting it up and thats pretty much how it'll be now, I'd imagine...

Windows Live Messenger

2007-04-20T06:57:00.000+12:00

New Music Releases

2007-04-10T06:00:00.000+12:00

WELL.

This is the 3rd time I've tried to actually WRITE THINGS in this post, but something keeps happenign and I cant be bothered writing it again.

See tag.

Saturday 7 April.

2007-04-08T10:04:00.000+12:00

Rob is here. We've been drinking, and playing Galcon. You should try it. The end.

/giggles

2007-04-03T06:52:00.000+12:00

at this new thing that i was lead to, via some invisible electronic leash-ness, by whiteninjacomics

Thunderbird fun

2007-03-29T08:35:00.000+12:00

So. Laptop is in place. I'm giving it the tappy tappy from the desk in my room as we speak.

Also, being the super-organised guy I am, I've been all about getting the sensible apps in and making stuff work before I start pissing about with games and crap (because we all know how much sensible stuff I'm going to be doing after that happens).

This brings me to thunderbird.

Well, I use firefox, and often complain at people who don't. I even got drunk on the release date of the new Moz (or whatever the hell that party was about) some time ago. Psh, like that means a damn thing, but whatever...

So, I'm assuming that thunderbird is all good to use as well. Spent some time pissing around with it, but have finally managed to make it able to import my mail from hotmail. BUT, it tends to strip the emails from my hotmail account after doing so, which I dont really want (as then I cant check my mail again from somewhere other than my own 'puter).

Also, I'm part way through getting the contacts list transferred over properly, which also is fairly annoying and whatnot, and seems to be a lot of pissing about - including the use of copy and pasting into excel and crap. bizarre.

I recognise that this may actually be the fault of hotmail, and that thunderbird is a perfectly reasonable program, but I'm not sure that the two programs make good bedfellows, as it were...

Anyone know a good thunderbird/hotmail fairy/genie or any other generally benevolent mythical creature of some kind that can make life easy?

Maybe I just need to officially make the move to gmail...

Also; I have a sore throat. Cool.

laptop...

2007-03-14T10:09:00.000+13:00

So. I haven't bought one yet, but I've nearly given in to the temptation.

In fact. Does anyone out there know anything about these things?

I've spotted

UPDATE: Well, I swear that this was a whole post when I went to publish it....Hrmm.

Anyhoo, it looks like I've actually made a purchase on a reconditioned Toshiba Satellite A100 163 (it hasn't been delivered yet, but I'm hoping that, with a minimum amount of the obligitory pissing-you-about that companies seem so fond of, I should fairly soon have a new lappy)

I'm not even going to get started on bloody Barclays and their god awful Visa Electron, but I do have to thank Natalie for helping me out there. Yay!

So, I might just have hauled myself back into the information age. Go me!

Irritating things

2007-03-05T10:15:00.000+13:00

Mostly...Hotmail.

I'm supposed to be firing off a bunch (how optimistic) of apps for jobs, but because my hotmail has completely died, I can't get at a copy of my CV right now. Also, all the jobs that I've singled out to apply for are in there too. Also annoyed at myself, 'cause I'm quietly relieved that I've got an excuse. /sigh

Getting wet

Its raining more, and I dont have an umbrella, nor waterproof shoes. Its my own fault for both of these things, of course, but that doesn't sto it from being irritating. Besides, I (foolishly) spent lots of money on a flash waterproof jacket, and I want to get use out of it (even if that means getting the rest of me quite wet). Also, I am the worst shopper, and when it comes to shoes/clothes shopping; NOTHING is quite right. Thus, no waterproof shoes. (actually, I managed to get some dress shoes recently, but I'm hardly wearing them around the place).

Crap flatmates.

If you do any of the following things, you're likely to be a crap flatmate and piss me off:

Be incredibly unsocial (to the point of openly avoiding conversation)
Leave pots of half eaten food on the stove for days on end
Piss around for an incredible amount of time getting the internet sorted (and I'm STILL having to use web cafes, you useless bastard!)
Leave hair everywhere
Use my stuff
and, my favourite: leave the toilet incredibly grossly soiled and not bother to clean it

Hmmm, what else.

Jeez, I dunno. The way this city makes sometimes me feel like some small town honkey is pretty cool too.

Feeling obliged to finish off a good rant with something 'upbeat' just so things dont look bad.

In other news, I made a cake. Its a mofo chocolate beast!

Poor choice of song to be accidently singing out loud among a group of strangers

2007-03-03T03:30:00.000+13:00

Ahem

Hmm. well, just the chorus is problematic really, but that happens to be the only part I know (well, actually, I was singing it slightly wrong, but close enough for it to be, well, wrong)

Note also that I have finally bothered to change to the flasher version of blogger, and thus: Tags! (see below)

Jonny Greenwood is the Controller?

2007-02-16T03:41:00.000+13:00

... of a reggae album?

Does anyone else think this is a bit out of left field?

Anyways, I haven't listened to it or anything, but there's prolly more info here if you're interested.

Also, just pissing about at this place (which seems to be a peversely in-depth archive and general hub of radiohead activity), dredged up this interesting piece.

So, I'm wondering what *I'm* going to think about next time I listen to Radiohead...

Hmmm.

Your Anger is A Gift (Once Again)

2007-02-08T05:15:00.000+13:00

Yep. Slightly cryptic clue in there, but those in the know may be able to infer the following from that title:

Rage are apparently doing some live gigs together.

Yep. The original four.

This is according to the latest edition of Kerrang

Apparently no news of sitting down for an album, but one can only hope (and make exicted kiddie noises in anticipation)

The Dark Masquerade

2007-01-31T13:48:00.000+13:00

I figured I had better post something new, as I was starting to get a little annoyed at the constant delivery of the word 'ANUS' in bright colors whenever I checked everyone's blogs (which I do the crap way, as I haven't been bothered to set up RSS feeds properly yet).

So, on to the actual subject matter: The Dark Masquerade.

As balls go, I'm not generally a huge fan (Yep. I'm happy to let the ambiguity run wild there, just for everyone's amusemement). This is mostly based on the fairly lackluster affairs that occured during:

A) high school: where I hated the music and, as I didn't really know any of the girls there, would rather have just spent yet another night drinking at someones house with my mates. Also, I was a teenager, and you seem to take a ot of pride in disliking things (at the very least) at that age. /shrug

B) uni: where I also loathed the music and couldn't ever manage to get drunk enough, despite the shining promise of open bars. (Technically I was also a teenager for some of these, but I'm not sure if that really counts)

However, this particular one I did enjoy. For one thing, a lot of effort had gone into costume and it looked pretty smooth, and, as you may have guessed by the name, it was a ball that was really targetted at the more alternative crowd. For one thing, this meant that the music was pretty good. I actually found myself go: 'Cool! I love this song' (This particular response I can attribute to David Bowie's 'I'm afraid of Americans' coming on) and stuff.

Also, I didn't really need to worry about not knowing any of the girls there, this time. Tee hee.

There are a couple of links up for photos, but one of them is a pain to use, so here's the 'Highlights' one (which we actually made it into, woo!).

Now I have a whole week of nightshifts, which is something of a bringdown. But! at least I've got a cool brocade jacket and mask and stuff hiding in a wardrobe somewhere. Maybe I should dress up to come into work. Might make things a little more interesting....

More fun out the back at the BBC

2007-01-24T08:59:00.000+13:00

Man. Just realised how dodge that sounds.

Ahem, anyways. Check out the fun someone was having with sets from children's programs:

Hahaha. Awesome.

Music update

2007-01-11T08:28:00.000+13:00

The world of Barnes's music:

Mogwai:

Gotten some good milage out of the album 'Mr Beast' and am moving slowly towards 'Yount Team', but not finding this as good so far. We'll see.

The Mars Volta

Well, I only have HALF of an album, I think. Dont ask me how that happenend. Anyway it is 'De-Loused in the Comatorium', and seems to be not bad. Dangerous proximity to hipster territory, but I think still acceptable, given caution.

Thome York

'The Eraser'. Mixed bad. Has some really good stuff and some definate filler tracks. Very much sounds like a 'laptop production' effort, but still acceptable stuff, I think. Particularly go for 'The Clock', 'Black Swan', 'And it Rained All Night' and 'Harrowdown Hill'.

Otherwise, I've found that NIN is almost perfect walking music. Good tempo to ensure that I'm not late for work, particularly. I need more of this stuff, as I only have a couple of albums at the moment.

Actually, I am in need of a new music binge very soon, methinks.

Making with the belated chrissy greetings, and such

2007-01-02T08:59:00.000+13:00

So, as noted by young Sarah, I've been a bit of a lazy arse with the posting, of late.

It HAS been xmas, and I've had my mind on getting a few things together for that. In the end, I had a lovely Polish-style dinner on Xmas eve, with Natalie (a name that some may recognise and others may not) and her parents.

Xmas day invovled me driving (in a borrowed car) across London to Coz's place, where we proceeded to do more of the whole over-eating thing (as is required by the traditions of the season). We essentially had a roast dinner, which was also pretty good. Unfortuntaly we (Rob, Coz, Natalie and I) had done far too much eating to be able to think about getting drunk in the evening and so just took it quietly and chilled out, essentially.

Yeah. So, drove back to Natalie's again on Boxing day, and ate some more! Tough work, with the continual eating of tasty food, but these are the sacrifices we make, I suppose.

And that was Xmas (you'll notice I'm too lazy to use the full spelling. So sue me)

Aaand last night was New Years. I may or may not be feeling a bit wonky due to too much Cider last night. Oh well. Perhaps this is also something of a seasonal tradition...?

Anyways, packed in with a bunch of people (IE thousands of Londoners) along the Thames embankment and watched the fireworks. Chatted with people, drank cider and then tottered off home. Oh, with a brief tustle with rampantly overcrowded tubes.

So. Thats the finale for 2006. Another year older and wiser and uglier, and all that. Many thanks to those who have sent xmas and new years greetings. Some people I've gotten on to personally and others seem to have been luckier...

Anyways, will try to catch people in time. Cheers all.

Another test thingy (where do these all come from?)

2007-01-02T08:44:00.000+13:00

There are a power of these things around, and I have never figured out why...

But anyway, I often stop to do them, because I'm easily distracted.

The results for this one seems to say that I'm all lovely and super into cuddles, which I'm not sure how to take, actually. Perhaps I shouldn't be broadcasting this sort of thing to the world. Meh.

BIG CHICKEN!

2006-12-20T10:12:00.000+13:00

Thats what we need. A big one.

Xmas preparation is somewhat...haphazad, currently.

Still, I know that at least *I* will have enough to eat, and there's already 1 Litre of Absolut with my name on it.

Cant miss.

Thats about what I'm up to at the moment.

Hmm, oh yeah.. went and saw Casino Royal. Thought it was fairly good. To be honest, it did seem like a departure from Bond, to me, but 'meh', I was never drawn into the original deal that much anyways.

What else... have been reading stuff a bit, recently (as libraries are free). Finished some short stories by H.P Lovecraft, which were (waves had about in that weird vague motion) 'ok'. Certainly readable, but for some reason didn't grab me that much. Kinda quaint in some ways (mostly lingustically-speaking), but not to bad in terms of content, although I did get a little tired of the constant references to the necronomicon.

Also, read Philip K. Dick 'Do androids dream of electric sheep?' which was fairly decent. I often get this weird thing with sci-fi stuff where I'm thinking 'I like where you'er going with this subject matter, but you've just said something that was intended as really deep, but has jsut come out sounding silly'. Does anyone else get this. Its usually more the case with old-school stuff like Asimov or Arthur C Claarke, but I got touches of that that kind irritated me. Could use more pruning, perhaps.

/shrug. Well,I just got out 'A scanner darkly', so we'll see how that goes.

Flagrantly Uninformative Subject Heading

2006-12-09T08:30:00.000+13:00

So. Ever feel like you cant be fucked thinking up a sensible heading...?

Anyways. It appears that I'm getting fairly lazy with this thing. Bad me. /Smack. It's not because I haven't been doing anything, either. Yep. Its mostly laziness.

For example, A while ago, a couple of weeks or something, probably, Rob and I went to Video Games Live. Which was kinda cool. I did feel a little out of my depth there, to be honest (ie, everyone there seemed to be able to recognise various game music composers on sight, somehow), but it was still kinda cool.

Still, what was more cool, was a late minute opportunity to see Tool at Wembley Arena. Wasn't expecting this at all, but a chance came up the week before and it was pounced on. I DID attempt to remember the set listing, and even wrote down what I thought it was straight after, but I'm not sure where that is, so I might have to elaborate at a later date.

Needless to say, however, that it was pretty cool (although I understand that this may be in conflict with reviews that various Roberts may give of their outdoor festival performance in Roskilde. Meh)

Right, so, its friday night (and I have to work tomorrow), so I REALLY should rustle up some sort of drinking or something. This sort of thing requires MENTAL INPUT, y'know...

Bullshit review #1

2006-11-27T04:09:00.000+13:00

So. I've noticed that some of you other guys actually tell other people about things you read/eat/perv at etc...

So, if its good enough for you, there's a small chance that its good enough for me.

Hence, a bullshit review!

I read a book (catch 22) which I thought was quite decent. Laughy-weird/random bits early on. More serious war-related overtones later (but still with the odd helping of randomness to avoid total bring-down).

Recommended.

(Hmm. that was easy.)

Coolest thing about work so far

2006-11-23T10:10:00.000+13:00

So. saw this just hanging around in one of the storage areas at work. Easily the coolest thing about working at the BBC so far..

Hee hee.

A little hovel to call my own

2006-11-20T09:52:00.000+13:00

Thats right.

The Glorious rumours are 101% true. I do indeed have somewhere that I can officially call my place of residence.

Its not super, but hopefully will not be a tiresome and generally full of annoying and disruptive goings-on as hostels. Well, at least not full of said things generated by other people. I'm giving no guarantees.

I guess you'll just have to tune in 'same bat time..' (etc) to see how truly horrific, or not, it is.

But yeah, other than that. My general theme for the coing months, I think, is going to be the whole frugal living thing, in an attempt to save money to buy things. Yep. The corporate whore game. Also, perhaps fund some trips somewhere, or something. Who knows. Maybe I'll go join the circus. Dont even try to stop me.

Also, sampling my first batch of nightshift. Proving to be cruisy, actually, if not a little disorienting on the body-clock. i'm essentially getting paid double to read books and chill out, tho. So, yeah. Not going to cry too much of a river...

More for your money

2006-11-02T11:02:00.000+13:00

So, I'm doing a bit of a bulk update thingy, even though you guys have heard about all the important stuff, ie that a good white ninja comic came out and that I got really bozed (again), but I guess the punters begin to bay for blood if they don't get there pennies's worth.

Well, as some may know, I am now a working man. This is whats invovled:

Peeople ring the BBC.

They have a certain chance of getting me on the other end.

They have a 'certain' chance of being connected to the person they actually want to talk to.

Tee hee.

But yeah. Job is fairly boring, but has yet to lead to starvation and 'I'm a prostitute and I live in a box on the side of the road' style thing. Y'know - like the old songs. The beautiful old songs. (yeah... uuh, badly butchered 'Black Books' quote there, for those having difficulty).

What I DONT have, is a place to live that I cant refer to without thinking 'I need to leave here very soon, as its a pile of balls'. In other words, I'm STILL in a hostel.

Lots of fun stuff in this last place. Here's a few:

My first room was on the 1st floor. It was clean and tidy and seemed ok. I asked for a further week, and was duly 'upgraded' to a room on the 4th floor, which was supposed to sleep 6, but is actually now sleeping 8. Yay for couples in your dorm room (2 of them, no less). Also, its such a mess that I was compelled to take a photo (be glad that cameras are unable to convey smell, by the way), which I might post later, if I can be bothered.

1st night, I was awoken by a drunken dude entering the room and chatting to eveyone at about 2am. Granted, someone (ahem) had ACCIDENTALLY stolen his bed and he needed assistance in figuing which was the last remaining bed available for use. This does not excuse the noises and crap that he continued to emit, however (I never realised that anyone could scratch themselves with such volume, and the satisfied murmurings weren't too welcome either)

And there's my bunk. It is the worlds most unlikely thing to be described as a sleeping surface, ever. I feel like it may have survived one of those 'pay $1 for 10 minutes to swing a big hammer at this random object' things that you occasionally see at fairs. Or is that just a Timaru thing? They're great! But not for sleeping on afterwards. Also, it somehow manages to be at a ridiculous angle - large enough for the sheets to deposit themselves on the floor if I don't continue to hold them up throughout the night.

Lots of other things to amuse OTHER people, but this is getting excessivley long already.

Come over and get me drunk and I'll tell you all about it.

Hmm. Other things are happening in the blog world, too, I see. Welcome to Ben and Hamish, whose blogs I might just add to my list, when I can (again) be bothered.

Lastly, I'm not sure if you people that I know (and she doesn't) browse her blog, but I saw a thing that I quite liked on Swifty's blog. Check this six-word story business out.

More webcomic endorsement

2006-10-24T11:40:00.000+13:00

So, I was going to not bother posting for a little while, as I figured I could get away with it after the frenzied multi-posting action of the weekend.

However, I did not account for the ridiculousness of White Ninja Comics. A ridiculousness which simply demands endorsement.

That shit is just brilliant.

The Hangover

2006-10-23T01:51:00.000+13:00

OKaaay..
Post-party roundup time.

I haven't read anything from last night, but I believe that a blogger malfunction prevented much of the drunken posting that I attempted (at least, dim memories are suggesting something like that)

But yeah, at this point I'm feeling a touch manky. Perhaps starting on the wine after finishing all the cider was a bad idea. Although, I think we're all aware that such things don't exist whilst boozed. (Waking up on the floor of the bathroom in the middle of the night is usually a fair indication that it WAS, though)

Anyhoo, general recollections of the night are stuff like dancing around the lounge, especially at the point when we had our own DJ (yes, the type with turntables and stuff). There was a certain amount of acoustic guitar singalong, and I'm sure a pretty large amount of the ol' talking crap business (which is a given, I guess).

Hmmm. Things are hazy, but a good time was had, I'm pretty sure.

The evening progresses

2006-10-22T12:19:00.000+13:00

(i forget the booze count at this point)

So, conversation abounds, BObs revells with a young lady (thats all I'll say) and some of us get more drunk.yay!

Drunk enough to try and mess with Rob by unbuttoning his top, I guess. Is that a bad sign?

ooh. I wrote Steve a cared on the back of a toy car package. Im the best 'random mate' ever. Hooray me :)

There's more, I'm sure, but one forgets thees things.

Awesomeocopter

2006-10-22T10:02:00.000+13:00

Bob here,

I first want to say that everything anyone else says is all (mostly) lies. I'm drinking the file British ales which I will greatly miss when I leave in 6 days.

Back to a conversation...

5 Ciders in..

2006-10-22T09:56:00.000+13:00

And things are movings nicely.

Bunch of Bob's mates are here, which is cool. I *think* I'm still doing ok. There's another bunch in the fridge, so we'll see how it goes.

So far we've been grooving to a bit of Beck (guerilito remixalbum) so thats going well, although a certian guest (who will remain un-named) has shown an interest in 80's goop, so I',m hoping that doesn't transpire...

Anyway. I guesws I'm not drunk enough for this to be interesting. Will try again later.

Mofo.

The Coz Speaks

2006-10-22T09:26:00.000+13:00

that's a lie. I am not at my peak.

However,i have consumed a substantial amount of booze, - it's taking a while for it to kick it in...

but yum...JIM BEAM

In fact, duty free piss is awesome. O for awesome.

So, in an attempt to be insightful to what has actually happened since the last post, i would say that more ppl have arrived, more booze has been consumed, and we have all met Bob's girlfriend. She seem's fun! yay for bob. I'm sure we will insert a photo of said person soon ish. Such a shame that he is fucking off to bloody sydney on friday. We havent shared enough super experiences together, but hopefully love will bring him back and we can get drunk in foreign countries again soon.

anyhoo....there is rubbish being talked in the Kitchen, thats right.. the kitchen. Is that not the place where the most shit gets talked...??

in funny news.. Bob got a teapot from his work for a leaving party present. How useless. Not. Thats like buying wayne a gun rack when in fact he doesnt 'own a gun, let alone many guns to necessitate a gun rack...'

Bring on the weird naked indian... :-)
bloggiojng

(another barnes edit) A photo of the young coz's first blogging experience.

The Hunter cometh

2006-10-22T07:25:00.000+13:00

Bob's flatmate Steve just stopped by with some 1800-year old Roman pottery and we're listening to German pop music and eating pizza. Barnes is wielding a camera fearsomely, and I'm sure there'll be some awful photos of drunken tomfoolery in the near future.

(barnes edit:) aaand heres a photo of the two bobs, just for posterity.

Its time... for carnage

2006-10-22T07:01:00.000+13:00

So, we be positioned in the lounge of the young Bob his-self. There is drinking to be done, as its his final weekend here in the U of K.

To this end, I am personally committed to "go out with these people and.... get fucked up!".

Anyways, its step one of (hopefully) a number of posts this evening. I'm also trying to get these other lazy bastards to do the same. We'll see how we go.

This is vaguely the beginning of the night, but I've actually already had 3 cans of strongbow. Whatever.

Photo of me at this point:

The Satanbulance

2006-10-10T11:37:00.000+13:00

I managed to dredge this up from the Ensoc website.

You just cant beat the Undie 500 (It's even managed to make it into wikipedia).

Still got it

2006-10-10T06:29:00.000+13:00

So, it seems that my talent for, on occasion, getting markedly drunker than everyone else and geting all vomity; has not disappeared.

To make things worse, it seems my booze tolerance has been slipping slightly.

I'm fairly sure I managed to make more of a chumby out of myself this time than usual (although this may be compounded by not being around people who are used to the whole '"Where's Barnes?", "Hmm, guess he must be off spewing somewhere"' scenario).

Naff.

Points for creativity

2006-10-05T10:45:00.000+13:00

Some band called 'American Heritage'

They called one of their songs: "It's Like Fucking a Napkin Full of Toenails"

I haven't heard it actually, but points for creative song titles, I guess.

I love to share :D

Success at the electric ballroom

2006-10-03T00:56:00.000+13:00

First of all, this isn't related to scoring, at all. If I was going to make a post about that (crass as that would be) it would surely come under a title involving stuff like:

'the poontang blues' or 'the men don't know but the little girls understand' (or pretty much anything that Jim Morrison ever said)

But anyway, the "success" to which I allude is in regards to finally getting a request for Ratamahatta through at the electric ballroom.

My repeat customers may be aware of a certain obsession developing for this song, and noone ever plays it when I request it. This includes that place I went to in Cardiff that had a midnight toast call. Yes, they would give away heated bread, but they wouldn't play my song for fear of it not fitting in...

Brownie points to the electric ballroom for finally giving me what I want.

GIMMIE GIMMIE!

Observations on life, part 1

2006-10-03T00:38:00.000+13:00

One cage girl can be pretty hot.

Two cage girls (in the same cage) is exponentially more... porno.

Successful candidates must have a good education background and be fluent in punjabi.

2006-09-20T00:44:00.000+12:00

Hmm. Looking for a job is, on the most part, tedious...

but occasionally you run into things that you dont expect. Hehe.

(anyone know how hard it would be to learn Punjab?)

Goodbye Sober Day

2006-09-18T20:14:00.000+12:00

So yes, as indicated by Mr Squirk, we intended on making an obligitory trip to the church (read: feral drinking establishment for Kiwis/Aussies/SAffers).

...and this we did. Sundays only, of course.

Began drinking whilst in the queue (approx 11:30am) and crawled out again after the lock-in is finished at 4pm-ish.

Having not had anything to eat beforehand, I was a little worried by the fact that I couldn't buy anything to eat in there. For the record, however, it was not me that was falling over and requiring carrying by the time the whole thing was over.

I believe that honour goes distinctly to Rob. Congratulations, my friend. Hahaha.

Hmm; I have a catalogue of memories (some of which are hazier than others):

-The concierge in the toilet having a collection of bizarre rhymes that he pretty much belted out constantly. For example: "No Armani, no Poonani!", or; "If you're happy and you know it: wash your hands", etc.

-The stripper making guys eat marshmellows out of various uuh, 'nooks and crannies'...

-Cozzie being dissapointed after the 'male stripping' that was promised being left in the hands of a bunch of dudes from the audience. Seriously guys, dont just whip all your kit off and walk around on stage with your wobbly bits out. However, I understand that the availability of Woodstock bourborn may have made up for this.

-A fairly spirited rendition of 'slice of heaven'

Other than that, mostly just Strongbow-related jumping around and stuff.

Hehe. I wonder how Rob is feeling right now...

As requested by Mr Jungle Rhino, esq.

2006-09-15T04:03:00.000+12:00

So, our local Rhino pointed out that the Vid. for Ratamahatta was worth a look, so I have dutifully dug it up on Youtube to share within this little Microcosm:

Linky

Having not seen it before, I can't say if its the ACTUAL video for Ratamahatta (such is the nature of youtube and the internet at large), but an educated guess might gesture in that direction.

Bit creepy on the vid, actually, but worth a watch; for its eeire tool-esque claymation and also because its a cool song.

Weird voices in my... oh, wait. Just my iPod.

2006-09-09T05:30:00.000+12:00

So, I was just thinking about what I've been listening to on my iPod recently. I'm pretty sure the top spot, in terms of playtime, is split between Sepultura:'Roots' and Beck:'Seachange'.

What a weird person I am.

Just thought you might like to know.

In other news, I may need to one day purchase adult diapers - purely for reading Dr McNinja. Either that or read it on the john, but that's surely just inconsiderate.

[haha. another 'Superbly Pointless Post Award' nominee, surely]

"Hi. I'm a D6. Nice to meet you"

2006-09-08T23:42:00.000+12:00

Well, I copied Swifty and took the "Which Polyhedral are you" test.

Behold, the terrifying results:

I also had a stab at Jon's 'Girl's Name' song extravaganza, but I think Joel is better at it than me. But, he couldn't have saved the world (well, people's families) without my help.

I truly am a valuable sidekick.

...and now for something completely different

2006-09-03T09:11:00.000+12:00

So, after that serious post, I felt I should return to the general silliness that pervades this place. I have a fun story to get us back on track.

I was walking through the underground and I saw a sign saying:

'No heavy loads to be placed on this structure'. (some of you might guess where I'm going with this)

Perhaps the number one best sign that you could ever put above a toilet, I thought.

Ok; Purile I might be, but I bet I'm not the first to think it.

ZOMG! a serious post

2006-09-01T12:31:00.000+12:00

No, really (and a wee touch of quasi-leetspeak too).

So, its the last night for me in this fork-less hostel (another night of the pasta challenge) and I'm reading a psychology textbook. For some reason they have a whole bookcase of them and this one was lying around. (God, I was even brushing up on some Economics the other day).

Anyway; I have come across this experiment by a dude called Milgram, in 1974.

For those who are too lazy to read it I'll summarise: it showed an experiment where one person (an actor) is asked a series of questions, while another (the actual subject) is required to administer increasingly large electric shocks to the actor for incorrect answers. This is all staged so that the actor gives a number of incorrect answers, and pretends to receive the shock but actually doesn't.

The key issue is that about 65% of participants were prepared to give the actors shocks that they themselves believed were harmful and possibly fatal, simply because they were instructed to continue with the experiment by the people running it.

According to the textbook I read; a number of the participants (people giving out the shocks) were particularly shaken and 3 actually went into varying forms of shock.

I often get angry at the inabilty of people to think for themselves (and at myself when it applies to me - what a hypocrite) but this sort of shit is just ridiculous. Gah, maybe I would have done the same. Who knows.

Man, psychology has the best emperical examples, by the way. Especially the old school ones that are super-unethical.

Welcome to the hotel Kensington

2006-08-30T13:10:00.000+12:00

Such a lovely place,
Such a lovely place.

Well, if you like your hostels to be annoying and have the odd weird shit going on.

Ooo; show and tell time:

The jug in the kitchen doesn't work. I boil a pot of water to drink tea every day.
There isnt a single fork in the kitchen here. I cooked spaghetti and ate it with a spoon.
I could hear people nextdoor having sex last night. Interesting considering its a 4 person dorm...
My bunkmates doing lines with their mates, apparently not put off by me being in the room.
The fucking shift and ctrl keys dont work on this keyboard (the most annoying of all).

So, yeah... interesting times.

It occurs to me that my run-down on the trip to Bristol neglected to mention our trip to the Walkabout - a chain of antipodean-targetted booze joints fairly akin to generic pubs back home. For a particularly in-depth look at our drunken evening see a post by Mr Squirk (Rob).

For those of you who read his whole blog, yes its true... we did let him use 'Camwhore'.

Lastly, I still havent shaved since I left NZ. Here's a (bad) artist's impression of what it looks like:

Well, I thought it was funny..

Tabloids are surely for stupid people..

2006-08-23T23:38:00.000+12:00

And I would like to add the following 'shocking' headline to the mounting evidence:

'ROCK STAR DRUG ADDICTION'

(and your point being...?)

This is almost as silly as the signs around London that cheerfully state:

"Think lips. Think Pink".

(Apologies for being fairly dirty here, but please; who is screening these things)

(I am still struggling to find something to top the 'Sacs and Such' dabacle, tho)

The Vince creature still lives

2006-08-23T23:28:00.000+12:00

Only he now pretends to be called 'Michael'.

So yeah, just completed a bit of the ol' visit to Bristol, to see Vince for his 25th. A small amount of mooching off him and Jess and I'm back in London again.

Not a great deal to report on Bristol. 1st stop was a pub called 'the Reckless Engineer' (named after someone who used different rail track gauge to everyone else. Winner), so that's prolly worth a mention.

I went and spent an afternoon in Portishead, which was a placing rocking to the point of not actually having a sign bearing their town's name. Way to spoil a good photo op, you useless bastards. Still, managed to improvise with a half-obscured 'Co-op' sign. Perhaps not quite the same, tho.

In other news, have finally sampled the Mogwai that I stole from Jon, and it's done alright for a 1st listen. Might manage a few more at some point.

More on Cardiff Nightlife

2006-08-15T05:38:00.000+12:00

was my last night in Cardiff and, having ruled out the local metal place as being a valid place to spend saturday night, I was a little unsure as to where to head. I was initially just going to get a few drinks at the hostel bar.

But, a better solution presented itself:

Check out the local gay bar with a random Lesbian chick from the hostel.

Was actually a pretty fun night, to be honest. Perhaps not something I'll make a habit of, but pretty good. The best thing is easily the lack of any kind of sexual tension at all, in that you don't have to worry about actually persuing any young ladies (or, more likely in my case -bein lame for not having done so). Also, somehow I think people understood/knew I wasn't gay (perhaps the lack of dress sense and personal presentation skills gave it away), which was handy.

Met a couple of fellas (look, traditional Welsh slang there, I believe) there who seemed fairly hard case, and worth a good yarn. Was kinda time to bale when the people I was with started to pair up and disappear for the evening, though.

After the expesnses of the weekend, I'm thinking I might need to get a job soon. Also, I don't think I'm adjusting hugely well to not actually having a home. Doing ok, but starting to get sick of not having my own bed/room/anything.

Plus, using net Cafes is annoying, mostly because they all use bloody IE when, of couse, they should be using firefox. As well as being crappy, it seems to make my blog look stupid and not arranged properly.

One final note: my ankle is playing up. I'm hoping I haven't done anything silly like that young Joel once did (ie: a broken ankle). But Meh, I think an x-ray will cost too much (especially while I could be drinking with that money). Will just try to rest up and hopefully she'll be sweet.

Welsh National Snoring Contest

2006-08-13T01:52:00.000+12:00

Well, at least some of the dudes in my bunkroom seem to think so.

Yeah, I'm over in Cardiff at the moment. It's not bad over here; reminds me of NZ a little, but then you try and talk to people and the accent kinda snaps you back. Still get these dreaded 'Coronation Street' style flashbacks, which is weird. Oh, also, I walk past a big castle-type thing on what I think is the main street every day...

I'm at a Hostel that has a bar in the bottom floor which, incidently; seems to stay open typical New Zealand-style hours, which is late for most pubs over here. Dangerously convenient, actually. Apparently there was someone puking in our room on the first night I was here (and it wasn't me, woo!), although I was pretty shaky by the time I hit bed as well.

I also manged to go out to a club for the first time since I arrived in the UK. First went to see some indie-folk gunk with some other dudes from the hostel. Not my style, but one of the dudes had an amusing voice and a particularly frantic stage-presence (well, floor area-presence, really). Proved to be entertaining enough for those reasons, I guess.

But, I baled fairly quickly to the local 'metal club' (which I had previosly researched for such an occasion). Weirdly enough, their big metal night is a wednesday, and I had to make do with crappy pop-rock bollucks, which was actually quite disappointing. Strangely enough, the DJ wasn't so amenable to half-cut Kiwi demanding he play Sepultura. Common enough scenario for me, so not really phased, though.

Locals proved to be super-friendly (may want to swap in 'drunk' there actually, but same thing, I suppose) and had a few intesting yarns over the course of the night.

Such as:

"Ah, you're from NZ, huh? Cool. NZers are always welcome here 'cause you guys have to endure the same fecking sheep shaggin' jokes that we get from the bloody English"

Also managed my first discussion about Fantomas with a random. I was shocked when he was just kinda "eeh, it's ok" about 'The Directors Cut'.

Looking at club genres around here is pretty depressing too. Soo much Indie going on. I blame the Arctic fucking Monkies for that (at least to a certain extent anyways). Bloody 'fashionable' music.

Oh yeah, went and saw a castle. Was big; made of stone. That kind of stuff. The end.

Coz - get a new shower, and a curtain, too.

2006-08-04T02:43:00.000+12:00

Well; the flight is done, and my body hasn't quite broken down entirely.

Yeah, the trip, combined with a full 12 hours of lugging my pack around heathrow and then Hyde Park by myself ,was fairly... grueling.

I did have the dubious pleasure of spreading my generally filthy and knackered bodliy...uh... aura through one of the poshest McDonalds I've ever been in, when I got into london. The Maccers in Kensington has live piano, by the way. There were 'looks', from other patrons.

And London is, well; pretty big, actually - kinda annoyingly so. I'm already irritated by having to spend extended periods on trains to get where you need to go, not to mention the costs. I also have this bloody idiot tendancy to keep multiplying everything by 3, just to keep it in some lunatic 'perspective', or something. It seems to be offending my general tight-arse sensibilities no end.

Otherwise I have been entertaining people (Coz's flatties, other people on the underground, for example) by coughing, blowing my nose and just generally advertising the fact that I am an unwell individual, and likely affected with something fun and CONTAGIOUS. I'm fairly sure its just a wee cold, but as far as other people know it could be the begginings of TB, or something. If you're going to make other people uncomfortable about being in a close proximity to you, you might as well have a little fun with it, I suppose.

Also, I somehow seem to have difficulty actually understanding some people here. Apparently NZ english branched off from our common root a lot longer ago than I really ever appreciated. There are so many other languages floating around here, if I overhear someone talking, I often have to listen for a few seconds just to verify that it's English. Hmm, perhaps I'm exaggerating a wee bit, but some people are bloody hard to understand.

One final thing I've noticed, is that all english men of around 40+ seem to have aquired exactly the same laugh. Well, cackle, is more appropriate, I think. Quite odd.

Oh, and Coz has a weird hand-held shower thing that I dont like. In fact, I just decided that I dont like it enough to make it the subject heading, hah!

The Aeroplane Flies High

2006-07-31T12:23:00.000+12:00

So, going to be getting on a torturous economy class trawl over to the UK soon. Suffice to say, I cant wait to sit in the same cramped little space for MANY hours.

Also, if I'm very lucky I wont be driven immediately insane by any inane yank-chatter - which I am also dreading. If this happens I might actually keep myself together enough to enjoy the DVT that I will have worked so long and hard for. Glee.

Perhaps I should have gone out last night and tried to burgle some waste fat from a liposuction clinic (Fight club styles). Could have had that crap injected into my buttocks, or something. I guess a simpler solution would be a cushion, but thats far less dramatic. Plus, I get the sense that half the point of a blog is to make as many wanky references to shit as possible - and I cant think of any involving cushions.

In other news - it seems that some of you other blogging peoples have found me. I am foiled! (ahem) uuh, I mean... nothing.

Gah, I have a sore throat, and no amount of Vodka seems to be able to shift it.

Foreign Soil - Step 1 (Sydney)

2006-07-28T12:54:00.000+12:00

So, things have come to fruition, and I have managed to drag myself as far as Sydney - where I'm just beginning a 4 night stint of the old couch-sleeping routine.

Many thanks to the very Mr Wildebeest Esq. himself; for the pleasure. This post is a quick one while I ninja the lappy of a flatmate here.

The flight - went ok. Had some chicken fillety thingy, which wasn't too bad. Managed to rustle up a couple of vodkas along the way too, which was kind step one in the general blood-thinning of the evening.

Had annoying french kids behind me (with the kicking and the squealing, etc). I guess it did occupy me for a few minutes while I tried to mentally parse out a sentance along the lines of "piss off you annoying little shite". Having probably fewer than a dozen french words to work with, however, did not make that easy.

I didn't bother listening to the movie and instead tuned into my iPod the whole way. It looked like it was some pretty drippy movie about some dance teacher giving lessons to unruly kids at a local high school. Typical 'awesome teacher comes in and turns all these kids lives around and whatnot. The best part of the movie was the big climactic dance scene which, for me, was done to the soundtrack of such ballroom classics as 'Wet Rubber', 'Comfortably Shagged' and 'Hot Sexy Lusty'. Head Like a Hole (HLAH) - a must have for any half decent sappy movie about dancing.

Lastly; there was, of course, drinking to be had last night. Few vodkas and a trip to some place for a regular piece known as 'Rock and Roll Motherfucker'. Apparently we struck a bit of a dud night in terms of music selection, and I guess 'Hipster pop with the ocassional foray into 80's schlock, motherfucker' may have been a little more appropriate. Still, there was a decent bit of 'this' (please note that the witness makes the 'drinky drinky' motion) and I'm not sure how one can go wrong with a night involving some of that.

My mouth tastes like sunday morning, yet - its only Friday!

Things Coming Together (Halo One)

2006-07-21T16:00:00.000+12:00

Gah. Terrible NIN reference there (but I couldn't help it).

Still, whilst being a poor attempt at humour, the subject is at least vaguely informative. Things, it seems, are coming together. The list that I hurredly scrawled at some point is beginning to look mostly 'crossed-off'. Of course, this still doesn't change the fact that my room continues to be nothing less than hazardous to make one's way through. Plus: my curtain broke and is permanently down now, so I get to wallow in dinginess as well.

Well I was originally using that phrase with regard to OE preperation, it also kinda relates to the presentation of the ol' blog, here. It has progressed somewhat since I started with it (when it was pretty super plain and dull). Currently its just somewhat plain and dull, but I'm getting there. Its 'coming together', as it were.

My HTML and CSS (cue nerdy 'ngeh ngeh' noises - for the general populous) ability is about as equally sharp and incisive as the atmosphere at your general retirement village, but I'm doing my best. It doesn't help that everyone else has already stolen all the colors - you greedy bastards! (see other blogs I linked up there). This even includes pink (you know who you are). There isn't a chance in hell I would ever use pink, but you get the idea.

Think I can salvage something credible out of an unlikely combination of silver (yeah, apparently) and red...?

Who knows.

Well, people with some sense of taste and colour-matching ability, I guess.

Piling up crap and wrestling with my iPod

2006-07-18T03:04:00.000+12:00

So, that last post wasn't too bad for a first effort. I only had to edit it about five times.

The joys of drinking (I failed to mention that I actually came home and wrote that at about 5am after being in town).

So yeah, still haven't left yet, but am slowly getting 'organised'. This evening I managed to 'organise' a bunch of stuff into little piles all over my room. That's why I'm still up at 3:00am: my bed is still buried. I've even decided to keep moving CDs over to my iPod, which should help heaps.

While I'm glad to have upgraded from my minidisc player to an iPod, what I'm not so stoked about is how long it is taking to put everything on to it. Granted, I could just pull across the music that's on my PC, but I tried that and a whole bunch of it isn't labelled or anything. Foreign places will be stressful enough without having to deal with some bizarre pot-luck music situation. Imagine: I might end up listening to Fantomas; 'The Directors Cut' instead of, say Fantomas; 'Suspended Animation'. You see what I mean?

In going through my CD collection I've had a few decent 'now why the hell did I buy that?!' moments. In fact, about half of my CD tower has been organised into a 'meh, could make do without' pile. I know people always talk about how your taste change, but I'm still thinking we-eel, has it really changed that much?

I dont want to think about getting old, and I think that's where this is heading.

A Bucking of Tradition?

2006-07-16T05:04:00.000+12:00

So, it seems that other people that I know have involved themselves with the whole 'I'm going away, and because I'm too lazy to constantly write emails, I'm going to start a blog and you buggers can read that instead'.

Sounds great to me, so I'm in on the whole deal. The 'bucking of tradition' is, I guess, that I've decided to begin before leaving the country (This may or may not be what other people do. I dont know, it was a catchy title).

Anyways. Its the 15th (well, it was at the beginning of the evening) and I leave on the 27th. Some organising yet to do, but more importantly: Merriment! (most likely involving drinking). So, boozing was to be had on this very eve, and a big squidgy thanks to people who invested their time in coming to see me in my native habitat. Great to catch up with people before I go.

Anyway, after a lovely evening of chatting and boozing and whatnot, I capped the night off with some thrashing around at our favourite loud music establishment (by favourite, I mean - only). Never had much problem there before, but I thought that this particular interchange with some random on the way to the john was worthy of posting:

Me: "Bro'" (nods head to some guy just coming out of the toilets)

Random skinhead guy: (stops...) "I'm not a bro..."

(rolls up his sleeve and points at his wrist) "See... I'm white..." (bizarre kind of 'anti-grin')

Me: "Ah..."
(the portion of my brain in charge of intelligent response has buckled under the weight of an evenings boozing.)

(guy walks off)

Hmm. I spend the rest of the evening kind of hoping to not run into said character again; especially not for an in-depth discussion on the intricacies of race-relations in NZ.

You can expect more of this crap (maybe). Rejoice!