Seasons Greetings

Festivas for the rest of us

Having just gotten home from a boozy last day at work, I'm settling in for some nice holiday time that'll take me into the new year. I believe we're celebrating this occasion with beer and Trivial Pursuit, which Liz bought for £15 yesterday at her office party from a colleague who didn't think it was a decent enough secret Santa gift. On Sunday we'll be heading over to McGee's mum's place and we'll be there till Christmas Day when we'll head over to Marissa & Damon's place to carry on the festivities. It'll be my first Christmas away from home and we really miss everyone a lot more than usual, hopefully Brant will get more drunk and offend a few people to make up for my absence. On boxing day while you guys will be living it up Breakfest style, we'll be going to pick McGee's dad up from the airport which will be awesome, then we'll probably get him nice and drunk at our place.

Miss you all loads and loads, have a great one and Ruth don't forget to make Spunky wear his reindeer ears, he loves it.

I love being transported like cattle

I'm feeling the consequences of an open bar at a swanky cocktail venue. I went to the work Christmas party last night which was a lot of fun. There's less than 30 people in the entire company and I think the oldest person is 36. It's very quiet here at work today and I'm just trying to keep my breakfast down at the moment.

There was a lot of train delays today which happens now and then, so my train was obscenely packed. When it got to my station people slowly started to get off as I made my way to the door. There was this guy in a suit on the platform trying to get in, shoving his way against the traffic. Anyway the "doors closing" announcement came up and I was still in the train with this douche pushing against me. I became very anxious, I didn't want to get trapped in there and miss my stop because this guy didn't learn about how being patient and courteous makes the world go round. I folded my arms in front of me and shoved him out the door and against the wall on the platform as the doors closed. He yelled at me, something about an aunt, so I told him to go fornicate himself with razors. The transportation system really brings out the worst in people. They're like animals being herded, poorly.

32" of happiness

The quality of our lives has increased a lot since receiving our 32" LCD TV.The EBay seller we purchased it off accidently sent us two of em but don't worry mum, we sent it back and now someone owes us lots of karma, preferably in the form of electronic goods. This weekend we went to my cousin Marissa's 28th Birthday Party which was awesome, definitely up there in the list of 'best house parties ever'. I've never seen so many people packed into a flat, it was just so much fun. The recovery day was spent watching legally acquired movies. You know when you watch a film you haven't seen yet and it's actually surprisingly good? That happened on recovery TV day, twice. And it's been a while since I've seen a movie that I enjoyed thoroughly. Children of Men followed by The Bourne Ultimatum, both blew me away. Loved it. We then tried to watch this movie in which Adam Sandler and that douchebag from the show King of Queens are firemen because it was aparently written by the guys who wrote Sideways. We gave it five minutes and then sent it on its way to the recycle bin.

Still here

Hey everyone, if you guys are still reading. It's been almost a month with no new posts. Basically in that time we've been enjoying our place, hanging out with people a whole lot, bumming around etc. I got a couple of photography gigs and I've got a few more lined up which is great, and also started a job as a 'Video Producer' (I edit mainly, it's just a fancy name) for a nice little company that does work for Turner, I'm in charge of the Adult Swim stuff for Cartoon Network. I basically put promos and stuff together for shows (this week I'm doing Harvey Birdman, Sealab, Orel Moral, Squidbillies and AquaTeen). It's a really nice little office and the people I work with are nice, geeky and film makers like me. Hopefully it'll lead to me weaseling a job at Cartoon Network or something eventually. Anyway I'm still alive and there'll be more posts this weeks with all new photos! Hope everyone is well

Remember remember that movie V for Vendetta

Across the past 4 days people have been celebrating Guy Fawkes day by blowing lots of things up. There's fireworks shooting off constantly after about 5pm daily. We went down to the park on Saturday evening to partake in the awesome legalness of blowing things up in public. On the way we stopped by a corner store who's banner boasted 'discount fireworks! sold here!' It was really crazy to see that many explosives for sale, all wrapped up in exciting packages with a brief description of what you can expect from it like "spins into the sky and erupts in a celebration of colours!" We got the lot- cherry bombs, fireworks, launchers, spinners, sparklers and some mysterious ones that we just lit, ran and hoped for the best. We had a wholesome evening in the park with champagne while taking turns in some very juvenile antics. We even managed to coordinate a few impressive displays. Any direction you looked, fireworks! Very fun indeed.

Our house

Here's some pictures of our place in Arsenal.

[ click here ]

There's a fox under my bed

The other day we did our first big supermarket shop except we did it online to be delivered to our place. The delivery charge was free because we spent over a certain amount and it sounded awesome in theory. They delivered a completely incorrect bunch of stuff. Bags and bags of someone elses groceries. I realised this initially when I saw a jumbo pack of diapers. Anyway a couple of calls to their incompetent support staff later and they said they would re-deliver our missing items (most of our order) and asked us to politely re-bag and return the stuff they sent to us that was clearly from someone elses shopping. I put a bunch of token stuff in there, some canned goods, the diapers, a jar of pickled cucumbers. Jez and McGee got home and started picking out stuff that I had selected for return. We briefly discussed the moral issue involved and whether a heartless multinational corporation deserved to have their wrongly sent goods back. Later that evening as we enjoyed some baked goods for dinner that we didn't pay for we admired the ridiculous amount of stuff that we had to look forward to for the coming weeks. Lots of organic fruits, tortilla ingredients, chocolates, juices, that mistake was the best thing to ever happen to us. I kinda regret returning the pickled cucumbers though they could have been delicious in a sandwich maybe. But we're good people. We care.

So this morning McGee woke me up, frantic, saying she heard something under our bed. I looked underneath it while fearing for my life and didn't see anything. Then I went to the bathroom and when I returned she assured me that there was in fact something under the bed. We made lots of noise and 'it' darted out our very open window. It was a fox. A massive, adult fox. And he was just starring at us. Then he did a crap and started peeing, while still looking at us, like he was upset that we'd interrupted his slumber. As you might know it has been my life-long dream to have a fox as a pet, and I asked McGee if we could keep a cub if say we stumbled upon one that was injured, without its parents, looking like it could really use our help. Then we could take it home and nurse it back to health and buy him a collar and all the rest of it. She said no.

A visit to a goth club's bondage night

We went down to the Purple Turtle in Camden, a goth nightclub to see a friend's band which is called Rapid Fiction. He maintains that he answered an ad and that the band name had already been in place. I suggested Vapid Friction. Anyways it was very dark with DJ Fruityloops playing stuff he had cooked up after doing some basic tutorials. He played his generic crap while getting into it way too hard, with embarrassing results.

Each of the bands attempted/wished to be Robert Smith in their own special way. That was pretty much it. There was a terrible striptease that was literally 'your mate who decided to read an online guide on stripping 'and give it a shot. All the patrons were dressed up as either a poor man's David Bowie, Marilyn Manson, Robert Smith or combinations of those three. The ladies were trying to wear as little as possible while attempting not to look self conscious. Everyone was really polite and friendly though. I guess that's what happens when goths grow up and get jobs. My favourite was this synth pop goth band with the front man who dressed up like Billy Corgan except his clothes were clearly made by his mum. He was doing these hilarious dance moves while just doing more of a spoken word than singing, featuring such memorable repeated lines as 'The clown can no longer laugh... laugh'. Genius. I on the other hand laughed, and laughed. It was a good night out.

I am extremely jealous that you guys went to spring in the valley and had an awesome vines adventure in my absence. It was awesome to talk to you eventhough I was on 27 hours without sleep at the time, and I apologise for not being with it. I sure do miss the vines.

A visit to the London Jazz Cafe

We met Jezz at the Jazz Cafe last night to see this event called 'One Taste'. The idea is that about 3 - 4 bands play a short set of about 4 songs each. After that they get on the stage together to play some improvised stuff followed by an interval, and then the three bands perform a short set each again, in a different order. Really interesting sounds. This one group had a pan drum, sax, drums and double bass. Some great music, was really refreshing to hear. The venue is excellent - it's quite small and dark with one bar and a small stage. There's a staircase that leads up to the restaurant where you can eat while watching the bands perform below. Pretty intimate setting, the people performing are right in the middle, close to the audience and the acoustics are excellent. Bonobo have a 1 week residency there next month so I'm really looking forward to that.

The worst job ever (but we're back on the internets!)

Hey everyone,

Literally got the internets back up and running minutes ago in our new place. Turns out ENVY is the biggest crock ever. They actually lied about having positions as editors, they don't! All the editors that work there are freelancers or are working for other companies. It was all very dramatic with this girl that I started with (who was getting 60k a year working in real estate) walking out after crying. A bunch of people left and so they called this emergency meeting type deal. Turns out they hired a whole group of new people myself included because their existing staff left after a very short inning as well. Basically there was really no possibility of getting a decent post production job and being there meant not editing and adding to my portfolio. Then they decided that the newest people would have to take the new shift of 7pm - 6am for two months, 6 days a week. I got the hell out of there. I was able to speak to some senior editors during my time there who assured me that the way to getting into film is to do exactly what you want to do, now. So I got a contact for an agent who actually got back to me and will be finding me editing work. Aparently you start off with reality tv and crap like that but still, stuff to add on my show reel. I'm told that being a runner just gets you a labeled as a poorly paid shitkicker. If they're looking to hire an editor, they're probably going to pick the guy with a showreel that shows steady progress rather than some guy who can prepare an editing suite really well and fast. So lesson learned. In the meantime I'm doing part time design work which is always functional.

Anyways we're in our new place in Arsenal and it is completely awesome. Pictures to come. Hope everyone is well.

New house, new (new) job

So today is my last day here at Wall, and next Tuesday I was to start a new job f**kin* ages out of central London. Seriously, like really far away. It was some mediocre job as well animating and designing menus for DVDs. I was mostly dreading the commute. Like 90 minutes each way taking 3 different trains and a bus. BUT a couple of days ago I got called in for a trial day at ENVY Studios UK which is this really high profile post-production house that does a lot of BBC and Talkbalk Thames TV shows, as well as movies. I really love a lot of the programs that these people make so I was nervous about the trial, it's an actual 'start your career in the TV industry' job. The position is literally at the bottom. Poorly paid, you get to be everyones' bitch but you can move on up in a pretty direct fashion. Get in there anyway you can, meet people, learn what you need to know and then move up until I'm editing or shooting a cool TV show would be the plan.

So I went in on trial yesterday and impressed people and I start on Tuesday, which I'm really excited about. I'm gonna be really poor but I'm working in film & tv, for real. And it's in central London, REALLY central. It'll take me under 30 minutes to get there, one train followed by a 2 minute walk. Also while I'm there in that position, you get to pick two things that you will get trained in, as their way of enticing you to stay within the company. I'm going to pick cutting tv drama/comedy and music production.

Tonight Marissa & Damon are having a going away party for us because it's the last couple of nights we'll have living with them. I have some idea of what that's going to be like. We're moving some our stuff over on Sunday and we move in on Monday. It's a really nice little house and I'll put lots of pictures up next week. The weekend is going to go really fast and I'll be serving angry film people Soy Mocha Lattes with a hint of coconut in no time.

Bye mum & dad

My folks were here over the past few days on their way back home from France where they'd been living it up drinking champagne and eating finely produced baked goods. It really was awesome to have that time to hang out with them. They took McGee and I out to dinner at fancy restaurants every night they were here and there was much champagne to be had by all. They sorted me out with lots of new socks (and then dad disposed of my old socks safely utilising a gripping device) and stuff for our new house (wooh new house!).

Anyway they had to leave on Monday which was sad but made slightly easier for all of us by the big thing of fried rice that mum left us. I guess now they'll return home and make fried rice for Brant, who will have no competition for leftover lunch the next day. I hate that Brant Maitland. We miss them loads, also my siblings and friends. Come visit us already.

Happy Birthday Nat

Saturday was a night of gettin' boozy in Clapham in celebration of my cousin Natalie's 25^th. We started off at this really good Mexican restaurant where we had 8 jugs of Margaritas between 7 of us. Not as good as Sarah's but you know, they were really sweet and had a generous serving of Tequilla in them so not at all bad.

It was the first time I had a Chimichanga which I have to say, I was not aware of prior to this occasion. It's essentially an ultra-cheesy Burrito deep-fried, served with a side of chilli, and Mexican short-grain rice with cheese. Cheese is the theme here. I love cheese. Then we went to a club that played early 90s hits and I got home somehow at 4am. Happy Birthday again Nat.

Hooray for parents

My folks came down for the weekend on the way to their Champagne fuelled holiday in France. It was most awesome. We went to a comedy club in Crouch End where we saw a bunch of pretty decent comedians. The next day we boozed it up again, as we tend to do. McGee and I took them to this awesome pub in West Hampstead for Sunday roast which was topped off with crepes at the Hampstead Crepiere. Delicious crepes. Best ever. The line wasn't its usual 45 minute wait, which was awesome. Anyways my folks are in France and they're stopping back pretty soon for about a week, and I'm looking forward to that. They brought my Nintendo Wii with them, so now I can entertain myself with Wii Play and Wii Sports while I wait for Metroid Prime to come out.

PS: To my siblings, I've got your Wii by mistake! Now I have to make all my hilarious Mii's from scratch. That's like a full day of work.

PPS: Congrats Davs on being an uncle!

Ride the spiral

So today I had a pretty shite day at work. I had to spend the morning taking several trains to whoop whoop to get a national insurance number which is this tedious thing you must acquire to avoid maximum tax blah blah blah. Anyhoo I get to work and lame lame boring boring but the story goes, I'm disgruntled, Liz messages me and says "hey lets go to an acoustic & poetry night". I'm thinking no, I'd rather go home and get drunk and watch tv. Anyway McGee convinces me very quickly that we should go out, it's Wednesday and all, no point letting a mundane job get me down. So I'm up for it at this stage. I get to Brixton by tube, it's packed with people wearing Tool t-shirts. Now I'm well aware that Tool are playing today. I know this because I tried to buy a ticket over a month ago, but it was sold out, both shows. I get to the station and wait for my friends, feeling more and more horrible as I sit on the steps watching more people with Tool shirts walk towards Brixton Academy. Sucks but I couldn't get a ticket and I can't afford it. A scalper comes up to me, I ask him out of curiousity as he quotes outrageous prices for tickets. I've dealt with the fact that I ain't seeing Tool this time round. Anyway Jezz gets there and asks why I'm looking upset.
Me: Yeah I'm sorta upset watching all these people going to see Tool. Because I can't go.
Jezz: Oh right. So you wanna see Tool?
Me: Yes but we can't afford it at those k-razy prices my friend.
Jezz: How bout you do 15 minutes of camera work and not only do we get to see Tool but we get VIP passes?
Me: ......

After lots of man-hugging we go to the awesome Brixton Academy, probably the most classy venue I've ever seen and we do 15 minutes work of video-ing the support band. Then we go to the vip area complete with private bar and awesome view of the stage. Also, Kelly Osbourne is there.

Tool were wicked, best time I've seen them. They played Wings for Marie + 10 000 days. Totally bitchin'. Friends huh?

Pictures tomorrow probably! (PS Matt and Brendan expect a present in the mail, weathered by the London weather I had to power through while carrying said presents).

House hunting continues...

DJ who?

I was looking through my phone-happy-snaps and found some pictures I don't remember taking at Lovebox. Anyway, this is DJ Bumper Car. He as DJing while operating the bumper car rides and aparently I walked up and took a photo of him as he leaned out of his booth/vip club room momentarily. He was operating the ride, crankin' the music and talking to the patrons. He was playing this awesome set of late 80s & early 90s hits. Everyone who initially knocked his abilities ended up groovin' to the tunes. Well done DJ Bumper car. When success rams into you, slide awkwardly backwards and slam on the accelerator.

Nothing much

24. Fuck it.

I'm turning 24 and I'm realising that I miss my friends a lot, so to make myself feel better and acknowledge my aging I'm going to list the things my favourite people have said to me that I think about on a daily basis, that makes me chuckle. Ode to my friends. Here we go.

"So you need to decorate this one with the stickers because it's your guitar in spirit" - Matt
"You know what could be really funny, if I was a good actor and I did it like this" - Tom
"Nah how about this - fuck you buddy I want to be the splinter" - Brendan
"I don't want to throw it away because you know.. it's always there for me.. it's reliable old beige shirt" - Dava
"You and Barbera are always you know doing what you do.. policing" - Jeremy
"Well if we're not going to sleep, then we might as well keep drinking, I'm going to make a drink right now who wants one?" - Sarah
"Oi I've played this game a million times and I've never seen this level before hey no shit" - Baker
"Do you guys need Powerade? Because I've just put a whole bunch back in the fridge. Seriously if you need Powerade guys, they're in the fridge. Cold." - Maynard
"That noise is the most beautiful thing I've heard in the whole world" - Pete
"I'm gonna get so drunk, get in at least 3 fights" - Brant
"Nah Davs I'm not cool with that aye" - Amy
"Hey lady what's your name?... Yeah you're not on the list. Get out" - Liz
"Damn it Nook, don't pretend you don't know what I'm here for" - Emma
"It was a disaster" - Clare

Sweet delicious beer

Due to an 'incident' of some kind, my journey to work was severely delayed because a major station had to be shut down. 'Incidents' cover everything from bag left somewhere to guy jumped on tracks to there's some leaves on the tracks. Anyway this allowed me to get further acquainted with Meteos; my current favourite game on the DS. It's seriously decent portable puzzle action, I highly recommend it. Like reverse Tetris. In space.

I'm taking a long weekend to celebrate my continual existance and it begins tomorrow down at the pub. Saturday will feature a visit to the Great British Beer Festival. The £5 admission fee gets you a stein which you take around Earl's Court sampling the approximate 2500 beers. It's things like these that make me miss my drinking team. It'll be like Spring in The Valley except with beer! And hopefully without the making-out-in-toilet displays. It's probably going to have that and worse. Still, 2500 beers and 'beer-related-food'.

My awesome cousins are throwing me a house party that evening which will feature pizza, cards and more beer. Followed by two days of recovery. It'll be odd not celebrating a birthday with friends and family, you'll all be missed so have a drink for me.

Slow news week

It's okay mum, I'm not dead. I've been working a fair bit and McGee and I have been looking at a bunch of rental houses with our housemates-to-be Liz and Jezz. That process is pretty much how you'd expect it to be except compared to back home, there's actually heaps of places to look at. Loads. We're trying to meet up after work every day and see a place, and it's going well. There's lots of flooding happening, lots and lots of houses are now underwater like those decorations you can get for aquariums that I've always wanted to have. Maybe the fish might go inside it and I could say "hah, just like people do" but we never got one. I haven't actually seen any of this crazy weather though, apart from in the papers. It is really bright and sunny here in London. Every day. A little humid too. Great pint-of-beer weather though. It gets sunny at around 5am and starts to get dark close to 10pm. I'm finding it a bit difficult to decide when to call it a night. It seems too early to go to bed an hour after it's gotten dark.

Wish I could get the pictures from Lovebox but Liz and cousin Tash still haven't sent them. So instead, here's some visual documentation of a lazy weekend. Hope everyone at home is doing just awesome, miss you loads.

[Click here for photos]

Fun in the sun

Lovebox was great. The day started with a champagne breakfast to get everyone in the spirit of things. The sun was out, not a cloud in the sky. It was pouring down when we got there at the start of the festival. Like really, really heavy rain. Ponchos (and garbage bag home-made ponchos) as far as the eye can see, people hudled under trees nursing their beers. An hour later the sun came back out to the delight of everyone present. Out of all the bands, 'the sun' definitely got the best welcome as it took the stage. Even more that 'Patrick Wolf' which is probably one of the worst things I have ever heard. I can only describe it as electro-bootscooting. Really quite terrible stuff. How he has a career is amazing to me.

Pretty different from the summer dance festivals we have back home but a lot of simillarities as you'd expect; nice vibe, lots of people who are strangely excited, cheerful and friendly. Really good music overall. It was especially awesome seeing Blondie and Sly & The Family Stone.

Oh god the armada is here

On Saturday McGee and I are going to Lovebox, which is the summer outdoor festival organised (and this year featuring) Groove Armada. I'm really looking forward to it, can't wait to hear their stuff both new and old, and also check out what an outdoor music festival is like here. It also features Sly & The Family Stone and the B-52's, which I'll definitely be checking out. Hope it doesn't rain, that could be unpleasant for all involved.

1 month in London special edition!!1!

A big hello to everyone at home, you are all missed muchly. It's been a month since we've been here and the process of settling in is totally happening. Today McGee is getting corrective lazer eye surgery, so she's going to be eye-patching it for the next 24 hours which promises to be hilarious and life-changing. She won't be able to watch TV or read so I'll be her only source of entertainment as well as assistance in dodging furniture and Londoners. My plans for tonight involve getting a 6 pack of Budweiser (which I've become quite fond of) and playing some World of Warcraft.

This week has been a very special one for the people of this fine city as Posh Spice and David Beckham have finally packed up their stuff and offspring and shipped off to LA where they hope to be as successful at being photographed as they have been here. They sure are very good at doing those things that they are prominently known for doing. Really good, very professional at all of those things. Especially Posh but especially David. People here seem a lot happier already; children have come out of their houses to play for the first time since that song where Posh spice is dancing in the desert was on tv. The relentless rain has come to an abrupt conclusion, the sun is shining and a few newspapers have speculated that Jesus himself will be hitting the town in London tonight to commemorate this most auspicious of occasions.

This weekend promises to be great, I'm finally going to be working on music with my partner in audio-related crimes (with damages that exceed £49.95) Liz, and relaxing lots because it's been a long week. Hope everyone has a great weekend.

It's nothing personal

The thing I've learnt about London is that there is a lot of etiquette to just about everything, you never apologise, and you can't take anything personally if you are to continue existing. When exiting a train for instance; while making your way towards the door a new passenger who's just entered uses her keen animal senses to detect your newly-free seat and starts making a beeline for it. You're in her path which has been mapped out since the beginning of time, it's all instinct.

So she rams into me and keeps going, her little feet shifting along despite the fact that there's an object in her way. Like bad AI in a video game. I finally un-wedged myself and managed to get off the train. I saw her sitting on her seat looking extremely alert like a hawk was going to steal her eggs or something. Thing is, it had nothing to do with me, it was just her natural need to secure a seat on the train. Makes you think about how complicated and beautiful life is, watching people in their natural habitat. Or that people are horrible and love saving small amounts of time and seats.

Anyway here's a photo of those mini-waffles I spoke of in an earlier post. I love them.

Congratulations London on a stab/Doherty-free weekend!

When Londoners are not reading about Pete Doherty and Kate Moss, urinating in public or stabbing each other for no aparent reason they're partying, and having fun. That's exactly what McGee, Pete and I took part in this weekend at Marissa and Damon's amazing house of fun. Lots of boardgames, cards and drinking from Friday till Sunday, with lots of great food. A truly relaxful and highly enjoyable weekend, and met a bunch of very cool people indeed.

On the national news side of things, Pete Doherty (he's in a band, he's the singer, I'm picking up information on the issues that matter slowly but surely) has broken up with Kate Moss, the papers say that he's well upset, and he's slumming it in the apartment of one of his fans. I think Tony Blair is on his way over to sort that out right away before this gets out of control and good people get hurt. It's just terrible. Let's all keep an eye on this story.

Welcome to London: Stay within the Police taped sector

Turns out my new laptop monitor had a dead pixel. God damn it I hate dead pixels. So on my lunch break I take the tube to get it replaced, or attempt to anyway. I get there, sort it out after a tedious conversation with the people who work at this fine establishment, and upon leaving the building find that the area I'm in and the traffic intersections on either side are Policed-taped off. There were a lot of people looking annoyed, asking the Police men and women questions. Turns out theres (another) suspiscious vehicle at the hospital on the next street which they're evacuating, and nobody is the proximity of said hospital is allowed to go anywhere. So I'm stuck there for over an hour. Eventually they take the tape away and everyone just resumes their life - people start walking into the bars, going back to work and getting on the tube. I get back to work to share my harrowing tale but nobody cares, aparently in some areas it happens like twice a week. If anyone asks, tell them I was in a crisis area and saved a bunch of people before being chased down a hallway by fire. Also, I think this new laptop screen works fine (fingers crossed).

Laptop=back!

Hooray my laptop has been fixed and is back in action, courtesy of McGee's mum. I shall celebrate by installing World of Warcraft tonight. If anyone in the guild is reading this, get back to levelling.

Heroes (not that TV show with the group of people who struggle to act)

So tonight was probably the best night I've had since arriving in this wacky city. In a small, dark basement-comedy-club we got our pints in plastic cups, found some seats and watched David Cross and friends (4 really, really good comedians) knock out a few hours of stand-up. Watching live comedy is really different from watching a comedian on tv, there are no ads, there's a completely different vibe from being there in an audience, and it's a lot longer than the cut-down material that gets edited into a segment for television. Going from having never seen a professional comedian before to seeing my favourite stand-up was pretty crazy. David Cross was hilarious, he looked like he was really enjoying himself, and I was just constantly in tears from laughing so hard. Being the last show on his little tour he informed everyone in the audience that they could help themselves to free wine from the bar after the show. What was additionally awesome was Liz and I getting to have a drink with him. I got to ask him about his work, and he was really interested in what we had to say about the dismal means of promoting TV shows in Australia, and why we've moved to London. He did assure us that promoting anything in America is far more ridiculous, which we discussed at hilarious lengths. Then I asked him stuff about AquaTeen and Home Movies, and Tool, and some show he's pitching that he doesn't think will get picked up. It was just awesome, and inspiring. Not a bad day at all, even considering my laptop meeting its demise. Win some you lose some.

Laptop=pwned

So unfortunately at about 2am this morning after several drinks, McGee's mum had somewhat of a mishap with my beloved laptop causing the lcd screen more hit points than it had. Bit depressed about that. Can't think of anything that would've been worse to suffer such obliteration. She has assured me that it will get sorted under insurance and that I need not worry, so that's a problem for Monday, and hopefully it'll all be sorted soon. I can't really remember the last time I was computer-less.

I had an interview at Sega today for a game tester position, and it was really fun. I think I went really well, but they'll call me in a week or something. Getting paid to play games is pretty neat. So anyways, I'm gonna forget about all that badness because tonight I get to go see one of my heroes David Cross perform at this bar on Oxford Street. I'm really, really amped about that. Can't wait.

Will be in touch with all of you guys again during the week, when I'm at work because they have internets there.

Today another kid got killed and a teenager's skill in knives increased by 1

One of the things I love in London and hope everyone else adopts is the off license. Every corner store is open late, sells food, a great selection of cereals and chocolate bars, and booze. Genius. Literally a short walk away from your home, a mecca of beers and wines the likes of which I've only previously seen in dreams awaits.

Also there's coffee franchises; offering a caffinated beverage of consistent quality and a ridiculous selection of beans, flavours and sizes. Even if you're not into that, it's there, and alternatives are always nice. Another great thing is these mini waffles. They consist of two wafer-thin layers seperated by a thin layer of caramel, so it's this disc the size of a coffee cup lid. You get your coffee, put one of these bad boys on top for a minute and you've got a hot mini waffle with melting caramel, and a coffee of now drinkable temperature. The future is well and truly here.

Sol (imported Mexican beer) 4.5%alc, £1.05
A really watered down beer with barely any flavour. It's like Corona with water. It's probably better with a slice of lemon, but really, don't bother. Thank god I got a Leffe blonde as a backup.

So alive this city!

Since I've been here there has been three seperate incidents involving teenagers getting stabbed, all aparently involving some kind of teenage-gang-warfare that's happening. Also, there's a bunch of floods parading through the country, this one guy got his foot stuck under some debris or something while he was in this drain. He ended up drowning over a long period of time (less dots, okay stop dots) while several people got hypothermia attempting to save him (aoe).

We were down at the pub the other day having several drinks too many and ten minutes down the road back home my heart sank as I realised that my beloved camera was not around my shoulder as it should be. I darted back to the pub expecting to be camere-less once again. There were these two guys sitting at the table, no camera in sight. Fortunately they were extremely nice fellows who handed my camera bag to the person at the bar. I got it back and rewarded their honesty and awesomeness with a delicious pint of Leffe each.

So essentially London is both friendly and deadly. All British people are capable of doing nice things for their fellow man, and are by law required to have a stabbing device on their person at all times, which is of course issued to them at birth by the Queen. I'm really enjoying learning about their mysterious yet sensible culture that we can all take something positive from.

With The Spits-Uh

Today Luke took us to spits. I'm not sure why it's called that, or if that's even the correct name. It's in this market type place that's empty. People show up after work and juggle all sorts of things and do dances and lots of other things that require coordination, to music. It's a very casual, fun and free event with a great vibe and lots of friendly people. The skill level ranged from amazingly professional guy who juggles hats to 'some guy'. I didn't get involved and instead drank a longneck of Budweiser, the perfect compliment to my pita bread and hommus dinner.

[Click here for some photos]

UK Fathers' Day (They just call it Fathers' Day here)

So Sunday was father's day here in the UK and we decided to take McGee's stepdad down to one of the several local pubs that we're surrounded by. This was the first one I'd been to in the area. While we were walking down there I was telling everyone about my favourite beer Leffe, as I do, and how it's really expensive and only comes in tiny bottles. We get there and bam, Leffe on tap and it's the cheapest pint at the venue. It was as if I was at that moment, a UK father. Also I tried this beer called Fruli which describes itself as a 'sweet, fruity beer'. Sweet and fruity it most certainly was. It tastes like a lager brewed with those starburst cube-lollies, just the strawberry ones. It was kinda like a strawberry sundae, but in beer form.

So here's a couple more beer notes from Ibiza.

Aurum Limon (Shandy)- 2.8%, 36 cents (Euro)

This delighful beverage can only be described as a refreshing fizzy lemonade with the welcomed addition of beer, pre-mixed and in a can. I could drink this all day.

Shandy Cryzcampo (Shandy)- 0.9%, 36 cents (Euro)

I love this shandy-in-a-can thing. This one is weaker on the booze, more towards being just a regular fizzy lemon drink. It's carbonated lemonade with a hint of beer. Tastes like Schwepped lemonade except someone spilt some Corona in there, in a good way. Again, shandy in a can, great idea.

Back from Ibiza

Ibiza is a pretty cool place.The island is really pretty and the people are friendly. Lots of naked people. They like that here. There's a small bit of it that's the wooh springbreak part, but mostly beaches and cube-houses.

There's this awesome bar on the beach. It's a small shack that the guy who owns it puts up during summer. They make these drinks which is mostly tequilla, fresh limes and sugar, very nice stuff.
We also went to this bar that was Buddha and Kama Sutra themed. There were lots of swanky people there. Expensive cocktails but an interesting vibe. Also there were people smoking pot and making out.

Houses here have flat roofs and people really get a lot of use out of them. We hooked up a projector and watched a movie up there which was very cool. The film was called 'Bridge to Terabithia'. It was a kids' movie about a young boy who makes friends with this girl. Together they embark on a magical journey of delusion and lies. Not a bad film that stars an older and slightly more bitter T1000. If you ever watch it, imagine the main character has a brain tumor. I think it makes for a much more entertaining viewing in which the kid comes off as being quite wacky, a liar and a bit of a murderer. 3 stars.


I decided to try as many beers as I could find here, so here are some reviews that my beer-loving friends might find amusing.

Aurum (Pilsner) - 4.5% Alcohol, 38 cents (Euro)
A very easy to drink beer. Definitely the best one I had while I was in Ibiza. I could drink a lot of this on a hot day. Refreshing, and quite a light drink.

Estrella Damm - 5.4%
This beer looks and tastes like Carlton Draught. Its flavour is pretty underwhelming. It's also a very heavy drink. The sun out here is pretty crazy. It stays light for so long. It's bright as hell and you'd think it was noon but it's really like 5pm. Really messes up daytime drinking. In a good way.

I'm alive

Hey everyone. I'm alive and well. It's really hot here in London, and humid. I'm leaving for Ibiza this evening which will be great.

The flight from Perth to Bangkok was definitely a memorable experience. There was a bunch of drunk derros who ordered double-shot bourbon and cokes every five minutes. They were trying to pick a fight with these two travelers sitting behind them who couldn't speak English. Fantastic stuff. Later one of them got all frantic because he'd lost his bag which contained his passport and wallet. His friend who was the leader of the derro-pack started yelling about how he was going to smash everyone on the plane to find the c*nt that stole his mate's stuff. So they're ploughing through the overhead luggage while swearing incoherently until someone suggests that they check inside their own bags, where they found all their 'stolen' stuff. Then they said that they still were going to smash everyone because they were very angry, and everyone had better chill the f*ck out because you know, they were angry.

The flight from Bangkok to London was uneventful. I learned a series of seating positions in my attempt to sleep each painfully uncomfortable in its own special way. I spent all day with Liz and McGee's brother Luke which was awesome, aparently it's vital that I return to Azeroth immediately. Today will be all about unpacking after we build the most elaborate piece of IKEA furniture that I have ever seen. There's like 38 steps involved. The 'IKEA-man' in the manuals here seems a bit down and depressed.