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.