The Big O.E

Hostels, Dinosaurs, Bath and Crackheads

jono_79 — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 10:18:00 GMT

Evening all,

Have been doing quite a bit of house-hopping of late, after Notting Hill, I went stayed in a couple of hostels in the city, a part of an experiment to see what it would be like to live in them for a while and also to give my mates a bit of a break from housing me.

First hostel I went to was in Piccadilly Circus, right in the centre of London. It was a bit shit, really although I did room with a couple of interesting German guys, one studying history and French (perhaps feeling guilty?) and the other studying Islamic studies -- pretty interesting I thought. The main prob was that the social areas were miles away from any other part of the hostel, so people didn't naturally congregate together. Anyway, I only booked a few days there before moving to another hostel called "Clink".

Clink was much better. It used to be an old courthouse (and possibly jail) and it had a bar, better communal areas and the computers were set up in the actual old court. It was really cool. Met a few interesting types there too, as a result of the better placed communal area. A crazy canadian girl who sells irons on TV and a Californian guy who'd just traveled around Sri Lanka and India for a while.

On one of my days there, I finally got around to seeing the National History Museum and it was extremely impressive. The building itself is as impressive as the contents inside. When you walk through the door, there's a full scale skeleton of a diplodocus dinosaur which is about 17 metres long, so when I saw that, I did a small pee in my pants.

For me, the dinosaur section was the highlight, including a full scale teenage Tyrannosaurus Rex animatronic. It was eerily realistic (well, I guess it was, no one's ever seen a real dinosaur). It was a fascinating exhibit with loads of skeletons and cool factoids. However, I already know everything there is to know about dinosaurs, so I mostly just gawked at the skeletons.

The rest of the building is very good too, with sections on the animal and bird kingdom, water creatures, earth, space etc... Basically, it's a big science class, but much more interesting than being in a science class.

Friday October 9: Bath. Went to Bath with Craig and another guy Alex for what was a videogame forum meet. Took a while to get there as Alex arrived late, so we left late and got stuck in London traffic. Since we were in Craig's car, his music was on and it was hardcore heavy metal all the way.

The meet itself was a bit nerdy but it was a really good time. Played very few videogames actually and met a bunch of interesting people, several who work in videogames so I was able to get a few tidbits of advice about my portfolio and who to work for and not to work for.

About 40 people attended and we had a room hired out in a pub for playing games but unsurprisingly most people gravitated towards the pub and Bath's bars.

Considering how small it is, Bath has heaps going for it. Lots of cool wee shops, eating places and the town itself is beautiful, loaded with character and steeped in history.

Sunday October 11: Met up with my friend Beth, an English friend who I met in Australia and we did walked around Bath for the day. She lives nearby in Chippenham (15 mins train) and we met up after I checked out of the YMCA.

Went and checked out the Roman Baths which I heard was supposed to be amazing but I found it a bit underwhelming really. Loads of tourists and it seemed a bit 'dragged out', truth be told, with lots of exhibits about rather minor things. Maybe because I had done Classical studies (and got first in class, I might add) I sort of already knew it a lot about the Roman lifestyle etc...

However the Baths with the steaming water looked very inviting and were the highlight, it was just the supporting exhibits that weren't as good. Probably not worth the 11 pounds either. Still, it had to be done but I suppose if I want to see England's Roman heritage, I'll just go to Italy.

We walked around the rest of Bath which was as beautiful as everyone says it is. We got some lunch, ate some biscuits at a shop called "Ben's Biscuits". Probably in my top three biscuits I've ever had -- right up there with Aunty Kathleen's marshmallow cake.

Being England, it started to rain heavily which meant we had to take shelter in a nearby pub. Ended up staying there and catching up on the goss for a while before saying goodbye and I headed back to London.

Back in London - Anyway, so back in London, I stayed at Tim and Kelly's for a bit and managed to pick up a bit of freelance work. Originally, it was just fixing up an actor's CV but that lead onto doing a media pack for Molinaire Productions, a UK film company who've been involved with lots of films and won a Cannes Film festival award for "Man on Wire."

Basically, a media pack is what company's make when they're looking for funding for a film. It's like a mini-magazine that has info about the actors being cast, tax incentives for investors, data about the money that similar films have done etc... So I'm doing one of those for Craig's mate Brad, who's a producer at Molifilm. If that goes well, then there should be more work and at about 300 quid a pop, the money will come in handy.

So most days I've been going into Craig's work and working on this pack as well as doing one for Craig's film which is getting off the ground.

If anything, the contacts will come in handy should I ever wish to try and work in film/tv instead of games.

Currently - at the moment, I'm busy looking for short term accomodation to live in. Was quite keen to live in Clapham although down near the junction it gets a bit rough. Last week, my friend Anna and I were on the bus and she was telling me a story about some crackhead who broke his back riding his pushbike into a parked car. Anyway, some dude on the bus, probably a crackhead by the looks of him overheard and must've thought we were talking about him and basically abused the shit out of us for the rest of the bus ride.

A bit scary but not much point in engaging him really. If years of arguing with Dad taught me anything, it's that you can't have a rational conversation with someone who's off their face.

Anyway, he tried to follow us on the street so we went the other way for a bit before shaking him off at the train station.

So that's this installment of hostels, dinosaurs, Bath and crackheads. Tune in next time where hoping the episode will be titled: Jobs, Money, Success and Accommodation.

See ya's.

Joe

Hanging out with Hugh and Julia in Notting Hill.

jono_79 — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 18:42:00 GMT

Not really. But I am in Notting Hill and I have to say, if I could afford to live here, or if I thought I was cool enough, I'd definitely live in Notting Hill.

You see, if you walk down Portobello road, you'll see some of the coolest people wearing the trendiest clothes and giving the least shits about anyone. It really is rather funky and not like bits of London where people are trying very hard to be noticed.

Anyway, so I'm here staying with Suzy and Reece, friends from Wellington. I used to go to uni with Suzy and met Reece in Sydney when they lived there. They're staying in Reece's boss's apartment who must be something of a very wealthy man, seeing as he owns his own construction/property business. His wife is an art dealer, judging by the Damien Hirst painting just lying there on the floor.

That's right, a Damien Hirst painting. Probably the modern day equivalent of Andy Warhol. Incredibly pretensious and rather famous. He's also the weirdo artist who put a tiger shark in a formaldehyde tank and called it "The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living". Make up your own minds, I guess.

So yeah, had a stroll around this unbearably cool part of town with it's funky markets and stalls. Checked out a store to see what was inside and nearly walked away with a new leather jacket. The guy in there kept going to his calculator and punching in some numbers and then giving me a reduced total (his English wasn't great). I suspect he was a genius level mathematician and not actually giving me discounts but punching in unrelated numbers to give me a new, lower total.

I barely walked out of there with my wallet intact. Lucky for me, I am a creature of impressive willpower and I went to subway and ordered a steak and cheese foot long sub instead. Phew.

Two journal posts in one day? Wonders will never cease!

jono_79 — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 18:05:00 GMT

Forgot to mention a few things in that last posting.

Thursday 17th: I caught up with a friend Michelle from Verdon. Hadn't seen her for about 13 years so it was good to find out what had been going on with her and her friends since the Verdon/Uni days. Had a few drinks and some kick-ass pizza in Shepherds Bush. Quite like Shepherd's Bush actually, it's a bit like Clapham but with more Australian's. Also has the biggest Westfield Shopping centre in the northern Hemisphere. It's definitely comparable in size to the one in Bondi Junction.

Friday 18th: Caught up with Gareth Larson, another mate from Invercargill and had a few beers with him and crashed on his couch, before going down the street the next morning to visit Tim and watch the All Blacks play the Wallabies. I thought they played really well, and that bit from the 70th minute where they went from one end of the field to the other was the best bit of rugby I'd seen from anyone in the last couple of years really.

South Africa are still the current No.1's, but I think the AB's will really improve. Besides, no other country in the world could lose 17 players after a world cup and still put on a pretty decent team. It'd be interesting to see how SA go if they lost a couple of key players like we did this year. Still, they deserved to win, even if all they do is kick goals. If I wanted to watch goals kicked, I'd watch football.

Enough about the rugby.

Anyway, after Craig and Linda's I'm half thinking of checking into a hostel for a week or so for a bit of variation, maybe meet some new people. My friends won't be here forever and a few are heading home next year (Gareth is leaving on Friday, actually) so it'll be good to get out and about a bit more.

I've also booked a trip to Bath in mid-October which should be really good. While I'm there, I'll pop over to Wales, if I'm not working. And the other day, friends and I booked trips to Hamburg (Germany), come December. Supposedly it is rated in the top 5 Christmas markets in Europe. Hooray, I think.

So even though things have been a bit quiet lately, it means there's a bit to look forward to.

PS - I also saw one of my favourite actors, Paddy Cosidine today. I half pointed at him and he saw me. I felt like an idiot for pointing (it was only half a point, honest).

Laters,

Still in London - job hunting time

jono_79 — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 17:02:00 GMT

Hey guys,

No updates recently because I haven't done a lot lately! It's pretty good having lots of free accomodation as I housesit my friends places. The downside is that I'm house-sitting on my own which means having to talk to the voices in my head.

Which would be great, if I didn't already know what they were gonna say.

I wondered sometimes if there's much point in being over this side of the world if I'm not doing much with my days apart from portfolio/job-related stuff. I did read a Buddhist quote somewhere though that life is like waves in the ocean that rise and fall. Life has natural rhythm with ebbs and flows that we should go along with rather than fight. It just so happens that my current flow is lying on a couch eating chocolate raisins from Sainsbury's and watching cricket highlights.

Didn't end up going to the Notting Hill carnival or to Wales with mates on the camping trip. Just as well, it rained torrentially and tents got flooded. The Notting Hill festival can apparently be a bit much, if you're going on your own. Over a million people and lots of pushing, shoving and "excuse me, your fingers are touching my testicles."

Apparently there has been quite a bit of violence at the NH carnival over the year. My mate Craig was saying one year, five or six people died from stab wounds. Brilliant (!). Anyway, I gave it a miss because it sounded like it was gonna be a bit of a mission and most of my mates were doing something else, so I just played some football with some guys who use the same video game forum as me.

So I stayed in Clapham for a couple of weeks, then after that, I went out to Southampton to visit Ferg, a friend from Aussie, who had gone back for a holiday.

Thursday 10th September: Southampton isn't a particularly exciting place. Honestly, I'd have to say it's like Invercargill, but with more people (a few hundred thousand) but probably not as pretty. Not that I'd call Invercargill a pretty city, but it does have it's moments.

It was good to catch up with Ferg, Arran (Ferg's "little" brother) and Liz (Arran's GF). First night I got there, we went to a pub called the "Jolly Sailor". I didn't see any sailors there, although it was on a wharf, where we could see boats sailing around. Apparently they used to film the tv show "Howard's way" here which I suppose it's of interest to people who can remember the 70's. Anyway, it was a good catch up and I had some traditional English cuisine; chicken and ham pie and it was superb. I could literally feel myself gaining weight.

Friday 11th: Went into town and had a look around, met a mate of Ferg's, Vince, and went out for lunch in town. Saw a statue dedicated to engineers on the Titanic who carried on doing their job so that others could get off the ship. Pity the designers didn't do their job and design a better ship. Also got the memory-lane tour from Ferg who pointed out various places he got kicked out of or venues he saw bands at. Cool.

Later we went around to Vince's house and he cooked us a meal. Now Vince is probably the most intense person I've ever met. He doesn't just like something, he 'FUCKING LAHVES IT!!' and swears and smokes more than everyone I've ever met in my life put together. But he was a good guy, and a very gracious host, cooked us a lovely meal and shouted some beers and we stayed up talking to the early hours.

Still, it cracks me up thinking about his swearing. His idea of censoring himself is saying "I fucking told that 'beep', fuck you, you 'beep-ing' 'beep'-headed fuck.' Apologies for the profanity, but that's literally how he spoke.

His fiancee Anna, by contrast said nary a peep but was a lovely lass. Didn't like foreign people though. Apparently they're stealing everyone's jobs. Better not tell them I'm not from around here. Ha ha ha.

Saturday 12th: Back to Ferg's for a BBQ and got to meet a lot more of his old school friends. Most of them are married with children now. I think Southampton is much like Invercargill if you stay, you'll get stuck there. It's really interesting meeting friends of friends as you hear a few stories and you can kinda see which ones have had an influence on them.

So yeah, the BBQ was really good and I created a malteser salad which is basically a whole lot of M&M's in a bowl with a few maltesers thrown in for good measure. Ferg's Mum, Terri (a very lovely and welcoming lady) put on a great feed and Ferg worked his usual magic on the BBQ.

Sunday 13th: Once Ferg finally woke up, we set off to Winchester, two hours behind schedule, so it was possible that I wasn't gonna get to see Stonehenge at all.

Anyway, we had a roast lunch in Winchester and had a look around the town and saw the Salisbury cathedral, considered one of the nicest in England. Very impressive and stands up well to a lot of the cathedrals I'd seen so far.

On the way back, I managed to convince the others we should really go and see Stonehenge. People had told me it was a bit of a let down, but I thought it was really quite cool. The stones were much smoother than I thought they'd be. They were transported from Wales apparently. Anyway, it was good to see a major historical site. Didn't see any druids though.

In the evening we got a few dvd's -- all of them pretty good. Was nice to sit down and watch a dvd. Hadn't done that for a few months.

Monday 13th: - took it easy and booked my train ticket back to London as Ferg wasn't going to have the car and was unable to drop me off, which was our original plan.

Tuesday to present: Have been housesitting at Craig and Linda's place in Raynes park. Craig, as I may have mentioned, owns his own independent film production company and has a pretty amazing dvd collection. Lots of gangster, murder and action flicks, plus a bunch of foreign films I've never heard of. Needless to say, I've been ransacking his collection.

So that's really all the news lately. I'm nearly finished with the website. Jones has got a half finished version up which I'll link you to when it's properly finished.

Not sure where I'm living next. Craig and Linda get back on Sunday I think, and I reckon I can squeeze and extra day or two out of them. I'm mastering the art of bumming off others like a real vagabond. Maybe I should grow a beard to match my transient lifestyle. Money is going okay but slowly dwindling thanks to my Australian tax bills. Soon I will have the financial ruin to go with the beard, worn out clothes and lack of abode.

Hope all is good with you lot. Love

Joe

Clapham, Theatre and Regents Park

jono_79 — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 00:40:00 GMT

Right, so currently I'm staying Clapham after a week in Raynes Park.

Tim and Kelly are away so I have a bed, which makes continues my pretty good run of sleeping spaces. So far, I'm yet to really sleep on couches very much at all. Nice.

Haven't done much lately - gone for a few runs, caught up with a few friends and watched the Australians lose every sport they play.

Last week, I caught up with Katherine, a friend of mine from Australia. She was in London for a few days before heading to Germany, Austria and other former Nazi regions for a two week motorbike trip. Took her around the sights of London (Westminster, Big Ben, Buckingham palace, St James park) and saw the sights again. Was a really good walk around and the weather turned up too. After that she was meeting a friend and they invited me along to go to the theatre.

I was a bit nonchalant about the theatre to be honest, as it was 45 quid although if there were tickets still available after 7pm, you could get them for 20 quid. Once again, I used the 'don't turn down the invitation to try something new when traveling' mantra and it turned out to be a good choice.

We saw a production called "Warhorse" -- a story about a boy who has a pet horse that ends up getting sold to the army at the onset of WWI. The boy fakes his age and enlists to join the English army to find his horse which has been caught up in enemy fire and deemed lost. The horse ends up being found by the Germans while the boy fights in the trenches looking for his horse. It was a really cool play actually. The horse was a puppet, but only in the loosest sense of the word. Animatronic would be a better description. It (the puppet) was about 7 feet high, and manned by 3 actors, who wore clothes that fit into the production. One controlled the head with a pole-like contraption, one controlled the forelegs and the other controlled the hindlegs. The horse 'costume' sat over the two actors controlling the legs and they also had a system of pulleys that manipulated the various joints of the legs.

Look here for a better picture of what it looked like: http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/45507/about-the-show/image-gallery.html It's an image gallery from the site.

So yeah, now I can say I've been to the theatre. Apparently it's not only for toffs and twats after all.

Other things of note have been going to Regents Park with Mike to watch the Ashes on a big 30 foot screen with thousands of people. It was a really cool day and well organised. Lots of booths around and plenty of space to sit on the ground and watch. England won too, so it was nice to see the Aussies lose. Not sure how they did though -- they dominated the bowling and batting stats (6 of the top 7 runscorers were Australian). The series was characterised more by bad performances rather than good ones. Still, a good win for England but the quality of cricket was not as good as the 2005 win. Perhaps a higher calibre of players back then (Warne, McGrath, Vaughn, Pietersen). Unsurprisingly, the British media are going on about how much they've always loved cricket and how brilliant the team are. No wonder the Aussies love to beat them so much.

Right, well that's all really. Jones has made progress on my site, so I guess the time for job hunting will be coming sooner rather than later. This weekend is the Notting Hill carnival which is supposed to be the 2nd best street festival in the world, with over a million people apparently. I have friends in Notting Hill, so might have to pay them a visit... Also have had an opportunity to go see Wales on a camping trip, but the Notting Hill festival only comes around once a year, so will do that, I think. Wales won't be getting invaded anytime soon, I don't think.

Nothing much to report, but I did play some cricket

jono_79 — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 11:17:00 GMT

So yeah, haven't really done much lately. Funds are slowly decreasing although I have been keeping an eye on them lately. The good exchange rate (1.97 to 1 the other day!) means my dollars go a bit further.

All I've really been doing is looking after Tim's place and trying to this damn portfolio out the door. It always takes longer than you think, but I should get it finished by this weekend, I reckon. Then I just have to wait for Jonesy to code my website up for me and I'll be able to start the job hunting properly, instead of just scouting websites for potential opportunities.

So cricket. Filled in for a mates team the other day and we got spanked. We made 116 all out after being 98 for 3. I was the not out batsman on 0, only faced a couple of balls.

They got there for the loss of one wicket although we put a couple of chances down. I also had the honour of being hit for the biggest six I've ever seen. I'm sure that when the ball came back down, it was covered in ice.

However, it was a really lovely days cricket. The ground (Kew Gardens) was very nice, the outfield very quick, although when we bowled there wasn't much juice left in the wicket so it became quite easy to bat on. Also, in between innings the other team put on afternoon tea which was delicious.

The coolest thing was the Radio Frequency scoreboard they had. They had a box which you punched in the numbers and the scoreboard updated itself automatically. Bloody cool.

It was a actual cricket club too - none of this "rugby in the winter, cricket in the summer" stuff. There was even a little bar inside the tearooms too.

So despite the result, it was a real enjoyable days cricket.

In other news, I'm also going to be house-sitting for two weeks when another mate Tim goes away to Italy and Spain. More free rent! It's in Clapham too and I know a few people there now.

Right, I'm off. Hope all is well.

Rye and London

jono_79 — Mon, 3 Aug 2009 10:59:00 GMT

Ahoy me hearties,

Monday: On Sunday night, got a text from an old friend from Invercargill, Mike Gane. We used to live on Anglesey street and play heaps of cricket together. Anyway, he was taking an early morning trip to Rye, a small and extremely quaint town in Kent County.

Once I managed to convince him that an 8am start was not a good idea, I agree to tag along and go for a catch up.

It was a two hour train journey and we had a good old catch up. I was about three or so years older than him at school and my last year of uni was his first, so I hadn't seen him much in the last decade or so, apart from once in Invercargill.

So we got to Rye and it was very English. We strolled around the cobblestone streets which were pretty painful to walk on, actually. We saw a small castle and a few clock towers and generally soaked in some Englishness.

Highlight of the day would probably have to be the Shepherds pie I had for lunch at the Old Bell pub, which was built circa the 1500s. The plate was probably a foot in diameter and there were heaps of chips and stew. Bloody delicious. Mike had a cod that looked like it weighed a ton.

Carried on walking after lunch, checked out a lookout point and then saw a few shops. There's not really a lot to do in Rye. You can see the whole place in a couple of hours easy walk. Bit of an old lady's town but worth going to.

Found a wee shop called "Simon the Pieman", named after the old nursery rhyme. Bought a bag of fudge with myriad flavours (chocolate is still the best) and scoffed them, letting the sugary goodness begin the assault on my teeth.

After that, there wasn't much else to do. So we went back to the Old Bell, which we thought was the best pub there and had a couple before heading back on the train at 6pm.

Was good to have a catch up with Mike. He works in the financial department at ITV (who make Coronation Street). If I get pressed for work, it's possible some graphics work might open up there.

Once I got back to London, it was back to Raynes Park (near Wimbledon) where I was staying with Craig and Linda, friends I met in Australia through Scott. I had been staying with them since the weekend, but neglected to mention that earlier in this blog.

Tuesday: Caught up with Tim Dove for lunch and got keys for his house as I will be house sitting for two weeks while he goes on holiday. Met up in Tower Hill, so I took a stroll across Harbour bridge and could see a few of London's sites. Didn't have my camera with me, so I decided I'd go back and do it properly another day.

Wedsnesday: Went into Craig's work to do some portfolio stuff. He owns a small film production company that make a few TV ads as well as some documentaries for bands and musical acts. They do a few videogame related ads/promotional things as well. Recently they filmed a short horror film and currently have three films in the formative stages.

Craig actually used to work as a foley editor, (i.e recording the people in recording studios who create sound effects for film), among other things, on a number of Hollywood flicks, such as Face Off (John Woo), The Village (M Night Shyamalan) and Kill Bill (Quentin Tarantino) but has branched off on his own.

So yeah, went in there and did a bit of portfolio work. Later on, went to catch up with Nick Jones in Hammersmith. He was having a get together as he leaves today (Monday) for home, via a big European trip. Caught up with him and his friends.

Thursday and Friday: Again, took it pretty easy. Did a few chores that needed doing. Bought a new phone as my last one had given up the ghost. Couldn't turn it on, so was unable to get numbers as they were stored in phone memory, not the SIM card. Doh! Didn't get a super fancy phone, as there's no real point. Stayed at Mike Gane's house for a night as Linda's parents were stopping through from Italy to the USA and needed a room for the night.

Saturday: Nick was having a BBQ for his leaving do. Before that, we went to a pub to watch the All Blacks lose. Lots of South African's cheering in the bar, which was teeth grindingly annoying. I comforted myself with the knowledge that SA is still a third world country and NZ isn't. Ho ho ho. Still, the AB's made a lot of basic errors although it was exciting to see them throw the ball around again. Had the passes stuck, it might have been a different result. Still, can't remember the last time I saw such a strong Springbok team. Maybe '95 when they won the world cup. They're very, very good. But the AB's can only improve.

So later on, went back to Nick's and the BBQ kicked off under the overcast British sky. Was a good night, met a few new people and had a good old chat to Jonesy and a bunch of other Kiwi's. Stayed there overnight as I missed the last train.

Sunday: Said my goodbyes to Nick and Leigh as they head for a 60 day trip around France, Spain and the Greek islands before going home. Went back to Raynes Park and shouted Craig and Linda some dinner as a thank you for putting me up for the week.

Monday: Today I'm off to stay in Camden Town at Tim's place. The same place I stayed in my first week of London. Tim and his GF are going sailing in the Greek Islands for a week before doing a small trip to Holland. No real plans, except to eat a bit better than I have been and carry on with getting stuff ready for the job hunting.

Hope all is well with everyone.

Edinburgh, then back to London

jono_79 — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 21:01:00 GMT

So Edinburgh was pretty cool. Lots of fat people, everyone smokes, and everything is deep fried. Luckily Steve's a good cook, so I ate pretty well.

Monday: Took a walk around Edinburgh city and a typical rainy Scottish summer day. The most annoying thing about the rain is that it rains for just long enough to get you soaked, or to make you put on a jacket, and then as quickly as the rain arrived, the sun comes out. I think I took my jacket off and on at least five times today.

So I went to Edinburgh Castle and it was brilliant. Probably one of the best things I've seen since leaving NZ, to be honest. It was built (if I remember correctly) around the 11th or 12 Century but has been added to, rebuilt, blown up/attacked many times, and just had general restoration done to it over the years. Such is the life of a castle - they're built over a long period of years, as opposed to one fixed period.

The end result is really impressive. There are cannons overlooking the city and you can see for miiiiiiiiiles. There's lots of buildings you can walk into, including the Scottish War Memorial (considered one of the best war memorials in the world), the Crown Jewels room, a war museum and some barracks, to name a few. I think there was even the birthplace of King James too.

The war museum was quite good; it had a video playing detailing Scottish military history over the centuries. Quite a lot of fighting going on over that way, no wonder they all get fired up at the drop of a hat! Must be in their blood.

Even the inscription on the crest outside the castle says 'be warned, those who provoke me' (or something to that effect). Quite the feisty bunch, them Scots.

So yeah, the castle was great and the tour guides were pretty knowledgeable as well. I asked if the castle was for sale (I'm quite interested in buying it). Turns out it's not. Damn.

Tuesday: Got up early and went for a drive with Steve, who drives all around Scotland for his job. It was pretty cool. We went to four different (tiny) places a few hours drive north to the centre of Scotland, the first being Ardeonaig. http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Ardeonaig

-3.850708&spn=1.917342,5.751343&z=8

,+scotland&sll=56.618843,-3.761444&sspn=0.238389,0.718918&ie=UTF8&ll=56.418459,-3.850708&spn=1.917342,5.751343&z=8

The other places were too tiny to remember, but it was nice to see the Scottish country-side. Very much like New Zealand.

The trip was about 6 or so hours all up and we just chatted and listened to Steve's iPod most of the time. Was a cool day.

Wednesday: Didn't do much. Steve had a long drive up to Aberdeen and I didn't feel like a 9 hour drive, so I just stayed in and worked on my website/portfolio.

Thursday: Another day in, Steve was working from home, so took it pretty easy. In the evening we caught up with Hamish (Steve's brother), James Bingham and Paddy Cribb, all Verdon boys and hit the pubs on Rose st, which has about 37 bars on it. Such a cool place to go, it was really kicking.

We went to a great karaoke bar called "The Black Rose" which had it's fair share of heavy metal listeners. Turns out it had the best karaoke list of any place I've ever been and people get up and perform. There's no shitty Elton John or Cliff Richard here. It's all rocking stuff.

Steve got up and did a tune and then I followed suit with Red Hot Chili Peppers "Give it away" and then Pearl Jam's "Jeremy". Must've done quite a good job because a few random people came up to me and said I kicked ass. Tell me something I don't know...

Anyway, it was a big night and we all hit the bars with some people we met in the Black Rose and got home at the early hours. The Black Rose is the best pub I've been to in ages.

Friday - Steve "worked from home" again and we went and saw the new Harry Potter movie. It was okay, but pretty much nothing happens! Bit of a let down really. I booked my train tickets back to London as Steve wanted a clear house as he has guests for the next 5 or so weeks, so wanted the place to himself and Alisa. Fair enough. Ended up crashing at Paddy Cribb's house while he was away and just watched some shitty tv and taking a stroll around the streets.

Funnily enough, I bumped into another Verdon boy, Nick Ward (a few years younger, played cricket with him) on the streets of Edinburgh. I was sitting in a burger shop and he walked past the window. Small world, eh? He's from Winton, I think.

So Scotland was good. Will definitely head back in the next month or two, or while the Edinburgh Fringe Festival is on. Apparently the place is packed for a good month while the festival is happening, so I wasn't too worried about doing heaps of stuff or seeing Glasgow this time. Will check them out later as it's a pretty easy trip from London.

Scotland. More specifically, Edinburgh.

jono_79 — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 00:17:00 GMT

Ahoy, me hearties.

Not a lot has happened since Spain. I went back to London, stayed at my mate Tim's house in Islington and ate more than my fair share of gourmet hamburgers. Lots of nice places to eat in Islington and I found a great place called 'Fine-burger' -- aptly named because the burgers certainly are fine. Also the price of them is like a fine as well. You pay through the nose but very tasty.

Can't remember what I wrote last. I left Sheffield for London and caught up with mates. On the Sunday, we caught a train to Watford, who has a rubbish football team but the area is very quaint, and oh-so-very English. So Tim, Kelly (Tim's gf) and I visited their friends out there and we all drank Pimm's and ate a roast under the English sun, which turned to rain, which turned to sun and then rain. And then sun again.

During the week, I just worked on my resume and portfolio and took it easy. Booked a train ticket to Scotland and caught up with a mate for dinner out in Hammersmith. Didn't see any hammers or smiths. (Sorry).

Currently I'm in Scotland. More specifically, Edinburgh, as the title suggests. It was only a 4.5 hour train ride and I preferred that to flying, even if the other option was quicker.

Staying with Steve Duncan at the moment. Edinburgh is a nice place. Took a stroll around today and walked through 'New' town before crossing over and visiting 'Old' Town', which as the name suggests, is full of old buildings. I'll do it properly next week and visit the castle too.

Other than that, not much else to report. Will write more when I've had a better look around. Also gonna head out around the country when Steve goes to work on Tuesday. He's gonna drive near Glasgow and Dundee, I think, so I'll have a bit of a gander around then.

Sorry about the boring update! A bit tired right now -- went out for Indian. Supposedly Edinburgh's best. Very tasty. Then headed to probably the worst pub I've ever been to. Ha ha. It was called Frankensteins, and was rightly, quite monstrous.

La Linea and Gibraltar

jono_79 — Thu, 9 Jul 2009 20:29:00 GMT

Saturday - early start, getting up before 7am and took the train to a Algericas which is very close to La Linea, where Ian's grandparents live. The train wasn't as nice this time and had strangers sitting either side of me. Long trip (five and a half hours) but got there without much fuss. Met Ian's grand-folks who graciously put us up and have been feeding us great food. Had sardines on the bbq and chorizo and other local food.

In the evening, hit the casino in Gibraltar and had a flutter on the blackjack table. Won a few hands but blackjack is a mug's game -- the odds just don't pay very well unless you bet high. Lost 50 quid, but no big deal as I had budgeted for it.

Sunday - chilled out. Watched the Wimbledon final. Took it easy as the last few days had been quite full on.

Monday 6th - Quite a busy day, was Monday. Got up early (8am, which is pretty early in Spain) and went into Gibraltar. Passports are a must heading in there but they don't really check 'em. First up we decided to do all the sightseeing things on the Rock. The rock itself is 413 metres high so to get to the top quickly we took a cable car that showed the surrounding views.

We walked around various sights on the rock that filled us in on the history of Gibraltar. First of all we saw the monkey enclosures. The Barbary Macaques are tail-less and unique to Gibraltar and are allowed to walk freely amongst the public. Supposedly you're not supposed to feed them because it makes them fatter than they already are. Needless to say, the monkeys were excellent. At one point we witnessed some fighting going on between some males so we didn't get too close, except for poor John who was stuck in the corner where they were fighting and screeching. Ha ha ha. Once he got out he admitted to nearly shitting himself. And who wouldn't? Those things screech like banshees. We got chased a couple of times too and while I think I could beat a monkey in a fight, I didn't want to get thrown out of Gibraltar for spanking a monkey. Ho ho ho.

Gibraltar has an interesting history, having been a point of contention in many wars throughout the centuries. Strategically it holds a lot of military significance due to it's place between Africa and Europe but if you want to read more, check this link on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibraltar which does a much better job of explaining it's Moorish, Spanish and British history than I ever could. Britain has ruled it since the 1700's when Spain conceded the territory and as such, even though it's only about 6.8km long, and surrounded by Spain, it's incredibly British. It even has it's own form of British pound.

Anyway, we went around other sights, such as the siege tunnels which covered (I think) a 400m stretch of land and was loaded with cannons to deter invaders over various warring periods. We also visited the Moorish Castle which was really impressive, although had quite a lot of reconstruction done to it. Finally, after we'd seen most of the sights, we walked back to the city centre and had a late lunch followed by some beers.

There's not really a lot to do in Gibraltar really, so we hit the casino again. I ended up getting roped into the poker table (Texas Hold 'Em) but gave it a go anyway, seeing it as a chance to apply John's tips he had given us throughout the holiday.

For those of you that don't really know Texas Hold 'Em, it's what you see on the TV these days. You get two cards and then you throw in money to see the next three (called the "Flop"), followed by two lots of one card (the "Turn") and (the "River"). From the seven cards, you have to make a poker hand.

I won quite a few rounds and even beat John from time to time, but that was more down to me having cards I couldn't lose with. Even managed to force a couple of players out by going 'all in' as I luckily got 4 of a Kind of Jacks with the last two cards. So at the end of the night I finished with more than 100 quid in my money belt. Not bad for a 25 quid buy-in. Was at the table for over three hours too.

So the gambling days are over, but really enjoyed it. Turned out to be a big night for all of us but it was a good finish to the holiday.

Tuesday 7th: Yesterday's walk around the Rock and casino antics left us feeling worse for wear so we just chilled out and got ready to go back. Went into La Linea to buy some chorizo sausage, flowers and wine for Juan and Christine (Ian's GP's) but couldn't get a taxi back. Took ages to walk home. There's not really a lot to see in La Linea anyway, to be honest.

Wednesday 8th: So all in all, it was a great trip. Probably could have done a little bit more but you gotta give and take, especially if others want to just take it easy. I think you have to do what you plan to do on the day, otherwise you run out of time to do it later. Still, I think we got a good balance of doing stuff, doing nothing and seeing the 'real' Spain, instead of just seeing tourist sites.

A plane and train trip later, we were back in England - where everyone was much fatter than they were in Spain. It was great to be able to speak the local language again. I felt like saying 'G'day' to everyone I met, knowing that even if they responded with 'Fuck off, you dick,' at least I would be able to understand them. While I got more confident with Spanish as the trip went on, it was a bit wearisome at times.

Thursday 9th: So now I'm back in Sheffield, trying to edit this video of my trip. Heading back to London on Saturday afternoon to stay with my mate Tim Coughlan from Uni. He lives in Islington which is a nice wee area. I think I'm gonna finish off my resume and online portfolio and start looking for games jobs. Not necessarily limiting myself to London either. I quite liked Sheffield and Leeds and wouldn't be against living there.

Right, take care all. Will update in a week or two or whenever I have anything of interest to say. The next week in London will be pretty quiet, just job hunting stuff but the week after, I'm off to Scotland to visit Steve Duncan and a few of the Verdon boys.

Jono

Barthelona, Valenthia (sic) and Madrid

jono_79 — Thu, 9 Jul 2009 18:37:00 GMT

Friday 26 June - Roasting day today, for a change (!). We kicked off the day around 11 or 12 and headed in toward Gaudi's La Sagrada Familia cathedral. It's quite a touristy spot there with queues stretching around the corner to get inside, so we gave the interior a miss. No big deal, as I think it's the exterior that everyone goes to see it for. Impressive doesn't really begin to describe this landmark. As it was the first cathedral I went to see, I didn't have the dreaded 'cathedral fatigue' that travellers often moan about, so I came away very impressed. Kinda hard to put the sight into words, so it's best to just check the photos I think (when I get them up, it's such a hassle to upload to this site).

After that, we decided to check out Camp Nou, the biggest football stadium in Europe, if I remember correctly. It holds about 95,000 and is the home of European Cup winners Barcelona FC. The fellas are not really huge fans of maps and looking like tourists which is unfortunate as we made three wrong turns and spent about two hours trying to find it, before I forced them to look at the map and pick a route to get there, claiming that the stadium better be open after all the walking. After all the tramping around, it turned out the stadium was closed due to U2 playing that week and they were constructing stages for the performance. Fuck Bono.

Went back to the hostel and had a few drinks with other travelers. Being a little bit far out from the centre of the city meant it was easier to just stick around the local area. A few drinks turned into a few more and John went to the casino again. I (stupidly) game him 50 Euro and asked him to turn it into 100 for me.

Saturday 27 June - woke up regretting giving John the 50 Euros, but it turns out he had a successful night and I got my 50 Euro back plus another 50 on top. Not bad eh? Not something I'll make a habit of though. We checked out of the hostel and got the train to Valencia.

As I've said before, trains are an amazing way to travel and this time was no different. The coach was very luxurious, with a movie playing from a telly on the roof. Whizzing along at 197 kph, we got to Valencia in about 3 hours and quickly checked in to the hostel. Wasn't as nice as the last place but it was very central and had a good vibe.

A nap followed for a few hours. Napping in the afternoon when it's too hot is easy to get used to and because places stay open much later, you don't feel so guilty about sleeping the day away.

Later on, Ian and I walked around Valencia town centre which, while it doesn't really have anything major landmarks of note, was still a very pleasant stroll. Did a bit of washing when I got back which dried in about an hour in the sizzling heat.

Sunday 28th and Monday 29th. Generally just looked around the city during the day, followed by a nap, then ate tapas in the evening. Found a pub that was playing the Wimbledon tennis and we watched Andy Murray beat his opponent in five sets. Went to a bar that stayed open late which had some cheap drinks. Turned out it was gay and lesbian night which explained why the barman was so friendly.

It's hard to say why Valencia is my favourite place I've been to in Spain. It's not too big and we didn't do anything in particular, it just has a lot of character and is a good size to wander around in. It's not as bustling as Barcelona and I think I like that. It's cleaner too.

Tuesday 30th - Set off via train again to Madrid which was a four hour journey. We were only gonna do two nights in Madrid originally but lack of flights to Gibraltar meant that we ended up staying another night, and skipping out Sevilla to save a bit of cash. Much smaller hostel this time which was a nice change, so it kinda forced us to interact with a lot of the other travelers. Met an Aussie guy who had been to watch the bullfights the day previous.

I thought about maybe going to see one of these despite being against animal cruelty. However there were no shows on but I took a look at the Aussie's video of the show which confirmed that it's not really something that I want to see. He said he'd never do it again and his girlfriend was in tears when she watched it. Supposedly the bulls live like kings until the day of their fight but the jury is out on whether that's okay or not.

Despite the skill and bravery of the matadors, it's pretty hard to condone attending. A show will generally have six fights with the best one being saved for last. It's pretty brutal to watch as bulls get swords stabbed up to the hilt into their heart. Normally it's supposed to be the coup de grace, but in the vid I saw, it wasn't the case at all and the matador had to stab the bull in the head with a knife a couple of times to finish it off. Other vids showed bulls losing control of their front limbs and coughing up blood. It's all a bit distressing, really.

Sometimes, although not at this show, they bring out a calf and encourage kids to throw spears at it. Pretty fucked up, any way you look at it.

Wednesday 1st July - rambled around the city a bit, taking pictures and being a tourist. A few beers in the evening with the boys and an American girl from the hostel. We followed John around trying to find a casino at two in the morning (fruitlessly) and ended up at an Irish bar opposite our hostel. This impacted the following day's sightseeing unfortunately. Felt sorry for the girl who had to catch her plane two hours after we all got in. Ha ha ha.

Thursday 2nd July - bit of a write off really, didn't do much except nap and eat and have a bit of a wander. Madrid is very busy with lots to look at and it's easy to just do nothing but wander and still have a good time. Scratch that. Just remembered that we did a three or four hour trek and saw the Palacio Real or the Royal Palace. Also checked out some gardens which had statues of what I presume to be Spanish kings from years gone by.

Friday 3rd- had to check into another hostel as we only booked two nights but we needed to stay an extra night in order to get a train to Gibraltar. I had already booked and found a hostel which was just down the street, but for some reason, John was looking up directions to the place on google. He insisted that I had the wrong address so I just went along with it rather than cause a bit of friction.

By now, I think we were getting used to being around each other a bit more and getting used to each others annoying habits. It's been a pretty argument-free trip, which is good but being around the same people ALL the time can be a bit hard.

Anyway, so we followed John to the next hostel and turned out it wasn't there. The address was right but John had a discussion with an elderly Spanish gentleman from which I gathered that there was no hostel and he lived on the third floor. Apparently he would have put us all up, but didn't have enough room for three. Gracious offer, but no thanks we said.

It wasn't too hot, only around 30 degrees or so but with a 20 kg pack on your back it was hard work. We found an internet cafe to check our directions. Found the actual place with google street view and turns out I was right after all. Resisted the urge to say "I told you so" and we made our way to Hostal Marlasca. A little more pricey but we had a room just to ourselves.

Due to wasting the previous day, we went out a did a lot more. The main thing we did was attend the Museo del Prado -- the art museum. Saw lots of famous paintings from various artists such as Goya, Raphael, Valasquez among many others. Took a while to get around the whole thing but it was an awesome experience with some amazing pieces of art. Like most museums, couldn't take any pictures (flash photography can cause damage to the paintings) but it's not something I'll forget anytime soon. Was really glad we went and saw it because we hadn't seen a lot of the arty side of Spain until this point.

Goya, in particular was quite interesting. His early stuff is all poncy and a bit boring, really. Just paintings of upper class folk having picnics or young boys throwing rocks. Something must have happened to him after that coz his later stuff is incredibly dark and murderous. Take for example, a painting of the god Saturn eating the head off a baby. Maybe someone called him a naughty name and he went of the deep end. Weirdo.

Back at the hostel, went into nap mode. Got up and went to find somewhere to eat at 11pm but Madrid on a Friday night is packed with people eating at that hour. Had to go to an Irish bar instead and order a steak sandwich at midnight.

Hola. No hablo Espanol. Siento.

jono_79 — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 08:52:00 GMT

Hola.

Wednesday: Got up at 4am to get to the train station in Sheffield. Didn't get much sleep as I stayed up most of the night packing and making sure I had everything.

Forgot to mention that on the Tuesday, I went out for lunch with Ian and Beth (his GF) and got to meet the third member of the Spanish trip; an Irishman named John Campbell. Not to be confused with the TV presenter back home.

Not much to report travel wise - caught the train, got on a plane and woke up in Spain. Pretty simple, really.

Luckily for us, John is fluent in about 4 or 5 languages; English (duh), Spanish (yay!), Portuguese, Korean and possibly one other. A very handy man to have on the trip.

Caught a train from the airport to our hostel which, despite being a wee ways from the hub of Barcelona, is awesome. Great facilities, really modern and clean. The three of us are in one room sharing with a guy from Finland but more about him later.

John took a nap while Ian and I went for a wander around the streets and see what Barcelona is all about. Found a tapas cafe run by some Chinese people and ordered our food in Spanish. Neither Ian nor I are very good at it. Speaking Spanish itself isn't that difficult as it's phonetic, the difficulty is when people reply in Spanish and you have no idea what they're saying. I have enough trouble understanding people who speak English, so you can imagine I've struggled a little. Spaniards speak pretty quickly.

So Ian ordered some mushrooms and I ordered the Tacos de queso marchegas, thinking that I was gonna get something a bit like Tacos back home. A plate of cheese wedges arrived first, which Ian told me was complimentary starters. After about a half hour, I started to wonder if the cheese was in fact my meal. Ian assures me that in Spain, 'they don't rush things here', often bringing out meals in parts. After about 45 minutes it's pretty clear that I've ordered a plate of cheese. As if my blood pressure wasn't already high enough! Ian couldn't stop laughing. 6.5 bloody Euros for a plate of cheese. Aye Carumba!

That night we all went out for some tapas, and this time John helped us order. Tres Cervesa (three beers) was quite commonly said and we tucked into some tasty Spanish cuisine. We had bombas (a kind of stuffed potato, very tasty), patata bravas (potatoes with mayo and hot sauce), a seafood dish with mussels and prawns and of course, chorizo (spicy Spanish sausage). John ordered a collection of mediterranean dishes - an assortment of fish dishes and we nibbled at that too. Not a single wedge of cheese in sight.

Weds night was spent at the hostel chilling out and drinking beers. Played a little poker and learned out to play Cribbage. Turned out to be a much larger night than originally anticipated. John is practically a semi-pro poker player so he left to go to the casino and try his luck at 2 am. He won 4000 pounds in a poker game last week, so he knows his shit. Our Finnish roommate was really trashed and talking loads of garbage(once people start bringing up World War 2, you know it's time to hit the hay). However, he's built like a brick shithouse and probably on steroids by the looks of him so we just ignored him.

Thursday: Woke up feeling a bit worse for wear, but a lot better than John who stayed in bed until about 6pm! Ha ha ha! What a waste of a good day. The sun was shining so Ian and I got onto checking out the real Barcelona. We went down to a boulevard called Las Ramblas which is a great street of stalls, artists, hawkers, street performers, crazy people, food stalls and of course, tourists.

Then we went down to the waterfront. Very picturesque made even better by the 34 degree heat. To be honest, it's probably not as nice as Darling Harbour - you kinda forget how attractive Sydney can be at times. From the waterfront we ventured down some streets to Barri Gotic, or, the Gothic quarter, filled with heaps of beautiful and historic old buildings. Took some good footage on video which I'll edit when I get a chance.

Evening came around and John finally woke up and joined us for a meal and beers again. We were gonna head into the city centre but we were pretty knackered from walking around all day. Had another tapas dinner and mixed with a few people we met in the hostel.

Beers flowed pretty freely. Again. And our dreams of an early start the next morning were stopped dead in their tracks. The others are still sleeping as I type this. Sat around and chatted with Justin, another Irishman we met the previous evening and a couple of young American guys who despite being incredibly geeky were great fun. One of them looks like the guy from the 'I'm a mac, I'm a PC' ads and was a borderline genius. He's currently in some kick-ass polytechnic and should be getting into Harvard School of Medicine. Jesus.

Anyway, today we're gonna check Nou Camp, which is the Barcelona FC football stadium, supposedly one of the biggest in Europe and La Sagrada Familia, a famous cathedral. I'm gonna wake up the others now as it's bloody 11:20 and they haven't moved.

Hope all is well with y'all. Will upload pics at some point but it's a bit slow on this site, so you'll just have to be patient. However, I have been editing a video of my trip, so will send that on DVD when I get back to London, I reckon. Speaking of which, I'll be traveling back to London via Sheffield from Spain. Will visit France another time.

Until next time...

Joe

Sheffield and Leeds

jono_79 — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 08:35:00 GMT

Greetings all,

Bit of an update while I've got the chance. Everyone else is hungover after a night in the hostel in Barcelona, so early morning on the bunk-bed is probably the best time to update.

Monday: First of all - Sheffield. Have to say, I really love the place. It's kinda old but it's got a lot of character. The trip there was relatively painless -- trains are such a brilliant way to travel. You get the comfort but you can also observe the countryside. Traveling from London to Sheffield reinforced my opinion that the NZ and UK countryside are almost identical at times.

So got to Sheffield, caught up with Ian and met his girlfriend, flatmate and other friends. Really friendly bunch and we visited the city centre -- much like any other centre, really. Lots of shops, lots of young delinquents shouting loudly and the odd weirdo who appears to be holding conversation with an invisible person.

Went to a few bars on the Monday night and met a couple of Ian's friends Jamie and Bec. Grabbed a kebab on the way home and played some Xbox 360.

Tuesday: Drove to Leeds in Will's (Ian's best mate) car that doesn't have any suspension. Leeds is pretty industrial but not as rubbish as people have made it out to be. The boys went in to buy some ties for Will's wedding in a few weeks and I took the opportunity to buy some jeans. Got two great pairs for 50 quid. Had a look around Leeds city centre. Quite nice, but nothing to write a blog about (!)

Tuesday evening was about planning our trip to Spain. Bit of a last minute rush getting train tickets and getting a hostel booked but it was done in the end.

All in all, Sheffield was really, good a nice change of pace from London where everyone is tense. Really helps that I new some English people who took me to pubs and places that wouldn't appear in a guidebook. Top stuff.

Pretty boring entry this one, but no ones forcing you to read it!

Jono

Second week in London

jono_79 — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 12:24:00 GMT

Hello all,

Week two in London has been pretty good so far. The body clock has adjusted itself so my sleeping, eating, and I suppose pooping patterns are in synch with the locals.

Monday: Took it pretty easy after a busy weekend and read a book before leaving Camden Town (Tim's house) to go to Clapham (Nick's house). There were already another dosser when I got here, and when you include flatmates girlfriends/boyfriends, it's quite a full house. Slept on the floor on some yoga mats and bugged the other dosser (Forrest, from Oamaru) with my snoring.

Tuesday: Went for a walk around the local area. Went up Clapham high street to Clapham North, before walking around to Brixton, then back to Clapham Common, before walking south through Clapham South, then Balham, then down past Tooting Bec. Then walked back home. It's quite a nice area around here, although not as nice as say, Islington. Still, there's a lot of Kiwi's and Aussies down this way and I've reacquainted myself with friends of friends who are down this way.

Wednesday: Can't remember what I did during the day, but in the evening, I met an old primary school friend, Ryan Duff for a couple of beers and we went out for a feed in a pub. He shouted me, so that was good, although I gotta pick up the tab next time. Was good to see him and catch up on the goss from what he's been up to. Looks like we'll be seeing a bit more of each other since we've both arrived to London around the same time, although he has been here before.

Thursday: On Thursday, I caught the bus from Clapham to Waterloo and then walked around Westminster for a few hours, seeing the sights such as parliament house, and walked around the River Thames plus checking out lots of statues and streets around. Also went down to Buckingham Palace although I missed the changing of the guard which happens about 11am. No big deal.

Ryan lent me a book on Things To Do In London For Under A Fiver and 1000 Things To Do In London and so I took a ride on the Duck Tours. Basically, it's an amphibious vehicle and the first part of the tour was a drive around the streets of Westminster (where ironically I had just spent three hours walking around),and then the boat/car went into the River Thames and we floated (barely) down the river at a speed that could only be referred to as 'snail-like'. Still, it was worth doing. Also took a fair bit of photo and video which I'll compile into a movie when I get a chance and send it back home.

Later that evening, Nick Jones and I went out for Japanese and a couple of beers. Great Japanese at a place called Mijijami or something like that. Nick is pretty tired from working long hours in his job, so it wasn't a late one.

Friday - pretty easy day although in the evening I caught up with Ben Fahy in only about the second time in five years. He looks great and is pretty slim looking after driving 18000km around Europe and being in India for 3 months. Was great to see him though. Later that evening caught up with Steve Duncan who was in town for his brother Dave's engagement party. There were a few Verdon boys, Jimmy D, Paul Higgins so had a bit of a catch up with them. After that, I caught up with Tim Coughlan and Alex Worsely who was an English exchange student who went to Arana Hall in our first year of Uni. He hasn't changed a bit and neither have we and we were still drinking about 4am in the morning (the more things change, the more they stay the same, eh?) at Alex's swish apartment in Bethnal Green. Apparently Bethnal Green is a bit dodgy, but his apartment is pretty darn fine.

Saturday: Got up at 8:30am to watch the All Blacks get their revenge on the French. Pretty good game despite the sideways rain. Went back to Nicks and caught up on sleep before catching up with a few guys (Nick's friends who I know) down at this awesome pub called 'The Falcon' in Clapham North. Definitely the best pub I've been to so far, although I just stuck to the soft drink.

Later on, after navigating various tube delays I went back to Regents Park in Camden Town to hang out with Ben, Tim and Claire. Just chilled out, told stories and bad jokes. Caught the late tube to Clapham before getting a taxi home. Everyone seems to have a few mugging stories, so I thought it best not to brave the 10 minute walk through the park in the dark. Clapham at night really goes off though, much different to daytime Clapham.

Sunday: Lazy day today. Going to catch up with Ryan and then Ben in the evening and will pack up my stuff as I leave for Sheffield tomorrow and then onto Spain on Wednesday. Will be staying at my mate Ian's house and taking a visit to Leeds during the day on Tuesday before catching a plane to Spain from Manchester at some ungodly hour the next day. One of Ian's mate is coming along too. Turns out he's fluent in Spanish, Portuguese and a bunch of other languages so he'll be handy to have along so that I don't order a car tyre for dessert instead of ice cream.

All right, hope everything is well and good when you are. Might not be able to update very often in Spain but will have a few yarns to spin when I get back for sure.

Not even sure how I'm getting back yet. I may just fly from Gibraltar with Ian on July the 8th, or should I fancy it, I might waltz on over to France. Perhaps I'll invade them. Since they never win any wars, I quite fancy my chances.

Now, where did I put my musket...?

Love

Joe, Jono, Jonathan (take your pic).

First week in London

jono_79 — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 10:23:00 GMT

Hello all,

Well, have nearly been here a week no and so far, so good. Might be easier to just break it down day by day.

Monday: Arrived with a minimum of fuss. Pretty long flight but not as draining as I thought it'd be. Abu Dhabi looked like the desert it was. I imagine that people trying to smuggle anything in through customs just get taken out to the sands and either shot, or made to walk home. Either way, they'd be buggered.

Got to my friend Tim's place easily enough. The tube here really is as efficient as people has said it is. It's quite pricey, but you can buy an 'Oyster' card which allows you to swipe a piece of plastic at the turnstiles, rather than put a ticket in the slot and it just deducts money from it, (that you top up like a prepaid card).

Tuesday: Birthday - a bit tired from the flight but went to Lords and had a really good day. Unfortunately the Black Caps lost and to be honest, in both games (Holland vs Pakistan, NZ vs South Africa) were a bit substandard. Hardly any fours and sixes at all! Not much of an advert for the 'exciting' version of the game. Was sitting beside a Scottish couple and chatted to them during the day. Also went to the Lords shop and bought a polo shirt, a deck of Lords cards and a tea towel. What a tourist. I'm planning to collect little knick knacks here and there and put them in a box and send them home at some stage. Not sure when though.

Bumped into a girl I went to Uni with while I was there, so had a chat to her for an hour. Small world, etc...

Wednesday: The first of two day's tube strike, so getting around was going to be a problem. Went for lunch with Tim's girlfriend who is a photographer and works from home a lot. Had lunch in Camden Town, the real Camden town. The part where they live is on the outskirts and very close to Great Portland Street tube station and not that far from places like Oxford St. They're actually quite central. So, had a wander around the real part of Camden Town and if you've been to Newtown in Sydney, it's pretty much the same. You're just not normal unless you have a minimum of six facial piercings or consider a dog collar standard attire. It's not as gay as Newtown though, but very similar. Markets, lots of food places and trendy shops.

Thursday: Second day of Tube strike. Chose to take it easy and ended up going for a walk down Oxford st (lots of shops), Oxford Circus (more shops), Leicester Sq and a bit of Soho. Very good stuff. Bought four coaster mats for 5 quid. They're going in the knick-knack box.

Friday: Quite a busy day, went on the tube properly (to go from place to place, rather than just from the airport to Tim's). Had lunch again with Claire, did a bit of walking around and then went to Oxford st to pick up my SIM card for my phone (haven't put it in yet, just picked it up). After that, went to my bank appointment and set up my English bank account, so that's all done. It's a little pricey, 10 quid a month but offers lots of services and free transaction withdrawals, some travel insurance, benefits etc... it'll do for now.

After that, went down to Covent Garden which is a very nice area and met up with Tim Dove, Nick Jones, Gareth Larson, Tim Coughlan and another Kiwi guy Dave who is friends with Tim. Was really great to see Nick and Gaz again, they're both enjoying London, although Nick seems to spend a lot of his time working and he's going home at the end of next month, I think -- but not until he's done a couple of months around Europe. Anyway, had a night out with the fellas and it was predictably drunken but was a very good night. Ended up crashing over at Tim Couglan's place in Islington which is a very nice area. The streets in London are often tiled or paved, which is good because it looks nicer than plain old asphalt which cracks and breaks up as it gets older.

Saturday: So yeah, stayed at Tim C's place in Islington and had a fry up in the morning after watching the All Blacks lose. Headed to Hyde park for a birthday picnic that some of their friends had organised. Hyde park is very big and going to the park seems to be the thing to do here in London (I read somewhere that London has the most parklands of any major city in the world). It's cheap, you can have a few drinks and just chill out and the parks here are beautifully maintained and really picturesque to look at, littered with statues and walkways and stuff like that.

Went back to Tim C's, had a small bbq and watched the Black Caps get thrashed by Pakistan. Then played a bit of backyard cricket ourselves. Tim Dove came around and joined us too. Afterwards, I went back to his place in Camden Town and just played a bit of tennis on Playstation 3.

So that's the news from the week. Have been easing into it and enjoying it so far. I think today I'll be going over to Nick Jones' place in Clapham and staying there for the week. Not sure yet.

Sunday: Went to Regents Park and played heaps of football and frisbee with Tim and some other Kiwi guys. Parks are a great way to spend the day (as I've said before). You don't even know you're in the biggest city in the world.

Jono

PS - some photos have been put up in the photo section so be sure to check them out if you haven't already.

The perils of converting currency

jono_79 — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 07:35:00 GMT

Yesterday I went to a nice bakery for breakfast and had some tasty eggs from a man named Benedict.

Upon leaving I saw a tasty biscuit that I just had to have. 3.50 pounds, so, a little on the pricey side.

Imagine my dismay when I go to take a bite of the biscuit outside and it breaks off in my hand and breaks on the sidewalk.

Determined to taste this wonderful biscuit, I go and purchase another for the same price.

Then it dawns on me that I've paid 7 pounds for biscuit, or rather $21 NZ dollars... Oh dear.

It wasn't even that great either.

And the lesson is, never convert currency. You will only get annoyed with yourself.

I'm not jet-lagged. It's completely normal to update your blog at 5:30am

jono_79 — Tue, 9 Jun 2009 04:56:00 GMT

Finally made it to the UK.

Australia was great, especially catching up with everyone although there were lots of errands to run and loose ends to tie up so I was very busy every day.

Caught up with nearly everyone I wanted to. Had a pre-birthday dinner with the family and another pre-birthday gathering with friends the day before I flew out which was really good.

As for getting to London itself, it was pretty uneventful. I slept probably a third of the trip, dozed another third of the trip and gawked around the plan for the final third. Abu Dhabi was brief but interesting. The surrounding desert reminding me of many video games I had played but more realistic. There was no alcoholic beverages on the flight either. I assume that was due to the UAE laws or something.

Abu Dhabi to London was about as exciting as this blog entry has been so far (ie - only of interest to a few) and I passed the time playing the shit out of the video game 'Tetris'. Interesting fact; I never knew why it was called Tetris all these years. I thought it was Russian for something like 'game' or 'block game' but it turns out that a 'Tetris' is when you remove four lines of blocks in one swoop. There ya go, trivia heads.

Probably the most difficult part of the trip was getting from Paddington station to Great Portland Street station. It was quite sprawling and I was sent in the wrong direction several times, but I eventually made it to Great Portland St station and from there it was just a short walk to my friend Tim's house in Camden Town.

It's very picturesque here and certainly different from Australia. It's certainly a lot 'greyer', but not in a bad way, it's just more subdued. Personally I think it's really quaint.

So now I'm just twiddling my thumbs at 6:05am which isn't too bad. I went to bed around 10pm local time after spending the afternoon with Tim's girlfriend Claire and going for a walk around Regents park until Tim got home from work. It's good to see familiar faces again although I am missing the Australian crew already.

Tomorrow, er today, I'm off to watch the T20 world cup. NZ vs SA. Australia have been dumped out of the tournament which is brilliant. Ricky Ponting will no doubt be throwing a tantrum which makes today the happiest day of my life.

Right y'all. I'm off to sleep (again).

Seed Knee

jono_79 — Thu, 4 Jun 2009 12:36:00 GMT

Ahoy there!

Have spent a week in Sydney so far and it's gone by at breakneck speed. Most of the week has been spent dealing with banks and other customer service personnel, but luckily most of them have been exceedingly helpful so that's made everything much better.

Caught up with lots of friends and have a pretty big weekend ahead of me.

Today I went out for dinner with the family for my pre-30th birthday. Scored some totally excellent gifts; a neoprene case for my laptop, a vibrating alarm clock and a cool leatherbound journal in which I shall document my Hemmingway-esque adventures. Or at least, do some cool doodles or maybe even the odd game of naughts and crosses.

Still have a few things left to do but most of them are pretty minor. You know, like two years worth of tax and stuff.

Only now starting to feel excited as most of my tasks are done. Must remember to take it semi easy on Saturday night so the Sunday flight is bearable.

To Mum: as for whether I'll wear the masks you got me? If I'm sitting next to an attractive girl, then it will remain vigilantly buried in the bottom of my pack. If I'm next to an elephant sized human whose fat rolls spill into my seat, they'll make an appearance. Sound logic, I think.

Right, won't be able to update for a few days but when I do next, hopefully it'll be with pictures and from London.

Jono

In Brisbane now

jono_79 — Thu, 28 May 2009 14:50:00 GMT

The trip so far has been relatively uneventful but it almost didn't happen.

Rumours about Invercargill's weather are true. It's shit. Basically, there was a temperature drop (or is it rise?) when I was due to check in and the whole airport got covered in fog. It looked like I was not going to be able to fly out, and consequently, miss my connecting flight with Jetstar to Australia.

Needless to say, I had the last laugh (for all you Alan Partridge fans out there...). Luckily, the fog cleared up but the flight left an hour later, so once I had landed in Christchurch, I had about 25 minutes to check in, go through customs, buy stuff in duty free and board the flight.

The Gold Coast was reasonably uneventful but was good to catch up with my family. Now I'm in Brisbane catching up with my cousin and having a few beers.

Went for Indian at some awesome Indian restaurant in Runcorn. Can't remember what it was called but the owner was uber-passionate and could talk the hind legs off a donkey. For all you that have never owned a donkey, it takes a special person to be able to talk the hind legs off one.

Quite nice to be in Australia again. The ratio of bogans to normal people certainly exceeds NZ's.

Planning (test page for journal)

jono_79 — Wed, 20 May 2009 03:09:00 GMT

Currently sitting in Invercargill. The weather is shit but a strange fiery ball has appeared in the sky. I can only assume that this is what scientists refer to as 'the Sun'. Only six more days until I head back to Australia and the trip begins!