Tatts Tavern

Hey guys.. sorry..i have been very lazy latley, and drinking way to much booze.. i dont remember the last night were i havent had a drink..:S but, i am young, and the fun times will keep on rolling! i thought i better finally write something, so here it is. here is some photos of tattersalls tavern where i am currently residing/doing a little work.. only like 45 hours a week.. always fun! courtesy of steve, as i cant be bothered getting out in the cold and taking photos..

so, apart from drinking, sleeping working and drinking, i havent been doing much else!

steve leaves in 2 days, and i move into the other aussie guy's room on friday and then come the new aussies.. pretty busy week!

Brighton

We went for a little cruise to Brighton the other day. Brighton is about an hour south of London, in a slightly easterly direction. It is located on the beach, and the beach it was.. Now, dont get any preconceived ideas about white sand, sun and beach volleyball, because if you were thinking of this, you would be sadly disappointed. Brighton, was however, fantastic. A little town, a little like torquay, except a little more tourist driven.

It's England's place for little weekend getaways that started with King George V (or someone of his nature) taking his misstresses down for a little weekend adventure, and has never really lost that reputation.

At Brighton, on the main pier, similarly shaped like Cunningham Pier (fancy that! they are both piers..) but a little wider. This allowed a genius to put a big showground type arrangement on it, with rides, fairy floss and some awesome arcade setup.. with motion simulators, and driving games and such forth.. you all know what an arcade is.. but, alas, we did spend a fair wad of cash having been the only computer games we have seen in months.

Apart from that, we saw a few Aussie shops, ripcurl and mambo, and we actually saw a lego shop.. fully dedicated to lego! i was impressed. the photos are following, so i hope you have a good time trying to think of a story to accompany them.. a story that i wont tell you! just to make you think...

oh yeah.. and me and steve accidently walked aimlessly through a cemetery.. we thought the path lead somewhere.. but, to our dismay, it went in one entrance, around the cemetry and back out.. our bad..

New Years Eve 2006

hey guys! sorry about the delay in the posts.. i know how keen you all are to see my extra-ordinary writing ability.. enough of that!

new years eve was very quiet for me, as i had the joys involved with having a chest infection. and flu at the same time. i was actually scheduled to work untill 12 midnight on NYE, but piked early as i was sick/we were quiet (there was 4 people in the pub) so i celebrated the new year by sitting in bed eating a bacon sandwich. beleive it or not, but i was actually quite satisfied with my own company and the companionship of a bacon sarni. untill i ate it.. now that a whole new story!

boring yes, but i did work at 10 the next day which i was enthralled at, and i celebrated with the people on the street blowing trumpets, hooters and what ever they can get a hold of to blow. thanks london for givin me a total of 5 hours sleep.. cheers! (bastards..)

well, i thank the people who actually take time out to write on my blog.. and for the rest of you stop reading now and leave! or keep reading, and leave a post.. or keep reading and dont leave a post.. your choice..

i hope all had a good new years, and had one or 5 drinks for me.

regards,
"the one they call michael.."

Merry Christmas! My Day

hey guys! It's Boxing day here, at 11.14 am and im should really go to work.. but bollocks to that! Thats right, i said bollocks.. its quite the humourous word if you say it in anger and it makes everyone laugh.. try it one time.. anyway..

I'd thought id throw in a quick blog and tell you about my xmas.. by the way, Merry Christmas to all of you who i didn't send an email to..

My christmas started at christmas eve to tell you the truth, as it was very quiet in the pub. we had planned to go to midnight mass at Westminster Abbey, but with the rosters being altered, we were unable to go.. we were actually meant to work untill midnight, but steve worked until 1pm in the afternoon, and me untill 6pm.

We had a few drinks with the Portuguese crew (who i actually found out are Brazilian.. and they speak Portuguese..) and went to Westminster at about 10pm. Thanks god we left so early, as we were amongst the last into the church.. and the line was bloody long.. excuse my french, but it was! the service went without a hitch, and the choir was magnificant. if your every in london, over xmas, i highly recommend going to see this holy event..

after that, we walked home, as there was no public transport operating.. (in case you dont know, london has a public transport system like no other.. you can get a bus...anywhere.. every 10-20 minutes.. and thats if it busy.. it really is second to none, and no wonder why Londoners rely very heavily on their public transport) so we did have about a half-an-hour walk home.. which wasnt to bad either, as it wasnt too cold.

we got into bed at about 2.30, and i got the lovely surprise of the 'van baar' side calling me, or, to all of you at home.. mum's side of the family.. talked to them for a bit and slept untill 12 midday.

we got up, and started cooking our feast. We had Don (the other Aussie) Matt, Maira Steve and I, and the French pigdog Guill, (he has given me consent to call him that, dont stress :P) and we cooked potato, beans, pumpkin, parsnip, and roast chciken. it was a meal like no other! i ate better on that day than all other days in london put together..

we sat down, drank a bit, watched the grinch, harry potter and monsters inc, drank some more then decided to go out to one of the pubs that was open..

we wlaked into town, about 30mins walk, and found out the the pub wasnt actually open.. as it was proclaimed in our local magazine.. We walked around for another half an hour.. discovered that no pubs were open, and walked home for some more drinks and a game of poker..

the main positive to come from the night is that i actually found a bouncy ball on the streets of london.. i have no idea where it came from, but it was fun for the 20 minutes before i lost it! some choice words were said then too...

all in all it was a great day, some time well spent bonding with some new mates and some great people too. it didnt even come close to christmas at home, but it was a great day. to all who read this, happy belated christmas and a prosperous new year to you all!

Trafalgar Square..Not Trafalger Square

Me and Steve decided to go for a cruise, on our day off and on a day that i wasnt getting spat on, to a little place called Trafalgar Square... Yes, another Monopoly street name for those of you playing at home. At Christmas time, there is a massive christmas tree put up, which was donated by the lovely folks in Oslo, Norway (i presume its Norway..) as the English helped them in 1937 (or somewhere around there) and it has been an annual event ever since!

And for those of you who read this.. in London, standing infront of that tree.. the temprature reached a top of 4 degrees.. seriously.. that is bloody cold...

A good quote for you..

With thanks to Wayne for this one, i thought it was something to think about.. im going to copy and paste the whole thing that he wrote, so you can all give me credit for writing something cool.. :P

"well, they say experience is what you get... just after you needed it"


when i say 'they' i mean someone that isnt me, but i remembered the cool bit, so thought i would share it with you

i only really thought of this because of the hindsight thingy, but look at it this way, you could have done that sort of thing to yourself here before you left, just so you could do that, or you could go over there and learn on the fly..


And there is a second one, again, from Wayne, which i rather Fancy. (the quote, not Wayne..)

"If you can keep your head while everyone around you is losing theirs, maybe you don't understand the situation"

Enjoy.. and once again.. thanks Wayne..

The Crew at Tattersalls

This is the crew at Tattersalls Tavern, London. We had our christmas party on Saturday16th of December. Starting after closing time, at about 11.30pm, we ventured on.. and i crawled into bed at about 6.30am on the sunday morning only to work again at 1pm on the following sunday.. fun...


This is Chris, our manager, who is a great bloke, and Lucia, on of the many Portuguese cooks in the kitchen. Both lovely people.
And this happy fellow is Krystovff, our Polish Dish Pig. He is a truly inspirational fellow. He came from Krakow, Poland about 3 years ago with a bag of food, and a bag of clothes... That was it. What was even more inspirational is the little fact that he managed to get a job, whilst teaching himself English.. He is still patchy, but the fact that he taught it to himself was unreal!

This is Matt, the only South African over here (at the pub at least). He has been at the pub for about 2 years, and has some awesome stories about his time in jail, fighting with police in South Africa, and his wealth of useless crap knowledge. Some of which even i know is wrong, but i dont want to burst the guys bubble by correcting him. Trying to become a manager, so a bit of a wanker at times, but over all a nice guy.



This is Guill, our French Assisstant Manager. He is so French, that you could cut his accent with a herring. Its really that thick! But he is a great guy, and having been all over ther world, also has some great stories. from what i can understand, he has a strange James Bond and Scarface fetish..
This is the rest of the Crew at Tattersalls. Clockwise from left is:
Lucia, Donza, the other Aussie living on residence, Hudson, another portuguese guy and actually started teaching me Portuguese that night, of which some i actually remember, one of Hudsons friends, and Norman. Norman is our head cook (i dont call them chefs because they really are terrible cooks, but the effort is there) and has the temprement of a pissed off cobra. he stands at about 6ft6, and, as you can see, towers over me and the guy is leaning over. i stand at 6ft, so you can see the difference. Then is Maira, another Portuguese chick, but she works in the bar with us. then is little old Krystovff, who can drink a pint of Stella Artois in 3 seconds flat.. honest!

i hope you have enjoyed hearing about my friends in London, as they are alot of fun, and have helped keep my mind of you guys for a while. dont worry, i still think of all of you lots, but these guys are helping me forget you! *chortles*

cheers!