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!

The 'Spitting Cobra' :P

Just a little blog today guys.. about my little experience with a pom at a bus stop... and its nothing like that!

After work, the honourable Steve and yours truly went to a little place called Tesco's..which isnt that small.. but it is a supermarket, similar to Safeway. anyway.. we had finished our shopping, and sat down at the bus stop which was also occupied by a little old drunkard english lady.. must have been 45-50.. and absolutley drunk as a skunk.. i should have known better than to sit next to her...

She stated that she was kicked out of Tesco's, and, being the helpfull person i am, i suggest she should shop at Sainsburies.. another supermarket.. she didnt like that much, and she got quite angry... again, should have walked away..

she started yelling.. and said she lived in West London...(whoop-te-do! but, being me i didnt know where that was..) i explained that i didnt know where that was.. saying that i was from australia..

she then, like pauline hanson, told me to come back where i came from.. called me a crazy git.. (yes josh, i successfully got called a git without getting punched, as that was our goal from our last UK trip) and promptly spat at me..

not to much of a problem.. but i was in the closest proximity to this flying bodily fluid.. and it actually hit me.. ON THE FACE!!!

thats right.. i got called a crazy git.. and got spat on.. fun for me..

sitting in a state of disbelief for about 10 mins.... which was better and safer for me.. as i probably could have added her to the ipswich prostitute murder list...

so i went home, showered and ate my dinner..

but, that is my story. hope you entralled/disgusted!

Note to self: let steve sit next to crazy lady at bus stop next time...

Big Ben, the London Eye

This is our London Eyes Adventure.. We got a 2 for 1 pass with our Oyster Card(similar to a metcard for all you unfamiliar Aussies) so the price went down to about $15 AUD each. We were also incredibly lucky to get London on a clear blue sky-ed day, so please enjoy this as it isnt happening very often at the moment!

As you can see in the top left hand of the photo, there is actually a little bit of cloud.. which, half an hour later, turned into a lot of cloud! then the rain started..but it was fun all the same! This is on the bridge heading into Westminster Abbey, the Houses of Parliment and good old Big Ben is to the right. ALl in all, the ol' wheel took about 45mins to go around, and we got some pretty gnarly photos out of the adventure.

A few more photos of London from one of the 'pods'.. as shown to the right..

And now for me and Stevey at Big Ben...

The Eiffel Tower

Guys, for all who reads this and comes to Paris from my advice.. See the Eiffel Tower at night time... So much more elegant (for a building)..

We were staying not too far from the Tower, about a 10minute walk.. And you will have to excuse the poor quality of the photos.. the camera wasnt as good at night as it was during the day.

Steve thought it was a great idea to take a shot from underneath the tower..but worked out it wasnt the best idea.. Good old Steve!

I've got some more pictures of places like the Arc'de Triumphe, The Lourve, and Moulin Rouge coming. Stay tuned for more pics of Paris and beyond!

Enjoy, and as the nerds say 'keep on blogging!' I think anyway...

Cheers Guys

Freddie Mercury's House

Just to let you know, the following post is about my visit to Freddie Mercury's House on the 15th of November, 2006. A mean feat in itself, but this day happened to be the 15th anniversary of his death. i have may have mentioned it earlier, but Freddie Mercury was and still is my musical hero. It was a very moving experience to be at his house on his annivesary, especially as there was a little candle lit vigil at his front door.


As you can see, this is Freddies front door. 1 Logan Place was this address, and on the walls there should have been memo's to Freddie, but they had been sandblasted off by the council.

Around the top of the 10ft high walls.. Some pretty gnarly rasor wire! The house is still lived in by Freddies ex-wife, Mary Austin, and she is still very strict on letting anyone in. Obviously shown by the rasor wire!
Did i mention i was a fan of Freddies? :P

Notre Dame/St. Michels

Me and Steve in Paris, and at Notre Dame to be specific. Awesome place to be..

Im not to sure on how to play around with the layout of the blog yet.. so i'll write more soon.. i'll also throw the Eiffel tower Pics in next blog i do!

Anyway, Notre Dame was fantastic. It gave you the cathedral feel, but there was something eerie about it.. maybe just the name being Notre Dame, but inside was awesome. The standard high ceilings, pipe organ, and mass services that were still running. Unfortunatley didnt get to attend, but the thoughts were there. The only down part of it is that, like all of Paris, it was dirty. They had been doing works on it, and it looked like that couldnt be bollocksed finsihing them.. but look past that, and you have quite the view of an old school cathedral!

My First Blog.. But im getting used to it..

Guys, this is my first 'blog' as such..maybe i can get into the hype of it all... but this is the room were staying in..good old me and steve..

i'll try and keep going with my blogs.. but enjoy!

Again, more of our room.. a bit small, and we have added some more of our junk into it.. did i mention that this is a 'before' shot.. i'll take some more soon.. and show you the improvement in our living standards..

Me with an aptly named 'spanish conquistidor', who, upon my surprise was a British Cavalry Dude.. who then yelled at me because i was in the way of his little changing of the guard ceremony.. i didnt know! crazy spaniards... :P