Reasserting my internet presence.

Oh hey guys. Sorry about the whole not blogging for like a month thing.

I at least THOUGHT about blogging a couple of times if that makes you feel any better?

So, a few things happened I guess:

1) It turned to winter. It is now basically dark by 4pm every day and I have to wear a coat to work.

2) My cousin and his wife came to visit and I was a tourist for a couple of days which was fun.

3) Lots of British Government workers got mad and had a strike/march about pensions and stuff, then some silly people used it as an excuse to start fires, one of which was in a building on the street where I work. This caused building management to put us on "lockdown" which basically meant we could leave but not get back it, except then I saw them letting people in, so I don't know what it meant actually. It was a bit of excitement anyway.

4) I booked my ticket to NZ for Jan/Feb. YOU ALL GET TO SEE ME SOON, LUCKY BASTARDS.

That's about it... I guess less things happened than I thought.

HERE, LOOK AT SOME MOBILE PHONE SNAPS.

Cousins head/Big Ben: Being a tourist.

Occupy London/part of my hand.

This years tacky xmas lights down Regent Street. 

This is for Louise! Sorry, I did not write a review.
I did get to play with some amazing fake snow though.

This street usually has all the cars driving on it.

I walked up the road to see what all the fuss was about. Everyone  just seemed
to be standing around really politely.
It was weird and less fiery than  I had expected.

They did put this fence around the fountain to protect the horses though.

My secret santa at work gave me this hat.
It was a lucky dip type situation so no one even knew who they were buying for.
Seems like it was meant to be.

I wore the hat for the entire xmas party and also all the way home on the tube. Alone.
The fact that I also drank all the drinks could have something to do with this.

This post has no title.

I really like public transport but I hate all the people I have to share it with.
Because of my inability to grow up/manage my life so I'm not awake at 2am/wake up earlier that 8.15am I always have to catch the tube with all the people. If I was a better person I could go to work at like 7am when all the other failures were still in bed then I would not have to push people out of my way/stand so close to strangers/sweat so much before 9am.
Also then I would get to leave work at like 4pm which is infinitely better than 6pm. I am going to work on this.
Also, I hate people who start to stand up WAY before it's necessary because they're afraid they're gonna like get stuck on the train or something. People do this on the buses in Wellington too. There is plenty of time for you to get up and get to the door once the vehicle stops, it is not necessary for you to stand up and push past me as soon as we leave the previous station/bus stop. WE WILL NOT HOLD YOU HOSTAGE. Especially because half the time I am getting off too. Just chill man.

Ok, rant over.

I was going to blog yesterday about how I am stalking Alan Carr/went to his show twice but then I couldn't find any words to write so I gave up. Basically there is a website you can sign up to and get free tickets for stuff, like the live at the Apollo I went to a few weeks ago. Both a chick I work with and my cousin asked if I wanted to go see Alan Carr. I wasn't trying to go 2 weeks in a row, it just happened...

Anyway, he's pretty funny? I dunno, I think I had seen his show before and he seems pretty genuine and doesn't change his personality when the cameras are off. Plus he always offers his guests alcohol.

In the first show he interviewed Nicole what's her face from The Pussycat Dolls or whatever, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, and the guy who won X factor last year whose name I can't remember but it doesn't matter because you won't know who he is anyway (Matt Cardle! I just remembered!). He sang too. He also pre-recorded an interview with Dermot O'leary/UK's answer to Ryan Seacrest/host of the X factor. The whole of the UK goes mental for X factor guys. Like right now they are complaining that the ratings are real low because only like 10 million people are watching on Saturday. That's like if the whole of NZ stayed home on a Saturday night and watched NZ idol two and a half times. Or something that actually makes sense.
The 2nd week was Mary J Blige, David Walliams and Westlife, plus some terrible pop group called the Saturdays who I've never heard of before sang this.

Westlife getting Alan Carr drunk was probably the highlight:

I don't think they show it all, he definitely had more shots. They finished the whole bottle.

Also yesterday I got some pretty exciting mail from Clare. It was one of those postcards that is also a DVD so people can see videos of places you may or may not have been on much sunnier days than when you were maybe there. Do people ever buy these for non joke purposes? I don't know, but I enjoyed it.

The closing shot is probably the best part/sums it up:

Come to NZ, we have gross brown grapes.

Seriously/ You couldn't find any nice looked grapes in the whole place? OH NZ.

I am going to finish with a selection of photos I found on my phone on Sunday after I went out on Saturday night. ENJOY.

Anniversary.

I have officially been in London for one year... Did you guys notice? Is Wellington real lacking without me there? I bet it is.

I think I'm happy with my decision to come to London. I don't miss Wellington. I don't feel homesick. I only miss people.

Also NZ snacks/gossip magazines/novelty gifts, but I think I'm set for those for awhile thanks to some sweet (literally) mail I received this week (thanks Sarah/Ben/Roxanne):

And just when I think Jenny can't get any creepier, she proves me wrong with this amazing/accurate likeness:

I am not doing anything or spending any money any time soon as I need to buy a plane ticket to the other side of the world... Therefore it is unlikely I will blog anything interesting any time soon. Sorry about that folks. Feel free to send me mail though! I really like it!

Lions and Horses, no Bears.

London can't make up it's mind which season it wants to be right now. When I was in Nice it got super hot, now it is cold and my flatmate even turned on the heaters the other night. OH LONDON.

On Saturday I went to Camden Markets.
I'm unsure whether I have been there before, it's possible but I don't think so. The first time I came to London in 2005 to visit my cousin he took us many places but I often had no idea where I was. We def went to some markets but I think I would remember these. Mostly because of all the horses.

All stable themed and shit.

This guy was my fav.

It seemed like there might be lots of cool things but there were far too many people for me. All the people everywhere.

Also shoes sticking out of buildings.

Walking down the main road reminded me of walking along Venice beach for some reason, except with less beach/sun/Americans. So nothing like it then maybe? I dunno.

Also apparently the Lion is like Camden's mascot or something.

Yes, those people are sitting on tiny motorbikes.

I think England is pretty obsessed with Lions in general though? Richard the Lionheart and all that?

Then there was a toaster on the escalator. Really want to make stickers and put them places maybe.

When I have the window open in my room the wind blows through the whole flat and it's pretty loud and annoying. I can make it stop if I shut some doors but other people open them all the time. It makes me mad.

Nice is nice. Hah.

I went on a trip to Nice with a gaggle of girls.

We stayed in a sweet apartment on top of a giant hill.

This was the view from our deck.

I did not actually experience Nice, this is because I spent too much time lying in the sun/swimming in the pool/eating all the food. I'm not bummed about this because I also had some real good naps on the couch and I can probably go back there sometime and be a tourist.

This was the view from the side of the pool.

I got a little sunburnt on my legs but I put sunblock on mostly.

Other people left the apartment a lot more than I did, however I did venture down the hill on Friday and we all caught the train to Cannes.

We ate some real great French lunch and I had profiteroles the size of my head:

After lunch the ladies went to sit on the beach and I decided to be a tourist. I went on this weird train/car thing that seemed like it shouldn't drive on actual roads but it did anyway.

It took me up to the top of a big hill.

There was a church up there.

Also the commentary told me lots of things about the film festival/famous people who spent/spend time there and stuff. I think it was maybe quite old though because they didn't mention anyone who became famous after like 2007. Also I learnt that there is an island there where they held The Man in the Iron Mask one time. Didn't have time to go there though.

Now I am back in London and back at work, which is great.

I'm really into pesto right now, basically just want to eat it all the time.

Mostly with Pasta.

Right now I am sitting in my lounge, which I have not for many months. Usually I just hide in my room because I don't really like my flatmates/am a hermit. It's weird watching actual TV with like ads and stuff. Ads are annoying.

No one else is home.

I am home because I am going to Nice this afternoon.

Yay for Europe and Annual Leave.

On Tuesday I went to "Live at the Apollo" because my cousin had free tickets. I had to line up for like 2 hours, half an hour of which was full of so much rain. It was probably worth it though.

I took this photo but it was kind of a waste of time:

Those people did not sit down the entire intermission. The big giant bright light behind them is actually this.

They were shooting 2 episodes. This guy was the host for the first half:

He didn't say that joke though because that is from like 2 years ago.

The other people in the first show were Ed Byrne, he used to say funny things about Alanis Morisette, (He's like married with a kid now so all his jokes were about babies/pregnancy. I don't think he's as funny now that he's happy maybe? I dunno.) and Lee Nelson. Who was real annoying at first but then he grew on me at the end.

Jagged Little Pill was my first ever CD, I bought it after I wore out the tape from playing it too much.

Then the 2nd show was hosted by Jason Manford. I like his accent. And Jimeoin  who is Irish and has an even better accent. He said something pretty funny about the Haka and Morris dancing.
The last guy was Tom Stade, he started off pretty terrible and heaps of people got up and left. Which was pretty awkward. He got a bit funnier towards the end.

He said this joke almost exactly:

I love Argos.

So fucking hip right now.

Oh hey, so I haven't blogged for a really long time. Jenny has put the hard word on me once again. Real sorry for being such a disappointment.

The reasons for my lack of blogging are very complex.

A few weeks ago my brother and sister came to visit and my brother made it clear that he had read my blog by quoting it at me. This made me feel pretty awkward. Basically I don't want you to tell me if you are reading this ok Liam? Thanks, that would be great.

Also, besides that I have been pretty glum/grumpy for quite a few weeks now (if Tobias saw me he would ask why I looked so morose) and have basically spent all my time either at work or in bed watching Army Wives.

Not an ideal climate for blogging.

I have been in a particularly terrible mood this week and have resorted to listening to my iPod a lot of the time, which was an easy thing to do when working in Wellington but is a bit more challenging on this side of the world. It's probably really unprofessional to behave so terribly that your workmates comment on your sullenness right?
Also tomorrow I have to take something for a shared lunch for "Health and Wellbeing week" or something and I have issues about providing food for other people, especially with such strict guidelines. Remember what it is like to try and convince me to cook for you Jenny? Yea, that.

When I was in Liverpool a few weeks ago we had dinner at some Chinese Buffet in this super depressing part of town. I took this photo, just because:

Then later I was looking through the "Hipstamatic" app on my phone and found some competition where you could win a trip to Tennessee. I would like to go to Tennessee I said to myself so I entered the photo and promptly forgot about it.
It turns out that some people decided they liked it and now it is in some show they made using the entries from the competition. Which sounds cooler than it is.
I went there today briefly for the opening, it was full of actual hipsters and also Jack Daniels. Pretty weird because people had obviously actually spent time taking photos of things. And my name was on the wall.

Plus I don't get to go to Tennessee which is obviously disappointing.

WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE IF WE STAY ON THIS BUS.

Today I actually got out of bed before 8am. Today I actually got out of bed. This is an achievement on a weekend.

I used to read Empire magazine religiously. I had plenty of time on public transport/at work to read the whole issue every month. I bought the British version for like $25 instead of the Australian for like $8 because it had twice as much in it. Since I came to London I only buy it if I'm going on a trip somewhere and want something to read on the plane. I read the free newspapers on the Tube instead. But for some reason, probably something to do with the spam emails they constantly sent me, I decided to go to Empire Presents: Big Screen.

I assumed it would be a movie version of some kind of comic book convention. I was pretty much right. The first half of the day was basically trailers and exclusive clips from movies I mostly have no desire to see. I have seen more than I ever planned to of The Amazing Spiderman and Final Destination 5. Did you know there is a Happy Feet 2? Also there is way too much 3D in the world. 3D is stupid. And the 3D glasses didn't even work! They just turned everything green!

A little while after I got my ticket I got to choose which sessions I wanted to go to. Because I wanted to get good ones I did it early. Consequently lots of stuff wasn't even confirmed yet. I ended up seeing Scream 2 because there was nothing else really on at 2.30.

The good part of the day was the two mystery/secret screenings I chose. I had absolutely no idea what they were going to be until I lined up outside the cinema and everyone else apparently already knew. It didn't actually matter though because I didn't know what either of them were when they said the names anyway. It was pretty exciting. I don't know if I have ever gone to a movie without having some idea what it was about.

The first one was Drive:

I just watched that and I'm real glad I didn't see it first. Maybe don't watch it. I don't know.
I didn't LOVE it. But it kept me interested. The plot was a bit all over the place and I thought the music was too loud but I would probably watch it again. Afterward the was a Q&A with the director which was good also.

Next was Red State:

I had no idea it was a Kevin Smith movie until the end credits. Explains a lot though.
I don't think I have liked a Kevin Smith movie since maybe Dogma. I might like this, I'm not sure yet. Also John Goodman is in it which was a bit weird/jarring.

I enjoyed the mysteriousness of not knowing what the movies were. It was weird not even being sure what genre they were. Like Red State seemed like a comedy to begin with, then in took on a kind of horror vibe for a bit and eventually it just went insane.

Gonna watch more movies I have no idea about.

Also, The O2 is like giant. And everyone was dressed in white for some reason?

Need to figure out how to stop 'Hipstamatic' being black and white.

Oh, and I got free stuff:

All I had to do was subscribe for a year for only 20 quid.
Must've been scraping the bottom of the barrel for this gift bag. I mean, Kick Ass was like last year right? And the X Files? Really?

Oh well, free is free.

UPDATE: This is why everyone was wearing white.

Probs should've gone to that instead.

My flatmate moved out and now we have no forks.

Which is pretty annoying. I have taken to using the free plastic forks I get with my fruit salad from Pret in the mornings. Another example of how I excel at Adulthood.

I also still really need socks.

I have been using someone's Lynx shower gel for about a week and a half because the one I bought is Tea Tree Oil and Mint or some shit and it does not agree with me.

I bought a box of 6 Mars Bar Icecreams and I have only eaten two. There are now two left in the box. Something does not add up.

Today I decided to buy my breakfast from Eat instead of Pret. After waiting in line for like 10mins I discovered that their Eftpos machine was not working. The guy said I could come back and pay for it later. Pretty trusting considering I am not a regular customer/am a foreigner and could quite possibly be a tourist/am not in some small town where I would have no choice but to go back there. I went back and paid after work, no bad Karma thanks.

This sign has been by the steps at the Tube station for a week or so:

I'm real intrigued.

I told Lucy I would blog about the riots... but the truth is, I don't have that much to say really.

If you look at this map I stole from here:

The T's are the 'incidents' near me, and the crudely drawn red x is about where I live. I think I technically live in Hackney but all I noticed was a few more sirens than usual. I did get to go home from work early on Tuesday though.
Don't get me wrong, the whole thing was pretty horrible. And I'm real glad I wasn't anywhere near any of it. But I get the impression that the coverage you guys had made it seem like the whole of London was burning or something. You probably saw all I ever saw. I just watched the BBC.

What's the Buzz?

Clare really wanted to watch Knocked Up but my TV won't play it for some reason. We are watching Jesus Christ Superstar instead. Pretty much just as good. This song is on now. We used to sing it at primary school. Real appropriate.

So, I haven't blogged for a long time and now I can no longer remember any of the things I wanted to blog about. Yesterday we got back from European adventures. I am going to tell you about all the food (mostly Schnitzel) we ate.

On Wednesday night before we left I came down with some kind of mystery illness and basically died on Thursday, which was unfortunate because I still felt kind of sick until about Tuesday/Munich. Consequently I only took a photo of the amazing looking donut pretzel at the sweet market in Salzburg:

I spent the rest of the trip trying to find these again, turns out they are unique to Sound of Music country?

All food choices in Austria/Germany pretty much consisted of meat and potatoes. Mainly Schnitzel and/or sausages of some kind. We mostly tried to eat at traditional looking places (except that one night we ate Italian...) so therefore we ate many varieties of these dishes. They were mostly pretty great.

We also tried all the Apple strudel we could handle. And one piece of cheese strudel. In Munich Clare made me order a Banana boat, which is German for banana split I guess?, and then I had to sing to her. Luckily I'm a real great singer.

On our second night in Munich we went to this famous beer hall and drank beers the size of our heads:

We tried to drink so much beer but it was a giant struggle. Especially since I hate beer. We also cheated and had Radlers.

Clare totes won.

I tried to be adventurous one morning and bought some weird looking snack that was call "Americano"

It was not as exciting at it looked. Think dry cake with fake icing.

Clare really enjoyed her "Berliner" donut though.

After our trip to the concentration camp we really wanted giant drinks. Your mama helped us out.

All apple flavoured drinks in Germany are carbonated. You have been warned.

The food choices in Prague were possibly good, it's hard to say. On our first day we got there pretty late in the afternoon and had side of the road hotdogs for a snack. We were ready to eat dinner at maybe 8.30ish and spied a restaurant out of the window of our hotel/across the river. We got a menu and decided what we were gonna eat... then tried to order and were informed that it was too late to order pretty much anything. After some difficult communication with the waitress who didn't seem to speak any English we realised we could order salad. So we did.

Clare, anticipating her salad.

Salad? Basically cucumber.

Clare, not even caring that she hates cucumber.

Luckily we had a real great view. Our hotel is right on the end with the green sign.

The next day we took a lunchtime cruise. It included a buffet. And an old man playing a piano accordion. We were basically the only young people except for the kids with their parents.

It was almost 12, so we drank.

Free shot on arrival!

Pina Colada/Sex on the beach (boat)

Mojito/Cryb bomb

More meat! Also vegetables?

Finally on Thursday I made Clare go to the airport super early and we couldn't check in for like an hour so she ate some airport Pizza. I just ate some crust.

I hope you wanted to experience every meal we ate? I don't know if you care actually.

Some of you guys had a real fun time Czeching out Prague from the deck of the boat though!