Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in neil's LiveJournal:

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Wednesday, December 16th, 2009
8:02 pm	guess the best that i can do now is pretend I've done nothing wrong Had a busy but occasionally frustrating last day in Sydney: caught up with a friend in the morning then had a rushed (I was late) picnic in Newtown with another friend for lunch, went to see cryx's impro show in the evening which was really enjoyable, although my rather overly-casual approach to finding out where it was on meant I missed the first half. After that I went back to Blink, with the intention of having at least one proper dance while I was here, which I did but then fell foul of their rather paternalistic law here*, fairly vigorously enforced, that they can ask you to leave a pub or club if they think you're in any way drunk, even if you're not causing any trouble. It was about half two and I's at about the point where I could have quite happily left anyway but the night ending that way left a pretty unpleasant taste in the mouth, especially since I wasn't. It was a useful indicator, however, in the feeling that's been gradually building that I made the right decision not to stay out here: it may seem petty, but going out dancing is one of my few Great Pleasures and, given the opportunities for it come about more rarely than they used to, the prospect of having nights out curtailed at a time not of my choosing because a bouncer thinks he has seen my eyelid droop a quarter of an inch (I'm really not sure what other reason there could have been: I was standing at the side, taking a rest from dancing as a few songs I didn't know had come on) is a fairly significant factor. Of course, I may just have had bad timing, a few unlucky breaks: i could have come a week earlier and gone to High & Dry, stayed a day more and revisted the Walk Against Warming, seen the Fuji Collective play, a couple of people I'd hoped to see again could have replied to my messages and I could be singing a totally different tune, but to some extent so long as I have an answer, so long as the 'what ifs' are silenced, it doesn't necessarily matter whether it is the right one. The train to Perth was both an ordeal and a pleasure: we stopped for a couple of hours in a few places- Broken Hill, Adelaide (where I took a whistle-stop bus tour of exceptional dullness) and Cook (Pop.: 5) but the last day across Western Australia was the hardest going, especially since I hadn't slept too much on the first couple of nights. On the other hand it was actually tremendously sociable: there were about a dozen or so UTTAs in our carriage (Under Thirty Travelling Alone; I infiltrate rather than qualify) and a slinky Italian who facilitated interaction and it was really nice eating up the vast expanse of awesome but barely changing scenery chatting to them, plus a couple of confrontations among the other passengers to keep us on our toes. Wandered around Perth centre, been up to Kings Park and out to Cottesloe beach so far since I've been here: endless stretches of empty whie beaches, beautiful but a bit too windy today, a reunion of train people planned at the pub tonight. My timing has not improved though: self-imposed constraints and lack of overland options mean I may be seeing in the new decade back on the train but we shall see! *In the interests of balance, there are times when Australia seems far less paternalistic than the UK- one of my many favourite things about Newtown is seeing ramshackle bands set up along King Street in the evening, playing with equal gusto to passers by or no-one at all: if anyone tried that in Camden they'd be moved on in about three minutes flat. Current Mood: relaxed Current Music: another travellin' song- bright eyes (Comment on this)
Friday, December 11th, 2009
4:38 pm	we know better don't we, we know all about the mess Two last things about Thailand I forgot to mention: the Walking Markets in Chaing Mai were amazing, they have them in the evening at the weekend and fill up street after street with stalls, enough to make Camden look like it's not really trying; also I had really nice night out at a place called Bangkok Bar when I was back in the capital- despite being in the heart of the backpacker district it was a bar with a 95% Thai clientele and some really good bands playing: although the Thai bands doing covers of US/UK indie-rock classics in the more tourist-orientated bars were fun it was nice to see some music that was maybe more representative of local styles and tastes. I've been back in Sydney for about ten days which has been kinda odd: awesome to see people and to be reminded of all the little quirks of Aussie culture I'd forgotten (Double decker trains! Travel tens! The bizarre obsession with drag! Schooners! Berala!) but to begin with I felt a bit aimless: I think it was the shift from having quite definite plans to Do Things and See Things in my previous stops to not feeling the need to explore as I'd lived here, also going from having full days and occasionally aimless evenings to busy evenings catching up with friends and emptier days when they're all at work, good for doing stuff like uploading photos and planning the rest of my trip but not so exciting in and of itself. There have been other factors too: I'm staying in my friend Rozzy's flat while she's away, which is bliss in terms of having space to myself and being able to stay in one place for more than a few nights, but it's out in the suburbs of North Sydney, away from my familiar Newtown bubble and making how-to-get-home more of a limiting factor. My couple of attempts at Big Nights Out over the weekend got kinda curtailed too, in ways that should have been good I guess, but actually I think I'd have rather stayed out. My newish iPod's irrevocably broken too, with particularly poor timing. Having said all that there have been some awesome things too: more pancakes than I will ever eat in my life again, mooching around old haunts, reacquainting myslef with the world of sci-fi shows and card games, picking up the street press and seeing something that looks like a cool way to spend the evening and going along, cycling to Manly- even if I chose the dreariest day since I've been here to go to the beach, and of course catching up with people. The lure of Sydney is that it offers a glimpsed possibility of a life I've always wanted, an alternative scene that seems so much more accessible and personal than London has ever done, but there are complications to my participation in it and I don't know whether, left to my own devices, I would truly be any more capable of becoming a part of it than I have been back home. I'll be back here next month but as of tomorrow I'll be spending three days on a train until I reach Perth at the other end of the country: being a cheapskate I've only booked a seat, not a berth, so it could be fun! Current Mood: uncertain Current Music: happy endings- pulp (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, December 8th, 2009
3:33 pm	Photos In case anyone who may be interested missed them on FB, I have internetted some of my pictures from India and Thailand (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, December 1st, 2009
10:24 am	Moving on again: I'm halfway through two days of travel, planes to Singapore then Brisbane, waiting for another 18 hour coach journey to Sydney. I'm travelling about in Oz too but since I'm here for two months it'll be nice to be spending a bit more time in each place! I spent a day doing some snorkelling around the islands off Koh Samed which was pretty good fun, although I was hampered by a certain amount of inability to get my mask watertight, and happily none of our group wanted to do the fishing that was supposed to come as part of the day. Had a brush with some different kind of aquatic life when I went for an early morning swim before heading back to Bangkok the next day only to have a snake skimming over the surface of the waves, flicking its tongue as it surfed out to sea right past my face. Back in the city I saw some more sights: the Wat Arun temple was really impressive, despite my occasional feeling that I'd seen all the temples a man could possibly handle, although when I headed up to the Viharn Mansion (I think that's the wooden one you were thinking of cream_horn) it proved to be rather more hassle than it was worth, largely due to a fairly dull compulsory guided tour. My last afternoon in the country I did a Thai cookery course which proved to be absolutely hilarious, largely due to the guy taking it, a bit like a camp Gordon Ramsay, who so clearly could have a career on British television. (It was interesting and delicious too: the food both in India and Thailand has been universally awesome.) I've done a bit of going out: beach bars, more Khoasan Road and an obligatory exploration of Bangkok's seedier downtown district; alternating heavier, more sociable nights with some quiet pootling. It's interesting to see which external influences have an impact on local tastes and culture: from everything I've seen, the musician with the biggest global-market penetration is without a doubt Bob Marley, whilst Britain's most significant cultural export, I'm afraid to say, is clearly The Premiership: it's slightly surreal to watch a Thai-fronted Match-of-the-Day style show analysing the finer points of Wigan v. Sunderland. I was also confused that the show seemed to be sponsored by Barclays, Sony, Yamaha and . . . Fisherman's Friend. Do FF head up some gigantic corporate empire I've managed to remain ignorant of or are they just punching above their weight there? Given the pretty blatant product-placement of a Vaio I was half-expecting the pundits to casually pull out a tin and start passing them around . . . (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, November 25th, 2009
6:26 pm	talk of love, not hate- things to do, it's getting late Four of us all travelling on our own all converged on the bus to Sukhothai so proceeded to keep each other company more-or-less for the next few days (me and three girls, natch)- our visit to the ancient remains at Sukhothai managed to coincide with the Thai Prime Minister using it as a backdrop for one of his speeches and he wandered past us through the ruins with a cluster of important-looking, white-uniformed attendants afterwards. It was interesting to see how some formerly Hindu buildings had been made into Buddhist temples and the merging of imagery and cosmology between the two. We moved on the same evening to Chiang Mai, Thailand's second-largest city, up in the north of the country, where I stayed for about three days. It's a really nice place, more diffuse than Bangkok but more chilled out, less going on maybe in the city itself but loads to do in the surrounding area: I spent my happiest day yet on a trek over some bamboo-forested mountains, which included seeing a hill-tribe settlement and a bat cave as well as swimming in a somewhat icy jungle pool while our machete-happy guide chopped down great swathes of vegetation just to get at a single banana-flower. I also had one really fun night out there: a cool little rooftop bar, followed by an over-packed club, then sitting out at a bar operating out of a van which had materialised on the pavement. Checked out temples in and out of the city and the museum giving the history of the area too. Said goodbye to my new companions yesterday and have just spent about eighteen hours on bus journeys heading all the way back down the country to end up on the island of Koh Samet: it's not one of the big, famous beach-islands right down in the south because I just didn't have the time for that much travelling but judging by the afternoon I just had lying on white sand as the sun went down and floating around in the sea, it'll do just fine! Current Mood: relaxed Current Music: passing through- leonard cohen (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, November 23rd, 2009
9:28 pm	They're obsessed! I'm telling you, obsessed! (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, November 20th, 2009
10:00 am	the world is not my home I'm just a-passing through last memory of Delhi: I think my most bizarre moment was going into an Inidan-fast-food place for lunch on Connaught Place (think Oxford Street if it was a circle) when some marchers started going by waving flags, some of whom ran in and shouted some stuff before running out again. There was a lot of frantic activity as the other dinners quickly asked for their food to be boxed up and left while the staff turned out all the lights and generally pretended the place was shut. I'd paid for my food but hadn't had it yet though so kept on sitting there, they did bring it out and I ate my lunch in the dark while the staff were all hiding out-of-sight. From what I could piece together, some kind of general strike had been called and the place I was eating hadn't adhered to it. No such drama yet in Thailand (aeroplane movie-watch couldn't muster anything more exciting than a re-watch of the most recent Harry Potter on my way here)- I spent a day and two nights in Bangkok, mostly around the backpacker ghetto of the Khoasan Road which isn't too horrific- it's very geared towards Westerners but still Thai in flavour, no fish & chips or MaccyDees, although I also visited the old Royal Palace and Wat Pho temple, negotiating the river-bus without too much trauma. Since then I've come up to Ayutthaya, the capital from about the 14th until the 18th centuries but now a fairly sleepy little town (the old part at least) dotted with ruined temples and museums. I checked in for two nights although it turned out that pretty much everything to be seen and done here could be done in 24 hours (but includes some cool stuff- I feel I could write books now on the symbolism of various different Buddha images)- however I realised that having an empty afternoon to laze around in the shade in a park by the river, next to a ruined temple, reading and listening to music, may not be the end of the world after all. Moving on to Sukhothai in a couple of hours (the previous capital before this one)- I had one beery evening on the Khoasan Road but otherwise it's been pretty peaceful; not made any best-friends-forever but there are plenty of people willing to chat which is good enough. Not as easy to speak to the Thais themselves as it was the Indians, for obvious reasons, but they also generally let you be more too. Current Mood: restless Current Music: come on up to the house- tom waits (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 17th, 2009
7:30 am	got a tattoo in Berlin (and a case of the crabs) Had a good last few days in Delhi: went to see the Qutb Minar complex, which was a few centuries older than a lot of the Mughal monuments I'd been to and a bit more how I like my ancient sites- crumbling and ruined. Then, in an attempt to get some balance from the overwhelmingly Islamic architecture and design I'd been exposing myself to, I headed out to Akshardham, a temple that didn't quite live up to its billing as 'Hindu Disneyland' but did have some pretty special animatronic exhibitions and a whole heap of rather more genuinely impressive carvings. It was quite hard going connecting to people in India- even though I'd quite consciously checked into the 'backpacker area' in Delhi, it was all single rooms without communal areas and, whilst a presence, the foreign visitors were far from overrunning the place. Apart from one pleasant evening R and I spent in tri-lingual conversation with some other Europeans in the hotel in Agra, it was quite hard to get any kind of social contact that wasn't predicated around someone trying to get something out of you (quite literally the shirt off my back, in one notable case)- meaning that after R left I felt like I was almost allowing myself to be ripped off a couple of times for the sake of some pleasant conversation (there's a whole 'Henna Tattoo' saga here that I won't bore you with the intricacies of.) It was an awesome experience being there, though, probably the first time I've been somewhere that I've felt is culturally strongly different to my own- and not just the crazy, crazy driving, although that's what will probably stick in my mind the most. The whole culture is refreshingly health & safety free, in fact: finally, a country that not only lets you climb up that narrow, twisting staircase in the crumbling tomb but makes you do it in the dark! I stopped over for less than 24-hours in Singapore and, although I didn't get to see much more of it than walking down a long road lined with eateries, it was a bit of a culture-shock to be somewhere so ordered: where people drove in lanes and ignored you as you walked down the street. I've now been in Thailand for about a day, where a backpacker community is extremely easy to plug into and nightlife (something else I never really identified in India, in the form in which I'm used to it) everywhere. Will probably head out north from Bangkok tomorrow though and head back to the capital when I've got some of the other places I want to see under my belt. Current Mood: hot Current Music: eurotrash girl- cracker (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, November 12th, 2009
7:59 pm	pretending there's glamour and candelabra when you're drinking by candle-light Rachel left today so I'm on my own again and moving back into more cockroachy surroundings (albeit nothing worse than I encountered in Oz.) We've been pretty busy although I think we may have prioritised ancient buildings rather too heavily over modern culture- I've seen all the red sandstone forts and white marble tombs I think I'll ever need to in this lifetime. As well as the Lal Qila and Humayun's Tomb here in Delhi, we also took the train down to Agra for four days where we somewhat hid from the unrelenting bustle of the cities in a tourist bubble of sites and our hotel courtyard, an oasis of fairylights backed up with candles for when the power cuts out. The Taj Mahal isn't at all over-hyped but the other two places we visited down there were almost as impressive: Agra's own fort plus the deserted citadel of Fatepuh Sikri, about 40km outside the city, built by the Emperor Akbar without thinking to check whether the local water supply could support such a settlement. I hadn't realised for how much of its history this part of India was under Muslim rule so much of what we've seen is of Mughal origin (barring one spectacularly elaborate Jainist temple)- I was hoping to get over to Jaipur to see something a little more Rajput but there wasn't quite enough time between R leaving and my own flight to do it comfortably and, as she had to take it pretty easy her last couple of days, there are still several things I want to see here. The level of attention paid to you is pretty wearing- mostly people trying to sell you things (although I've been down Main Bazaar so often now that the drug dealers have started bitching to me about each other,) whilst my only surrended to the constant begging was to end up buying someone who was trying to sell me hash some dinner. What I wasn't expecting, however, was to be so remarkable to people: even in these tourist-trail cities a lot of people stare, wave, point you out to their friends, ask to have their photos taken with you (or take them surreptitiously)- as far as I can tell we've been getting it more than most, although I guess R with her stick and me, well, looking like me, are slightly more of a spectacle; however, since I'm unlikely to ever again have gaggles of young men excitedly jostling around me, it's one form of attention I'm not complaining about . . . Current Mood: over-stimulated Current Music: this place is a prison- postal service (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, November 5th, 2009
7:59 pm	such a crumbling beauty: ah there's nothing wrong with her $100 couldn't fix Flight to Delhi all went pretty smoothly (Aeroplane Movie Watch: The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus and (500) Days of Summer)- was 2.30am by the time I's out the other side so I spent the night in the airport (not what I'd told my parents) then a taxi into town. First impressions are a cascade of cliches: weaving in and out crazy traffic in auto-rickshaws, wandering down main bazaar with everyone clamouring for tourist money by one means or another. Everyone friendly but there's an insidiousness to endless guidebook warnings that make you question what's behind the most casual compliment. Having said that I did get briefly adopted by a trio of Indian Uni students on a couple of days holidays: we tore around haphazardly in a rickshaw one of their uncle's owned, they took me for chai, to temple, for breakfast. I was deposited fairly firmly into the jaws of a particular tourist bureau (it said Government of India on the building but, warning and counter-warning, have been told that doesn't necessarily mean it is) at the end of it, but if that was the agenda it was one well worth swallowing. I've done a lot of wandering, orientating, taking things easy. I went round the National Museum and one of the former Citadels, Purana Qila, only a couple of buildings survive other than the city walls but none of the space within them has been built upon making it like an enormous, fortified park. Both were serene and quiet compared to the city outside. The weather is suiting me well: warm but not scorching, a hazy sunshine that's not yet threatened my skin. Rachel arrived today so have upgraded from my functional room off the Main Bazaar to the unexpected luxury of our hotel (that's what fifteen quid a night will get you instead of two)- double bed though, so latest in a long line of female friends I've slept with . . . Current Mood: calm Current Music: 9th & Hennepin- Tom Waits (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, November 1st, 2009
12:38 am	oh what a world my parents gave me: always travelling but not in love well, that's pretty much it: job left, house vacated, one more day in the country and then I'm out of here; obviously, it doesn't feel real still but I did reach a point on Friday morning where the weeks of frenetic stress seemed to drop away into a deep calm. Despite having had a late night, I woke up feeling well rested on a weekday for what felt like the first time in months, I didn't have the lurking fear of how to get everything done before I left, I finally accepted that it all wasn't my problem anymore. it's been kinda sad in some ways: two years is the longest I've been in a job and the community feel of the project has meant I've been much more invested in the guests than anywhere else I've worked, I guess I've got kinda protective of them and the fragile paths that some of them are on but having a week with my successor has been good- he was pretty quiet and hard to connect with (oh the irony!) but seemed like he'd be a good listener and was already taking proactive steps for people by himself. I got some presents from various guests too: some Swiss chocolate, a stone one of them had painted, a diary (almost certainly stolen) and a ceremonial dagger wrapped up in a sock. I've been doing pretty well at seeing loads of people before I go too: I'll probably forget something but recent highlights have included sherbetsaucers and nothingtoyou's DIY Sci-Fi con, a reunion with two of the Scandanavian girls I lived with when I first came to London: we went out dancing at indie nights just like we used to, a day at home with a string of unexpected school-friend visitors, G&Ts on the roof with our inspirational octogenarian volunteer and a nice night with friends at the Griffin. We still haven't found anyone for my room but it's pretty certain I'll go back there: going away has been slightly more inconvenient this time; when I went to Oz, Bleary House Mk I was coming to its natural conclusion and I didn't like my job; this time my domestic and employment situation were both very happy (although I do need the break from work) but I'll definitely stay in touch with both so we'll see what happens. Down at my parents' for the weekend, doing alien things like watching TV, it's pretty chilled but I'm looking forward to getting off: I'm definitely ready to go :-) Current Mood: relaxed Current Music: oh what a world- rufus wainwright (Comment on this)
Tuesday, October 20th, 2009
12:30 pm	I'm very much into the zone of 'last times' before I go (which seems slightly melodramatic as there are plenty of people I don't see for four months even when I'm in the country)- had dinner three times over last week, all within twenty minutes of my house which was as blissful as it was unusual, then down to Southampton where I went to The Hobbit and pulled together a clutch of school people on Friday night. I had a really nice Saturday of enforced relaxation: it not being worth my while to go all the way home, I hung out at TP's, had breakfast in a cafe, then sat on a train back into London and pottered around the National Portrait Gallery before heading back out to Egham for Dark Ages. This *was* a last for me, as I'm gonna miss the end of the chronicle while I'm away, which is pretty sad-making, although possibly a good point for Mr. Thynne to make his exit . . . I think I'm mostly on top of preparations for going: a couple of minor anxieties include not catching my housemate's suspected Pig Flu just before I go, which I seem to have avoided so far, and somehow managing to lose my lesser-spotted credit card which, given postal shenanigans, I'm less optimistic about getting the replacement for before I leave . . . Will be having some drinks post-work (6ish) at the Vauxhall Griffin next Wednesday (28th) if anyone in the London vicinity fancies popping in to say goodbye :-) (Comment on this)
Sunday, October 18th, 2009
8:09 pm	Not that anything more needs saying . . . . . . but this is the most eloquent analysis I've seen of what exactly the problem was with Jan Moir's insinuations (warning: contains the word 'fucktardery' rather a lot.) (7 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, October 11th, 2009
10:58 pm	third verse, same as the first I seem to be going out more in Vauxhall than I ever did when I lived there: last weekend I went for both Kiss and Make Up with ditzy_pole at the Griffin (good atmosphere, not really my kinda music) on the Friday night, then to Barcode (which is a club! Not just a bar! Who knew?) with Dominik. I can now apparently add 'House' to the list of types-of-music-I-will-cheerfully-dance-to-when-drunk. In between I went to see my Granny down in Surrey- I'm pretty good at being a responsible adult [kinda] in other areas of my life but I have realised that I still react to everything within the context of my family from the 'child' perspective. Because of which, this was the first time I'd been to see her as something I'd arranged on my own rather than with my parents (although in fact my uncle & aunt ended up taking us out for lunch)- something I intend to do more of when I get back. Sunday was lunch in Raynes Park with KES people and meeting my second baby of the week, Oscar Robinson, for the first time. Then on Wednesday I completed BabyTour09 by meeting my two tiny nieces, Sienna and Zoe Parkinson, who at that point had arrived by C-Section only two days previously! They were utterly adorable, especially asleep together in the cot with one's nose smushed against the other's forehead! I missed half of Bombay Bicycle Club at Heaven on Thursday because I'd come on after the AGM at work (although could have made it if I'd actually checked the time they were on, as I'd been planning to) but then got to see the King Blues at the Ballroom on Friday who were awesome and (like Glastonbury tickets! *shakes fist*) had snuck under my radar and, despite specifically looking out for them, I wouldn't have known they were playing if jamese hadn't alerted me to the fact. I headed up to Manchester for the weekend to see Joe: we didn't do much but that was kinda nice, although all the money saving that this was geared towards was firmly undone when I turned up with moments to spare at the wrong bus station to get my coach home and subsequently had to shell out eight times the amount on a train ticket . . . Current Mood: procrastinatory Current Music: placebo (Comment on this)
Thursday, October 1st, 2009
10:07 pm	went up to a benefit night at the Pogo Cafe on Tuesday which reminded me how in my fantasy life I live in Hackney; was good to see a lot of the queeruption crew although the e-list we've used for about nine years going into meltdown is just one example of everything seeming to be on the brink of falling apart at the mo; lots of our guests getting knockbacks at work just when it looked like things would be in a good position for them when I's leaving, house stress, not enough time to plan important stuff for my trip (my own fault, i know) genreal grrr I'm on BabyTour09 also, meeting four newly born critters belonging to family & friends in 8 days! First up was heading to Oxford for the evening yesterday to meet little Rachel Robinson. Displayed all known hallmarks of being a baby. Good to see the adults too :-) (Comment on this)
Tuesday, September 29th, 2009
11:19 am	happy days, we thought that they would never end had what I think will be my last quiet weekend in this country, it was very nice though: ambled up to Egham for some food, friends and Apples to Apples Friday night, didn't leave the house all day Saturday and meandered around the West End with hysteria74 on Sunday: we went to see Dorian Gray which wasn't bad but didn't entirely satisfy either. I's particularly irked at all the fake-looking exteriors (remember kids, just because you can use CGI doesn't mean you should) but at least Colin Firth was enjoying himself. It did fit in quite well with my reading matter though as I'm currently discovering the joys of the other purveyor of drawing-room epigrams, Saki. One of the good things about new housemates is new book-collections to plunder. After a patch of flawed but intense Catholicism (Diderot, Graham Greene) we've moved back into more sedate and comfortable territory. The Duchess suppressed a sniff. She was one of those people who regard the Church of England with patronizing affection, as if it were something that had grown up in their kitchen garden. Although I think my favourite line so far: I regard one's hair as I regard husbands: as long as one is seen together in public one's private divergences don't matter. Current Music: absent friends- the divine comedy (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, September 27th, 2009
12:30 am	Unlikely but . . . Is anyone looking to rent a room in a house with a garden in a leafy corner of SE London for 4 months from November? £400/month non-inc. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, September 24th, 2009
9:17 pm	sitting on the cafe Xeno's steps with a book I haven't started yet had a fun long-weekend in Barcelona: a healthy blend of admiring cool/old stuff, hanging out in cafes and revelry. It was an interesting experience sharing a small apartment with four girls of the type who care about the make of their hair-straighteners and all got a bit Brits abroad for my snobbish sensibilities at times but never in a particularly offensive way. We were really centrally situated, with a great roof terrace and could wander along to Las Ramblas in no more than ten minutes and I's pretty pleased with what attempts to use my Spanish I made, given I'd not looked at it for three months and forgotten to take my books with me; the course had definitely made a big difference to the amount I understood too. It is inevitably the bizarrer moments that stand out as memories, though: having the police called on us for complaining about pizza, K. taking her murder-mystery dinner obsession international and late-night drunken bonding with a guy who claimed to be a former Mossad agent, although wiping myself out so badly that I didn't make it out the apartment until 5pm the next day wasn't my cleverest move. My lengthier travels are getting pretty imminent now: work have just interviewed for my successor, have had my jabs, sent off for the last visa I need, trying to cram in seeing as many people as possible before I go . . . I did make it the the 100 Club last night to see some bands with a guy I became friends with at the festivals over the summer: saw Hello Geiger, Eight Legs and The Bishops who were all energetic and good value; had a nice atmosphere too, the 100 Club always seems a stupid shape to try to fill but it was busiest I've seen it. Current Mood: constructive Current Music: big dipper- cracker (Comment on this)
Tuesday, September 15th, 2009
11:32 am	if you sing Blue Moon it will all be over soon Why I Am Stupid: I usually buy a weekly travelcard but didn't yesterday as I'm off to Barcelona on Thursday, so I was trying to plan travel in a way that minimised the cost but didn't remember until 8pm that you can also buy one-day travelcards; in the meantime I managed to completely fuck up my journey home from having a drink with sherbet_saucers last night, trying to save money in a manner that took me about an hour longer and cost me a few more quid than it could have done. I'd been trying to get home to spend some time with my housemates but as soon as I got in someone phoned and by the time that was done they'd gone to bed. A day mostly bet forgotten. Other notable occurrences of late include pleasant meanderings with ditzy_pole, revisiting the Egham crowd and heading up to Maelstrom for the weekend. I'd been in two-minds about going, because I'm spending so little time at home at the mo and have lots to sort out for my travels, and started off having a pretty shoddy time, largely to do with eye infections and masks and sun, but it got much better from the Saturday evening onwards with story-telling and singing, camp fires and games. Current Mood: relaxed Current Music: karaoke queen- sultans of ping (Comment on this)
Wednesday, September 9th, 2009
3:36 pm	flowing like a flame all through the night the positive about losing my diary is that you get to escape me wittering on about what-i-did-last-week because I have absolutely no idea. I know that Monday I went to the Notting Hill Carnival for (shockingly, after nine summers in the city) the first time, which was nice- not quite as rammed as I's anticipating, the procession seemed actually a fairly minor element (and hard to get a good view of) and the street-bound sound-systems much more where it's at. I lolled in a surprisingly empty park with Mags and ronia for quite while then boogied a bit to some Latin band. Unfortunately, it felt so much like a Sunday that I completely forgot to renew my travelcard on the way and got fined: not great timing having just paid for a round-the-world ticket. I think I can't remember much because I've been trying to save money by staying in, apart from a fun night with mistress_fran et al. drinking enormo-cocktails at TGI Fridays mid-week; was great to spend more time with people I don't see enough! I went up to Sheffield for the weekend for a party at Tom's and about two days of recovery which was fun, we also got in at the second attempt to see an awesome gypsy band some mates of his are in. Had a thank-fuck-I'm-out-of-here-soon day on Monday: ended up staying 90 mins late in work (very unlike me,) took ages to get home, cooked for myself, washed up and was pretty much ready for bed having done nothing else with my day, although my landlord and housemates turning up for some late-night chilling out in the garden just about saved it. I'm going to be venturing to the pub in Egham for a bit tomorrow if people are around and want to say hi, although I'll probably only be there for the first half of the evening. Current Mood: workshy Current Music: apache rose peacock- red hot chili peppers (3 Comments |Comment on this)