How to keep foreigners out - 101

I went to Cardiff over the weekend with a buddy of mine, Sid. Lets just say that the whole trip was a nice, drunken good time.

When we got off the bus in Cardiff, Sid's friend Gedge took us straight to the closest pub. Until recently, they brewed Brains there; Brains in this circumstance refers to the brand of Welsh beer, not zombie food. Sorry Matt.

Stayed there until we got kicked out, at which point we went to another bar on the way home. Gedge took good care of us. He knows exactly where to go for a drink.

Friday, we went to the old Welsh 'Big Pit': an ex-coal mine turned into a museum. The experience was quite good. Suffice to say, I have a nice big chunk of coal in my jacket pocket. I do think they need a sign that says 'Anyone this tall or higher may not ride'. The halls are thin, and the ceilings very low at points. The tour guide was quite good, and was quite good at giving an idea of how hard life was in the mines.

That night, we went out bar hopping. First a bar to find a bird that Sid met the first night, then a dead nightclub, and finally back at one of the bars we went to on Wednesday night. Interesting times to be had this time though. Gedge met these two English blokes (bloke = guy) who we had a bit of a chat with. One of them bought Gedge a drink, started hitting on him. Funniest thing ever. Gedge ended up getting the one guy's number. Tom, if you're reading this, I wouldn't expect a callback.

We finished the night at 4AM, and stumbled home. Stumbled being the operative word there. Had to get up in the morning to catch a bus back to London. Suffice to say, we had a good, drunken weekend in Cardiff (by weekend, I mean a Wednesday-Friday of course). Guess it was just a prep for my trip to Dublin on Saturday.

See you all on the 7th or 8th April.

Paul

St. Patrick's day and Cambridge

Yes, I know that I haven't updated the blog recently. No, I don't make any form of apology for this.

Last weekend, I went to Cambridge for St. Patrick's day. My buddy, Sid, took me to a friend's place for a bit of a party. He's a workmate of mine in a different department. Anyway, we took a half day off to catch the train and that gave us a bit of time to walk to Sid's friend's place.

Cambridge itself is quite small. This allows everyone to cycle everywhere. I'd die of exhaustion if I lived there. The university is large and unimpressive in my opinion. Western is so much more gorgeous. I really can't judge it on anything other than appearance. On my way home on Saturday, I almost (ALMOST) walked in on a class. I then realised it was Saturday and it might be a bit harder finding a class to sit in on. That, and I needed to get to the train station.

I scored some tickets to the ballet. In other words, my landlord is the ballet master and choreographer and got me a decent seat. I've been looking forward to going for the last month. We went for two ballets (showcasing the same dancers). La Sylphide was quite good. The audience thoroughly enjoyed it. I can't really make too much comment on it however; it was my first ballet. The second one however was somewhat disturbing. In a word, it was ... erotic. That's not the disturbing part though. The disturbing part was the fact that the choreographer sleeps in the room next door with his boyfriend. Some things should just stay a secret.

Well, today, I'm heading off to the capital of Wales: Cardiff. It's supposedly a top city, so I'm looking forward to it. I'll be back in London on Saturday, just in time to hit up a party. This promises to be a busy weekend! STUPID ME! I forgot my camera! (sorry. Just remembered that).

I have purchased zero gifts for people so far. Time isn't really on my side. I want to try to see as much of Europe as possible. I'm hitting up Dublin next weekend (April fools day) if the tickets aren't sold out at lunch today. Danni has been hinting at going somewhere fun with me for a few months now. I can't see the land of Guiness as anything but drunken fun times. I've been looking forward to going to Dublin for a little while now.

If anyone wants anything from Europe, send me an email if you haven't already. DO IT NOW! I won't have too much time to go out shopping and such next week, so I'd like as much time as possible.

Anyway, I'll talk to you all later.

Paul

Documented proof!

I have irrefutable evidence that ninjas do in fact beat pirates.

http://drmcninja.com/ - This website will explain the exact nature of Ninjas and their awesomeness.

Stuff is going well. My new neighbourhood is dodgy as hell. I still like it.

I haven't posted anything in a while, so I should probably mention that I went to Barcelona with my dad where we saw the Tapa Tapa restaurant:


Tapa Tapa Tapa.

I think I'll remember the hot chocolate they had there best though. It's so thick. Really good though.



Before you ask, yes, I'm coming back to Canada in April. England is fun, but I miss home. I'm not coming home earlier though. No one better have expectations over an English accent either.

Sorry for the short post. Gotta get back to work.

Paul

Xmas and New Years

Happy new year everyone. Hope you all had a fun enjoyable holiday.

London definitely shut down between Xmas and today. It was a nice, calm holiday for me. I just spent it with friends and such.

I spent Christmas with my friend Jocelyn and her sister Christine for some Borscht and Pierogi. Apparently, the food turned out exactly they way they wanted.

For new year, some friends and I just went to Trafalgar Square. I'm still not sure where people were looking during the countdown. I guess it doesn't matter. I didn't get any picture. Was far too drunk to actually hold a camera.

My dad is coming to London for a couple weeks to visit. We've got plans to make a trip to Barcelona in the 13th January to my understanding. I guess I should start getting the plane tickets and such. I'm far too lazy unfortunately.

Beauty contest!

Just thought you all might like to know that the birds at our call centre have voted myself as the sexiest guy in the office. The reasons are obvious. I now know where I want to go for my next vacation.

My buddy Scott is leaving tomorrow, so I've been partying with him for the last week. I have spent one night without a vodka -redbull in my hand (Scott's preferred non-scotch beverage).

It also means that I've spent about $250 in the last 10 days on drinks (Don't ask me how). You can feel free to start the random alcohol related jokes.

Cheers

Paul

Xmas in Rochester

Well, Yesterday I went to Leeds Castle and Rochester for the day. Leeds is known to be one of the most beautiful castles in the world, alongside Versailles and others.

The most interesting thing about Leeds had to be the maze. I didn't really get lost in it though. It was a bit too small. That and the fact that there is a gigantic mound thing in the centre. We eventually made it to the centre, where there is not only a mound, but a nice big underground waterfall and mermaids.

Rochester is where all the Xmas parties are at. Charles Dickens wrote Great Expectations and other books based on places in Rochester. I took a tour around the city centre where we got to hear a bunch about all of these characters. I guess I have to read some of his books now.

Myself and some of the girls next door went got some delicious mulled wine, and ended up just walking down the crowded high street. The city had a bunch of people dressed up as Dickensian characters, with a nice big parade at around 4:45. We had to leave shortly after the parade, but were able to sing some carols at the end.

All in all, the trip was good. Nothing terribly exciting happened though. It was still £32 well spent.

Cheers

Paul

Hungry in Hungary

As some of you may know, I do not speak Hungarian. In Hungary, they do however speak Hungarian. Oh, and did I mention that they don't speak much English?

I was able to get by fairly well not talking to anyone. It's less that I'm scared to learn a new language, and more what the hell are they speaking. I mean, seriously. They're entirely incomprehensable. I couldn't even understand enough to mimic them. When ordering food one day, I actually said "what he just ordered", not knowing what the hell he ordered.

By day 3, I decided it would be best if I just stuck to McDonalds. At least I knew what a cheeseburger was.

I booked the ticket entirely last minute. It was mostly a way to get out of the office. I had the time off and had no responsibilities (in other words, I was unemployed). I didn't even realise that Budapest was in Hungary.



The city itself is quite pretty. Parliament looks like a nice gothic cathedral or something. I'm not sure what it was previous to democracy (which has been in Budapest for 15 years).



The rest of the city was quite serene. It definitely reminded me of being back home (with the obvious lack of English). They even had Canadian NHL hockey on TV (of course translated, but I don't care). For some reason, they had a brand named 'Canadian Shield', which seemed quite popular. I'm glad that I didn't have a lot to drink there, or I might have ended up thinking I actually was home.

I enjoyed myself, but if I go again, I'll book a bit earlier and make sure to get an English -> Hungarian translation book or something.

Work

Alright. So my contract finished at the end of October. You'd think that I'd be done and looking for another job. You'd think that at least.

My company requested that I stay on for another week to ensure that our revampted Customer Service department has a bit of extra help. My job is supposed to be more of a supervisory role.

Well, Friday my manager comes to me and says they need me for another two weeks. Something about there still being work left. Now, I've finished my job to what was required of me. In fact, I did a pretty damn good job. The revamped CS department just wasn't ready yet.

I've decided to stay for one extra week to get rid of any work they might have (despite it being out of my job description now). For the next week, I'll be back writing emails for the company. On Friday, I'll be done. Saturday I'm heading somewhere. I'm not sure where, but something tells me that I'll figure everything out shortly before I leave for the airport.

Hope that you're all well. Miss you all.

Cheers

Paul