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

Lets just set the record straight

Alright. It has come to my attention that some of you think I'm an alcoholic. Well, I'm not.

It just so happens that I take more pictures when I've had a couple beers. As I prefer to post pictures on my blog, it just seems that I am drunk more than I am.

Now. Let's just ignore the weekend, because we all know that nobody is sober on the weekend. Throughout the normal work week, I'm quite sober. I go to work completely sober and leave work completely sober.

Also remember that I'm on vacation in another country. I meet a bunch of strangers and often toast to their arrival/departure.

Again, I'm not an alcoholic (alcoholics go to meetings).

Paul

P.S. I'm sober

My trip to Edinburgh

As some of you may know, I finish my contract with my current company at the end of the month. As such, I took a trip to Edinburgh last week to find a job and see some of the sights.

I got there on Saturday night, and wow it is a gorgeous city! From just about anywhere in the city centre area, you can see the castle atop a hill. It makes it quite easy to navigate, as long as you know where you should be in reference to the castle.

Sunday, I met up with my friends Annie and Emily to do the tourist thing.


We went to see Mary King's Close, which is an underground tour of Old Edinburgh. New Edinburgh was built right on top of the old one, so you can actually visit and enter the old city underneath. It's quite amazing, really. We went through the ... domiciles of various different classes of people. The tour guide was quite good, and I was impressed at the level of knowledge she had answering questions.

I didn't realise exactly what I was getting into, because the girls reserved my ticket while I was on the train, and I didn't have a clue what it was for. I am well nightblind and as you can imagine, it is very dark underground. Thankfully, Emily lent her shoulders to me so I could ... not get lost and contract the plague or something.

The next day, I went to the job orientation at the Edinburgh Bunac office, then went looking for a job while the girls went home. Didn't seem to find anything that captured my eye. Mostly seasonal jobs, which wont really keep me in Edinburgh.



For Thanksgiving, I couldn't find turkey, so I substituted with haggis. To be honest, it was the best meal I've had while in Europe. England isn't really known for it's fine cuisine, and Tesco (el cheapo supermarket) isn't well known for it's quality food.

The rest of the trip mostly consisted of visiting other tourist sites and getting piss drunk with my hostel mates. There was a really cute bird from Israel (below), but I only really saw her a short while. We were well pissed by the time the picture was taken.


My hostel mates and I played a lot of pool. One of them is a member of a pool hall, where I sufficiently slaughtered him at his own game. In all fairness, he normally had 6 pints (about 10 beers) before we even left for the pool hall (and another 4 or so there). He didn't seem to show any signs of drunkedness though. That by English standards is considered normal.

My last day, I visited Edinburgh Castle. It's the first proper castle that I've seen in Europe. It's got everything but a moat and drawbridge (which isn't really necessary, as it's built on a gigantic hill). Several cannons line the interior, and at 1:00pm each day, a cannon is fired. I got to see it, but about 3 seconds before 1, my camera ran out of batteries.

Edinburgh was bloody cold last week. I wore a heavy jacket and had to buy a scarf (a tartan one of course), but was still freezing. Coming back to London, I am now wearing shorts.

I will go back to Edinburgh at some point, as it is an absolutely beautiful city. It's one of the nicest places I've been while here.

Cheers

Paul

I'm a university student, at least I play one on film

Hey everyone. Sorry I haven't been posting in a while. Been busy/out of town/lazy/etc...

A couple fridays ago, I was involved in the making of the new Da Vinci Code movie, starring Tom Hanks as Robert Langden. I enjoyed reading the book in April, and am very happy that I got a chance to be a part of the movie (Even if I was only an extra).

It was good times. A bunch of my housemates also got parts, so you'll be able to see us all on the big screen. We'll be the tiny fuzzy dots in the background way out of focus.

I didn't get to have a chat with Tom Hanks, but he was very personable with the extras. No, he wasn't fat. I don't think he looked like a Robert Langden, but that's just my opinion.

I got paid quite well for the day, but couldn't go back the next day. I was on my way to Edinburgh. They gave me an offer to come back, and even asked me again. Too bad I already had a train ticket to Edinburgh.

You can see me on film in May.

Cheers

Paul

My weekend full of excitement and drinking! Well, drinking anyways

Three words - spaghetti and Champagne.

Need I say any more?

Well, if you want to know more, Saturday I took the Mensa test. It raped me so far up the @$$ that I doubt I'll walk straight for the rest of my life.

Went to go get an Ipod Nano at the Apple store on Oxford street, but decided that 2 hours waiting in line isn't really worth it. I've gone through my finances, and I really can't afford one right now anyways.

Sunday night, I decided to have some spaghetti, but when we passed the alcohol aisle at the local Tesco, I decided that I needed some champagne. The Tesco brand champagne won some huge award recently, being named the best in the world or something like that. Tesco, being the English equivalent to crap has £14 champagne, so I had to get it.

Not that anyone in the world will try it, but Champagne compliments spaghetti quite well.

Hope to hear from you all soon.

Paul

So what's up with Paul?

As some of you may or may not know, I am not going to South Africa on vacation later this year. This is because my current contract will not be renewed.

With all that said, I'm thinking of leaving the big city for something a bit smaller. I'm likely going up to Edinburgh to find a job there. It's got a business industry only second to London. I'll hopefully find a job there before I move. If not, BUNAC/SWAP have an office in Edinburgh for me to take a look at job postings. BUNAC/SWAP is the company that helped me get my visa and set up here.

So this means that I'll probably be in Scotland for about 6 months. Doubt I'll come back with any accent (sorry Stacie). I'll probably get my own flat or something.

Regarding school, I'm taking a look at Open University (www.open.ac.uk). It's fairly well respected, and was referred to me by the head of my company's Marketing Department.

There's a pub meet tonight. I think we should have more pubs back home. There's a pub every 2 or three business establishments here. They all end in 'Arms' too. Devonshire Arms, Gloucester (pronounced Glawster) arms, Queen's Arms, etc... I'll probably be heading to the pub meet. Nice place to meet people.

Anyways, I'll be getting nice and pissed tonight. Hope you all do the same.

Cheers

I am officially a university dropout

Hey everyone.

Some of you might have noticed that I'm not anywhere close to university. That's because I'm a lazy bum who dropped out of it. Haven't really found a suitable online university to go to, and may have to go home in a year to finish up school.

Hope you're all having fun in your first week of school.

Miss you all,

Paul

Carnival baby!

Sorry for not posting in a while. I've been too lazy to do fun stuff in the last while, and been too lazy to post about the things that I have done.

At the end of August, I went to the Notting Hill Carnival.

We went on the Sunday, which was classified as "Kids day". Now, I'm glad that I didn't go on the holiday Monday, because it was packed. I found myself alone in the carnival for about an hour, walking around and seeing the floats. Nothing that really impressed me, but they were still pretty keen. The Monday is when they pull out their best stuff.

After an hour, I went back to the tube station to get Brett. We eventually found ourselves in a place called "Good Times". D.J. Norman James was amazing. I'll admit, that I had quite a lot of vodka, so anything would have been amazing by then.

We were waiting for our buddy Scott, so Brett and I found the closest pillar to stand on, and eventually stayed there. Brett and I met up with some Brits and just partied till 7 (when the party ended. Don't ask why, cause I don't know).

So you all know, I'm planning on taking the Japanese Language Proficiency Test in December. That's entirely depending on what happens with myself by then. I might be on vacation in South Africa or something then.

Cheers

We'll always have Paris

I spent the weekend in Paris.

The city itself was not what I expected. Everywhere you turn, there is a large building of some form of importance. Statues could be found anywhere. It's not too hard to find some landmark.

With that said, the city itself was very dirty. There was a very large amount of grafiti and the streets themselves did not get cleaned. London is a very clean city, which makes Paris look even worse.

Friday night, we had an office party after work to celebrate a few key decisions made by my superiors. I got proper drunk that night, and didn't get much sleep. Suffice to say, I had a hard next morning on the train.



My housemate April (above), and I went together to Paris together. She didn't know anyone else going. Once we got there, she found some fun girls and we went our own ways.

Our hostel was ... the worst place ever. I call it the Stairmaster Inn, because we had to climb 4 flights of stairs plus a spiral staircase (which some girls found to be quite challenging to get their luggage down from). Our rooms were 3 hours late, and we were only given one key. ONE for 6 people!

We took a trip around the city. Got a number of great pictures at places like Notre Dame. I even saw a street vendor selling vintage playboy. I was going to buy it, but not at the ticket price.

Bree, Karli, John, Andrew (friend of Bree and Karli), Tina and I went to the Eiffel Tower on the first night. I walked up to the second level, then took the elevator to the top. The city skyline is quite beautiful at night.

We took the last elevator down, and decided to walk home, as the Metro was no longer running, and we are cheap bastards. I figure that it would be more fun to walk home and see the fun exciting scenery. We saw some ameteur flame .. dancing people. Not sure what they call themselves, but it was just a bunch of people dancing with flame. They weren't busking, but were just practicing. We got about 20 minutes of that, then walked more.

Walked through what I expect to be the pee bush, as we smelled some pretty rank stuff when trying to take a shortcut. We really should have gone around.

We saw a number of buildings on the way home. I don't think we really knew the exact way home, but it didn't matter. We got home in about 2 hours, but saw a lot of great things we wouldn't have seen.

Sunday morning, we tried the showers at our hostel. You had to push a button to keep it on. It was not fun, and made it hard to shower. Our breakfast was quite good. It looked like they were starting to make up for their crappiness. The hot chocolate woke me up for a few hours.

We went to the Palace of Versailles in the morning. The gardens were absolutely stunning. A huge area with many gorgeous landscapes. I met Jessica here and we had a blast talking to each other. Didn't take me too long to know she's not my type, but still really cute.



At a pond in Versailles, we caught a duck fighting with a huge carp. I tried to catch it, but was a second late. Sorry.



Later, we went around and saw a lot of fun things like the Louvre. We saw a lot of nice pieces, but I was quite tired by this time. No sleep really didn't really help.

We ate at a nice cafe in the older part of town. Definately a tourist area. It was a nice romantic dinner. Yep. Just me and 4 other people. It's a romantic dinner, just so I can scratch that off my list of things to do. For the record, Jessica was my date (not that she had a choice in the matter). I had escargot for supper. Lets just say that I was a bit hungry afterwards. I don't really suggest eating Escargot. It's not that it tasted bad, it's that it was just garlic and butter. It was an experience.

We went on a walking tour at night. We saw the church of Sacred-Ceure (or something like that), and ended up at the Moulin Rouge as seen below (with myself and Jessica).



Jessica, John and I went and saw L'Arc du Triumphe (sp?), then walked the completely wrong direction to get home. I was nearly dead by this time, and have a feeling I didn't say a word for a good 30 minute period. Didn't matter. Jessica and John had hit it off anyways.

The next morning, Brett, Brooke, Scott, John and I went out for a walk, got lost for a bit and then took the metro home.

All in all, I bought one piece of artwork for 4.50 Euros (overpriced) and a bottle of wine. Spent an arm and a leg on the trip, but had lots of fun. I probably wont go back for a while, but it was lots of fun.

In order of most fun things I did in Paris:

1) Get lost on my way home from the Eiffel Tower at 1AM.
2) Palace of Versailles, particularly the gardens
3) Trying my best to speak french to vendors and such.

Worst date ever! I'm never cheating on my girlfriend again!

This is the tale of my random, spontaneous trip to France.

Sam (seen above) comes into my room on Saturday night to see if I want to go to France the next day. I couldn't think of a reason why not, as it was only 19 or so pounds. Noel and I decided to buy tickets to join Sam (who had already purchased tickets). We purchased the tickets, but Noel got the last ticket on the SeaFrance ferry. I had already purchased bus tickets to the port for Noel and I (hence the date), so was forced to purchase a ticket on another ferry, leaving near the same time.

We had purchased them late, and were unable to find an internet cafe to print the tickets. Finally, after a bit of travelling, we discovered one open and printed them off.

On the following day, we got up early and went. There were no problems until after my female cohorts had parted to get on our respective ferries. Sam was leaving the country to restamp her visa, which was about to expire. She was only going to return to the country for another 4 days, but the passport control official had told her that she would not be eligible for a visitors visa, as she had 2 years to travel. In the end, it would all be up to the passport official when she came back.

We got to port over an hour late due to all the added security after 7/7. We realised we only had half an hour to do whatever, as we were expected to check in an hour before leaving port (also due to the new security measures) and ended up exchanging our tickets for a later ferry.

So we left the port and walked for a bit ... in the rain. We ended up asking a nice french lady who worked for one of the ferry companies which way into the city centre of Calais who gave us prompt directions in English. We followed her directions to the tee. Signs seemed to agree with what she was saying, so we went without question. We walked past factories, sewers then onto a mud track. We started to worry when we left the dirt track for no track, but were following the road past factories still, and following the signs to the city centre.

After about 20 minutes of walking, we found ourselves in civilization. The first street we come to, was Rue de Bitche, as seen in the picture above. We continued to follow the signs into the centre for another 15 minutes, seeing nothing but closed shops, rickety houses and dodgy looking people. These were definately the slums of Calais. Some date, eh?

We ended up cutting our losses and walking back so we could catch the ferry. Not 5 minutes did we walk before we found a map showing that we had gone in a nice circle around the city centre. Another 10 minutes later, we saw our first taxi. Going into the city centre. Then our second, then our 5th, 6th and 7th. When we got to a roundabout closer to the port, we found that we had gone the wrong way (despite the signs telling us we had gone the correct way). There, we saw 3 busses going from the port to the centre.

We ended up getting back to the port in high spirits. We had made it back in time to get some grub. We went to a pub in the port. Lets just say that the food was less than stellar. A piece of buttered baguette with a piece of ham that tasted quite bad. The wine was worse. It tasted like it had been let to sit in the hot sun for 5 days or so, then chilled. Not good at all.

When the girls and I went to get on our ferries, I was scowled at by the passport control official and asked to move behind the line (I had one foot just grazing the line, the other was behind it). At least Sam got her visa stamp.

I got on my ferry half drunk, half sick from the wine. Had a nice chat with some brits about my fascinating day of slummishness, then went to sleep for about an hour.

My ferry left about 10 minutes after the ferry the girls were on. Aparently, there was port congestion. How the hell do you have congestion on a port when there are only 2 ferries going to and fro? In any case, I ended up getting to Dover an hour and a half late, but 15 minutes before the girls. We arrived just after our bus had left. We paid to get new tickets for the last bus and waited.

The bus driver was not happy when I asked if I could take my laptop bag on the bus. I just wanted some snacks and such to tie me over as I was feeling quite ill by now. I let him have his way and stowed the bag below the bus, then had a very uneasy trip back home.

The trip was a lot of waiting for nothing to happen. I spent a total of 5 hours on a ferry or in a port waiting alone. At least I got a good story out of it.

I will never cheat on Danny again. Well, I might but ...

In a pub near the tower

I haven't made a drinking post for a while, so I figured now would be the appropriate time.

Last night, Danielle, Amber and I went to visit Vicky and her boyfriend, the sheepshagger at his pub. My friends prefer me drunk, so I had a bit too much to drink last night. I remember some of the night, but it's still somewhat of a blur. I remember playing drunken (and I do mean drunken) twister with the girls in the pub after it closed. I have a slight feeling that I made an ass of myself to my girlfriend though, but that's a different story that I would prefer to not have written on my blog for the world to see. If you're lucky, I'll tell you another day.

The Woman in Black

Went to see another play last night. The Woman in Black was amazing. Only two characters on the stage, but the entire play was magnificent. It's been going since 1998, and has had very good reviews. The best part was that it was only £12.50/ticket.

The play recalled a man's tale of his journey to a small town where an accident happened 60 years ago. I noticed myself holding my breath at moments. This was far better than any movie I have ever seen, but live theatre does have a natural advantage.

We've decided to make the theatre a Monday thing. As it is fairly inexpensive (Cinemas cost £11/ticket anyways), we choose to enjoy the culture while we're here.

Speaking of Cinemas, we happened to pass the Fantastic Four premier on the way to the theatre and decided to stay for a few minutes. Beyond the massive amounts of fire, I was disappointed by the performance, with only about 150 people attending. Someone forgot to take down the candy canes in the trees meant for the Willy Wonka premier from the weekend.

That's right, I went, bitches!

Friday night, while my friends were at the pub drinking and getting action, I was patiently waiting in line for the new Harry Potter book. That's right. Rather than getting drunk I was waiting to read. I spent a good while on Saturday reading as well. Got to page 200 or so.

The book took a while to get going. I wont go into any details as to not ruin the book, but it doesn't seem quite as captivating as the previous incarnations. 200/600 pages in, they just got to Hogwarts and not much happened. I guess it did the same in the last book, but I didn't like that one as much either.

Gotta get back to work. Hope you all get the book so I don't feel quite so geeky. It's slightly less geeky than the DNS/Bind book I was reading on Friday at lunch though.

Have fun.

Customer Service

This is the one small cosmetic imperfection in the office. It is right above my desk. The post-it note is a bit small, but it states "Where Customer Service went THROUGH THE ROOF!".

It's been at the office for a while, but I thought I would finally post it on the blog.

Did I mention that it's right above my desk?

Booty V2

Been a while since this happened, but the Sunday after Canada Day, we had Jocelyn's (2nd from the left) birthday. In order, it's Corel, Jocelyn, Danny and Vicky, otherwise known as Corel, Sweet Cheeks, Brown Sugar and Baby doll.

This picture will probably be my wallpaper for a while. The girls wont let me change it. Vicky absolutely loves the picture and points out her ass all the time.

We all had fun at Jocelyn's birthday. It was a nice ending to a really busy and drunken weekend.

Still not dead

As some of you might know, Central London was hit by at least 7 bombs this morning, in 7 separate terrorist attacks around 8:49 this morning. The bombs hit different points all targeting Londoners on their way to work. Subway stations and buses were the main targets.

As a result, the subway system will not run for at least the rest of today, and the buses will not run in central London. I work and live in central London. I was on the subway at the time of all of the bombings that have been confirmed.

One of my friends, Karli was on the subway just in front of one of the bombed subways. I can't even imagine how hard it must be for her.

Apparently, the bombings were done by a European chapter of Al-Quaeda, who say they will target Denmark and Italy next. The bombings have taken a huge toll on the city, probably costing in the billions of £ in the first few hours, with no sign of improvement.

Over 3 million people use the subway daily. This cripled the city, but most people seem to accept the loss. My CEO has allowed everyone to go home early, but my colleagues and I have decided to stay, at least until our supervisors leave.

Tony Blair, currently at the G8 summit near Edinburgh has decided to go back to London. This definately hurts talks and will postpone help for Africa.

Hopefully, this is the last of the bombings.

Live8

Went to Regent's park today to view Live 8 on the big screen with thousands of people today. Couldn't get tickets to the actual event in Hyde Park. It was a text message contest. I sent one, and aparently there were 150k tickets available and several million texts in. Only one of my friends was able to get a ticket.

There were so many great performances there. It was definately not what I was expecting. I've got so much to say about the concert, but have gotta go (not to drink. That was last night).

Hope everyone is having fun.

Paul

Small Canada Day celebration. Just me and 3000 or so of my closest friends

The whole party was insane. Definately a memorable party. As a Canadian, I now understand just how great my country is in comparison to everyone else's. I came with a number of friends, many Canadian, a couple Americans and a Bulgarian. Brett made it a point to mention that Canadians party like madmen and he just couldn't keep up.

I got pretty hammered, pretty fast so I went home somewhat early. The street was packed and police were having a hard time controlling the crowd at times. They still played it calm and wore Canadian "London Racers" helmets over their own police caps with pride. I'm sure they enjoyed their night.

I was surprised at how many of my friends wore sandals, despite my warnings. There was so much broken glass from beer bottles and pint glasses, that it must have been a miricle that no one was cut.

On my way home, I made the genius decision to walk down the stairs. It was not smart to walk down 193 steps. Not many, but it was a spiral staircase and I almost passed out 2/3 down.

Got home and found a girl in my bed, and I didn't even know her, but that's another story.

My friends say I went to Amsterdam, but I don't remember.

Well, I decided to go to Amsterdam last minute. It cost 120 quid for the trip there and accommodation. I went with a tour group, else I would have contacted my father's girlfriend's son and hopefully get a place to live, or at least meet up. Unfortunately, the entire trip was last minute and I couldn't even get his contact details. I'm thinking of going back just to see him. I'm in Europe, right?

Amsterdam itself was gorgeous. There was very little polution (which is very surprising for a European city), because nearly everyone rides a bicycle which adds to the charm. I had no idea that Amsterdam had so many canals. It has more canals than venice. Since I had 22 pounds in the bank after taking out money for the trip, I decided to skimp on the extras. I did however get a few space cakes and a bag of ... fun...

We stayed at the Hans Brinker. The hostel was quite nice. It came fully equipped with a bar and club in the basement. The greatest part of the Hans Brinker was how they advertised how absolutely horrible their rooms were. Advertisements such as "Your body is at risk! If you don't get a healthy amount of bacteria, your body will not be strong enough. The Hans Brinker is proud to supply your daily dose of bacteria!"


On Friday night, we went to the Red Light district, which we weren't allowed to take pictures in. Apparently, one year someone's camera was thrown in the canal with the owner still attached. After walking through for about half an hour, we decided that we had seen enough ass while not high, and headed to a coffee shop.

We ordered two bags of happiness for 15 euro each and I also ordered a space cake. Space cakes take 2 or so hours to get to your head, but the joint form definately goes fast. After the second puff, I had my head on the table unable to lift it. I could hear, but not talk. After about 5 minutes, I was fine. Still very high, but able to move and walk.

We stayed there for at least half an hour then went walking. Don't know what we talked about. I do know that some friends came in and enjoyed their first time (like myself). We all had to rely on my friend Brett to roll the joints.

After getting a sufficient amount of happiness in us, we decided to walk around a little more. Don't remember this, but I do remember forgetting my thoughts every 5 seconds. I literally had 5 minutes of "This is cool. I can't remember a thing! It's because ... This is cool. I can't remember a thing!". We later went out for Pizza and then sat for about an hour and a half in front of a gigantic penis statue. This was the most memorable part of the city of Amsterdam.

The next morning, we left Amsterdam for a few hours to go to a clog and cheese factory. On the way, we stopped to take the picture above. By the way, I was totally stoned for this picture. The cheese factory wasn't all that great, but the clog maker was very interesting. He was 19 years old and one of 6 old fashioned clog makers left in the country. Wouldn't that be the greatest pick up line ever?

When we got back into Amsterdam, we went to the Van Gogh museum. In short, it was absolutely amazing. They didn't mention anything about his ear (or lack thereof) though. It's quite amazing how he inspired a whole new era of artwork. I loved many of his forest based artwork.

Afterwords I went for steak then we hit the red light district to do a little more of the same. We were all tired from the trip, and ended up going back to our hostel at 8. We planned on getting up later when there was a little bit more nightlife, but we sort of fell asleep for the night.

I absolutely loved the entire trip. It was definately a change from the ordinary. I hope to go again. The city definately lived up to it's reputation.

Bootay anyone?

So, the other night, I got pretty damn drunk. I found this picture on
my camera today. I was told that I took it. I'm not entirely sure why
people posed for it, but I aint complaining.

Just how sexy do I get when I'm drunk? I don't know. All I know is
that I woke up the next morning with my first hangover. I can have a
hole shitload of alcohol and not get drunk, but I had 8 shots in 20
minutes (4 in 20 seconds) and hence, was not feeling pretty (oh so
pretty).

It's late, so I'm heading to bed soon. Will talk to you all soon.

Cheers

Things I have to do while in Europe

Before leaving for London, I had no clue how much money I would need
to survive here. I was planning on making £5 an hour working at a pub
and living in £55/week accommodation. Little did I realise that the
accommodation would be several tube stops away and transportation
would cost around £6/day. Additionally, there are several additional
bills for housing that I thought were included, totalling around
£20/month. If anyone comes here, make sure to add these costs, or your
budget will be screwed up.

I also didn't realise that it would cost about $1000 CDN in just
accommodation for the first month. This really screwed me over, since
I didn't get paid until the end of the month.

Food costs were also high. It can be gotten at decent prices here
considering the wage, but when buying from my Canadian savings, food
takes a heavy toll.

Now that I have a well paying job, I can start to think about taking a
few trips. Before coming, I planned on going to Prague and Northern
Italy, but now I'm thinking of Budapest (considered the next Prague)
because it's cheaper and still very beautiful.

Apparently, you can get a return air ticket and 2 nights accommodation
for £106, but I doubt it would be that cost on the weekends when I'm
free. In any case, I make that much in surplus a week.

Anyways, I'm getting called back to work. Will talk to you all soon.

Paul

Went to Cheers, Nobody knew my name

On Saturday, Callie, Noel, Brett, Justin, Jocelyn and I went to Cheers
in Piccadilly Circus. After going the wrong way to find it and walking
for about 10 minutes, losing Justin, we found Cheers. We were of
course, all heavily drunk from a small barbecue we had that included a
lot of alcohol.

Upon entering Cheers, I soon realized that the bar was nothing like
the TV show. No Cliff! The music they played was absolutely horrible.
There was no way one could dance to it. I tried, but failed. It was
somewhat weird, because there was a dance floor but no one was dancing
on it. Instead, people danced in the aisle.

Now for the juicy part. Callie (23) took a fond liking to my roommate,
Justin (18) over the course of the day. We all knew it. Justin took a
liking to the fact that he could lose his virginity (or I would
assume). Lets just say that they left early.

When Callie found out that Justin is 18, she absolutely flipped. It
was the best possible expresion one could hope for. I've got a couple
pictures of her dealing with the news. I'll make sure to post them
later.

I ended up escorting Noel home (No, not like that) because she was
feeling quite drunk. Personally, I was doing fine by then. The
industrial quantities of alcohol I had earlier had been processed by
my liver and I was starting to sober up. We made it home and I went to
bed (alone).

All in all, Cheers was a bit of a let down. Apparently, they started
playing good music the moment that I left, but it wouldn't have been
worth the £5 cover anyways. I'll go somewhere else next time.

Still not dead! Actually, livin it up.

Well, I got a place. £85 a week (which is a good price for a place
with all bills included). I share with my friend, Justin. My
floormates are pretty cool too. We go clubbing and such together. Went
to the Walkabout on Saturday. It's an Australian club chain. Smaller
than what I was expecting, but it was still fun. The band was quite
good.

Work is fine. It's nice working in a small office. I meet the CEO
every day, and suggestions I make get taken care of immediately. Mark
and Steve (two guys from my department) must hate us by now. My
friends and I have asked them every possible question, and they must
have a negative productivity by now.

Went to Stonehenge and Bath on Saturday. It was lots of fun.
Stonehenge was a little smaller than I expected. Even more depressing
is that we were not allowed within 20 meters or so of it. I wanted a
picture of myself at stonehenge.

Bath was much more fun. It's probably the most beautiful city I have
ever seen. It's small and has a lot of hills and the views are
spectacular. The shopping was pretty good too. I got 3 shirts for less
than I pay for 1 in London. And a nice Jacket from a higher end store.
I wear it every day and it's very comfortable.

Sorry, but no pictures of Bath yet. I'm at work and the pictures are
on my laptop. I'll upload them later.

Cheers

My new job. The details.

Well, my new job is pretty kick ass. It's in the most expansive part,
of the most expensive city in the world. I mean, directions are
literally, take a left at the Ritz (which evidently sells tea for 65
pounds). There are a lot of nice cars in the neighbourhood as well. I
mean, I've seen one Ferrari in Canada. One in my entire life. I saw
about 30ish in that district over the past 2 days.

About the job. I am a customer service advisor for the parent company
of over 30 ISPs. My company bought out these companies after they fell
following the internet bubble bursting. My job is the email customer
service position, alongside 3 of my friends. The workplace is very
casual. 30 or so staff on the floor, which deal with everything from
business to web design. The staff is paid on salary, so the entire
company is laid back and stress free. Tomorrow is casual Friday, but I
doubt I should wear anything less than a nice shirt and trousers on my
second day. I might try something more casual next Friday.

My job seems uberkeen, so I think I'll have lots of fun doing it. And
by the way. The two guys working right behind me are on Linux systems,
and there are a few squash players in the company.

Now, I gotta find a flat. See you all in 3 and a half months.

Your employed friend,

Paul

Time to Partay!

Guess who got a job! Come on. Guess! Justin, Brett and I all got jobs
at Brightview Internet. We start tomorrow at 9am. The job consists of
us replying to customer emails. Brightview is the parent company for
several ISPs, and my job is to help customers. Well, the guys and I
are going drinkin. I've gotta go have a shower.

Trip through London

Rather than call mom on mother's day, I decided to hit the town and
see the sights. Chris and I started out seeing some crazy
archetecture, visiting the British Library. Afterwards, we headed to
see St. Paul's Cathedral. I chose not to go inside, due to the intense
hate that I have for the heads of the catholic church. After seeing
that, Chris and I decided to hit the tower of London and see the
bridges. I'm very surprised at the prices for food near the Thames
River. The prices are often cheaper than outside the tourist area. I
guess the currency exchange has screwed everyone over enough.

Following that, we bought some tickets to "The Tempest", and went to
see Big Ben and Westminster Abbey, which is closed on Sunday.
Buckingham palace was nice. Chris didn't understand why he wasn't
allowed in the palace. I ended up going back to Buckingham palace
today, while waiting for a job interview closeby, and saw the changing
of the guard by chance. It was neat, but I had a crappy view (I didn't
even know it was happening until it actually happened. I was just
there because the area surrounding the palace is peaceful and would
let me relax before my interview). Only got a couple pictures of some
mounted police.

All in all, the day was eventful. It's the last time I'll see Chris
for a while, if ever, since he now has a job as an au pair (live in
nanny) for a wealthy family farther from the city centre.

Anyways, I've gotta head out. Must find a job soon or I'll die of
disappointment.

Paul

See! I have class!

I forgot to mention this. On Sunday, Brett, Justin, Dave, Carly,
Robert and I decided to hit the theatre to see "The Tempest".
Normally, I'd save the money, but it was a Shakespeare play, in
Shakespeare's Globe Theatre (not the original. That one burnt down.
This one was built closeby and has been built as a replica of the
original), AND it was only 5 pounds to be a groundling! Needless to
say, it rocked my socks off. Brett has a degree in Fine Arts from the
University of Idaho, so he filled us in on the details after the play.
I understood most of it, but it was 3 characters playing 12 parts,
with few props. It was quite evident that you needed to know the story
beforehand to understand their interpretation.

All in all, the play was good. It was 2 hours of standing in a throng
of people, but it was good times.

Poker Night

Well, my friends didn't get the dream job they thought they were
promised, so they decided to get drunk. Nothing like a depressant to
chase the blues away! The night consisted of Dave, Justin, Bret,
Ashley, Robert and myself getting drunk. Of course, poker was involved
too. Texas Hold'em, their game of choice was played. They figured a 3
pound buy in was fine, which I was not ready to pay (since they would
almost definately take easily from me. Especially after spending 35
pounds on a cell phone charger that someone stole from me). After the
game, they decided to just split up the cash and play again. I ended
up joining, since money wasn't involved. I ended up winning, with a
little help from a more experienced player. Their strategy was quite
obvious, so I played to screw them all up. It worked.

On the left is Ashley, holding a can of Fosters, with Dave on the
right. I drank Fosters and Strongbow, an English Cider (Also the stuff
I drank on my first night here). Nearly 3 pints that night. It was
enough to make me a bit tipsy. I guess I'm not the heavyweight I
thought I was.

Anyways, I'm off to go drinking again. Heading to the Wellington Arms
tonight, I think.

The job hunt

So far, I've sent my resume to about a dozen places looking for temp workers. I'd prefer an office type job, but I realize that is unlikely, so I've applied at a few pubs too. I've been to one interview and have had a phone interview from a country club in Scotland.

In the news. Tony Blair is reelected. What does that mean for me? Nothing really, since by the time the changes (if any) will take effect, I'll probably be gone.

Scotiabank really sucks. They refused to send me my financial information, so I got my dad to go into the bank. Since he's had several problems with them in the past, he was quite well known to the staff. After 3 days of calling and pestering, I finally got my financial information sent to me. I need it to open a bank account, and I need a bank account before I can get a job.

Getting the hang of the city. My PocketPC has become an invaluable tool. It tells me the name of every street and alley. They've got a lot of alleys here. I spent half an hour looking for a Brittania Row. It turns out I walked past it a few times but thought it was a driveway.

I haven't been sick since my first night here. Been doing the pub crawl, but have missed going the past few nights, due to the lack of finances. Stuff here is expensive and all. I've budgeted something like 70 pounds for this week plus accommodation. Tesco, the major supermarket has a small location near here. I've been eating lots of their premade food (since I have no place to cook in a hostel). I have yet to buy any extras, as I don't even have a place to keep it.

I'm starting to get concerned about my laptop. It's a little scary being in a room with no locked storage.

There is a lot of graffiti here. I got a nice picture of it in the most remote place a person could get to. TOX13 seems to be the most common thing wrote. Still haven't found out the significance of that. If it's some form of gang, it's probably a bunch of 13 year old kids trying to be cool or something.

My first week here in London has been fun. I don't have a server to store pictures on, or I would upload some photos to the blog. Hopefully I'll find something soon.

Your good friend,,

Paul


Cheers

Drinks with Bret

Well, I met a guy named Bret yesterday (the day I landed). He's a 23 year old from Idaho who just finished school. We decided to head out for a beer to celebrate our arrival in London. After wandering aimlessly for a cheaper pub, we found one called the Green Man, close to the hostel.

Since Bret is a beer connoisseur, I asked him to choose the beer. Our first beer was a cider. Probably the best beer I've ever had (not that I have much to compare it to). Bret had a LOTR shirt on, which had his name written in one of the language of middle earth. I told him he'd have a better chance at finding someone who knows Klingon than someone who could actually read his name on the shirt when he admitted he actually knew Klingon. This was of course when I realized I was with uber star trek geek. His excuse was that he's from a small town and there's little else to do. I understand where he's coming from

For the second drink, we tried a lighter coloured beer (when we asked for the darkest non Guiness beer they had). The beer was very good, but not quite as good as the cider. Over the course of the night, Bret and I talked about theatre (his passion and education), politics, history and London tourism.

So after 2 beers, we decided to go back to the hostel. I quickly realized that I was drunk and would therefore have to slap myself for being a lightweight when I sobered up. That night, I threw up. I blame my light weightedness on the having not slept in 30 some odd hours and the plane ride (which I was definately not feeling well for. Lets just say I started feeling sick, then all of the sudden woke up on a pretty girl's lap).

The building manager laughed when I told him I needed a new pillow. I take it he gets a lot of this type of thing.

Anyways, I'd better go. It's Monday morning, which is May Day (a national holiday). I've still gotta sober up. Hopefully it's after the loud Italian women leave the hallway outside my dorm (I don't think they can register distance. They seem to speak as if they were 100m away from each other, even though they're standing right next to one another). I'm gunna check out some sites, as the businesses will be closed so I can't start the job search.

Hope you all are having fun.

P.S. Paul is a happy drunk

Confusing London

London is the most confusing city I have ever seen! It is an old city, and therefore not a grid city. Also, it is a Sunday, so I most non-tourist stores are closed. Well, I can't afford anything anyways.

Canadian money isn't getting me very far. Everything is the same price in pounds here, as in dollars in Canada. This means that I am paying 2.5 times the price here. As a result, I have started budgeting everything and buying in the supermarket (The one decently priced place. Still more expensive, but cheap compared to the overpriced restaurants).

The subway system (known as the tube) is in fact a very good system. 3.80 pounds buys a day pass (which really isn't a day I think, because it swallowed my pass after 3 trips). Considering the size of the city, I think i'll be using the tube often. The lack of a grid makes it nearly impossible for me to navigate in the city though. A compass is useless when streets aren't perpendicular to each other, or at least in some form of simple intersection. It's just too time consuming to actually do the math unless it's a grid.

Things I like about London:

The people are friendly.
The tube is very useful.
Nice architecture. Beautiful historic shops and uniquely modern buildings line the streets.
At each intersection, it tells you which way to look (since there are many one way streets).
My hostel is very clean. Had to buy a pin for the internet, but now I can use it all I want.
I saw an ad for my favourite TV Show, Drawn Together, on the tube wall.

Things I don't like about London:

It's a labyrinth
Everything costs a huge amount.
Food costs even more if you sit down to eat it.
Less washrooms than I am accustomed to. Had to search for a while before I found one.
Less signs telling you where to go and where washrooms are.
Little family here.

All in all, I'm enjoying myself. Hope you all don't miss me too much. Sarah and Stacie will get one hug for each day I am gone.

Not dead yet!

Well, I've arrived in London, England. It's 22 degrees here and I'm sweating buckets. Once I arrived in the airport, I was in fact interrogated (or close to) by the customs official who apparently did not understand the meaning of a work vacation visa. After about 15 minutes of her asking me the same questions repeatedly, she finally let me go to let the other people in line proceed.

After collecting my luggage, I went to find the bus that would take me directly to my hostel. I searched for about half an hour before I asked an official, who promptly stated that it had stopped running. First hurdle. How do I get to my hostel? I don't know where to go? I finally figured out how to get there, and 2 hours later, I arrived at the hostel..

Not dead... yet

Summer of Conquest!

During the 13th and 14th centuries, Genghis Khan with his clan, conquered most of the known world. Since then, their lands have been taken from them.

I, a descendant of Genghis Khan, will retake the lands which are rightfully mine to regain my family honour.