Czech yourself before you... yeah whatever.

Well hello there people of the internet.
I'm back... Once again it's been a long time between posts, but I've been lacking motivation of late.
I have however recently returned from a week in the Czech Republic, the land of beer, Dvorak, Kafka and Tulips (Yes tulips were first grown in Czech Republic, the tour guide told us so. Take that Holland, you stupid land of clogs and windmills)

I'll write more soon, but at the moment i can't write for shit and am getting frustrated, so will post all the details once I've articulated the trip into a more entertaining story for you.

Back soon with something readable.

It's been a while

Wow... 2 months since my last post...
I'm sorry I've been so slck. Work has been rather hectic for a while and I've been pretty burnt out...
So happenings since my last post:

- I've travelled all over the UK with work running events on 'The Lifecycle of a Design Consultancy'. Was very interesting and saw heaps of the countryside; Bristol, Manchester, Leicester, Newcastle and Edinburgh. Was also quite stressful as I haven't done any events type work before, so I was in the deep end a little...

- Charlotte and I went up to Northampton again, which was really good. Went to a beer festival and went on a bike ride through the countryside and ate heaps of tasty stuff.

- Booked to go to Hogmanay in Edinburgh for new year's eve.

- Booked to go to Czech Republic and Prague at the start of December. Have got 7 days there so really looking forward to the break from work and London.

- Joined up with a gym over here, so have been going 4 or 5 times a week trying to get fit again. I'm currently the heaviest I've ever been and i suspect it may have something to do with the combination of beer, cider, cold weather, inactivity and of course heavy English food.

Not a heap else going on. We've been quiet trying to save up for travels etc... Again, I'll finish with another promise that when things start happening I'll be posting more regularly.

Dear England

Dear England,
We've been together for some time now, but I think there's something missing. I think you might be of the impression that I'm something I'm not and well, it's probably best for both of us if I'm just straigh to the point.
Some things I need you to know:

- I've never lived in Erinsborough, in fact, it doesn't even exist.


- Yes we pronounce our vowel sounds differently. It's not that funny.

- I can't do an Alf Stewart impersonation.

- Rolf Harris wasn't my high school teacher.


- I don't know the lady who got bitten by some spider, which then laid eggs which hatched from her head.


- There are sharks around the coast in Australia but we don't all get drunk and fight them.

- Kangaroos aren't that exciting.


- Surprisingly our standard of living is much better than it is in say, London.

- Australia is not comprised completely of desert and beaches.

- Not everyone lives in a corrugated iron shed.

- Wolf Creek is a fictional movie. 'Based on true events' doesn't mean shit. There's much nastier characters in England.


- Pubs in Australia are nothing like the Walkabout.

- INXS, Kylie, Jason Donovan and ACDC are not the only musicians from Australia.



Now onto you:

- Your streets smell like fart

- Your summer is what 90% of the world calls 'A cold winter'.

- Your concept of air conditioning has been labelled by some as 'Retardedly primitive'. By some, i mean me.


- Your fresh produce is misleadingly un-fresh.

- You have chain pubs. There was a better atmosphere in Auschwitz than there is in your local Wetherspoons.


- Generally your work ethic and service levels are appallingly low.


So, I guess what I'm trying to say, England, is don't assume I'm something i'm not. Also, pick up your act.

I hope we an work this out as I know you're not all that bad underneath.

Sincerely,

Jeremy

Dear Metronet/British Government.

You suck.
The both of you. Assholes.
Metronet, who maintain the tube lines over here in joyous London have gone on strike. I think it's over a payrise not being as high as initially suggested, or something to that effect.
I'm not talking about a delay on one afternoon either- This is a 3 day strike running until Thursday.
Surely the government could have stepped in at some stage and negotiated some kind of middleground, but they've allowed it to blow up into this.
Eitherway, I don't care. My tube lines aren't running anymore. And this is potentially as fatal as when a colostomy bag's tube lines aren't running. Eww.
Come to think of it there's probably more effluent in your average train carriage in London, than there is in a colostomy bag.

Anyways, what was a bearable 40 minute commute to work has now become a 1.5hr trek including much walking and two diferent overland trains. Or in the case of Charlotte last night, a 3.5hr journey spread over 3 buses and much walking.
Also, you can only imagine what the crush on the buses/trains/roads is like now.
Usually, it's a full sardine-tin setup of people jammed in, but now everyone is so jammed in, it's more like a Preswswurst situation or some kind of rank dog-food like 'Marrow in aspic' You know, the one where when you tip it out of the can and it comes out can-shaped with all the ridges and stuff still imprinted in it. Yeah, well that's what happens when the doors open on the bus- A big gelatinous blob of humans falls out the door, disassembles into fifteen people and they all head off to work.

The plus side is I'm going through places I didn't know existed. Frognal, for example.
I wonder if it was called Tadpolenal when it was just a village? Sorry, I suck. My puns are suffering at the hands of this stupid transport situation. Or more you're suffering my puns at the hands of this stupid transport situation.

This is a fair representation of the sentiment of most people in London. Caution: contains swearing, including multiple instances of the C and F words, although they are used in a most appropriate fashion.

The definitive list of junk for today

1. Old lady who left her dog 6 million pounds and left two of her grandchildren none, stating in her will that 'They would know why.' Bitter to the end. i want to steal her dog. And laugh at those two grandkids who probably told her that pot-pourri stinks or something trivial like that. Cop that! All they'll be able to afford is Pot-Poor-ie! Ha! Bam!

2. I have (somewhat) brown, short hair.

3. Spam makes me feel inadequate. Today i got one that said 'Join the Real Men's club' It was for penis pills. I remain an outsider of the 'Real Men's club'

4. Look at this guy:



Spam sometimes makes me feel extremely adequate.
Although that guy clearly is wearing a wedding ring... Puzzling. Imagine being married to the Spam guy. I bet he could 'Spice' up a relationship. Oh, z!ng.

5. Our new landlord reminds me of an high school art teacher. As in a little bit jilted and slightly high.

6. Balsamic sauce and soy sauce are stored in similar looking bottles. This is bad as adding balsamic to a stirfry really ruins the meal. I learnt this recently.

7. If you ignore people you don't like, they seldom go away. Unless they're trapped in quicksand. If you ignore them then, they'll definitely go away.

8. Vaccuum cleaners need to be emptied occasionally. The one at our new place blew up on the weekend. Upon closer inspection, the dust catcher had so much shit jammed in there, it looked like someone had rolled up a mattress and jammed it in. Likewise with the backup vaccuum... It too contained enough lint to fill a million fat men's bellybuttons.

9. Ikea in England is like AIDS in Africa. No matter where you go, there's some trace of Ikea in every house. We contributed to the epidemic recently (The Ikea one, not the AIDS one) by purchasing some of the more tasteful items they offer.

10. Being shat on by a bird is god's way of saying 'You look really nice, but I'm jealous.'


11. I should apologise for my terrible, terrible puns. Sorry

I have to go back to work now.

JC

Out of the shoebox and into.... the corpse?

Finally.
We're getting the hell out of our goddam shobox/bedroom/current house.

A new house has been found, 2 bedrooms, big lounge, awesome location, nice landlady who seals the lease with wine... It's got it all.
Moving in with Pinner and Lisa, which will be good- Nice to finally have good company. And a lounge room.
Planning trips to ikea and various other homewares places to give the new place a bit of a personal touch. Meaning, pictures and lamps and stuff, not 'in the pants' personal touch. Eww.
This shitty box-room we've been existing in is about 3m x 4m. There's a bed and a wardobe and a set of drawers. It's been our lounge room, dining room, bedroom, laundry...
We've been like insects stuck in a tiny little glass box that some fat little kid keeps tapping with his stubby little sausage fingers.

Which reminds me:
Some guy in Berlin got bitten by his pet Black Widow spider named Bettina.
He died, then some thing in his pet enclosure blew up, allowing snakes, tarantulas, termites and all manner of scary-ass creatures to escape. Police discovered his body '7-14 days' later, being eaten by these scary-ass creatures. And a gecko named Helmut. Yes, Helmut.
What the hell?!
Crazy germans. Killed by a spider called Bettina, then eaten by a bunch of evil creatures and a gecko called Helmut.
I think Helmut was probably a nice gecko-kid, but wasn't breastfed, or didn't get hugged enough or something. Before his parents knew it, he was hangin' with the 6-leggers. Then those bad-ass 8 leggers. Then before they knew it, little Helmut is tearing large strips of his owner and taking them back to the tarantulas to feast on. (Again, paraphrased from trusty English rag 'The Sun')

Global warming, terrorism, nuclear arms... These are all minor threats compared to the very real possibility of insect/arachnid death squads escaping their confines and eating whoever happens to die in front of them.

You remember that little green gecko in the Bridgestone ads? The ones with Brocky in them?
Next thing you know: Dead Brocky.
Put two and two together and I say Helmut's been a busy little Gecko.

Food

So this weekend, I ate an ostrich.
Not a whole one, but part of one. Part of one, or possibly parts of many that had then been squeezed through a mincer and made into a sausage.
Surprisingly tasty. Kind of like chicken, but a bit more gamey.
I was afforded the opportunity to partake in such fare at the Borough Market, which are these awesome little food markets near London Bridge.
Charlotte and I also did the week's fruit and veg shopping there and being the growing boy I am, I also had a Damascan Falafel which rated an 'awesome' on the taste-o-meter.
I also saw the weirdest method for making a toasted cheese sandwich, which basically involved taking half a wheel of cheese, heating the width of it and scraping the melted layer onto the bread, see below:


A good day out though. More pictures from the outing updated on my flickr page

A forgotten bit of news from a week or so ago. We went to a 'warehouse party', the old school style parties where no one gets told where it is until 7pm on the night, then everyone turns up to a disused warehouse (Or in our case, parking lot) and makes party-like.
We went and checked it out for about an hour, but due to grandparent-esque tiredness, we only stayed for about an hour and made our way home.

It's now a balmy Monday evening and had best be getting to bed. (Read: Charlotte wants her computer back.)

Farewell for now.

J

PS: Happy birthday Mum!

Night Out

Last night went to the Slug and Lettuce in Fulham. It's a pub. A chain-pub.
Horrible place.
Imagine 900 decibels of the worst music you could imagine, including a dance remix of Bon Jovi, Ace Of Base and way more other junk. Full of pissed annoying Aussies too.
On the upside I saw a pair of midget twins that looked like oompa loompas. I wanted to knit them tiny suits and make them sing and dance. Charlotte said this would probably not be an appropriate thing to do. She's so wise.

Going to the Borough markets this weekend and starting to look for a new house as we're sick of our current shoebox.

Fear not, exciting things on the horizon. Which translates to less boredom for you, my weary readers.

As they say in England,

Bye.

Oh, also:

I've uploaded more photos to Flickr, do drop by and check them out:

Super Awesome Radness!

And that my friends, is goodnight.

No, he doesn't understand...

Some things that make me smile a bit inside are when you hear people try to explain things to children.
The 'thing' in this instance was a surrealist piece which basically was an old iron with a row of nails sticking through the bottom of it.

A mother is explaining to her (I'm guesing) 6 year old what surrealism is. She used the words 'silly' and 'not real' alot.
The kid looked confused. Mum was eager to explain away this confusion, which surprisingly only served to further befuddle the child.

Nice work lady. Most six year olds brain's melt when they try to assemble their new lego space ship and here you are giving your 'sweet little Charles' a lesson in 1920's surrealism. Way to ruin your child's life.

And that's why rich women who think they're art buffs because they joined an advanced long-stitching class shouldn't have children.

Another valuable lesson from Jeremy.™

(Yes, I found the trademark symbol shortcut. I apologise now for its blatant overuse in future posts.)

News from Jeremy

Not much unfortunately.
Finally been paid. Monthly pay is the root of all evil. Closely followed by carrots which many still believe are THE roots of evil. Bad vegetable joke there, sorry.
I've just finished up at a judging session for our Design Effectiveness Awards. Very interesting and enlightening experience. Met the CEO of Cobra Beer, the Nokia brand manager and Adidas' marketing director, or something.
Anyways, lots of important people with interesting views on design and other things. Meanwhile, Jeremy is off to the side with the mother of all colds, politely interrupting the proceedings with sneezes and coughs. Way to make an impression, loser.
Anyways, enough self depreciation.
Sitting in an internet cafe near Charlotte's work, waiting for her to finish ( I got an early mark- w00t!)
So, over the last couple of weeks, things that have happened include:

1) Pinner, Lisa and Aleisha have all found houses in the local area- Pinner and Lisa live a 5 minute walk from Cahrlotte and I, so have been catching up with them a bit.
Also went to Camden market with them on Saturday. Went to the Hawley Arms, which those of you well versed in the language of rock would know is a haunt of the White Stripes, Amy Winehouse (Who I hate)and other such luminaries. Probably. Exciting times...ish.

2) I was involved in my first event last week up in the glorious town of Leicester. Leicester is kind of like Shepparton. Enough said.
The event was good though. The guy who spoke branded the BBC and came second in the pitch for the London 2012 Olympics job, which has caused some major issues over here.
So was very interesting to gain some insight into such current matters.

3) I don't know why I write lists cos I can never think of any more than 2 points.

4) Ok, another point. (Phew) Might have picked up some weekend work trimming trees. Thanks to Cam Rae for providing me with years (ish) of experience. I think in England, if you have 4 teeth, can recite your name on command and don't soil yourself every time someone says 'hello', you're overqualified. For anything.

5)-Yes, I'm remembering more things now- Saw The Simpsons movie on Wednesday night. It was awesome. Especially Spider pig.

6) Just so you all know. In the supermarket, you can buy Polish foods. Unfortunately the name of this is emblazoned across the front. For some reason, instead of anglicising the names into something vaguely edible-sounding they've opted for Klopsy, Pulpety and Flaki. Seriously. And that's the story of why Polish Chef's get beaten up.
Is that not the most disgusting sounding food you've ever heard of. Pulpety. Klopsy. It sounds like biological field notes for animal refuse.

7) Which reminds me, bought tickets to go and see Bill Bailey at Wembley Stadium. Can't wait. But will have to as it's in November. I'm excited though.

Not much else to report on... Oh, half the country's under water. And people are being warned of Cholera and stuff. But that's out in the country bits, not London. But still, pretty bad from a supposed world-leader.

Also, I want to go to see Transformers but Charlotte won't come. Apparently it's not the sort of film that girls are into. How can girls not be impressed by a movie about giant transforming robots that are fighting over earth?
Weird.

Anyways, once I'm less ill and more into getting out and doing stuff, I shall write more rubbish for you.

Sincerely,

me.

DEFCON 2, apparently.

Well, it would seem things here in London have been rather tense. What with all the car bombs, burning cars... Actually come to think of it, maybe this isn't a religious or political thing that's going on here. Perhaps there's another group out there. A heartless evil group of fundamentalist car haters. Being typically egocentric humans, we presume that someone is attacking us, however I posit that there's some people who have deep rooted disdain for automobiles. And maybe nails, they seem to be trying to blow up a lot of nails. If I was a builder, I'd be locking my shed and issuing a press statement declaring that the shed and general back yard area has been moved up to 'Orange Status'. Whatever that means. I think when they declare 'Orange Status', a fleet of snoopy old ladies with push basket thingys go out and start reporting meaningless things as illegal activity... perhaps prompting raids by, oh, I don't know.. Immigration?
Anyways, I can find this as funny as I like, the truth of the matter is it's pretty close to home. About 20 mins after I left Hammersmith tube station to go to work yesterday, a 'suspicious package' was reported at Hammersmith Station, then isolated, then exploded by the trusty bomb squad.
Turns out, the package had nothing in it. Except puppies. Man, was it messy. OK, so it wasn't full of puppies, but it does show how alert everyone is at the moment.
Mind you, life seems to go on as per usual. I do feel pretty safe and it's that packed on the tube when I catch it, I doubt anyone would be able to move enough to get their hand in their pocket to trigger any kind of device; I can't even get my iPod out of my jeans.
I guess, all I can say is fear not, I shall survive.
Also, Charlotte and I both have full-time work and as such will now be able to do more touristy things, like go to the Tower of London, which we did on Sunday.
Tower of London was awesome. It's so alien to stand in a building, or look at a fortress wall that has been there for 900 years.
All Australia had 900 years ago was bark canoes and some woomeras. Which is culturally rich in it's own right, but nowhere near as interesting (in my opinion) as murder, witch-hunts, deceit, wars and giant diamonds.
Oh yeah and Adam Hills was really funny the other weekend too. I'd recommend going to see him, or at least watching Spicks and Specks. And some trivia: He has a prosthetic leg. Not for fun, but for walking and possibly kicking purposes! Wow. I'm like the Guinness Book of Rubbish.
Charlotte says to mention I am getting a hair cut this weekend as i am beginning to alienate people as they can't see my face for my hair.
So yes, soon I will be more streamlined and less microphone-y.

PS: Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes/presents. You rock. Like a chair that rocks.

Things you thought you'd never hear.

Thye office I work in is quite small... There's 6 people, open plan stylez. Yup, stylez.
For a small office we have a lot of weird shit happen. You know when sometimes you say or hear things and think 'I don't think I'll ever hear that again in my life.'?
Well I had at least three o0f those moments this week.

1) 'I've told them about this before; bill it to the Russians.'

2) 'Yes, the Koreans are coming in for a meeting tomorrow.'

3) 'So she said, sure, we'll look after the Chinese ambassador's daughter for a few days.'

Anyone would think I worked in the National Office of Communist Empathisers.
But no, this is at the Design Business Association...
It turns out too, that it was Good Korea, not Bad Korea that came in for the meeting. They were so nice that they actually brought gifts including a nifty cap with the Korean Design Association logo emblazoned on the front and the words 'Korean Power' embroidered on the side. Awesome. Makes me feel all fervent and nationalistic. Or something.
I also got taken off my contract with the DBA this week and offered a permanent position as Events Coordinator, which is awesome. I get to travel all over England and Scotland organising events and other such things for designers... Should be interesting, especially considering my complete lack of events management experience, but they seem confident I'll pick it up ok.
If I'm unemployed in a week, you'll know I've failed.
Meh, I'm rambling...
Charlotte and I are going to see (or have planned to at this point anyway)Adam Hills tonight. He's the guy off Spicks and Specks. Should be funny I think.
Haven't done much else- Fulfilled my life's dream of sitting at the front of the top level of a double decker bus last weekend. Saw the sights and took a heap of photos which I'll upload to my flickr page when I get a chance.
More exciting posts to come in the near future. (fingers crossed)

Krishnas And Other Things

I'm writing again.
Hello.
Have been busy with work, organising an Internation Design Awards thingy among a million billion other things.
Still not a great deal going on.
Went out for dinner/cheap cocktails on Friday night. Do not eat Mexican-English fusion food/drinks. Rubbish. But it may have made us a little tipsy. As did the cider by the thames, which was quite nice and serene.
Saturday, Charlotte's friend Bec came and stayed with us. Some more drinks. Went to the Walkabout (yes, I wasn't to keen on this idea, but was meeting people there) in the city to meet up with Sean, Dean and Matty from the snow. Was good to catch up for a few beers.
On the way out of the Walkabout, got caught in a passing joy of Hare Krishnas. I have made 'joy' the official collective noun for a group of Krishnas.
They sang (repetetively) and danced (jumped and waved) and we walked behind them. Strangely I felt no urge to shave my head and wear a toga and judging by this group of Kirshnas, a life filled with joy doesn't smell very nice.

We then went to Masala zone and had some awesome Indian. Yum.

Sunday, lay around in the local park in which we discovered there is a paddling pool. Which is awesome news, since I'm not yet adjusted to the warm weather again. Then we caught up with another friend, Nick and had more cider in the beer garden at the local. Then went out for Thai.
Good, lazy weekend.

In other news, on the way to work this morning some guy in a suit was sitting on the ground surrounded by police and paramedics. He looked really confused and kept saying 'I fell down the stairs? Did I really?'
I found that funny for some reason. He was definitely perplexed as to why all these important people were suddenly helping him..

Anyways, sorry this is such a boring post... Charlotte and I are looking at setting some dates to start travelling. We're thinking maybe Greek Islands or Spain or Ireland.
I'm sure you're all dying from the suspense (pffft), so I'll let you know as soon as we have a trip planned.

I have to go and call Pay Pal now to talk to them about fixing payment gateways on our website. Much fun.

Heading North

Friday.
Lunch break at work.
It's hot. (by English standards)
Charlotte and I are heading up to Northampton for the weekend to visit her Aunty and Uncle.
I'm looking forward to getting out of London for a while and seeing some of the English countryside. Will be taking plenty of photos and the like.
Apparently there's quite a bit of history around the area- battlegrounds from the War of the Roses, medieval underground tunnel systems, ruins from the iron age and other such things that could be made into a crap book by Dan Brown. I won't be making a book, but maybe will look at things and nod appreciateively.
Must be getting back to work.
Also, bank holiday Monday- Long Weekend!

And a good morning to you sir!

I awoke this morning, usual time... Begrudgingly slid out of bed and shuffled into the bathroom.
I was enjoying the invigorating properties of hot running water when there was a knock on the bathroom door. I'd been in the shower for 5 mins at the max.
I yelled out with the old 'Yeaap, what?'
No answer. I shrugged and thought one of my flatmates was being a bit rude, but it didn't bother me.
Knock knock.
'Yes, what??' (Slightly more aggravated this time)
Still nothing. I was annoyed by the lack of consideration displayed by my flatmates. Whilst pondering the possible need for immediate access to the bathroom ('upset stomach', plaque eradication, morning number ones) there was another knock.
That was the final straw. I jumped out, threw my towel around me and opened the door.
Boy, was I going to give some evil words and/or looks to the impatient person on the other side.
Instead of an impatient flatmate, I was greeted by around 10 people clad in police uniform, bulletproof vests, walkie talkies and utility belts.
Um... hello.
I thought of all the reasons that my house could be filled by such people. Do I live in a crack den? No. Have I been storing weapons grade plutonium? Don't think so. Maybe it's because we've been neglecting our basil plant and they've come to take it into foster care. Possibly.

A man whose badge identified him as belonging to UK Immigration very sternly and quickly questioned me: 'What room are you in? What's your name? Where are you from?
Meanwhile, I'm dripping wet looking around at the SWAT team that has suddenly materialised in our hallway and trying not to laugh.
'I'm in the front room. My name's Jeremy. I'm from Australia.'
He then peered into the bathroom, probably to see if I was harbouring any illegal immigrants. Once he realised our bathroom is essentially a shoebox filled with porcelain and tiles and that I wasn't trying to help Pablo out a window, he relaxed a bit.
In a perfect twist of fate, to back up my story I was wearing my Australian flag bath towel. (A little too convenient, I bet they thought.) Luckily I'd decided not to wear my 'Unauthorised Border Crossing Convention 07' commemorative towel.
Anyways, I got hustled into our room... They ran around through our house for a while, checked my passport and best of all, I thought, jovially said 'Well you check out, we'll have to arrest someone else.' Awesome.

They then left as quick as they came, leaving us a receipt of their search warrant and an overwhelming feeling of complete bewilderment. And possibly some hidden surveillance devices. Paranoia!!!

This has made my year. I couldn't think of a better way to start my Friday.

Footnote: In case UK Immigration is tapping our wireless, I don't know anyone called Pablo, i'm just using racial stereotypes, no one by that name lives here. Ok, thanks.

Proper Work

Finally I've progressed from retro work to normal work.
Have spent Friday and today at a IT Recruitment agency answering phones, which has been a piece of cake- nice, easy work.
Start my three month Programmes Coordinator contract tomorrow with the DBA which is a really cool little company that hooks designers up with businesses and gives them a heap of resources and assistance with the business side of design projects.
Really looking forward to it as the place, people and position seem really cool.
More on that to come once I get into it...

In other news, things that have gone on over the last week or so:
- Saw Spiderman 3 on the weekend
- Had dinner at Wagamamas and Gourmet Burger Kitchen
- Charlotte and I made home-made pasties, apple crumble, roast vegetables, haloumi and salami on ciabatta, lasagne and other extremely awesome things i can't remember.
- I got ambushed by some missionaries who knocked on my door. They asked me what i thought about the growing social divide between rich and poor. I was perplexed as to why some strangers would want my opinions on such matters. I thought maybe they could just sense my wisdom as they walked past the house, but that seemed unlikely. Our walls are pretty thick.
I told them what I thought anyways and they asked me how the problem could be fixed, so I went into a bit of a rant about governments forming a united front and acting compassionately and ethically and blah blah blah. The woman looked at me and nodded vacantly. Then she pulled out a bible and asked if she could red some appropriate passages to me. I then told her of my love of S&M, my penchant for not resting on Sundays and my constant blashpemy. She smiled and left and i smiled and went back to reading my book on the Dark Arts.
Nah, not really... but it sounds more exciting doesn't it?

Retro Work

So, I've been at this 'emergency' temp job for a few days now and FAR OUT am I over it.
Only two days to go....
It's an electrical engineering company comprised of 4 older guys. They don't use computers.
Unfortunately, the rest of the world does and so my job is as follows:
When an email arrives, I print one copy of the email and any attachments and put it on the desk of whoever it is addressed to. (They only have one email address for the entire company) I then print another copy and file it in a folder called 'Email In'
I then get handed back a piece of paper with instructions on composing a repsonse to this email. I do up a draft of the email, print it out, show it to whoever I'm writing it on behalf of, they approve it or make changes and then I send the email. Then i print a copy of the sent email and put it in the 'Email Out' folder.
WTF!? This is demeaning and frustrating and totally unnecessary. If you can come up with an entire wiring sysytem for a new hotel, I'm sure you can work out how to use a computer.
Seriously, why bother having a computer at all if you're going to print out every single thing at least three times. I'm printing out enough paper each day here to drive at least two species into extinction through deforestation. I have blood on my hands.
Also, having never used computers, my boss's concept of changing the entire layout of a complex spreadhseet involves asking me to just 're-jig' things. Re-jig. I wonder if anyone ever asks him to 're-jig' his work after it's sealed into the walls of a new hotel.
Luckily I start a three month contract next week in a bigger, better office of the future where they have futuristic things like computers, emails, automobiles and bagels.

Wow, I'm good at whingeing!

On the upside, had a very nice long weekend- went to Camden Markets, bought some new Vans, went to a friend's house, ate lots of nice food, drank lots of cider, watched some good movies and relaxed.
Hooray for weekends.

Now I'm off to print this post off and file it under 'Company Time- Wasted'

I will have a sufficient reliable income within a week too and as such will be able to afford to do way more interesting things, so I can promise that this blog will get more exciting soon. In the meantime, why don't you cry about it.

New(ish) look blog now with more Crazy Guy stories

I decided to pretty this page up a bit. A little bit more colour for the showing. The photo at the top is from out the front of our old house in Vermont. Neat!

Also, I forgot about the crazy guy I encountered on the tube the other day.

Quietly, I was sat down listening to my ipod on the tube, coming back from an interview when this guy gets on the train. He sits down in the row of seats opposite me. The guy looks like and African Prince. Not as in an heir to Nigerian throne, but like an African version of The Artist Fomerly Known As Prince. Weird, I know!
Anyways, I keep to myself and listen away to some Rise Against.
Then, fatal error, i glance up for a second and see that this guy is ranting and raving about some shite and then the unthinkable happens.
Eye contact.
So he points his finger at me and starts shouting some more. I pop out a headphone and give him the 'Sorry, what?' look and he continues on with this:
'I am black and you will not change that!! No one can make me stop talking!
You will not call me a black bastard again! You call me that again, I WILL DEFEAT YOU!!'

Interesting way to break the ice.
I did wonder what he would defeat me at though. Using my exceptional analytical skills, I chose not to challenge him in high-jump or a 200m sprint. Or a karaoke-off as he really did look like Prince.
I probably could have beaten him at frisbee but I wan't certain.
I decided not to call him a black bastard and instead gave him the "I'm totally cool with that, crazy dude!" look and put my headphone back in.
He got off at the next station still shouting declarations of random nonsense.
I watched him crash through people whilst gesturing wildly and felt quite good about my sanity.

Work and What-not

I've been doing some work finally.
Not much mind you, but nonetheless I have spent some days doing the thing where I do tasks in exchange for money. No, not those sort of tasks.
I did a couple of days with a marketing company. I spent one day with them standing on a stall at a careers expo at Greenwich University telling grad students about some book and stuff that we had or whatever. It wasn't all that exciting but they were nice people.
I was then offered work there for 4 more weeks, which i would have accepted however I had some interviews scheduled for early this week, so I had to do those.
One was for a Recruitment Coordinator position. Which seemed interesting however I haven't really recruited people for anything except participation in a few beers at the pub/park, so my experience was sorely lacking. Also I didn't really 'click' with the recruiter that well... He wore make-up and was very fruity and poncey and it seemed as though when he walked around the office soufflēs would fall out of his pants and poodles would appear from his pockets. He was one very camp dude.
Then went for an interview as a Sales Administrator, which seemed to go fine, however the feedback I got was that the interviewer thought I maybe gave them them 'right' answers that they wanted to hear... Umm.. No. I just answered the questions. Correctly apparently, but I wouldn't want to employ anyone who answered things correctly. Bah. Also, when i left the next candidate was waiting and I definitely didn't have the anatomical proportions that she had, nor was I showing them off as she was. That's what I put it down to.
Anyways, I then called the other place back about the four weeks of work but they told me that they had re-filled that already (meanwhile I'd knocked back other work becasue of this) and that they didn't have anything else.
So I went from having four weeks of work and two good job prospects to having no prospects and no work. I couldn't have worse luck if I punched a whole village of gypsies.
I got a call this morning from one agency to do some 'emergency work' which, while I formulated the idea of me driving fire-trucks for the day, turned out to be reception work at some tiny place in Clapham. No one calls, the bosses don't use computers so I have to write them notes on a form of pressed wood pulp with some archaic ink filled device and it's very very quiet.

Going for dinner tomorrow night with Charlotte's aunty and uncle which should be good and I found a heap of free exhibitions which seem really cool, so that might be something to do over the weekend. Haven't had a chance to take too many more photos, but I'll be updating my Flickr page with more photos and info and stuff soon.

So here I am, bored but being paid. I think I might be working hard by English standards.

Photos on Flickr

In addition to my list from yesterday, I've been doing some other things.

Last night Charlotte cooked an awesome stir-fry and we had melted Tesco cookies with ice-cream for dessert, then we watched some Futurama.

Today, organised another interview for tomorrow... These people may already have some work lined up for me, which is a bit exciting.

In the meantime, I've signed up to Flickr so i can upload some of my better photos. Y'all can check out more of my photos at the following link:
Jeremy's Flickr Page
(I've also added it as a link in the sidebar on the right for future reference. Boy am I helpful. Also, I'm in the process of updating the titles and tags, so all the images aren't just called IMG 19219.jpg, which looks crap. Just so you know.)

In other news I believe there is a mob of soccer football fans outside this internet cafe somewhere... I hope their team isn't playing against a crack team of redheads or I might be lynched.

An afterthought, maybe tonight we should have melted ANZAC biscuits for dessert. I wonder if they sell them here...hmmm. I'll let you know.
Hold your breath, embrace the suspense....

Things I have been doing lately

• Going to interviews at temping agencies. Seems promising, so hopefully should have some work coming through very shortly
• Opening a bank account
  
• Having my haircut
• Going to see the Cabaret Mechanical Theatre, which is an exhibition of awesome little mechanical things... Will upload pictures which explain better.
• Eating yum dinners cooked by Charlotte and myself
• Enjoying pints in the beer garden of the pub across the road
• Discovering that the best dessert in the world is Tesco choc chip biscuits, heated in the microwave till soft then covered in vanilla ice cream.
• Watching Futurama DVDs
• Watching The Departed, Red Road and some other DVD's... Oh yeah, Pan's Labyrinth
• Listening to Alexisonfire
• Making mental lists of things I want to buy when I have more money.
  
• Sitting in this intenet cafe making a list of things I've been doing.

Soon I'll have mazillions of pounds and will be updating with tales of much excitement. Very soon.

More random pictures

Macs are awesome for imaging and photos and stuff. Charlotte's lil MacBook is rocking out with iPhoto which I have spent many an hour on...
Such a handy little application.
Anyways, some pictures... Things look so much better after a little 'touch-up'


The London Eye from below.


Big Ben and Little Charlotte


Yes, terrible isn't it. Dog mess.


The view from our balcony in one of the hostels we were staying at in Earl's Court. Long exposure shots are fun.


A little alleyway of Gloucester Road in Earls Court.


I've got heaps more photos, but will upload more at a later date. It takes too long on the stolen innanets here in the park...

If you're bored though, please do yourself a favour and check out this blog:

Brad's Blog
I love the 'Next Blog' button at the top of blogger pages.
Today I decided to see what the next blog was and was delighted to discover Truetent. Which is a blog by Brad, who is an English (Engrish) major in Korea.. (I think)
Please make visit to Brad to have view of many story on website

Finally!!

This post comes to you from England.
Sunny England in fact. Nice.

Been lots going on since I last posted. The most significant of which is me now being in a different country. Yes, the one with big red buses and big clocks and all that.
England is nice. I was expecting grey skies and the smell of apathy in the air, but it's been warm and pleasant and i'm loving it.

Flew in on the 1st... Got to see my Charlotte (w00t!!) who had a hostel in Earls Court booked for us, so spent a couple of nights there, then, realising we had to get more accommodation as the hostel was booked out we did a mad internet scramble and found another hostel in nearby Bayswater, so packed up and moved all our stuff there. Spent a couple of nights there, then it too was booked out, so found another hostel back in Earls Court and then moved all our stuff back there. Gah! Was pretty crazy times. In between all the moving stuff around we got to do some nice stuff though, spend a day in Kensington Gardens, visit the Victoria and Albert Museum (yeah, the free one) and stroll around south-west London looking at English things like pubs, which I don't think are found anywhere else in the world.
After 4 more nights in the last hostel and much stress, we finally found a place to live in Hammersmith. When I say place, I mean a room in a share-house. Which is nice, although the bathroom smells like wet. So good though, to not have to move all our shit around anymore. I'm very happy about that. Other benefits include close proximity to tube station, heaps of shops, restaurants, the Thames, parks and a nice little pub with a beer garden a mere one minute walk from our house. ahh... beer garden... Not that we have the money to spare to indulge in things like drinks and food at the moment...
Charlotte has quite a bit of work scheduled which is awesome and I am endeavouring to attain some, pending a haricut and suit purchase. Can't wait to start earning the pound and then saving some of it and spending a little.

Currently on our list of things to purchase:
-Pillows (I'm sleeping on a rolled up hoodie)
-Food (I'm hungry)
-Suit and haricut (I'm sure I can find some place which offers those as a package deal)
-A pet bumblebee and an extendable bumblebee lead. Seriously, if for nothing else, come to England to see a bumblebe. They look ridiculous. (I don't actually think I could buy a pet bumblebee, but maybe I just haven't been looking in the right places.)

Hmm...

We haven't really done any tourist type stuff yet, but once we're more fiscally empowered, I think we'll venture out and do some more exciting stuff.
In the meantime, I'm looking at ads for crap jobs with wanky titles; Senior Customer Service Advisor (read: call centre vegetable). I'm also lying in the park, stealing someone innanets and soaking up some English sunshine. Maybe I can get a job writing ads for recruitment companies:
Requirements: Ability to carry on about some absolute rubbish.

Position Filled!

Anyways, will put up some photos and stuff soon.

Scones and Tea from the Motherland,

JC

Of Greetings and Goodbyes

Yes, I stole the title from an AFI song...
11pm... Last night here at Mt Snow.
Had people over last night for a bbq and some drinks, said goodbyes... Was a bit tough.
Finished packing today, went for dinner up at the restaurant at the mountain with the guys from my house, then had a couple of the guys from next door pop round to say goodbye as well.
So I think I'm nearly done with saying my goodbyes... Definitely made some good friends that I'll be catching up with in England and during travels.
Onto greetings and on Sunday I get greeted at the airport by the gorgeous Charlotte. I'm so rapt and can't wait to see her. I may even have trouble sleeping over the next 2 nights as I'm so excited!
Well I guess this brings me to the end of the American chapter of my travels.
Next Chapter: England and the joyful process of finding somewhere to live and work.

Will update in a few days with pictures of double decker buses, phone boxes, big clocks and other assorted cheese...

Alright, I'm going to triple-check my stuff to make sure I haven't forgotten to pack anything, then off to bed to will the next two days to hurry up and pass.

JC

The Mythical Spider-Fence

Before I forget...
Was out the other night having a few drinks for my going away and somehow the topic of camping came up. One of the English girls asked "How the hell can you go camping when there's so many spiders and bugs around?"
"We put up a spider-fence." I replied
"A spider fence?" She responded, somewhat puzzled.
"Yeah, it's a mesh fence about 20cm tall and you surround your camp site with it and that way the spiders can't climb in over the fence."
"Oh, cool." She said.
Then Nikki, one of the Aussies piped up "Wow, we never had spider-fences when we went camping." Unfortunately for her, she'd bought the spider-fence story as well...
"Yeah, you only really need them if you're in proper bush..."
"Oh ok."
And with that, a myth was born.
Now go tell everyone you know and see how many gullible foreigners we can have believing that we use tiny mesh fences to keep spiders out of our tents. Does someone have wikipedia submission rights? Put up a plausible spider-fence article for me.

Pica-tures

As promised in last post, pictures from the last few weeks:

Here, this is what we call 'getting a lift to work'.

Before colour telephones everyone talked in black and white.

I think this sign means "Use a pregnancy test to unlock your potential children."

The boys on the Killington trip. I need a hair-cut.

The rental car... I think this was moments before we realised the stupid thing was out of fuel and then participated in around an hour-long session of 'The Waiting game', which mainly involved sitting and waiting.

During one of our many archaeological digs, we found this well preserved specimen. This discovery has aided our understanding of how the 'Lifties' of the past may have existed in such harsh conditions.


Organising shite...

On the left: Broken board
On the right: New, new unbroken board.
You can see the light reflecting off the crack on the old board going across the top from left to right up to the logo...

Anyways, it's late and I'm tired. Spent the entire day not being at work. Instead stayed home and finalised and reconfirmed my flight and worked on accommodation and job-type stuff...

4 days till England and Charlotte! w00t!

Visas, snow, rain, boards, repeat.

Things that have happened since last post...

1) I got my visa application that I sent back to Australia rejected.

I then had a massive freak out about it... Panicked alot... Maybe got a little wall-punchy. Then did some more looking into things and found out I could apply here in the US. So went through the whole application bullshit again, express posting my passport and documents all around the place.. Finally got my passport back today with a nice shiny UK Visa in it! W00t!! Finally.... So now I get to England and see Charlotte on April 1st as scheduled. Charlotte's been in London a couple of days now and I think has fallen in love with the place. Can't wait to see her... Only nine more sleeps! Am currently going through all my flight info, baggage limits etc and making sure that's all in order before I fly out. Can't wait to start travelling properly and see new stuff.

2) Went on a little 2 day boarding trip to Killington with some of the Aussie boys and a couple of the poms that are here.

Was awesome fun... Such a different type of mountain to Mount Snow; way bigger, way better organised and just more of a feeling that you were in a proper ski resort. Killington is to Mount Snow as a Rolls Royce is to a Datsun.
Had a couple of dramas which may or may not have resulted in a speeding fine and a broken down (read: ran out of fuel) hire van. Was well worth the troubles though as we got some good boarding in. Although I did snap my new snowboard... Which leads to point 3

3) So I snapped my new board.

From this I have come up with two possible causes:
Cause 1- I'm way too awesomely hardcore for any piece of fibreglass/wood/composite and even my presence may cause such devices to explode, seemingly without cause.
Cause 2- I just had some bad luck with boards and hopefully I'm now done with these board-breaking shenanigans.
Cause 1 wins hands down... pfft
I took the board back to the shop today and showed them the damage. Jesse, who runs the shop had a look at it and said "Yeah, they'll warranty that, but you can't not have a board for the rest of the season." So rather than make me wait around for all the warranty paperwork nonsense, he just gave me a new board. It's identical to the snapped one, just not snapped. Obviously. So now I have a nice new board again.

4) Snow/Rain/Snow/Rain etc

It's rained, it's snowed... We've had over a foot of powder, then we've been down to rocks and ice, then a heap more rain, then some more snow. Now the weather's getting really spring-y and the snow's melting so I'd expect there'll be very little left after this weekend. I'm fine with this though as I'll be leaving in just over a week.

5) The 2006/2007 IBNITI

This was the International Biggest Name In Tweed Invitational...
A huge competition which was comprised of 13 events including ski/snowboard racing, lifeguard sprints, a 500m run, pool, darts, pinball, air hockey, a 'wing off', nearest the pin, a drinking competition and some other things I can't remember right now.
This was conducted over a couple of days. I won nearest the pin (Thanks to Morgs for all the golfing practice). I also won pinball.
I think I might be a nerd. (Seriously though, MULTIBALL!!!)
I finished fourth overall (I missed an event. This being the obvious and sole reason I was not the champion. hehe)
Pip won it overall and other (dis)honourable mentions include:
- Tomas, a Slovakian native who ate 49 Chicken wings (I ate 31 and I'm never eating chicken wings again.) in the wing-off and also won the drinking competition. He either can eat alot, or really hates chooks.
- B. Short for Boronislav i think, or something similar, who won the snowboard/ski race... And then told us he was a member of the Czech Republic Alpine Ski Team. Talk about taking candy from babies.
- Jon, the American BMW rep who won the 500m run despite falling face first in the ice-mud-bitumen.
- Can't think of much else.. but was a good way to fill in some time.
I may also have vomited a little after the drinking comp. Ewww..

So from here, the plans are, head to Boston on the 31st of this month, then fly out the following morning. Get to London that evening, meet Charlotte (Awesome!) and then see where we're up to with flat finding etc. Then have to organise a job interview, a NI number, a bank account, a phone/sim card and possibly find a quaint English pub for a few warm pints or something similarly cliched. How the hell do you do the e's with the little accent thingy, like for cafe, cliche... Bah, I dunno...anyways...
Really looking forward to seeing England. Also been looking through the ol' Lonely Planet guide and checking out places to go in Europe... So much on the list so far. Hopefully will get to see most of them.

Also, to keep your appetite for random things satiated feel free to peruse the following:

If this guy is not simultaneously the most ridiculous and most awesome human to ever walk the earth, then I don't know who is. Seriously... Who the hell gets to dress up that much? Actors you say? Yes. Blues-harpists? No! Hell no!
He looks like a pirate barbarian bodybuilder archer bandit that fell into the extras wardrobe for Beyond Thunderdome
Seriously, go to his page, click on the slide show or image gallery or whatever it's called and check this guy out.
He wins my Most Consistently Absurd Facial Hair Award.
And gets inducted into my hall of fame, for what seems to be decades of dedication to retarded moustaches.

Anyways, I've got some more photos and stuff to upload soon, so drop by again in a little bit.

Also, Sammy left Mount Snow a little while back and it hasn't been the same without him. Sammy has the best collection of caps in the world and is one cool dude. Happy now Sammy? :)

Also...

Just so you all know, I stayed home tonight and updated my blog and missed possibly the biggest event of the season at the Snow Barn nightclub:

Changes in Latitudes: The Nation's Best Jimmy Buffet Cover Band...

For those who are interested, you can find out more about the seminal works of Jimmy Buffet here

I hope you all enjoy my updates, seeing as you've deprived me of so much joy...

hehehe

Some snow-related antics...

Had an awesome day out snowboarding on Thursday.
Started to ride in the park with some of the instructors who were off duty, so learnt a heap as well.
Learnt or learned?? I dunno... Anyways...
Was riding With Pip, Jello and Martin... Learnt to hit some of the big kickers, so was getting some pretty big air which was scary, but awesome fun once I got it (semi) under control.
Also started to hit some bigger boxes so hopefully can work my way up to some decent rail tricks before the season's out.
I took my camera out for one run and got some shots of the guys trying some stuff.
They introduced me to 'The Wally' which basically involves one person lying down and making a ramp with their board, then having someone else use them as a jump, photos of which are below:

Martin about to jump off Jello

Pip jumping off Jello.

Also got heaps more snow today. It was absolutely bucketing down. I was (luckily) stationed inside a lift shack for the day, so found it amusing watching the guests looking cold all covered in snow, just like this guy:

People hate it when you go overboard with the talcum powder...

In other news, we got bored the other day, so dug a hole (insert The Castle jokes here) in the snow near our lift to kill some time... It was about the size of a bathtub and completely harmless...
Some ass called in to the head of Mountain Operations and claimed we were "Screwing about and not doing our job properly." which we most definitely were as we were way overstaffed...
Anyways, in an alarming display of Managerial pedantics we got a call telling us to cease and desist and also to fill the hole back in...
So apparently someone revived Hitler and put him in charge of lift operations. Tomorrow is Aryan Sunday where we all dye our hair blonde and have a crack at some genocide...
I may be lying a little.

Anyways, more snow falling now so hopefully will be getting some good boarding in over the next week.

Finally have everything sent off and organised for England, so just waiting for my visa to be approved and sent back to me... Charlotte and I are maybe a little stressed, but it should all be ok, fingers crossed!
Four weeks till I get to see my Charlotte!! Awesome!!

More updates to come, stay tuned.

RARRRGHHGHGAGAHGHH!!!!!
GIMME ALL YOUR MONEY!!!
Or whatever....

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to Charlotte!!
She's awesome and amazing and now she's 22 as well.
I love her stacks and stacks and hope she has an awesome day.
You should all hope the same!

JC

Yes, It's Been A While.

Wow... Long time between posts hey.
Much has transpired since I last updated.
For ease of reading I shall break the post down as follows:

Section 1: Boston
Section 2: Snow
Section 3: Randomness

Section 1: Boston

So some time ago, maybe 2 weeks now I journeyed over to Boston.

THE PLAN: 5 Aussies and a Kiwi all had a couple of days off, so were to leave Mt Snow on Wednesday after work, hire a van in nearby Brattleboro, drive on to Boston, stay a couple of nights, then come back Friday arvo.

THE ACTUALITY: Myself and the three other Aussies borrowed a BMW from the Mountain (as they have some test drive promotion thingy and we've made nice with the organisers) and drove to Brattleboro. Dropped 2 Aussies off at the car hire place and then Myself and Nikki drove the BMW back to Mt Snow. Jamie and Rach were to pick up the van, then meet us back at our place where the others would have gathered so as we could continue on to Boston. Nikki and I get back... waiting..... waiting.... waiting... Phone call.
"Hey, it's Rach... We had an accident."
So it turns out they didn't have enough ID on them or some shit and couldn't hire a van and instead were only afforded a tiny Suzuki shitbox... Whilst driving back, they hit some black ice, lost it and went backwards into a telephone pole.... GOAL!!!!!!! Couldn't help but laugh. Oh yeah, everyone was ok and all that.
So... that was that done with...
We decided to scratch that night and see what we could work out the next day.
Anyways, long story short... Ended up being 4 Aussies taking a BMW to Boston to stay one night...
We got lost going into Boston but managed to find the Cambridge Marriot (Thanks to a favour from Jamie's boss) we were staying at.. 5 stars! Sweet!
Went and bought tickets to a Bruins game... So excited to be getting to see an ice hockey match!
We then went for a walk around town and had a look at the city. Checked out the Holocaust Memorial they have there which is really interesting and quite moving.

Giant glass towers etched with numbers for each of the 6 million jews that were killed. (Yes the photo is off-axis, my bad)

We then did a little bit of shopping, checked out the CBD, then went to a pub, had some dinner and continued on to the game.

Apparently the Bruins aren't too flash at the moment, but we weren't too concerned.
The game was awesome, Bruins got beaten by South Carolina 5-2 or something, but ice hockey is awesome to watch live.. Got some cool shots of the game too...

The view from our seats.

Action! Action! Action!

There was a massive fight too. 2 guys stood toe to toe trading blows for about 2 minutes straight... The crowds get right into it too, so was pretty fun.
Walked out of the stadium at the end of the game, saw this guy, got it on video, but it's waaaay too big to post on here.
Then went to a nearby bar, had a few drinks and headed back to the motel and got some sleep. Got this photo before I went to bed...

Next day, went out to the Harvard area and had a bit of a look around... Got some breakfast at a stereotypical American diner and made our way back home.
So that was Boston in a day. Well worth it... Plus I bought some cool clothes too.

Part 2: Snow

So around Valentines Day we got a massive dump of snow. Like 3 feet in a couple of days... I've never seen that much snow in my life... It was awesome. Was wicked boarding... So much powder everywhere and everything was completely covered in snow... Couldn't even walk into our house without wading through waist deep snow...
Look at the whiteness:

A house on the way into town

Our pathway...

So the snow brought more guests and the guests brought more work and the work brought more money and the money bought me a deposit on a new snowboard! It's wicked... Got it really cheap... So nice to ride...
As a result, been enjoying my boarding heaps... Can't wait to have a couple of days off again sometime soon so I can get some solid riding in.

Section 3: Randomness
Some other things:
- Ben and Jerry's ice cream is the awesome.
- I went to an all you can eat Polish buffet last night.... So good.
- Our internet connection suddenly became secure... When I say 'our' I mean someone near us. We're now using another 'borrowed' connection which is crappy and a pain in the ass..
- Visa is all done and sent off!! W00t!!!!!!
- I totally made a fool of this pompous old lady yesterday... She had like, 20 people laughing at her. I'm so proud of myself for publicly humiliating an old woman, that may seem bad, but she was a right cow.
- We made a wicked jump in our backyard, so now we can have some fun once we get home from the mountain

Some random photos:

Sunrise again.... This time with a snow-groomer driving through the exposure.

The view from the top of Lift 14.

Anyways, not a great deal on the agenda for the coming weeks... Hopefully just get a fair bit of boarding in. Counting down the days till I fly out to the UK and get to see Charlotte... So excited!
Will update again soon...

That weird person you sometimes see standing out the front of their house...

You go outside because you're bored and there's nothing to do... You're also hungry which is why you have a box of cereal in your hand which you're eating right out of said box. You haven't been shopping in a while so there's not much to eat in your designated cupboard. It's a full moon outside, which mainly is why you went outside; to look at the night being all pretty and shit.
You're staring at the sky, putting a handful of dry cereal in your mouth when a four wheel drive goes past. It's going really slowly because there's a speed-bump out the front of your house. Plus it's a bit icy on the roads. You see little people, possibly kids looking at you through the back window of the car.
You wonder if they're asking their parents what the strange man is doing. Your feet are cold and you remember you don't have any socks on, just shoes because you were only going to be outside for a tiny while to look at the moon and maybe see if there was any good photo opportunities. You also think how absurd this must look and have a little laugh to yourself.... Just as the four wheel drive comes back past the other way, kids staring at you again. Now you're outside in the cold, eating cereal out of a box, wearing shoes with no socks and you're staring at the moon and laughing to yourself.
You wonder what the kids are asking their parents now. You also wonder if the parents are remembering what you look like in case they think they may need to give a description to police when there's a break in in your local area tonight.
You decide to go inside because your feet are cold... And because a patrol car might come past soon.
You also need to put your pants back on...

OK, so the last sentence isn't true, but the rest is...

Same old, same old here... Been working and boarding heaps... Started landing some 360's so pretty chuffed with that. Also tried skiing the other day which was fun. May be heading to Boston next week to see an ice hockey match which should be cool.
Will let you know how it all goes.
JC

Snow

So it's finally snowing with some kind of purpose!
There's a few inches of snow covering everything, so it's finally looking like winter has arrived here. Mind you, the temperatures reflect this with a couple of days last week being -26 degrees and -15 degrees.

Still just killing time... They've dropped our hours back now so we work 3 days and then have 4 days off, which is crazy and makes budgeting even harder. Ah well, it'll work out, I'm sure.

Also been putting up with some f-ing lazy people, whose names i won't mention. They seem to think we have a kitchen fairy that cleans up all their shit. Well the kitchen fairy is well pissed off and I'm ready to start cleaning saucepans with scalps. Whoa, rage!!!
Ahem....

Might try and do something productive with my time off in the next week or so and go for a bit of a look around the area. Would love to head up to Montreal at some stage, but we'll see how the budget goes. At least if I can get out and about I can provide you with more interesting updates rather than this drivel. And also avoid the cabin fever which I'm developing, as made apparent by my 'Kitchen Fairy' rant .

Also, this week's must buy: Crunk hits 3 - 18 Certified Crunk Hits!! Hip Hop y'all!

This is on TV. Who the hell certifies crunk?? The National Crunk Institute ? The Crunkstitue? Actually, what the hell is crunk?? Is their a head Crunksman?? Stupid Americans and their stupid genres.
I'm out for now.
JC

Getting Colder

Last couple of days have been really cold...
Not sure exactly how cold, but cold enough to make your ears feel like you could break them off and chill a cup of coffee with them.
I'm also lucky enough to have recruited myself a nice cold, so had the day off work today. Was meant to leave this afternoon to go to Killington, a nearby mountain for a couple of days but can't be bothered and would rather get over this cold... Whinge whinge whinge...
I hope the cold weather hangs around for a bit longer though as it'll hopefully bring more snow and thus more work... Only been working 3 and a half days a week for the last couple of weeks which sucks... So budget has been very tight. Can't wait to be earning real money again. I haven't worked for this little money since I was about 16....
In other news, started getting my UK visa organised, ( So you won't have to stress Charlotte :P)
Here's a couple of photos from the last week or so:

No one I know, but above one of the lifts I work on there's a big kicker, so it's a good spot to get some 'action shots'.

Some wood. Black and white wood.

Hopefully should be able to give you guys some more exciting news/photos in the coming days...

Some random pics

Here's a few random shots that I've had on my camera...
Nothing special, just some stuff that looks ok...

"Hiking" - An update.

What do you do when you're working/living in a ski resort and you have a day off? You participate in your winter sport of choice.
What do you do at Mount Snow when you have a day off?? You don't snowboard, because it's 15 degrees celsius and the recent rain has washed away all the snow.

So we went for a hike to Hamilton Falls, just off Route 100 near the sleepy little hamlet of Jamaica. (For real)

When I say hike, I mean drive for 40 minutes, then walk for 10....
Awesome waterfall though... Took heaps of photos... A selection of which are below:

This is me on a rock. You can't tell from this angle, but this outcrop is about 20 metres above the ground. Luckily I'm too tough to care. You can also see that I'm wearing shorts. Stupid weather for the middle of winter in a supposedly 'alpine region'.

The 'Legends of the Fall'. No, that's gay. It's just us... Clockwise, from back left: Pip, Dave, Jay-Cee, Lee, Bissell, myself and Ash.


Bissell standing at the bottom of the waterfall, this is only the bottom third of it or so...


Me sitting on the rock from the first photo. I'm all about the safety. Note the debris on my right shoe.... That's a result of a prank which involved me being told the only way across the river was to walk through it. Upon doing this, I was informed that there was a bridge 10 metres round the corner, which everyone subsequently crossed. Funny stuff. Pip's a bastard...

Well a few of the guys from our house have gone on a trip to Sunday River, apparently there's more snow there. I'm just hanging out at home, hoping that the weather will stay decent till Thursday at least so I can go riding on my days off... Hopefully should be able to get some good shots of us riding too which will be good...

Will keep you posted.

J