Merry Christmas!

Hope you had as good a time as myself.
Headed up for Birmingham on Friday, catching the 2pm bus which got me into Digbeth at 5 or so, little did I know that here the shops all close at, um, 5 or so on Christmas Eve!!! So my last minute shopping was literaly that! Fortunately I'd got most of what I wanted, but it was annoying.
It also meant that Sainsbury's had closed, so I couldn't get any bulbs for Grandma or bread for me. Any way, Grandma was feeling a little poorly, and in fact that was a theme for my whole stay, which was terrible for her.
We watched a bit of TV before retiring to bed (I played Zelda until a stupid time in the morning) Got up late to a little bit of breakfast. We had organised to spend Christmas day with Jan, so she came and piced us up at 2 or so. We howed into our presents, to such abandon that Grandma forgot what presents came from whom, so it's going to be a little bit of a hassle thanking people...
Unfortunately the stuff from my parents didn't arrive in time, but that's all right, it gives me a reason to go back (I wish Grandma realised that one of the reasons I like mail to arrive at her place is to give me yet more rteasons to return to Brum...)
Jan cooked a traditional Christmas Lucnh, which was great, really yuymmy and all topped off by a great christmas pud (though that wasn't home made - who could be bothered!) We hung around watching some TV (Vicar of Dibbly was great, Ab FAb was it's now routine, mediocre self) while I tried to do the almost impossible puzzle that Khaled gave Adam and myself.
We returned home late, I played more Zelda, and slept in again :)
So on Boxing day we organised to go see 'Uncle' Martin; it took some persuading but we convinced Gran to come too (she was feeling poorly this entire visit). He was in a great mood, had stayed behind at Christmas to keep the nurses company as the rest of the compus residents went off with families. He played organ at the service which was great for him, and he's started dong things like painting; basically he's doing as much as posible to keep from being bored. I suspect I'll be like him at his age.
Came home and drapped grandma off 'cos she was tired (made her dinner) and I went and played guitar with Adam and watched some TV with Jan and Khaled.
Modnay was a little more relaxed; we just went for a little shop (I got myself a great designer shirt with money from Grandma, and a Gamecube game called 'eternal darkness' that looks fantastic; read a review of it 1.5 years after release, why would you write a review that long after unless it was good?)
I decided to go home and keep grandma compnay unlike Sunday night, so we both watched a bit of TV. First show was this quite good thing where this RSC actor goes back to his hole of a suburb to try and put on a R&J in a West End theatre with actors from the local area; also he'd never directed before! Quite good, though it didn't need Baz Luhrman butting in all the time, that felt like a real gimick
Then we watced an end of year pub style quiz show, with 'funny' people, but it was ALL toilet humour. Actually, it was all bedroom humour.
Finally yesterday and all we had planned was Panto at 7. I got some bread in the morning (I always eat a lot), played dominoes with Gran (Oh, I'd been trying to do crosswords too, asking her the clues as well). Bacon and Eggs for Lunch (for some reason there was a dozen eggs and 12 rashers of bacon in the fridge, all gettin gready to go off) and then to Jans for a light, pre-panto supper.
Off to the panto and that was great fun, Jack in The Beanstalk with the winner from 'I'm a Celebrity, get me out of here' playing Jack. It was just as I'd imagined it, lots of fun! Maybe a bit louder than I'd thought...
Finally I head back to London. Unfortunately the ticket I had required that I get on the exact bus I was booked on , so I had to wait some 1.75 hours to get on my bus :( That was alright though, because I just played gameboy and went and got some food.
Finsihed a book on the bus, then walked from Victoria Station home (50 minutes, not too far at all). Got home feeling a little crook, then woke at 4 and had to have a feverish lie by the toilet bowl - finally had a rather unpleasant reaction to the food I'd bought before the bus (I'm guessing) which made me appreciate my Grandmother's discomfort.
That's about it! I've got today off, and tomorrow and the day after, back next Tuesday

Relaxing Sunday, or not

So, after going out and spending lots of money on Friday and Saturday what was Tiest, mr tight arse, going to do on Sunday? Spend more!
I headed off at 12 to go climbing at 2, because I thought I'd buy some pants to climb in from a shop I'd seen in Notting Hill. They have all kinds of 'military' stuff, some stuff I object to strongly, but also some good stuff like Sex Pistols and Rage and so on.Anyhoo, they had a good pair of black army cargos, for 'only' £20 so I got them (Jo has assured me that the $'s = £'s rule is most consistent when it comes to clothes, so £20 seems OK)
Unfortunately right next door to this shop is the spawn of satan shop, which drew me in to it's dastardly depths. With items such as Astroboy key rings and action figures, and any number of other collectables it was impossible for me to leave without spending in excess of £50... not _all_ on myself.
Rushed off to a good climbing (bouldering really) session with Tam, met his Aussie friend (other aussie frined I guess) 'Rhys' who he met while climbing in Thailand. Drank my litre of milk and returned to the city to see Napoleon Dynamite (see other blog). It was 1.5 hours before the movie started so I wandered around and got a present for someone.
Bought stuff for dinner, made dinner, and worked out I'd spent in the order of 117 pounds in one day, about 5 days budget.... oh well, Astro is worth it

Saturday

Didn't feel too bad on Saturday; I played Astroboy until 12 when I realised I needed to head off to catch up with Jo to see La Dolce Vita . We rushed off to get our tickets to find it was sold out, but some people didn't turn up so we got in. I;ve found that I'm no good at B&W films on Saturday afternoons, but see my review on my otgher Blog to find out more....
We then had a look at book stalls set up outside the National Film Insstitute. BTW the NFI has a great program of films on all the time, next month I am going to see The Godfather for the first time, in the cinema too!
We then ended up going to dinner and talked and ate for 3 (or 4) hours. I headed home, and so did Jo, though maybe she met up with Lucy at a pub in Notting Hill.

Christmas Party at My Work

Friday was the dreaded BMC christmas party. It officially started at 5:30, but I had to nip home to drop off my stuff (washing baskets and horses that I'd purchased) so didn't meet up with Jo until 6:30 and didn't get to the party until 6:40. By that time a lot of people were already pissed, and the food was cold. I introduced Jo to my work colleagues who were sittin gin the corner very ITish not interacting with the rest of the group, then I headed off to mingle (I invited Jo to come but she declined)
I managed to down 4 smirnof ices (a lot for me) before the bar tab ran out, and caught up with Matt and Adam (editorial) and had a dance with Jenny before Tam and Alastair and John and Liam and Monica and Jo decided to head over to another bar (the bar tab having run out...)
Se we nipped across the road, after John stole the two 'Shaggy' life size cardboard cutouts, and proceeded to have a good time in there. Admitedly the Shaggies didn't talk much, but they did hold onto our coats, so I couldn't complain :) Matt also came across and we all chatted away.
Jo seemed to get on with them all pretty well which was good. I tried offering to introduce her to other people and suggest other things we could do, but she didn't seem too perturbed, so we just kept on keeping on.
Eventually we decided to head back to the party for a dance, and emerged from the pub just as the party finished! Tam et al headed off to get fish and chips (I found out this morning) while Jo and I went for a dance in a little nightclub near Bond Street station. Nice little place, and fun dancing until 1am when they got a HipHop DJ in and we left around 1:30, catching a bus home.
All in all a good night, and not as expensive as Sunday....

LaiBach and relax

On Thursday Matt Day asked me to go see LaiBach with him and Jenny. After umming and Aaaahing I thought, what the hell, I've never heard of them, but I'll go along anyway.
LaiBach are an Austrian band, and very much a predecesor to Ramstein and hte like. They use Fascist imagery to reinforce their gay icon song covers; all very weird. The most dissapointing thing is that the lead siunger has NO CHARISMA at all. Just none. Which makes a live performance (repleat with fancy lights, smoke and film projector) not very interesting at all. About 1/3 of the way in two girls came on stage and started dancing/drumming/singing, which made things a little more interesting :) but not a lot.
The most amazing thing about the performance was the technical accuracy; the whole thing was sequenced, in time with the film projector, and so the performers (including the dancing/singing/drumming girls) had to be in time with the computer for the whole 1.5 hour set. I guess most bands are like this, but for some reason the mechanical nature of their music made this more impressive (the encore ended up a farce, as it started when the film started, not when the thundering (!) applause coaxed them out).

Dinner at the Savoy

Well it's christmas time again, so everyone is having their christmas parties, including Macquarie bank that Jo works for. They had their party on Monday night at the Savoy, black tie affair. Jo was generous enough to invite me along, which was very much appreciated.
I went through a lot of rigmarole to find a suit. I didn't really want to wear my double breasted one because I felt that it was a little 'old', though it turns out it would have been fine. So I borrowed one from one of the guys at work, and found the legs way to long (which is pretty surprising, I'm not exactly short myself). I ended up hiring the suit from a place my aunt (who is a costume designer) suggested near leciester square.
The shirt they offered me was brand new, in a plastic sleeve, so I had to rush home to iron it before heading to the Savoy. When I got home I discovered there was no ironing board (thjank goodness there was an iron!) so I had to iron the shirt on the floor, which was not very easy at all.
I ended up almost running to the tube, and if I hadn't gotten totally lost trying to find the Savoy from Charing Cross station (I know, it's not that hard, but I managed it!) I would have probably walked in with a few minutes to spare. As it was I got there right on time, only to discover that the Savoy isn't very well signposted itself and I spent more time trying to find my way around it than I did on the streets of London.
I eventually made it in and found Jo talking with the head of the currency team; Jo is in risk analysis. We headed up for dinner which was OK but nothing grand. I think they were trying to be Aussie or something because it was all prawns and beef and stuff, and all the same, which was a little difficult for the muslim guy next to me (mo') what with the pork and all.
Some guy Jo didn't know (should I say that? :) made a speach about how well the year went, and particularly congratulated the currency team (which is why I mentioned the chat above) and also tipped his hat to the understanding partners. It turns out that MB paid in the order of £200 a head for this event, but given how hard their employees work, I think they deserve it. I don't know if it was just 'sibling rivalry' but there was a quip as some point in the night about someone who'd defected to NAB for slightly more money and they were bored because they didn't ahve any work to do! (sounds familiar...)
Anyway, after dinner we headed down (oh, Jo and I were seated with the rest of Risk, and an obnoxious accountant who, by mere association, made me appear obnoxious and sexist!) to the dance floor and danced the night away.
Downstairs there were free vodka or rum(?) mixs in addition to the wine that had been available all night. All through dinner the wine glasses were being kept topped up, so by the time I started on the vodka I was about as pissed as I've been in some 10 years. By the time the night had ended and Jo and I were taxiing home I was far more drunk than I've been in 10 years!
Got home, collapsed, fell asleep, hopefully didn't make too much noise, and forgot to have any water. Woke up at 7, as per normal, but went back to sleep till 8 when my alarm was set for.
Got up, went through the motions and then determined that I was feeling very ill and not alittle drunk still. Oh well, I was already on my way to work, via the suit place, I might as well keep going.
All I can really remember about the tube trip to Leciester square was sitting down at the stop before picadilly (on the bakerloo line) thinking 'Can I make it one more stop?' Surely I could... and fortunately did, but I think the other people in the train were keeping well away :)
I got off, sat down for a while, and then returned the suit. By the time I got back to work I was feeling sober, but still hung over, and started at it. By mid afternoon I was feeling ok and discovered, to my surprise, that I'd actually acheived quite a bit of usefull work!
Then that night (Tuesday) after a huge monday, and little sleep, and being nuasiated in the morning, I went climbing with Tam and did very well. I even had my first lead fall ever on the last climb we did, which is important from a confidence point of view (not that I can't climb, but that I can fall and not die...) I only ended up with rope burn and a swollen, damaged shin with no bruise (come on! How could that possibly not result in a bruise! It's huge and hurts lots, surely that's enough grounds for a bruise. But no, just a swelling)
Well I think that's it, I've caught up with what I've been doing. Now just a few posts about books and so on on my other blog and I'll have caught up on everything!

Motorbike Going, going, gone

On saturday (before watching Street Car and before going to Adam's) I finally sold my bike. I had sold it officially on eBay 2 weeks before, but this was the point where I actually handed the thing over for cash.
I had to ride it up from London the night before, managing to leave at about 3pm so I could make it up in time for Oliver at 7, which meant I had sunlight for the first hour of the ride. That didn't stop it from being hideously cold though. I had to stop at Oxford to jump up and down to get myself warm again!
Anyway, I made it in one piece, lubricated the chain and put it away. In the morning I gave it a good wipe down. Because I had cut and polished the black bits when I was at Keith and Anne's those came up a treat, and I gave the wheels a bit of a wipe down too.
Yvonne turned up at 12 noon, an hour after I expected her, and we got right down to chatting away. I told her all the good things, and the bad (slow leak in the back tyre). We swapped and she left (actually her hubby rode the bike and she drove home because she'd come off her other bike and twisted her ankle! She better treat my baby well...)
I was surprised, as they left, at how attached I'd grown to that bike. It had served me well, and the only places where I was let down was largely my own doing (not lubricating the chain, not buying panniers for traveling, not having enough money to get less restrictive insurance).
I am hoping, with the money I got for it, that I might be able to save £1000 this month, even with Christmas and paying bond on the flat.

Street Car Named Desire and Notting Hill

Saturday I sat down and watched some films on TV with Grandma. Well, she slept through them and I watched :)
The first was A Street Car Named Desire. This film made me want to see the play, because I could tell how powerful it is and well written, but I just didn't connect with the characters, and I blame the little TV screen I was watching. Why am I just not impressed with Marlon Brando? I have not been blown away be any of the his work I've seen (only 3 - Apocalypse Now, Streetcar and the Third Man). Maybe it's an alpha male thing, or maybe I'll change my mind when I see the Godfather.
When this film finished grandma disappeared while I made dinner. It wasn't until I'd almost finished that I worked out she had gone to bed!! Because we had been watching a film (streecar) she had thought it was late. So I got her out and we had dinner. This was the only funny thing she did all weekend, and she was in quite high spirits.
Then I watched the film Notting Hill, another Hugh Grant romatntic comedy. I watched it for two reasons a) I live near Notting Hill and b) I enjoyed Bridget Jones the other weekend so much that I was looking for similar enjoyment.
And I did. It's a pretty darn good film, and Julia Roberts performed the only role that I have actually liked of hers. The one thing I'd like to know is, how come people kiss Hugh with little prompting? I mean, being the timid, nervous little man that I am, I find it very hard to know if a girl is expecting me to kiss them, so it would really help if they just did it, and then if they don't I know that it wasn't meant to be. And how is the girl supposed to be any better informed than I am about the situation, I hear you ask. Easy - I'm pretty darn transparent when it comes to these things AND girls are supposed to be better at it anyway.

Oliver

Last friday I went to 'Oliver' at Adam (my cousin) 's school. Drawing on a talent pool of 140, they pulled off a really good production. The older participants (Adam included) all did a great job and looked about 5 years older when surrounded by the hundreds of little 10 years olds in the chorous.
Apparently the boy who played Oliver was a last minute ring-in as the original couldn't do it for some reason; this was a little bit of a let down as he was probably the weakest actor. I know that when my sister was involved in Oliver they used a girl for the role, which is quite feasible at that age...
Then on saturday (yes I was staying with Grandma) I popped around and we played some tunes on his baby guitar (litterally, he got it when he was 3 or something, very hard to play with big fingers!), and he showed me a little video of a band he was in doing (largely) Weird Al cover covers. They were really good, all in time and so on, which is something I am very jealous of - I've never really been good at the whole 'many people playing at the same time' thing.

Not really on holiday anymore...

We had our Christmas lunch yesterday, which was good because I got to meet and talk with some people from the team that I hadn't really met. Had a good chat with Mat, the boss, too. Before that we'd only really talked work.
We went to an 'Indian' restaurant which seemed to only sell the most popular western/indian curries (except vindaloo) - it all tasted Ok but I wouldn't rave. I had two glasses of wine, which wasn't necessarily a great idea, especially since I came back and worked until 6:30.
I organised with Alistair (technical lead) to borrow his suit for next Mondays soire at the Savoy - christmas party at Jo's work. And the Friday after is Biomed Centrals at some student building just near work, which I am taking Jo along too - should be a bit of a contrast...

Sold the Car!

Waaaaa :(
Brendon has managed to sell my Dune Buggy (Beach Buggy, whatever) for a reasonable price. Just like my bike here, it's the best thing to do, but not the most enjoyable. I'll miss it, that's for sure.
I'll just have to save some money for when I decide on which country to live in, and get another one.
It's surprising how effected I am, sitting here writing 'goodbye' to Li'l. (which was short for Little monster). Her epitaph reads

"Always an Adventure!"

Bigish Weekend

Well, you know I went to How to Lost Friends and Alienate People on Friday. I slept that night at my new flat, and finally met Leo my other flatmate. In the morning I discovered that I have to wait 24 hours, not just overnight, before I can withdraw more money from my bank account, so I bought a microwave on my credit card, and got some food for the kitchen.
Then I saw the Incredibles, which was, before heading off to Keith and Annes. While there I watched a bit of TV before heading off to see Myth, Propaganda and Disaster in Nazi Germany and Contemporary America that night (see my other blog for reviews), returned to Keith and Anne's for a final night. Sunday I hung around, chatted with them, had lunch and caught the 4pm train 'home' (after quick marching Anne to the train station, which tired her out quite a bit - still missed the train by 20 seconds though :(
Slept in my new flat last night, paid the balance of my rent/bond and came into work this morning. All in all a pretty good weekend (certainly better than poor old Jo who spent her first weekend in London for about 8 weeks, and managed to get food poisoning! Hope you're better)

How to Lose Friends and Alienate People

With my new found wealth I thought I#d finally see some theatre in this wonderful city of London. So I booked myself in to this play, and 'Myth, Propaganda.....' and Aussie play I am going to see tonight.
HtLFaAP is a one person, 70 minute, comedy about an english man who (however unlikely) gets a job with Vanity Fair as a journalist. He proceeds to totally stuff it up, finds himself fired, and no longer able to sneek into parties.
It was a reasonably funny play with some genuinly funny moments. The actor was a little tired; more of the material than physically I felt. And that was probably the worst aspect of the production, he was going through the motions, not committing to the emotional high points, and not committing energywise to the physical high points either.
Still, I enjoyed myself, and was happy with this introduction to the west end.

Finding a flat and getting paid

Yay! I got paid on Tuesday, so I immediately went looking for somewhere to stay, somewhere closer to town. I have had a great time staying with Keith and Anne, but the 1.5 hour commute both ways was starting to get to me. 3hrs + at least 9 hours at work... makes for a lot of work related activity.
So I lined up three interviews, two in Camden and one in Bayswater. The first Camden one was on Tuesday night, and it went alright, but I don't think I was enough of a party animal to impress the two girls I met.
On the wednesday I got a call from a second Bayswater place and slipped it in between the second Camden place and the first Bayswater - this was a place i had been persuing for a couple of weeks with no luck and was by far the cheapest of the lot.
So I went to Camden, and no one was there! Shortly after, one of the guys turned up, but he was the guy who was leaving, and had already handed in his key. So we both stood outside chatting for half an hour before I had to leave for the cheap Bayswater place.
I got to the cheap Bayswater place, which is located 3 mins from Paddington station and 5 mins from Lancaster gate and Bayswater stations, and received a call from the Camden guys, just as I was approaching, to say sorry and organise another interview on Sunday.
Anyway, I went up to the cheap place and met Liina and was immediately impressed. Very clean, not to small. It was cheap because they'd sacrificed the lounge for a third bedroom - so the rent was 1/3 instead of 1/2. Good size bathroom, smallish kitchen but overall really nice.
Liina and I got on quite well and she virtually offered me the spot there and then, so I was very excited when I made it to the fourth and final place, about 15 minutes away near Queensway.
This place was way more expensive, but not any bigger. I met the person who was leaving, but not the person I would be living with, and was put off a bit by the person I met because of his smoking; but then I wouldn't be living with him, would i?
Anyway, I went out to dinner with Jo after all this and in the middle of that got a call from Liina offering me the place. So I woohooed for a bit before making my way home.
Went over on Thursday night and paid some deposit, then stayed there last night having taken about half my stuff (my clothes) from Keith and Annes.
I am off today to see a movie, then go to Keith and Annes to stay the night and thank them for letting me stay, then back tomorrow hopefully with all the remainder of my stuff.

National Insurance Number

LAst friday, over a week ago now, I had my National Insurance Number interview. The NIN is the equivalent of the Aussie Tax File Number, though their excuse is that it's for the national health scheme, and just happens to be used to track tax as well....
Anyway, I was quite nervous, and got there very early so had to wait a while, but it all went alright, really nice guy. It was all done through some really thick glass - I guess they've had trouble in the past. So I should be getting my number in January some time.

Par-tay

(transfered from my other blog....from last weekend)

Last night I went to one of my work colleague's Thanksgiving dinner. Matt and his partner Jenny (Jenny is the American) put on a magnificant meal resplendent with all things Thanksgiving.
I therefore met a lot of Matt and Jenny's friends, many of whom are from BioMed and many of whom weren't. The people I met are

• David - a performer who makes his living money doing stuff in museums
  
• Sharon - a researcher for our immunology journal
• Anna - a researcher for some other journal :)
• Stefan - a german Biomed central guy
• Stephan - a writer for New Scientist!
• Michaela - a german woman who works at Biomed Central
• Pritpal- a very witty Biomed central guy who had most of the party in the palm of his hand - actually he was the first person I met on the first day I was at BMC, as the receptionist was off somewhere. Because everyone seemed to know him, his name was not mentioned often, so I have no idea what it is.
• ????? - another doctor, though not from BMC, who I had a final wind-down chat with. We all talked about Jazz and interfaces/edges before rushing off for trains.

Actually, I didn't rush for the tube, because I rode there on my bike. The bike that is selling tonight at 11pm, I know this because there is now a bid on it, though only at the 'reserve' which is a little dissapointing, we'll see.
It was a good ride, and made me not want to sell the bike, but then it pissed down today which reminded me of why I am. Today (after getting back at 2:30 last night) I went indoor climbing with Tam, and then we went to Camden for lunch with his girl Karen. Had a great time. I am really startign to like the people I know; Tam, Alistair, Matt and all his friends. They are all good people.
I get paid on Tuesday!

Waiting to transfer across Sunday night's blog

Which accidently made it onto my other blog... which is currently broken?
Anyhoo, a few little things since then:

• I walked into a computer game shop and they had an Astroboy game!!! who cares that I don't have a Gameboy to play it on
• I got paid!! which lead to...
• had an 'interview' for a flatshare which seemed to go alright. Nice flat (a little small, but it is london) with a great kitchen and lounge.