Not going to say much today. Just a token entry to let people know I’m still alive. Sorry - there’s some weird stuff going on at the moment, and I’m not up to being amusing, or anything else. So - that’s about it for now.
And - I’ll hopefully see some of you in New Zealand, and maybe Australia, soon.
So - that’s finally over. 2009, that is. And the whole 10 years of naming years with “Two thousand and …” - which was rather tiresome. Now - we can get back to being lazy. I actually read an article the other day about somebody being horrified by the possibility that people were going to continue calling 2010 “two thousand and ten”. Horrified. He was some official chap as well - and insisted that this was not correct - pointing out how every other year in history is pronounced, except the last ten. Despite, of course, that technically - it’s always been wrong, and it just took the ‘noughties’ to force us back into pronouncing a 4 digit number the way it should be. Oh - and I have heard some people all excited about the thought of what this decade is to be called. It’s obvious.
Wow - did I just write a paragraph on THAT? Okay - let’s get back to normal transmission. The last couple of weeks - well… you can probably guess how this goes. Just the same as every other time I’ve bothered to write - but multiplied by the ‘Festive Season’. Various sessions of ‘drinks’ leading up to the end of December. Then - the 25th. Nicky Osborne’s birthday. Jeebersmas. People kept asking me if I was going home for it. I had to point out that I didn’t even go home for MY birthday.
Anyway - on the 24th, did the fashionable thing and did some telephone/video calls with various people. Then - went to bed in the wee hours of the 25th. Woke up much much later. Put on the trusty jandals, and went a-wandering. I had been meaning to stock up on muffins and eggs the previous night - but had got waylaid. So - had to wander around Balham, trying to find muffins and eggs. Our local trusty 24-hour Tesco was closed. Not cool. BP - they sell nothing but death-deisel. Finally found a little dairy - and had to settle for hamburger buns instead of muffins. Worked remarkably well though. Had two courses of eggs florentine/royale. Did my laundry. And felt like I’d had a good day. But - then had to go meet Caitlin and her friends who had had a dinner party, and were now in the post-dinner phase. Which seemed to involve plenty of booze and what-not. Walked home at about 8am - ready for a nice Boxing Day nap.
Not to be, however, as I was awoken several hours later by flatmate Chris. Who had promised his mother that he’d bring me along to her place, so I could be part of some kind of family thing on Boxing Day. Which was nice, except I wasn’t really in a suitable state for such things. But - along I went. Snacked at some food, and had a couple of polite drinks. I really can be quite polite when I put my mind to it. And at about 3 or 4am, found my way to bunk beds - to complete the whole family-gathering type feel.
And then a week of work. Well - I had actually been working throughout the above - as I was on-call for the week covering the 25th. But for the week leading up to New Year’s - actually back in the office. Which, of course, felt great. And then… New Year’s Eve. I don’t think I need to go into too much detail about that. We prettied up our house for a party. I went to the local bottle store, and the nice chaps carted my purchases back to our house for me on one of those cargo-trolley things. And then we had dinner. And then we had a party. And then it was about 6pm the next evening - and there was myself and one girl sitting on the floor drinking, after somebody had foolishly suggested that one of us was more adept/determined at the consumption of alcohol than the other. I honestly don’t know how it started - but it seems that we are both rather stubborn fools, with high opinions of ourselves. And fair enough really - the evening ended with the swapping of mutual admiration - and an agreement to ‘call it a truce’ - which sounds suspiciously like a situation which could erupt again, now that I think about it. A ‘draw’ would have been a much better term. Oh well - too late now. Anyway - she headed back to see if her husband had changed the locks, while I stayed up to try and sooth the razorblades in my throat with Kahlua. I have pointed out before that if one drinks too much champagne, it feels like razorblades in one’s oesophagus. Well - on the evening of the 01/01/10 - I was definitely experiencing this. After two/three days of drinking nothing but Kahlua, and chomping down anti-heartburn medicine - it finally dissipated. But for a couple of days there - wow, everything hurt. Coughing, drinking anything, eating anything. Luckily, I didn’t really want to do many of those things very often.
But - all in all, a fairly good ‘festive season’. Not a ‘White Christmas’ strictly speaking - but there was a fair bit of snow just before, and just afterwards. Including now - still snowing now. I believe the ever lovable british media has coined the term “The Big Freeze”. I wandered over to look at the fountains in Trafalgar Square this morning - and yeah, they’re pretty good and frozen. And of course the media is complaining about airports being closed. “In cities like New York & Moscow they have much more snow than this, and THEY never close their airports!“ Coming from the same people who would be up in arms if they actually did something about it… “What do you mean - you spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on snow-clearing machinery, when it might only be used once or twice a year??!!“ I think I need to stop using talkback radio as my alarmclock station. It really doesn’t help one start the day with a smile. If anybody knows of a radio station without any ‘Wacky Breakfast DJ Team’, or preferably any talking at all - I would be very grateful.
New Year’s Resolutions - I didn’t seem to get around to actually confirming those. And it might be getting a little late now. But - in the theme of album titles:
And the New Month’s Resolution for January is Darts. And maybe Celebrity Big Brother. Darts - because it’s cool, and exciting - and some championship or other is on TV at the moment. And Celebrity Big Brother (CBB) - because I need to try and immerse myself in British culture - and what is British culture if not celebrities, reality television, and generally all things ‘tabloidish’. CBB - perfect.
Well, it seems winter is here again. Sitting in my office, next to an open window so that the server cooling unit can have it’s exhaust pipe hanging outside - and it is snowing. My main concern right now is that I remember the last time it snowed - and public transport just stopped. That was fine - because I was at home. (Well - at the pub, but close enough) But this time - I am at work. I am really hoping that the good old Transport For London keeps running long enough to get me home. Or the pub - close enough.
But anyway - I realised today that I hadn’t updated this for a while. The reason I remembered, was that I discovered last night that over the last one or two nights - Chook has been staying up all night, reading it. There is something vaguely disconcerting about the image of Chook sitting at his desk at 2am, reading through everything I’ve written over the last few years, while I am asleep in the very next room. I have a stalker, and he has a key to my house.
Other than that - I guess the last month or so has been a period of settling into the new house, new suburb. The nice man at the wine store has already started giving me ad-hoc discounts “because you are such a good regular”. I have discovered where to buy the best grapefruit juice (or - in French - pamplemousse. Such a good word… PAMPLEMOUSSE!). I can’t find any hollandaise sauce yet, or even dry mustard to make my own. But - am hopeful for my next search - gonna go to one of the bigger supermarkets, and then it will be eggs hollandaise, eggs florentine, eggs benedict for breakfast every weekend. Have been playing squash rather regularly. Soon, I will buy my own racquet - and a tracksuit, and will tell everybody that “I am a squash player”. Luckily, this will probably be next year - when my New Year’s Resolutions kick in - and one of those should prevent me from hating myself for saying that. Speaking of New Year’s - we are having a party. And you WILL come. And Resolutions - I am still in the process of finalising those, but I’m nearly there. The theme this year is ‘Album Titles’. Every resolution will be in the form of an album title.
As for my nemesis, the old binge drink - there hasn’t been too much of that recently.  Moving away from The Greyhound has been a huge help. Last Friday - I went to a gig (is that how the kids say it?), and then on to a surprise party Bibby had organised for Ang. Everybody there was really rather intoxicated. Martin bit my ear. Ang was needing plenty of assistance to stay upright. Bibby had given up on the whole upright thing. And there was madness aplenty.
And that’s about it. Over the next couple of weeks - I am working. Working on Jeebers’ birthday - to make sure that nobody tries to get me to work on New Year’s. Which you WILL be coming to. Balham. 31 December. Don’t forget.
It’s farewell Oval, and hello Balham. I have left my jacuzzi, monster kitchen, and local pub. I believe that the Oval was the longest time I’d lived in one place since, well, school. Kind of depressing. And made me realise that this job - actually, just the project I recently finished - is the longest I’ve been in one job since the Dairy Board/Fonterra.
Which makes my feet kinda itchy. Well - they were itchy anyway, both metaphorically and not. But now - well, I’m certainly casting my eyes about for some kind of escape route. And, my plan of North Korea is slowly being refined. Unfortunately - it’s also being postponed. The new plan is September 2010 - but now involves catching a train from one side of the world to the other. Have a look on a map - and check out the line from London to Beijing. The plan is now to do that. Twice. Well, nearly twice. London -> Moscow, via Mongolia, with a couple of stops on the way. A couple of weeks in North Korea - bowing to the almighty Kim Jung, and not taking photos unless given permission. And not being allowed cellphones, video cameras, or cameras with a lens over 150mm. No internet. No credit cards. And no going for a “walk around the block”. And then - train from North Korea back to London, via Siberia. Oh yeah - it’s been a long time since I had a plan as good as this. It does mean, however, that I need to do something in the short-term - so that I don’t go crazy. I have discovered that I have a disorder where I actually require international travel. Otherwise, I… ummm… die break-out-in-hives sulk get a little bit sad.
I think I’ll be making a trip to Aotearoa in January/February (should probably start looking into that) - but I’m not sure if that counts. I might have to stop off somewhere on the way, or on the way back - for a few days. Dubai doesn’t interest me too much, but if anybody’s got other opinions on it, or places nearby - I’m happy to hear suggestions, thoughts, etc.
In other news, I have started playing squash. I am a squash player. I play squash.
And - there’s a New Year’s Party at our place this year. Probably. For those who have experienced Opononi, Lake Taupo, Waikaremoana, Houseboats on Waitemata… this will be kinda like those. But in a house. In Balham. And cold instead of hot. And no barbeque. (hmmm… maybe no barbeque). But definitely no swimming. Which means no bombs/staples/bellyflops. But - it will still be good. So come. Airfares are cheap around that time of year - so all you people in NZ/Oz - no excuse. And yes, we have heaps of space for cricket and/or tents, in the snow. (Really).
Well - the project that I’ve been working on for the last 15 months or so is over. They are officially ‘live’ - and I have officially left. The key word in that is ‘officially’. In practice - there are still plenty of issues, plenty of those related to people, not technology. And - the company has paid for an extra 5 days of my time - to be used on an ad-hoc manner… so I’m expecting a phone call of “HELP!!!” fairly soon. But - in order that I had some small time of recovery before this - I cleverly misplaced my phone on the night of my leaving drinks. So - I was complete uncontactable over the weekend. I had completely forgotten how awesome it is to actually have a weekend off.
But - the weekend wasn’t nearly enough. Especially considering that the night before my leaving drinks, was Ben’s leaving drinks. So, as can be expected, there was some dinner and drinks. To the point where the owner/manager of the restaurant approached our table. Unfortunately, I was closest to him - so he started chatting to me. I thought he was a homeless guy asking for change or something. It took quite some time to realise that he was actually the manager, and he was offering to give us a bottle of something for free. He asked what I wanted, and I said something like “well… we’ve been drinking quite a range so far…” - in order to lead up to pointing out that we would love another bottle of champagne. Unfortunately, he broke in with “Yes - my daughter told me that, and I can see that. This is why I think you would appreciate something special, that you can’t get anywhere else.” And from there, it all went downhill as he brought us a bottle of sparkling vodka. I managed to refrain from having too much, as I had figured I’d had a little too much approximately 30 minutes previously. Luckily, as I and a few others went downstairs for a spot of air, Ben & Chook started racing each other - and the bottle was gone by the timewe returned.
Cue - very very drunk Ben & Chook very very soon. Luckily - being around people that are drunker than me somehow sobers me up. So - when Chook & Ben started annoying me with quick jabs to the guts while on an escalator - my trick of sunddenly jumping onto the aluminium centre piece and sliding down worked remarkably well. The delightful Transport For London people try to prevent people from doing this kind of thing - by having large bumps at regular intervals. Well - I somehow managed to jump the one I needed to, and then fairly gracefully hurdled back onto the ground at the bottom. Leaving Ben & Chook speechless. To be honest - I was rather speechless myself, as it really shouldn’t have worked as well as it did. It sets a dangerous precedent - as I know that one day I’ll try to replicate the feat, and this time hurt and/or embarass myself terribly.
But - it is now back to work. But work in the head office, which is usually incredibly boring. I don’t have to wear a suit, which is a bonus. But - very very little of my time is actually working for clients in a ‘billable’ sense - which means no more monthly bonus, which is terrible. Slightly easier to get to each morning, which is good. No fixed desk, so have to carry laptop and everything else to/from work - and can’t have breakfast supplies sitting at work, which isn’t good. Food around here is horribly expensive also. £1.25 for a cuppa tea at the closest breakfast/cafe joint. It was 50p at my local one during the project. £1.25!!! Converted to NZ$ - I remember when I used to pay that for a pint of beer.
But - soon I’ll be saving money, when I move in with Chook & Chris. Might even start cooking my own meals again. My local is going to be gutted. The new manager is already complaining about his weekly takings. I haven’t pointed out to him what fraction of that I have calculated is going to disappear fairly soon.
Oh - and no more trips to India! That is really quite good - but is probably another part of the project that I will kind of miss in a perverse way. I calculated it yesterday - I spent just over 2 months in total in that hotel in India. That is a decent portion of the year. I probably should have arranged one last trip over there - at the end of which I could have taken a month or two off, and gone travelling in the country properly. But - instead I’ll wait until next year, when I’ve got quite a plan in my mind for some travel. To be done in Jan/Feb/Mar, isn’t it Ben? When you’ll be busy working. Sucker.
So - the end of an era. No more project sucking up all of my time and energy. And, although everybody kept telling me during the last few months (both work people and real people) that it had been doing that, and that nobody could understand how I was doing it - I didn’t really think anything of it until after it actually ended. And - moving house, probably this weekend. Which should be resulting in quite a few lifestyle changes also. Cooking at home, instead of eating at the pub. Going straight home off the tube, instead of straight to the pub. (I really hope there isn’t a pub between new tube and new flat.) Having people in the flat to chat with, instead of the pub. Playing sport, instead of the jukebox at the pub. Etcetera. Etcetera.