Thursday 29 September 2011

Bonuses and World Bar


Yesterday was a good day, which means today will have to be a bad day, so sayeth the theory of ‘good day, bad day’
GD/BD...? Good name for a band.
  What happened yesterday that made it so good? I’ll tell you, but first some music...

AWESOME HAS A SOUNDTRACK!
I had a straight forward day, drove to South Hurstville to unload a few desks and bookcases, then we dropped off some old desks at the guy who works at the office’s house. At this point I already knew I was getting a bonus prize for working but when I saw the guy’s house I realised that said bonus probably didn’t affect his bank balance too much as his house was amazing. Lots of glass, space and a view of a body of water that I know not the name of. The bonus was, of course, 14 bottles of beer!
I was feeling pretty happy so I treated myself to some crocodile sausages in the cafe and then proceeded to kick some arse in ‘goon pong’ (like beer pong, except the beer has been replaced by poison grape juice) and then out to World Bar with Matteo (from Sardinia), Matt (from Somerset) and Michelle (from London).
So that was a good day, today I have avoided going outside for fear of having a bad day. That’s not strictly true as I did go to get some stuff from Woolworths, which as the theory would suggest, wasn’t such a good plan. Being hungry, hungover and tired I just threw on some flip flops, jeans and a t-shirt and wondered outside to an overcast sky. I signed a petition for Amnesty International (something about Malaysian boats) and bought the stuff I needed. I was not two steps away from Woolworths when the heavens opened and gave me a good soaking, so I got back to the hostel dripping wet and vowed to stay indoors today.
Ten minutes later the clouds cleared and the sun came out, but I could see right through fate’s lies as it plotted to ruin my day, so inside I remained watching videos.

Monday 26 September 2011

Bye Bye Belgians, HellOMG IT'S A BLOODY DINOSAUR!

Sometime last week the lovely Belgian girls moved on to continue their own adventure, they did leave a nice note for me and Matteo which was nice of them. They were replaced by an Irish guy and Amanda (the German karaoke queen) who then got moved (screwed over slightly) by the hostel and replaced by 3 German dudes! All very interesting, but what have I been up to (I hear you ask)...

Working! In case you couldn't already guess. I have been trying quite hard to save up for a car so going out has been something I have shied away from, which is difficult when you have a few days off in the week. I did nothing of interest on Thursday, I just walked about, not spending money, took a few photos of things (Mostly blue skies and bridges) and that's about it.



The weekend came and went, England kicked all sorts of arse in the rugby and I did a few hours work. Monday (today) rolled around quickly and I thought I was working today in the morning, which would have been good, instead I am now working at 7PM. But like the old saying goes, 'When life gives you lemons...
HOLY SHIT DINOSAURS!
 I saw the sign and went back into childhood mode, where dinosaurs were still awesome. Sadly one childhood image was changed forever...
...This is a velociraptor? It looks like a were-chicken doing the can-can!
The museum did have some really cool stuff though, like bones in awesome poses...
Straight up awesome!
Here's a guy waiting for my next blog post (it's been a while)

I can now say I have finally seen a real kangaroo
SHIT YEAH, DINOSAURS! 
Teeth surprisingly clean for a giant extinct lizard

Soon to be an ex-parrot (although I think this one has already gone to meet its maker...

...Much like the poor Tazmanian tiger)

No more food for the Koala, he's stuffed!
 I met Zoe at the Rocks, had a coffee, didn't go to the Museum of Contemporary Art (as it was closed for redevelopment) saw a rabbit that was attracting a lot of attention, I kept my distance as I have seen 'Holy Grail' and I know rabbits are
Pure...
...Evil! Just look at it! 
 Zoe and I also saw an ongoing art exhibition by Michael Landy called 'Acts of Kindness'. Basically there are 200 of these puzzle pieces dotted around the CBD and a collection of them in Martin Place.
Each has a little story about an 'act of kindness'

and here is the complete article in Martin Place.
All very nice. Zoe and I then had a cheeky coffee at Darling Harbour after stopping by Coles, I then received the call to work at 7PM and that's you guys up to date.
Right, I'm off to earn some dollars, have fun wherever you are.

Wednesday 21 September 2011

Brazilians, Rugby, Karaoke and Belgians


Sunday, after a few hours at work, Matteo and I went to meet Zoe at Darling Harbour to see some Brazilian festival and maybe watch a bit of rugby. The Brazilian thing was ok, a bunch of food stalls at one end of the area with a stage at the other end, not my sort of thing really, all that samba and odd looking mascots isn't my bag, baby.
Seriously, this has something to do with meat.

So we had a bite to eat at Pontoon and wandered around towards some big screens that were showing the England match, but we stopped off to watch some muscular men do muscular things (no homo)
And then we watched the first half of more muscular men doing muscular things before going to Helm (not a gay bar) to watch the second half in which England prevailed, but not before knocking some Georgian guy out and worrying everybody who was watching.



Work on Monday was probably the easiest day ever and... that’s about all that happened.

Tuesday was a day off! Hooray! I met Zoe on Manly beach and we were shortly joined by Jena and then Matteo, but they were not the only people I met there. I should probably mention I had a day off, I already did? OK, but some people didn’t, namely John and Phillip, now can you guess who happened to be working near Manly and sitting by the beach as I walked passed... No, not Dame Edna! It was John and Phillip! Before bumping into those guys I also bumped into Sebastian from work at the ferry terminal, which was kind of weird.
The beach was very windy, which was a problem, and a bit cloudy, so much like the beaches at home and like the beaches at home we stayed there regardless. The four of us went for a meal at the Ivanhoe as we watched in awe as Italy took Russia by the scruff of the neck and booted their arse out of the stadium.

We got the ferry back to Circular Quay, went our separate ways and that was it for the evening.
Or so we thought, as Matteo and I walked into the 311 we were greeted by our three Belgian lady roommates who informed us that they would like to go to World Bar. As we are gentlemen and all round nice guys we decided to accompany our roommates as we were well versed in the Tuesday night happenings in Kings Cross. First up, free drinks in Trademark, in which I met two more people from work (Gary and Tom, which means in my day off I met over half of the people I work with) then onto World Bar, where the Elephant Backpackers were in attendance and showing the Cross how we roll in Woolloomooloo.
Coolest kids in the building




The Belgian girls went back to Trademark with Matteo, I stayed as I promised a certain liebling that I would take to the stage with her. Now I’m not saying we were the best of the night, but when Amanda and I sang ‘Come Together’ (Amanda’s choice) we were awesome and when a few of us sang ‘Wild Thing’ (Amanda’s choice) we were straight up steak sauce!
I think the t-shirt helped
The karaoke stopped but we didn't, Matteo and the girls had since returned and as 2am crept around the corner the numbers dwindled and we walked back to the hostel. Today I have so far been to Coles, written a blog post and I am currently considering sitting in the botanic garden and reading a book in the glorious sunshine!

Saturday 17 September 2011

Trying to Save Money Makes For A Boring Blog Post

After working for a lot of hours this past week I have learned the unfortunate news that there is very little work next week, which means I will unfortunately be on the beach trying to not spend any money for most of Monday through to Thursday. On a lighter note I went out Wednesday with Matteo, we had a really nice Chinese at the 9 Dragons in China Town and a 'lucky beer' before meeting a few German lasses at Side Bar for more beers (not as lucky) and some live music.
Luckily I know not to go down in China Town.
But there is always a moment when you have to ask yourself a question...
...'Do I feel lucky?'
Naturally we were tired the next day (Thursday) but dollars is what I need if I'm going to try and get a car in January! Friday was quite a good day, I had to drive for a total of 5 hours going from the CBD to somewhere near Sylvania, then aaaaaaaall the way up to somewhere near the Blue Mountains. Today was a gruelling shift of lifting heavy boxes up stairs in Rose Bay, but that kind of thing doesn't bother the Office Movers (much)!
Sorry about the lack of content in this post, I'm sure the next one will kick all sorts of arse! Now I'm off to eat some pasta, not spend any money and watch some rugby. Stay classy planet Earth (look out for falling satellites)


Sunday 11 September 2011

I Looked To The Sky, And What Did I See...?

...England losing to a bunch of pansy Argentines who can’t even take a boot to the head without bleeding like ‘aunt flow’. The mood of Cheers (yes ‘Cheers’) was a tense one for most of England’s opening match and it didn’t help having most of the place cheering on the Argies (Argentines have accents just like an Australian’s, FACT!) but it wasn’t long before ‘Swing Low’ was ringing in the ears of everyone courtesy of some very happy Englishmen (this one included).
Probably
Matteo and I had some pub food (I went for the schnitzel as it was a word everybody was saying whenever Wilkinson took a kick) 
Maybe just the first syllable.
then we were off to a house (20th floor apartment) party, at which I met some students and was transported back to my uni days, courtesy of a French girl and her taste in 90’s BritPop and Queen. 
Her name wasn't Deborah, Deborah (because it wouldn't suit her) and it is now impossible to meet up in the year 2000.
The usual drinking, dancing, singing and being told by a Korean girl that I'm lucky I can speak English (which is true, considering I have had to live in England all my life) happened and then we went home a few drunken hours later.

Today I sat beside an Italian as Australia decided to play very well for the last 40 minutes of a rugby match and I didn't do much else, probably because I didn’t get enough sleep, but I’m not sure as I wasn’t wearing a watch last night. Work tomorrow morning so no late night parties tonight, also, there is a girl in the 311 who happens to be from Coggleshall, small world, yadda yadda.

Friday 9 September 2011

The Three Amigos Are No More...

Alex has left the building (and the country, although he did fall out of a plane at 14,000ft yesterday so he could have been a permanent feature as a splat mark on the ground) so now Matteo and I are without our third Amigo and although Alex should be back in December, Matteo will be back in Italy by then. So last night we had a beer fuelled hoe-down to send off the greatest three piece to happen to the world since Feeder (before the drummer killed himself),
Echo Park was a bloody brilliant album
We went with Aissata, Sara, a Swedish guy called Jimmy and a girl from Mauritius to that bar with the stuffed animals (which is called Shady Pines) then Jimmy (being a blonde Swedish guy) got talking to some girls (Who have a friend in Sweden and one of whom had seen 'The Only Way is Essex' and thought it was good, which is like telling somebody your IQ is lower than that of a dead pigeon) and we went to some other place with no sign above the door on Oxford Street (purely on the recommendation these girls gave us, which is a scary prospect as you never know what is behind the doors on Oxford Street... It's just so gay around there). Apparently it was called Ching Ling’s, or Jing Wings, or Cream of Sum Yung Gy, or Chicken Skins, anyway it was a tiny little place upstairs above some proper bars (probably gay bars), was so small the DJ’s decks were behind the bar and those decks were spinning old hip-hop songs until 1AM when it was time to move on to Flinders (as it was open until 6). One of the girls the Swede met had ridiculous shoes and kept complaining about how painful they were, so we ignored her after we got into the place, nobody likes a whiny chick.
"Waa waa waa, my feet hurt, Boo hoo, I'm such an mug for buying shoes purely on the basis that they looked good on me in my mind and now there is blood all over the inner soles, woe is me" - Women
One of the girls took a liking to young master Alex, which was pretty awesome, I had enough beer to not remember getting back to the hostel so I assume it was a decent way to see off what has been the greatest trio of manly men from different nationalities since... ever! The Three Amigos were always steak sauce and will always be awesome!
Hey! Alex! Leaves those blondes alone!
100% Steak Sauce...
...300% Amigos!
Of course other things have happened during the past few days that were far less important, like $10 meals, more hours at work, $900 added to my bank account, blah, blah and blah, but a real highlight was having a pear flavoured cocktail at Manly (before a $15 steak diane) and getting lots of free stuff from a faceless corporation (because they were throwing away $70 laptop bags and 1 kilo bags of coffee beans (I took two of them) and some jasmine tea and an Australia scarf and some instant coffee and a rucksack), so thank you Macquarie Goodman for that, also thanks to Alex for the good times and I’ll see you in December you testa di cazzo!
Now I'm off to K Mart to buy a coffee grinder and a tea strainer and maybe a drink that looks pretty.
Fortunately this one tasted prettier than it looked.

Monday 5 September 2011

Dylan Moran Yeah Yeah (Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah)


Most people say the best way to start a speech is with a joke, but this isn't a speech it’s a blog post and I have already made a joke but only two people will have gotten it so here’s the first thing that made me laugh last night at the Opera House...
The risk of ordering over the phone is a great one.
I’ll go on about the Opera House later in this post, for now I will go on about last week.
Last week I was working, which means this week I can start saving some money to continue travelling around Aussieland. After work each day I and the other amigos went for $10 meals at various places as cooking is something that is more of a chore when you are tired and the moment you come in from work everybody (including Brian) is in the kitchen waiting to use the limited amount of equipment just to make some pasta.
(You must be French to get this joke)
Working as a removalist is pretty straight forward most of the time, pick that up, put it on a truck, take it to another place, rinse, repeat. A nice bonus is that I can drive the trucks, so I get paid a few peanuts more than I would if I didn't drive for the removalators. Driving the removaliser trucks has reminded me how much I love driving so I have decided to look at buying/renting a car and making my own way south in the summer, but that’s something to think about later as right now it’s all about working lots and making pots (of money).
I'm a poet, and I totally know it!
The past weekend was an interesting one, the Saturday night was spent in 3 very different places with 3 Frenchies and an Italian. First up was a bar with no name, tucked in an alleyway off of Crown Street with no windows or signs to distinguish it from any other building. After entering, it is clear the ‘sign budget’ was spent on more important things...
...like taxidermy

At least I managed to pull a fox!
After a few Bundy and cokes we toddled off to a place called 'Low' where we pulled silly faces and I explained to Alex the meaning of the phrase ‘ he who dares wins’, all very inspirational, even if I did keep saying it in the style of Del Boy.
Mange Tout!


Last on the agenda was Flinder’s Hotel, it wasn’t that good as the music would go from brilliant rock classics to awful songs by Usher and the like, resulting in a mire of confusion on the dance floor as the rock fans shifted awkwardly around the people who were standing still waiting for a good song to be played. 4 O’Clock loomed and we went back to the hostel as 22 hours is a long time to be awake in one go.

Sunday, I did nothing until the sun went down, went to the rooftop for the first time since staying at the Elephant, ate a pizza and then went to the Opera House to see Dylan Moran.
View from the rooftop
Opera House
Dylan Moran
It is an odd thing to see a comedian who usually talks about things you can relate to but because of the circumstances you relate to the comedian rather than the jokes, at least that’s how I felt for the first 10 minutes when Moran spoke about Australia in the same way I did a couple of months ago (The politicians are really odd (Moran says Gillard looks like some kind of pantomime horse, I say she looks like a bad caricature of Thatcher, but we both agree that Abbott probably spends most of his time in church praying that all the gay black people die). The point about Australia’s ‘winter’ was also made, because it isn't a winter at all. The other odd thing was he had to explain things for the Aussie crowd, like the notion of a place called ‘Newcastle’ in the north of England which is home to girls that go mad when it is too dark and too cold for too long and wear string on a night out, whereas in Britain he could have probably just said ‘Geordie girls in winter’ and we would all laugh. But I learned that there is no reason to go to Perth because the only reason anybody is there is because of ‘the shit in the ground’ and Townsville because ‘Nothing? It doesn't have ‘nothing’, it is on the waiting list for ‘nothing’’. Also Newcastle (the Australian one) is just ‘five lanes of gridlocked traffic queuing for the suicide bridge’, unlike the British one which is five lanes of girls complaining about their uncomfortable shoes in between vomiting on the high street and being given Bacardi Breezers by a guy with £300 designer jeans that look like they have been worn whilst he was doing a plastering job down the road... Actually I think that is most cities? Anyway, Dylan Moran was funny and as a special treat to you for reading this almost 900 word blog post, here is a picture of a possum eating an apple (which will probably be stuffed next week and put into that bar with no name) along with a few other pictures from taken last night.

You've earned it!