Work - not funny! Birthdays/Partying - funny!

This post has actually been written over a number of days so apologies if I refer to things I'm going to do, or have done at conflicting times. Also, the photo's are still back on the camera in London, I'll get some up soon.

Last Friday week (yes, I've been lazy typing this up) was excellent. Charlie Pickering's show is really funny, but it's more than just a stand up comdedy type routine. From what I could remember of Charlie when he was on TripleJ, he wasn't really that kind of a 'ha ha what is with that??' type comedian anyway, his jokes were often far more subtle (I just remembered ones for the Maths nerds: "And some kid had published a paper titled - Old MacDonald had a farm, EI over EI equals O"). The show itself is called 'Auto' and it is written/played out as if we are watching him trying to start to write his autobiography. As a result some of the stuff that he jokes about are (according to the papers) real memories and experiences he had while growing up. So at times it's kinda sad, but funny, then at others it's just all out funny. Good stuff!

So that was my Friday night, the next couple of days were lost in a Black Hole called 'Work'. Unfortunately this weekend was more evil than most because everything went wrong for the entire time. We ended up not being able to finish the work for the first time since we started... Spewing! That also meant that Monday and Tuesday where we are in the offices supporting the post-migration were quite manic. Things still aren't fully sorted yet and it's over a week later! (bugger).

There was one big light at the end of the tunnel though, and that was the Australia vs Ghana soccer match on Tuesday night (as in, over a week ago). I went with CK and two mates of his from Spain and damn it was fun! We had brilliant seats - front row, just near the middle line - which meant that we were REALLY close to the action. Literally two meters from the touch line. It was awesome to see all the Aussies out there again, it took me right back to the World Cup and all the fun I had there.

Before the game commenced we were sitting down having a drink (Fosters of course) as we'd picked up cans on the way. So there's us in our Aussie gear sitting, Fosters cans on the wall thingy near the pitch, just looking Aussie as and chatting up the prospects of the team smashing Ghana 3-0 (or something like that). Suddenly a security dude walks up and politely informs us that drinking in the stands is actually a crime, and that we could be arrested if they decided to do something about it!!! What the?!?! He was really nice about it and just asked us to finish them up quickly and give the cans to him. But how crap is that, despite selling alcohol at the games (ok, we smuggled ours in), you have to drink it out the back, where you can't see that game at all... pah!

Still, we yelled like fools, abused a Ghana guy on our wing who was crap and eventually lost our voices... brilliant. The Ghana goalie was a consumate actor and basically hit the deck whenever anybody looked at him. Unfortunately the Aussie's didn't live up to my expectations and scored one goal. The annoying thing was that Ghana were outplayed all night, but scored a flukey goal when Schwarzer (the Aussie goalie) jumped up to catch a ball on a corner kick, but landed on a fellow Aussie. This jarred the ball loose and he basically dropped it right in front of a Ghana player standing in front of the open goal. BAH!!!

The next day I worked at night on a site, but when we came to work on Thursday, they cancelled it all one hour before we were due on site. So we got paid a free day! Wooo!

We'd already made plans to meet up after work for a drink as it was another dude's birthday that day, and mine the next. Dinner was meant to be at a bar over drinks, but somehow it sort of fell by the wayside. We did eventually try to order, but the kitchen was closed.... So we left, looking for a cafe to eat in. Somehow we found the club we were heading to before we found a cafe which could fit us, so people just thought we might as well go in. Big mistake considering I hadn't eaten at all that day (I got up ridiculously late like 1pm or something). On Friday I was therefore feeling a little tender, but it was a hell of a night so it was worth it with lots of new people met and many many drinks consumed.

I had dinner plans with a friend Rachelle (there's your name in the blog Rachelle, savour it!) but she cancelled on me (which I was actually quite relived about because of knackered-ness) so I had a chance to catch up with the London family. My aunt also had a friend from Australia (Gabrielle) who along with her two daughters were staying at the house, so I thought I'd hang around and actually eat with them and catch up etc as I used to work with Gabrielle at CEO. I had a great time catching up on news and goings-on from Australia and before we knew it it was past midnight which was a bit of a problem as all those guys were leaving at 6am on a train to Paris.

A few hours later (Saturday morning) we got up early and saw everyone off, then went straight back to bed! I was still feeling pretty knackered and started planning a relatively quiet evening possibly going to the movies. That plan quickly went out the window when I got diverted to a food festival thingy going on in Covent Garden. It was lots of stalls with olive oil, spices, meat etc for tasting, and I even tried some hot mulled wine (yeah, it's gross). I picked up some nice olive oil and pesto stuff, but there wasn't that much more that was worth going for. After that we met up with friends in a pub... and things kicked on.. and on... to some club somewhere...

By Sunday, I was nearly dead so I just took it easy :) After getting myself together early in the afternoon, I made myself an absolutely monumental plate of pasta and absolutely devoured it. David gave me a 'are you seriously gonna eat all that?' comment when I made it (yeah, it barely all fit on the plate) but I destroyed it! It did take a while to eat though :)

Monday night I worked, but only a few hours so it was cool, but Tuesday night was a shocker! We had been asked to continue the migration which didn't complete on the weekend. Things weren't looking good as late as 8pm at night, but they still wanted to push on. So we did.. and it all went bad. By 5am we had managed to get most things in shape, but we were completely stuffed and I headed home for a shot at some sleep. I got about an hour, had a shower, changed etc then headed back in for a day of support.

That night I was totally torn between dying in bed, and heading in to town to watch the start of the Ashes in a pub. There were only about 4 venues which were willing to show it, and the only one serving beer after 1am was the biggest one in town. National pride one out, so after another hour snooze, I headed in.

The pub itself is normally one of the most disgusting places in London - a total sausage fest with bad music, lighting and patrons, but bit tv screens covering almost every wall. Around 11:30pm or so, it was fairly full though with a few groups of Aussies and English sitting around in team colours getting ready for the big start. At midnight, things got underway, I stood proudly in my Aussie cricket shirt and sung the national anthem.... *sniff* it was awesome! Unfortunately the Aussies weren't really that much of a force, the English outnumbered us easily but we certainly gave them a mounthful when the first ball went so wide the second slip caught it! Hurrah! I love cricket!!

Around 5am things were getting very sparse in the pub so it was decided that it was a good time to leave. We'd already exerted our dominance and crushed whatever small spirit the English team could have had, so I was content with that.

Since then I've worked Thursday night, then travelled up here to Manchester again this weekend for a migration. The hotel we are in is like a country club with a full golf course, gym, pool, beauty spa etc. It's _very_ nice but oh so posh. We almost got denied entry into the restaurant for dinner last night because we weren't wearing shirts! Stuff that! We did get in though, and the food was pretty good. The really amazing thing about the place though is that an old church which is next to the main hotel building has been converted into the gym/spa/beauty clinic. It's quite an amazing thing to see and I think it looks pretty fantastic. Oh, and there's no way I'll be able to play golf as you must have proper golf shoes, golf pants and socks......

I think that'll do for now, so I'll just leave things with "CMON AUSSIES!".

Anka

Out and About in London

Rock on people,

This week has been a pretty good week as I've finally got to spend some time in London again, which means that I've had the chance again to get out and see some stuff. The weather hasn't been that cold either, most days are like winters in Perth at the moment - reasonably sunny but with frosty dragon-breath, and not too windy or anything like that artic week a couple back.

So last Saturday the migration went so well, half of the team were given the Sunday off (that is a MAJOR first for the group, I think it shows that we're getting our stuff sorted). As I had a day off, I went for a beer with a few mates in celebration. Next thing I know, friends of friends rock up, things get more rowdy.... there's some blanks to fill in :). This meant that I did waste a large proportion of the day on Sunday sleeping! (yup, I was soft).

That Sunday also happened to be Guy Fawkes day, which is actually celebrated in the UK (I think in Aus I'd heard of it, but no one ever did anything about it). Here they have several fireworks displays around the city, and people seem to just set them off randomly in their backyards. Michelle had invited me to climb on to the roof of her hotel (five stories plus two ladders up) and watch. It was really good, but really COLD! :) There were a number of large displays going off near us, plus we got a nice view over the city at night. Here are a couple of poor photos taken just to prove that I was there, and there were fireworks!

Monday's work went off without a hitch (following the perfect migration over the weekend) and so I got sent home early (3pm, a record!). To make best use of the time, I headed to a store called TK Maxx (discount clothing store - sells last seasons fashion etc) looking for a snowboarding/skiing jacket. I managed to score a last season jacket for 60 quid, 50% off.. bargain!!! It's fairly bright red and rated to provide protection in a full on blizzard, so hopefully it will do me in Canada. We'd talked to a girl on Sunday night who lived in Canada for a while... she certainly put me on guard with stories of frostbite etc of friends who were skiing. Fingers crossed!

In another unprecedented event, I had Tuesday off too! (two days within a week even). I spent a lot of time sleeping as I've not had a lot of it lately and need some credits in that department. Then that night, I met up with Michelle for the Jet concert (wooo!). It was at a place called Brixton Academy and it was a pretty good concert. I don't remember being that impressed previously, so it was nice that they stepped up. When the favourites like came on, the whole crowd (lots of Aussies of course) all took up song. Oh yeah, and the cost? 16 quid.. BARGAIN! One of the most amusing things about the concert though was that as we were in an unreserved seated area, when the good songs came on and people stood up to dance, the security guards tried to make people sit down again! Kind of stupid at a concert if you ask me, and people would sit for a second, wait till the guard moved away, then jump up again anyway.

The Living End are playing here this Saturday, but for some stupid reason they aren't headlining! (*shock*) They are only billed for a 30 min set or something, so stuffit, I'm not paying for that!

Tonight I'm going to see Charlie Pickering (comedian from TripleJ) somewhere in Soho - another bargain for 10 quid! Unfortunately I'm working for the rest of the weekend, so no more fun probably until next Tuesday when the Socceroos take on Ghana. We've reportedly got good tickets, so that is gonna be awesome!

Saw the photos of the puppy Sars, so cute!

Anka

Lots of work

Hello everyone, unfortunately I've got STUFF ALL to put up at the moment as I've been working pretty hard again. Work has sent us to Manchester and Birmingham in the last three weeks for migrations, and they've both been quite difficult so it's starting to take it's toll. I've also just been told that for some bizarre reason, we'll be working nights for the next two weeks to migrate the next site. No impressed! I think I'm going to just have to take a day or two off to get some 'me' time.

So yeah, Birmingham was pretty average. We weren't actually in Birmingham itself, but more in a smaller township just outside of it called Solihul. While the area was nice, there wasn't exactly a lot to do at night etc. Having said that, most nights we were working quite late and so we wouldn't have had a chance to do anything anyway! The one saving grace was that the hotel had a full gym, pool, spa and sauna, so I made use of those three or four times.

This migration will be one that I remember though, but mainly because by the end of the third day, people were getting very annoyed at different tools not working (leaving us sitting around). As always we pushed through and had everything working on Monday morning however it wasn't without a few tough incidents. This meant that everyone was so wound up Monday night for our usual post-migration drinks, everyone hit it hard. We ended up drinking ourselves completely silly, but it was one of those things that had to happen as towards the early ours of the morning, the floodgates finally opened and everyone had a big crack at each other. Two guys almost started punching on! This was 'healthy' though as it cleared the air a little and meant that we could work together for the rest of the week.

I was on the early shift for work on the Tuesday morning, and I swear that I woke up still drunk that morning and went to work. I didn't pull my head together until about 11am! (bad form...!).

The remainder of that week was spent mopping up the migration issues at the site, and this was real boring (local IT type stuff). On the Thursday night we decided that we _had_ to out for one of the guys birthdays, and so we headed into Birmingham proper. The first place we'd been directed to by a friend of a friend was called the Barracuda Bar. Being 27 years old, I was easily double the age of all the locals in there!! (some other deployment guys are 33/34, so they prolly felt even worse). It was SO crap, just full of tiny teeny-boppers with shedloads of makeup and bad music. Still, drinks were ludicrously cheap (something like 3 quid for 3 beers) so we stayed and drank a while before kicking on.

The second place we went to was a club that had been recommended by the staff at the site we'd migrated. It was called Subway, and it's a gay club so in the usual tradition, they play the best music. Lots of old school dance music, plenty of new stuff... all good. We danced until the wee hours before heading back to the hotel to crash. The next day most of us got up with time to spare to get the train, but one of the guys on the team slept through the alarm and almost missed it! (he literally ran up the platform as the doors were closing). All of us were feeling a little worse for wear :)

One of the most interesting bits of Birmingham is a central town area known as the 'bull ring'. The name comes from the fact that in the past there was a massive cattle market there. Now it's been turned into shops and stuff, but being quite new it has some interesting architecture (new mixed with old). This building is actually a Selfridges store (big Myer/David Jones type store) and these little discs aren't actually lit themselves, they are simply highly polished to reflect lights on the street set up to illuminate the building. I thought it was pretty neat.

Oh, and I got a piece of trivia off a taxi driver one day which I also thought was interesting. Apparently Birmingham has more canals than Venice!?!

Next was Manchester. Nothing of any note happened in Manchester and the cold weather meant that we were not too game to venture out. As always however, we did end up going out on the Saturday night.

One of the local IT guys lives in Manchester but works with us in London quite a lot. He gave us a quick walking tour of the central nightlife areas before we headed into one for some drinks. There are actually some nice nightspots in Manchester, with some of the bars facing onto canals or parks etc. There were also plenty of people out and about too which gave the place a good vibe. After sinking a few beers, we pressed on to a club which our guide used to DJ at (he actually is quite well known and plays in many clubs now).

The club was called the Electric Chair and it was really good. The music they played was 'typically Manchurian' according to our guide, and it's known as Electro-Clash. Basically it's dance music, but a little more edgy and rocky than house music, and not pop-y or anything like most clubs play (no Beyonce etc there!). Unfortunately I'd pulled some huge hours the two days before and so I piked around 2am, the other two kicked on till 5 or so. The next day I was fine though while the other two looked like death warmed up.

I'm now back working in London, so I'm hoping to catch up on some sleep. Oh, and I've booked my flights to Canada over new years for snowboarding... wooo!! All I need now is a decent snowboarding jacket for the -20 degrees weather!

Anka