Andy and I are in Paris at the moment waiting for our flight to Johannesburg. We decided to avoid Christmas in London and not go home to parents.
Can’t wait to get some winter sun :o)
TFL are bloody cheeky
“We are also providing a number of alternative bus services, picking up at stations served only by the Northern line, particularly in North London, to link with other Tube lines.”
Because obviously those in the south with less transport links to tube lines don’t need replacement buses. So out of 7 services only 1 is south of the river. Grrr.
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London
Okay so I slept through most of yesterdays events. Other than waking for the odd text from far flung friends and family checking I was okay.
I watched events unfold during waking moments and was as horrified as I was in a similar situation (off work and ill) in 2001 during the awful bombings in New York.
The major difference I think is this time with more and more people having blogs and using image sharing tools like flickr and YGP there seems to be a lot of people using the event to boost their popularity. Taking screengrabs of websites and uploading them to a photo-sharing site or picture stills from TV. Yes if you were there uploading pics of the scene or how it affected you. That’s the kind of pictures I want to see, personal views of how it affected people. Like the bloggers in New York describing the events on the day and pictures out of peoples windows. That was in some ways more informative than any of the news channels. Regurgitating someone elses work and adding your name to it seems a little, well, rude.
There is now even a group pool on flickr. Not content with having 9/11 now we need to have yesterdays horrific events shortened to the brandtastic 7/7.
Screengrabs and TV stills aside there is very little shown of London and how it continued in the face of such adversity.
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Live8
Okay so Live8 is happening tomorrow – it coincides with London Pride so it’s going to be nice and quiet in London tomorrow. Not!
AOL are sponsoring the event and also providing live streams of all of the events so you can watch which concert you want. So I’m going to be at the London gig working to make sure everything runs smoothly. I’ll also be handing out AOL/Live8 goodies and helping out at AOL Tents urging people to sign the petition to make your voice heard at the event.
An 8am start though :o(
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seederney mardee grah (Part 1)
Okay so I’ve been a bit slack with the update from Sydney Mardi Gras and my annual pilgimage to the southern hemisphere. What can I say – even Dave managed to get his account up before me this year!
I’ll have to get him back for the Stimpy comments somehow…
I have managed to upload a whole heap of pics though – so peruse them at your leisure. Not so many of things this year as there really are only so many Opera House and Harbour Bridge pics you can take ;o)
So here goes as much as I can remember from what was possibly the most drunken debauched three weeks of my life so far since last time.
Northy and I started the trip with some beers at London’s Heathrow Airport bar and a bit of bluetooth mayhem. We flew our seperate ways (long story) to arrive sydney 07:00 friday morning minutes apart. Met Jo and Northy and do the introductions.
The three of us head back to Jo’s house in Darlinghurst for a shower and a change before brunch on Oxford Street at Cafe Comity.
Wandered around and caught up before going for more beers and then home for a quick disco nap. Jason (Northy) and I ended up at my spiritual home The Colombian for a beer early evening before heading to the shift. we ended up in the club instead of the bar by mistake but this turned out to be very good. we stayed out until 5am and hoped this would counter any jetlag!
Saturday was shop yourself stupid (name change) and then yet more beers. we ended up at what the sydneysiders have nicknamed the rsl because of it being so cheap! it’s palms. I met a nice boy in the toilet and then it turns out he knew Jo. small world. I was very very drunk and left the party early! Sadly not early enough. Felt awful the following day and that was sunday which meant it was time for… Harbour Party
Excellent as ever. lots of beautiful people. Bumped into half the world both outside and inside the party. There are only 5,000 people but it feels like much more.
Saw lots of people from London too.
Neither Northy nor I made it to any of the after parties as jetlag and the partying hard the night before prevented us being chirpy. We did however decide we should become club promoters and launch River Party on the banks of the Thames by the London Eye. But erm then we drank more and forgot about it.
So the following day was inevitably going to be a quiet one. Northy and I got up slightly earlier than Jo (who had stayed to party) and meandered through Pitt Street shopping heading down to circular quay for the Opera Bar for some brunch. We met Jo there and after a couple of beers a bottle or two of fizz and wine we all felt much better. In fact then we went for champagne tea at the QVB. So much for recovery then. More like starting all over again.
That evening was also less than subdued with more drinking and much more dancing involved. Various bars spring to mind but to be honest by this point I think we didn’t care where we were.
Tuesday was also a drinking day (can you spot a theme here?)
Wednesday morning bright and way too early the lovely Dave arrived from Wellington bearing gifts of Gold, Frank Rasberri Absolut, Apple Sours and Krispy Kreme Donuts. Yay! We then dragged him down the coast to the lovely Husky.
More to come…
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one more sleep
One more sleep cos I fly tomorrow night – more exciting though is I woke up to a blanket of snow over south London!
Excellent!
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it’s going to snow on thursday
So according to the BBC Weather it is going to snow in London on Thursday. I’ll be away then though on my way to sunnier climes ;o)
It’s very cold here at the moment which is making my impending summer much more attractive. Roll on holidays.
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waterford – more than crystal
So work have a warehouse call centre based in Waterford, Ireland and Nick and I came over to offer some training to one of the teams here. Sadly there is only one flight a day to Waterford from London Stanstead during the winter months so we opted to fly into Cork for a more convenient flight time. This meant flying easyjet – something I have never done before and was a bit concerned about. The more convenient flight time was 7am which meant getting to Gatwick for 5:30ish which is no mean feat on a Sunday Monring. Check-in was shambolic with no real system in place and people having no idea where they should be or when their flights left. Once checked in though it was actually not that bad. No seating means the plane fills up quite quickly and people tend to group together anyway.
Cork airport has open fires when you arrive. Making you feel like you have just entered someones living room – still I guess with so few flights a day there is little need to catch up with the 20th century.
Took a detour to Blarney Castle on what was possibly the windiest day of the year. Scary winds and heights combined to make the trip very memorable. Pictures to follow no doubt.
On to Waterford in the lovely upgraded car from Avis. A nice little Saab which confused me by not having keys and everytning being done by a fob that slots in by the gear stick. Nice drive down the N25 and then stopped at the office briefly and onto Waterford Crystal which is practically next door. It’s like the place that time forgot. Christmas decorations still up and lots of dust. The video was priceless from the 80’s. Plus everything very expensive. So nothing for my mum then!
We stayed in Tramore at the fabulous coast townhouse. Nothing prepared me for the welcome. The rooms are fabulous, cd players, comfy lazy boy chairs, huge beds, subtle lighting, great bathrooms, I wanted to move in. The food is as good if not better than the townhouse itself. Every little detail taken care of. plumping the cushions for you, carrying your drinks for you from the bar. you feel like you don’t need to raise a finger. The whole atmosphere is vibrant yet cosy with modern twists encompassed in an old world charm.
Ordering food off the menu is something I am used to but the reaction here was one of glee. Normally it’s met with disdain. My roasted vegetables were beautiful and make me want to become a restaurant critic purely so I could proselytise about coast.
I’m going to see if I can get a group of people from London to come on a trip.
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notetoself: check the news
Okay so yesterday I was a bit busy with work and as I no longer sit on the floor the news team are on I sometimes miss the hot news stories.
So it turns out on the day I don’t watch the news or read a paper that lots happened.
— Ikea had an opening which ended ina stampede and riot with people ending up in hospital. I mean it’s only cheap furniture for gods sake. It’s not like there aren’t other stores in the London area.
— Prince Charles is to marry. So is Camilla Parker Bowles. Oh yeah to each other.
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