A happy-go-lucky English rambler dude goes to New Zealand for a year. Here he interfaces with some of those he left behind and details his nefarious activities. Or summat.
Recently clicked on MP3s - 7th June 2005 The Lucksmiths - Warmer Corners
Jens Lekman - When i said i wanted to be your dog
The Trashcan Sinatras - Weightlifting
Teenage Fanclub - Man Made
Laura Veirs - Carbon Glacier
The Decemberists - Picaresque
The Eels - Blinking Lights
Tuesday, October 29, 2002
Shock horror probe: Ted posts to his webshite!
Sorry it's been so many eons since i last wrote anything here, but i've been going through a fairly crappy period in life, and haven't really had the emotional energy to come up with much positive stuff to write about. Does that sound a bit melodramatic? Maybe. Anyway, if you know me, you'll know what i'm on about, and if you don't, you don't want to know about it, honestly.
Reasons to be cheerful?
Firstly i've got a job! Not an entirely good thing i know, especially as the company i work for doesn't operate the same punctuality guidlines as Z-Web (i.e. Turn up after you get bored of watching the Shortland Street re-runs in the morning!). No, i have to be in for 9am sharp, or..., well i'm not sure what, because amazingly after 3 weeks i've not been late once. Whodathunkit?
Having a bit of cash coming in has meant i've been able to indulge some of my more bizarre tastes in life. No, not the bathful of live eels and mushy peas i'm always talking about, but the music of the Lucksmiths and Darren Hanlon. After several months of heavy rotation, i'm still not sick of either of them, so i thought it was about time i supported Candle records, and actually bought some (well, all) of their cd's (Mail order from Melbourne, as the rather backward music distributors in the UK don't share my enthusiasm for them). And there can't be many record labels in the world, where the 'CEO' parcels up the cd's and signs the customs label, but that's another reason to love them. Probably not according to Bobnoxious, who recently described the music of Darren Hanlon as 'Indie Spaz'. But i think that's just his guilt complex showing through, trying to cover up his own 'Indie spaz' crimes commited back in the heyday of Indie Spazziness.
Another Melbourne related reason to be extremely cheerful is that i'm not a drug dealer who has annoyed Mark 'Chopper' Read. I got volume 1 of his autobiography for my birthday, and you really wouldn't believe the number of nasty things he's done to the Melbourne gangsters over the years. Bashings, houses burnt down, ears cut off (Oh hang on, he cut his own ears off), feet blow-torched, hands nailed to coffee tables etc, etc. Just as well i kept my nose clean during the week i was there. Bizarrely, he's gone on to do a Road Safety advert (He's persuaded me!), and a children's book!
In an effort to appear slightly bad-ass myself (Not quite as bad in the ass department as Chopper however), and to keep motivated to stay fit, i've applied to do the London Marathon next year. At the moment I can run about 10k's before i start feeling a bit odd, and my heart rate monitor gives me less than a week to live. So i do need to get out a bit more than i have been, but the dark & wet at this time of year aren't all that appealing. If anyone likes the idea of running in endless circles around the local gravel pits, i'd love to have training partner. And as a bonus I could entertain you with endless Carp related anecdotes from my youth, as i used to go fishing in the area. Not to mention getting bombed on Tennents Super and MerryDown cider (Usually whilst fishing).
Ho hum. Time for bed. I'll leave the final word to Uncle Chopper.
"You won't like the smell of your own feet burning. No-one ever does."
Sweet dreams!
2:31 am Tuesday, October 01, 2002
Coo eee! Well i'm still managing to avoid the world of gainful employment, though i can feel it slowly closing in on me. A statement from the student loans company i received yesterday gave me 4000 reasons why i should be getting a job as soon as possible.
Despite being dole scum, I have been doing lots of other very constructive things, like er, tidying my bedroom (What am i, a 10 year old?!). My bedroom is not like other bedrooms though. For the last few weeks i've been living amongst several generations of accumulated gumpf, and yesterday i snapped and decided to attempt to tidy it up (ie chuck it out). It's been an awesome task, but there are now charity shops all over Leicester bursting at the seams with James Herbert novels, Carp fishing magazines, outdated computer science text books and Paul Weller singles. In fact i'd imagine the homless problem in Leicester will soon be solved, and old folk will be getting chauffered around in Bentleys, due to the extra income from all of my stuff being sold in the charity shops.
Another major achievement is finally getting my bike fixed up - with some flash new Deore v-brakes, and rather tasteful toeclips. Although unkind people may say that i simply watched Rob fix my bike while i ate fig rolls, i would insist that i played a major part: in choosing the colour of my new brakes, as well as getting them out of the packet. Thanks again for the help Rob. And the lift to the bike shop. And the free handlebars. And the fig rolls.
But by far the fun-est thing i've done since returning back to blighty though, was a birthday trip to the Milton Keynes Snow dome, courtesy of Alison, my snowboarding sis (Thanks again :o). People who saw me snowboarding in NZ may find this hard to believe, but during the 2 hour session on the real indoor snow, i finally got the hang of snowboarding!!! I wasn't quite joining in on the jumps and rails, but i can now happily swoosh down the slope at a reasonable speed, without falling over, or screeching to a halt after every turn. Annoyingly i wasn't quite as fast as Alison though, humph. Come to think of it, if she was any kind of sister, she'd have let me win surely?
