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
Oooh, it's late and i'm sleepy, but if i don't write anything now, then it'll no doubt be ages before i get round to it again, so i'll try and have a go, before heading off to curl up in my freezing cold, yes that's freezing cold, bedroom...
Melbourne really is a great city, and walking through the centre tonight, on the way to meet up with some chums for a Kill Bill Double bill at the Astor, i was vibe-ing off it in a big way (Vibe-ing! Did i really just write that? I promise to change it when i come up with a better word).
All the shops stay open late on Fridays in Australia, and as a result the city centre is alive, not only with people getting the hell out of work and going for a few drinks, but with shoppers, gangs of kids hanging around (goths were particularly well represented tonight), protestors signing people up to various petitions, no end of buskers - guitars, didges and, best of all, a man in a space suit playing a theremin on Swanston st, and amongst all of this, the rush hour traffic, trams and pedestrians all fighting it out for supremacy on the roads - HonkHonk! DingDing! ClackaClackaClacka! (Cars, Trams, and Crossing signals respectively). The one upside of the cold, dark winter nights is that the city centre back drop to all of these goings on, is turned into a massive light show - skyscrapers are usually coloured blue, with fetching red neon trim and even cranes on the new towers being built get lit up like Xmas trees too.
I've not really been up to anything of major consequence lately, unless i'm forgetting something, which is quite possible, but despite just cruising along in a little routine of work, Spanish lessons, perfecting my fudge brownie recipe, going for the odd run, the odd booze up and spending the odd day rolling around in hungover agony, moaning about my brain-ache, while watching the full four hours of a Tour de France dvd, er, i'm pretty happy. And to be honest i'm not entirely looking forward to my little routine coming to an end in a month's time, when my job ends, and i'll have to come up with a plan for what to do, and where to go next.
The current idea pencilled into my brain is to go for a two week bike ride through the desert, from Alice Springs to Coober Pedy, as you do, then come back to the UK for a few weeks, for C&C's wedding, and fly back out to Australia till my visa ends in February next year. But my ideas are fairly liquid at the best of times, so who knows really. E.g. I got chatting to Steve, from my Spanish classes the other day, and he said he's off to East Timor to do some voluntary work for a few weeks soon, which sounds like a great thing to do, although my only fear is whether or not East Timor is actually crying out for ASP driven websites and fudge brownies? (My current skill set)
Oh, well, i'll worry about that later, as now i need sleep, for on the morrow, Megan and I will be donning several layers of thermal underwear, and heading south to Phillip Island for a weekend of sun, sea, sand and penguins. And as Pingu would say, Maaaaack! Maaaaaack!
4:09 pm
