Take some drivers who try to squash everyone in a bus like sardines, or how some drivers supposedly forget to stop at a bus stop even when alerted by the ding noise. Some even stop at the wrong bus stop, allow passengers on and then go in the wrong and opposite direction they want to go.

But this clown bus driver takes the cake and the ice cream too.

I was waiting at my designated bus stop as per normal each evening on the running tide home when this double decker bus stopped at the bus stop. It wasnt my bus but I was just observing the bus drivers performance of stopping the bus, allowing passengers on and then moving on to collect the next herd, as you do.

This bus driver didnt know the simple rules to driving a bus or should I say stop, drop, collect and move. Instead he wanted to be a tourist guide and allow someone to ask for directions or a place of interest.

Normally a bus driver would know instantly where everything is or simply say wrong bus mate. However this driver took out a map, spoke to this person for what seemed like 5-8 minutes. Meanwhile this oblivious fool failed to look at what was behind him or see the chaos he was causing due to being a hopeless tourist guide.

What he had caused was a major bottleneck of traffic stretching as far as the eye could see and what appeared to be like half of londons peak hour traffic up his arse. Every bus, taxi and car behind him was beeping their horns like mad but this guy was in his own world clearly captivated by his immaculate interpersonal and mapping skills.

Once the passenger was satisified about the directions given, they sat down in the bus and he finally closed the bus door and moved on still unaware of the commotion he was passing on to others with the traffic and delays.

While I would like my 30 minutes back from this delay, I would happily trade those 30 mins to beat the crap out of him and remind him he is a bus driver and not a tourist guide.

Smiles

Eventually the only people left on the train is the person sitting next to you and the remainder of the train carriage is empty. You have a few stops to go, do you stand up and move to another seat? They might take offense and think gosh do I smell? Why did he just stand up and move seats like that? The other option is to sit there until you get off and make it as though you didn’t really notice the train carriage is empty.

It is an awkward position to be in especially the person seated next to you is the same sex. I’ve often just chosen to sit still and not move. Why should I move? I’ve sat there quite comfortably, the seat has molded around my butt nicely so if anyone wants to move the person next to me can decide that move. To hell with awkwardness! The person next to me is probably thinking the same or they could be thinking there are so many seats to choose from on this carriage, why the hell is this idiot still sitting next to me. He should be moving because I ain’t!

What is the etiquette?

Smiles

It was meant to be a dessert but remind me again, aren’t desserts meant to be cold rather than hot? Ok you have some hot dishes like apple pies but you complement it with something cold like ice cream. Well this isn’t quite the same for the rice pudding.

The best I can describe a rice pudding is that it is like a risotto. In fact I’m pretty sure I had a piping hot risotto. It was not savoury but sweet. It was cheesy and not creamy. I couldn’t see mushrooms or chicken pieces. It looked a bit like porridge but the rice looked undercooked. It had 1 and a half grapes on it as a garnish. Come on what happened to the last quarter of it?

Grapes and rice … what? As far as I know I don’t suffer from Synesthesia and my senses are fine so why would I eat grapes and rice like some synesthesian souls eat chicken with ice cream.

A complaint was made about the rice pudding and so the owner brought down the chef and he said he had forgotten the cinnamon … sorry buddy adding the cinnamon to the rice pudding will still make it a shitty rice pudding.

The replacement chocolate mousse well could only be described as the same texture as a willy wonka chocolate bar. Sadly we give away the golden ticket because we don’t plan to head back to charlie and the shitty dessert factory.

smiles

What presents are people supposed to bring? Sex and the city box set? Entourage box set? A new facebook account or a subscription to a few dating sites?

What would the mood be like? Sad, happy, or party atmosphere? An ensemble of cocktails or perhaps a jager train where by each glass represents the days you have been married.

The news article I read continued on and said that the ex-husband murdered his ex-wife before the party took place.

Shocking

You come into a supermarket to buy some groceries. You get a basket to put the items of purchase in so its easier to carry around the shop floor and it doubles up as a precaution so you do not drop any products yet to be paid for. When all the items are collected you go up to the checkout to pay for the items.

Then the checkout person asks, would you like some bags?

What?! No, please don’t give me any plastic bags, I’m going to pollute the earth, what a stupid question to ask. Let me juggle those items home like a circus performer and wow the passers by. Give me those damn bags already!

You’re at a restaurant eating with friends. You’ve chosen a delightful dish of which you eat like you haven’t eaten for a week. So you clean the plate, okay maybe you left a grain of rice or a speckle of salad on the plate. Your knives and forks are then deposited on the plate and you wait for the waiter/waitress to clear the table.

Hello, are you done? Can I take your plate?

What?! No, please let me lick my plate clean so you won’t have to wash the plate and reuse it for the next customer. Take my plates away already!! No tip for you.

You wander into a train station and look around for a quick bite like a sandwich or bap. You choose the cumberland sausage roll that is on display and you know that its cold as there are about a dozen there. You say, can I please have one of those, thanks.

Would you like that hot?

What?! Why no, I’d love a cold sausage on this cold day. Who eats a cold sausage any way? Hurry up and toast the bloody thing and stop asking moronic questions, I have a train to catch!

smiles

I couldn’t help but notice the man and his luggage. Everyone was rolling around standard size suitcases or walking with back packs but not this character. He was wheeling around a tiny suitcase of which 250 ply sheets of toilet paper could be the only thing that could fit in there.

Does he not like backpacks? Or will his poor shoulders scream murder for carrying a lightweight pack?

This man or any other man should not be using these suitcases! They should be handed back to their rightful owners, spoilt little kids who can pack their own powdered milk so they can nourish themselves throughout their holiday.

We’ll spare this guy the ruler this time, if there is a repeat, send him to China where an act like this could face the lethal injection. Do the crime, you don’t have much time!

smiles

This is a cool birthday gift. Ramblings at any time.

Regardless, I click on the folder where all the redirected emails get sent, right click on the folder and mark them all as read. Now I feel complete and comfortable knowing that I have 0 emails in my inbox! Even on my gmail account I do the same thing. Now there isn’t as many emails flying through but the Spam folder does get very large. Instead of seeing the Spam (528), I make sure all that spam email gets deleted.

I’m sure some of you out there do what I do. Obsessive compulsive? Too much time in front of the computer?

Talk about being a nerd. Stop procrastinating please.

smiles

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dedex/2822296957/in/photostream/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dedex/2822296957/in/photostream/

I never thought I’d say this but work has come quite important to me with the projects I’m doing on my own at the hospital for patient care and revolutionising the way patients are discharged from a hospital. Not only that, there are several projects on my plate all with short deadlines and no resources. The balancing act is quite intricate and the amount of over time I have to put in is slowly beginning to take it’s toll on me. One day I might just stop, pack the rucksack, hop on a plane and wander around the globe for another 3 months.

More updates to follow this week and end of next week as there are loads of photos to put on here together with some commentary with the recent SHORT trips I have taken with friends from the States. We ventured off to Scotland as well as some cities outside of London (Salisbury, Bath, Avebury & Windsor) which was fun; especially driving the hire (rental) car. It does make me feel like buying a car here but the next place we rent (probably in 8 months time) will require a parking space before I’ll decide to get one. I don’t want to waste £2000 a year for parking with the ferrari’s and so on downstairs; parking should be given to each apartment and be part of the rent. Why’d they have to be so greedy?

There’s 2 bank holiday days in May; 1 at the beginning and 1 at the end. So next weekend I’m off to Romania with Alin for about 4 days. I may be audacious but when it comes to food I’m rather timid because my stomach is not built to withstand the might of Indian curries or weird insect creatures fried in batter and oil. Despite the diversity of the Romanian cuisine which is influenced by its Hungarian, Serbian and German neighbours one can only conjure up what is really in the sausages or meats they serve up. I can only study what is on the translated menu and believe what my friends say but the rest will have to be my gut feeling, literally.

smiles

Check him out! Some of my favorites are  (just to name a few):

• Eric Clapton – Tears in Heaven
• Seal – Kiss From a Rose
• Eagles – Hotel California
• Greenday- Wake Me Up When September Ends
• Tears For Fears – Mad World

I’ve become a big fan and will definitely buy his albums if he ever releases any.

smiles

They were arguing for about 30 minutes and because they were talking so loud I had to eavesdrop and gather what they were talking about. The trio are heading to South America soon for about 1 month and with a low bank balance, they were discussing a business idea to earn some money while they’re there.

The idea that they had is to translate menus at local restaurants to English and publish or display these English menus on the internet. The business pitch was for the business owner to pay about 20-30 Euro to get their menu translated and have an accompanying internet site to advertise to the world and travellers like themselves to go to these eateries.

It sounds like a good idea to me but it has been done before but that’s not what this argument was about. These guys were adamant that this is a great idea and that this idea would make them rich. They had the argument over how to go about publishing each restaurants web site. Being a Web Developer myself, I was interested in what they were saying and I knew what the best strategy was and I knew which guy had the right idea.

The two guys who had differing opinions were in a slanging match while the third guy was the mediator calming them both down and suggesting a way forward, Perhaps an analogy could be two programmers with different views to solve a problem and a project manager or team leader weighing up the options.

Spanish Guy #1 came up with the approach of securing the deal with the business owner and then publishing the business’ translated menu on a website. The website will be hosted by one of those free hosting companies with all the advertising. So his idea is that each business would have their own different website and they can be found only through the Google search engine.

Pros:

• Each business will have their own website with a unique layout.
• They can add or amend anything to this website as it will be their content.

Cons:

• If 50 businesses purchased this service then that would mean Spanish Guy #1 would need to make 50 websites and 50 different layouts. If you were one of these businesses and you had a layout the same as another business next door, you wouldn’t be happy.
• Free website hosting is crap and unreliable.
• Maintenance would be a nightmare, 50 different accounts and 50 sites to update if they offered this service.
• Spending more time creating websites then actually having a holiday!
• Impossible to search for this site through a search engine if the site isn’t added to a search engine

Spanish Guy #2 came up with the approach of securing the deal with the business owner and then publishing their menu, business profile and any other content on a central website. So the idea is to have a website and a business would have their own profile, their menu displayed, comments and feedback, and other information they wish to add, quite similar to say having a Facebook profile or a MySpace page. When you search for a restaurant, go to the website and then search the site for a restaurant in country x or restaurant y. I’ll forgive this guy for not get the technical terminology correct but I was getting his drift.

Pros:

• Easy to maintain
• Scan the menu, translate the menu and create a profile in a matter of minutes therefore more holiday time
• Business can look after their own profile (if they’re computer literate)
• Site can have different or custom layouts which business can select from
• Easy to search restaurant at different locations
• Only one website to remember and not 50

Cons:

• Expensive to start up the idea with servers and developers to build

To summarise, Spanish Guy #2 had the best approach. Spanish Guy #1 had the novice approach and he of course was the most aggressive in this argument. It was his way or the highway and it was him who swore the most, spoke the loudest because he thought he was right and that his way was the best approach.

It was a funny way to end off the late night and I must have listened really well if I could analyse their arguments and dissect what they had to say. Good luck to them in South America and I do hope they take Spanish Guy #2’s approach.

If you want my Business Analyst services, please take me out to dinner (you pay), have a few drinks then we’ll catch the bus home together and discuss your business ideas. Otherwise I charge £199.99 per minute + VAT.

smiles

There should be a company who operates some sort of conveyer belt service that latches on to your balcony frame or window and then you load your items on to this belt which slowly brings the items down to terra firma and straight into the van. In Amsterdam most homes use a pulley system to bring items from the ground on to the appropriate floor. If you pay attention, you will see homes with a hook/pulley at the very top of the house.

Now if you weren’t sore from loading things into the van then you should be a full time removalist. Its twice the work unloading the items from an underground car-park, then taking a lift, then walking a short distance to another building, then juggling 3 IKEA bags of stuff while trying to open the double door with a fob, then taking another lift to your floor before unloading that batch and repeating the process another 20 times.

I couldn’t feel my arms the next day and my back wasn’t in the best shape either but now the move is complete and I’m in a new place closer to civilization, it was worth the trouble. Albeit a few things going wrong the first week like the no hot water issue, washing machine tripping the power, door handles coming off and curtain rails coming off the wall but everything else has been sweet. Might I add that the first 3 of these things managed to be solved using Google and some DIY knowledge so it hasn’t been too bad.

The apartments itself especially the penthouses are quite luxurious. You would be paying at least £2000-£3000 per week for your humble abode. The underground car park is simply a car show parading really expensive cars. Instead of finding the best looking or most expensive car, it was harder to find the shit car parked between the white lines. There were Ferrari’s still covered with their emblem covers, Bentley’s, Lamborghinis, and the list goes on.

Unfortunately I do not own any of these vehicles. An annual car park permit is around £2000, that’s almost the price of the council tax here. Rumor has it that JK from Jamiroquai has 6 personal car park spaces housing his expensive cars. The agent did say he lives many floors above us, probably in the penthouse.

It’s only been a week living here and I still need to buy more odds and ends for my room. IKEA was good for a few things but now I’ve simply fallen into the shopping abyss of Amazon. It has everything I need and its many times cheaper then several stores out there. The best thing by far is that it is delivered to the concierge where I can pick up the items on the way home from work. Who said it wasn’t going to be easy?

smiles

Continuing on from the previous post, I had thought the rain last night would have washed away the snow. In fact it didn’t rain that much last night but instead the temperature dipped well below zero causing the snow to mould into slippery ice and surface of the water on the canal to freeze over.

I knew it wasn’t a good idea to put on my work shoes and tread through the snow. Instead I put my work shoes in my backpack, put on my hiking boots, gloves and waterproof jacket over my business attire. I wasn’t making a fashion statement, I was being sensible and wearing the right gear for the right weather conditions!

The snow was no longer fluffy and soft. Overnight it had turned into slippery hard ice and could cause some major bumps and bruises if one had fallen on to the ice. My hiking books were not made for walking on ice, it’s more slippery then a water slide so I had to tread carefully and look for the soft patches. The number of times I almost slipped over was ridiculous.

There was one slippage incident which almost could have been on funniest home videos if I had fallen. I was merrily walking to the train station on the main road, being careful where I was walking but there was a patch of ice I didn’t see. I walked over it, slipped and lost my balance. Luckily I managed to counter balance myself and got back upright.

Seeing as I slipped along a main road, and with many buses stationary at the red light, it would have been highly amusing for the passengers to witness this idiot slipping all over the place. I did take a quick glance to see how many passengers were on the bus but then quickly shuffled around the corner to avoid further embarrassment.

The snow will be here for a while or should I say the ice. The ice will not melt any time soon with the temperatures well below in single digits and negative overnight. What I really need on my boots to tackle this slipping problem is to get some crampons. Crampons for those who don’t know are basically spikes that you can put at the bottom of your boots to get better grip on the ice. I would probably get arrested for wearing them on the train as they could see these crampons as weapons. Can they be that narrow minded?

If crampons can save me falling on the ice with my work clothes on or reduce the risk of public humiliation for floundering around like an idiot on a footpath or walkway with a thin layer of ice then I’m all for it.

smiles

If I had done any research or simply googled ‘Snow in London’ then I would have got a million hits on when the last snow flake hit the town. The snow falling last night and all of today appears to be Britain’s worst snowstorm in 18 years. It caused havoc on travel plans and to think anyone made it to work at all would be a miracle.

I think a majority of employees and employers today would have worked from home because the lifeline of London is the underground tube network, without it, you are going nowhere! I certainly had to work from home today because there were no trains or buses running. My manager did suggest I trek to work, but in my work clothes? I’d have to ask him to buy me new clothes for when I arrive to my office desk.

To think 15-30cm of snow could grind an enormous city like London to a halt is simply amazing. I cannot imagine what would it be like if it snowed constantly for more than 1 day. The forecasts warning that this climatic snowstorm were announced 5 days before it hit last night, yet no preparation or planning took place to battle against the elements.

We can only make a snowman each before we get bored or adore the white powder sticking on to our clothes. Lets clear this snow and get this transport system back up and running before we have the best snow ball fight in 18 years. The snow will melt tonight, the rain will wash it away. Will the melting snow cause more unprecedented cancellations tomorrow? I’ll wake up tomorrow and find out!

smiles

HMRC would be the Australian Tax Office (ATO) equivalent or the USA’s Internal Revenue Service (IRS) which deals with all things tax. I submitted a tax return about 3 months ago, just before I left to go back to Australia for 2 months. Since I don’t have any knowledge of the UK tax system, I handballed this particular task off to my accountant.

The accountant assured me that the Tax Return would be processed in about 2 weeks and the good news was that I was going to receive a tax refund of around £200. While in Australia I had heard no news of the tax return or saw any credit transferred to my bank account. It was not until I returned back to London did I call up HMRC to see what was going on. It turns out that after 3 months, this straight forward tax return application still hadn’t being processed!

How difficult could it be? The tax return application was like 2 pages and all they had to do was punch these numbers in to the computer, and the computer would spit out a figure (negative for tax refund, positive for tax owing – simple). It wasn’t like they had to compute each tax return manually, we live in the age of computers!

Well I did receive the tax return calculation letter back this week and to my surprise the accountant informed me that instead of receiving a tax refund of £200, I owed HRMC £500! How did this happen? Did my accountant stuff something up?

My accountant said that there was an “additional student loan repayment (hightlighted) that is due but as we were not informed of this, it was not included on the personal tax calculation”. Hold on a sec. What is a student loan repayment I asked? In the 2 years I have been in London, there was never a time I became a student so why would I have a student loan? Also on the Working-Holiday Visa, I’m quite sure you cannot just take up a course randomly like that, you’d need a student visa?

After a few calls to HMRC, I got a few things cleared up and was finally told that they would re-calculate my tax return application. They said if I was sure I didn’t tick the student loan repayment option because that was the only way it would have been calculated. I said, how would I know how much to pay in student loans in the first place?

So in conclusion, some dumbass in HMRC still trying to get over the Christmas hangover tries to slug me with a £700 tax on a Student Loan Repayment that doesn’t exist. Her Majesty please get it right this time and sack the idiot for wasting my time.

smiles

It’s taken almost 6 months but finally I have the skilled visa to stay in the UK for the next 3 years with a possibility to extend and stay longer. I wouldn’t go as far as saying I had been diagnosed with anxiety attack symptoms but to say that the past 6 months has been a bumpy ride is an understatement. The past 6 months have culminated into a rather eventful and stressful period of which I never want a repeat of again.

With my future in the hands of the UK Home Office and for them to take 6 months to decide my fate, I cannot describe the to you the euphoria or huge sigh of relief when news of the visa approval mid December. I was neither excited nor screaming and running around the house but rather I was just mirthful inside to know that the saga had ended and the ending was a happy one.

I’ve described below some of the events that transpired in the last 6 months. I fathom those who are in limbo and for who are about to experience the same predicament and so my only advice would be is to be extremely patient. If you really want the visa, you’ll have to wait for it.

1.    Before planning the 3 month around the world trip from end of Jan to end of April 2008, the plan was to come back then earn a bit of cash before applying for the UK skilled visa from the UK working holiday visa. However little did I know that upon returning to London, the UK Home Office had implemented a new immigration system which was based on a points system (adopted from the Australian Immigration System).

What this meant was that I could no longer apply for this skilled visa here in London but instead I had to apply from my home country, being Australia. The new immigration system was being rolled out at the end of June 2008 so I had to rush to get all the paper work and get the application submitted otherwise I risked going back to Australia and waiting 3 months to obtain the skilled visa.

2.    I submitted the application 1 week before the new immigration laws were passed. The reason I cut it so fine was because my pay slips just prior going on the around the world trip was £100 short of the minimum threshold for salary earning requirement. I still cannot believe it was £100 short so I had to wait about 2 weeks to include the first few weeks of work earnings prior to coming back.

3.    The UK embassy in Canberra, Australia had imposed a ridiculous rule which they later overturned due to the number of complaints. This rule was the infamous 50/50 rule which states that you can not work more than 50% of your stay on the UK working holiday visa. The working holiday visa actually states you cannot work for more than 12 months of your 24 month stay. So if you were to work the 6 months of your visa and then decide to go home and apply for the skilled visa, you have broken the visa rules because during those 6 months, you worked 100% of the time.

Since you have broken the rules, your name has a mark against it and future applications for a visa to any country will be problematic. If they hadn’t overturned this decision, I wouldn’t have continued on with my application for the skilled visa. I didn’t want to risk being blacklisted for breaking visa rules and being questioned about it if I had any intention of applying for a visa elsewhere.

4.    Last but not least, the 7 day bank statement rule for the maintenance requirement. To obtain the Entry Clearance, you had to have in your bank account a sum of £2800 and above for the last 3 months. If during this 3 month period whereby your bank account dips below £2800, you will be denied the Entry Clearance. I didn’t have a problem with the maintenance requirement but I did have a problem with proving it.

The UK Home Office wanted from my bank a statement which proves that I had £2800 and above for the last 3 months. They wanted this particular statement to be valid for 7 days. This meant that the moment I obtained this bank statement, I had 7 days to get back to Australia and submit the Entry Clearance application otherwise this statement becomes invalid. How ridiculous is this rule? A bank normally takes 3-5 working days to get this statement out to you so that means if you order a statement on a Monday, you would be lucky to get it on a Wednesday.

When you get the statement, you will have to leave the UK the following day and you will arrive on the Friday when all businesses would be close. The UK Embassy in Canberra doesn’t work on weekends so your only choice is to have the application submitted on the weekend and hope it arrives on the Monday of which the bank statement would be INVALID. It is invalid because if you order bank statements on a Monday, it is 8 days until the following Monday. Whoever came up with this stupid rule should be sacked in all honesty.

How did I get around this problem? I was lucky enough to go to a bank and using a template from my immigration consultant, I asked them to draft me the same letter with the information I needed and dated when I asked, so that I would have enough time to get back to Australia and submitting the new paperwork and still have a valid bank statement.

I am happy to say that common sense has prevailed and the UK Home Office has now changed this ridiculous requirement and stated that the bank statement need not be 7 days valid but instead a full month. Read about it here.

Happy New Year!

smiles

I will now make a comparison of the two visas so you can see what the new visa is offering.

Previously the Working Holiday Visa allows you to stay in the UK for 2 years and you can only work for a maximum of 12 months. The YMS allows you to stay in the UK for 2 years and you can now work for the full duration, that is 24 months!

Not only can you stay and work for 2 years, the YMS has also cut the visa application fee by 50%!

If you want more information about this visa please visit the British High Commision in Australia website located at http://ukinaustralia.fco.gov.uk/

While we are on the topic of Visas, I am surprised that the UK are issuing and advertising these new Visas despite the growing concern of over-population in the UK. There has been alot of media coverage on the topic of immigration in the UK of late and the growing debate over how to stem the tide of immigration into the UK.

I believe most of the immigration is due to the influx of EU immigrants and thus have introduced the new points based system for Non-EU immigrants coming into the UK. They are basically saying, if you do not meet the points criteria then you are not welcomed into the country unless you are there as a tourist for a short term holiday.

If you feel that the UK is not your cup of tea (excuse the pun), then why not try living and working in Canada? They offer working holiday visas for Australian citizens that are valid for 2 years and you can work for the full duration.

smiles

Now that I am back in Melbourne for a short term holiday, I am on an Australian pre-paid phone so that I can call friends and family with cheaper call rates. I received a promotion today from the phone company outlining a scheme called the I.O.U credit.

In a nut shell, when you are low on credit (less than $1.50aud) and need to make that emergency call or text (it’s happened to me before) you can text the mobile phone company on 468 (IOU on keypad) and they will immediately give you $3aud credit.

The next time you recharge and get more credit, $3aud will be deducted from the credit your purchase. The $3aud credit is only valid for 3 days so any unused portion expires in 3 days and is non-refundable.

I think this is a great idea for those emergency situations.

I was adamant that I could come up with a list of Fried Chicken stores from every letter of the alphabet. It turns out with the help of yell.com, I could only find 24/26 alphabet characters that make up a Fried Chicken store. The only ones that I couldn’t find were the letters V and X, what a shame.

Below is a list of Fried Chicken takeaway stores, a majority of them in London but some are out of London.

Al-Saddiuq Fried Chicken
Britannia Fried Chicken
Crown Fried Chicken
Dixy Fried Chicken
Europa Fried Chicken
Favorite Fried Chicken
Golden Fried Chicken
Hot Fried Chicken
Ideal Fried Chicken
JSP Fried Chicken
Kennedy Fried Chicken
LA Fried Chicken
Morlies Fried Chicken
Northern Fried Chicken
Ohio Fried chicken
Perfect Fried Chicken
Quality Fried Chicken
Roosters Fried Chicken
Southern Fried Chicken
Tasty Fried chicken
USA Fried Chicken
V
Western Fried Chicken
X
Yorkshire Fried Chicken
Zenith Fried Chicken

If you know of any Fried Chicken takeaway stores in London or the UK that start with V or X, let me know.

If you are thinking about opening another Fried Chicken takeaway store, use the letters V or X to name your takeaway store. Below are some samples of V or X names.

Virgin Fried Chicken, Valiant Fried Chicken, Very-Good Fried Chicken

Xpress Fried Chicken, Xquisite Fried Chicken, Xcellent Fried Chicken

Let’s hope someone gets the idea and completes the alphabet of Fried Chicken takeaway stores in the UK for me.

smiles

To watch the game on the big screen, I had to pay for the sports services of Setanta as they were the only cable/satelitte company broadcasting the game here in London. So I opted to listen to the game live on the radio instead but it wasn’t enough for me. After scouring the internet for about 10 minutes, I found a website very much like youtube but offers Live broadcasting of the game through the browser.

I say AWESOME to that! The website was actually broadcasting what Setanta was showing to everyone so there was no need to go to a pub that early in the morning to watch the game live.

I don’t barrack for either team but I had a feeling the Hawks despite being the underdogs were going to create an upset and beat the formidable geelong outfit. I watched the game from start to end, witnessing the reigning premiers (the cats) nerves turn to jelly as their inaccuracies infront of goal lead them to their downfall as the hawks young guns guided them to their 10th Premiership.

The highlight of the game was during the awards ceremony when a player on the Hawks team (Mark Williams) accepted a medal from the child on stage. The deal was the player upon receiving the medal over the neck was to in return hand the child a cap.

It was a fair exchange but clearly Mark Williams did not take notice, so instead of giving the child the cat, he popped it on his head and after receiving his medal wandered off the stage, leaving the child hat-less, embarassed, up in arms and I bet devastated over the whole ordeal. Poor kid and shame on you Mark to not play out the script. Good news though, Mark did give the hat to the kid after realising his fault, so it was a happy ending for both parties involved.

Time to get some sleep!!!

I have provided the link, see if you can find them.

http://letyourselfgo.expedia.co.uk/metro/?p=10

smiles

As he got up to move from the seat, his jeans suddenly fell down to his ankles with his belt flinging to one side. This hobo had no idea what he was doing, the guy was seriously drunk. As he proceeded to pull up his jeans with the onlook of horrified passengers, the bus decides to move along in traffic and the next second you see him scrawling on the floor, jeans down to his ankles and lying there helpless.

As drunk as he was, he somehow managed to pick himself up then tried to stand up straight and pull up his jeans to no avail. I felt sorry for the two old ladies up front who were inches away from him, shaken up by the lapse in alcoholic concentration by a drunk man. The bus driver then decides to open the door, no not at a bus stop, but just flings it open, and the man, hand on his pants, stumbles out on to the road, soon disappearing into the sea of people.

I was almost home on the bus when I noticed a strange lady on the side of the road with an absurd amount of luggage. The bus was at going at a snails pace due to the traffic, so I had a decent look at the 2nd weirdo in the space of about 5 minutes. I have never seen anything so bizarre in my life but this lady was carrying about 20 bags, yes 20 bags of stuff. We aren’t talking about shopping bags, these are more like garbage bags full of her things.

What she would do is walk say 10 meters with one bag, go back to her stack, grab another bag and place them in the other stack in front. This bag-stacking-back-paddling would continue until she arrived at her destination wherever that may be. Seriously WTF? Can you imagine how long it would take to move all 20 bags by yourself?

I have 20 garbage bags, I move 1 bag 10 metres down the road. I come back to the stash, there are now 19 left to move. I take another bag and put it together with the other stash and so on. This is ridiculous!!! Couldn’t she at least steal a trolley or something to help her cope with these bags? God help her!

I couldn’t help but giggle to myself when I overheard the lady sitting next to me talking about this bag stacker lady. One time she was on a bus, and this bag lady came on board. She of course bought along all her bags, so it took about 10 minutes to load all her bags while all the disgruntled passengers looked on in disbelief. That is too funny.

Ahh the joys of living in and around Hackney! Makes your day interesting init?

smiles

I’ve been asked several questions about London from friends and family so I thought it would be a good idea to post them on the blog and for anyone who is interested can read. Seeing as I have been in London for a while now, I thought it would be a good idea to share some of my knowledge of London in regards to working and living here.

I don’t consider myself an expert just because I’ve been here close to 2 years now; however these answers are just through experience. Only until you step foot into this land will you know what is true and what is not regardless of where you get your advice. So either you can get some ideas of what London working and living is all about or take it as a grain of salt and just come on over. I recommend the latter!

For those who are thinking of coming over and trying out the working/travel life in London I say come on over. If you are worried about not finding a job or not finding a place to live here in London I say what’s the worst that can happen? You fly back home and return back to your old routine. If you don’t like change then I say give up now and turn yourself into a robot and let the world control you and your life (okay maybe gone too far here lol).

In saying all that crap, below are some questions that have been asked (courtesy of Stefan) but it also incorporates answers from others who have asked me questions. I hope you find this helpful and if you have any other questions let me know.

1. How much money do I need to save and start off with?

I would recommend you saving the amount of money that the working holiday now called the Youth Mobility Scheme and that would be £2800 or roughly about $5600AUD. You will need money for your first and second months rent. The more money saved the better but I would use that as a minimum amount of money to save.

The first month you will be finding a place to live and also a job. When you find that job, you most likely will be paid at the middle or the end of month number 2. Hence you use the money you saved to pay the rent for the second month. Once you start earning the pound, then you should have settled and save up money for your first trip somewhere in Europe.

2. What’s the best area to look to rent in? What sort of prices is to be expected for something 1 bedroom and furnished?

The underground train system called the Tube, services most of London up to and around Zone 6. Obviously the further out you live; the longer it is to get into central London if indeed that is where you want to work. However the rent is cheaper if you live out further as opposed to living in the central London. Well that applies to anywhere you live in the world.

If you are thinking of working in central London the best and most affordable places to live would be in Zone 2 and 3. Anywhere along those 2 bands would be an ideal place to live and get to work from. As a rough guide Zone 2 would take about 15-20 minutes to get into central London (Leicester Square or Piccadilly Circus) and Zone 3 would take about 30+ minutes.

In a Zone 1 expect to pay about £300-£500 per week for rent for a 1 bedroom apartment. As for house sharing in the same area expect to pay about £250-£400. In a Zone 2-3 expect to pay about £200-£300 per week for rent for a 1 bedroom apartment. As for house sharing in the same area, you could pay a little less around £100-£250 depending on how many people you live with.

The rule of thumb is that the more people you live with, the less money you are going to pay but you will be inconvenienced by sharing everything. If you are a couple I suggest you find your own apartment or a 2 bedroom and 2 bathroom apartment with 1 other to share the costs. The above prices for having your own apartment will be dependent on your luxury needs, whether you are in an old style building or a new modern apartment that just has been built.

Most people I know tend to live on the West side of London because they claim it’s safer, comfortable and believe that’s where everything tends to happen. I have lived there myself and I would say it is a lot busier than East London. I don’t know if I would agree or disagree with that safety or comfort level but it’s each to their own. East London was the subject of bombings during World War 2 so if that kinds of throws you off then don’t be alarmed, it happened 50 years or so ago.

Some popular places Aussies tend to live are Hammersmith, Fulham, Acton, Clapham Junction and Earls Court but if you want to get away from them, you can choose anywhere else except those places.

If you have never moved out of home before then your best bet is to house share. House sharing is a unique experience in that you share a great big house with sometimes up to 2-5 other people. Kitchen, bathroom, lounge and everything is shared in the house; you just get your own bedroom.

This is the cheapest form of accommodation but it also is the most fun, meeting new people and living with people in the same circumstances as you. Sometimes this can be a good thing when everyone in the house gets along but sometimes it can be bad if there are conflicts.

3. What are the living costs?

A monthly tube ticket for zones 1-2-3 (includes all buses): £120 roughly

Groceries per week: £20 average

If you get your own apartment, you will have to pay the bills. However if you house share, normally the rent (it would be specified) covers all the bills. Check before you move in.

Bills (per month):
- water : £5-£10
- electricity: £10
- council tax: £80-£100
- internet: £10
- mobile phone: £15

Lunch: £5-£8

4. How are the job markets going?

From the business reports I’ve read, they’re predicting a gloomy forecast for the UK economy so in turn that would mean less jobs. But depending on your field and your expertise, if you are good enough you can get a job no problems. Depending what period you come here then it will play a factor. In saying that, if the UK were to get out of this economy gloom, the job market has to pick up right? It’s the only way forward!

5. What’s the benefit with Contract roles v Permanent over here?

These two types of work are the same around the world so it’s no different here in the UK.

Contracting is targeted free lancers or those who are required for a short period of time to complete a job. You get paid more money but unlike permanent roles, you don’t get sick, holiday, bereavement or any other benefit. So it will cost you a lot of money as a contractor if you take a day off or go on holidays for a week.

If you are worried about whether the next job will be then contracting isn’t for you. Permanent on other hand is for stability and has benefits that I have mentioned. Also I’ve found that contracting is more for those in IT rather than other industries. So if you are in engineering, law or HR to name but a few occupations, I would advise to try to get a permanent role.

6. What are the costs of setting up as a contractor and paying tax that way?

Again I am not an expert in this field so if you want more experts advise; I suggest you look for umbrella companies or limited companies online.

When you are contracting you have a choice of using an umbrella company or a limited company. An umbrella company is a company that will handle your contracts, pay and paperwork. I guess you can think of them as your agent but they kind of control your company. So if this umbrella company goes down (goes into administration), you will go down with it also. i.e. you won’t be getting paid because they’ve packed up shop and left the building.

A limited company on the other hand is owned by yourself, you are the director of the company. A law has just passed here that states that you no longer need a secretary but I have one anyway who handles my paperwork and other things. I use a 3rd party company who help me look after my limited company as I have no prior knowledge of all the paperwork, tax, dividends and all that stuff. My secretary advises me how much I should pay myself and how much to leave behind for tax each pay slip.

7. Any good websites for rent/jobs/recruiters?

If you can transfer your job from home to here in the UK, that would be a great benefit. Otherwise the best thing to do when you arrive is to apply for jobs online through the many websites. Basically all the jobs go via recruiters like Hays, Hudson, etc. You can apply for as many jobs as you want then play the waiting game to get interviews and then wait again to see how you progress. I do believe that if you have a degree, have work experience (1year +), you will will find a job. I have yet to be proven otherwise!

Job Sites

Apart from searching through recruiter websites, here are job search sites.

http://www.seek.co.uk

http://www.reed.co.uk

http://www.jobsearch.co.uk

http://www.monster.co.uk

Rent/Apartments:

gumtree (job, apartment, trading advertisements – very popular) – http://www.gumtree.com

I have to say that you need to be careful on this site regardless if it is so popular here for expats. If you are fresh off the plane and just got into London then there are scammers out there who will want to rip you off or take your money because you are so vulnerable. If the place is too good to be true, then it usually is a scam. Never deposit money to anyone before seeing the apartment. The best way to see a place that you like is to contact that person and go in person to view the place, and then you will see if it is legitimate.

An alternative is to see a real estate agent and go through them. This approach is quite safe and straight forward.

8. Which bank is best to sign up with? Can I go through HSBC or ING and get my money there?

The most popular banks expats usually sign up with here is HSBC. But there others like Barclays, Lloyds TSB or Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) which is also popular. It is quite straight forward to send money from Australia into a UK bank account here and vice versa.

Other updates include the frustration and delay in my highly skilled visa. The saga continues and this time it is the slowness of the processing of applicationsby the UK Home Office. This is due to the Home Office receiving inundated applications sent just before the new immigration laws were passed. There is still about 4000 applications to be processed before it is my turn. I will be attempting urgent treatment next week so fast track my application, hopefully (fingers crossed) it works!

Hmm work is keeping me rather busy with plenty of projects coming through. Currently I am working on an important project that I have designed and implented that will benefit not only this hospital but others. I am thinking of submitting this in the annual creative and innovative hospital project competition to see if I can win any awards.

There’s not much else going on that is of interest to anyone. However you can check out my video below. It’s part 1 of my Around The World 2008 series.

smiles

I don’t listen to his stuff much these days so I thought many of his tracks were quite cheesy. However when he pumped out the old timely classics, that was genuinely awesome. When I saw him at Two Tribes 2002 in Melbourne, that was probably the best night at a rave but this time around he didn’t do it for me. The O2 Arena has a capacity of around 20,000 people and the sound system was really good. By the time I left, I almost went deaf but the camera did pick up some good sound. The only weird thing about the O2 arena is you get seats and you dance where you sit which is strange. You couldn’t go on to the floor unless you purchased the ticket to be down there.

Saturday was slow and it was a gloomy miserable day in London with the rain and it was perfect for recovery.

Sunday I headed up to White Hart Lane to see the Tottenham Spurs in action with the Italian side AS Roma. I went with my mate Leo who let me borrow a spare Tottenham shirt just to mix in with the crowd. It was a good game and Tottenham gave Roma a spanking with the final scores 5-0. 2 goals were scored in the first 3 minutes and about 3 goals were scored in the last 5 minutes. Roma was crap. There were only about 100 of their supporters tucked away in the corner of the stadium up against a 32,000+ loud Spurs fan. COYS! (Come On You Spurs) and YID Army were echoed loudly accross the stadium all afternoon.

smiles

When I got home this afternoon, I had an electrical bill which I was expecting. What I didn’t expect was the shocking amount that I had to pay this month (my 2nd bill). My first bill was at £106 and this latest bill was £972!!! If my calculations are correct, that is something like 816% increase, instead of the 9% increase that British Gas have announced.

First Electricity Bill: 

Second Electricity Bill: 

I was adamant this bill was incorrect, that would be like a year’s usage in one month so I called up the energy company to clarify what has happened. It turns out I gave them the incorrect meter reading. I gave them my actual meter number instead of the meter reading itself. My meter number is infact a 5 digit number and so too is the meter reading. Ah, that was uncalled for!

smiles

After a few adjustments I began to take better photos of the moon but still not perfect. The 200mm zoom doesn’t seem to be good enough for a clear shot of the moon but it is suffice. I took two photos on 2 different nights. On Thursday night the moon was a chalky white and on Friday night it was glowing orange almost red.

smiles

http://www.codingdotnet.com/

It’s basically a site to help the community including yourselves (if you are technically inclined) learn the .NET programming language and mastering Web Development. Not only will this site help others but it will also help me refresh my memory and technical skills when I come back on long trips around the world.

smiles

On the purchasing front, I have bought a new 22″ Dell LCD monitor to hook up with my macbook for more viewing pleasure. I was tired of squinting on the macbook so this 22″ Dell has made it easier to work on (write code), edit photos and just simply fit more things on the screen!

Another purchase I made this month was a ticket to Singapore with Singapore Airlines. I’m not flying on a 747 but instead on the new Airbus A380. I want to see how this mammoth takes to the skies and experience what it is like in a double decker plane. Actually now that I think of it, 747′s are double decker anyway because parts of the plane require you to climb up and down stairs. I know that the Qantas plane, in business class there is a stair case but this could be only at the front of the plane and not the entire carriage.

Yesterday I was bored in the afternoon so I decided to cook up a storm and make some Vietnamese Spring Rolls. I had a hiccup with the blender as it appears you need to have it configured correctly for it to run. So I just put some mince into a bowl, added some finely chopped onions (made me cry), salt, pepper and a sprinkling of sugar. Then using my hands (after washing it) I mixed everything together and made a giant mince ball. I then got out the block of pastry sheets (50) and peeled off one sheet at a time and started to put 1.5 teaspoons of the mince and then rolled it up into a spring roll, glued it together with some egg yolk near the top.

All up with 400grams of mince, I made 42 spring rolls since I threw away about 8 sheets of pastry. I deep fried about 10 rolls for sampling and stored the rest in the freezer for later consumption. I was impressed that the Spring Rolls cooked so well and tasted good too. I even got my housemates to sample them with a good verdict. Mum will be proud of these Vietnamese Spring Rolls.

Before:

After:

smiles

It makes the water seem rather dirty and unpleasant on the surface but is it really that dirty? What makes the Canal dirty is the amount of rubbish that is thrown in there and floating to the surface. I can assure you that this Canal is not as dirty as the Yarra River in Melbourne since you can see to the bottom of it but it is still not as clean as Lake Mackenzie on Fraser Island.

smiles

On one particular occasion, I went outside only to notice a few planes flying infront of the apartment then over the top of it. These planes were no ordinary 747 but it was in fact the Air Force One plane for the United States President. George W Bush just so happens to be in London this weekend until Monday for his final Europe tour. His plane was accompanied by smaller plans on either side of it, then another 747 behind it accompanied by jets and finally behind that 16 fighter jets all in formation.

You will never witness such a formation ever unless you are of course in war or might be lucky at a military parade. I was lucky enough to find my camera, which was on my table and my zoom lens in my bag to get some photos of these planes and jets flying past.

smiles

I could have gone for the 1 risotto as main but I opted for 2 to taste two different dishes. I had the risotto frutti di mare (seafood) and the risotto ai funghi (mushroom). Both were very nice and at the end of them, I could have gone for another plate. For dessert we had a mixed platter of cakes, tiramisu and raspberry sorbet.

I couldn’t help myself at the Apple Store on Regent Street so I decided to buy a new hard drive to store and backup all my photos from around the world on. For £109.95 ($220US,$240AUD) I got a 500gb hard drive which can store hundreds of thousands of photos on it.  I was tempted to buy other things but I left before I made anymore purchases, it was very tempting!

smiles

So far I’ve had not an ounce of luck with the Visa application despite paying for an agency to do it for me. The paper work I have received from the accountant had to be done twice which has cost me a fortune on top of the staggering visa price alone. So far it’s cost me about £2000 and it’s getting higher as the days drag on longer.

Most of the paper work relating to income earnings has been a complete nightmare and the source of all the drama. It’s been very stressful to say the least and I am yet to send off the application. Hopefully the end of this paper work is near then I can send off the application and then wait about 2 months for the result.

On a brighter side of things, the weather in London is warming up as Summer is approaching. The days drag on much longer and the sun is still up after 9pm. It gets completely dark at about 10:30pm so when you are not working, like on the weekends, you can enjoy a very very long day outside in the sun. In the UK, when it’s around 23 degrees celcius, they call it a scorcher! I wonder what they would describe the weather when its 42 degrees celcius … HELL?

9pm light outside.

smiles

Now I can finally do more updates from my recent travel, catch up with people and plan some upcoming trips!

smiles

I wasn’t fond of the idea so we decided to make it a race challenge and see who would get home first.

John’s course was to switch at Mile End (Central Line) and then board the District Line to get off at Bow Road station, then walk towards Bow Bus Garage and catch the bus then walk from the Bus station.

I decided to remain on the Central Line train and disembark at Stratford. At Stratford I had the choice of the Overground Train to Hackney Wick (1 stop) but these trains run every 30 minutes on sunday. My two other options were bus 276 or S2. So I had far more choices to choose from and I think I would easily get home first.

Seeing it was 10pm on a Sunday night, public transportation is limited and the waiting times are much longer unless you get lucky. Both of us didn’t have timetables so we were up against it.

The moment John got off at Mile End station, we both started our stop watches. Once we got on different transport mode, we would start a second counter and so on until we got home.

So I got off at Stratford only to find out that my Overground Train to Hackney Wick was in 20 minutes time. This train would have given me victory quite easily. Since I didn’t want to hang around for 20 minutes I exit the train station and headed for the bus station. The S2 bus was coming in 10 minutes and I couldn’t find the 276 bus so I waited for the S2 bus. The S2 bus took about 19 mins to the stop where I needed to get off and then it took 5 minutes to walk home. All up in total it took me 39:37.

John on the other hand waited for the district line which never came so he boarded the train to Stratford and found the 276 bus. This bus is quicker than the S2 bus to get to the same stop since it doesn’t loop around the highway. His total time was 34:53 so he got home first than me!!!

I think if I waited for the train, I would have gotten home first despite waiting for the 20 minutes. The train takes about 3 mins then the walk home another 5 mins. The S2 bus took way too long!

I’ll win the next challenge.

So far we have bought a tv cabinet, book shelf, shoe storage, laundry bags, laundry hanger, clothes hangers, computer desks, computer chairs, ironing board, pots, pans, cutlery, utensils and much much more.The list of things to buy seem never ending and the cash reserve is probably non existent now. The Nintendo Wii arrives today together with Mario Kart & 4 Controllers, we will be giving it a nice workout.

There has been a lack of updates since I have been so busy with work at the hospital and also there is no internet at home. I have been in disbelief that it takes 3-4 weeks for someone to install a phone line and another 2 weeks to install cable tv and internet. It has been frustrating talking to the phone companies and other utility companies!

smiles

The photo that was selected was a picture of a crab in Batemans Bay: http://flickr.com/photos/quangas/1473545990/

The email goes something like this.

Hi quangas,

I am writing to let you know that one of your photos has
been short-listed for inclusion in the second edition of
our Schmap Australia Guide, to be published mid-May 2008.

So I thought hey that’s pretty cool, so I accepted to be in the short list and just last night I got a confirmation saying that the photo was going to be included on the website and it got published.

:: Schmap Australia Second Edition: Photo Inclusion

Hi quangas,

I am delighted to let you know that your submitted photo
has been selected for inclusion in the newly released
second edition of our Schmap Australia Guide:

Batemans Bay
http://www.schmap.com/australia/water/p=146746/i=146746.jpg

My first ever photo to be published and hopefully more to come!

smiles

There’s still many things that have to be done for the Apartment. It’s like I’ve bought a place of my own and because it’s so new, the only things that the apartment comes furnished in is with beds, cupboards, sofa and some chairs.

So you can imagine what else I need to buy like toaster, kettle, microwave, cutlery, pots, pans, plates, bowls, cups, giant tv, awesome bbq and the list goes on.

Let’s worry about tomorrow’s outcome first!

smiles

I applied for a job yesterday afternoon, and minutes later I got a call from the recruiter who then told me to suit up and attend an interview in 30 minutes down the road. I turned up at the address, met my soon to be Manager and he started talking through the job. I got grilled on my technical skills but I was well prepared over the weekend and everything that I’ve done and taught myself has suddenly all come back, ahh the wonders of long term memory.

I got a call the next day accepted the job offer. Oh and work starts tomorrow and I’m actually working at a hospital! I’ve worked in the oils and gaming field already so now it’s on to patients, watch out.

Once the job offer was accepted, I headed down to the real estate agent and met up with Alin. The real estate agent who I would highly recommend for property rental or sale in London since he is a top block and really down to earth took us to review the apartments we were interested in.

An hour later I signed some paper work, put down a deposit and now I just have to wait to see if my reference check passes and earliest we could possibly move in is Saturday which is in under 4 days. The apartment is brand spanking new, it needs to be cleaned and mopped, then furnished, then I need to ensure all services like water, electricity are running and then I can finally call it home.

Photos of the apartment will be up soon, and fingers crossed the reference check is A-OK!

smiles

I’ve also been looking at new apartments to live in and the places I’ve gone to view are simply amazing. I cannot wait to put in an offer and secure the place before some other asshole gets it.

Apart from just applying for jobs, I’ve been catching up with friends and just eating a lot. I was invited to an ex-work’s party during the week which was cool. It was nice to see everyone again and see what they were up to.

Since I’ve gone away for so long, my skills that are required in my profession have been lacking somewhat so I’ve spent a bit of time revising and just going through everything I’ve done in the past but things are quickly coming back. I should be able to do really well in future interviews and secure another contract.

Until then, there’s thousands of photos to sort through, hours upon hours of video to extract and more job applications to fill out.

smiles

So I’ve started packing my gear and ready to move once again. Friends think I cannot keep still, which is true but why keep still when the world is at your feet! I’ve so far packed one suitcase which is ready to be shipped to my aunts place this weekend via the tube. Then I might need to pack a second suitcase the week after for anything extra I may not need or won’t fit in my rucksack. I will be packing light and if I do need anything, I’ll just make a purchase; this is mainly summer clothes!

My main asset on this trip is my camera gear, below are photos of what I will be carrying around for the entire trip. If i get mugged, that person will die! I’ve got all the necessary insurance just incase it goes astray but believe me, if I lose the photos (not so much the gear) I would go ape

Gear List:

• 2 x DSLR (Nikon D80 primary and Nikon D50 backup)
• 3 x Battery
• Nikon 18-55mm
• Nikon 70-300mm
• Nikon 18-200mm
• Sigma 10-20mm
• 72mm UV Filter
• 52mm UV, GRAD4 & Circular Polariser Filter
• 78mm UV, Circular Polariser Filter
• 4 x 1GB San Disk Ultra II SD Cards
• Sony Camcorder
• 8 x Mini DV Tapes
• Macbook

The gear list resembles that of a professional travel photographer. Now that would be a cool job!

smiles

Instead of shopping in the area, I was more observing the crazy shoppers rummaging down the packed streets or the insane shoppers joining the queues of hundreds to enter the Gucci store. I’ve never been to Selfridges before but to compare it to home, its like a giant version of Myers or David Jones. Getting inside was hard enough and moving around was even worse. After a quick browse in the entertainment area and finding that my camcorder was out of stock, I got the hell out of there.

I didn’t venture into any other stores other than Selfridges and most of the stores that I did want to go into were closed… wtf? I thought the idea of Boxing Day sales was to have a sale and have your store open to the public … well I guess not! Now I know for next time.

So I came home empty handed, went online and bought what I wanted in the comfort of my own room. It was at a bargain price and even now I think to myself, why I left to go for the shops and the crazy people in the first place? My goods should arrive soon and let’s say its my own xmas & bday present!

Lowepro Computrekker AW (Black)
Sony DCR-HC27 Mini DV Camcorder
Sony NP-FH50 H Series InfoLITHIUM Battery
Sony DVM60 MiniDV Tape 60min (5 + Head Cleaner Pack)

All for a grand total of £280

NO MORE Boxing Day sales for me.

smiles

Plenty of wine was drunk, the christmas crackers were popped and the kris kringle (secret santa known here) was shared amongst their respective recipients. This secret santa was a bit different in that people were asked to bring a £10 gift but it was not known to whom they were been given too. A gift was picked at from random, a name was then selected from a santa hat and the person called out receives the gift and then they pick out the next name and so on until all gifts have been handed out.

We even played celebrity heads at the restaurant so that was kind of fun, luckily i guessed who my celebrity was with the clues I had given myself. I received candles for my secret santa gift but since I wasn’t going to make any use of it, I swapped it with my new network administrator friend for her travel bag and socks haha. I’ve never met or know of a girl who is a senior network administrator, that’s like unheard of!

It was getting late when we headed home and I had a feeling there was going to be no tube trains going to Hammersmith and my suspicions proved to be true. The Picadilly line from Kings Cross station had shut its door on me so I was stranded in East London with nowhere to go apart from catching a taxi. I managed to find another train which goes to High St Kensington and then I decided to walk from there which took me about 30 minutes. Stupid tube trains.

London stops on Christmas Day. No tube trains run, No buses run so you can’t go anywhere unless you want to walk, ride a bike, drive a car or catch a cab. Without public transport the majority of Londoners cannot get to anywhere. So basically if you want to spend xmas with friends and family, it’s best to go on xmas eve and then stay over for xmas day and then come home on boxing day.

smiles

After downing some drinks at the ram, I asked a few work mates to come with me to another work mates party at a pub called ‘The Slug and Lettuce’ down in Oxford Circus. No one wanted to go or rather they couldn’t go because of flights to catch the next day to celebrate xmas with family overseas or around england. So I headed down there myself just to see what the party was like and also to meet some new people, londoners or the brits!

After a few more drinks at ‘The Slug and Lettuce’ with my new group of friends whom I don’t recall all their names since it was such a large group. My workmate Baige introduced me to everyone at the party but I just didn’t remember them all because the names were too hard to pronounce, overwhelming the memory bank with names or impaired by alcohol. It’s probably the latter. We finished up at the pub around 11pm then we made our way down to Elephant & Castle which is an actual suburb here in London where the famous Ministry of Sound is located.

I always wanted to go to this club as I listen to so many of their compilation CD’s especially the chillout collection. There are always well known DJ’s playing at this club so Friday night it was time to pop on those dancing shoes and party on. Tonight I was going to get a dose of drum n bass (DnB) and although I’m not a fan of DnB, I was excited to just be at the club.

The queues weren’t too bad, it took about 30 mins to get in. The good thing about being in the queue is that the music being played inside is broadcasted outside whilst you are in queue so you can see some party-goers bopping to the music. Inside Ministry of Sound there are two main areas and a few smaller areas for with different types of music. I spent most of the time in the main arena where the DnB was playing. The big acts for the night were from Goldie and LTJ Bukem whom I’ve never heard of before.

It’s a bit weird to dance to DnB but once you get a few drinks and you get into the music, everything starts to flow. The music either got better as the night progressed or else the DnB flowed inside of me. The laser light scanners, the smoke, the strobe and the flashing of orange lights made the atmosphere so much better. It would be good to come back here and to see performances from the DJ’s that I like, namely Deep Dish!

Cool club, I’d like to go back!

No photos or videos… I can’t believe the one night I forget the camera was the night I go to Ministry of Sound (MOS).

smiles

I don’t think I’ve ever consumed so much alcohol in my whole life in the space of a week but it’s been sensible drinking not going all out and getting blind drunk and not remembering what I did or didn’t do the night before. It has been a fun week but it’s finally caught up to me this weekend so sunday will be spent chilling out and watching movies or something not so strenuous … like drinking

Sunday 9th – Stacey’s last weekend in London

A night out with the housemates & other guests to enjoy our last weekend with the love-able kiwi Stacey. Plenty of drinks going round and the only drama of the night was us stealing a lamp shade from one bar and managing to get it into another bar across the road.

Stacey doesn’t remember us putting the lamp shade around her and then surrounding her to disguise the fact that we were stealing the lamp shade. To get it into the other bar, Stacey used the excuse that her hat was broken and the body guard was stupid enough to let us in (who wears a 60cm lamp shade on their head?)

Monday 10th – Dinner @ Stonemasons Pub (next door)

Pub dinner with the new flatmate Dave (Brighton in Victoria) – just feeding out appetite.

Tuesday 11th – Virgin Games XMAS Party @ Kensington Roof Gardens (wow)

Massive party with the Virgin Games team at the fancy Roof Gardens in High St Kensington. It’s known as Sir Richard Branson’s urban playground. It basically is a building with a few floors of function rooms and clubs, then at the top there is a huge garden (with flamingo’s apparently and other birds) which a nice view of London surrounds.

We started off with a 3 course dinner then it was an open bar with drinks flowing until close of 2am. Some of us got kicked out, some of us drank silly amounts of alcohol but most of us consumed a lot of alcohol but danced the night away. I ended up walking home at 2am in the morning and got home at about 2.30am and ready for work at 10am the next day

Wednesday 12th – Stacey’s farewell party (bar/pub hopping @ Covent Garden)

You’d think after a big night out that I wouldn’t continue on the next day but guess you were wrong. After work I met up with Stacey and began our first drinks at a bar called Ruby Blue where we met up with Kate & Amy as well as Stacey’s workmates. After that we went to bar number two called Dirty Martini, then onwards to Los Locos (met up with Karishma here), then onwards to Bunker and then on to …. home for me. The rest of the group went to one final bar but Karishma & I had already decided to go home and I was in bed by 11pm sound asleep.

Thursday 13th – Ice skating & Drinks @ The Slug in Fulham

I thought I’d had a nice night relaxing tonight but I hadn’t planned on this event as I had forgotten I had signed up to ice skating months ago. So after checking emails that morning I was raring to go straight after work. Before meeting up with everyone at the Tower Hill Ice Skating rink, we went to a nice Spanish restaurant called La Rueva where we got some Tapas and paella (mmmm).

I was a bit rusty on the ice skating rink and my ankles were killing me. So after a change of skating boots I was well on my way skating around the ice rink with my classy finesse (not really). There were lots of beginners on the ice rink so most of the time you would just be avoiding crashing into people. It was a good night and nice to catch up with others and meet some new ones as well.

On the way home I was about 10 metres from my door when my housemates appeared from nowhere walking the other way. Karishma came to hug me and then asked if I wanted to go Fulham, I don’t know why I said yes (it was already 10.30pm). Minutes later we were at this cheesy bar drinking and dancing. After a couple of drinks I headed home first and the housies returned later.

Friday 14th – Drum Jamming (African Drumming Classes) @ Kentish Town

After downing a nice risotto at the pub near Kentish Town tube station my old and new group of friends headed towards a community center ready to enjoy the African drum beats. We took a 2hr lesson playing the African drums and other musical instruments, and it even included singing. It was something different to do instead of being a bar and it was really fun.

smiles

The sun was out and about during the morning, and it did like it was going to be a lovely day but it wasn’t the case in the afternoon. Since it was a sunny morning my friend Connie suggested we go to Hyde park so that was where we went that afternoon. When we got there the clouds had gathered and started raining.

During winter Hyde Park gets transformed into a Winter Wonderland. They assemble ice skating rinks, christmas markets, rides and other activities for the public. I thought the ice rink would be quite big but seeing it first hand, it sure was tiny. The christmas markets were not that great and the line to get a German sausage were ridiculously long.

We didn’t do any activities there besides checking out the markets and just wandering through taking photos and such. It was too cold to hang out there for too long so we decided to walk into Chinatown for some Japanese from Hyde Park bypassing Buckingham Palace and various other parks and tourist hotspots.

smiles

During the afternoon, Karishma who had the day off organised all the finger food for the evening and also decorating the house. The plan after work was to eat dinner, setup the christmas tree and then hand out each other’s Kris Kringle present.

I spent a few hours on Sunday creating my Kris Kringle present which was basically a photo of Hammersmith Bridge (which I had taken one evening) inside a wooden picture frame. Stacey who was my Kris Kringle really wanted a picture of the bridge as a memento before she left so I guess it was a perfect gift for her. She got an A4 size photo frame and since I was in a giving mood I also created smaller photo frames for the rest of the crew.

Dinner and finger food consisted of pizza, sushi, chips & dips, curly fries, chicken gourgens, sausages wrapped in bacon and hash-browns. Dessert was these soft chocolate biscuits topped with a few spoonfuls of vanilla ice-cream.

My Kris Kringle was Greg and he got me a frisbee. It will be good to use when we go to the parks closeby. Greg received a desk basketball kit, Kate got a bingo set, Karishma got jewellery and Stacey a photo frame.

smiles

The restaurant seats about 500 people so it is a very large restaurant. As you come into the door, there is a guy waiting to get your jacket and store it on a rack. Just get a ticket off him and return when dinner is over.

The whole restaurant makes you feel like you are in Thailand or somewhere exotic. Inside the restaurant there is a Thai version of a japanese garden with humungous gold fishes, running waterfalls and mini bridge in the middle of the restaurant. Plants wiggle there way around the entire restaurant and all the tables are lit with candles so the atmosphere was very nice.

The food was quite nice as well but nothing amazing though and definitely doesn’t reflect the price tag on it. It worked out to be something like £125 ($289AUD) for 3 people. I had some pad thai with clay pot of beef in some mild sauce. Other dishes included scallops, soft shell crabs, stir fried lamb, wild rice, sticky rice and a place of crocodile meat! I’m not adventurous with food because of medical reasons but I had a small piece of crocodile which didn’t taste too bad. It has a fishy taste with a chicken texture.

I don’t have any photos of this place as this was a last minute dinner call up. I had no idea we were going to such a posh place so I wasn’t really prepared. I was just expecting your typical Thai restaurant but this was way over the top. Great place nonetheless.

http://www.blueelephant.com/london/index.html

smiles