So it begins

Routine

Published Date : September 30, 2003

Today it was back to work after my busy weekend.  I dropped my photos off to be developed.  My new contact lenses arrived.  Yay!

Tonight I headed out to the Richmond with the girls: Sian (SA), Deb(Aus), Cathy(Aus) and Emma(Aus).  We had one last drink with Cathy, then a tearful goodbye all around when she left for the airport.  A convoy of military lorries drove by the pub.  Did war break out and they forgot to tell us?  We all plastered ourselves against the window and blew kisses at the soldiers.  Is this Amsterdam or London?

A bunch of others showed up later, but it was a pretty subdued night.  It’s Deb and Danny’s last night too.  Deb is off to Spain in the morning, and Danny (Aus) is heading up to Edinburgh.  Everybody’s leaving!

Saffas and Sangria

Published Date : October 4, 2003

It’s October already!  When did that happen?  It’s dark when I go to work and dark when I come home now.  Winter is fast approaching.

I decided to head back up to Edinburgh for Christmas with my brother.  I started looking at plane tickets, but the cheapest I’ve found so far is £78.  I’m definitely flying this time though.  No more marathon bus trips or nightmare train rides for me.

I spent a lot of my spare time time this week with Sian and Graeme (both Saffas) who are both good fun.  Graeme just finished up a medical trial so poundies at the Richmond on Thursday were pretty good – he had loads of cash and was allowed to drink for the first time in 6 months.  There was plenty of drinking, dancing and fun to be had by all.

The highlight had to be tonight though.  We were all planning on having a quiet one in the lounge, but then we found out that Flavio was singing in a Spanish Tapas restaurant nearby.  About 8 of us ended up showing up, cheeering on Flavio and drinking too much sangria.  Flavio put on an incredible show.  He’s very talented on the guitar and with his singing.  It’s too bad he has such a tough time staying sober or he could actually get somewhere with his music.

Same old

Published Date : October 11, 2003

The last week has been pretty quiet.  I bought my plane tickets to Edinburgh for Christmas – £78 return.  It’s a bit pricey, but an hour and a half most definitely beats 6-10 hours on the train or bus!  I’ll be flying out of Heathrow on 23 December and coming back on the 28th.  I decided not to stay for Hogmannay because I didn’t want to take more time off work than I had to.

James (Aus) got back from Oktoberfest earlier in the week.  He reckons he had a good time because he woke up with an empty stein in his backpack, no money in his wallet, and no recollection of anything after the first 5 beers.  It sounds like it was a fun trip.

Hardus, my Saffa co-worker, came back from Oktoberfest two days ago.  Co-incidentally, he too has very little recollection of being there ��  I’m sensing a pattern here.  He also stopped off in Belgium, Holland, and France while he was at it.  He had a busy couple of weeks.

Tonight was another night at the Richmond – I think I spend more time there than I do at the hostel.  It was another light one.  Not much drinking, but much fun and dancing (sandwich anyone??)  I think I’m finally getting the “moderation” thing down.

I’ve started planning my next trip.  The results of my little e-mail poll are in and the winner is…ROMA!  Yes, I’m going to Rome.  I’m thinking 3rd or 4th week in November – maybe I’ll make it a birthday present to me!  It’ll be nice to see it again.

Only other thing worth mentioning was that I didn’t get paid this week for some unknown reason.  I can’t find out until Monday either.  We are not amused.

Boredom and burnout

Published Date : October 18, 2003

I find myself walking home from work at night cursing about all the damn selfish people who keep getting in my way and pissing me off.  Oh dear god!  I’m turning into a Londoner!  It’s unavoidable.  If you live in this city long enough it gets to you.  You turn into a lonely, bitter shell of your former self.  I can feel the beginning of the downward spiral into the miserable existence that is living in London…

Okay, a touch melodramatic, but it’s still true!  What was I thinking taking a one-year work contract?  I’ve gotta get out of this city.  Which is what I’m going to do next month.  I booked my tickets to Rome for £70 return.  It would’ve been £42 if I had booked two days earlier. D’oh!  Anyway, it’ll be great to get away from London for a bit.

As for the rest of the week, last Sunday night found us (Sian, Graeme, Emma, Sonya, Deb and James) all at the Walkabout in Shepherd’s Bush for £1.50 snakebites.  At 6:15pm they held a short memorial and a minute of silence in memory of the victims of the Bali bombing.  Everyone was in a rather celebratory mood after the memorial, celebrating the fact that they were alive to enjoy the night. It was a good time.

We had a bizarre French guy move in for a couple of days  He walked around the hostel in his boxers most of the day, asking everybody if they were French.  “Are you sure you are not French?  You seem very French to me.  You are slightly crazy.  Maybe schizophrenic.  But this is normal for London people.  But really, you are sure you are not French?”  At first it was funny, but it got old pretty quickly.  Luckily he was only here for a couple of days.

Actually we’ve had a rather big turnover in the hostel over the last couple of days.  Jess and Chris are back from Egypt, tanned and full of stories.  It sounds like they had a really good time.  Nidal, a fellow from Jordan has just moved in – he’s really interesting to talk to.  There have been more than a few political discussions over the last couple of days.  The people who seem like they’re going to be sticking around for a while are Layla (SA), Jake (US) and Gray (Aus).  Everybody else looks like a Random (that’s the new lingo for a short-termer :-D) Danny is also still around – he decided not to go to Scotland after all.  It’s nice to see another familiar face around with all these newbies taking over the hostel!