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Thursday, 26 December 2008 - Sun? Ha!

Holy shit, look at that bright yellow thing in the sky - sun!		And look at that forecast (mind you look at the temperatures hehe). £20 says it rains by Tuesday ;)

I spent today biking some 50kms along London's canals, west of the city. This area is known as Little Venice (for whatever reason), and is just down the road from my flat (good bars in the area!).		Little houseboats as far as the eye can see!

Home sweet home.

Getting festive when you live on a boat.		Moving house when you live on a boat.		Shopping when you live on a boat.

The canal itself starts out nice enough in my area...		...but before long, shit. I wouldn't be walking down here at night.

Delightful. While taking a photo of something in a quiet and dodgy suburban area somewhere around here, a group of four or five yobs came walking up behind me. I heard one of them quietly say to the others, "That's a nice bike". Weather it was just a passing comment or not I wasn't hanging around to find out.

After 20kms I ended up out near Heathrow Airport (about 30km west of central London). From here you can head some 200kms northwest to Birmingham, following the canal the whole way. Back in the day this was a vital transport link for hauling raw goods between the two cities.

Instead of going to Birmingham I headed east back into dirty old London, and eventually hit the dirty old River Thames from where it's another several kilometres of pedestrian-terrorising fun (if you have an air horn) into the city centre.

Tuesday, 30 December 2008 - Advice for New Year's
Don't drink and drive - video here. Enjoy, and happy New Year! :)

Wednesday, 31 December 2008 - Happy New Year!

9:30pm, traffic should be light because all roads in central London were closed for the night, therefore people should know better than to drive into town, therefore catching a bus in shouldn't be a problem, right? Wrong! Such is the mentality of Londoners. My bus turned on to the main road leading into town from my neighbourhood, and we sat there for another ten minutes while the only traffic to move was a few cop cars with sirens blaring.		So I got off the bus and walked the hour into town, during which time the traffic jam continued to barely move. Idiots. Eventually I reached the road closures and pedestrian traffic had taken over (and so had the boys in blue).

Piccadilly Circus.		Trafalgar Square (the official centre of London, from which all distances are measured).

Whitehall, looking down towards Big Ben from Trafalgar Square - jam packed!		An hour and five to go ;)		Any excuse for a protest.

I eventually found a spot on Lambeth Bridge, just south of the Palace of Westminster and the London Eye.		Since New Year's 2005, the Eye has been the focal point of London's New Year celebrations, with 10-minute fireworks displays taking place with fireworks fired from the wheel itself. It was hardly Hogmanay, but I was told it was worth seeing.		Sure enough, bang on midnight the wheel exploded as fireworks shot out all over the show lighting the dirty River Thames below.

Before too long though the whole show became a massive smoke cloud - there was no wind tonight to get rid of it. Some ten minutes later that was that, and I walked another hour out to Katie's pub where she'd been working all night (bummer). My legs were bloody stiff from all the walking - they'll cycle over 100kms but they don't like to walk hehe.				Later in the night / morning this was no doubt happening all over the world - drunks getting loaded into the back of an ambulance. Good way to start the year.

Thursday, 1 January 2009 - World Clock
Link here - interesting stuff!

Saturday, 3 January 2009 - Free Palenstine

I came across this in Trafalgar Square today - a big protest about all the hoohar going on in the Middle East at the moment regarding Israel and Palestine.

To be honest I haven't really been following it, but I do know tensions have started flaring again. All of these friendly-looking people were chanting and waving flags, and I'm pretty sure the dude on the right was fishing pennies out of the fountain hehe.

Even the kids were getting into it - kind of.				"Has anyone seen my other shoe?"

As the sun went down they took their flags and placards and headed home. I don't mean to sound cynical but I can't see this parade making much difference.

Sunday, 4 January 2009 - Old men and pubs

Outside the local pub this afternoon. I'm guessing he walked himself inside, and I'm also guessing he'll 'drive' home drunk afterwards hehe.

Monday, 5 January 2009 - Brisky, brisky, brisky!

Ooooo it's cold out there, brrrr. Brisky, brisky, brisky. Brrrr! I tell ya, I woke up this morning and my hand was stuck to my leg it was so cold! Brrrr, chilly!

Saturday, 10 January 2009 - Kiwis and Aussies

Living with an Australian. It has its ups and downs (the shot on the right being very much an up - red wine all over the place! ;)

Tuesday, 13 January 2009 - Happy people

The story is funny enough but the photo had me in hysterics! At least one car a year goes ploughing through that wall apparently, but due to the extreme cold we've had lately the roads are like ice rinks, and six cars went for a skate right through this thing and made light work of it, all in one day hehe!		Oh man that is good stuff! The old duck on the right was on the phone to the local council demanding they come grit the road when one of the six came hurtling through.		It couldn't have happened to a happier-looking couple!

Wednesday, 14 January 2009 - All work and no play
I worked a whopping total of 90 hours spread over seven days last week, and a butt-load more already this week (big project, lots of issues, none of them mine I might add but they've become mine)! As a result I've had no time to put any crap on here, but hopefully I'll get a weekend and a life back as of this Saturday! In the meantime, check these out: Animator vs. Animation, and Animator vs. Animation II (and there's heaps more random stuff here! :)

Saturday, 17 January 2009 - Four years and counting...
Four years already since I left home sweet sweet home. The day before I left to do this antipodean-termed ‘overseas experience' thing, January 16th, was very sunny and warm. At the time I was living in a little town about a half hour north of Christchurch. I spent the first part of that day with my Mum and Jared (my younger brother) walking our greyhound, Joe, in a huge empty paddock just down the road. I say walking, but Joe would run around, go nuts, and generally be an idiot, while the rest of us just loitered in someone else's property hehe. I remember what we were doing, I remember my Dad calling me to wish me well (he was living up north at the time), I even remember what I was wearing! Later that day I drove to the other side of Christchurch to my mate's house, and handed him the keys to my beloved Skyline (and he handed me $7,000). Later that night I was paid an impromptu visit by another mate of mine, and I remember walking back up our long driveway after they left wondering excitedly but anxiously about what was to lay ahead. I remember all of those things so vividly and I think about that day often, but what do I remember of January 17th four years ago... fuck all hahaha! I think that could be put down to homesickness.

Four years on I'm doing really bloody well, and I really couldn't have asked for much more than what I've experienced and what I've learnt in that time. 19 months in Brisbane, two years in Edinburgh, and now six months and counting in London. From here I'm thinking another 18 months in London, and then relocating to Canada in summer 2010. Maybe two years there, and then a further six months travelling around Asia before returning home. By my math that's four more years, so I sit here munching on M&M's and writing this dribble at what I assume will be the approximate half way point.

Travel over the last 12 months included a week's road trip in the States after spending a few days in New York, and finishing in Washington D.C.; a week and half in Vancouver, including a few days in Calgary and Banff; and finally an awesome two-week road trip right along the south of France, east from Monaco to Spain in the west, with Andorra somewhere in the middle! The US was interesting, Canada was beautiful, but that French road trip was bloody tops!

Travel over the next 12 months... stay tuned :)

Sunday, 18 January 2009 - London: not Edinburgh

Nothing like a bit of consistency is there?
It was sunny (for once) when I looked out my window this morning, so I decided to do the old 'pick some random roads and just follow them' thing and see where I ended up. An hour later this is where I ended up - some dump called Neasden! Aside from the Skyline above, there was nothing here except a blatant reminder that I'm not in Edinburgh anymore. So I gave up on that and instead biked right across to the other side of London to check out something I read about during the week.

On Thursday at about 6:15am, this double-decker went hurtling through the front door of McDonalds hehe - good one! Three passengers on board required medical attention and some new underwear after soiling themselves, and the driver required the hospital and probably a new job as there were apparently no other vehicles or persons involved. News article here if anyone is interested.

Well thank goodness. Heaven forbid McDonalds should ever close!

Monday, 19 January 2009

Dat's no' how you spell porridge! (see this advert on YouTube :)

Tuesday, 20 January 2009 - Out with the Bush, and in with the black!

Wednesday, 21 January 2009

Thursday, 21 January 2009 - Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret.

Apprently women are too afraid of heights.		These slogans have just started appearing on buses throughout London this month. Some atheist group calling themselves the British Humanist Associate wanted to raise around £5,000 last year which would then be matched by the most outspoken atheist of them all, Professor Richard Dawkins. This would be enough to have this splattered on two sets of 30 buses for four weeks. However, they actually raised around £40,000 - eight times more than they aimed for hahaha (read into that what you will). With the extra money they're putting posters inside buses as well, and running this 'campaign' in other cities across the country. News article here. THERE'S PROBABLY NO GOD. NOW STOP WORRYING AND ENJOY YOUR LIFE. At the risk of stirring up a few chickens, I personally agree with this (use the 'Add Comment' button below if you want to add your 10 cents ;)

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