London

Ok today we turned into real tourists…walked the thames, saw the Tate Modern. Had another english breakfast because we can’t find a place called Belushis that one of the local crap vendors recommended…I kept trying to figure out how I knew the name Belushis….hmmmm….I think someone recommended it….hmmmm…Must’ve been Matt….oh well we didn’t find it….
plan was to go to rollins show which I thought started at 6:30…at least that’s what the ticket said…We roll up about 6:20 to find that it’s door opening at 6:30 YOU JERKS!!! You need to say that on the ticket don’t you…pricks…so we walk a bit and find a Belushis…I immediately open the door and said something like I don’t like this place… too loud and too many loud people…as we have time to kill we go in anyways…it’s Australia day…
At some point I recall that Matt had written something like “Belushis (avoid)”. If Matt indeed wrote that then I have a whole new respect for you mate…. 😉

Back to venue…Rollins comes on at 8 promptly…He was pretty good, but like many comedians/satirists who talk about politics his views on politics are often simplistic and half true…He was still funny and still worth seeing.

London

Do a bit of shopping around Camden…kill time until meeting Rob and Claire at the Holly Bush pub…great pub…great night….Thanks Claire and Rob for the invite!

i did the most incredible selling job ever to get them to the Dublin Castle, but we ended up there for only 5 minutes….place was crap…went back to Vikki’s.

still the 23rd part II

Sanne arrives late and I had to go rescue her from the gritty streets of London (ok not so much)…
We went to dinner at Masala Zone…I think it’s the first chain Indian restaurant I’ve been to (it is a chain right). The food was pretty good, but our waitress was horrible…ended up that we had to order from another waiter…tsss
OK I know that story just isn’t interesting, but being as the state I’m in is not so awake and now probably dehydrated I’m just not thinking right…
OK…then what happened…..back to the hotel for bad british TV.

Still the 23rd

walked around another 10km…got muddy shoes from walking through some park…In the park there was a peacock, a bunch of parakeets and two old people…the old people were having a conversation about birds…It was sort of cute, but you can just imagine that all old people everywhere have this same conversation 99 times in their lives…or maybe even 99 times a day…at what point do people stop having things to talk about besides weather, birds etc?

saw latest Coen Brothers movie…No Country for old men…rather liked it…moreso than most Coen Brothers movies on first viewing…I guess I need to watch it again…I see it got a bunch of oscar nominations…I also noticed I was the only one chuckling at the dialogue…I think the dialogue was uniquely rural (texas), and maybe that’s why I was the only one laughing…I just don’t know how the brits would “get” quite a bit of it…Brits tell me your impression of the movie…

After I walked past the theatre and decided I would come back later and watch the movie, I had an hour to kill so I walked into the nearest pub…Turned out to be an old man pub…There were 5 guys (all Scots I think) in there and they were all the locals I’m guessing…they knew each other, and 4 of them left so number 5 turns to me and we chat…He bought me a beer and told me to stay out of Stratford…Don’t go to the ATM at night…you’ll see….you’ll see…and it’s funny I mentioned going on vacation and doing the same things you always do because this guy goes to Austria “11 or 12 times a year” and drinks…i said you can do that here…
I soon left to get to the movie and they didn’t even start it on time…I think it was 15 minutes before the ads even started…jerks!!!!

Stratford has a shop called poundland

Was asked by a colleague today why the US states are voting for candidates one state at a time…Wouldn’t it be easier to just have the party pick a candidate…
my snap answer was that 200 years ago a bunch of old white men did exactly that…but the people wanted a voice in the process (ok I probably have never in my life uttered “the people”, but it’s much more dramatic if I just put it that way)…Then I started thinking/stuttering (only stuttering because the thought came to me as I was speaking so it wasn’t full thought out yet) about it might not be necessary for the people to have a voice at this level (primary levels) if people actually had a party that represented them…Unfortunately in the states the bloody two party system has put such a stranglehold on (can’t find the right word to go here…modernity, progress, civility, change, free lottery tickets and/or guns for all citizens when you turn 18) – (too many politicians/stupid people always automatically against anything new/exciting/unknown – try thinking big once a generation)…in Iraq (for instance) they have proportional representation…how’s that for modern….

what was my still as yet unthought-out-thought….
oh yeah…if Americans had a party that they could trust (which means you need a true multi party system – complete with proportional representation or the requirement of parties agreeing to work with each other because they need each other) then they wouldn’t need to vote themselves at the preliminary level…because the party knows they (the people) have other choices….
except when people complain about having too much choice….Wal-Mart is our friend because why would you want to punish a poor 10 year old who just wants a 5$ skateboard when the brat should learn to save up 70$ for a real skateboard at a real skate shop)…
know what I’m saying people….

I haven’t really reread this to verify it’s clarity :)))))) har, but don’t worry it probably makes no sense whatsoever…Someday I’ll write a book to clarify all the crap I’ve written here, but I won’t remember what I meant at the time…and my mom would be the only buyer…because the people are stupid…drat!

ok…Will be in London two weeks from last night…am staying at a friends place…Here’s her review of the area of town she lives in…(sorry I didn’t ask your permission or anything as to if i could use this…)…I shall remember to bring extra batteries to view the festivities at Poundland…where things only cost 1pound….
Gee Wally….I’ve never visited the ghetto before…Do you think it’s safe…do ya???

I may have just made a leave it to beaver reference…check back tomorrow…

Vikki: no the tubes do not run 24hours!

they run til about 12:30am, then we have night buses.

stratford will have many attractions in the year 2012 as its where the Olympics will be, but sadly its not built yet and is the talk of the town. stratford is a bit of a ghetto, it can be likened to the bronx, come prepared. its possible to buy chicken and chips from many different types of chicken houses and then of course there is the REAL KFC. its cheap at 1.99 a meal and they throw in a can of coca cola from turkey or poland too. stratford is close by to the indian capital of london (green st/brick lane), it has a big population of polish people with polish shops and polish food and actually, its the most multi-cultural borough of london. you can get big bowls of fruit for just £1. the best restaurant in stratford is a thai. it is a greasy spoon cafe during the day and at night becomes a magical candlelit greasy spoon which serves thai food. amazing really, they even let you take your own booze. stratford has a big station you can take a train called shittylink to camden, trains to the coast in essex (southend), trains to liverpool street (the city), central (red) line trains through to oxford circus (the centre of everything london), the spangly new jubilee line which passes through mini manhattan (canary wharf/docklands) and the DLR driverless trains which could be likened to a monorail (never say this to someone who works for the DLR, i did, and its offensive). stratford has a shopping centre which you need to pass through to get to the station, im trying to think of nice things to say about this shopping centre, it has a shop called poundland, this seems to be a very popular shop and it is full of wonderful things which would normally cost more elsewhere but here just cost £1. the shopping centre has a market inside it during the day, they sell fruit and veg and old ladies nightdresses, some of the stalls sell clothes costing just £3. stratford has a theatre and a performing arts centre, its where the lar de dah people of stratford go. stratford has a big supermarket called morrisons, a recent survey shows that morrisons is the 2nd cheapest place to go shopping above asda’s supermarkets. stratford has a one way system, a big library, its own radio station, an IBIS hotel, a nice pub, a wetherspoons pub, a gay pub and a gay discotheque. stratford has many parks, one near my place is west ham park, some say its the famed park from the song ‘itchycoo park’ by the group small faces.

finally, stratford or da ‘hood affectionately called by me and my mob.. ROCKS. (most of the time).

when you’re tired of reading what i have to say about it, check it out here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stratford%2C_London

good news is, it takes 20 minutes on the red line to the centre of town.

i never realised how much trivia i knew about my hometown, gee am i proud!

do you need help finding a way to your aunties? trains here:

www.thetrainline.com london transport here: www.tfl.gov.ukim away until monday give me a shout when back and ill have the crackberry.

seeee youx

Bordeaux

no entry for well over a year…this is even worse than that time…

OK so spent another weekend in France…it rained…and rained…Looking at the muddy river in bordeaux really made me think of the Coos Bay waterfront. miss it from time to time….

the food in France is really quite amazing…expensive, but I think really really good….

this also goes for pastries…Woe be to those (can one say that 😉 who hit the Saturday/Sunday markets for pastries….Good lord that raspberry tart thing was bloody amazing!!!! Even after sitting for about 24 hours unrefrigerated…

I miss the sweet sweet sound of the chicken dance….The chicken was liberated from the Cambridge or Oxford, or Chelsea Arms, or Buckingham Palace or the fox n Hound or whatever the name of that English pub was…

Brittany

So back from France…

Lost a sweatshirt.

Met some more nice French people. saw the beautiful French coast in Brittany…if anyone in the states is thinking of visiting France I would definitely recommend Brittany (but bring a French speaker). Bordeaux isn’t that interesting and I have not been to Paris yet, but unless you want to visit Disneyland Paris (I DO!!!!) I can’t imagine Paris really has anything more interesting or beautiful than Brittany…there are plenty of old stones etc everywhere in Europe, so spare yourself the big city…The French I’ve known don’t even like Parisians…

took a buttload of pics, so check the Brittany page

One thing I found interesting is Gaelic similarities…there are many monoliths in Brittany and there is a Bretagne language which is apparently similar to Gaelic… I’m oblivious to the history of that (did these people come from the UK then to France, vice versa, or did the original Gaelic people come from further north and populate both areas at the same time?). Interesting…real question is will I be interested enough to actually do a bit of research…

spent some time learning Deutsch…I now have mastered verbs…

when i saw mastered I mean I now know that the plural singular verb is the same as the formal plural plural singular verb…

this just in…I have no clue about Deutsch, but I now how to say all forms of the verb fiken…but apparently I don’t know how to spell fiken.

anyways…the week was great…might have been the Best holiday ever!!!!!

Randoms

more thoughts on france…

KLM is not the greatest airline I’ve ever been on….when i say not the greatest I don’t mean to imply that they aren’t they worst airline ever…however considering the business I work in I would never say anything like KLM is the worst airline ever…never ever…never…but I do want to be clear that KLM is not the best airline I’ve ever been on…

that is all on that topic…

french cab drivers are more than willing to rip you off…jerks….no tips…

I’ve complained about the rude Germans waiting to get on the streetcar, but the french are worse…the germans will stand there and not really get out of the way as you are attempting to dismount…while the bloody french will actually try to board the train before everyone is even off…I’ve started to just run into people as i get off…unless they make an effort to get out of my way or they are old ladies…I think this is like road rage on the public transport…

on a related topic can a german give me some deutsch I can utter to warn people that I’m about to run into them if they don’t get out of my way…achtung hackfresse!!!! I’m about to run into your sorry arse, and If I’m carrying a bag that hits you a second time I’m not sorry about it…

Bordeaux has sprawl…it makes me appreciate Frankfurt….ahhh sweet sweet Frankfurt…

mom I still need your address!!!! are you still on dial up?

sharing Frisbee stories really brings two people closer…

everyone has one frisbee story and it always involves the time someone got hit in the face with a frisbee…

why does MS want to capitalize Frisbee….I can’t express how that makes me feel.

Polski

I’m not sure if I said this and I can’t be bothered to read back, but the Polish people were fabulous and so hospitable…Cheers to them!!!
other memories…
Shots for the Scorpios!!!!
me trying to convince the room (anyone within earshot) that a kung fu/horror movie would be the greatest genre ever.
to a German the Polish equivalant of “thank you for calling the 5 star Grand Hotel in Sopot. How may I help you?”
Sounds something like:
“krzchssy grolck %$&””!???”

Sitting at the airport waiting for the plane…
Fred K: Joe…Do you know what time it is..:
me – Looking around frantically for a clock:….uhhh…no sorry….It’s probably about 7:45
Fred K: No Joe…It’s time to burn this mother down!!!

Geez Fred…I thought you were a suit ;)…apparently “let’s burn this mother down” was the most memorable phrase from the week…I get credit…

after a Team building exercise where everyone “cheated’ we were asked to write down our thoughts….as the pieces of papers were read this is basically how it went
…cheaters
…cheaters
…cheaters
…cheaters
…cheaters
…liars
…cheaters
…cheaters
ITALIANS!!!!
…cheaters
…cheaters
…cheaters

etc….I was the one who wrote italians….So proud….One of the Italians said “who wrote that” I said me and he came over and shook my hand…I like every Italian I’ve met so far…

Gdansk is a lovely city…I would certainly go back again…

So here’s some pics…Many more coming in the coming days…This is just a short placeholder.
and yeah I know I have the same expression in every shot that I took myself…It’s just slighlty emberassing to use a cell phone to take pics of yourself…

eating eel in Poland

Last night went to a castle/resort thing…It was about an hour bus ride and out in the country…beautiful location. Beautiful building…We were serenaded by some traditional polish musicians. The group drank a LOT of wine, followed by Polish Vodka (which I’m beginning to think is the real purpose of a “workshop”). So much wine in fact that people were singing on the bus on the trip back…and there was also some climbing into the luggage rack inside the bus (not involved).

anyways got to sit outside by myself and just listen to the birds singing…was kind of strange to be in such a peaceful place…I don’t think I’ve been so far from a city since I moved to Deutschland.
I said to one of the Polish guys that our hotel here is not really Poland, but the place last night felt like Poland, but in reality that was probably stupid because I don’t think too many people live in castles and wear traditional Polish clothes and sing…

Had eel for I think the first time ever…all the americans seemed disgusted by the thought of eating eel. I decided to try it (anything once…) and it actually wasn’t bad…I don’t think I’d ever order it cuz it was a bit strange, but I’ve had much worse food and I’m glad that’s another food I can take off my list…

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