These are busy times. Probably for me just as for everybody else. I find it sad. Christmas should be a calm, quiet and relaxed time, right? I am already trying to avoid city centre's like the plague and thanks to the interwebs, I can do my Christmas shopping from home.
Today is St. Nikolaus day in Germany and my manager, being German too, brought in some treats from home. It's amazing how much more I appreciate things from home, now that I live abroad. I am a little cautious though not to try and force my culture on anybody here as I came her to live in England and do as the English do. Today it seemed that everybody was happy with that particular bit of German culture though. Sweets are international.
Not a whole lot has been going on here. I went on my trip and had a really great time. Especially since I went to some places I'd have never been to:
Saint Paul de Vence:
Ventimiglia:
Monaco:
Galway was basically about catching up with my friends, relaxing and party! I didn't take any photos as I always think I probably have most of them multiple times already, as I have been there a lot.
I picked up an NME for the first time in ages and discovered Warpaint through that. Best timing ever as it was only a few weeks until their gig at Brighton Digital. I promptly bought the album and a ticket and have had a bit of a crush on Emily Kokal ever since I went...
The last and most recent highlight was something SG related though. At least in a way... as I purchased some art from one of my all-time favourite SG's and SG friends Kikka!
So here's some special thanks. I will have to get a frame for this soon and then it will find a nice place on my kitchen wall. There really is something special about snail mail in the digital age.
Today is St. Nikolaus day in Germany and my manager, being German too, brought in some treats from home. It's amazing how much more I appreciate things from home, now that I live abroad. I am a little cautious though not to try and force my culture on anybody here as I came her to live in England and do as the English do. Today it seemed that everybody was happy with that particular bit of German culture though. Sweets are international.
Not a whole lot has been going on here. I went on my trip and had a really great time. Especially since I went to some places I'd have never been to:
Saint Paul de Vence:
Ventimiglia:
Monaco:
Galway was basically about catching up with my friends, relaxing and party! I didn't take any photos as I always think I probably have most of them multiple times already, as I have been there a lot.
I picked up an NME for the first time in ages and discovered Warpaint through that. Best timing ever as it was only a few weeks until their gig at Brighton Digital. I promptly bought the album and a ticket and have had a bit of a crush on Emily Kokal ever since I went...
The last and most recent highlight was something SG related though. At least in a way... as I purchased some art from one of my all-time favourite SG's and SG friends Kikka!
So here's some special thanks. I will have to get a frame for this soon and then it will find a nice place on my kitchen wall. There really is something special about snail mail in the digital age.
I look outside the window and admire the sky and how it is the perfect backdrop to more and more stark autumn trees. A few birds fly around between the treetops. I am at ease, content, happy.
The year is nearing it's end and despite the struggle it sometimes was, today it feels like everything will eventually fall into place.
The weekend ahead will be the last hurdle to overcome, but it will ultimately tie up the last remaining lose end before I can sit back and end the year on a hopefully quiet and peaceful note.
I finally made a decision about my car. Driving a European cars on UK roads is just not ideal and with my poor chariot, being 11 years old now, it would have been a struggle to make it fit for England and get it registered here. So tomorrow It will make it's last journey over the channel for now, to be put out of service until either I am moving back to Germany or when I find the heart to actually go ahead and sell it.
So when I'm back here on Monday morning, I'll have to either ride my bicycle or the bus to work. So until it is too cold for the former, I'll at least get some excercise out of not having a car. It's kind of part of a life I always wanted or more precisely a life I find admirable. Sadly it's not really me. Always just the wannabe bohemian, I am too grounded in todays technological schenanigans and the little comforts they provide in every day life.
Unfortunately, like most people, I only change when I have to. I'll keep you updated! At the latest, when I bought a Vespa, so I don't have to cycle anymore...
Here's what I've been up to lately, enjoy!
Brighton
Cambridge
Hever Castle
Stonehenge
Seaford Head
Bonfire night in London
The year is nearing it's end and despite the struggle it sometimes was, today it feels like everything will eventually fall into place.
The weekend ahead will be the last hurdle to overcome, but it will ultimately tie up the last remaining lose end before I can sit back and end the year on a hopefully quiet and peaceful note.
I finally made a decision about my car. Driving a European cars on UK roads is just not ideal and with my poor chariot, being 11 years old now, it would have been a struggle to make it fit for England and get it registered here. So tomorrow It will make it's last journey over the channel for now, to be put out of service until either I am moving back to Germany or when I find the heart to actually go ahead and sell it.
So when I'm back here on Monday morning, I'll have to either ride my bicycle or the bus to work. So until it is too cold for the former, I'll at least get some excercise out of not having a car. It's kind of part of a life I always wanted or more precisely a life I find admirable. Sadly it's not really me. Always just the wannabe bohemian, I am too grounded in todays technological schenanigans and the little comforts they provide in every day life.
Unfortunately, like most people, I only change when I have to. I'll keep you updated! At the latest, when I bought a Vespa, so I don't have to cycle anymore...
Here's what I've been up to lately, enjoy!
Brighton
Cambridge
Hever Castle
Stonehenge
Seaford Head
Bonfire night in London
So mixed feelings about work today. Mostly positive, but still another one of the webpages I like to visit in my spare time has been blocked today. Friday was the homepage of the local cineplex and now the IMDB. Not good. Also, my manager has started doing stats and comparing peoples efficiency.
I always thought this is worst you can do in customer support, because it will ultimately force people to try to do more and more work and therefore neglect the quality. Fortunately in this case it's actually the reason I am happy about work today. I have come first in the stats for both quality and quantity at work for last week. One of our colleagues who is generally the least helpful has come last the second week in a row, so what I have predicted before, might actually happen, which is him finally getting into trouble for basically taking the piss all day every day at work ever since I started.
I don't really mind cause it saves me from getting bored if he leaves all the work for me and if I am bored I surf the web and webpages get blocked... so we'll see how it goes.
Another thing that bugs me today is a conversation I had with one of my colleagues, we have this wonderful girl working here, she's always so much fun and a total delight to be around. Not to mention how incredibly cute she is...
Well I actually wouldn't be able to tell, but my colleague reckons she has had a boob job. Somehow just the thought of that makes me very sad. Strange thing to say for a guy I guess, but that's how I think. I guess it's partially because I actually like smaller boobs a lot better most of the time, but also because I think about the reasons why any girl would do that and if that's not a reason to be sad, I don't know what else. Anyway I am still in denial about it, especially because she did a run this year to collect money for breast cancer research, so I just hope that means she should and does know better.
Enough about work. On to the more interesting things in life. I treated myself to Rock Band 2 and I am loving it. I got Guitar Hero World Tour for my birthday, but always wanted to rather play the first Rock Band title, cause it had the most songs I like out of all the rythm games. The trouble with that was, that it wouldn't reckognize my drumset. Now that I have Rock Band 2, I can finally play all the songs from Rock Band on my drums. Excellent! I have even been able to finally gold star a song and do 100% on some songs on Expert difficulty. Not sure if that means anything to anyone, but I am quite happy about it! I've also seen a lot of movies at the pictures and on DVD in the last few weeks. Here's a quick roundup:
Moon - UK Sci-fi by David Bowie's son. Very original and intelligent film. I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's somewhere between 2001 and Solaris. If you liked one of those two, definitely check it out.
Anti-Christ - A very tough to watch film, think along the lines of Requiem for a Dream. Lots of very graphic sex and nudity, but all without ever being sensual or arousing and never without purpose. I think it is a really good movie and if you're brave enough to watch it and have the stomach for it, you will get a unique experience, I'm sure.
Inglorious Basterds - In my opinion the worst Tarantino so far, which still makes it possible to call the film very good. I loved the little details and some of the dialogue as well as the fact that for all the Nazi's in speaking roles seem to have cast native speakers and any German will recognize a lot of faces from Telly and German cinema. Definitely buying this one, even though it is a little slow at times.
Lovefilm treated my to the following: Chunking Express and Tokyo Sonata. Both highly recommended. At least if you don't mind subtitles!
Alright, that's it from me. I'll leave you with a photo of me at the last of many a wedding this year. Seems like I am to forever hold my peace... oh well...
I always thought this is worst you can do in customer support, because it will ultimately force people to try to do more and more work and therefore neglect the quality. Fortunately in this case it's actually the reason I am happy about work today. I have come first in the stats for both quality and quantity at work for last week. One of our colleagues who is generally the least helpful has come last the second week in a row, so what I have predicted before, might actually happen, which is him finally getting into trouble for basically taking the piss all day every day at work ever since I started.
I don't really mind cause it saves me from getting bored if he leaves all the work for me and if I am bored I surf the web and webpages get blocked... so we'll see how it goes.
Another thing that bugs me today is a conversation I had with one of my colleagues, we have this wonderful girl working here, she's always so much fun and a total delight to be around. Not to mention how incredibly cute she is...
Well I actually wouldn't be able to tell, but my colleague reckons she has had a boob job. Somehow just the thought of that makes me very sad. Strange thing to say for a guy I guess, but that's how I think. I guess it's partially because I actually like smaller boobs a lot better most of the time, but also because I think about the reasons why any girl would do that and if that's not a reason to be sad, I don't know what else. Anyway I am still in denial about it, especially because she did a run this year to collect money for breast cancer research, so I just hope that means she should and does know better.
Enough about work. On to the more interesting things in life. I treated myself to Rock Band 2 and I am loving it. I got Guitar Hero World Tour for my birthday, but always wanted to rather play the first Rock Band title, cause it had the most songs I like out of all the rythm games. The trouble with that was, that it wouldn't reckognize my drumset. Now that I have Rock Band 2, I can finally play all the songs from Rock Band on my drums. Excellent! I have even been able to finally gold star a song and do 100% on some songs on Expert difficulty. Not sure if that means anything to anyone, but I am quite happy about it! I've also seen a lot of movies at the pictures and on DVD in the last few weeks. Here's a quick roundup:
Moon - UK Sci-fi by David Bowie's son. Very original and intelligent film. I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's somewhere between 2001 and Solaris. If you liked one of those two, definitely check it out.
Anti-Christ - A very tough to watch film, think along the lines of Requiem for a Dream. Lots of very graphic sex and nudity, but all without ever being sensual or arousing and never without purpose. I think it is a really good movie and if you're brave enough to watch it and have the stomach for it, you will get a unique experience, I'm sure.
Inglorious Basterds - In my opinion the worst Tarantino so far, which still makes it possible to call the film very good. I loved the little details and some of the dialogue as well as the fact that for all the Nazi's in speaking roles seem to have cast native speakers and any German will recognize a lot of faces from Telly and German cinema. Definitely buying this one, even though it is a little slow at times.
Lovefilm treated my to the following: Chunking Express and Tokyo Sonata. Both highly recommended. At least if you don't mind subtitles!
Alright, that's it from me. I'll leave you with a photo of me at the last of many a wedding this year. Seems like I am to forever hold my peace... oh well...
Weeks have been flying past recently. I even have this sense of my time running out. Time to spend at my leisure. Time before I go to Germany. Well I am not going back for good just yet. Far from it, but it will be an extremely busy 10 days and while most of it will very likely be fun, there are some things I need to get done and look into, that I am not looking forward to. Maybe I am wrong and it'll all be great and relaxed and I will hopefully see many of my friends again, but my car has had some trouble, MOT is coming up and I need to get it fixed or sell it. A very tough decision. Especially since replacing it with anything decent will mean taking out a loan. Something I have never done in my live and am not really comfortable with.
Since my last update, I have had a fairly busy social life compared to the usual. 2 concerts, a few trips to Brighton, Birthday parties, a wedding, and some after work parties that turned into very late and drunken nights.
I enjoy it, when I get carried away, when a trip to get your bag from your car and walk to the station to get the train home isn't possible without stopping for another drink on the way and there's something about that fast food van right outside of the station, when you're just the right amount of merry or rather drunk when you get there to order your burger or chips.
One of the concerts I went to was particularly special for me, because of the venue. Now called the Koko club, I used to know the place as Camden Palace and it had always been my favourite club since I first went there about 10 years ago. Fortunately not a lot has changed since then. The gig however, turned out to be a little bit of a disaster. The whole night had been divided into two parts and people were able to purchase tickets for either the fist 2 acts, the 2 after those or a combined ticket for the whole night. Not aware of that, we'd purchased tickets to only see Juliette +support. Starting at 10pm. So far so good
My friends got the real early to queue and be in the first row, when the doors opened, but weren't let in, because they didn't have combo tickets... then when we were finally able to get in, they decided to make everyone leave. (incl. combo ticket holders) That caused a lot of chaos and the whole gig to be delayed, because by the time everyone was back in, it had already been very late and the support act hadn't even started their sound check yet. Finally at 11pm the support band got to the stage and punished us with their crappy music for almost forty minutes after that, you'd think okay. Maybe 15 minutes and we'll see Juliette! Hurraaaah! Unfortunately that didn't happen and while the dj behind the curtains of the stage played music that must have made any Juliette fan want to leave as it was so utterly incompatible to that sort of taste, they took their sweet time until the band finally appeared at about 0:40! The only thing that made the whole evening, was an amazing show by Juliette and the band. Really worth the wait!
Only a week later, I went to see Deerhunter in Brighton. Much better organization, however I was running late. Courtesy of changed schedules for the bank holiday. A quick cab ride later I arrived with plenty of time to sell my spare ticket and check out the venue while people were slowly trickling in. A great venue, right on the seaside, the Concorde 2 is comfy, and has a lot of character. This time the support acts were really fitting and actually really good for a change. Nice surprise and a good warm up for Deerhunter. The crowd was quite laid back and I could even get to the 3rd row without too much hassle just shortly before Deerhunter started playing. I thoroughly enjoyed the gig and in my humble opinion Deerhunter are a great live band. Maybe not as energetic as Juliette, but then again, who can really say that about themselves?
As usual a lot of my spare time was spent with movies and videogames. More movies lately, since I discovered the pleasures of lovefilm.com. Here's the best I have seen in the recent weeks:
Persepolis
Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
Coraline
Drag Me To Hell
Videogame wise, I have finally finished No More Heroes, which was okay. I made the effort to import the US version and didn't update my Wii for over a year so I could still play the imports on it. I played Bioshock again, on Survivor difficulty... I somehow got drawn into this whole trophy collecting thing. Quite addictive... it's actually a little worrying...
Other than that. One of the highlights of the last few weeks was my trip to Ireland. One of my mates' parents have bought a cottage on the west coast and he invited me to join him there for a quiet weekend. We hiked a lot, went shopping in nearby Limerick and had a nice BBQ. When we went to the seafront, we even saw some Dolphins, which was quite exciting.
What have you all been up to? Big news? I'm off to Germany for now... take it easy!
Since my last update, I have had a fairly busy social life compared to the usual. 2 concerts, a few trips to Brighton, Birthday parties, a wedding, and some after work parties that turned into very late and drunken nights.
I enjoy it, when I get carried away, when a trip to get your bag from your car and walk to the station to get the train home isn't possible without stopping for another drink on the way and there's something about that fast food van right outside of the station, when you're just the right amount of merry or rather drunk when you get there to order your burger or chips.
One of the concerts I went to was particularly special for me, because of the venue. Now called the Koko club, I used to know the place as Camden Palace and it had always been my favourite club since I first went there about 10 years ago. Fortunately not a lot has changed since then. The gig however, turned out to be a little bit of a disaster. The whole night had been divided into two parts and people were able to purchase tickets for either the fist 2 acts, the 2 after those or a combined ticket for the whole night. Not aware of that, we'd purchased tickets to only see Juliette +support. Starting at 10pm. So far so good
My friends got the real early to queue and be in the first row, when the doors opened, but weren't let in, because they didn't have combo tickets... then when we were finally able to get in, they decided to make everyone leave. (incl. combo ticket holders) That caused a lot of chaos and the whole gig to be delayed, because by the time everyone was back in, it had already been very late and the support act hadn't even started their sound check yet. Finally at 11pm the support band got to the stage and punished us with their crappy music for almost forty minutes after that, you'd think okay. Maybe 15 minutes and we'll see Juliette! Hurraaaah! Unfortunately that didn't happen and while the dj behind the curtains of the stage played music that must have made any Juliette fan want to leave as it was so utterly incompatible to that sort of taste, they took their sweet time until the band finally appeared at about 0:40! The only thing that made the whole evening, was an amazing show by Juliette and the band. Really worth the wait!
Only a week later, I went to see Deerhunter in Brighton. Much better organization, however I was running late. Courtesy of changed schedules for the bank holiday. A quick cab ride later I arrived with plenty of time to sell my spare ticket and check out the venue while people were slowly trickling in. A great venue, right on the seaside, the Concorde 2 is comfy, and has a lot of character. This time the support acts were really fitting and actually really good for a change. Nice surprise and a good warm up for Deerhunter. The crowd was quite laid back and I could even get to the 3rd row without too much hassle just shortly before Deerhunter started playing. I thoroughly enjoyed the gig and in my humble opinion Deerhunter are a great live band. Maybe not as energetic as Juliette, but then again, who can really say that about themselves?
As usual a lot of my spare time was spent with movies and videogames. More movies lately, since I discovered the pleasures of lovefilm.com. Here's the best I have seen in the recent weeks:
Persepolis
Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
Coraline
Drag Me To Hell
Videogame wise, I have finally finished No More Heroes, which was okay. I made the effort to import the US version and didn't update my Wii for over a year so I could still play the imports on it. I played Bioshock again, on Survivor difficulty... I somehow got drawn into this whole trophy collecting thing. Quite addictive... it's actually a little worrying...
Other than that. One of the highlights of the last few weeks was my trip to Ireland. One of my mates' parents have bought a cottage on the west coast and he invited me to join him there for a quiet weekend. We hiked a lot, went shopping in nearby Limerick and had a nice BBQ. When we went to the seafront, we even saw some Dolphins, which was quite exciting.
What have you all been up to? Big news? I'm off to Germany for now... take it easy!
I'm just sitting down watching the DVD that came with the deluxe reissue of Radioheads "The Bends" that came in the mail today. What can I say, It's amazing. It includes almost the whole album as live recordings from days either of the release of slightly before the release. I wonder what it must have been for Radiohead friends of the first hour to hear these songs for the first time. I have to confess I had only heard Radiohead when OK Computer came out, but "The Bends" still blew me away. My favourite song being "Just". If you don't know it, when give it a listen and be sure to check out the out of this world guitar solo in it. Amazing and I bet you won't hear anything like it anywhere else.
This weekend I finally had a whole weekend to myself again after first my brother and then my parents visiting. It was great. My Playstation was running hot and I decided I was going to have an international movie marathon. The rule being that it had to be movies with subtitles. I watched a french movie, a polish/french movie and a japanese movie:
Ma mère, which was slightly disturbing and not for me as I can't relate to the guy in the film and his needs and urges. (those of you have seen the film will probably know what I mean...)
La double vie de Véronique, which blew me away. Amazing film. The music, the colours. Almost every shot a piece of art. Such a shame Kieslowski died so young. It saddens me to think how many great films he might have still made. I will have to rewatch Three Colours: Blue at some stage to tell you which of the two I liked better, but I can only recommend this one to everybody who loves film.
Shinjû: Ten no amijima was the third and last. I guess I could have managed more, but too many things distracted me...
Anyway... just a quick update. I'll leave you with some photos from the last few weeks:
This weekend I finally had a whole weekend to myself again after first my brother and then my parents visiting. It was great. My Playstation was running hot and I decided I was going to have an international movie marathon. The rule being that it had to be movies with subtitles. I watched a french movie, a polish/french movie and a japanese movie:
Ma mère, which was slightly disturbing and not for me as I can't relate to the guy in the film and his needs and urges. (those of you have seen the film will probably know what I mean...)
La double vie de Véronique, which blew me away. Amazing film. The music, the colours. Almost every shot a piece of art. Such a shame Kieslowski died so young. It saddens me to think how many great films he might have still made. I will have to rewatch Three Colours: Blue at some stage to tell you which of the two I liked better, but I can only recommend this one to everybody who loves film.
Shinjû: Ten no amijima was the third and last. I guess I could have managed more, but too many things distracted me...
Anyway... just a quick update. I'll leave you with some photos from the last few weeks:
So I just got home from clubbing... it's weird. My friend let me off easy... it was the same place we went to last time. I thought it was shit both times... my friend liked it last time and hated it today. I'm asking myself... what am I not getting? What was different? Well... they had dancers tonight and one of them was kinda hot, but that's probably beside the point. It didn't really change anything and apparantly it wasn't an improvement for my mate at all...
There was something different tonight, though! ME!
Yes, I am the same, but I felt different I was on the dancefloor moving to all the shit and about 3 good songs the DJ put the crowd through, I felt like a fraud as usual, wondering how many of the people around me would immediately detect how I actually hate the place, the music, the whole idea of clubbing... but somehow it was okay. I was just playing along. I would have a good time as long as my friend was happy. That was the approach I made and it seemed to work for me. Despite my friend obviously having a shit time himself. Weird you say? Definitely!
I am still glad I was able to get the hell out of there quite early.
There was another thing different and I am kind of proud of that. I wasn't looking for girls. I did see some pretty ladies, migth have smiled at one or two of them, but never wasted any thought on approaching them. It's not really what I want right now. I don't know... at least not the kind of thing you end up with from a night out in club. The last girl I fancied, I still do like her, but she's off the table as she will soon be wed would probably be described by my friend as having a face like a madmans arse... I happen to think she's beautiful. She's definitely the best girl I had the pleasure to hang out with since I got to this country. To be fair that probably doesn't say a lot, as I am rarely meeting females in the flesh these days unless it's at work or they are girlfriends of mates and coworkers. Most of the time I just can't be bothered. It all seems like a game and nobody plays fair...
I had a few drinks and I am writing this partly because I want to be able to read tomorrow, how I felt tonight. Recap. Make sense of it. Maybe draw some conclusions...
As always, I hope some of you think about what I had to say and share their thoughts... unfortunately that doesn't happen that often. We'll see...
Need... sleep...
There was something different tonight, though! ME!
Yes, I am the same, but I felt different I was on the dancefloor moving to all the shit and about 3 good songs the DJ put the crowd through, I felt like a fraud as usual, wondering how many of the people around me would immediately detect how I actually hate the place, the music, the whole idea of clubbing... but somehow it was okay. I was just playing along. I would have a good time as long as my friend was happy. That was the approach I made and it seemed to work for me. Despite my friend obviously having a shit time himself. Weird you say? Definitely!
I am still glad I was able to get the hell out of there quite early.
There was another thing different and I am kind of proud of that. I wasn't looking for girls. I did see some pretty ladies, migth have smiled at one or two of them, but never wasted any thought on approaching them. It's not really what I want right now. I don't know... at least not the kind of thing you end up with from a night out in club. The last girl I fancied, I still do like her, but she's off the table as she will soon be wed would probably be described by my friend as having a face like a madmans arse... I happen to think she's beautiful. She's definitely the best girl I had the pleasure to hang out with since I got to this country. To be fair that probably doesn't say a lot, as I am rarely meeting females in the flesh these days unless it's at work or they are girlfriends of mates and coworkers. Most of the time I just can't be bothered. It all seems like a game and nobody plays fair...
I had a few drinks and I am writing this partly because I want to be able to read tomorrow, how I felt tonight. Recap. Make sense of it. Maybe draw some conclusions...
As always, I hope some of you think about what I had to say and share their thoughts... unfortunately that doesn't happen that often. We'll see...
Need... sleep...
