I got older

Waiting on the plane to Aus realising I haven't blogged my birthday or my last trip to Ireland. Here's what you missed on my bday... Cheese, fairy bread and pajama day. Was a lovely chilled out day with the wife. I also bought myself a microwave! Gettin old!
(via my shitty phone. No fancy formatting! )

Waiting waiting...

All good things must come to an end

On my first trip to London via the sandy beaches of west coast of Aus,
we started our journey..

We took our first ever London bus trip together..

New years of 2011/12, we continued to move together on a grassy island..

Then finally we steeped off into the unknown together..

Tullamarine airport in February of last year.

 They saw me through thick and thin, right through to admission of defeat.

They looked at me with their droopy soles and told me we still had one more go together,

but I gave in to the bin and said my farewells.

 

Holy moly !

I started a count down 116 days ago. It's now just 4 more sleeps to go in this rugged up, cold, fairy light ridden city !!!
C'mon 'straya !

Hey blog, sorry I've dropped off the radar again. I have so much to update you on that I've gone to the extreme of not writing at all. Terrible!

I'ma post bits n bobs 'til I find an hour to properly catch up. . .

Today, you get see the bus stop I wait at to get home from work every night.

Christmas is coming :)

Me complex

WeZ took my lucky self to see Russel Brand last night!

That 'special' expression we both hold suggests we had awesome seats.

Sadly my phone is a piece of shit so I didn't get a good pic of the stage.

But I was there, and Russel did walk right by our seats. That's enough for me :)

 I'm very pro-Russel, but this show wasn't his best work.

He was entertaining, but not laugh out loud funny.. I think observational comedy wins over messiah complexes.

 

If you're intrigued in the slightest you can check it out on DVD in the coming months, they filmed the show we were at!

La-dee-da, in London innit!.. watch me go.  

Inner city flairtastic treat

If you've 5 mins to spare..

or just 2, take a peek.

Awe - some!

 

Be at which one .. ?

It's October already and I am happy to say I'm on the other side of a hectic couple of weeks just gone.

In a nutshell, my work jibberish is as follows...

Work became too negative too often, so I gave 2 weeks notice. It went down like a lead balloon. That being said, those who were there on my last night poured booze down my throat and gave me a lovely, friendly farewell.

The same week I sent a lengthy honest letter to HR explaining my resignation. They called me in for an exit interview and gave me the opportunity to work in a brand new bar in the city. Condition was I pass my top 100 again and pass my front bar certification. (write out 100 cocktails randomly selected from our 200 recipes - something I'd passed once already. And be watched whilst I work on the bar for a few hours, no fuck ups allowed - I failed at this 4 times previously)
Once succeeded, I'd get a payrise and be a certified part of a new team. After a lot of thought, I accepted the challenge and dove in with 2 feet running.

The bar is beautiful! It has a slightly old school feel but is bright, new and CLEAN! It's also right in the heart of London. Suits and umbrellas crowd the streets as I scamper to work.. Among the big street buzz, it feels only now I'm actually living in London.

Main Bar

 Downstairs bar

It's been there one short week so far, and I'm fully certified. Unawares to being judged for the most of it, I passed the practical test Friday night and sat my top 100 Sunday. I got 99%.
In the world that is Be At One, the feeling of relief and accomplishment is splendid and surreal.
A week ago, I'd never have expected things to turn around so well! - There's something to be said for constructively speaking your mind at times ;)

 

So long, farewell, see ya later.

Yesterday, the 6th of Oct, infamous pub The Walkabout closed it's doors for good.
It was the first job I had in London and for years it's been a huge part of the London experience for many travelling Aussies and Kiwis.

Despite no longer being an employee, I put on my old work shirt, and went and partied behind the bar. Between tonnes of Jagermeister, random sets of torn underwear and manic disorganisation, I had a ball dancing around like a lunatic 'til the wee hours.

Change?! Who needs change!

 mm.. floor juice!

 Last song

Undies!?..  

 After hours rugby



Suffering today but with no regrets!

Hello there!
It's been too long, hasn't it?!
I know. I'm sorry. I've been a stranger.

It's September... ALREADY!?

Thus, the countdown is on! 89 days until I get on that plane, make the 24 hour journey, and see my family and friends again. To say I'm looking forward to it is an understatement.
I think about it, talk about and have even been known to dream about it recently as I watch the countdown on my phone slowly tick away. I'm not one to wish my days away, but I am looking forward with happy anticipation. It will be Wez's first time in Australia. The poor and somewhat lucky fella is going to be faced/embraced with 3 separate xmas celebrations (at the least), 2 weddings, a party filled new years, an introduction to my local pub and all the beaches and Koalas we can squeeze into the gaps.
Ahh! 89 days to go.

Enough with anticipation. Update time.

Unfortunately festival season for myself n Wez is over this year, there's gigs to come, but for now I just have 'real life' chit chat.

I've been busy with work. It's been intensively up n down for me. I am still trying to certify, the should be 8 week time span to certify is now at 22 weeks and counting. It's infuriating. Mustn't give up!

 

The bar I work for is quite extensive and competitive. Just recently they had their annual Bartender Challenge. Our boss got cover staff in to man our bar whilst we went along and enjoyed the show! A bar full of drinking bartenders is messy boozy business. Was a good day out for our team.

Scott, our young bearded assistant manager, and Emily, my trainer.

Chris is to my right, he's part of our team,

 Never met the guy in front!?

 Next to me is Alex, our bars latest trainee.

He's Italian, loves Aus. Very boyish, keeping Emily on her toes!

 

Work aside, I'm getting back into the gym..

I am moving house in 4 weeks 

(dunno where yet!),

and I am still loved up.

All swell.

Lots happening in the coming months,

I will blog sooner rather than later!

Visitors

Clare and Sandra came to visit me in London! Was a very aussie pub, chilled out, boozy evening. Love having visitors :)

Wez has just been in Northern Ireland for a week and I've been studying my arse off with work. Before he went away, we decided to snag some quality time together and explore London Zoo!

It was much like the Melbourne zoo experience.. minus platypus and Tassie devils, Koalas. Add a few bearded pigs and meerkats, and albino porcupines.. oh and no elephants in London.

Ok, so it was quite different!

Just quietly, Melbourne does it better.

The animals here have less space which sucks.

That's not to say it wasn't a good day out!

We saw butterflies..

A chameleon..

Gazing meerkat..

A very chilled out otter..

Sleepy owls..

And an albino porcupine.

She was a bit strange to look at, blind too.

Seeing animals living there that wouldn't survive without zoo life felt better

than seeing giant apes in tiny enclosures.

Their Ape enclosure had Planet of the Apes written all over it! The poor things looked so bored.

To the point I felt bad taking their photos. So I didn't.

 The one thing London Zoo has on Melb is their monkey enclosure. Unlike the apes, they've got space to misbehave.

You see these little guys through the window and make ridiculous girly noises.

Shucks! I want to work at the zoo so we can hang out!

And Bam.. there they are running around your feet and jumping over your head.

              

There's 2 keepers in there trying to keep monkey separate from man in the enclosure.

One little guy looked up at me. I put my hand out and he leaped for dear life crawling up my arm and over me. I was delighted! Keeper not so much.