First 2006 post

I can't remember what I have posted so far......so let's start here.

Hi All,

It’s been a while hasn’t it? I suppose there is quite a lot to tell since before the new year to now. So I guess I’ll begin at an arbitrary spot. I had to extend my hostel reservation a few more days because I couldn’t move into my flat til the 31st and had only booked til the 27th or something. I was set to leave for Edinburgh on the 29th so I really didn’t even move in til after I got back from up north. Point is, I really didn’t like living in the hostel. Too transient. No one except yours truly was there on a long term basis. Or I guess if they were, they were just holed up in their room being anti-social, much like I became at the end of my stay. I stopped making an effort. I just ate, wrote cover letters/cv’s and ventured out to the city a bit.

I left the Thursday evening before new year’s eve on a late train. It only took about 4.5 hours, pretty fast considering Edinburgh is at least 300 miles from central London. That’s including 4 or 5 stops along the way. Trains are the way to go: we need a better rail network in the US (read: I hate driving). Dan and Adam met me at the station and we walked to Dan’s flat to get rid of my stuff. We spent the rest of the night talking with Will (Dan’s Scottish flatmate) and watching shitty tele programs. Next Dan had to work and Adam and I slept til about noonish. I love holiday. Once aroused we wandered about the city centre and decided to go for a hike. Smack in the middle of Edinburgh is this giant hill/mound thing with ridges and old stairs called Arthur’s Seat. Adam and I hiked all the way to the top. Unfortunately the view wasn’t that nice as it was cloudy out but it was pretty sweet nonetheless. Getting down was a bitch. A combination of sliding on feet and bums, taking baby steps and being cautious pansies got us nowhere, and we probably looked like total newbs. So we bucked up and acted like real hikers and kicked the mountain’s ass. We met Dan after he was done with work and he proceeded to cook us some “haggis, nips and tatties.” It was delicious (and by delicious I mean Scottish and bland). I would definitely eat it again though. Then we went to watch these Catalonian “castler” people who stack up 8 or 9 stories with just people. It looked sweet in the brochure but was a total let down so I wont get into details. We went to some bars pubs and clubs, drank and danced with a bunch of Canadian girls and then I got kicked out of the club (fuck yeah!). An Asian guy started yelling at me cause I put my head down at 3am. I got up and left. It was club Frankenstein, the lot of ‘em can fuck off. Well, at least I accomplished one of my life’s goals.

The next day (new year’s eve) was spent drinking beer, with Dan staring it off around 10 to noon. We also had, fish, chips and crisps with that beer, which made for a day of overeating and drinking. We finally got out of the flat for good around 8 and went looking for dinner, more beer, and street party tickets. We found all three, went to princes street (right underneath the castle) and awaited the countdown. By the time that happened, there were 250,000 people (record attendance I guess) jumping dancing and singing in the street to the Proclaimers - you know, “I would walk 500 miles and I would walk 500 more……balalala/balalaa balalalalalala-la-la-la-la-la-la-la” and so on. Sweet deal. Then we ended up at some flat that was right next to Dan’s with a view of the castle from the window (you actually have to go outside to see the castle from Dan’s flat. Then we went on the roof and looked in awe at the castle. Whilst at this random person’s flat, I ate most of the chicken primavera, bread, chicken parmesan and chicken tikka, plus drank more beer. They didn’t seem to mind. At whatever time it was (3am?) we went to Dan’s flat where Will and his mates were partying. They gave me scotch. And one guy yelled about London for a long time. I just sat listening, disagreeing and drinking my scotch. I stole some girls cookies and ate like three point five of them (there were four total). Man they were good. I think we finally got to bed around 630, woke up 5.5 hours later and went for the one o clock run down the royal mile. What a fuckin way to wake up! Stupidly I brought my jacket with me so had to carry that and run down the royal mile. What a number it did to my insides…. I didn’t leave til late that night so we decided to go look at some old castle 4 miles away. We walked. It was empty and dark in suburban Edinburgh and we stood on a dark field all alone thinking we would be attacked or murdered. Then we walked back to the city, had Indian food ( I had a spat about rice with the waiter: Him: would you like rice with any of that? Me: it doesn’t come with the food? Him: no. Me: Are you serious? Fuck. Can we just get a plate of rice then? (and so on)) Seriously. You can get 20 pounds of basmati for about 8 quid. I’m bringing my own next time.

I seriously got on my overnight bus back to London with about 4 seconds to spare (many thanks to Adam Lukoskie) and had the shittiest bus ride of my life. Not only was there one obligatory screaming baby, there were two. I cranked up the tunes and zoned out, but didn’t sleep. I sat in a bus station in Birmingham for 2 hours (im sure that means nothing to most of you, so think like, gary Indiana, just less shitty. Its not a terrible city, just a decrepit manufacturing town that has no business because of glabalisation, I think. I might be completely wrong). Finally got to London (20 minutes early!!!) and went to move into my flat after about 3 hours’ sleep. Put my bags down and took a nap.

So now I am mostly moved in. I have had to do some basic carpenter work on my wardrobe as it pretty much fell apart when I opened it. Also there was a ton of shit left over from the Bangladeshi dude living in the room before me. Spices, sardines pots and pans and silverware. It sits, taking up space, in the middle of my floor.

My flatmates are decent people. 3 Australians and an Indian guy I haven’t met cause he’s in Mexico. Funny chaps they are. I don’t say much. One cooked dinner for us all the other night. I think it’ll work out just fine. Everything in my life is pretty constant now, except work. I finally got a bank account, oyster card, kitchen space, sheets for me bed!, I went running for the first time since early November. I’ve got into good reading habits. My day consists of waking up at 8, napping til 10. eating breakfast, reading watching some tele then finally wandering out of the house around 1 to use the internet or just plain walk/search.


Well I’m out. Cheers to you if you read this entire thing. You obviously have no life and are unemployed, like me. At least my gainful employment options are promising…. Hopefully next post is something more interesting than what I did and that I will have a job.

Also, I called several of you new years eve. Good to hear your voices!