Scott's Going

Sunday, August 20, 2006

It's what's on the inside that counts

So I woke up this morning at my pals place near Tower Bridge at about 7am with a bit of an overhang from the last night. I really just wanted to find my way home to Croydon so I could feel bad in familiar surroundings, so went about looking for my bag. But could I find it? No! I kinda needed it as it had my keys and other important stuff in it, so looked in the lounge, looked in this bedroom where I had been sleeping on the floor for a bit, in the garage – nothing. Until after I spied one of the straps poking out from under a mattress some dude was sleeping on in the lounge. So I go to investigate and sure enough I pull my bag out from under this sleeping guy. And it wasn’t a small bag or anything either. Drunk people will sleep on anything won’t they?

So I then did the walk of shame back to Tower Hill tube stop and went on the District Line to Victoria Station and jumped on the overland down to East Croydon. I know that’s not the most interesting of info, but it gives you an idea of the mission Londoners face getting home sometimes. But I’m home now and had some more sleep and am happy as Barry.

What helped make me happy was checking out my photos of last night. If perhaps I had forgotten if I had a good time last night, they were a good reminder that I did. Gotta love digital cameras. I was at a party with a hat theme, hosted by Big Mal & Bridget and their flat mates. I had a load of friends there, which was great, including our slow and steady mate Turtle who recently touched down at Heathrow.

Speaking of Turtle; Himself, Justin and Justin’s flat mate and I are all off on a 3 day tour of Wales next weekend which is a bank holiday, so that’ll be fun. Apparently there’ll be sheep there, so I’ll feel at home! Funnily enough the tour company is called Shaggy Sheep tours.

Before the party last night, a group of us went to Earls Court to see the Bodies Exhibition. Boy was that amazing. It was a large display of dissected real bodies and body parts that had been preserved with a special silicon polymer. It was so enlightening to see what our bodies really look like on the inside. There were various stages of the exhibition including, muscular, skeletal, digestion, nervous and circulatory systems and more. Also seeing real fetuses from the age of 5 weeks was pretty eye opening. Check out www.bodiestheexhibition.com/intro.html if you like. It’s finishing up here at the end of August, so maybe it’s coming to a town near you! If you ever get the chance to see it, you must.

Hat Party Pics







Thursday, August 10, 2006

Golden Smile

What do dogs and motorcycles have in common? Not much on the face of it, but for me, they're both ways to talk to strangers.


I used to like the fact that when I rode motorcycles, it's like I was in a brotherhood of sorts. Like truckers, I'd give other bikes a wave out on the open road and if I saw a rider by his bike on the street, it's easy to bowl on up and start chatting. Motorcyclists like to talk about their bikes. It was a way to talk to the type of people I'd have never had the chance to ordinarily. Now I know it's not exclusive to motorcyclists - these bonds occur everywhere from skateboarders, surfers, musicians, farmers and countless others - but this is the way I knew. Not having ridden for a while now, I kinda miss that 'in' to a conversation with strangers.

I was walking around to the dairy (i get hassled for calling it that here) this evening and saw a guy walking a little dog like my family used to have. Mitzie was a Miniature Fox Terrier and we loved her and had so much fun with her. So every time I see a similar dog it reminds me of Mitzie and makes me smile. So I caught up with the guy and his little dog, which was bounding along like puppies do, trying to smell everything and take the exciting world in. When I got up to him, I saw he had some serious tattoos on his arms so didn’t seem like the type who would be seen with a dog like this, more likely a bull dog or other ugly animal. So I pet the dog a bit and asked him what breed it was and it turned out to be a Jack Russell and there aren’t many Foxies over here. I got a bit of a surprise when I saw the guy had all his teeth gold plated. I tend to look at regular peoples teeth while they talk, so definitely had trouble not looking at this guys mouth ‘bling’. But it was nice to have a quick chat to a stranger about his little friend. The sort of encounter that can turn a walk around the corner into something I’m still thinking about 3hrs later. I hope I meet more strangers with a golden smile.

Thursday, August 03, 2006

Update

Well, I know it's been ages and I've been slack and most people have stopped checking now so I'm probably talking to myself. Oh well...

Anyway I'm having a great summer here - there's so much to do all the time. I'm off to a beer fest tomorrow night with some buddies at Earls Court. It will be a bit of a warm up for when I go to Oktoberfest in Munich in September.

The weather here gets a bad reputation as most of you know, but I have to say this summer has been a pearler with most days being as good as any Hawkes Bay day in the summer while blowing away Wellington's attempts of good weather. It is however better than the norm apparently, unless it's a sign of things to come, what with global warming and all. Damn, the conversation has turned to weather too early.

I took a week off work 3 weeks ago and did a tour of Ireland with Paddywagon Tours. It was one of the best trips of my life and has truly got me wanting to do more tours. Starting in Dublin and stoping off over 5 nights around the island, it was a packed week full of sightseeing and great nights out with all the great people I've met, some of whom I'll stay in contact with. It's such a good way to meet like-minded people who are all keen to make new friends and enjoy a new country. I'll probably do a similar tour of Scotland when the time comes.

Work is going ok, but will be ending up at the end of August when the two sites I'm working on will be finished. I've enjoyed my time there and am lucky to be working with some excellent people, but will be happy to move on. I'm in talks with recruitment agencies about other jobs at the moment, so I hope something comes up. Ideally, if I have a sweet job lined up, I'd like to take a week off between jobs to take off somewhere and relax or something.

Ok, that's it for now - I'll try to update you a bit more often..

Scotty.

Ireland Photos

Rope Bridge


Outside Guinness Brewery, Dublin


Most of the tour group beside peace wall in Belfast, Northern Irelend


Preserved head of Saint Oliver Plunkett (1681)


Mural on side of house in Derry, Northern Ireland

Giants Causeway, Northern Ireland

Cliffs of Moher (look at the people to sense scale)


Morning ride in Killarney after a hard night before.


A drunk and an Aussie


Cahir Castle