Epping again….

Thats the forest BTW….

The weekend gone by relatively uneventful. Works quiet down by alot last few days, have a leaving drinks on thursday night and friday night for one of the consultant thats leaving. Well its good to see the relationship between me and my boss is thawing. They mentioned that the budgeting and forecasting app space is a small market with very few players, I hope some of the things I did will compromise my chance, like writing this blog…..

Anyhow, went for a riding session today back to Epping forest, found a few sweet sections of single tracks in the woods to remind us what mountain biking is about. Would have a nice windstopper jacket to ride with if I didn’t ended up getting a ladies jacket!!! darn!!!  

    

  

Found of the day: BMW convertible/ATV cross thingy completed with a “NOS” tank!! 

Haha, just like in Sydney: drive to trail and ride the sweet tracks. If only I can have a motorised sofa that drives me all the way to the track and back!!

Bumbling along to wonderland

Weeks been pretty tough. Finished late on Monday and work pretty hard throughout. I dun think my boss sees or appreciate the hard work I put in. Oh well, such is life…….

On Friday night caught up with Alan for a drink at the Crown. It was an old haunt of ours back in the hostel days and ended up running into quite a few of the people I haven’t seen. Namely K-Bo and Simon/Karin. Those two been pretty weird the last few months. K-Bo blocked me on facebook and Simon defriended me. Friday night both Simon and Karin didn’t really talk to me, I guess the muted responses to my b’day invite is probably a sign. Simon and Karin left without saying goodbye….

I have a few banters with K-Bo and shes seems to be quite chirpy having fun and probably consume too much alcohol. Didn’t really ask what any of them been upto the last few months, they didn’t really asked me what I been upto either. Oh well! I made an effort to contact them and open a dialogue, if they have a problem with me and make no effort in reconciliation than fuck them! My time and energy are better spend elsewhere!

The night otherwise went great. I have a chance to catch up with Jimmy for a drink, met Padriag who I haven’t seen for like months, have a good chat with Marty and Brooke and ran back into goodold Ricky again! On top of that a loud/rowdy/drunken K-Bo added to the night’s atmosphere all in all its a great night catching up with all these people. (Yes, thats including K-Bo as well…..)

To Wonderland we go

 It was Juliette’s b’day on Saturday. We went out to the Rock Cabaret party to celebrate. Its a fancy dress party and the theme of the night is Alice in Wonderland. I dressed up as some sort of a Mad Hatter, TBH I never read or saw any of the Alice in Wonderland fairytales so I would have very vague idea of whats in the story. Well theres of course Alice, Chesire cat, rabbit, Mad Hatter, Queen of Hearts and all her minions. Its not really an easy fancy dress party to prepared for. (Ok maybe a Cthulhu party)

Probably the coolest thing of the night is that Juliette’s sister, mother and her grand aunt went to Rock Cabaret with us and Juliette’s mum was a very funny character, a few glasses of wines. When would any mother go to a fancy dress Rock party with their daughters??

We stay there till 4:00 a.m. and it was a good night with good company. I understood why both Juliette and Angelique enjoyed Rock Cabaret so much, it just a laid back scene where everything goes with no pretension. The people are not there to be ”picked up” or be “seen”, it just a place to be if you like to enjoyed the scene and hang-out with good company!!

      

 Now is our Autumn of our discontent

On a side note Jimmy is looking at moving out of the flat after being there for a month. The catalyst of this is that Jimmy met a guy from Manchester about a month ago and things moved so quickly that hes moving down to London for him.  I am not going to too much details but Jimmy is looking to move out because Matt cannot move in with Jimmy. Over the weekend I heard both sides of the sotry I have to say that they all has as much right to do what they like. In other words I really can’t say anyone is in the “wrong” here, it just unfortunate that they not really meeting at the middle ground.

This reminds me the time when my friends Richard/Fiona fellout with Jacqui/David. Its not an argument over flatmates moving in but is parallel to the current issue that it cut across a few of my friends. Back than I took a role trying to convince both sides to come to terms with each other by being the middle man and got burn for it. One thing I learnt from that saga is that when friends are at war with each other every body copes shit! If you get involved you just going to get hit with the cross-fired and at worst unwittingly coerced or being coerced into a position from one viewpoints. In other words the argument for not getting involved is even more valid than being involved.

The saving grace around Jimmy’s moving vs the fight between Richard/Fiona/Jacqui/David is that there are alot less people involved; people are disappointed with the situation but not to the point where they are angry and feeling betrayed by actions of the other parties. I wished them a shift resolution while still respecting the friendship they have each other.

 (Yes, I am running for the UN.) 

On a lighter note, since theres a bit of bad vibes of late, this calls for a:

 HARD GAY intervention!!

He might be a bit misundestood like me, but he has a “stiff” heart of gold!!!

 

The house of cards come crashing down….

Well, not my house specificlly anyway! It is almost 10:00 p.m. I am still at work and typing up an update on my blog, looks like I will be here for a little while……

 

Today sees the US investment Lehman Brothers collapse. These day and age most countries around the world will feel the effect of the collapse in the interconnected global financial market, more so here in UK and more specific in the financial centre of  London known as the “Square mile”. The Lehman brothers employed 5000 people in UK and they become instantly unemployed overnight, can you imagine if your industry just have 5000 people all of a sudden have 5000 people all looking for work??

 

Anyway, the UK is well on its way to a recession. With this latest episode of financial soap opera it looks like the coming few months will be really bumpy! Its great to move to a country that’s going into recession!!

 

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The weekend was relatively quiet, went to my friend’s Felipe’s girlfriend’s 21^st birthday. It was a “Sex and the City” party and I spent the day looking for a nice tie to go with the shirt and suit I got. Originally I was thinking to wear my expensive dinner suit jacket and pants to the party.

 

By the time I dress up and looked into the mirror and I realise how hideous the dinner suit jacket actually looks. Quick cycle through my wardrobe discover a combo that works, turns out to be a cheap linen suit jacket and a pair of smart casual dress pants! Awesome! I will have to stick a photo on here when I have a chance!! Party was ok too!!

 

Next week will see me going to an Alice in Wonderland party. I am pretty sure I be turning up as the mad hatter and I wonder how many hatter there will be. I should really look for some inspiration from the American McGee version of Alice!!

 

Julian finishing up work this week and going for his month long sabbatical around Europe, lucky him! I am sure looking forward to my holiday when it comes around!! 

 

 

And there she goes!

Well, summer has now truely left us in the Northern Hemisphere. Ready to dig in for another long cold winter just like the Easy company at Bastogne during the battle of the Bulge.

The weekend was relatively uneventful: It was Juliette’s one year anniversary in London so went to her house for a drink, I think I downed like one black sambuca and promptly passed out. Also went to see Felipe’s band played at Shoreditch. I think the highlight of the weekend was seeing some crap band open their set with ther Terminator 2 theme…..like…..WTF??

During the week I have an after work drink with my current “project manager” (He wasn’t supposed to at the beginning but now I guess he got roped into it) at work. He gave me some constructive feedback saying that I do sometimes sell myself short. His comment is that I am competent and capable but I have a tendency not to back myself unless I know eveything inside-out.

I can see his point, if you dun believe in something you selling, why should anyone buy it? Its the same princple whether you are selling mobile phones, going for a job interview or going on a date.

One final point – Its looks like some part of Australia is not donw with me: The tax office! Lodged my returns today and looks like I will be getting a pretty fat tax return!! Now thats rad!!!

End of another great summer!!!

After 5 weeks of preparation including 3 weekends of cutting the lawn with a hand shearer and washing the deck. The last Saturday of August finally came, and so is my house party.

  Did a bucket load of shopping on Friday night which includes loads of meat and beers, on top of that the buy of the month would be the blue portable beach chairs you see on the left. They were originally 12 pounds per one, Tesco have them reduced to 6 pounds and they were reduced further to 3 pounds 25 on the Friday night!Awesome, solve all the furniture problem I have around the house.

spent the rest of the night marinating the meat for the BBQ, they did say its good to marinate overnight.  The marination and the mopping of the floor goes well past midnight, which means I woke up the following day with very little sleep and very . Thank goodness Tarkan and Eva arrived early to help with a bit of pre work. I really have nothing prepared when it comes to the salad!! 

 

 

 

The yard is pretty size able as you can see. Except theres a pile of wood at the back. See my neighbour complained about the tree branches tipping over into his yard. So my landlord hired 2 Chinese labourer and cut EVERY branch off!! The funniest bit is the following day my neighbour came around going absolutely ape shit on us for chopping off the tree! Dun ask me! I only live here!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The back of my house is a block of housing commission flats. Throughout the day we have a bunch of 8 years old climbing over the fence paying us a visit. The might be a bit of a nuisance at first but they seems to be good nature, we tell them to leave the yard but they can take some wood with them to play with. TBH I wouldn’t blame them, in a city like London there are really not much places you can play in if you are a 8 year old. Not to mention you just not sure whos the un-register sex offender in such a dense neighbourhood as Islington. 

 

 

 

 

 Once again, Tarks is always the most handy person you can meet when it comes to BBQ!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Heres some of the best effort of us cutting wood to fit in the BBQ. Me cracking the wood on the fence and Julz sawing it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Poor kids! The neighbour called the cops on them! I guess tonight’s episode of “The Bill” will be about PC McLeggat trouble telling 8 years old local hooligans off a poor neighbour’s fence.

 

 

 

 

 

 

    
And the reason why we are all here: Someone’s 30th! and its a very nice tiramisu cake!!

    
And as days turned into night, the BBQ now offically become a bonfire!!! Courtesy of our Landlord leaving us with such a big pile of fire wood!!

 And whats better than toasted marshmallows when you have a bonfire going?? All we need is some sleeping bags and stars in the sky and we will have the same feel as camping with the boys back home!!

 

 

 

 

 

After the weekend I found that I live in very “odd” place at this moment of my life. My flat ticks all the boxes: A sizeable backyard, a nice kitchen/living room with a gas cooker and a sizeable double room. However it ticks all those boxes in a very odd fashion. During the afternoon we tripped the fuse and the only way to flick the fuse is to goto the upstairs flat to access the fuse box. We used to have a staircase accessing the upstairs flat (and to our “3rd” bedroom now a “studio”) but the staircase is now blocked off. The yard is nice once maintained, but being in a shared house means its hardly ever worked on. Its not a “bad” place but It does feel ”odd” and you really have to come to my flat to see it for yourself! More reason for you lot to come to London!!

One minor point is that I invited a few more people than those that were there that night, but one reason or another quite a few of them piked and leaving the people who shows. It is a bit disappointing that those I used to think quite glowingly in the past are not as close anymore. I guess this is one lesson I learnt in life: humanity itself is a fickle beast…..

One last point of the weekend: Bhautik and Briony stopped by London for a few days for Brinoy’s brother’s wedding in Ireland. Hes only in London for a few days and his schedule is like break neck tight. Matter of fact I have to catch up with him while hes at his aunt’s house with his cousins. Wished he can stay a bit longer, but unfortunately he has to shoot off to Germany and visit Hiren. Its good to see him doing quite well in San Francisco with ILM. Maybe I will go there someday………