Well folks, i’m writing this from a (blissfully) air conditioned room in mumbai, india.
The end of 2006 was a bit rough for me, in november Bern Hasset, a close friend and second dad on many occasions, of mine passed away, leaving us all a bit shell shocked and somber. I’ve never felt so far away from everyone in my life. I knew i had to go back to australia to touch base with everyone, so i bought a round the world ticket going to Aus via India and back to Edinburgh via NZ and South America.
Mumbai is fantastic, a total shock to the senses in every single way. i feel like i’ve just woken up from a deep sleep! everything here moves around you at a million miles an hour and you’re caught in the middle of it whether you like it or not. I’m staying in a modestly shabby hostel room two doors away from the famous travellers haunt, Leopolds Bar (for those of you who have read shantaram, it varies from his description quite a bit). That’s been my source of curry and beer for the last two days, but not beer today because mumbai is a dry zone because of an election. ouch.
I’m probably heading off to goa in a couple of days, so i’ll touch base then (hopefully with a few photos).
Once again, our internet is down. So I’m spending my quality time in an internet cafe keeping you updated on my humble existence.
I have good news and bad news. The bad news is ‘The Caves’ my workplace and home away from home has closed. for good. so i am now semi-jobless. That’s why i’m in an internet cafe printing out my resume.
It’s not all bad though, theres plenty of jobs going at the moment and i have enough cash to last me a little while and I’m still doing some catering work (and waiting to be paid by them as well. three weeks and counting).
in other news, Jez and Kim came over from melbs and are off in europe at the mo and coming back to edinburgh. i’m off to london on saturday to do some catching up, saying goodbye to everyone’s favourite big man, big john and hello to stewie. should be fun!
Saw some great shows at the fringe festival, I had a little pass that got me into lots of stuff for free (good). and got me cheap drinks (nasty). once the festival hangover cleared, the city slowly returned to normal and i’m back to the same old now.
my times’ up, gotta go.
I’ve been working my arse off over the last few days. Doing the “9 to 5″ thing but the other way round, 9pm to 5am. it’s all good though, I’ve got a staff pass thingy that lets me see a whole lot o’ stuff for free. I’m also doing bits and pieces for my friend James’s show “tapeire”, which is fun. And it pays! Nick’s coming up for the night tonight, this will probably be the last time i see him for a while, so we’re going to make the most of it!
I went to a small old man pub tonight which unsuprisingly was full of small old men. anyway there were a few of us young’uns there and entertainment courtesy of a couple of middle aged man playing folk music in the corner. a couple of pints of guiness later and i had the guitar belting out Dylan and Johnny Cash at the top of my lungs and generally feeling like I was born and raised in scotland. It was a moment.
Yep, finally did it. I am now one step further up the socio-economic ladder than a bum. I got myself a hamonica neck brace thingy and a guitar strap for 13 quid, busked fo half an hour and made 3 quid only 2 hours to go till I’ve paid that off and actually made money! wow. Edinburgh is overun with tourists at the moment, lots of americans marvelling at how close the castle is to the city (”wow, why did they build it so close to the shops?”) etc. can’t wait for the festival to kick in!
Our friend from melbourne, Joske, came up last weekend. here’s a video made out of the 520 photos taken!
n.b. The youtube version is pretty shitty quality but doesn’t take as long to download as this version (right click to save).
That’s me before the destruction.
he he heh. i even got mentioned in “the scotsman” (the national newspaper) not bad for someone who’s only been here six months. gotta say, “Northwesterly Facing Flowerbox with Birdhouse and complete with WaterFeature” best name from the night for sure. More pics here. And here.
Ahhh. space!
We have a new house here in edinburgh. the address is 4F2, 47 Forrest rd, Edinburgh. EH1 2QP (see it on a map and here’s a picture). It’s a fourth floor flat on the edge of Old Town and close to the meadows. Our loungeroom is about twice as big as the old one. so nice to have a bit more space for six people!
What a better way to use up left over boxes from moving than BOXWARS!! Its a night where you make intricate armour and weapons out of… …cardboard and sticky tape. The aim of the game is to pummel the crap out of all the other cardboard warriors around you to the sounds of live bands. it was sweaty, hot and fuckin’ fun! My box was a robot 80’s metal guitarist complete with cardboard mullet and spiky guitar. Some others were dave’s t.v. box, a guy with a paticularly nasty cardboard club (I’ve got bruises), a giant cardbord vagina (yes, you read that right. they took ‘box’wars literally) and many others. That’s my news anyway.
In April, I went to the highlands with Tom and Aich. I met up with them on the isle of skye and made my way back down to glasgow with them. For all of you that think that the UK is flat and boring, go to the highlands. It’s breathtaking. We went to Glencoe and walked up a mountain and almost into a hidden valley complete with waterfalls. We stayed in Oban that night, which is a proper old school port city. Lots of Victorian buildings and fishing boats. Pretty.
OK. so i’ll just use the excuse that not enough has happened here to justify the fact that i haven’t put anything new on here for three months. Well, here goes:
From March.
I went to london for my birthday and had a swell time. Me, Nick and John all went out to Richmond Hill and had a picnic. Richmond Hill is a big park in London that was probably put there so some aristocratic toff could put on tight pants and shoot animals. We didn’t shoot anything. Or wear tight pants. Maybe I did. I can’t remember. Anyway, it was an almost warm afternoon and if it wern’t (is that even a word?) for the constant stream of 747’s flying overhead, i would have believed i was in ye olde dayse. We then went back to the Townhouse and got drunk, drunk, drunk. (sorry braincells, it was my birthday)
In between here I’ll put in that i saw Xavier Rudd and Carus (two aussies, for those who don’t know) play in edinburgh, it was really cool, even though the crowd was pretty much all AUSSIE aussies. “yeaaah maayte, siiiccck hey”. T’was a great gig and a good night. (sorry braincells)
