Working.

Well, sorry for the lack of updates. In between being incredibly sick, I have been working as a vote counter in the UK election. This job is by far, THE worst job I have ever had. I sit in a classroom, and open envelopes, all day. I sometimes consider stabbing myself with the letter opener to make the day a little more interesting. On top of this, after tax and transport costs, I am taking home less than $60 a day. SCREW THE UK AND THEIR CRAPPY JOB MARKET AND EVEN MORE CRAPPY MINIMUM WAGE!!! 3 years of my life at university was quite obviously the best decision I have ever made..... (please read that last sentence in a sarcastic tone). One more day there and I have decided I am quitting. I could be focusing the 10 hours a day on finding a job that pays more than I earnt when I was 15!

On a positive note, I have had a couple of phone interviews this week. Fingers crossed they come through with the goods as these jobs sound a lot better.

Went to the Temper Trap / Sarah Blasko show last night but forgot my camera so heres a quick summary -

Temper Trap - get better every time I see them.
Sarah Blasko - still dances like a retard.

Going to see them again on Friday and have a few 'cure my sickness/drink myself into oblivion to try and cheer myself up' drinks at the after party. Other upcoming gigs I am going to are - The postelles, The antlers, Still Flyin, The national, and in June.... Glastonbury!

Thats all for now. Wish me luck in my job hunting. Hopefully my mad skillz will shine through to some budding recruiter. After all, I am smarter than Google. This chrome browser pulls up 'earnt' as a spelling error! Even I know thats a real word...

PS, I also know 'skillz' is not an actual word.

London update.

We have pretty much settled into our house now and starting to work out the local neighborhood. We are situated in inner east london, in a community that is multi-cultural to say the least. There is a big Bangladeshi community in our area, which means awesome and cheap food for us.

I have been looking for work. I am working as a vote counter in the UK general election for the next week and a bit just to pay this months rent. Then it looks like I may be starting work for a payroll company, which I am pretty happy about as the money is good, and its located close to Katie's work at Oxford Circus. Also means I will be able to cycle to work.

Speaking of cycling, I have been riding everywhere. London is a great city for cycling as its so flat, just gotta watch out for the crazy double decker buses.

I have footy training again tonight with the big match this weekend, the ANZAC cup. Its the only day of the year when the whole team is made up of Australians and apparently around 3000 people turn up to watch. Hopefully can kick a couple of sausage rolls.

Lastly, happy birthday to this big guy. I miss you. I will eat an eggplant parma in your honour this evening.

Brick Lane market.

On Sunday we went for a wander down to the Brick Lane market. Its not far from our house and has some of the most amazing foods and products for sale. If it can be bought, you can get it here.

Animal shirts -



Ukeleles! Yes, that shop is called "The Duke Of Uke". Amazing.



This was for sale amongst a stall of motorcycle protective gear. Was considering it for when I grow my moustache and look like Freddy Mercury.



I also found this photo in my collection. Nothing to do with the market but a great sunrise view from my house.



My life for the next week is job hunting, job hunting, job hunting, and um.... job hunting.

Being a tourist in London.

Last night Katie and I went down to London's famous West End and caught Avenue Q. Its a comedy musical involving puppets and was pretty funny.



Tickets were only 11 pounds but we were way up the top of the theatre. Still good value for money though.

An excited Katie waiting at the box office -



We picked up the tickets and went out for some delicious chinese at Mr Kongs. They give you oranges at the end of your meal. Yum!



Today we did our best tourist impression and went along the south bank of the Thames to the Tate Modern. Got to see some pretty famous artwork from Warhol, Picasso, Matisse, and many more.

Warhol -





I'm skeptical that these two pieces can be called art -





Was a pretty cool gallery in an amazing building.

Afterwards we went for a ride on the London Eye. It was ok.



My house is out there somewhere -







Big Ben and Big Ben -



A fun day out. Brick Lane market and curry tomorrow.

A new bike.

I have been looking for an alternative to get around London to the underground. Travelling on the train is a)expensive and b)always underground, so you never get to see the actual city.

I found an ad on gumtree for a really cool bike so I went and met the guy today. He was dodgy to say the least, but the bike is rad and cheap. So I bought it. Its probably stolen I know, but I figure in a city of 7 million people, what are the chances of running into its original owner. For the price (150 pounds/$250) it was too good to resist.

Its a 2009 Giant Bowery Mashup. So heres a couple of photo's.





Riding it home I saw London Bridge, the Tower of London, and St.Pauls Cathedral. Hadn't seen any of them yet as I was always travelling on the train.

Fun times on my new toy ahead...

The mighty Wandsworth Demons!

I had my first training session with the Wandsworth Demons today down at Clapham Common. Was a bit of a workout and also a bit of a hike to get there. There are closer clubs but there is no way I am pulling on a magpies guernsey.

Its like a typical Aussie bogan footy club, except in London. They like beer, and footy.

Bed time now. I am rooted from the run.

My London home.

Thought I would put a little video of our new house up on here, as it seems half of Melbourne has announced they intend to visit at some point.



So there you go. Its pretty awesome and feels like a home already. Gonna be a fun year.

Last night in Sweden

Helena took us out to a bar last night called The Strand. Once again, I will let the photo's do the talking...

Pizza and Gin for dinner -



The gorgeous girls waiting for a train -



They were playing this ping pong game where you ran around the table. Was fun. I won a couple of times with my mad ping pong skillz.



They had this weird photo shoot thing with all these painted red objects. We had some fun with it.







Caught the subway home.



Fly home to Stansted tonight and stay in an airport hotel. London tomorrow. Moving into our house Monday. Will be good to have a proper home again.

You're welcome Stockholm!

We caught the train up from Gothenberg to Stockholm. Had a little sleep on the way up, the girls downed some sushi.



Went through a town called Bro. I also saw a hairdresser called 'love is in the hair'. I love a hairdresser with a good pun name.



The view from Helena's apartment towards the globe arena.



Yesterday we went for a walk around the old town towards the royal palace. Pretty cool part of the world.



The palace (undergoing reno's)



Found a cheap lunch, $11 for a big pizza and salad. Everything else is so expensive here.



We went to the Alfred Nobel museum. Apart from having a whole bunch of awards named in his honour. He also invented dynamite, and smokeless gunpowder. Heres me in front of the worlds first geared bike which he also invented. Smart man.



That night we went up to the Globe Arena to catch an ice hockey semi-final. We were going to buy tickets online but ended up holding out until we got there. We then found out it was sold-out, but we managed to get some off a scalper that were 9 rows from the front for mega cheap. Awesome.


The local Stockholm team won 5-1, but the best bit was how crazy all the spectators were. Chanting and jumping around the whole match. The whole grand stand shook at times with all the jumping. The atmosphere was crazy!





They had heaps of flags. Ice hockey or gay pride march? You be the judge.



Celebrating the win, this meant they were in the grand final.



The next day we went down to the Vasa Museum on the water. The Vasa is an old old wooden ship. The Swedes built it to fight Poland in the 1600's, but they built it too big. It sailed in Stockholm Harbour for 1500 metres before tipping over and sinking. It sat at the bottom of the ocean for 333 years until it was found in the 60's. It was restored and now it has a big museum. And Darren Hanlon sings about it apparently.

Heres Katie and the Vasa -



The back of the ship -



Off to some club tonight as its our last night in sunny Stockholm. Back onto ryanair tomorrow to our london home.

Thanks goes out to Helena and Nina for letting stay at their houses in Stockholm. And also to Johanna for showing us the sights. Its been fun.

In the words of Chas Michael Michaels, "You're welcome Stockholm!"

Sweden so far...

Sweden is rad.

A couple of days ago Katie and I jumped aboard a ryanair flight to Gothenberg to visit some friends.



Now whoever the guy was that said "half the fun of travelling is getting to your destination", obviously never flew ryanair. They make it as difficult as possible to get on board your plastic seat in a cold cold plane. I won't go into details, but they suck.

We got there quite early on easter Sunday, so we just walked around the city checking out whatever we came across. Its a cool city, with trams and a river through the middle, it reminds me a little of home, only colder.

Getting my lookout on -



Kt being all Swedish -



Giant Gummi bear. Fitzy would love it here. You can get about ten different types of Haribo gummi. So good.



You know you are in Scandinavia when the tourist number plates have names like this -



Johanna took us to her parents place up the coast. So much fun.





The house -







BBQ pork for dinner, YUM!



The cooking crew -



They had a sauna on the rocks next to the ocean. We went in for a while then went for a freezing ocean swim a few times to cool down. So refreshing...











Was great fun. Thanks Johanna and the Swedish crew for the amazing hospitality. Still got a few days here so I am sure there will be more fun times to come.