Tuesday, 01 July 2008 04:59
I was begining to think that for some reason or another, I wasn’t meant to go see Radiohead live, ever. Rarely did they tour down-under and when they did, I never had enough money to go see them. So upon moving to London, my chances of seeing my favourite band live was a definite possibility.
A possibility yes, but not without some difficulty. The London shows sold-out just about as soon as they came on sale, so my next option was to see them in Manchester. After waiting 8 months, the day arrived. I was there with my wife at Hugh and Vera’s, our friends who live in Manchester. I took the tickets out to see where we needed to go, to my suprise, the tickets were written in French. I haven’t looked at them since recieving them by mail months ago. I showed this to Vera, who knows a little French and to my distress she turned and told me the tickets are for Nimmes Arena, France. I didn’t know what to do. It was 2pm and I had just found out that I had purchased Radiohead tickets for the wrong country. I turned to my wife with such a helpless look on my face that read, “…please help me!” Somehow we had to get to Montpellier, France from Manchester in less than 5 hours! While I was beating my self into the ground, wondering just how I could be so stupid, my wife made a frantic search online for planes to France, with no luck. She then looked on the Radiohead site for available tickets somewhere else and luckily there was tickets available for the Glasgow show. Better thank nothing I guess but I had to wait two more weeks to see Radiohead, so after she booked, I went to lie down and I wanted to cry.
5am on Friday morning, the alarm wakes my wife and I. We had a 7:40 flight from Gatwick to Glasgow. Upon arriving at the station, our train is running late, which means that we’ll miss our connecting train from Croydon to Gatwick. This in turn made us late for our check-in and therefore we missed our flight. Why me! I scream inwardly. We then had to book tickets for the next flight and had to wait around for 4 hours til 12:45. I was starting to think this concert better be worth all this. And it was.
Radiohead were to play in Glasgow Green, a large park and so our hope for fine weather dissapeared upon flying into Glasgow. Really what did I expect. After all that I’ve been through getting to this concert, of course it’s going to rain. But the rain never did once put a dampner on the concert. In fact I was very thankful for the rain, it cooled us down while we were moshing and washed the beer from us, tossed from all direction. It wasn’t an angry crowd, but I did see a short wench of a girl smack a guy in the face several times because her friend blamed him for feeling her up. The mosh kicked up several gears when Radiohead broke into, “Just”. There was a massive surge thankfully away to our right, away from this one girl who was 4 foot nothing in danger of being trampled on. There were plenty of the usual nut cases being pulled out of the crowd by security for crowd surfing. I closed my eyes in a state of rock and rock moment bliss. Most of my favourite tunes from the new album were played; Weird Fishes, Reckoner, Bodysnatchers, Videotape and suprised to hear Fake Plastic Trees. For their final encore, they finished an amazing concert with Idioteque and Karma Police, which people kept singing the lines, “For a minute there I lost myself” over an over. Radiohead still remains my most favourite band and even with all the trouble I had to go through finally to see them, they did not disapoint and I can’t wait to see them again.
Wednesday, 19 December 2007 08:43
I know that it was great in Sydney. The Sun, beach, my fam. Now we’re both back and I’m resolved to stay here a few more years and I want to get the most out of it rather than spend my time complaining about how cold it is. How the sun gives off no heat what-so-ever and that it’s dark at 7am and after 4pm. London does offer alot of things that Australia doesn’t. I’m determined to get as much as I can out of London before going back home. There are concerts to see and there are amazing exhibitions and shows. I’ve got to really dive in! I’m not going to have this opportunity ever again in my life. As crazy as it may sound, I’m really enjoying the cold weather. As long as I’m not stuck waiting around, or if it’s not raining, windy or snowing…
Monday, 17 December 2007 08:42
As ridiculous as it may sound, I’m happy to be back. My wife however doesn’t share the same sentiments and is still wishing to be in sunny Australia. I feel as though I have made a decision to make London my home (for at least the next few years), then return back to Australia where I can continue making a living there with the hopes and dreams of being a more successful Graphic Designer than when I left.
I want to take my art seriously this year. I can’t believe that a whole year has passed and not even anything close to a work that I can say I’m proud of. I don’t know if it’s time or if it’s just that things in my life have changed. But I feel that I am no longer producing any work of any significance and this is causing me great fustration and discouragement. I am an artist but in the past few years I am producing nothing. I’ve really got to devote what time I have in my work. I would hate to leave London without having explored just where I could take my work.
Sunday, 25 November 2007 08:40
On the eve of returning back home I thought that I’d write a few thoughts. How do I feel about returning? Well my only thought has been the fact that we’ll be returning to a Sydney Summer, only to come back in the middle of an English winter. Already the temperatures have dropped to 7-8 degrees, I’m in my long johns and even some british collegues said that it’s abit chilly today. Graham though is still walking around in just a t-shirt the crazy git. We leave in the evening tomorrow. I get funny about trips like these. I’m never very excited. Maybe it is my survival instinct of not having any expectations kicking in, but last night had drinks with Ally and Jaimy, strangely I was excited about meeting up with them more than going to Oz. That might not be true, but I’m trying to get some sort of comparison about my lack of enthusiasm about going to Oz. I can’t wait to be down at the beach. Can’t wait to stand on the shores fishing. Can’t wait to drive our car. See my neices and nephews. Guess I’m excited to see my family again. Maybe it’s because I haven’t been here long enough really. 7 months went so quickly but for me it’s not long enough for me to begin missing my family. Maybe that’s just me. I remember how excited I was about coming up to Sydney from Melbourne for Christmas. That was really exciting for me. Also I waited and counted the days til Debbie came down to visit me. It just goes to show that I’m more excited about company than I am about places. It’s the company that makes the places we visit special. I’ve been spending a lot of my time recently puting together my home movies. If I had filmed them without Debbie, I think that they would have turned out so differently. However, since she’s the one to share all my experiences I enjoy looking back and remembering. We’re about to set off now. All packed and ready, looking forward to the sunshine. Once more, not sure how I feel. I’m just looking forward to relaxing for 3 weeks. Sun, beach, fishing, my neices, my family. It’s going to be fun.
Sunday, 21 October 2007 08:36
I experienced another Great British Moment the other day. I went into a cafe and ordered a cappuchino, take away, one sugar. I was watching her make it and saw that she didn’t put the sugar in it. She then put the lid on it and gave it to me. I asked her did she put sugar in my coffee and her response was, “We don’t do that”. I’m not sure what it is about the lack of service here in London. I mean how hard is it to put one sugar in a cappuchino? Another thing happen when I went to Waterloo to order breakfast in a box. I ask for my roll to be cut in half and the girl behind the counter did just that, cut my roll in half across the top rather than through the middle so that I can actually put the sausage in between. Sometimes I feel like I’m an alien and that what I feel to be a simple request is something so foreign and difficult for brits to take.
Wednesday, 12 September 2007 08:29
It’s a couple of weeks back from Munich and the good thing for me is that work isn’t busy at the moment so that I can ease into it slowly after coming back from holidays. Our friends, Jaimie, Ally, Ben and Kate, all have come back from holidays also and last night at the pub we all shared our stories, before Ben stole the show with his encounter with the bobbies while photographing around London. I won’t write about it here, cause that’s his story. Jaimie and Ally went to Naples while Ben and Kate went to Amsterdam. We all agreed that it would be so much fun if we all went to Amsterdam together. It occured to me last night that the last time we were together in Australia, was my birthday, when we met up at the Art House. It’s amazing where we all ended up, right here in London. Knowing that it’s only tempoary I really want to make the most of it while I’m here. Thoughts of doing a gallery opening again pops into my head. Running my own business could be a definite possiblity also. I feel that I need a project to keep myself occuppied and both of those things would keep me busy and provide me with a challenge that is missing in my life at the moment. Maybe it was coming back from such a great holiday, or maybe I just had too much time to think, but I’ve been feeling rather empty the past couple of weeks. Debbie said that I should write down my feelings when I can so that we can discuss it, or even write things down in this blog. I’ve gone for the later. I’m never any good when I have not much to do. I need a challenge and I feel that if I’m not working on somes sort of project I lose touch with myself. I feel detached and alone. Am I just hiding behind being busy rather than dealing with something really important that I need to take care of. Not that I know what that is exactly. I will soon get back my weekends once the marriage seminars end in a couple of weeks. After that I think I need to start on a project to keep myself occupied. I did promise Deb that I’ll take her to Salsa lessons. Thats really for her. For me however, I would really love to finish my Flash Actionscript course, think about starting my own business and do a gallery opening in London. I think that should keep me busy for a while.
Wednesday, 29 August 2007 08:27
 
For our virgin trip out of the Uk, Deb and I chose Munich (Muchen), Germany. Just like a good film where you go in without any expectation and coming out fully suprised, Munich had it’s fair share of exciting first times for me. Though it was both our first time in Munich, we both found it quiet easy to get around on the public transport. This even with the names of most of the places we needed to get to being 8-10 characters long, such as Muchen Hauptbanhof (I can’t believe I remember), the central station. We were able to plan our trips out of Muchen from there, and most people were helpful, regardless of the Germans’ lack of service with a smile. I told Debbie that I expected the city to be rather clean, not one person spat on the street, nd no loud teenagers with awful music blaring out of mobile phone speakers. Not like in London, where kids here are so feral. We spent the Sunday south of Munich, where we went to Fusen to see the Royal castles, Neuschwanstein and Hohenshwangau. The later being a much smaller but still elegant resident. Neushwanstein is famous for it’s fairytale-looking. Built by Ludwig II, who was king of Bavaria at the time. It was trully amazing because of it’s mountain backdrop. It was quite a walk to the castles so on our way back down we decided to wait for the horse and carriage. I pulled out the video and started interviewing Deb on her experience of the day when a warm wind brushes my face. I looked just in time to catch the horse in front drop his guts and cop a face full of horse fart. All caught on tape. If only you could capture smells as well as sight….. We ended the night with a mediocre calamari salad for me and cod for Deb. The highlight of dinner was meeting Uli. A German, living in North Carolina. She had some facinating insights to share about being a German in America and also gave us some tips about what to do next time we make it to Munich. She voluntarily gave us her email and we told her that we would write so that she’ll have our also. Monday we went to see Germany’s tallest peak, Zugspitz (2964m). We were rushing because we had to again take the train down and we needed to get back to the Airport (Flugafen) for our flight at 21:40. It’s a shame that we couldn’t explore the little towns more than we did. There was so many interesting things that I would have liked to have a closer look at but there was no time. We had to catch the bus to Eibsee, and from there we were able to take a cable car to the top. After paying what I thought to be an extraordinary amount of money just for a cable car ride, we made it to the top. But pretty much had to leave straight away on the last cable car back down. We managed to get a few good shots and I got some nice footage also. We caught the train, checked in at the airport, and back in London by midnight. I don’t think I’ve ever had a longer day. We had a bit of a chuckle about one of the mountains surrounding Zugspitz. It’s name was seriously Mount Wank. And the town below Mt Wank? Wankstrabe (pronounced Wank-strap). Yes small things do amuse small minds….
Saturday, 25 August 2007 08:26
You can say that I’m living out my dream being here in London. I’m loving my work, loving the cute little place that we struggled to get, although not as much as others we know. We are still experiencing rudeness and lack of service, but both Debbie and myself are begining to accept them. Just got off the phone with Border Immigration, and I just found out that I can’t leave the country for at least six months while I’m applying for permanancy. Well, it looks like I’m going to miss Sarinahs wedding. It also means that we won’t be going to Holand either. How do I feel about all this? Well I’m disappointed but more so for Debbie. She’s the one that was looking forward to seeing everyone again. I guess she can go back by herself. Not sure how she would feel about that. So glad we didn’t book any tickets or anything. So glad that we at least get a chance to go to Germany. In times like these the best thing to do is to accept what you get dealt and make the most of it. Had a good chat to CJ last night about my concerns. I think my thoughts has changed in the last two weeks. There is still things that I may not understand, there might even be things that I have be taught wrong. I have to filter out the opinions from what is truth. I think this is why I try desperately to have a simple faith, similar to Paul’s, “Christ crucified, raised again”. Everything else seems to be debatable, although CJ wants to think that its so simple.
Sunday, 12 August 2007 08:24
I thought it would be good to record some of my fustrations that I, along with my wife Debbie, have both experienced in London. Although we both have daily experiences of rude and incompetent people, some stand out and are worth to be put down so that we can look back and laugh when we’re back in Sydney. Just today for example, the bus driver wanted to argue with us. What about you may ask? Well….about letting us off the bus eventhough we had pressed the button, the sign was glowing “Stopping”. And we had both got up to stand by the door to get off. No he decided that he didn’t want to wait for the bus infront, that was parked in a bus zone, so he casually decided to continue on. When we approached the window, and told him that we wanted to get off, did he stop and appologise, no he argued with us about the bus stop and didn’t let us off till the next stop that was at least 500 metres from where we wanted to get off. We’ve adapted to accept the fact that people here are incompetent, rude and don’t care. What’s the point of arguing? The other week I was in a hardware store and asked the person behind the counter where I could find some putty. After explaining to him what putty was, his response was, “Isn’t it on the shelf?”. I was dumb-founded! I mean I know that Britain lacks customer service but that statement took me back. I had to then reply with, “Would you show me which shelf”. These and many more experiences has shown us a city that has become inconsiderate, rude and down right mean. I know that it’s not everyone, but my thoughts is that when you’re in a city with 60Mil people, you are going to encounter more rudeness and more incompetence.
Thursday, 09 August 2007 08:22
I have decided that I will be using this blog as a journal for my experiences in London. Having arrived here in April (making it now four months in the UK), I have had to put in the hard yards looking for a job. Silly ol’ me thought that I could just waltz into a job with my sparkling CV and dynamic portfolio.Unfortunately I was probably part of a long list of people all going for the same position. I don’t know how many jobs I applied for, but I applied for about 3-4 jobs a day, had about 8 interviews, 3 I was shortlisted for until I finally got my break with Mouchel Parkman. They’re not even a advertising or graphic design company, rather a very large roads and infrastructure company that has their own marketing department. I was so excited after recieving the call that they were offering me the position. I thought it was another one of those, “….unfortunately you have not been considered for this role, goodluck!” phone calls, but it turned out they really like me. A little bit about the job, I’m the only graphic designer in the marketing team. I’m in a team of about eight. My first few days were rather easy, but in the past couple of days work has picked up and I’ve had to really get myself organised before I let some jobs slip through the cracks. Where I’m based is an old village manor house. Something straight out of a Jane Austin novel. There is however a slight private school feel to it, with it’s cafateria and large grounds. The office that I’m working out of use to be the piggery. One could laugh at all the jokes that can come out of that one…..
Wednesday, 14 June 2006 08:10
The time has finally arrived. As I type, my wife is behind me packing for our trip to Fiji. “It going to be like our second honeymoon”, she rightly observes. I can’t wait. We’re actually going there for one of our friends wedding. First it’s to the Shareton, Denarau. Then it’s 4 nights on Plantation Island. I’ve never been to Fiji before. All I know is that it’s a very exensive holiday. What it’s costing us just for the 6 nights is almost the same as what we paid for for our honeymoon to Sabah. We stayed at a five star resort there, not so with Fiji. I can’t complain though. I feel very lucky to be able to have a holiday. Some would say that spending so much money on a holiday isn’t worth it, that paying for exprience is a waste of money. Well for me, I’m still undecided as too weather or not that’s true. I have truly enjoyed my travels so far. New Zealand still brings a smile to my face, upon remembering. I love telling people about my honeymoon. It was a remarkable experience. I would have loved to have traveled when I was a kid. I remember so well the places that I did go to with my family, even though they were all withing NSW or QLD. I know when we have kids, I think that I’ll be taking them everywhere.
Saturday, 07 January 2006 08:05
I have discovered a new found love of hiking after doing the Six Foot Track. The Six Foot Track starts from The Explorers Tree and continues through Megalong Valley towards Janolan Caves. A distance of 42 Km. Accompanying me along this gruelling adventure, my beautiful wife, Debbie. Taking just under 2 and a half days, the track winds it’s way through beautiful rain forrest paths, hot cross country trails and steep mountain track. As my wife describes it as more of a hike then a bushwalk. Especially on the second day when we had to track 22km most of it up hill. “Hills that seem never ending” a fitting descriptioin of what day two was like. Even though we suffered alot of pain, constantly asking ourselves, “Why are we doing this again?”, we have both come away thinking it was all worth it. We have an overwhelming sense of achievement and we just can’t wait till we’re off on another adventure.
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