On Monday I move to North Woolwich. Different from Woolwich, which is south of the River.

All the flat hunting stress is now over as we decided on a flat in North Woolwich. Yesterday morning I phoned up and discovered it still available and Val quickly put down a holding deposit before anyone else gazzumped us. 3 weeks and 13 viewings since we started. What a pullava!

Now feel more relaxed and human again. It’s a lovely flat, new build so modern, clean, double glazed etc. You enter into a hallway which goes past a large bedroom, decent bathroom and then onto an open plan living room with a full fitted modern kitchen attached. The living room has a large patio door, which goes out onto a balcony overlooking the river. Lovely views are to be had.

It’s in North Woolwich, which is North of the river (not to be confused with Woolwich, which is South of the river). It’s all part of the new Docklands Development going on near City Airport. Its in zone 3, a few minutes walk from King George V DLR station, which goes direct to bank, or 4 stops to Canning Town on the Jubilee line, so transport connections are OK. Downsides being that there are no supermarkets nearby and the nightbus connections are shite. So, if I’m out in town, late at night, I might ask to kip at your house! Or I'll have to brave the mothballs in my pockets and stump up some cash for a taxi!

Unfortunately can’t move in till Monday as they are painting it over the weekend. So hiring a van tomorrow then I’ll drive down to my nans in Surrey to pick up some of my stored possessions. Sunday I will return to Holloway and on Monday collect all Val’s stuff and then unload all our possessions and move into our new flat.

Stag Do

Something else to write about today, apart from bloody flat hunting. Went to Prague on Chris Marshall's stag do at the weekend. Was brilliant, 3 days of having fun, letting hair down and being able to catch up with some old friends.

Arrived in Birmgham airport 9am Friday morning and got a couple of pints in. This set the tone for the weekend, why does a lads weekend have to be so unhealthy? 3 days of constant binge drinking and eating fast food. Oh well, it was a stag do.

Get to Prague and its 40c and humid. Ooh soo Hot! Whilst England is having torrential downpours, here the trouble is too much heat. Prague is a stunningly beautiful city though and there's a good atmosphere in the town. We walk round Prague stopping in at random bars to sample the Czech beer but by 5pm the tiredness (ridiculously early start at 5am) & dehydration (oppressive heat and lots of lager), have us beat a little. So we go back to the hotel for a little bit of a lie down. After resting and freshening up we head off out back into town.

End up in a cocktail bar and sample many of the cocktails plus a few shots. Stumble out of here and into a place which does stag do stuff, enough said really. All goes a bit hazy from here , remember spewing on the floor of the club after downing a double shot of absinthe and getting home at 5am after eating yet another macdonalds. I don't wanna see another macdonalds for a while thats for sure.

Saturday wake up still pissed, only a few hours after going to bed, can't go back to sleep so me and Chris go down for the free hotel breakie. Pile my plate full of eggs, sausages and toast, have a few mouthfulls, feel sick, stare at it for a bit, ditch it and have yoghurt and orange juice instead. Freshen up, walk round town, have a kebab and then everyone else starts getting the beers in again.

I'm thinking sod this, bile keeps coming up into my throat and I don't want another stomach ulcer, so I go home, drink lots of water and have an afternoon nap. I need to sort myself out a bit for another big session tonight. After a few hours kip I eat a salad to counteract all the shit thats gone inside me, then spend a few hours walking round town buying Chris's outfit for tonight.

Around 9pm all the lads are together in the hotel again, and they're all hanging from a second day of drinking and I'm all fresh and chipper, hee hee. However we get rounds of absinthe in again which perks them back up. And also we dress up Chris in a kids size (he's a big lad) Czech footie shirt, tight lycra shorts with a bannana stuffed down them. He looks as camp as a carry on film.

It's a funny night. Eastern Europe is a little more conservative so there's a few heckles of the Czech blokes and lots of stares. But Chris is a champion, on form. He "High Five's" everyone in a Borat accent with lots of "You like". Its funny as. Back in the cocktail bar its drinking games and shots and I'm on the Strawberry Colada's to cancel out the acid and stop the bile coming up.... it actually works! Chris gets up on stage and puts his finger on these random blokes heads and makes them pirroette. Priceless. They look very confused but eventually do it. I think its only the fact Chris is so big and looks like an absolute nutter that he doesn't get a smack. He eventually gets everyone on stage dancing madly. The girls are well up for it.

But after this things go a bit pear shaped. After two hours of lovely sunshine it starts pissing it down and in the early hours of the morning we all lose each other in the streets. Me and Rich are together but we're cross because two of the lads have pissed of with our kitty (over £200) which we've all chipped into. But when drunk logic doesn't apply. We miss phone calls and end up stumbling round for hours getting lost. Oh well. Get home 5am again.

Sunday wake up and feel like death. Manage a ..... yes you've got it, Macdonalds for breakfast. Hang around for hours in Prague feeling sick, flight, then miss my network rail bus connection from Birmingham to Rugby, bit of a panick, but hassle the staff enough that they put me in a taxi all the way to Rugby, go the Virgin Rail lady. Eventually get back past midnight shattered, and today back to the rigmarole of flat hunting, packing, work but also Val :-)

Tag

Val has tagged me.

The Rules:
1. If you're tagged, you must post the rules - which are:
2. You post your 8 random facts.
3. At the end of your blog, you tag someone else and they must post their random facts.
4. You leave your chosen people a comment telling them they've been tagged.

8 Random Facts
1) I worked for 2 years packing pies in a pie factory
2) After this I got myself a maths degree
3) I spent 2 years of my childhood living in a caravan
4) I’ve seen 4 of the new 7 wonders of the world. The Taj Mahal in India, Christ the Redeemer in Brazil, Machu Pichu in Peru and The Great Wall in China
5) I love drinking beer, eating curry and junk food
6) I also make sure I eat lots of fresh fruit and veg
7) I often watch trashy TV
8) I prefer most arty farty films to most blockbusters

I tag Bill and Ben

Flat hunting

Just saw another flat, big, bright, airy with a balcony overlooking the river, lovely place. OK in North Woolwich, zone 3, at the end of the DLR line, but we thought, hmmm maybe we can cope with this. Then walked to the local supermarket, which the estate agent said was 10 minutes away and no, it was 30 minutes away! No bus that went there or anything. Also noticed all the cars parked in the parking spaces, clear that most people here have a car. Grrrrr. Has anyone lived off internet shopping before?

Friday - Chiswick, Saturday - Stepney Green & Bromley by Bow, Monday - Stoke Newington Wednesday - Wood Green, Saturday - Whitechapel, Monday - North Woolwich.

At least I'm getting to know the obscure parts of London again in this flat hunt, just like my wanderings in my early London days. Oh well we'll have to settle on a place soon, only a few days till we're kicked out of our current place.

Also got to apply for my current job (am temping) so I've got full time work guaranteed. Should be applying tonight really, but too tired. Then when full time work and flat sorted out, career is next. Hmmpphh!

Anything fun to write about. Nah not really, maybe I should give up this blog thing. Now I've come back from my travels I haven't really got much to say. I'm just writing for the sake of it.

Flat Hunting

Well had my little rant about terrorists last week. The ridiculous political correctness and human rights bullshit in this country got to me a little bit and I needed a vent. Give human rights protection to those that deserve it and punishing hate preachers is not discrimination, punishing innocent people is. Anyway no point storing up too much anger, it’s bad for you.

Quite a trying week has just passed. Me and Val are looking for a flat to rent, seen five places so far and they’ve all had fatal flaws. We’re looking at one-bedroom flats for £850 a month or less and they are all tiny dingy shitholes or miles away from tube stations/supermarkets etc. or without crucial things (last flat no cooker or washing machine). London is so ridiculously expensive, it’s even worse than when I looked a couple of year’s back. In Sydney/Perth I earned the same wages as here and I could rent a big beautiful light airy flat for a third of the price!!!!! London is getting me down, it’s no good unless you’re wealthy. I can’t see myself making a life for myself here anymore, how am I going to afford a house? So basically I don't really wanna stay here anymore, But Val's life is here and she wants to stay. And I wanna be with Val, so I'm gonna stay in London. Anyway it'll take me a few years before I can buy a house.

Trying to flat hunt whilst working full time, applying for jobs and sorting out a career, its all getting a bit hectic. Plus shit summer weather. Hmmpphh

But as Monty Python said "Life’s a piece of shit, when you look at it"…….. "But Always look on the Bright side of Life". So keep smiling. Still extremely happy with Val despite the stress and everything’s good really. Had a lovely steak courtesy of Andrew last night, keeping in touch with my bro more now, which is good, and fitting in a social life somehow :-) Bring on a flat and bring on a job.

The Legal System in this country is Total Bollox

With all this terrorist stuff rearing its ugly head again, I thought I’d have my little rant, what with these idiotic gullible do-gooders doing my fucking head in. Even the government is stopped in its tracks by this crazy legal system. Tony Blair despite being a total dickhead, for kissing Bush’s arse and going to war with Iraq, actually wanted to do the right thing and kick all these foreign Terror Preachers out. But no, these clueless brain dead lawyers and judges have blocked him time and time again; citing ridiculous human rights bollox.

I think human rights lawyers have been perverting the course of justice for far too long! Terrorist’s, preachers of hate and terrorist sympathisers are attacking the very system that gives them their human rights. If they hate our country and what it stands for and are willing to kill innocent British civilians why are they protected by our system and welcomed into our country. It’s absurd. If they are foreign nationals, then deport them.

A more controversial idea, but one I’d support, is that people who frequent terrorist websites should be prosecuted and locked up in a similar way to paedophiles who look at child porn sites. These websites foster hatred and breed terrorism and interacting with them ensures their popularity. Hence these people are contributing towards terrorism. The argument that you are not committing actual child abuse by looking at child porn websites does not hold with the law so nor should there be a right to interact with terrorist sites.

Why has the USA had no terrorist attacks since 2001? Because they are far tougher than we are and would not put up with the above. This country needs to aggressively target the roots of terrorism. Then it won’t be left to the right wing papers to stir up hatred towards these communities, leading to discrimination against innocent people. Be harsh with those that deserve it, but don’t take it out on the Muslim community as a whole.

Westminster City Council

Well it’s my 4th day working as an administrator for Westminster City Council’s libraries department. An unglamorous job but it’s A OK. I get paid a ridiculously good amount really for such a lowly role, maybe because of the Council’s prestige as the London borough which encompasses Buckingham Palace, Soho, Hyde Park, Oxford Street and Leicester Square. It’s also piss easy work in a low stress environment because essentially it’s local government and therefore civil service; No 70 hour weeks here, you can take the City and shove it where the sun don’t shine! Even my manager works a 35 hour week and its strictly 9 to 5. The canteen is subsidised and produces edible meals of decent portions for around £1.50. For the rest of my lunch hour I can stroll round St James Park or walk along the river. My manager seems like a nice bloke, laid back and good to work for and the people in my team seem jovial enough.

Mmmm I bet in a few months time I’ll be moaning about how boring it is and bitching about the wankers that I work with! The maximum I’ve ever stuck with one job so far in my 15-year employment history is 1 year.

And could I cope with being an administrator for the rest of my life? Surely I need to get a better career, something more glamorous? But if it low stress, not too boring and it pays well, who cares, does anyone else ever think that careers are overrated?

A little sleep deprived this week, too many late nights, but then I’m always sleep deprived. Maybe I don’t need 8 hours sleep anyway, I never seem to get it and seem to have coped OK. I think I think about sleep too much!

I’ve been dead classy lately, went to Yate’s Wine Lodge in Stratford Friday Night with Bernie and Jo, my teacher friends. Paid £3 to get in and shout at each other to try and be heard over the loud R&B music. Managed to pursuade my friends that we should accept our losses (£3) and move onto a quieter pub where we could sit and chat. Was much happier sat in a cosy local pub and caught up with all the gossip. I’m bored of going to loud bars, maybe I’m too old? If I’m not going to dance then I want to be able to talk! Otherwise with nothing else to do I simply give up shouting and straining my ears, prop up the bar and start necking drinks very quickly. This always results in me waking up the next day feeling sick with a big hole in my wallet.

Looking forward to going on my friend’s Stag Do in 3 weeks but worried about wearing a kilt for his wedding in Scotland and doing the Best Man’s Speech. I’ll probably write it the night before, like at my brother’s wedding.

On another note me and Val must start looking for a flat soon, otherwise we’ll have to stay in a Youth Hostel or something – Shudder!