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My friend Michelle updated her facebook status asking whether anyone wanted to see CSS tomorrow (tomorrow being the 8th of October). I knew that it was wine tasting evening for me but who could turned down for a free gig? Not much thought was put into deciding whether I could go (that’s the beauty of living in London, impromptu spontaneous gigs you can just leave and go to at any time of the day). So i instantly replied and that was that (thanks Michelle!), the condition however was that I needed to find a girl to go with since the guestlist was under her name and she couldn’t go tonight (I suppose I could of put on a wig and an elegant colourful dress but I doubt I’d be convincing). Her first pick for a female replacement was Silvie so she contacted her but during the interim of it all, I went slightly crazy in terms of contacting everyone I know who was a female living in London in case Silvie wasn’t able to go.
Lovely view of London, and look it's the ever so phallic gherkin
Well if babylon was the thames river. Anyway, a few months ago I went on a cruise around the river thames to witness the ever so hectic views that is Mordor Lundun. The entire afternoon/evening was lovely, the sky had a nice shade of blue and there were enough clouds to imagine a biblical army taking place in the skies (if the army were blobs of white stuff anyway). There was a free bar and a wonderful blues duo who played all the oldskool tunes in their own bluesy and oldskool way, the singer reminded me of a female version of thom yorke due to her lazy eye, she also had that swaying dance you can only get from our quirky lead vocalist from radiohead (but a more toned down one, it was more about the lazy eye i think). Her microphone was the proper condenser microphones you get back in the 60’s (not that I remember much of the 60’s) and they had a cute little mixer that routed to the PA system (the kind that makes you go awwh, it only has two channels teehee and then probably cause a social faux pas by mentioning anything technical).
Of course don’t forget about the food, though you might as well have to be honest, we had canapés (which i insist on pronouncing it as can-apes (just without the pause if that makes sense)) but that consisted of cold sandwiches, cold chicken drumsticks (with tin foil wrapped at the bottom to prevent any uncouthness), cold samosas, cold springrolls and more cold sandwiches. Luckily I was able to ninja in a bacon bagel before I went in (mmm hot food) so dinner was sorted. I suppose the rest of the evening was spent lounging about and taking underexposed arty portrait shots of people and having folks take staged random portraits of me.
10 things I’ve noticed about working in my office:
- We have a sandwich lady who visits us around 11am, I call her the sandwich lady of doom, in fact i usually add “of doom” to anything I say at the end, so the timesheet of doom or the meeting… of doom, on rare occasions I say “of truth” just to balance things out (eg the burger of truth), not sure if this was about the sandwich lady or using the word “of doom”, the sandwich lady of doom is pretty funny though, we get an email everyday telling her arrival (sometimes marked as high importance!!!) and usually the people who want sandwiches from the sandwich lady of doom are already there. she serves pretty oldskool sandwiches, but everytime i take the lift down to buy lunch when she’s there, it feels like i’m cheating on her, we joke around about our relationship with the sandwich lady and how there are “other” places to buy lunch, but we have an understanding.
- x of the y variety; people have definitely noticed this and use it at the office, so instead of saying coffee machine, you say machine of the coffee variety. again, just me being silly. i like padding out words.
- Greeting my manager is usually in the form of “sup yo”, we’re street, word.
- Whenever me and my workmate do a cough, we tend to cough it to the beat of “A fifth of beethoven”, as well as that, we also tend to sing that (and Strangers in the Night by Frank Sinatra) when we’re bored
- There is construction going on outside the office, in cases where we hear sirens or beeps, we tend to start ad libbing break beats or whatever kind of beats we can come up with to form a beautiful piece of drum and bass (or whatever) to drown out the horror of the monotonous noises
- I walk in my socks, standard stuff, though i put my shoes on when i go to the bathroom (of doom).
- I like getting a lovely tall glass of water for drinks (rarely drink coffee), since playing wii fit, I need to boost my balance on my right foot, so whenever I start using the water dispenser I raise my left foot up and balance on my right foot until the glass is filled. that’s using your time wisely
My entire workoffice is smothered with random postit notes, doodles of mario, loco roco, pikachus and the ubiquitous katamari damacy prince, on the white board i wrote “don’t forget to smile everyday” so everyone (including me can read). on another board a manager wrote “BE AWESOME” but that’s no longer there (probably because we are always in a constant state of awesomeness)- Whenever there’s tension, I usually break it by playing “you all everybody” by driveshaft. the lyrics are a genius and everyone loves driveshaft.
- In order to maximise time needed for exercise, I run like hell to work (usually skipping), i take the stairs to my floor (which is at the top), and after work, i tuck my keys in my pocket or hand and sprint like i’m being chased by a dog, it really scares people (of the business variety) and is often a sight to see if you’re working in my area of the city. luckily i wear black trainers to work, though they’re starting to fall apart already.
The manager asked us for drinks at starbucks, and one of the managers asked for a…
“Double Ristretto Venti Half-Soy Nonfat Decaf Organic Chocolate Brownie Iced Vanilla Double-Shot Gingerbread Frappuccino Extra Hot With Foam Whipped Cream Upside Down Double Blended, One Sweet’N Low and One Nutrasweet, and Ice”
One day I’ll try ordering one of those bad boys, but for now, a lovely strawberry frapperdappercino will do, i even got a lollypop 
Update: The cherry flavoured lollypop tasted like peking duck o_O
Yesterday I was able (I’ll say able since I was slightly late due to missing a train) to meet up with my friends Jason and Rachel for a simple nando’s takeaway (never really had a nando’s takeaway before) and to check out their new place and play some good old smash brothers brawl.
They’ve recently moved into their new place, it was their temporary stay until they found a place to start buying. The location was near to where Rachel worked / studied. It felt like yesterday that we were sitting on some steps in a shopping centre eating greggs bloomer sandwiches for lunch at college (food at college has horrific). Now they’ve found a place to stay and will eventually get into the whole mortgaging business, oh how we’ve grown.
…well for them anyway. I feel like I’m still stuck in a time bubble where I’m still at college, just that work is actually work in a company, and we don’t do games/p.e. (boo 
I like running). I think I need to begin the plan of moving out and starting a life of my own, though this will inevitably take time and money to execute. I suppose I can live with the salary I make, but it would be ideal if I can save up as well for that move in the property ladder. No point in renting and forever stuck in a “renting” state.
After finally arriving at the hotel room I’ve realised that my previous trip to New York was a lot nicer than this time round. Nothing major but a large build up of small things that makes this trip a bit tiddly. I was pretty much searched at every stop of my journey. No idea why they stopped me and I wasn’t too bothered to ask why. I went passed metal detectors fine from heathrow but had a search when I was boarding (which was weird).
The plane trip was pretty neat, I spoke to a cool couple who was returning to New York from their holiday to Ireland and England. At one point I took my earphones out (playing Final Fantasy Crisis Core) to find the lady saying “we’re moving, I’ve had enough of you”. Her tone was way too serious! So I just replied “ok”. Turns out it was just a joke and it was her exit to the bathroom. Man it’s hard to tell when people are joking in america (or on route to it). Granted it makes me wonder if we’re simply too sensitive about these things.
Once I landed, we had to wait in line for passport control, in which I got sent to a room strangely where all they did was stamp my green card a few times (the thing you should do in the normal passport control route). Then I was search once again after having the stamps. It was tiddly as hell and wasn’t needed when I was too tired from travelling and staying up late watching Lost the other night. The final straw was the hotel bookings, turns out we had to pay for them, and since my credit card didn’t work (probably the limit being too small) I had to turn to my manager in New York who happened to visit me. Anyway, all shall be sorted out tomorrow where my UK manager pays for the room and I’ll just let the searches pass. It would have been fine if everyone was searched too but most people got through without the search. Maybe it was the green scarf?
Anyway, in the hotel room now, had a shower and testing out the trouser press haha. I think I’ll buy some nice trousers at work when I go lunch. The room isn’t as cool as the previous one. The telly is oldskool (the other one was a 32 inch lcd telly) and the desk is lacking in space. But I suppose the good news is the bed looks epic! So yeah, that’s today in a post. I’ll start taking photos in a bit I packed my tripod 
Turns out I’ll be going back to New York again. This time it’ll be a quick sneak trip from Tuesday to Friday. I don’t feel as excited as I should be, perhaps I will tomorrow. I suppose a checklist is in order? Not sure whether I’ll get to do much there, will probably get a cheeky visit to MoMA but that’s about it. Anyway, on to the list:
- Suitcase
- Some big bucks
- Travel documents: Passport, tickets
- Clothes for travelling (sunny)
- Sunglasses
- Toilet stuff
- Psp and usb cable
- iPod and usb cable
- Phone and usb cable
- Tripod!
- Usb to mains adaptor (otherwise we have no use for usb cables)
- Dslr camera (no need for charger)
- Notebook
- Company laptop
I think that’s about it. Keeping it nice and simple. Anymore and it will destroy me. It’s going to be nice and sunny so yay! Was going to get a giant mug that says “I <3 NY” but I’ll wait until someone makes an “I <3 My Tissues” mug haha.
One of the main topics of discussion when talking about New York at the office with the New York folk is talking about what differences New York has over ye olde London. Most of them are well known but it’s a lot cooler when you experience it first hand, anyway here’s the list of things I’ve noticed when I’m in New York… and ONLY things I’ve noticed:
