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March 20th, 2008
May 12th, 2007
05:33 pm - Changing Lanes
I've been meaning to write here for a while, but things have been fairly hectic.
Things at work have not improved. Since the start of the year 10 people have resigned which makes for lots of fun leaving dos but a sad atmosphere in the office. We may not be moving to Staines after all, but once everyone's started looking for other work anyway its hard to turn back. The risks of having distributed development and focusing too much on one site I guess - all the classic "them" and "us" problems plus some more. I did quite a few interviews and was beginning to get depressed by the lack of success and the inevitability of working in finance but as it turns out there are lots of really interesting and unusual jobs out there ... its just a matter of being patient and looking everywhere. I've got a couple of options now, both quite different from each other so I'll have to think hard about what I want. In a way I think the second job you take is a harder decision to make than the first one, because I feel like now I have to know exactly what I want and what I need - and it will shape my career and the direction its going to take. Its all very serious! :)
I went to visit my mom in France a few weeks ago, and managed to squeeze in a day in Jersey either side as well. Its a pretty little island, helped by the fact that the weather was hot and sunny while I was there, so I managed to get sunburnt while on the beach. Its a bit over-crowded with tiny houses all crammed next to each other for miles and miles around the coastline, but I guess its nice enough if you're old and want to retire in the sun - though I hear its nigh impossible to get a visa to live there unless you're very rich.
I also flew back to Ireland for a weekend to go out with my two best friends from school. It was Una's birthday so we went back west to her house on the Dingle Peninsula. It was quite nostalgic, being back where we used to get up to lots of things when we were younger, and as always happens when you revisit somewhere after a long time, everything felt smaller. Coming back in the car with Maria and her dad, we drove all the way around Clochar and Slea Head to get back to where I live - it was the most beautiful day, the sun was shining, the sea was sparkling like crystal and even through my hangover it made me want to smile!
The other main reason why I've been so busy, aside from job-hunting, is that I've started playing World of Warcraft. Even though Olly suggested I try it over a year ago, I always thought it wasn't really my kind of game... too complicated, too long, too RPG. Fortunately, the Times were giving away a free trial one week so I installed just to see what it was like.... and within days found myself completely addicted! I bought the full game before the trial ran out and subscribed to the monthly fee (which is so worth it imho), and haven't looked back - which is probably for the best as I've already clocked up quite a few hours! Its a strangely satisfying game, strange for the reason thats it not actually as difficult as you might think to work your way up (though that may change once you're above level 30) and satisfying for many reasons: it looks beautiful, the soundtrack is moving, there's a decent social network if you choose to participate and its based on an efficient experience/reward/leveling system, so you've constantly got something to work towards and to feel good about. Already, at level 24, I'm probably more successful than I am in real life, I definitely have more money! :) It remains to be seen whether I will stick it out past level 30 (a turning point for the more hard-core?)
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Annie
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March 28th, 2007
04:47 pm - Money money money
Of recent, I can't seem to stop buying things (actually make that wanting to buy things!). If its not a console, its clothes, or makeup or shoes or games or a night out. It all sounds so ridiculously materialistic, but so easy to get carried away with. I think especially because at the moment, I don't have much motivation to work I end up spending my time surfing the web and going out to the shops - the more you see the more you want to buy. Of course, the obvious solution is to rebel and throw it all away... I don't NEED another pair of boots or a ps3 (nor can I afford either) .... but to be honest I don't see in the point in going to that extreme either, I just need to learn where to draw the line.
It just seems to me that wherever I look, whatever I look at, it is an advertisement and it's hard to say no. In London, you're generally surrounded by people who look great, who spend lots of money and time on themselves, who have beautiful clothes, hair and skin. There's always concerts and gigs, club nights and movies to go and see.... birthday parties, leaving drinks, visitors to entertain - the list goes on. Don't get me wrong, one of the things I love about London is the constant activity, different events to keep you busy, lots of things happening - but sometimes it feels like its all just a bit too money-oriented! Imagine a different life where you don't have to have money to have a good time? At the moment, I can't go a day without spending money - travel and food alone count the most often, and once I've spent £5, its easy for that to grow into much more! The point is, I guess, that's what money's for... once you've got a nice balance between buying stuff that is good (enough for you anyway) and satisfies you in some way, and covering all the necessities that you have to buy and rent that you have to pay, it doesn't matter what you do with the rest of your money - give it to charity, give it to your friends, drink it away, spend it on tax and insurance for your car, there's plenty of places for it to g
Speaking of earning, my office has moved to Holborn, for only two months which is a shame because everyone seems to be really enjoying it here. Its small, about 2/3 the size of our old office, which just goes to show how much we over-estimated the size we would be by now.... but its a good atmosphere and very well located. Three people have handed their notices in already, and I expect there will be more before our impending move to Staines. I've started looking for jobs, but its hard to weed out the good ones from all the finance and investment banking ones. Its getting somewhat more urgent now, as the next two months are going to pass quickly, and I'm not looking forward to a long commute to Staines every day, but I'm sure I'll get used to it; In fact Staines and the commute might be bearable if I had an interesting project to work on, or some sort of direction towards my career, but at the moment it just seems to be going nowhere :(
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March 9th, 2007
04:13 pm - The world turns
Its funny how you can not think about things without even realising it, assuming that you know how you feel about them. So you concentrate on how others feel and think because that’s the important thing, the interesting thing even, but then it’s a shock when you sit down and think about it, and realise that you've never asked yourself the same questions you ask everyone else. Like finding there's a whole chapter that you missed out...
I've started watching BattleStar Gallactica from the beginning... Having watched some of the latest series with Olly and his flatmates and really enjoyed it, I thought I might as well go back and see if watching the earlier episodes would make everything fit together a bit more... Its an awesome show, I can't believe it took me so long to realise what I've been missing out on! Between that and Heroes, I'm quite impressed with the quality of tv these days... I mean, sure there's about 90% shit, but as long as there's a few gems out there then it doesn't really matter - although to be fair, they're not actually widely available to people here which is a bit crap.
I've been reading Murakami's The Wind-up Bird Chronicle, which I can highly recommend. It’s a bit off-the-wall at times but not so much that you can't accept it, and its also beautifully written and engaging... It seems to make the world seem that little bit more mysterious.
I've also splashed out on a full sparring kit for kick-boxing, so that I can start sparring and progress to the next belt. Its amazing how much it can add to the classes, you get a lot more adrenalin because you're trying to dodge (or hit) someone for real, and there's a lot more stuff to think about then normal pad and air work. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to go that much recently, for various reasons, but hopefully once we settle in to a new rhythym in Holborn I'll be able to get a routine going.
I really really want to go see Infected Mushroom at Psychedelic Academy 004 in May, but its on a Sunday :( I've just realised its a bank holiday weekend that weekend, but still, why the Sunday??
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March 6th, 2007
10:24 pm - The great blue month
It seems I'm always either looking for somewhere to live or trying to find someone who will live with me! Next month, my brother moves out in to a flat in Islington, so Cara and I are trying to find someone to move in... its difficult beause even though the flat is lovely, the room is a little small and doesn't have any windows... but some people aren't put off by that.
Liezl left last week on a sad Sunday... however we saw her off well with a surprise Pirate Party :) It was awesome fun, all organised by Louise and I think Nik won the prize for most imagination, though Olly was sexiext (and the meanest looking!) :) Unfortunately I came down with the flu soon after that as has nearly everyone else I know.. seems to be quite a virulent strain. I postponed an appointment I had at the Sanctuary and took a day off work till I was feeling ok again, though I'm not sure why I bothered rushing back in...
Work has been a strange beast... we've been told that we're moving to Staines which wasn't a huge surprise but still was a bit of a shock to hear nonetheless as the commute there would really not be worth it :( A lot of my colleagues seem to be quite disappointed as well, so I'm not sure what will happen to our engineering department... its quite a change for everyone involved to suddenly be working in a suburban town like that :( Anyway, the move won't be for another 4-5 months as we have to move to Holborn first, so I'll take things as they come... but am definitely considering looking for something else now that is in the city centre. We also got to a point where though we'd finished our release it was still in test and not available publicly, but we didn't really have any work to do, nor seem to know what work we will be doing afterwards... quite odd after we'd been asked to work late evenings and weekends to get it done in time. I guess I should enjoy and make the most of the free time while I have it.
I finally went to the Sanctuary today, a gift from my mom from a year ago and I've just found the money/time to go now... had an amazing day. The place is in the middle of Covent Garden but you completely forget that as soon as you step in the door to the huge relaxing space they've set up. I spent a few nice hours swimming and wandering between sauna, sanarium and hamman, as well as getting a manicure and a pedicure... the first time I've ever had it professionally done and it was quite nice. They have lots of little areas where you can lie down comfortably with blankets and cushions and either read a book or watch the giant koi-carp go by or fall asleep. Have to say it was a very relaxing experience and I'd love to be able to go back occasionally when I'm stressed out. While there and swimming, it seemed like such a strange thing to be able to do... that humans have learnt this ability to propel themselves through water in such a way, and that they bother just for kicks. I heard somewhere recently that human babies can swim instinctively, but it sounded crazy. Apparently they can't really swim but can instinctively know not to breathe while under water and make little swimming motions for the first few months presumably because they've just come from the womb... after a few months it disappears and you have to teach them for real. Anyway... I thought it was cool... and its nice to know that if you fall into water you won't drown. :P
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January 28th, 2007
04:26 pm - On with it
And so a new year has begun... rather slowly and painfully in some ways, but a whole lot of fun in others. Mainly its been stressful as we have a project release deadline on the last day of this month and we were very far from hitting it. We're now a bit closer... maybe 7 days behind schedule, and hopefully they are all very low priority bugs anyway. We're not exactly sure what will happen on the 31st however, the criteria for release are a little vague, other than we have no outstanding bugs left so it will be interesting to see what happens.
We've had a few rather worrying announcements at work, my work environment is likely to change considerably in the next month... between moving offices to somewhere we haven't found yet and possibly out-sourcing the maintenance and feature enhancements of our project - I'm not sure how this will all fit in with my life and that of my colleagues but we shall see.
Apart from that, its nice to have a full quota of holiday entitlement again so I'm looking forward to planning some holidays for this year. Malaga was enjoyable but its a bit of a tourist trap, and though we drove inwards and upwards to a picturesque town in the mountains, it was very cold up there and not as mild as we'd expected. We drove over towards Granada for a few days and tried to see the Alahambra, but apparently you need to book weeks in advance. It was a cool city though, very grungy and full of students and workers, but plenty of good bars and restaurants.
I'm glad to say that February is approaching, as money has been ridiculously tight recently due to the evils of credit. Unfortunately, February is also the month where one of my closest friends and ex-flatmate moves back to South Africa, for good, so it will be tinged with sadness. The last few weeks will be packed full of fun however :)
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December 22nd, 2006
02:46 pm - End of the Year Already?
Its been a long time since I've written here so I should have lots to update, but I'll more than likely forget most of it as I type. To be honest probably not that much has happened. The biggest change was moving out of Trafalgar Avenue. Because we hadn't found anywhere else to move to, and my original plans of moving in to a council flat with Gush temporarily fell through, I moved all my stuff into storage... and ended up leaving it there for nearly 2 months! Olly and his housemates at Kitson road were kind enough to take me in, and we had lots of fun. Cara and I looked at a lot of places in that time, but its really hard to find 3 bedroom apartments that have all three rooms as good doubles, and it also proved very difficult to compromise on areas we both wanted to live in. As such, I compromised, and we've moved to East London. We were originally going to move into a lovely flat in a bengali council estate in banglatown (or brick lane), but I'm quite glad we didn't as the smell of curry was overwhelming and the muslim call to prayer is quite a scary noise! (this is coming from someone who has never heard it before!)
The flat we did move to is a brand new warehouse conversion in between Aldgate East and St. Katherine's docks. Its very nicely done up, but suffers from two of the rooms being windowless, and opening on to the sitting room, so my room is stuffy and noisy which takes some getting used to especially when I am now spending significantly more than I used to on my spacious ensuite bedroom in Trafalgar Avenue. Our neighbours also make us feel like we're living in a student res... riding mini motorbikes up and down the corridors and their flat in the middle of the night, having parties, play-fighting with fire extinguishers and vandalising the emergency exits. Joy. I'm not a big fan of East London so far... maybe it will just take a while to get used to it, but I miss Elephant & Castle :( People look either more down-and-out or rolling in it on this side of the city, I guess you're either a rich city worker or a market trader, and I don't really feel like I fit (or that I want to). I've also noticed when standing around outside tube stations, how many dodgy people there are around, that look like they're trying to find someone to beg from or mug.
Aside from moving, I started training for my kick-boxing blue belt which I achieved two weeks ago. It was a lot of hard work, but fun at the same time, and I'm very proud to have done it. It doesn't mean a lot really, apart from being a sign that you can do a few basic kicks and punches, but onwards and upwards eh? If I was to pick the best thing I've done this year... it would probably be starting kickboxing classes as its really improved my flexibility and fitness, and my confidence has been boosted from losing about a stone!
I'm going to Malaga for Christmas with my mum and my brother tomorrow (if the fog lets me) so it should be a warm one with any luck. Happy Christmas to All!
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October 13th, 2006
12:01 pm - Viva Las Vegas
Its been only two weeks since we've been back from Vegas, but it feels like a lot longer. The holiday was amazing, it cost an arm and a leg but was worth it so that we could enjoy ourselves fully. The city is pretty much exactly as you see in the films, though the bit we were in was a lot less seedy than I would have imagined - seemed quite DisneyLandesque. We went downtown one night to the old part of Vegas where the original casinos such as the Golden Nugget were, with the infamous Marlboro man sign, and that was much more the way I would have expected it to be.
Mostly, we spent lots of money on Roulette and BlackJack, though Olly did learn how to play (and win) at Craps properly.... We were generally losing more than we were winning, but winning enough to keep us coming back. In order to increase our chances of winning at BlackJack, we tried memorising the tables for what decision you should make depending on what cards you and the dealer have. The system worked pretty well I felt, not guaranteed to win, but it definitely improved my chances a lot. It was the first time I'd ever played BlackJack in a casino, hell, even for real money, so I really got a buzz out of it. I was able to leave the table up $50 or so a couple of times, and enjoyed the fleeting but friendly onversations with whatever American happened to be sitting by your side. As everyone told us, alcohol is free while in the casinos, though I ended up spending more money in slot machines and on tables while waiting for drinks than I would've if I'd just gone to a bar! As all paths in the hotel we were staying in led to the casino, it was ridiculously easy to have a quick gamble while on the way to get something to eat, or going out, or coming in!
Aside from gambling, it was interesting to visit all the different hotel casinos, as each had its own theme and had shows, rollercoasters or shopping malls to entertain you. We went to most of the big ones, and each had their good points and bad points. We probably used the Excalibur more than our own hotel for gambling, as the Luxor and most of the other ones had high minimum bets. We had organised a day of quad-biking with Nik and his friends in the desert, so one day got picked up by coach and driven through the Valley of Fire in to the desert. It was pretty unusual scenery, huge red rock formations and barren land as far as you could see, though after 2 and a half hours I have to say it all started to look the same! We tried to find any signs of life while we were out there, and went on a cactus hunt but didn't see anything other than some vultures and huge (I mean HUGE) horse-fly type insects. The quad-biking was brilliant fun, we just followed these trails up and down hills in the desert but it was really exciting.
Another day we saw an ad for machine guns in one of the tourist brochures, so grabbed a cab to the range so we could give it a shot ;) I tried out a MP5, Olly tried a sniper rifle, shotgun and another machine gun, and J and Will tried a machine gun too. It was lots of fun, but being there right next to people shooting was weird, its really really loud every time a shot goes off, and it's quite hard to keep the gun steady while aiming... it was pretty cool though and it would be fun to do again! Olly was a natural and managed to impress the ex-NY cop that was assisting him! :)
One of the other days, we took a helicopter tour over the grand canyon. Having never been in a helicopter before it was a strange sensation... to take off you just lift right off the ground! It was a fun tour, the grand canyon was pretty amazing, but it would have been nice to have walked around in it... actually it would have been cool to have gone horse-riding through it.... maybe next time.
For Nik's birthday we went to Hooters Bar and Casino for lunch, where Nik got surrounded by all the Hooter Girls :) In the evening, we went to Coyote Ugly, which was a lot of fun, but mainly one big piss-up. All the girls get free shots while in there, to go with the buy one get one free on all drinks, and the Coyote Ugly girls do indeed dance on the 'bar'. We left just in time, and went to Jet, which was the club where all the locals went out on a Monday night. Having scored ourselves 14 free tickets or something we didn't have to pay to get in, so we were able to enjoy a pretty good night without spending too much. The club was very different to clubs in the UK and not in a good way. It was fun to be there for the night, the music in the trance room was surprisingly rocking, but the atmosphere wasn't particularly friendly, and with the paid dancers and bling bling posers it seemed a bit pretentious.
So all in all, we had a great time in Vegas, but if I go back, I will probably go back for a shorter period with more money!
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September 18th, 2006
12:13 am - 3 girls and a baby
September 8th was a very long day which started with Gush's waters breaking at 12:00am. Reality hit home to everyone of us I think, as we realised we were now part of a inevitable ordeal. Things moved slowly enough, though to plan. We managed to catch some sleep that night, as contractions were only just starting and were few and far between, but it was quite scary as none of us knew what to expect. The next morning, I went to work for a few hours, to get out of the house and take my mind off things as the process can take a long time. I got home at lunch, by this stage, contractions were almost 3 minutes apart, but it still wasn't time to go to the hospital. Gush's brother was with her, holding her hands through contractions and when he needed a break I tried to help her through the pain. The midwife came, and as the afternoon progressed it appeared since everything was going so well Gush would have the baby at home (!). Another two mid-wives arrived, and me, Polly and Josh stayed up in the living room, discussing life, babies and anything in between, while checking in on her every half an hour or so. Towards the end of the evening, Gush was doing really well, the baby was making its way out but because the labour had been ongoing for nearly 24 hours now it was deemed wise for her to be taken in to hospital as she was fast running out of energy. The ambulance came and took her to the maternity ward, where little Taija was born at 2.58am, approx 7lb. Now, mother and daughter are doing really well, she is a beautiful baby and its cool to have her in our house.
Though the house situation has turned into a bit of shambles. Considering two rooms needed to be filled, and a third once Gush's baby was born (or so we thought) Cara and I got stressed and thought the best thing to do would be to move out and in to a two-bedroom place. We've spent the last two weeks trying to arrange viewings, but haven't seen anything that we would seriously consider. Our budget doesn't seem to stretch very far although its a good bit more than what I am spending now, so I don't know how things will work out. As it turns out that Gush isn't moving out (until we all do), its a shame that we can't all stay in the house now, but we've given our notice and can't really back out.
It was my birthday last Tuesday, the not very old age of 23. To celebrate, I went with some friends to Thorpe Park as its something I've wanted to do all summer. It was a beautiful day and we had lots of fun, though I wasn't able to keep up with Olly and Josh's penchant for thrills. We were too tired and too soaked from the theme park to go out that night, but the day out gave me a chance to break away from the emotional rollercoaster that I've been on from Gush's pregnancy and other things happening in the house. On Tuesday, Olly took me for cocktails (my favourite!) and to a really nice traditional English restaurant, something that seems to be quite rare in London, so I was very impressed with his thoughtfulness. The dinner was lovely, and I had the most expensive glass of wine that I've ever had to go with it... recommended by the waiter. Afterwards, Olly gave me a huge bonsai tree (well, about 1/3 the size of me) which looks amazing, but complicated to look after so I will have to read up on caring for bonsai trees and try not to kill it. My birthday made me realise I am a very lucky girl :)
I had a quick trip back to Ireland this weekend to catch up with some old friends from college, so it was good to see them again. It turned out to be a fun night, discovered there is some good dance music in dublin after all, but seemed like a lot of travelling and effort for such a short visit. Only two days before Olly and I are going to Vegas though, I can't wait!!
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August 30th, 2006
10:45 am - Locked
I've locked the last few entries in case someone does inadvertently stumble across them, particularly when I'm trying to rent rooms in our house.
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August 29th, 2006
10:59 am - The story continues...
Well, as if the situation couldn't get any worse, I came home on Friday evening after work to find that two valuable paintings of my south african housemate had been stolen. They'd been sitting on the two mantelpieces in our living room for a few months now. There was no sign of break-in, none of my flatmates were home and a front-door key is now missing from the dining room table. Her printer was also taken.... but nothing else in the house was touched!?
To further complicate things, our phone-line was cut-off due to an outstanding phone bill of £220!! Again, no one is admitting to this, and yet, someone cannot be telling the truth :(
I have to say, I've never had so much trouble anywhere that I've lived before, yet at the same time it’s the nicest, best located, spacious house I have every lived in. My instinct is telling me to move out, as it seems to be tainted with bad luck and I don’t really feel comfortable living there at the moment, but as everyone else bar the south african girl are moving anyway, there doesn't seem much point.
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August 25th, 2006
12:08 am - Feels like winter
With all the drama in the house, things have been stressful in the house of recent. Still no idea who to blame, but something we have to learn to get over. We've been looking for a new flatmate the last week to replace Jamie, who's moving out over his suspicions of who it is.... not to mention the fact that his rent is more than 50% of what he earns.... motive eh?
Aside from helping Gush put baby things together and watching her bump grow ever bigger, I've been working quietly and wishing I was on holiday. The weekends in between have been cool, if you ignore the shitty weather... we've been to the Coronet in Elephant & Castle twice in the last two weeks, to see some crazy progressive techno underground gig (I have no idea what to call it) and an American comedian called Pablo Francisco... pretty funny though I enjoyed the acts before him more. We finished that night by going to Fabric, hammered, and wow, was I glad I went. Possibly one of the best club djs I've ever seen, we got in when it was absolutely full of people, nowhere to move, no space to dance or anything but the music was soooo good that we all just squished in to the main room and jerked from side to side. It was amazing! We also tried out the Church, which is well-known in London for being a drinking haven to mostly antipodeans on a sunday afternoon. It was surprisingly fun, basic but at least its something to do on a sunday! They've got strippers on stage from time to time, drinking games, more stripping games and a booby cam for those girls who are displaying their assets. Stephen would love it I'm sure.
The saga with the fish continues, as our monster-sized goldfish kicked the bucket. He had the misfortune to get stuck in one of the gaps in our fake-wood aquarium decoration :( I don't know whether he died out of stress from being stuck or if our evil pleco bit him until he died, but one way or the other he gave up on his miserable life... now we have 2 fish and a pleco left and I've realised why people call fish depressing. However, having seen one of Olly's new fish I know that you can find wonderfully chilled, hippy-like fish so I'm just going to have to find one of those to fit in to our house.
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July 26th, 2006
11:15 pm - Its getting hot in here...
As well as basking in the heatwave in London I've been back to Ireland twice this month. The first time was to my home town to seee my mom, and catch up with a family friend of ours who was our au-pair when I was little. It was a quiet and relaxing weekend, went to the beach, watched the World Cup and marvelled at the ease at which Irish people start banal conversations with each other as they near home - well you know, the weather's just lovely isn't it? It was nice to catch up with my mom, who is celebrating her 60th birthday tommorrow! Happy Birthday!
The second weekend was to go to Cork, firstly for my step-mother's book launch in her hometown just outside Cork and also to catch up with two of my best friends from school who I hadn't seen in more than a year. The booklaunch was good, loads of people turned up and apart from the local looney commandeering the microphone everyone seemed to enjoy Marion's readings. The rest of the weekend I spent catching up with Una and Maria, and a few other friends from school that were out for the night. The most disappointing thing that I found was since the smoking ban has come in, everyone (that I know anyway) seems to spend their entire night outside in the smoking room. So once we'd paid for our tickets to get in to the club, put our jackets in the cloakroom and filled up at the bar, we squeezed our way out in to the already packed, smelly, cold, smokey smoking room which was definintely not designed for a third of the club to be there and spent the rest of the night talking to locals. However, the garlic, cheesey chips afterwards more than made up for it, and as we went back to Maria's house afterwards I got a proper chance to catch up with everyone there.
While my trips back to Ireland were fun, I get the most amazing feeling when I come back to London. Its great to be reminded of how happy I am to live here, even given the recent disturbing events in my house. Over the weekend, Jamie took out £250 from an ATM at Tesco around the corner and left it on a shelf in his room. Late on Saturday night, we had a few friends over drinking and listening to music with everyone staying in the living room until they went home in the early hours. Our Italian housemate Dani had a friend of hers arrive on Saturday to stay for a month, and Cara's friend Josh who has been living with us for near on 2 months now moved out on Monday. This is the general way in our house, its pretty open, we have people staying over a lot of the time and we're very easy going. However, when Jamie found that someone had replaced his £250 with £260 of forged notes and a real £10 we realised how careless we are. The forged notes flummoxed us a little as you would wonder why someone just didn't steal the money rather than go to the trouble of replacing with forged notes (that they happened to have for just the purpose!). 2 weeks ago, Dani's new debit card never arrived from the bank, however someone managed to use a pin number which she kept in her room to withdraw £600 in 3 days, at the same Tesco ATM. On Tuesday, the day after Jamie discovered the fake notes, Cara found another £100 or so had been extracted from her money box with tweezers... one that she'd hidden somewhere in her room. I'm also missing a debit card and 40 euros. Nobody knows what to make of it all, we've had things stolen before, but only as once-offs. These events, if they are all related, point to someone living in the house, who was desperate for quick cash (as none of our laptops or cameras or passports or anything else valuable were stolen) and who didn't want to be discovered for a few days (replacing cash with fake notes, leaving Cara's money box half full). It has made everyone pretty stressed out, since we did all trust each other and now it would seem that one of the people we trust is stealing from us :( Having called the police, there doesn't seem much that we can do to find out who took the money, or even to recover any of it (apart from the ATM withdrawals possibly). We've all got our own theories on who may or may not have done it, but it definitely seems to be an inside job. I'm going to try to set up a webcam motion sensor so that I can at least get photos of whoever it is if they try to come in to my room again, but apart from that, there seems very little we can do apart from be more careful :(
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June 26th, 2006
12:30 am - Musical Chairs
Its been a while since I've updated here, mainly because I haven't had time to... Last month I got paid a nice chunky bonus, and this month was delighted to hear that I'd been given a 12% pay rise, something which I felt I deserved but was very unlikely to receive. Its nice when your employers show how much they appreciate you, although I'm starting to learn its not a common occurrence.
One of my lovely south african housemates moved out in May, to a flat with 3 guys not too far away but its been quiet without her in the house. Our sweet Italian girl has moved in, but has proven to be a little too sweet for comfort - possibly lacking some personality but that might be a little harsh at this early stage. As she moved in, we all moved rooms in our house, so I was lucky enough to be able to move in to the master bedroom upstairs, and out of my dingy basement room. I have to say, I sleep a hell of a lot better now :)
To add some personal touches to our house, Cara and I decided to get an aquarium and some fish to put in the living room. We didn't expect it to be as dramatic as an episode of Eastenders but unfortunately keeping fish is a lot more difficult than I anticipated, and the guy who sold us the fish gave us some unhealthy fish and not a lot of useful information. Within about an hour of getting the fish home (we bought 9 - 7 fancy goldfish and 2 catfish), one bloated and slightly inside out one had died, and within 24 hours the other horribly disfigured and overweight one had died, though it was probably the best thing for them. We started to realise that fish are quite fussy and there's a whole biological cycle that aquarium water goes through which is difficult to get a balance of at the start, and no one had told us any of this. Apparently you're supposed to buy a fish tank and set up the water and filters etc. 3 weeks before you put fish in it... and the pet shop owner sold us our brand new fish tank with 9 fish at the same time!! With the help of the internet and a book on fish, we've slowly started to pick things up and apart from a case of fin rot which killed GLC and some other undiagnosed illness which killed LS, we've now got 3 super immune gold fish remaining + our two cat fish. Hopefully we'll get our water to non-toxic levels soon and can buy one or two more fish.
We've also found out in the last few weeks that Gush, my housemate from Leicester, is 6 and a half months pregnant. This was unexpected news to me, since I'd somehow managed not to notice the unmissable massive pregnant belly she has now, but its fantastic news all the same. It does mean that she will be moving out sometime before she gives birth, because I don't think we're really responsible enough to have a baby in our house. There's a fair bit of time left before that happens luckily, and as she doesn't really know what she's going to do when the baby's born (she has an 8 year boyfriend in Leicester and a job with Catford local government - its a tough one), we're just going to see how things work out. It unfortunately means that we're probably going to have to start looking for another flatmate AGAIN, which sucks, but hopefully someone will turn up before then.
We've had a spate of birthdays recently, most importantly Olly's, but a big birthday shout out to Will, D, Liezl, Jamie and my brother Liam, not to forget John and Diarmuid, Una, Lorraine and Muireann. The weather this month has been gorgeous, so we've hosted a few bbqs in our house and sat around in the sun lots.... if only that pesky work thing didn't have to get in the way. With some spare cash and looking forward to our first big holiday together Olly and I booked 8 days in Las Vegas! Having spent about a month deciding on where to go, when to go, for how long to go for, we're going at the end of September with J and Will and hopefully overlapping with Nik's birthday while he's there - it will be wicked :)
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May 4th, 2006
11:23 pm - New housemate
Yay, summer is here!! Today was such a beautiful warm day... I can practically smell BBQs in the air, and can't wait to get our first one off the ground. I'm always amazed at how quickly everyone changes from complete winter clothes to walking around in shorts, t-shirts and sandals.... I'm still wearing my winter coat, just in case.
The last few weeks have been cool, lots of time off work roller-blading, shopping, drinking and generally relaxing. We had a few ups and downs with our house when we realised that our agency had put the house on the market and we thought we would lose it. Luckily pretty much everyone in the house has decided to stay, so we spent about a week trying to find a new person to move in. Saw some nice people, but nobody absolutely amazing, until a sweet Italian girl came to see it and we all loved her. So we've offered her a room and from June we have a years contract which is nice security.
We went to a vodka ice bar the other week which was pretty cool, had some great cocktails made from pure shots of flavoured vodka... a bit on the expensive side but I guess a novelty.... they gave us naff reflective fur coats to wear and gloves and we got to drink our drinks out of solid ice glasses...
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April 18th, 2006
11:25 pm - Easter!
The last month has been pretty fun, for once I've had enough money to pay off my overdrafts and enjoy myself. I booked flights to france to visit my mom who's staying in her house over there, but then in a moment of sheer stupidity sent my passport and Irish driving license to the DVLA's office in exchange for a new english driving license... 1 week before I'm due to fly... so since finding anyone in the DVLA office that could track my application down or find my details was proving impossible, I'll be spending my holiday in London. Should be good though, a chance to get some stuff done that I haven't found time to do recently, and not think about work.
The easter weekend was a really nice break, it involved very little apart from relaxing and drinking so was just what I needed. Olly and I went to see a bodies exhibition at Earls Court which was pretty cool, and I finally went to see Walk the Line which was really good. Having had some trouble with the lock on our front door we got a locksmith around to the house on behalf of our agency. Unfortunately we were all out at the time, so after he fixed the lock he then locked the other two locks on our front door, none of which we ever lock or carry keys for. So at 10 o'clock we all found ourselves standing outside our house with no way of getting in. We all had sets of the keys inside however, so we just had to find a way to get in. Cara persuaded the neighbours to let her in so she could climb the wall at the back and drop into our back garden... from there she was able to open Liezl's window and get in. The neighbours were horrified that we only used one of the locks on our door, as when they opened their door they had 3 locks and a security door between us and them! Probably a sign that we should also start triple locking our door, but I guess if someone wants to get in, they'll get in no matter what we do.
We've had the police coming round to our house 3 times now to enquire about the murder in Peckham, a possible witness might have lived in our house before us, and there was a trail of blood from the bus stop outside our house to the next one so they wanted to know if any of us had seen anything. They gave us a bit of a shock when they turned up on a Sunday morning after we'd had a heavy night out.... but they were really nice and friendly, its a good sign that the police are so active around here I guess.
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April 6th, 2006
11:36 pm - Round-up
Music
Last week I went to see Bell X1 in Kings Cross. I really enjoyed the gig, although there was lots of waiting around. I wasn't sure how good they'd be live, and I don't think I'd bother to see them again, but it was good fun, with some beautiful songs.
Ryan and his girlfriend Mel came to visit the weekend before. Having only met Mel once or twice it was good to get to know her a bit better, and we had a really good weekend shopping around Oxford Circus and Camden and going out to the Fridge in Brixton. That was quite an experience, for several reasons, but mainly because I wasn't expecting it to be half as hard as it was... Extreme Euphoria indeed. The club was alright, but the crowd was the roughest I'd seen in a long time, about 75% male and chavtastic. Still, I didn't see any trouble while I was there, just a lot of happy faces. We had a good time, it was absolutely Ryan's kind of music, but not really my thing that night so I couldn't dance to it properly and felt quite out of place.
The following weekend, Olly came with me to see Infected Mushroom at the Brixton Academy. As something I've wanted to do for ages now, it was everything I expected. They were absolutely amazing live, and I can only encourage everyone to go and see them and experience the night for themselves, the cool use of lights and live heavy metal guitarist made the night. The place was packed with 4 and a half thousand people, and you could feel it when everyone danced together. It was a sad night at the same time, as it was my housemate's boyfriend's last night in England, possibly for ever. We dressed up as crazily as we could, and ended up looking like we were on our way to a kid's birthday party :)
Sadness
As our new housemate Jamie has been sleeping on the couch waiting for Polly to move in to his new room, she packed up all her stuff on Monday and moved out. It was really sad to see her go, but she's been back once already and we're having a party for her on Saturday. As soon as she'd gone, Jamie rushed in to his room to put purple satin sheets on his bed, bless :) It looks like almost everyone else in the house is going to move out in June, so I'm going to have to try to fill 3 empty rooms... which shouldn't be hard considering how awesome the house is, but fuck it, I don't really want to go there.
Family
My brother has been offered and accepted a job working as a PR manager for Imperial College. He is moving in to a large tower block in the middle of Stockwell's council estate this weekend as far as I know, so it will be cool to live in the same city again :)
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March 20th, 2006
11:19 pm - Is it the end?
It turns out our lease is up in two months time so our blissful life at No. 22 will change somewhat. Polly's been offered an arts project in Colchester for a few months and so is going to sub-let her room until June, possibly indefinitely. Gush can't afford the rent anymore and Cara might move out. This all sucks, because the house and location is perfect and my housemates are the best ever, and I really don't want to have to move again! We've had a few people around to see Polly's room over the last few days, amongst them a nice girl with a scary boyfriend, a stripper earning £1000 a night, a chronically nervous scottish guy, a rock guitarist and someone who worked for the BNP but we liked the gay male air hostess the most. At worst, if we do end up moving, at least 3 of us will be able to stick together and find somewhere else.... for now we're going to make the most of our time together!
The weekend was good, mainly because the sun shone for a bit and I managed to rollerblade up and down the pavement outside with Polly. Hopefully by summertime I will have mastered the art, but stopping and turning are proving difficult at the moment. The rest of the weekend was spent relaxing around the house, slightly silly, very lazy but quite fun. I haven't been up to much else as its mid way through the month and I'm eagerly awaiting my next pay cheque, but work has kept me busy. We're expected to double the size of our development team by the end of the year bringing us up to around 60... which would be quite a change to the work environment. Its a good sign though, and should help ease off some of the work for the rest of us.
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March 13th, 2006
11:17 pm - Abseiling for Charity
One day of boredom, my flatmates and I were trying to find each other new jobs. We came up with junk-collection, dog-walking, pole-dancing ... but I thoguht an abseil for Cancer Research sounded like the most fun (close call I know). Its on the 31st March at 6.30, and will be down the Hayward Gallery on the south bank. I'm really looking forward to it, although I'm not sure how I'll cope with stepping off the edge of a 100ft building. Sponsor me if you want to :)
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March 7th, 2006
11:24 pm - Sleep is good
My pancake Tuesday was infinitely better than the year before. It involved lots of homemade pancakes and a first visit to my local, The Lord Nelson, which is absolutely lovely, full of friendly regulars, doesn't abide by official opening hours and has lots of authentic albeit dodgy character. Apparently a good place to start the Monopoly Board pub crawl...
Last friday night was the best sleep I've had in ages... it was my first night back in my mum's house in Kerry since September so after a few incredibly busy weeks at work it was great to relax and be in the country for a while. Not much has changed since I've been away, which makes me glad that I don't live there but happy to reminesce. A friend from school is going travelling for a year so it seemed like a good excuse to go out for drinks, although we didn't go to the Mall as we do every other time we go out, so it was a slightly more civilised night. It was nice to catch up, see how everyone's doing and plan for the next time... although I was equally glad to get back to London.
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