Edinburgh, Glasgow, Oxford, London

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Hey Everyone!!
Happy Birthday a couple of weeks ago Olaf!! Hope you had a great time! Sorry this is a bit late but in my defence I had no idea when your birthday was until Megan wrote to me!!
I can't believe its almost been two weeks since i last sat down and tried to remember what i'd been doing. It'd probably be much easier if i did it every couple'a days but that would be really proactive and not my style at all!
As you might have guessed from the heading of this i moved around quite a bit over the last two weeks so i got quite a bit to catch up on. Okay, I better get started.
When you last joined us ... I believe i was writing in the internet cafe having just left the pub the day after St. Patrick's Day. I'm pretty sure i just lazed around the rest of that day watching movies or sport. The problem with that hostel was that you couldn't watch the normal terrestrial channels because they had really bad reception, so the only channels you could watch was Sky Cable. That might sound good - 500 or more stations - why is he complaining? The problem was that the Sky we watched was the Sky that the people in the bar watched - and they had the remote. So they had sport on constantly ... I've never watched so much cricket (one-day - and it was alright), rugby, football (soccer, whatevert you wanna call it), wrestling and basketball in my life than i did in the week and a half i was at that hostel! Any way, back to the day after St P's. I can't remember if i mentioned this last time but the whole hostel smelt like vomit which was not pleasant. I think what happened is someone threw up in the stairwell right outside a door, and then people would open the door, walk out and skid in the vomit, and then walk to the room trailing the vomit on the floor behind them until the whole place stank (despite the cleaner's best efforts!). Sorry that story was really gross and uncalled for and I apologise! I think at some point on this day Marcy gave me on a call on my mobile, either today or the next day (can't remember) but that was really cool!! Oh and the two guys i mentioned a bit in the last blog, Chris (the British guy) and Jeff (the American), both left that day
Anyway so the next day i did my usual walk around Edinburgh handing out resumes, sight-seeing and being generally merry (along with my regular trip to the internet cafe to respond to e-mails/apply for a job). That arvo i sat down to watch Shanghai Noon which i had previously attempted to watch when it was on twice but had either gone out or fallen asleep before the end. So i watched that with the Irish gals i met at St. Paddy's day, and that night i was gonna rejoin the remaining members of my trivia team from the previous week and to attempt to win. So anyway it got close to when the trivia was gonna start but Shanghai Noon hadn't quite finished i was GOING to see the end, so they told me they would put my name down and i was probably gonna make it down well before it started. Well to cut a long story failry short...they forgot to put my name down (even tho i think i was their best member!). So instead i joined the Irish girls (and another Aussie guy)'s team. Just quickly it was completely worth it to see the end of Shanghai Noon because whilst we didn't really care about the plot we were all screaming at the movie cause it seemed like Jackie Chan was going to choose Lucy Lui over his Indian Wife (who he'd slept with and who could probably never return to her tribe. Plus, his Indian wife saved his life so often throughout the movie and compared to Lucy Lui (who in the big fight scene is pathetic and feeble, and then suddenly pulls out all these martial arts moves which would've been REALLY helpful earlier in the movies) is much cooler! Anyway we were pretty mad that he was chose Lucy, but they did some wierd wife-swap kinda thing and the Indian Wife got the other guy (can't remember his name). Anyway enough of the rant and back to the trivia.
We started out well, perfect marks for a couple of rounds (the TV theme song section had both Angel and the 4400 in it - i was always gonna get them!!) but fell when it came to music because it was all before our era and not still popular. In the end my old team (BASTARDS!!) won (i guess i wasn't the best in that team - but they ended up with 3 people in their team more than they were supposed to (CHEATERS!!). We came 4th (or third last - why is it that no matter how many teams there are in a trivia game i always am in the team that comes third last!!). The winning team got 2 bottles of wine, but because we felt like winners our team decided to buy 2 bottles of wine instead (actually we ended up buying between 4 and 6 bottles - no one is quite sure how much). So that was a really good night, and we ended up heading off to a club later that night. So now i have people to meet up with in Ireland which is really cool! Oh, the other cool thing that happened that night was i heard the wierdest story. There was a girl in the bar that night who i think works for Jaegermeister and goes around taking photos of people drinking and having fun and always holds a Jaegermeister fairy in the picture (i think they use it for advertising). Well anyway that night she and her friends had come across this really drunk guy lying in the gutter so took a few photo holding the fairy over him and posing next to him. Anyway a few moments later the police arrived and pronounced him dead at the scene! They were pretty freaked out (and then told everyone the story!).
So anyway the Irish girls left the next day, and things were pretty quiet over the next couple of days. They had karaoke on Thurs night (i didn't sing) and someone bought me a Jaegermeister shot so i felt obligated to drink it (they are not as bad as long as you have another drink nearby to drown out the after taste which is foul!!).
On Friday Marcy, Aaron and Daniel gave me a call on my mobile which was good cause i got to hear how they had gotten absolutely nowhere with Trent's speech (actually i think Aaron might have written something). I also had a job interview that day at a Whisky Shop, which went okay, but Marcy freaked me out on by asking me what Whisky was made of which meant i quickly researched it 15 minutes before the interview. In the end i didn't get the job but i think that was partly because i'd already told i couldn't work for more than a few months. I also changed hostels because it was gonna £5 cheaper per night. But it wasn't as friendly so i didn't really meet anyone there, just kinda took it easy and relaxed).
And then on Sunday i caught the bus to Glasgow. It was a gloomy day so i didn't really see it in its best light but compared to the pristine beauty of Edinburgh it was kinda depressing! The sun came out later that day and everything looked much nicer. I think it might be a nice city to live it but it didn't really win me over. Anyway so i was there for one night and then caught the bus (which i should've done overnight but didn't for some stupid reason) to London and then another bus to Oxford. The reason i did this was because i had a job interview at a club in Oxford the next day (Tuesday). Oxford was really beautiful, but i lived up to my habit of never spending money to see inside anything so i didn't go and see the Great Hall from the Harry Potter movies. And there so many tour groups there. Around every corner there would be another 20 people crowded around trying to hear about a building. So anyway when i spent the night at an okay hostel - no snorers which was great because the previous two nights i had been in rooms with really heavy snorers and i had to wait until they stopped breathing and woke up slightly and then i had quickly fall asleep before they started snoring again! When i get to a new city I generally go for a walk without looking at a map and just kinda get my bearings and frequently get lost (i think i must've walked down most streets in Edinburgh this way). But in Oxford i actually walked completely off my map and had turned so many corners i had absolutely no idea which way the city centre was. I followed a crowd hoping they were heading towards the centre but i found out later they were going the opposite direction. So i decided that depite the embarrasment of asking someone to point me in the direction of the city centre in a town the size of Oxford, but luckily came across a bus map before i asked anyone and managed to figure out the way back.
I had my job interview that day as well (before the long walk) and went in feeling alright. The interview went okay, but i decided in the course of the interview that this really wasn't somewhere i wanted to work as they could only offer me 16 hours a week, minimum wage and i really hated the place. I could tell from the decorations (and as they had a night called Foreplay) that it was gonna be a really sleazy nightclub that i would never have gone to in Aus. So anyway i tried my best in the job interview but i decided i would be okay not getting the job, and i figured that she could probably tell I didn't really fit into the place ... i was wrong. The next day she called to tell me i had the job, to which i responded Ohhh...kay, as i was in complete shock. Then she told me i was starting Friday and hung up ... leaving me in definite shock and puzzlement over what to do. I felt like i should take the job, but i would've had to search for another part time job because the job wouldn't have even covered my rent. So in the end i turned it down which i'm still not sure was for right decision but oh well can't change anything now. I decided to head back to Colchester (my Aunt's house) for a couple of days to relax a bit and to see my Mum whos over her for a few weeks to pack up and sell my Granny's house. But first i stayed a night in London i a pretty nice hostel (i met a few people but no Aussies or Kiwis which was a first - except for in Glasgow where the hostel was almost completely empty). The people were nice there but didn't make any lasting friends (there was a really nice Canadian couple who had a taken a picture of the biggest rat I think there has ever been - I'm still not sure it wasn't a fat rabbit without ears!!).
The next day i had a look in some places for work, decided to walk to Notting Hill - halfway there it bucketed down in rain (the first time i've actually been out when it rained - i think they're actually in a drought over here at the moment as well). That afternoon i met my Aunt in London, caught the train to Colchester and saw my Mum. I had a snore free sleep and didn't have to check out by 10am! So right now i'm just figuring out what i'm doing next (whether i'm gonna give up on the job search for the moment - cause i really hate looking for work). Today i went out and had really nice mussels in Mersea with my Aunt and Mum and then starting typing what feels about 6 hours ago.
Phew, I can't believe i remembered all that! Anyway check the last three blogs again because i've added photos. I'll add photos to this tomorrow (Sun my time).
So far i've only got 1 out of 5 footy tips (thank you Brisbane), only a few hours till Essendon slaughters Adelaide in Adelaide (it could happen!!).
So i hope that stopped people complaining about my not giving them news.
Gotta Go
Alex

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Photos

"Girl who loses shoe and falls down stairs" - The Trivia Team
From the left
Jen (Ireland), Damon (not sure about spelling there - Aus), Jo (Ireland), Me, Sarah-Jane (Ireland) and Audrey (Ireland). We were named after Jen who lost her shoe on St. Patrick's Day and never got it back and then the next night got drunk and fell down the stairs!

Part of the Bodleian Library
The architecture was beautiful in Oxford, although I wasn't quite as impressed as I was in Cambridge.

Buckingham Palace
I took this photo whilst struggling past with a really heavy backpack because I didn't want to pay for the underground.

Comments

[Lise]

no negativity - Dons for premiers!
it can happen and it did happen!!!!!! Go Bombers!! for a short time we were top of the ladder!! :o)