After 3 full days in San Diego it was time to do a long drive up to san francisco. i let the GPS select the route and it chose the shortest way there which was the interstate 5 all the way there. i set off around 10:30 and hit the road for what would be around 8 hours. a bit of traffic around LA but it was not that bad and once i had got through it, it was pretty much smooth sailing all the way to san fran. just set the cruise control, get some good tunes on the stereo and sit back and relax.
i got to san fran in the evening and i would be staying with my friend and her family in their beautiful house in san mateo. this was to be a short trip and i really only had 1 full day there, so the next morning i took the train into the city and picked up a few things and had lunch along one the many restaurants in the markets along the embarcadero. later in the afternoon my friend and her husband picked me up and we all went to the de young museum and visited the tutankamun exhibition which was very good indeed. we then headed to a restaurant called the citrus club for a meal which was delicious.
after that we headed back home and i needed to get an early night because it was a 6 hour drive back to LA to catch my plane the next day.
i left the next morning around 9.30am and after a brief stop in santa barbara i managed to make it in good time for a late lunch in LA and was sitting at johhny rockets on melrose eating a burger and watching the human traffic by 3.30pm. around 5 i headed towards the airport to drop the car off and then get the bus the short journey to the airport.
all in all it was a wicked trip. i needed it so bad and usually people say time flies by but actually that 2 weeks away felt like 2 months and that was a good thing. doing different things everyday makes it interesting and moving from place to place also keeps things fresh and you don't get stuck in a routine. the best part of the trip would have to be LA. the night at the music box was awesome seeing so many good bands play.
......and now i am back in london and back to the mundane. when i switched my phone on after landing at heathrow i had a txt from my boss saying i was on the early shift this week. thanks for that. welcome back.
the day after the galaxy game i drove down to san diego for 3 days of beaches and more sunshine. it also allowed me to meet up with my friend vanessa for lunches in little italy everyday which was nice. after getting out and about quite a bit in LA and to some extent in new york, san diego was pretty routine, but a nice nice routine of walking round town, grabbing lunch and then heading off to the beach for the rest of the day.
i didn't really do much in the evenings because there is something about laying in the sun all afternoon that kind of drains the energy from you. not a bad thing when you are on holiday and its ok to have early nights occasionally. also i didn't want to drive around aimlessly for too long and so tried to walk everywhere which was fine seeing as i was staying downtown in the gaslamp quarter.
san diego is a really nice laid back city with a beautiful climate and all the people are really chilled and laid back. those days i had mostly been listening to nothing. i usually go everywhere with my mp3 player but during the hours at the beach, i liked listening to the sound of the ocean instead of music.
i flew back to a mild and sunny london yesterday afternoon and its back to work today on earlies, after 10 days in LA, San Diego and San Francisco, which were wonderful.
Lots of people i know, don't like LA but i think its quite good there. on my first day there after flying in from 3 days in New York, i picked up a car from the airport and drove to my hotel in Hollywood. it was late so i didn't bother going out, but the next day i headed down to melrose for some lunch and then walked around hollywood in the afternoon.
it was steaming hot that day as it would be everyday i was in southern california, and late afternoon i headed back to my hotel and got showered and changed before walking to the Music Box at the Fonda theatre on Hollywood Blvd, to see Frank Turner, the loved ones, murder by death and the gaslight anthem. it was an awesome night out and in hindsight it was the best night of the whole trip. had never heard anything by the loved ones but for me they turned out to be the best band of the night, though everyone playing that night was giving it their all.
it all finished up just around midnight and i strolled back the 20 mins or so to my hotel, past the people queueing up outside clubs and all the weirdo's you tend to get late at night in hollywood.
one thing i did notice in LA at the concert was the number of people with tattoos. everyone had them and i reckon i was one of the very few people without any ink, and i am not talking just a single tattoo here and there. there were loads of people with full sleeves done and big back pieces and not just some girl with a butterfly on the shoulder or foot.
actually speaking of tats, last year i was in LA for a couple of days and i walked past a guy on melrose who had loads of tattooes and a few distinctive ones on the side of his face. he looked a bit freaky which is why i remembered him, and you have to go quite far to look freaky in LA. on my first day when i was walking along melrose who did i walk past but the same guy again. how weird is that. even weirder was that he saw me and said hello.
that day i had mostly been listening to the loved ones - 100k, which was their opening song.
on my second day in LA, i decided to drive to santa monica as i heard its quite nice, and it was. huge white sandy beaches and a pier and some nice restaurants. it was hot and sunny most of the day but early in the evening a mist came in from the ocean and so i decided to head back to the city, which strangely enough was completely clear and bright.
on my last day in LA i had lunch on melrose and did a bit of shopping and then later in the afternoon i drove to the home depot centre in carson city to watch the LA Galaxy game. david beckham scored one and set up the second goal in a 2-0 win. i drove back through the late night LA traffic and packed because it was san diego next morning.
landed into newark on saturday evening and it was cool drizzly weather just like london. got the train to my uncles place and checked the weather forecast and it was good weather for the next 3 days.
sunday was completely different weather and it was hot and humid and blue skies. i headed into the city and then went to williamsburg in the afternoon to get some lunch. i really do like williamsburg a lot and its a great place to get some cheap thai food and to people watch, especially on a weekend when its buzzing. spent a few hours in w'burg and then headed back into the city. i did a bit of shopping, picked up the village voice and went home in the evening.
the next day i went back into the city but stayed in manhattan all day. i went to the museum of modern art, which is the best gallery in new york, and i also went to the anjelika in soho to see the film 'extract', which was quite amusing.
today, tuesday i headed out to brooklyn and williamsburg again for some lunch and a bit of a stroll, and afterwards i went to the IFC theatre in the village to see a documentary called 'crude' which was about environmental damage caused by texaco drilling for oil in ecuador. some of it was really sad but it was also very informative.
aside from that nothing else exciting. have almost finished reading my book about IRA hunger strikers in the maze prison, and its fascinating and informative stuff.
....and thats me done in nyc. the weather has been awesome but its supposed to get cooler and cloudy tomorrow which is fine as its my last day and all i have to do is get to JFK and fly out to LA in the afternoon. new york was good but 3 days has been enough for me and i am happy to be moving on to somewhere new.
waiting months and then weeks and then days and now its just a few hours till if fly away. had to do an extra early shift at work yesterday which meant i was up at 5.45 but it was ok because i knew i was going away. i ended up meeting some friends in shoreditch after work and as usual just managed to catch the last train home.
also met up with a couple of people i know from the internet company, on wednesday evening and we went for dinner at smiths of smithfields, which i do like. it was really nice to see them after a long time.
anyways its the last day of work and will just have to get through it. i think i can. will do my packing tonight and then get my haircut tomorrow morning before going to the airport around lunchtime. will also get some music together because i need an official playlist for each trip. for this one, it will have a lot of the stuff i tend to post with artists like alberta cross, florence and the machine, bat for lashes, screaming lights, passion pit, editors....etc.
weather in nyc has been a bit showery yesterday and the forecast is for more today and possibly tomorrow. sunday is my first day in the city and its going to be 26C and sunny. perfect timing for me.
take care V.
today i have mostly been listening to redlight company - meccano. laters.
it looks like the last day of summer. its beautiful outside and i think normal service will be resumed as the week goes on. no bother as i fly away on saturday to new york and then cali baby!.
work has been busy as i have been solo the last couple of days as the other 2 people i work with are on holiday. they are always taking days off. one of them is back today and had the audacity to get stroppy about the number of calls in the queue. listen sweetheart, some of us were here on our own and also had to deal with the shit from an office move over the weekend so excuse me if a few calls were not dealt with, and besides she said there were 23 calls open and not dealt with that she had to do on her first day back. that didn't sound right to me, and we can run stats on who dealt with which call and it looks like she did 6 and not 23 in the email she sent to management. whats that in aid of ???. hey we are all a bit down when we get back from holiday but you just have to deal with it and not take it out on others.
this is the kind of thing that would annoy me usually, but since being a contractor and moving around to different jobs, this political petty point scoring doesn't bother me anymore. 6 months is the limit at a workplace. after that time you either become aware, or part of political issues in the office. i have been here 7 months now so its perfect timing.
anyways,,,,,,,,cycled to the gym on the weekend and on saturday i got pulled over by a policeman for going the wrong way up a one way street and also jumping up onto the pavement and jumping a red light. he gave me some patronising lecture, in that way police talk. do they all go to the same "how to talk to poeple like they are infant" course. i just nodded and pretended to listen.
at one point i thought of saying "i didn't know you were so interested in me and my bike, because all your coppers didn't give a shit a few weeks ago when my last bike got stolen". "found it yet?", " no i didn't think so, so stop wasting time talking to me and look for my bike shit head!.". ofcourse i didn't say it but it amused me when i was saying it in my head during his lecture.
bumped into one of the senior project managers that i worked with, at my last bank, on the train this morning. i think we both had that thing where we couldn't remember each others names, but we talked for about 15 minutes on how things were going there. he said he was stressed and it was busy and beauracratic. no changes there. i suspect he earns around double what i earn, although strangely i got the impression i was a bit happier professionally. strange that. :-)
right then, thats all folks. will post once more before i go away and in the meantime i will try and get through these 4 days till then. i also updated my resume for when i return. there is no harm in looking around when i return.
today i have mostly been listening to editors - papillon. (french word for butterfly and also a great film with steve mcqueen and dustin hoffman). awesome new song for their new album which comes out in a few weeks.
i am coming to san diego so see you in a couple of weeks V. xx
Wednesday 2 September 2009
oh, well done you idiot. its bad enough that the last couple of weeks i have an attention span of about 9 millisconds, but now it seems i am screwing up non-technical things as well. my boss was sitting opposite me and my phone went off andi i thought it was an agent that i used to work with and whose firm owes me money because i paid too much to them, but it wasn't him but another agent.
now usually when my phone goes off i walk away and stand in the stair-well but on this occasion i didn't, and i answered the phone and it was this other agent talking about a job. usually i would just say no thanks, and especially so if my boss is sitting 2 feet away from me, but not this time. i told him it wasn't a good time to speak and could he call me back in a few minutes, when i would be free to talk. what!!!????. say it bit louder, i don't think everyone of my floor heard all of that.
i am an idiot. its blatantly obvious i was talking to an agent because i picked up the phone and answered like i didn't know who it was, and then i say call me back in a few minutes. my brain is just giving up. as soon as i put the phone down, i just sat back, in bewilderment at my sillyness. i need to get out of here on my break before i break a server/ screw up a production application / antagonise my boss by speaking to people about other jobs, and just generally get my head together. i am not usual this big a prick. i really am not. its like i don't where i am and am running on auto pilot.
today i have mostly been listening to alberta cross - atx. this song is awesome. it sums up how i have been recently. if you are fed up with things then this will make you feel better. you are not alone.
take me home....i just want to feel....coz i just can't relate.
i think V is going through some tough times. i can feel you from 6000 miles away. take care my friend.
after the bank holiday weekend it was a regular boring uneventful tuesday with the only things of note were my inability to get anything working properly.....until i went out to get my lunch. i was walking through soho and i walked past none other than mr johnny marr, guitarist from the smiths. i never get star struck...ever. elle macpherson, jude law, the guy that played the general in the film commando, none of them got a reaction from me, but i must admit that seeing mr marr made me take a big intake of breath.
for a split second i considered shaking his hand and was going to tell him he was a legend and i really liked the smiths, but then i decided against it. he must get stuff like that all the time and is probably sick of it, and i thought i would just leave him be. it did make my day though.
booked my hotel in LA and also booked a ticket to see the gaslight anthem play in hollywood. its all coming together.
in other more serious news, i am not sure if i mentioned it before, but one of the guys that i play football with is someone who associates with some not nice people, and has previously done a stint in prison. thats a side of him we don't see because we all knew him from when he was at school and we see him at football and he doesn't act like a gangster when is around us.
anyways, he is in trouble again and this time it looks quite serious. i saw a friend of mine on the train last week and asked him what was happening and he said he didn't know the details but that when he went to visit him in prison he said was told it was, and i quote "gangster shit", and that it looks like he might be looking at at least 7 years and possibly up to 10 years. christ alive, 10 years, a whole decade of your life just gone and spent in a cell surrounded by other criminals.
last weekend there was the story of the girl jaycee, who was kidnapped and spent 19 years away from her parents living in a type of prison with the people that abducted her. she must have had incredible strength to have just gotten through the ordeal. some peoples have years taken away from them through no fault of their, and then there are some people like my friend who seem to engage in activities that can and probably will result in years taken from him. what a terrible waste of life and time for both of them, but in different circumstances.
anyways, enough of that. good luck to jaycee and her children in her difficult quest to regain some kind of normality in her life, and here is hoping that my friend learns his lesson and doesn't waste any more of his life in jail.
i am incredibly lucky. i doubt there are many people in the world luckier than i. i had geography on my side and was born in western europe and not in povery in africa, south asia or south america.
i had education provided for me by the state and i had a family that provided a home and an environment for me to grow and i never did without anything. there are billions of people worse off than me and have seen abject poverty with my own eyes. chidren whose parents can't even buy them shoes or food. that is real poverty. 10 year olds working in truck stops changing tyres on trucks that are bigger than they are so they can earn some money to support their families. i have not forgotten them and i never forget how lucky i am.
right then, enough of that heavy stuff
today i have mostly been listening to the smiths - there is a light that never goes out. one of the greatest songs ever written. happy birthday V. nxx
