Stu's Rusty Bucket

Friday, January 30, 2004

No phoneing home.

Whoop. Phone is take care of. Cancellation date is 10th February.
one less thing to do now.

With an Ali-G aiiiiiiiiiii

Well its time to leave work. hmm will need to write a trailjournals.com entry as well. Got one percolating in my brain all day.

Had hiking on the brain all day. All this crunching around in the cold permafrost and solid iced up snow on londons streets. The squishy noise of compacting snow… it makes me what to get right out there NOW with pack on!!

Two weeks of work as of today. My replacement has been found and I will babysit him for a week as handover. That will be fun. At least he knows lots more than my last apprentice so.....
Work should be in good hands at least.

My package still has not arrived in Saudi Arabia.. doh! This is twice something has not arrived over there… Lisa must think i send phantom packages!!! ohwell.. the post office/royal mail is the same the world over eh!

Hopefully tomorow/this weekend, I will get to the Natural History museum.. or meet up with deb and have a drink fest before I leave london.. Not a lot for me left to do and see in the two weekends before I go… Slowly parring museums down off my list....

And here is some wisdom from my fav band, Weddings, Parties, Anything.

I know you, I know your ways,
And yes, I hear the things you say,
But what you say and what you do
Are worlds apart, when you go…

You are so unreal, you’re so piecemeal,
You always say just what you feel.
But what you feel and what occurs
Are worlds apart, when you go…

There is something in us all that makes somebody want to help,
But you’re no good to the world when you’re no good to yourself,
You’re not sure if you even care, you’re neither left or right,
You’re just up in the air, you are…

Tilting at Windmills,
Chasing a dream through greenfields,
I lose track of your ideals,
I cannot keep up with you.

Sunday, January 25, 2004

The Imperial War Museum

Spent the day in the Imperial War Museum today. It really is cool down there. They basically cover everything, with heaps of audio/visual video displays and stuff and all that.

The Holocaust exhibition is pretty harrowing. Came out of that a bit shaken. Learned that Australia accepted 9000 jewish people in the mass relocations. Itsa bit.. i dunno.. they had shoes from auschwitz and other personal items. Video interviews, letters, etc. Its very confronting and an information overload.

They have a german V2 rocket and loads of things. Its kinda overwhelming just how much stuff they have… Next to nothing on Gallipoli or ANZACs.

Walking home from the pub tonight was cold enough to freeze the last remaining nad off a bronzed statute of goliath it was that cold. Apparently we are in for a week coldsnap that will bring snows for a week! AAAAAAArgh. COLD! I gotta get used to it but… doesnt mean I have to like it! hehehe

London Calling

“London calling to the underworld
Come out of the cupboard, you boys and girls”

But it wasnt the Clash calling us out, It was the First Annual London prehike booze up!

And, it was bloody awesome too. We did encounter one hitch, nobody knew what anyone else looked like (kinda important when your meeting people you dont know!)

At any rate, I was approached by a strange fella.. which turned out to be Rick! Later, Ross and Renee showed up, then Trey and Hannah.. Soon the pints were flowing and no subject was taboo..

Renee had lots of advice and some great photos, which we all oohd and aaahed over.

Lots of conversation. Three different pubs. Lots of pints and vodka mixes, it was decided to call it a night around 2am, So a quick night bus down to oxford street and everyone went their own way. Got home bout 3:30am and crashed out with a vodka buzz.

Good luck to Rick for his VISA interview on Tuesday!

I think we all have wildly different start dates and I doubt I’ll run into any of the others on the trail unless we all hit traildays or something, but it was well worth it to meet everyone and have a natter and a laugh!

(Ross, Renee, Hannah, Trey, Rick, with me behind the camera).

Saturday, January 24, 2004

Quick Out, Quick In

i got home from work today and the stupid sheila had moved back in. lol. talk about glutton for punishment. ill have to remind her she was gone for less than 24hours next time she gets beat up. stupid cow.

i fail to understand some people (apart from the fact she speaks near zero english)…

ohwell…

Friday, January 23, 2004

Police! Police!

Well, my landlord rang today, said he would come around tonight… thats cool.

I got home, round 9pm from work, he was here.. and so were the police!

still dont know what went on…

police were there to help her get out, but she wanted her phone or his phone but they said they were only here to help her get her stuff, but she would go without it, so the police left, being unable to do anything!aaaaargh

anyway, after a LOT of arguing, she left.

wouldnt be surprised if she burnt the place down sometime tomorow.

i’m paraphrasing lots here.. a lot more shit went down but i cant be arsed wording it up…

hopefully, its over.

Thursday, January 22, 2004

GUNG HEI FAT CHOI!

gung hei fat choi!

gung hei! gung hei!

stu hands everyone little hong bao

gung hei fat choi!
gung hei fat choi!

happy chinese new year

life sucks but have a good CNY!

Tuesday, January 20, 2004

When two tango, one gets hurt.

Well, I got home from work last night, started meddling around in the kitchen.. and ended up in the middle of a row. I dont speak french.. and my lovely two french flatemates were a tad irate with each other (this has been going on since Saturday night, 1am in the morning to be exact), and so they are verbally abusing each other.. Im’m trying to cook and in a mix of french and english I get “so what do you think about .....”

aaaargh. DONT INVOLVE ME! aaargh. So I was all “uh, i’m trying to cook dinner”..

They disappeared into their room… so I quickly finished cooking dinner, scarfed it down and ran to the local pub…

Sat in there till closing (bout 11:30pm), highlighting chunks of my AT hiking guidebook..

So I get home.. Its quiet.. .. just before diving into bed (ear plugs ready to go in)… they are knocking on my door…

“have you got some painkillers”.. says the guy.. and i hear this sobbing in side “medicine.. medicine”..

oooh fuck!

right. so I hand over my ibuprofen with an explicit.. “only 2 every four hours type warning.”

so… you only get 1 guess as to who hit whom...??

I selpt shit all last night.. Must have dozed on and off… so I’m bloody tired today.. Complained to my landlord about it, so I dunno if he is going round to the house tonight or just gonna ring em. I think I’ll sit in the pub with some lively old timers and highlight some more AT guide book and sip my 1 orange juice (makes it last 5/6 hours...).

Monday, January 19, 2004

Just not in…

I’m in a bit of a melancholy mood today. Angsting a bit. Not quite at work, not quite on the trail. 6pm here, still at work. been working since 8am.. This is a typical day..

My mind is so.. not here right now..

Her folks they said our lives together
Sure was gonna be rough
They never did like Mama's homemade dress
Papa's bankbook wasn't big enough.
And I was standin' on the side of the road
Rain fallin' on my shoes
Heading out for the East Coast
Lord knows I've paid some dues gettin' through,
Tangled up in blue

--------

We put the world on hold
Two young men growing old
We talk of years like lost weekends
And the harbour shrugs 

Because friends are getting fewer
And we vow life will be fuller
But if the last of our dreams is broken
We'll walk the same way home 

Sunday, January 18, 2004

Sunday

Today was an intereating day. About 1am last night my flatmates thought they would duke it out again, so in went the earplugs.

Did the laundrette visit this morning and did a load of washing. exciting stuff that was..

Then I went off to the British Museum. That was awesome. I didnt even get to see half of it before it closed. They have some way cool stuff on display. You can tell the brits are good at thieving stuff in the ‘old’ days of the empire.. hahahah..

It really was awesome.  All of the busts of romans emperors and stuff look like they all had afros back then hahahahaha.

They had a special short term display on 7000 years of Jade or something.. Theyhad some AMAZING pieces of hand worked jade.. the craftsmanship was truly bloody awesome.

I saw so much stuff… They have loads of egyptian stuff (mummied cats! they even had a mummified kitten!!) xrays on the human mummies and stuff… a piece of the great sphinx’s beared that fell off..

some great viking stuff too… Its well worth a visit…

I wanderd off then to try n catch a movie but missed out on the lord of the rings screening by an hour and missed the last samurai screening my about 30 minutes! doh!

Monday, January 12, 2004

No Debt!

Well, mum surprised me this morning… she paid out my car loan!! I had sent the money home and was content to just let the payments roll out each month… but mum had other ideas! She told the bank what was what and they paid out the whole thing!

so now my visa card is clean, i have no more outstanding debts back home…

WHOO!!!!!!

financially unattached to anybody nomore!! hahahahahah bloody ripper…

its the first time ive been debt free in.. well… I dont remember exactly but I know I like it.....

Wednesday, January 07, 2004

internet explorer 5.5 + 5.0…

I have just realised, my blog comes out shithouse unless you have IE6 or a current Mozilla… doh!

gotta fix the CSS for IE5.5/IE5.0......

Tuesday, January 06, 2004

Aussie War Memorial

Went down to the aussie war memorial today and took some photos.....

hit the

lots more at here

Aussie Crest

The crests of the airforce + navy + army.

Monday, January 05, 2004

Cat and Girl, blah and the Australian KKK

(i had to edit this for ultra bad spelling.. and comments are locked for some reason.. working on it)

what a shit day.. i had a premonition. sure enough, i get home and my french flatmates are yelling up a storm. sigh. earplugs tonight just in case.

Todays Cat and Girl was good.

Went shopping. coughing and hacking all over supermarket mass produced produce like a good germ ridden samariten I am! yay me! infection. ooooooooooo sexy.

bought tim tams, vegemite and tea… (but not the tea I wanted.. so I will keep looking).. Must remember to put a note in for Lisa, to not go near the vegemite without certified autralian guidence and chaperone.

vegemite in the wrong hands, its not a pretty sight.

made a curry tonight.. not really a curry fan but it was bloody ripper. I put too much onion so I will probably be farting like the pharoes at a refried beans festival. Lucky I have a flu since I cant smell or taste anything. ... So I _think_ it tasted good. I’m not quite sure whats growing on my tongue thinks so… as long as it doesnt burn on the way out, but if it does, I spose that means its a good curry…

Oh yeah, Tescos is stocking Easter Eggs already! hellooooo its january 5th, whens easter?? bah humbug we have Scrooge for christmas, why cant we have a Scrooge for easter? then I can play his character twice a year without fear of repirsal.

Easter eggs already indeed....

Alright so I like their chocolaty goodness but its still no excuse.. The thought of sucking the goo out of a cadbury cream egg makes me taste curry again. that or its whatever is growing on my tongue is just moving around again.

i havnt been growling on any bad carpet lately..  if it moves around again I think i’ll have to kill it.

Both my bosses were off crook today, and for some reason, I did little work. hum… Got all my targets done so thats ok… But I was struck by the creative blingbling today… all these thoughts flying around. maps, ideas, snippets of conversation, setups, phrasing, locations. damn.

Now that I’m home, I recall scant few things. damn. Its this bloody flu I say. “Bloody Flu” argh.

I saw in the TNT today that Pauline Hanson of the Australian KKK is out of jail.. I cant beleive nobody assasinated her cellulite laden mold growing ass in jail. I’m sure someone can arrange a hit and run now she is out and about?

Please?

An errant family stationwagon with velour trim and a roo bar on the front. Just as she is carrying the shopping back across the zebra crossing. Nobody would mind, honest. There’d be cheering too, and pubs would serve free beer. Bakers would give away free gingerbread women with black icing to show tyre tracks.

Itd go down as best mercy killing in australian history.

anyway. I shouldnt be so mean to Australias KKK pinup girl.

Even If i think the family wagon / roo bar is a good idea.

Tomorow I need to hunt down some Dragon Pearls tea.

its funny how some people cant pay rent on time, but can buy cocacola and cigarettes. soon I wont have to put up with it! yay!

I can nearly smell all those pines! whoooooo!

So close…

So close… I can nearly smell the pines… 6 weeks.. well less than 6 weeks till I finish work.. 8 weeks till I’m on the trail!

eeeeeeeeeeee!

I so-so-so cant wait!