My World

I was sick. Very sick. Like “spend 2 hours out of the house on Saturday and the rest of the time lying on the sofa or in bed” sick. Ugh - I fucking hate being sick at the weekend.

Could be strep throat, not sure. I’m not going to work tomorrow and if my throat’s still manky in the morning I’ll be straight off to the doctor’s.

In other news.. hmm.. dunno.. really don’t have much to tell.. Got to pick up something from the post office which could be my Monster Munch from Wankergirl, or maybe my Strawberry Nesquik from Adam Carter, or (least likely) my LED kits from Big Clive. Oooh the excitement! I would have picked up my package on Saturday but the post office closed at 4 and we didn’t get there till 4:45.. BZZZT.

And now.. bed. Fresh sheets, a good night’s sleep, and see what tomorrow brings.

A late start meant a late finish, and oh what a finish - the best part of 50 bloody minutes later! HOLY!

Link: podcast35.mp3 (49:59, 22.2Mb)

In this week’s show:

• Catchphrase #1: “It’s true!”
• Catchphrase #2 + attitude: “Life first!”
• Fun with text to speech
• zunafish.com
• Why are people scared to step outside the norm?
• …plus the usual dose of random waffling!

Audio Feedback: TOO LATE! Your chance to leave audio feedback via phone and feature on next week’s show is no more.. well, not for a few weeks anyway.. It’ll be back - watch this space for details! In the mean time, feel free to leave feedback here, or via email, or send audio feedback via email :-)

Quick update on the weekend’s events…

Friday: See the previous entry.

Saturday: Met Kira for lunch and hit Cactus Club. I love the spicy chicken but think I prefer the sweet chilli chicken at Earls. Parked up by Science World and hit the ice cream place. She made me try a sample durian flavour. What’s durian? Fucked if I know.. but it tastes BAD. Apparently it’s known as “the stinky asian fruit”. It tastes like burnt tires or something. Ugh - totally gross. Drama ensued with her and the woman giving her too big a scoop, and me asking for “After Eight” and the woman starting to scoop me “Black Forest” (cos they sound identical when you say them, right?). There’ll be more on that in the podcast tomorrow (incentive enough for you to listen in? hmm?). Went to Science World afterwards and saw an IMAX feature called Extra Large Shorts. 5 short movies on the big screen. 3 bunk, 1 not bad, 1 pretty good.

Went over to Dan’s in the evening for dinner and a movie. Wicked good nachos and watched Amelie - I love that film! First DVD I ever bought :-) Walked to the SkyTrain only to find out that the last train westbound had already gone - BZZZT.. Dan ended up driving me back downtown (despite my protests that I could totally take a night bus). Got downtown, chatted up a storm in the car before calling it a night.

Sunday: Plans to hang out with Julia for lunch fell through. Spent a lot of time chilling and spodding around online. Sorted my finances out, went out for coffee with Ryan, came home, then met up with Brian and Josh. Went to Sammy J Peppers on Granville Island for dinner which was great up until it wasn’t. Had a bit of a run in with Brian which dampened the mood somewhat. He went home, I walked up with Josh and bussed it back downtown.. went for a walk then came home, and here I am - updating my blog and thinking about bed soon..

Ok, so it was one of those weeks where I didn’t blog anything.. sorry - it was a bit of a busy one.. We’ll do the quick update version now (or “Coles Notes” as you North Americans say? That was a new one on me first time I heard it..)

Monday: Work, etc. Went out for drinks after work with Alyson and her mum (in town from out east) and a few of Alyson’s friends. Good times. 3 beers on an empty stomach = BuzzedPaul(tm). A few dippy grins, a few blushes - good times. Home for the podcast, veg’n'chill a bit, then bed.. Evening? Flown by!

Tuesday: 1 beer after work (I’m cringing - Jared’s totally going to call me an alcoholic!). Reason? Marija at work’s leaving do. 1 was enough, didn’t fancy getting boozy with it. Hung out and shot the shit a bit then came home. Went for food with Brian then back to mine for an episode of Sopranos. He went home, I did the veg’n'chill thing, then bed.

Wednesday: Wednesday would have been the day when “life first, work later” phrase came in to play. Or was it “work second”? Maybe we’ll just agree on the short form “Life first!”. Point is.. when it comes to certain things and the life/work balance, the “real life” stuff has to come first. Sure, work’s important - you can be really important at work, hold a position of responsibility and stuff.. but when real life happens, it’s way more important. In my books anyway.. work’ll still be there tomorrow.. or someone else can deal with those firefighting situations..

This dose of real life? Dan’s gran died. His sister phoned him at work to tell him, and it all went to shit. There’s no point in being in work if you’re cut up, upset, emotional etc so he was going home. I said if he wanted to hang, give me a call - I’ve got no problems skipping out of work early. So he did, and I did. Tough times, but what can you do eh? It’s important to grieve and work through it, don’t get me wrong - but sometimes you just need to be around people, distracted, so you don’t dwell and turn in to a basket case..

Thursday: The originally scheduled HMD night (3 points if you can tell me what it stands for?). Dan came over, we got pizza in, watched a movie. Stayed up too late shooting the shit and chatting but all in all a great night. Just felt a bit groggy and tired the next morning..

Friday: Beer. 3 of. And a few vodkas for good measure. Reason? Daniel at work’s last day. Bunch of us hit the Kingston at 4pm, had a few drinks, a bite to eat, a few entertaining conversations.. I may have been outed to a coworker on my team by a coworker not on my team.. which shouldn’t be a big deal, but possibly has the potential to be. Awkward! Came home to veg and chill, catch up on some TV, with a slightly niggled feeling caused by people being wank..

That feeling caused by the fact that people here are really loathe to take any kind of risk or open up at all, even when fueled by booze. A female coworker says she likes the look of some guy. I offer to put a word in for her. She goes upstairs for a smoke. I tell the guy that she wants to buy him a beer when she comes back, she’ll be at the bar, go chat. And he doesn’t. I go up to talk to her at the bar.. Buddy has his eyes firmly glued to the hockey, won’t make eye contact, won’t play the game. What’s up with that? You’re too good to say “Funny.. your buddy’s a bit drunk eh? Gotta tell you, I’ve got a girlfriend/married/gay/not interested, but thanks for the laugh anyway”? Apparently so. Cultural differences? Sure, let’s chalk it up to buzzed British pub antics versus Vancouver “I’m in my clique, don’t talk to me, what possible interest could you be to me?” stuck up snobbyness. Nuff said.

Some would argue that my podcasts are always pedestrian.. although I think there’s been at least one or two with a bit of substance, no? But I struggled with a title for this one, and I struggled with doing it too, which may or may not be due to the fact that I had 3 beers after work, felt buzzed, then had a bit of a headache by the time I was home and ready to do my podcast…

Link: podcast34.mp3 (27:56, 12.8Mb)

In this week’s show:

• The lazy long weekend
• Easter rants
• The guy with my head
• Audio feedback - Shanelle’s the star!
• Blind coffee dates with friends of friends?
• …plus random stuff that escapes me!

Audio Feedback: LAST CHANCE! The audio feedback hotline number is only here till next Monday (24th April) then it’ll be offline for a few weeks. If you want to be on next week’s show, CALL! You can get the number from the last 60 seconds of the podcast :-)

If I was still in the UK, I’d still be in bed right now - they have a LONG long weekend: Friday off because it’s Good Friday, then Monday off because it’s a Bank Holiday, created because Easter Sunday is.. well.. a Sunday.. and most people wouldn’t be working anyway? And while some places in Canada recognise the Monday as holiday too, in lieu of Easter Sunday, sadly my work doesn’t.. so hi ho, hi ho, it’s off to work I go.. but not before I blog a quick update of my long weekend..

It was long. It flew by. It’s over now.

Oh? Not quite that quick I hear you say? More details? Oh, go on then! :-p

Thursday: Let the long weekend start! Fuck, it seems like so long ago now.. I’m trying to remember if I did anything after work before coming home.. Did I go to the gym? Or was that Wednesday? *shrugs* clueless! Think it was just a total chill night.. caught up on TV from earlier in the week, chatted online a bit, watched more TV, then stayed up late chatting it up some more..

Friday: Got up late.. like noonish.. and had a total veg/chill day.. 5pm and I was still there in boxers and a t-shirt, pissing around online, reading stuff, chatting, trying to decide which LCD monitor I want to get (still none the wiser!). Brian phoned and I decided it was time to get presentable. Jumped in the shower, went out and about but everywhere I wanted to go was shut cos it’s a holiday. Ended up in the Keg, opting for chicken fajitas instead of steak.. we sat in the bar/lounge area and it was all good until the obnoxious family from hell came and sat at the table 2 along from us. Honestly, BZZZZT, some people have no idea how to behave or how to control their kids when they’re out in a public place. Some people should also not be allowed to have children, period. These were those people - clearly unaware of the social pecking order and their place. Sure, I’m sounding like a snobby cunt right now but it really did put a damper on what would otherwise have been a really nice meal. If I said “lower class”, would I be harsh? Hmm.. debateable :-s

Back to mine, watched an episode of The Sopranos, Brian went home, I watched a bit more TV, vegged’n'chilled, and stayed up late chatting away on MSN. Again.

Saturday: Got up late.. like around noon.. noticing a pattern here yet? Pottered around and did bits and pieces.. had a shower, scrubbed up, went over to Daniel’s. Wow - nice place much? Out in New West, near the SkyTrain, brand new building (so new it still smells new when you walk in the lobby!). Really nice place too - split level 1 bedroom unit, double high in the lounge area, big contrete wall “feature”, gas fireplace, wooden trim all over the place, oh yeah - my kinda place! Totally cool time hanging out too, we had a laugh :-)

Came back downtown, hit Chapters, bought a magazine, came home via the IGA and chucked a pizza in the oven - STARVING! Brian came over for the second taped episode of The Sopranos, so we’re all up to date now. Gotta say, neither episode was particularly fantastic.. Entertaining, sure, but also kinda sporadic and random. He went home, I vegged and chilled, chatted it up some more, and had - yes, you guessed it - another late night!

Sunday: Got up at a semi-reasonable hour, having woken up earlier than maybe I’d have liked.. phoned home, chatted about nice new apartments in New West which whipped my parents in to a frenzy of “Oh yes, you should do that, yes, definitely, it’s about time you bought somewhere, yes, why not do that then” etc etc.. LOL it’s all right and valid etc.. just not something I’m quite ready to do right now this instant (or this side of the summer.. probably..)

The weather was shite and it was a total stay at home day. I didn’t leave the house. I didn’t shave. I didn’t shower. I DID have a bath, around 10:30 last night, then hit the sack around 11, feeling really wiped. Nothing better than having a bath then climbing in to a freshly made clean sheets bed - BLISS! That didn’t stop me waking up at the arse crack of dawn though and tossing and turning restlessly for a few hours before getting up around 7ish.. grrrr..

And here we are - Monday morning - bright and breezy! I’m gonna go have a much needed shave then shower and get my ass in to work for another fun packed day of “entertainment” :-)

Do you remember the Shamen? Early 90’s dance music act out of the UK?

I’m up early this morning, there’s no Chris Moyles breakfast show to listen to cos it was a bank holiday in the UK today so they’re playing the Red Hot Chilli Peppers live in concert instead, which isn’t really my thing.. so I tune in to yesterday’s episode of Dance Anthems and they’re having an old school throwback show. They play LSI by The Shamen. Fucking CHOOOOOON! There I was, volume cranked, singing along, most awake boy in Vancouver at 7:12am :-)

Made me realise too, I don’t have any of my Shamen CD singles ripped in to iTunes. Soon remedied - doing it as we speak! Nothing like a good loud dance of bangin’ dance music to get you started in the morning.. oh and now they’re playing JX - Son Of A Gun! CHOOOOON!

You’re gonna have to just check this shit out for yourself - go to www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/ then click Listen to check out what’s available, or click that link to go straight to the Audio On Demand player. My favourites: The Chris Moyles Breakfast Show, Dance Anthems, Sunday Surgery, and Pete Tong’s Essential Selection :-)

URL: http://popdrivel.blogspot.com/2005/10/sia-breathe-me-video.html

Wow. I’ll say it again: WOW.

This was on digg.com tonight, and it’s awesome. The track blows me away, I don’t know why - just powerful and emotional and stuff.. but the video? Let’s just say 2500 Polaroid pictures animated together to make a music video is an awesome sight to behold - nuff said!

Today is my 5 year anniversary of coming to Canada!

On Wednesday the 11th of April 2001 I got on board British Airways flight BA85 from London Heathrow to Vancouver International Airport to come work for a company writing software for chat/date phone lines.

On Tuesday the 11th of April 2006 I write a blog entry during a break at work, working for the same company, after quitting my job 2 years in, doing other bits and pieces for 2.5 years, then returning here last November.

How is it? Well it must be alright, cos I’m still here aren’t I? Sure, it ain’t all plain sailing.. I still think the people here are odd sometimes.. well, a lot of the time.. but give me a blue sky day with sunshine and a warm breeze and I’m happy as Larry.. mostly..

I’d say “Anyone fancy a drink?” (any excuse for a piss up!) but Jared would get on my case.. cos I’m an alcoholic, remember? (No Jared, I’m just British!)

Congratulatory comments and smart arse remarks may be left by clicking the link that says “comments” :-)

I tried, I really did.. I spent some time tonight playing around with it.. but I just couldn’t get Shawn’s background music thing to sound like I thought it should sound :-( So we’re back to the regular music bed but I jazzed it up with a new outro thing at the end of the show!

Link: podcast33.mp3 (25:17, 11.5Mb)

In this week’s show:

• The week in review
• A multitude of movies
• Audio feedback - you’re the star!
• Doing what makes you happy
• …plus other random tidbits!

Audio Feedback: Following the wild crazy success (yeah right!) of my plea for audio feedback last week, we’ll keep it going for another week.. Get the number from the last 60 seconds of the podcast then make that call - you could be featuring on next week’s podcast!