My World

I’m not sure why I’m calling this “The Week So Far”, as if it’s mid-week, when it’s actually Friday - pretty much the end of the week already.. but it’s only Friday morning, so I guess that makes it alright?

Monday: Christmas Day. Lots of people round here in the morning, 7 for Christmas lunch (me, the parents, my brother + his girlfriend, and my grandparents). Follow up with vegging and chilling, watching the Queen’s speech, the Doctor Who Christmas special, and that feeling of relief at the end of the day knowing that it’s all done for another year.

Tuesday: Boxing Day. Got up late, mooched around, didn’t do much. Went to my aunt’s house in the afternoon for another big family affair. Sat around, chatted, had a couple of beers, watched some Christmas movies on TV, and that was pretty much that. Came home slightly later than I’d have liked, so watched more TV, played Tetris, and went to bed.

Wednesday: Got up late (are you noticing a trend?). Walked to Bel Royal with my dad and had lunch. Walked back pretty quick, it was bloody freezing. Met James Young for a coffee in the afternoon and discussed Jersey versus the rest of the world. He lives in Ireland at the moment and was venting some frustrations with Jersey. I chimed in accordingly. It’s an odd little place, sometimes.. Went to my cousin Donna’s new house to see her, see it, catch up. Nice. Home for a quick bite to eat then out.

Went to the cinema with Glen & Rebecca, her friend Amanda, Glen’s brother and his girlfriend, and saw Night at the Museum. Not bad, easy entertainment, but no “must see epic” either.. 6.5 out of 10 maybe? I’m not big on half points, but 6 seems low and 7 seems generous. Meh - go see it, you be the judge!

Got dropped off at The Italian Job afterwards to join Andy and Katie, Sam, her sister, and Emma, who I knew but whose name I’d forgotten in a moment of brain-freeze, DOH! Emma is Jo Cardwell’s sister, and I knew I knew her, she definitely knew she knew me, but I was having one fo those crazy “I’m back in Jersey and I’m stunningly confused right now” moments. We met up with Rob and went to the Tipsy Toad, played pool, chucked tunes on the jukebox, and got kicked out after last orders.

Walking back, I was absolutely gutted. Turns out Bodyrox (featuring Luciana) played at Platinum nightclub on Boxing Day. BZZZT! I’d have been so up for seeing that! They did the song that I ranted about a few podcasts ago (#62) which of course I now love (not that that’s ever been known to happen before!) and was playing to death, LOUD, right before I left Vancouver to come home for the holidays.

Thursday: The day of fallen through plans. Plans with Philippa fell through. Craig couldn’t make lunch till much later on. I spent the morning doing this and that, nothing major, then went to down with Jon for late lunch and a mooch around. Not much going on downtown (I keep getting pulled for saying that - no one here says “downtown”, they say “in town” - I’m SO foreign these days eh?). Went out and about a bit, had some really good chats, then I went to pick my parents up from work, came home, family meal, then I went round to Katie’s place.

9 of us there in total - myself plus Katie and Andy, Glen and Rebecca, Rob, Sam, Jo, and Dan, who I haven’t seen in years and is also my first ex from something like 13 or 14 years ago. Totally fine, we’re friends, no hassle or drama, although he did pull me on having been back to the rock last year and not having caught up.. s’all good… After they’d all finished eating, we played this awesome game called Articulate! We played as 3 teams of 3 and you have to get your team mates to say a word, thing or name by describing it to them without using/saying what it is you’re trying to describe? Make sense? Possibly not - but check out the website because they have some of the TV commercials they show for the game in the UK that explain it well. It was really nice to just hang out with a bunch of decent people and have some good old fashioned fun playing a board game together. I must be getting old eh..

On that note, I need to go and shave and shower, scrub up and do something with my day.. I’ve got another blog entry in my head on the ups and downs of Jersey versus Vancouver, but it’ll wait.. Watch this space for it sometime between now and the new year ;-)

Following on from last week’s success, podcasting using my laptop from rooms of dubious audio/echo quality, I bring you another episode of the My World Podcast from Jolly Old England! I did this one tonight, on Christmas Day, after the day’s festivities and family fraternising :-)

Link: podcast68.mp3 (24:57, 11.4Mb)

In this week’s show:

• My week in review
• How it is being back in Jersey
• Drunken voicemails from 5000 miles away
• The difference between less and fewer
• A rant about smoking in pubs and clubs
• www.smokeispoison.com
• ..and a bunch of other random waffling!

iTunes: Don’t forget - if you like the My World Podcast, you can subscribe in iTunes and have it downloaded to your PC whenever a new episode is available! Click here for details.

Frappr Map: If you listen to the My World Podcast on a regular basis, you should add yourself to our Frappr map! Check it out at www.frappr.com/myworldpodcast.

The plan was to go out, have a couple of quiet drinks on Christmas Eve, and be home by a decent hour (I was thinking somewhere between 11 and midnight).

The reality was we went out, had a couple of quiet drinks, and ended up calling it a night around 1am, chatting the night away in the bar at Rob’s hotel.

Good company, good conversations, good times. Who could ask for anything more? And the best thing is - I don’t even feel pissed! Maybe the vodka’n'7 cancelled out the 4 beers from earlier in the night? Or maybe I just paced it right?

Either way… MERRY CHRISTMAS! From the UK, at 1:20am, I wish you all the best and hope that your Christmas day is a cool one, whether with family, friends, or just doing your own thing. I’ll blog a few pictures from the last few nights out later on sometime, and because it’s a Monday, I’ll be doing my podcast as usual - full of entertaining tales of my first week back on the rock, and all the festive fun of Christmas day!

It’s been an interesting first week back. I’ve had a healthy dose of vegging and chilling, a good dose of socialising, and a touch of the holiday season stress that’s pretty much par for the course (especially here).

So.. what have I been up to? Hmm.. Monday was my total veg and “do nothing” day. The weird thing has been the lack of jetlag. After crashing out at 8pm on Sunday night and getting up at 7:30am on Monday, I was kind of expecting it to hit that night or the next day. So far, no dice! I’ve been going to bed between 12 and 1, and getting up between 9 and 10 - seems fine. I guess we’ll see how it is when I get back to Vancouver eh?

Tuesday I hit Big Verne’s for lunch with Andy, Katie, Martin, Anitha and Glen. Good times, featuring a “proper” Bacon Roll (uh Uh UH!) and the obligatory Fanta (will I be coming back to Vancouver a heffer? hell no!). Went to St Peter’s Garden Centre with Andy then in to town for some xmas shopping. And that’s where things get “interesting”. Town’s mobbed, queues everywhere, and of course the thing I’m looking for (Nintendo DS Lite) is nowhere to be found. All the regular places say they’re out of stock. BZZZZT. It’s a DS Lite, not the brand new recently launched Wii.. why does nowhere have any in stock? Typical Jersey. And thus begins the anti-Jersey snobbery. It’s hard to describe succinctly - it’s a discussion better had over a few pints down your local (as in.. pub.. complete with complimentary cigarette smoke and drunken loud locals).

Point of my rant? Meh - I just lost it.. can’t be arsed.. I’ll probably talk about it more in my podcast on Monday (how’s that for a reason to listen?!). You’ll be glad to know I managed to locate a DS Lite (totally available behind the counter, despite the sticker on the shelf that said “Temporarily Unavailable” - DOH!).

Rest of the week was pretty low key.. bit of this, bit of that.. hung out with Glen and Rebecca on Thursday night.. had lunch with Jon yesterday.. Rob and Sam got back last night so I went for a few drinks with them and Glen.. Sam went home.. Glen went home.. and Rob and I chatted the night away in the hotel bar until the wee hours.. Aside from a drink on Monday night with dinner, it was the first proper drink I’d had since being back. Good times, good company, good conversations. We got to talking about Podcasting then both Glen and Rob (or was it Sam? I forget?) mentioned Wankergirl (of Blarmcast fame). UK tradition says you call your mates when you’re drunk, so we called her voicemail number and left audio feedback - I’ll have to see if I can get a copy of the message to play on my podcast.

Getting home was “entertaining”.. 2:30am and the Weighbridge is MOBBED with people wanting to get a taxi home.. Got one in the end, after commentary from the guy in front of me on how people are numpties and tools and why can’t they just get in a taxi and fucking go instead of faffing around and saying goodbye a million times. I got home just after 3am, and crashed out, totally wiped. Got up late today and had a pretty nothingy day.. Dinner’s in the works, then I’m going round to Martin’s later for a few drinks and possibly heading in to town afterwards.. Let the good times roll! (or the boozy times at least?) ;-)

This came via digg. Viking Direct is a UK stationery supply company. They’ve recreated movie scenes using office supplies. There are 20 movie titles to guess - see how many you can get right out of 20! My current score is 13 and I’m still trying…

URL: http://www.stationerymovies.com/

Well.. Am I home? I’m in Jersey, which is where I’m from and where my parents are, but these days I live in Vancouver.. so where’s home? *shrugs* dunno.. but it all got very confusing yesterday, talking to Russell and saying “home” cos he had no idea whether I meant Vancouver or Jersey!

So what’s new? Not much.. left Vancouver on Saturday afternoon.. uneventful flight.. had a decent enough seat, watched 3 movies: Flicka (total chick flick - some girl and her wild horse she wants to tame), Elf (which I’ve seen before but meh it’s alright), and RV (with Robin Williams, also “alright” but nothing to write home about).

There’s a Mastercard advert on TV right now which shows people arriving at an airport, hugging friends and family etc. On-screen captions give the price of flights from various destinations and ends with “Spending the holidays together: Priceless”. It’s funny, cos I just tried to find it online and came up with this, which is obviously the UK version of the same ad. I’m fairly sure the North American version says “holidays” rather than “Christmas”. Whatever - you get the idea. Point is.. I was pretty sure that it was Gatwick airport in the advert, and having been there yesterday, I’m even more convinced.

I’d said I’d give Russell a call once I was at the airport to see if maybe we could meet up and do something, as he’s only 15 minutes away by train. As I walk through in to the arrivals hall, there he is! Total nice surprise - I was chuffed to bits :-)

We mooched around the airport, ended up in Pizza Express. Had some Fanta (Mmm FANTA!) and a pizza. Shot the shit for a while and caught up - a totally nice way to kill a few hours that would otherwise have been spent sitting around and getting wound up with the general frantic stress of the airport.

Caught my flight back to Jersey and ended up sitting next to Nathan, who I knew from school and also worked with at Jersey Telecoms. I always joke that you’re bound to know someone on a flight from Gatwick to Jersey and this one was no exception.

Got to Jersey, grabbed my luggage, and went through the door into the arrivals hall to find a pair of exciteable parents. Nice! I was kinda fading by that point, having been up almost 24 hours. Crashed out at home for a bit, almost fell asleep on the sofa, and decided it was time to go to bed around 8pm. I woke up this morning around 7:30ish, felt alright, so got up and had breakfast with my parents and proceeded to do mostly nothing all day. I’m wondering if the jetlag will kick in suddenly this evening and I’ll be all yawning and wiped, but so far so good..

Did my podcast earlier, first time doing it on my laptop, first time doing it in a different country, but I think it went alright for the most part.

Off now for dinner with my parents, brother and his girlfriend.. I’ve changed my blog so the times are UK times not Pacific time.. More news as it happens!

I’m in the UK for Christmas and new years and have managed, with the wonders of modern technology (although I’m not sure my laptop is all that “modern” any more), to do a podcast from Jersey in the UK, and on a Monday! (after the past 2 weeks being late).

Link: podcast67.mp3 (23:55, 11.0Mb)

In this week’s show:

• I rant about airport security. Again.
• Hanging out with Russell at Gatwick airport
• Talking to Nathan on the flight to Jersey
• General blurb and waffle on being back in Jersey and “localness”

iTunes: Don’t forget - if you like the My World Podcast, you can subscribe in iTunes and have it downloaded to your PC whenever a new episode is available! Click here for details.

Frappr Map: If you listen to the My World Podcast on a regular basis, you should add yourself to our Frappr map! Check it out at www.frappr.com/myworldpodcast.

Imaginatively titled, I was a bit late again this week.. here’s hoping I can actual hit the intended Monday regular scheduled slot for the next few weeks while I’m away!

Link: podcast66.mp3 (22:08, 10.1Mb)

In this week’s show:

• I’m late again (sorry!)
• Feedback from Rob and Jake Cordova
• Random people pub Friday
• Christmas preparations
• Brief rant about pissing on the floor
• ..and other bits and pieces I didn’t write down!

iTunes: Don’t forget - if you like the My World Podcast, you can subscribe in iTunes and have it downloaded to your PC whenever a new episode is available! Click here for details.

Frappr Map: If you listen to the My World Podcast on a regular basis, you should add yourself to our Frappr map! Check it out at www.frappr.com/myworldpodcast.

No, not me.. another Paul silly!

This came courtesy of Shawn - check it out! And if you like it - leave feedback!

Tony vs. Paul

So again, podcasting on a Monday night didn’t quite work out for me today.. but rest assured, I’ll be doing another early morning one tomorrow, bright and breezy, and possibly sounding slightly groggy/raspy, for your entertainment and pleasure.

In other news, I’ve managed to get my laptop set up with all that’s needed to podcast, so I will be podcasting during the 3 weeks that I’m away in the UK. HOW happy and chuffed are you?!