Words to live by

Travel light - preconception and prejudice are unnecessary luggage.

Road trippin`to France!

Why not? I've been living in Reading for about 6 months, haven't been anywhere outside the home counties yet, and the cost split 4 ways for petrol and the round trip ferry ticket made it too good an offer to pass up! We're gonna hit up Lille the first night and then off to Paris for the 2nd and then back over to the UK for the 3rd. Not a trip I would fly for, but taking a car somehow works for me!

I've contacted friends in both cities that I made a few years ago when I first passed through France, and hopefully the 4 of us will be able to find a couch together but who knows? I'll take lots of pictures though, and post, perhaps, the best 3 or 4 of them!

Hallowe'en 2010 - National Stereotypes Party

This hallowe'en we partied with the Couchsurfing community in Reading. Danielle was the good intentioned Canadian lass who hosted the fete and imagined the concept. Said concept simply put was two fold...

1) You must have a costume to attend the party.

2) You must dress like a stereotype of your nation of origin.

As you can see we leapt at the creative opportunities these rules afforded us! Fiona donned her finest Leprechaun outfit while I sported the rugged attire of a hearty Lumberjack!

Fiona did get a bit carried away with all the jigging, but it was much to the amusement of the other party guests and especially it's host. Some of the other national stereotypes we bore witness to were...

Spanish bulls

English farmers and teapots

Hungarian porn actresses

German tourists and Bavarian milk maid

Romanian vampires

American cowboys, hicks, gangsters, Nascar girls and the statue of liberty (there were a lot of Americans at this one)

Lebanese suicide bombers

Brazilian surfers

There was also our hostess who donned the noble attire of the Inuit. This is a picture of the two of us together, the Canadian contingent, making merry with a little maple syrup! You know how antsy in your pantsy you can get after gulping down a few swigs of the sweet sweet sap of a Canadian sugar maple!

Truer words were never spoken!

`Every Time You Shave, A Moustache Dies` by Dead Cat Bounce.

I think it pretty much speaks for itself!

Now that you`ve heard their argument, go out and grow a moustache!

Seeing double

Inspired by a picture taken a few years ago but recently remembered, I thought I'd make an attempt of my own. I'm quite happy with the results!

Jamie likes to be bad abroad!

Jamie recently came to visit and he brought the devil along with him. Together we tread the cobbles 'neath bow bells seeking neither fame nor fortune, instead just having a good time. In London we hit up the portrait gallery where we each worked in pastel to reproduce some of the modern art in an impromptu artist lead exercise, checked out Camden Market and took pictures of some of the city's main attractions.

At first Jamie found the whole experience somewhat surreal, but before too long he got excited!

Then he just got carried away!He's home now, in Canada, and England can breath a sigh of relief. I, however, will miss the guy.

Quick update,

So here's the craic...

Yell Adworks has decided that it was time to set myself, and a few others from the office, free to explore other opportunities. Not having loved the job in the first place this wasn't the end of the world, but loving the people that I worked with, having no savings left and needing some sort of steady income does make it a bit of an issue.

Thanks to sick days and having had my pay staggered by a week means that I now have 2 weeks of paid time which I can use to find a new job. I've been looking into the areas of hospitality and tourism because, at the end of the day, those are the industries that I think I'd like to work within. In that vain I struck out this morning, on my bike, to have a look around at what options I had in Reading city centre. My search was depressing. Reading is a renowned 'clone town' which I find disheartening in many ways.

T'was at this point that I decided to head to my little beacon of non-clone comfort, the Workhouse Coffee Company for a cup of Joe, a seat atop the sacks of coffee in the bay window and a read of my book. T'was also here where I got chatting to the proprietor who asked where I was working. When I informed him of my situation and my interest in eventual entrepreneurship, he said he was keen to make me a part of this team. I expressed an interest and will drop of my résumé later this week. The catch is that the money stinks. The upside is that they're willing to teach me everything involved in running the shop. The better news is that they're willing to have me work another job to earn a good wage and then work around my schedule in order to take me on board!

I don't know yet how this will all play out, but it certainly seems promising!