fear & loathing from a remote city: May 2005

Tuesday, May 24

years and years and years

54 days till i leave london. by that time, i would've spent about 21 months living and working in the capital, and the majority of that time spent at the gen. so i've been thinking about what i should do with my final remaining 8 weeks before i jet off to amsterdam to catch underworld play july 17th, and eventually make it back to the sunny shores of australia.

and conveniently enough, TNT magazine have an piece today on just this: take the city by storm. "your time in london is coming to an end but you haven't seem and done even half of it. amy adams triesto pack as much as possible into 24 hours in the capital".

perfect, i thought - i've seen a crap load in london, but here's the best of the best (according to ms adams at least) all packed into 24 hours. my only problem with the article was that, well, i've already seen/done 95% of it. which i guess is a good thing, but...

anyways...8 weeks left. i'm going to be taking a 'flight' on the BA London Eye at some point in the next 2 weeks or so. on a clear day, you're meant to be able to see for about 25 miles. and i'll also be hopefully taking a few more trips down to the TATE modern before i go. i love that place - i've been to the tate probably more than any other gallery in the world. and it's still fantastic each time i go.

i haven't really got a lot more planned as yet - i'm showing a friend from sydney around for a few days this weekend/next week, and there's bound to be at least one or two more fabric trips (one of my favourite clubs in london) before i go. it'll be hard to leave this place...

in generator goss, we've got new bar taps! yes, the gen finally sells more than 3 different types of beer on tap, AND we've even got rid of the ole carling tap! in its place is (i'm cringing writing this) FOSTERS, john smith, guiness (as before), and, um, well they only got put in today and i've not really looked yet. but, needless to say, we have some new beers in the bar.

that's about it from me for the minute. hope everyone's keeping on...

mike

Tuesday, May 17

i am a doughnut

well hello friends of the generator,
not much time, but a quick little update for you all.

a) i'm off to berlin tomorrow morning for the night - i'll be taking a few hundred photos for the new generator website. i'll be sure to put some of the photos here (as well as what we've been up to recently, in photo format). i'll be back on wednesday, it's only a short trip!

b) hostelbookers.com now has a bigger, brighter office in the old accounts office (they've moved into our old little box next to the interenet room). we have new desks etc, and are sharing the office with reservations.

c) for anyone who remembers him, garth has left! he used to work here way back when welcome hosts were called backpackers. former backpacker and events supervisor richie came all the way down from newcastle for a few pints in the sun in covent garden - of course we ended up back here by around 11pm.

d) that's all i can think of at the moment.

ciao

mike

Saturday, May 7

russ found this site, and i had to post something. i'll get a real update soon, but for now, have a read of this site -- david hasslhoff is the antichrist.

in other news, poker game is tonite. with a little luck i'll come out on top again - if you remember, i won £60 at the last game. i don't really mind not winnign, it's so much fun sitting there getting piss drunk and playing poker. but it's always nice to have a win too! plus, it's kings' last game before he jets off to the US of A. he'll be travelling around for a few months before dropping back into london for two weeks prep for the trip back home (translation: he'll be slumming it at the gen, doing absolutely nothing for two weeks apart from drinking too much and sleeping for 15 hours a day) hehe.

i should mention some gen news (yeah i know i said i wasn't going to, whatever...) we've lost two welcome hosts...jess and raymond have up and left us for the sunny shores of greece. yep, more and more gen staffers are moving their lives to greece for the summer...am i missing out? hmm the thought of moving to greece is appealing, but i think the trip home will be way more fun (if i can afford it...last pricing set the trip from here to perth (over about 3 months) at something like £3200! that's a huge chunk of cashola!)

ok, enough of me. say something funny to your dog (hi pogo and remy and my kitty cleo!)

mike (did you know: michael knight (david hasselhoff's character in knight rider) was named michael LONG in the pilot episode...i knew there was a hass-mike connection somewhere...