fear & loathing from a remote city

change

2006-06-12T09:45:00.000+08:00

so it's been a while, and a lot has happened since i updated my blog. so i've decided it's time for another makeover, a new look...so stay tuned for a new and improved "fear & loathing from....????"

easter

2006-04-19T21:51:00.000+08:00

been and gone for another year. i loved the 4 days off work, i didn't love waking up on tuesday morning having to go to work. stupid need for currency these days.

went to innercity in northbridge, a rave featuring dave seaman, anthony pappa and felix da house cat. high light - seeing dave seaman mix again, he's fantastic. low light - audio bully's (were these guys on acid or what?! worst set EVER!)

my car is running really well, thou i need to get the clutch fixed up some time soon.

might be heading up to beahc house in guilderton (hour north of perth) next weekend. should be a lot of fun.

i just watched the new west wing -- only a few eps left in my all time favourite series. hopefully it will end well and i won't wind up resenting the final series...

i think i might play my guitar for a while...

GOD i am slack

2006-01-23T22:06:00.000+08:00

hey - about bloody time i wrote something here, but since it's late and i'm tired, it'll be short. here's a few things:

- i went to sydney for my first work conference this weekend just past. was pretty good fun, allbeit working over the weekend...
- i also had my birthday this weekend, and worked for the first time over my bday in many, many years...thou it was a conference, not really work, more sitting around listening to people
- it's australia day on thursday, so drink some (decent) aussie beer on the 26th
- i paid my car rego today - fun stuff
- my cat's breath smells like cat's food

- mike

vineyard spam salad

2005-12-14T18:41:00.000+08:00

Vineyard Spam Salad - Combine grapes, spam, peapods and onions in large bowl

so says the top of my gmail haha. they've introduced RSS feeds into gmail now, and, i guess because of the name of the spam folder, i get to look at spam-related recepies whilst deleting my spam.

nice work google - you made me laugh

almost finished my 4th week of work now - 2 more days of training, the FCL xmas party on saturday nite (which if it's anything like the student flights xmas party last week - i got home at 7.30am - will be a hell of a good nite), everything's going pretty well.

my little car says hi by the way :P

- mike

december

2005-12-07T10:25:00.000+08:00

this month is filled with engagements. work parties, dinners with friends, xmas, new years...it's going to be a very social month. tonight i'm off to the brass monkey to see one of my work colleagues perform as a stand up comic. katie used to do stand up in melbourne, so it should be a lot of fun.

feel free to come along :)

mike

Until there's a cure

2005-12-02T08:41:00.000+08:00

today is World AIDS Day. there are around 50million people around the world with HIV/AIDS - so please buy a ribbon or a wrist band and help find a cure. you can find more information about world aids day at until there's a cure, worldaidsday.org and locally at the WA AIDS Council website.

quick post

2005-11-30T08:49:00.000+08:00

hey all - just a quick post from work. i'm at student flights on barrack st perth - my new job!

i'll post more on what's been happening later this week

ciao

mike

mini mike

2005-11-21T21:38:00.000+08:00

i've been back in perth for 2 months tomorrow. and as most people know, i've been looking for an old mini to drive around since then (i've wanted one since i was about 5 years old, but have just finally realised that i should maybe finally realise that dream). so i've been looking, and of course didn't find much cause they're impossible to find.

that is until today. my mother and my sister drove to bunbury, had a look at a 1978 mini clubman, and bought it! i knew pretty much everything about it, but since i was working (oh, i started my new career as a travel agent today btw) i couldn't get down there. my sister aimee drove my new little mini back home, and now she's sitting in the garage waiting for me.

i love her so. she's so cute...but still needs a name, so post comments below. here's some pics.

"i can't get to sleep,

2005-11-18T12:50:00.000+08:00

...i think the implications. of diving in too deep, and possibly the complications. especially at night, i worry over situations. i know will be alright, perhaps its just my imagination"

i've been listening to 'Overkill' by Colin Hay (former frontman of men at work) a bit recently cause i've been playing it on my guitar. if you've seen the first ep of season 2 scrubs, you would've seen & heard colin playing this. if you haven't, get the song or watch the ep. scrubs is fast becoming one of my favourite shows.

and lost. kings got me onto lost a little while ago, and tam came through with the eps for me. but now i've watched all of season 1, and need the new ones now!!

i think zach braff has a thing for colin hays music - his track 'i just don't think i'll ever get over you' (another of my current favs) was on the garden state soundtrack, the movie that zach wrote, produced, directed and starred in. you must watch this film - best best film, i love it!

i had some news this week - as of monday, i will be the newest member of student flights barrack street! yes, traveldeskguy will once again rein - this time in an official capacity, as an international man of mystery...i mean travel consultant. so if you want to go anywhere, and you're in perth, book thru me cause i rock!

jubs bday tonite - should be a lot of fun! everyone will be getting nicely pissy.

and poker tomorrow nite at al's. get ready to lose your money boys!

tha doctaz in!

2005-11-11T14:19:00.000+08:00

julls says some words about everyones favourite white boy rapper, docta mengle. when julls sent me this link, i almost fell off my chair with laughter. we used to listen to tha docta back in high school - private study was never the same after we heard some mengle. it changed our lives forever.

this is the first day of my life

2005-11-10T14:26:00.000+08:00

have you heard this song by bright eyes? i found a tab i had of it from london today when i was going thru crap so i had to hear it again...it's a nice little song, listen to it if you get the chance.

i have an interview tomorrow, but i'm not sure if i really want the job. it's sort of sales based, and i'm kinda holding out for something in the media. which is looking more and more like it's not going to come, hence the interview. so we'll see how the interview goes, it could be a fun job, i'll see how the iv goes.

my day has been pretty uneventful so far - got the mail, a letter from inland revenue (UK tax) saying that they needed another part of a form i forgot to send (cause the form specifically says to send the other two parts, not this one). and of course now i can't find the form. i had it all together about 3 weeks ago, i cleaned everything up, put everything away etc yesterday, and now i can't find this thing to save me. and it's starting to piss me off...hopefully hostelbookers can send me another one...

i was speaking to my friend olga in toronto today - she's just scored a modelling gig with rock & republic. so cool! they make some cool stuff.

prue is only a day away from being free from legal hell at uni - no more exams means this weekend is party time!! she's taking me out to dinner to celebrate her freedom (and my return to perth) on saturday nite, and then we'll be heading out somewhere for one or 12 cocktails. should be a lot of fun! good luck with your last exam tomorrow pingu.

um, i dont have anything else of any interest to write, but i'm bored. and i can't find any jobs in media. i don't know how they (the govt/centrelink) expect me to apply for 10 jobs a fortnight when there's at best maybe 3 jobs in my field per fortnight. i could apply for some crappy piece of shit job that i'll hate and probably quit in a week, but what's the point? i mean, i studied for 4 years, paid around $23,000 for two degrees, and cant find a job in media. i've got one application in at the dept of industry and resources that i would really like - communications officer. but i haven't heard back from them as yet. hmmmmmmmm

hitched

2005-11-07T22:52:00.000+08:00

when i was in london, i got an email from my mate barney who informed me that he had FINALLY set a date for his wedding. he also asked me, as he had about 18 months earlier, if i would be one of his groomsmen. i was honoured, and after all the organisation, bucks night, tuxes and everything else that goes into a wedding, barney (mike) and louise were hitched on saturday afternoon.

the ceremony was beautiful, fairly short and simple, and we all looked great. the bridal party then packed into a nice roomy 10 seater limo and set off for the photos. a few stops in and it was almost time to turn around and head for the reception, of course not before a few bottles of bubbly had been consumed.

they had the reception at the cottesloe golf club (not the one by the ocean, the private club kind of in swanborne), and was simply amazing. good food, great drinks, fantastic company, can't ask for much more. caught up with a few old friends (and an ex) there too. we didn't make it to the casino after the wedding, basically because we were oh so tired - a bit of a shame considering we were all dressed up. was still a fun day!

congratulations to barney and louise - we'll be having a get together when you get back from your honeymoon in a few weeks!!

unfortunately i missed emma's bday on saturday because of the wedding, but i hear that everyone had a drunken and fab time...

how was your weekend?

like the movies

2005-11-04T16:32:00.000+08:00

has anyone seen 'human traffic'? you know, that film set in cardiff about clubbing? anyway, i had a human traffic moment today. remember that scene near the beginning when the two women are chatting, and lulu says something like "here's to you for successfully gaining unemployment".

then there's a mock scene of them both standing out the front of their flat with reporters all around, and she says "thank you, it feels great to be part of the two million. i'm looking forward to sitting on my ass all day, reverse sleeping patterns, and getting in some serious richard and judy" (richard and judy is a day-time tv show in the uk).

well today i could relate - yes, traveldeskguy has officially gained unemployment benefits. even though i've been back in the country for about 6 weeks, and i've been unemployed the whole time, that scene flashed into my mind.

i'm still looking for work, as i have been since i got back from london, but at least now i can cover a few of my bills. hopefully i'll find a good job in the next few weeks - i'll keep you all posted on my progress.

this is clarke kent reporting

2005-11-01T00:36:00.000+08:00

kings and i had an interesting conversation the other day. he was having some problems writing something and so was asking for my advice...the conversation was as follows:

mike: you're really talking to the wrong person, i mean, i cant find a relationship to save me
kings: yeh well, you have certain insights
kings: its your super power
mike: if only it worked on getting me a gf
kings: but thats the thing!!! you can never use your super powers on yourself!
mike: that's not fair
mike: :(
kings: your like superman - i mean hes freaking superman, but he couldnt pull to save himself. but nerd boy clarke kent was scoring
mike: hmm well, maybe i should get some thicker glasses
kings: yeh, and milder manors
mike: milder gigantic homes?
kings: and a hat with a 'press' thing in it
kings: HA

this was the pic that followed...

world map

2005-10-31T13:51:00.000+08:00

when i was living in london, i started up a virtual tourist site for a bit of fun. i just remembered it today so had a look. i've not really added a lot to it, but one of the cool functions this site has is the personal travel map. you can list all the places you've been and, in a broad sort of way, it'll colour a world map in of where you've been!

it's by no means perfect (i don't remember travelling through alaska and the northern parts of canada) but it's still a pretty cool function. this sort of makes me realise that while i've seen a lot of the world, there's a huge amount left to see. i want to make some of those grey spots blue!

...i need to find a better way to fill the days :P

6 years of clubbing

2005-10-31T12:46:00.000+08:00

friday night saw the return of Ministry of Sound to perth. on the bill for this years event was john digweed, one of the worlds all time best djs, and certainly one of my favourites, who i hadn't even seen mix before. this event is kind of special to me, because 6 years ago, paul, kings, andy and myself all rocked along to belmont park for the very first MoS in perth (1999), our first event ever. tall paul and chilli hi-fly dropped some great tracks (the 'star wars' and 'betterman' by peral jam remixes..ahhh) and we were all hooked.

over the years we've probably slowed down a bit, gone to less events, but we still have our fun. friday night's event was cool - spread across three venues (metros, old berlin and rise), al, kings and myself rocked up at around midnight, ignored rise and old berlin and headed straight into metros, to gear up for digweed.

it's kind of funny how you run into people you know at these events - we saw veg from high school, who kings and i hadn't seen in 7 years, and also ran into arif (thou we knew he was going). in a venue that holds over 7,000 people, you'd think running into anyone you knew would be near impossible..

anyways...digweed was awesome! not the best set i've ever seen, nor was it the most entertaining (he pretty much ignored the crowd actually) but all the same, his mixing was flawless and music selection spot on. it's a shame the event didn't carry too many other decent acts; i would've liked to have seen kid kenobi, but the line at rise was at least a few hours, and i wasn't about to stand in the street all night.

a decent event, could've been better with some more talent onstage, but was fun all the same...

bring on subculture!

[s is for stolen quiz] and i'm bored so why the hell not?

2005-10-31T11:42:00.000+08:00

[A is for age:] 24
[B is for booze of choice:] it all depends on the circumstances, but generally some kind of beer (eb, wife beater, little creatures, a good carling!) nice red, vodka, cocktails...ooh peach caprioskas at harry's bar in rome!
[C is for career:] well currently without employment, but i hope to be working in radio/sound production, which is what i studied for so long. i've done most of my work in retail/customer service
[D is for your dad's name:] Harvey (also one of my middle names)
[E is for essential items to bring to a party:] booze and yourself
[F is for favourite song at the moment:] i'm listening to cordrazine's '97 album 'from here to nowhere' a bit at the moment...the track 'crazy' is fantastic! also a lot of live jeff buckley, underworld, and the garden state soundtrack - colin hay 'just don't think i'll ever get over you'...that's prob at the top right now.
[G is for favourite game:] texas hold 'em poker
[H is for hometown:] Perth
[I is for instruments you played:] guitar (for the past...10-11 years?), but i've also played violin, alto sax, percussion, and of course, the recorder (oh, and i sing a bit)
[J is for jam or jelly you like:] i'm not a huge jam/jelly fan, too sweet. i prefer vegemite.
[K is for kids?] HA, no, not yet...my sister has 4 kids so i figure she's covered my quota at least for a little while
[L is for living arrangements:] with my mum and a. cathy, 2 dogs, 2 cats, max the gallah, a quail & 2 weiros.
[M is for mUm's name:] Sue
[N is for name of your crush:] i'm not saying who, but she knows
[O is for overnight hospital stays:] probably just one, after a foot operation, after which i thought i was fine, so got out of bed when prue rocked up to say hi, and fell flat on my face!
[P is for phobias:] carney's...small feet, smell like cabbage
[Q is for quotes you like:] life is like a book, and those that do not travel read but a page
[R is for relationship that lasted the longest:] 9 months, but that was a few years ago now
[S is for sexual preference:] i loves ma womens
[T is for time you wake up:] well that all depends...i can't seem to crash till around 2 or 3am at the moment and since i don't need to get up early to work (see C), it's normally between 8 and 11am.
[U is for underwear:] CK boxers
[V is for vegetable you love:] brussel sprouts, fresh beans, spinach, mushrooms...i'm a vegie, i love most vegetables.
[W is for worst habit:] the amount i can drink sometimes, which then leads to the amount i smoke
[X is for x-rays you've had:] i honestly can't remember ever having an x-ray taken.
[Y is for yummy food you make:] spinach & ricotta cannelloni, coke-cola cake, a great risotto
[Z is for zodiac sign:] aquarius (on the cusp of capricorn)

aussie slags!

2005-10-30T13:13:00.000+08:00

i have a bunch of links for things to do when you're bored on this site, and one of these is aussie slang (which, for some reason, i named aussie slag). this seemed to hit a hillarious spot with both julls and myself, and so this was created:

the vibe police are gonna bust us if we don't stop soon

2005-10-26T09:48:00.000+08:00

so said karl hyde back in july in amsterdam at the heineken music hall (HMH). karl, in case you don't know, is the lead singer of underworld, my favourite band of all time. i was fortunate enough to be witness to three (yes, 3) uw shows during the past few months when travelling around europe on my way back to oz.

the first of these was at the 5 days off festival in amsterdam, july 17th. at this particular gig, kings (of mikeandkings.com) and i met up with a bunch of people from the two mailing lists i'm on, rtsr-board-of-trade and dirty.org, the official uw site. this was our very first uw gig ever, and thankfully, there's a recording of it! i haven't got it yet, but the artwork for the cover is done;

that's the front, the back is a pick that i took at the gig of the HMH building itself, with the text that's the title of this post. i'll let you know how it sounds when i finally get my copy!

Jesus loves me. But, I just want to be friends.

2005-10-24T22:05:00.000+08:00

i received some mail today from the abc...unfortunately, it was not the comments i was hoping for:

Dear Michael,

Your application to become an ABC cadet journalist was unsuccessful.

There were a great many applications and competition to reach the short list was very strong.

I hope your attempt to enter the field of journalism is successful. It may be we communicate again during the next cadet selection process.

Yours sincerely

State Editor News (WA)

i was really hoping i would be successful with this application. i've got a lot of applications in, but this one was for the ABC, a company i have wanted to work with for some time...and i've already worked there a few years back (promo production, which is what i'd ideally like to do, although journalism would be fantastic too). oh well, here's hoping some of the other applications are more successful.

all suited up

2005-10-21T11:19:00.000+08:00

i'm off today to meet up with barney, a good friend of mine who is getting married in 2 weeks saturday. we're off to organise the tuxes that we'll all be wearing, so we need to get fitted and all that jazz.

about 2 weeks ago, we had barney's bucks night. it was pretty good fun too, i'd never been on a bucks before, but i think we did pretty well...dinner, pubs, drinking, drinking, drinking, then 5 hours at the strip club. i had barney wearing some fake tits for the duration of the evening, and i think we had all the ingredients there for the perfect night (although, we didn't tar & feather him and chain him to a city stop light...)

i haven't worn a tuxe in almost 4 years, so it should be interesting. i'm really looking forward to this wedding...it's been talked about for something like 5 or 6 years, so it's about bloody time!

i saw this ad on tv last nite for optus pre-paid, something about pay $30 get $120 worth of free calls or somethign? going to find out about that today aswell...i'm sick of not having a mobile.

hoody

2005-10-21T01:37:00.000+08:00

i bought a grey AA hoody in vancouver back in january this year. i LOVED this thing, wore it everywhere, it was one of my favourite pieces of clothing. at some point, when i had my private room in london (so it was my last week there, back in july) i lent this hoody to someone. for reasons of absolute drunkeness, i could not and still cannot remember who i lent it to, but needless to say, i never saw it again.

to the person (who is undoubtedly a friend, and has probably forgotten they have it) who has my hoody, please drop me an email so we can arrange for its safe return to me.

...i miss my hoody. maybe i should just buy another one online...

fear & loathing v.5.0

2005-10-20T14:40:00.000+08:00

welcome to the new look traveldeskguy! this is version 5 of this site, which is pretty amazing. it started off as something for me to do when i was working at the traveldesk in the generator hostel, london (fear & loathing from the traveldesk, the original site). i then travelled around the USA and Canada for 3 months, so it became fear & loathing from north america.

when i got back to london, another site was born, fear & loathing from the generator, which last about 5 months. next was my final european trip, fear & loathing from the road.

currently you're viewing fear & loathing from a remote city, as i am currently back in my home city of perth, western australia, the most remote city in the world. i will hopefully be able to add some new pics and random crap every few days, so check back, and let me know what you think in the comments.

things they are a-changing

2005-10-20T13:35:00.000+08:00

well i've finally got a computer set up here at home, and since most of my days are spent in front of it looking for work, i thought it was probably about time i got around to changing the layout of traveldeskguy.

nothing's changed yet, as you may notice, but i'll hopefully be getting around to doing some new graphics and what not in the next week, so keep an eye out soon.

- mike

wow an update

2005-09-27T16:55:00.000+08:00

hey all

ok, i sort of let this site slide for the last part of my travels. i'll probably update it more often now that the whole 'returning home' this has happened. yes, i've arrived back in perth.

everything is pretty much the same here, though i haven't yet been out in the city. i went down to mandurah, about an hour south of perth, for the long weekend just gone, and now, about 5 days after returning home, i'm looking for work. and while it's not going quite as well as i'd hoped, i'm sure something will come along some time soon. if you happen to know anyone in radio that needs to hire a travelled sound guy, let me know!

haven't been doing much since arriving back apart for the job hunt. i'm also considering going back to uni to complete a masters degree...not sure that it's really necessary to have two bachelor degrees AND a masters, but it would be an interesting degree to complete.

tonight is drinks at the queens in mt lawley, no idea what i'm doing for the rest of the week apart from looking for work...without a car it's going to be interesting living here again - i've had a car since i was 17, so being without one now is very very strange indeed. in london, we had excellent public transport. in perth, we have none. so...should be interesting.

anyways, enough from me. i'll try to update more and i guess i have to change the whole layout of the site now that i'm no longer at the gen or on the road. we'll see what happens.

mike

bring on switzerland

2005-08-15T01:39:00.000+08:00

hi all,

im writing this from room a room at the marriot hotel in vienna. i justchecked the comments from my previous post and replied, but what's with that spam post?! i couldn't find somewhere to delete the post yet, but as i said, i'm at the marriot in our new friends suite, and we're enjoying the wonderful (and free) drinks! so...maybe later heheh

we're off to underworld in a few hours, last gig of the summer (we think). should be great fun, hopefully we'll actually make it there...hehe...i'll let u know.

more later..........

mike

maybe a few?

2005-08-10T00:41:00.000+08:00

well i guess there's at least 3 people still checking up on me :P we're in vienna at the moment, and are heading over to hungary tomorrow. underworld are playing at this festival on thursday, the festival is a week long event, that will attract something like 100,000 people! should be a lot of fun if we can get tickets!

i've got 4 minutes left so have to run. but thanks for the messages, and keep them rollin' in!

i'll update more often, it's just a little difficult most of the time, adn damn expensive to keep jumping online all the time. bring on the free wireless i say...doesn't seem to be as many open networks as i thought there would be, but we'll find them!!

till later...

m

last time i'm asking people

2005-08-08T04:27:00.000+08:00

i have 6 minutes left. but, is anyone still reading? i won't bother updating if it's to the point where no one loves the traveldeskguy.

let me know

mike

power buttons on keyboards

2005-08-06T20:44:00.000+08:00

ok, so i was halfway thru a post, and i went to hit delete, but hit this button saying 'power' and the computer shut down, everything lost. stupid power button..oh well. i'm in cesky krumlov, and i won't post much cause i cant be bothered writing it all again, but the town is really beautiful. we're off to vienna in the next few days, then budapest for underworld, then vienna again for underworld, interlaken, italy, greece, italy, london, oz. should be a nice little trip back home.

anwyays, i'll post more when i have some time. :)

mike

generator v2.0

2005-07-25T20:41:00.000+08:00

well, i'm still in the netherlands. moved on from amsterdam last thursday and headed out to stay with kings' gf lara for a few days. we're leaving here this afternoon to visit our friend anke in germany, and then head off to the generator berlin (hopefully, if lou gets back to me).

in generator news (i'm piecing this together with the few strands of news i hear from russ) there's now only 2 welcome hosts and russ is still their supervisor. justin (former welcome host) is now working ont he good old traveldesk and jon is no longer working at the gen. apart from that, as far as i know, nothing has been happening since i left. but if anyone wants to fill me in some more, post a comment :)

not a lot more from me. check out mikeandkings for more updates. i'm pretty lazy these days...

mike

back on the road

2005-07-17T16:37:00.000+08:00

i've just written about leaving the gen and everything lkeading up to getting back on the road on mikeandkings.com so i won't go repeating myself too much. and i dont have a lot of time to update just yet. so..in brief,

in amsterdam (again), seeing underworld play live in a few hours, be here for another few days before heading out to hamburg (i think). there's a bit of gen news that i can probably think of, but i'll post more on that later. for now, i'm gone, but i'll be back soon.

post more in the coming days.

mike

bye bye work

2005-07-09T23:33:00.000+08:00

everyone i know is ok after the attacks on london, thank god. it was an awful day, but this is a resilliant city, and everyone pulled together to help. hopefully they will find those responsible very very soon.

i've finished up work at hostelbookers.com. we had a generator vs. hostelbookers pool comp last nite, and of course, HB.com won!! hehe was good fun thou, and we had dinner after at the indian place behind the gen. but no more work for me, just finished up a few things today, maybe a few more things tomrorow, and that'll be it -- in 7 days time i'm leaving london for amsterdam. still dont know that i'm ready, but i guess i dont have much choice anymore.

i'm also changing rooms either today or tomorrow -- louise has been so great and has given me my OWN ROOM for my last week!! it's really really kind of her, and i REALLY appreciate it. a little privacy will be great - i've been sharing a room now on and off for the best part of 19 months.

that's about it from me for the time being. i'll be sure to post more next week before i go, but in the mean time, if anyone has any thing to say, comment dammit! hhe

london explosions

2005-07-07T23:30:00.000+08:00

this will be very qucik - everyone that i know of at the generator is ok. the bus exploded about 200 metres from here, only a few blocks down the road. it is very surreal, and honestly i can't really find the words at the moment, except to say that i think everyone is ok and safe. if you want me to pass any messages on, please post comments below.

mike

concerts, DJing, etc

2005-07-06T02:42:00.000+08:00

did you catch the live 8 concert(s) on saturday? unfortunately i couldn't go - for lack of a ticket - but i did manage to watch most of the concert in the gen bar. we had the big creen on, the speakers were the loudest i've ever heard them, and the concert was AMAZING! it's going to be one of those things i'll think about forever and wish i could've been there...kind of like missing woodstock or something...

personally, it was floyd that made the concert so great for me. they sounded as good as ever! can't wait for the dvd to come out. but i'm wondering how they'll release it - highlights from all the shows? a 10 disc box set of each and every minute for all the gigs? i think the second option would be my choice, but i really dont think they'll do it.

being a saturday we had our resident DJ john come in and make some noise. he was kind enough to let me mix for the majority of the night - i've been DJing a lot in the last few months in the bar, either with john's system (cds), dales (cds also) or russ' machine (traktor dj - mp3 mixing). slowly but surely it's getting back up to scratch. plus now on my DJ resume i can put down experience mixing in london hehe

there's not many days left before we're set to head off to amsterdam and see underworld play. i'm still unsure exactly what i'm doing re:getting home. the money situation is a little worse than i'd hoped, so i have a few options:

a) my tax return comes through in time for my leaving, whic h will give me enough cash to travel and get home
b) go to amsterdam, see underworld, spend a week there, travel VERY VERY VERY cheaply for 2 months (somehow) and then get back to australia
c) do the amsterdam thing, see underworld, get a flight london - perth a month or two before i hand planned
d) i suddenly realise that i am, in fact, filthy rich, and can afford the trip easily
e) ...go crazy trying to figure it out...

ok well option e) has pretty much already happened, so it'll be a, b, or c (although, option d would be nice wouldn't it?!) a flight home late july is about £500-600 still (yes, one way - HIDEOUS!!) but maybe i can find a cheaper one. flights in september (ex-london, meaning we'd have to get back to london from wherever we are, in the middle of summer...) are around £450.

worst case, i'll send myself home in a box (sea freight, it's cheaper) - i'll get a nice little crusie for a few weeks too!

any suggestions on what i should do are welcome. if only i had another 3 months on my visa (you know, the amount of time that was used on my visa BEFORE i even stepped foot in the country...) i could maybe afford it a little easier. such is life i guess.

oh, some gen news...right...

last nite was the independance day party -- the bar was decked out in black bin bads, green lights and glow sticks - it actually looked pretty decent! having to work most of the night i didn't get in till midnight, but it was a lot of fun anyways. plus, mr faulkner is back in the country, so he was down here for a few bevies.

next party will be probably the leaving party, thursday july 14 in the gen bar. all are welcome so long as you get up and sing (and buy me a white russian) :P i'll be sure to get a thousand photos before then, but if not, well, you can imagine what the place is looking like.

ciao

mike

16 days

2005-06-30T06:53:00.000+08:00

it's getting closer, i'm starting to freak out a little. the whole paying off debts from the USA hasn't quite worked out as well as i'd hoped, and as a result i'm still not quite sure how i'm going to afford to pay to get home. but, as things do, i'm sure it'll all work out. there's two tax returns to get in (last years will go out tomorrow and this years will be done around july 11th) so that should cash me up at least a little to buy a few things like plane tickets, insurance, accommodation, food, and all that stuff.

in other news, arno is back in the building for a few days. he's back down from aberdeen till the weekend for a bit of a visit, and is hopefully coming back for the leaving do in 2 and a half weeks. poker at louise's place this friday nite, will be great to play again as it's been a while. did i mention that we MIGHT be getting a limo to drive us around for our last nite in london? i can't remember.

comments

2005-06-25T01:50:00.000+08:00

is anyone still reading this thing? cause, no one's left a comment in ages. maybe i'm just not writing controversial enough stuff. but i'll try soon - tonite is friday which means hardman in the bar, and since i've taken a half day holiday i finished at 7.30 rather than midnight, so i can watch hardman for the first time in months! with any luck we'll have some grear pics of half naked people posted in the next few days...

it's been bloody hot here in london the past few days. there's a temperature thing on my alarm clock, it was reading 32 degrees - and that's INSIDE the room. not the most comfortable temperature to be sleeping in, thankfully i have my wonderful argos fan to keep me from going completely insane.

just on three weeks till i'm out of london, 2 weeks till i finish work, and 22 days till i see underworld LIVE!!! generally on friday afternoons i listen to radio 1 for the essential selection with pete tong at 6pm...and today was no different. i tuned in to find out that glastonbury, one of the longest running annual music festivals worldwide, is pretty much drowning in water. these big storms are hitting all over the country (london's no exception) - there's some great pics here of tents and toilets falling down from the rush of water (not sure how long the link will last thou). i REALLY wish i could have gone - we were going to start this journey of ours at glastonbury back in 2003, but tickets were impossible to get and hideously expensive (as they still are). anyways...i hope the festival goes on as planned - would be a shame for all those people who payed upwards of £125 for tickets to miss out cause of the weather. welcome to england.

tomorrow sees the Live 8 concert in hyde park. i was trying to get tickets to this (they were free, but you had to enter the draw cause so many people wanted to go). i, of course, didn't get one. and milton (aka jim, a friend here from way back) told me he GAVE AWAY his ticket the day before he came to visit. so...i couldn've gone had he not given it away. very annoying...i might head down there tomoorw afternoon anyways and check out if i can get in somehow. i really doubt i'll be able to, but could be some good pics down there anyways.

everyone have a fantastic weekend, whatever it is you're getting up to. oooh, and if anyone wants to buy me a present, going away present, welcome back present, a 'hey your rock, have this' present...i really, REALLY want the technics SL-DZ1200 cd turntables...oooh baby...mommy i want it!!

ciao

ok, so maybe not daily

2005-06-22T04:01:00.000+08:00

but i'll try to update a little more. i've been listening to triple j a lot at work recently...god i missed my triple j! driving down the freeway, 9.30pm, hot air blowing in through the open window, river flying by on your left, triple j pupping out on the stereo...good times.

tomorrow sees yet ANOTHER party. as i said prevviously, the monthly gen parties are now fortnightly, so we can get more and more trashed than usual (more? maybe not more...we just have an excuse now). it'll be a 70's prom party, with a hint of 50's grease themes, a king and queen of the prom (of course), drink specials, etc etc etc should be a lot of fun!

i'll be sure to get some pics up a little quicker than i have for the summer party. yes i know, i'm slack - deal with it! i don't have a lot of time to do these things anymore, but i am trying. how? well, feast your eyes below...

so that was the summer party - i'll try to get the rest of the pics online at some point in the next week or so (maybe the weekend). and of course, i'll be taking a few hundred photos tomorrow nite. at last count (about 2 months ago) i had something like 13,000 photos on my laptop - 13,000 photos taken since leaving perth. that's a crap load of photos - i'm so glad i bought my digital camera, imagine the cost of developing 13,000 photos...hmm best not to think about that.

ok, a quick update - um...nothing's really changed. oh, we kept the yellow lights in the bar from the summer party. so, above the bar where the blue fluros used to be, there's now blue AND yellow fluros up there, and above the door to the bathroom, there's green AND yellow lights...makes the bar a lot less cold, more summery. you can't really see them in the above pics, so i'll try to get more up later.

there might be a new menu soon - more on that if it happens. um....my room is so hot i only had about 6 hours sleep in two nights before i went to argos and bought a fan for £8.99, tied it to the top bunk, and now i can sleep in (relative) peace.

can't really think of much more -- oh, there's a countdown timer for the number of days i have left in london on the right here...add one day for the number of days till i see underworld LIVE IN AMSTERDAM!!

enough from me

mike

bring on summer!

2005-06-04T22:06:00.000+08:00

so it's been pretty damn busy here the past few weeks. weekends are pretty much completely packed, the bar is jumping most nights of the week, and there's people all about. which pretty much means one thing...it's time for the start of summer party.

the party is set to be a crap load of fun, if last years event is anything to go by. russ and i will be dj-ing from 1am till 3am, so if you're in the area (or even if you're not, you can pretend) slap on your sunscreen, grab your beach towel and get ready to dance till the small hours of the night. i'll be sure to post a heap of pics later in the week.

as my time in london is almost over, i'm going to try to make a conscious effort to make daily (or at least every second day) updates to the site. bare with me, as there may be very little to write about from day to day - maybe i can reveal a different company secret each day for the next 42 days till i leave? could be interesting (thou i think louise may lynch me :P)

and bryan, i promise, more pics and updates to come - i'll be sure you get your gen fix more often :)

till i get bored later...

mike

years and years and years

2005-05-24T06:44:00.000+08:00

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

i am a doughnut

2005-05-17T06:35:00.000+08:00

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

2005-05-07T00:31:00.000+08:00

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...

waxing a-go-go; let's raise some cash!

2005-04-29T05:35:00.000+08:00

last nite was the monthly generator party - and this month was a little special; we had a charity party! all the money taken over the bar for the night, plus all the money raised from the activies taking place in the bar, went to the red cross. i'm not sure what the exact figure was, but i think we raised a little over £2,200!! it will surely go a long way to help.

the activies that took place were both hillarious and painful (both for us watching, and the 10 guys involved). basically, 10 male staff members dressed up as women, lay down on the table, and people paid for waxing strips. different parts of the body cost different amounts, with the ultimate - back, crack and sack - costing a grand total of £200!

(un?)fortunately, we didn't have to witness the full deal - but it got pretty close. russ and arno (the current and former events supervisors here at the gen) managed to get £150 for an ass wax...yes, it the bar, pants down, waxing strip on the crack. lovely stuff...(remember, the money went to a really good cause). between the two of them, i think about £270 was raised, which is really great (not so great for the poor bodies today!)

you can find a few pictures from last nite here. enjoy
mike

random link of the day

2005-04-27T04:23:00.000+08:00

dance baby, DANCE!

in other news, i've been having fun reading about vin diesel. things like "Vin Diesel was present at the fall of the Berlin wall as a roadie for David Hasslehoff"

you can check out some more random thoughts here

ciao

the point of travelling

2005-04-26T06:07:00.000+08:00

there's a lot of reasons people travel - to see the world, experience other cultures, the freedom, the fun, the amasing people you meet...this site sums a lot of these reasons up.

it's a photography site that i've seen before, but stumbled upon it again tonite. check it out if you're still not quite sure if you should travel. and if you've already been, you might relive some of your old adventures...

random messageboard

2005-04-23T20:32:00.000+08:00

i found this rather amusing...

m

karyoke

2005-04-23T06:46:00.000+08:00

thursday night is karyoke with garyoke nite here at the gen. anyone who's been here before will know that it's normally one of the busiest nites in the bar, and a fair few people get up to sing.

finishing work at midnight has stopped me either. ever since i've been back and working, i've made my way into the bar on a thursday for a bit of a sing. last nite was no exception.

russ and i did our usual rendition of tenacious d's "tribute", which of course rocked! russ does the shiny demon, i sing jack's part. for the second last song of the nite, we decided it was about time 4 of us got onstage for a bit of village people action.

russ, gary(oke), arno and myself got onstage and sang (and danced to!) YMCA. judging by the crowds reaction, it was as funny to watch as it was to be part of! hopefully someone got some pics so i can put them up.

this month's event in the bar is a charity fundraiser for the red cross tsunami fund. 10 brave generator boys will be dressing up as women to have their bits waxed - people will buy waxing strips and wax different parts of the body. i'm the officla photographer for the night, so there will be plenty of pics, but for now, check out the flyer below.

i'll try to post more happenings over the weekend.

mike

does anyone still love...

2005-04-22T04:01:00.000+08:00

the traveldeskguy? even thou, i'm no longer the traveldeskguy?

no one seems to care about my wonderful new design, photos, links... *sniff*

in other news, check out this site. hillarious comics that are unintentionally sexual. here's a few samples...

pics

2005-04-12T10:21:00.000+08:00

here a pic for russ, who is sitting rite next to me...

picture of the week

2005-04-12T03:44:00.000+08:00

i've been saying for the past few weeks that updates would be coming strong and fast here on fear & loathing....and well, it's beginning, it'll just take some time.

but, first of the new features to be introduced is the generator picture of the week. as there hasn't been one of these before, i think i'll put up a couple of pics today. these are from a week or so ago, just before ambah-girl left us for the sunny shores of greece.

enjoy!
mike

new things to come

2005-04-05T03:24:00.000+08:00

as i said it's about time i got off my ass and started updating this. so please check this out over the next week or two - hopefully there'll be plenty of new photos, possibly a bit of a new layout and a load of stories.

it may take a little while to get it back up to scratch, but i'll be working on it when i'm not at work (those other 3 hours of the day). if there's anything you'd like to see featured here, leave me a comment or drop me an email and i'll see what i can do.

until then..............................

mike

...:::update:::...

2005-04-03T23:53:00.000+08:00

well since my life is currently pretty boring (work, drink, sleep, work, drink, sleep) i thought i'd write a quick generator update, in case there's anyone still reading this blog.

ambah girl, everyone's favourite bar girl, is leaving on tuesday for good. there's a whole story with her having to leave, but she's off to sunnier days down in corfu to hopefully take up employment at the pink palace. ambah's been a great friend to me for the past year, and it's really sad to see her leave us!

nicole and cam were meant to be heading off to mexico, then flying back to australia. as luck would have it, they saw the light and decided it was pointless wasting the last 12 months of their uk work visas, so they've gone to california for two weeks and will be back here before the end of the month.

alvaro, our bar supervisor, is also leaving us. he's been here longer than i have - it's going to be strange walking into the bar now without alvi there. but hopefully he'll still be around from time to time.

welcome host jess is off in a months time to catch up with ambah down in greece. she's hoping to work down there too, and hopefully i'll get to catch up with them month in about 3 months...

which brings us to what i'm doing - i'll be heading off home (sadly!) in about 3 months time. kings and i are planning on heading to berlin first (if the love parade is on) or amsterdam (if it's not) - underworld are playing in amsterdam july 17th (or there abouts) so we're finally going to catch one of their shows. if the parade is on, we'll go to berlin around july 7th, stay there for 5 or 6 days, then head to prague for the underworld show there on july 13th. from there, we'll travel our way through poland, hungary and a few other countries in eastern europe, before heading down the coast of croatia (or perhaps italy), then to greece for a few weeks.

hopefully after that we'll get to turkey and egypt, then fly to bangkok, travel through thailand, cambodia, vietnam and up to hong kong. and then, i want to get to manilla to see my sister em who's moving there very shortly. then we'll fly from manilla to sydney, and paulie, andy and al will meet us up - where upon we'll start the road trip back across the great land of australia all the way to perth!

the trip shold be a hell of a lot of fun, but i can't say i'm looking forward to the end of living in london. it'll be very hard to leave!

anyway - that's a quick update. i'm going to try to make some more regular updates, fix up the page a bit. if anyone has any ideas, leave me some comments.

new-ness

2005-03-12T20:18:00.000+08:00

i'm not sure if this blog is going to die soon or not - i haven't exactly been updating it as much as i used to, and no one seems to care!

but we'll see how i go...

so i'm back in london - and i even worked the old traveldesk for a week when i came back. but i (somewhat sadly i guess) have now left the desk behind, instead opting for the world of hostelbookers.com -- come and book a hostel with us. i'm heading up the USA and Canada, signing hostels up to the site. it's a great little operation, and i'm having a bit of fun.

anyways - that's about it for now. about 5 months left in london before the trip home...but more news on that maybe tomorrow. i'll try for the daily updates for a bit, see if you guys come back :)

oh, and i'll be sure to get a new header up asap!

ciao

tdg

what the hell am i doing drinking in LA?

2005-02-04T09:01:00.000+08:00

la la land...hollywood, land of the stars, film, television, the walk of fame, venice beach and all that. i'm in LA for the first time, and after being here for only one day, i don't haven't yet figured out why so many people hate LA. ok, so i haven't been here that long or seen that much of it, but, from what i have seen (admittedly touristy for the most) it's not as shabby as most say.

i took a train and two buses to get here from san francisco. i know i haven't updated here since jan 26th so here's a quick update on what i've been doing - was in seattle till the 27th, took a 24 hour train to san francisco. was meant to stay for 3 nights - stayed 5 instead - got merrily drunk on many an occasion, got a new piercing (hottest industrial EVER), went out to alcatraz, the SFMoMA, a pub crawl...and lots of walking. san francisco is an amasing city that i wouldn't mind living in one day - i had an absolute ball there from the time i arrived!

so i stayed an extra couple of nites and then came down here to LA yesterday. the lounge here has comedy on wednesday nites, and the comics were actually pretty decent! one of them was on a few eps of malcolm in the middle, thou his comedy was SO not suited to that show - i don't think the familes would like to hear him talking about his mates activites with strippers, smoking weed and doing lines off peoples asses...

i walked around today for a bit (in the 20 degree c heat! ah sunshine, how i missed thee) - along hollywood and sunset, the walk of fame and all that. i'm hoping to head out to venice beach tomorrow before wandering around beverly hills to mingle with the wealthy.

in other news i did a virus scan today and found a trojan - thou it was in my IE temp files, so probably hasn't done too much i hope. it's gone now, and prob got on my machine when my virus scanner was being an ass and not updating properly. anyways...

so i'll be off to vegas soon - or maybe san diego. i'm not sure. either way, i'll be leaving LA in 2 days or so.

not really a lot more to post at the moment - at least not things that can make it to a public forum. so...

mike

back to the USA

2005-01-27T04:28:00.000+08:00

hi all

i know i'm getting more and more slack with the updates here, but there are reasons. i mean, i am on holiuday so don't spend every waking hour online anymore. it's been a pretty busy week or so (well, two weeks from when i updated) so i'll try to give a quick update as to what i've been doing.

i guess last update i was still in toronto. i am still getting over the flu that i had there, thou thankfully it's almost gone now. it got worse when i left toronto for vancouver - when the plane took off, the pressure in the cabin made something weird go in my head, and i had this awful sinus headache for about 2 days. it came and went over the next week but i think it's now (finally) subsided.

so i got to vancouver, and my friend brenna and her bf mike picked me up from the airport. we hung out for the next few days, drinking a fair bit, driving around during the day, watching some tttvvv -- relaxing basically. i was in surrey which is about 35 minutes outside of vancouver so we weren't in the heart of the city.

anyone who's been travelling has heard that BC is well known for one thing. having been in BC for over a week i can say that the rumours are true and we sampled some of the locally grown produce.

i spent about 4 days with brenna and her family, before heading into the city to stay a few days with another friend of mine - sheila. she and i met way back at the start of my trip in july 2003 in berlin. we some how kept in touch, and she offered her couch to me for a few nights to crash.

i had my birthday on jan 21st - my 24th. the night before my bday there was the opening of a play called the village of idiots - it's a hillarious show. being the opening night, there was, of course, a party or two afterwards - and we went along, had far too many drinks and ended up crashing back home at around 6.30am.

on my bday itself, she and i went to see 'sideways' at the cinema, then headed to DV8 for some wine and food. i think it's true to say that i don't want any FUCKING merlot...go see the film, it's hillarious.

we walked from town over the bridge to another bar where she's friend asia works. another bottle of red, a few cocktails, beers and shots later, i think we ended up drunk and sleepy by around 2am.

the rest of my time in vancouver was spent watching some movies, wandering around town and pretty much just relaxing. monday saw me crossing the border back to the US and into seattle where i'm writing this. tomorrow morning i have to head to the train station to take a 24 train ride down into california to san francisco. i'll probably stay there for 3 days, then hopefully i'll head to vegas, LA, and then maybe houston (LA to houston is 34 hours! eek).

i have about a month left of this trip before i'm back in the UK so i have to make the most of it. i'll try to update from san fran if i can. hopefully there's not too many spelling mistakes in this post - i am trying to check... :P

until next time...

mike

one last thing...HAPPY AUSTRALIA DAY! january 26th marks the australian national day so be sure to have a VB and smile into the sun!

is there anybody out there?

2005-01-11T16:31:00.000+08:00

...to quote pink floyd...

but seriously, is there? i mean, now that i'm on the road, has the traveldeskguy lost something? is it that there is now more desk, it's just travelguy? should i change the website?!

i'm only asking, cause no one seems to post anything here anymore. especially you generator people who promised me some messages...so get writing! i like to read what people have been up to, but that's pretty hard to do unless you write it for me!

i'm in toronto. after 16 hours of buses i made it here. it's been a pretty cool city so far. i'm staying with my friend olga while i'm here which is great! i'm so forunate to have friends that are willing to put me up for a few days or a week...it really does make the whole backpacking thing a lot easier. the comforts of a home sure do beat hostels hands down...and i work for one!

i'm thinking of maybe heading to niagara falls tomorrow, but it's only a maybe. it's about $50 round trip (and another 4 hours on a bus) - i spent waaaaaaaaay too much in new york. this has put a serious dent in my spending budget, and if i want to make it to new york for the end of feb, i'll need to stop spending so much or put that call in to home -- or start working the corner (thou i dont think that'd help!)

anyways -- next stop in vancouver...that'll be saturday. oh, in case anyone trys to call -- my US and UK numbers are now both inactive since neither work in canada (figures). i'll either be getting a new sim soon, or you can start to call me from the end of this month on my US number. it's a little pricey buying yet another sim, esp considering the money situation at the moment...

oh, and breena, if you read this -- i'll call in the next day or so...need to work out the whole vancouver dealie

its almost 4am and i need to sleep. i hope you're all well --- leave me a messasge once and a while, and i'llk try to post more often. if you feel like depositing money into my account, feel free!

until next time...keep in real, yo!

mike

happy new year and all that

2005-01-09T04:32:00.000+08:00

yeah i'm slack. i havent posted here cause i dont really have that much time at the moment to update this site and mikeandkings.com, but hey, i'm trying...it's difficult without having a net connection (there were no open networks in boston at the hostel i was at).

anyway - i'm in new hampshire at the mo, heading back to boston tomorrow arvo for an hour or two before jumping onto a 12 or 13 hour bus to toronto - so another state down, enter a new country.

i havent posted this year yet, so happy new years all - i was in times square for the 100th anniversary of NYE in times square, so it was pretty cool. there were thousands of people, about 50 tonnes of confetti was dumped onto the square at midnight, and everyone was in good spirits. and the weaher held off for a while, which made standing in the street (with NO alcohol) for 8 hours a little more bearable...

anyways - more updates to come from canada. i'll try to get some pictures up here, but for now, check mikeandkings.com

bye for now...

mike

things are happening...

2004-12-31T05:30:00.000+08:00

i know i've been a bit slack with the updates, but if you want to see what's been happening in my always eventful life, check out mikeandkings.com. there's a bunch of photos up there, as well as bits and pieces about what i've been up to.

but a quick update -- xmas has been and gone - i was spolit and was given an iPod from pingu, who also surprised me by arriving here in new york. xmas was an eventful day of drinking and what-not - everyone (that'd be cam, erin, julls & craig, plus kara, prue kings and myself) came here for lunch/drinking all day. after they left, my good friend katrina (who is a friend from london, thou she's actually from the gold coast..) popped in. and noelle and cori dropped by at about 12:30am for some more cocktails. all in all, it was a fun filled day, thou we didnt get any snow for xmas.

on boxing day i headed up to connecticut again, this time to cornwall bridge, somewhere i havent been in 14 years - i went skiing up there which was fantastic, even thou i crashed and burned, and my knee has been sore since (i can walk properly now though, so there's no permanent damage).

we've been having some great dinners here too - last nite we went to the coffee shop bar in union square for dinner and drinks - we'd had cocktails there before, so decided to try the food - and i'm really glad we did - it was great!

anyways - that's the news for the moment...i'll be heading up to boston on january 4th i think, then i'll probably be off to new hampshire, montreal, ottawa and arriving in toronto on january 10th.

leave me some comments so i have something to read :P

ciao
mike

start spreading the news...

2004-12-22T07:58:00.000+08:00

new york is a blast! it's been damn freezing these past few days - yesterday with the wind chill it was about -21 degrees c - walking around felt like my face was going to fall off! but, we managed through it all in the end.

yesterday we went on the nbc tour. unfortunately, we haven't managed to get tickets to conan, but you never know - we could still hunt him down some time soon.

noelle came over last nite for a few dinner and drinks. so...prue and noelle, two of my best friends from the opposite sides of the planet finally got to meet. we sat around the apartment for a few hours, chatting about old times, slowly getting drunk, and falling asleep...

today we woke late, wandered down to the bus and headed downtown to ground zero - it was a little surreal seeing the site where two of the worlds tallest buildings once stood...it was more strange that people were standing there having their pictures taken, smiling...the fact that it's now a tourist spot seems wrong.

but after that, we grabbed a pizza slice and walked down to battery park to see shazza, also known as the statue of liberty. hopefully we'll get around to catching the boat out to the island in the next few days.

so that's been my day. how are you? new york is pretty similar to london in many ways but there are a lot of differences. we're heading out for dinner soon so i'll say bye for now.

a quick note to paul - call our apt. number that prue just messaged you. sorry, i ran out of credit.

post some comments for me to read :)

ciao ----- mike

fear & loathing: crossing the atlantic

2004-12-19T00:17:00.000+08:00

well friends, it's official: traveldeskguy has crossed the divide - bridged the waters between the UK and US and set off on a whirl-wind tour of northern america. i'll be sure to update the header image in the next few days.

i flew out from heathrow monday afternoon, arriving slightly delayed but in full spirit monday night. former traveldesk worker noelle was there with cori (her best friend) to pick me up and drag me off around new york city, out to jersey for gas, wah-wah and taco bell, and then back to long island to rest up for the night.

we headed into the city wednesday night to see craig and julls (2 good friends from back home who were also in NY for xmas) only to be greeted at the door by none other than mr cameron edwards and his wife erin! now, this had been planned for some time, and everyone - EVERYONE - knew about it except for me. yet again, traveldeskguy had a great surprise.

with the screaming and laughter and hugs etc out of the way, we had a fab dinner at the olive garden in times square, julls needed to be carried home after a "it was the tim tams!" moment, and the rest of us drank a bit more before heading home.

noelle dropped me back in the city on thurs morning and i dumped my stuff in the guys' apt. and we headed out to central park. craig, julls and i decided a shopping expedition was in order, and promptly bought new jeans and some new games for the old SP.

i won't bore you too much longer, but yesteday craig and i went on yet another shopping trip, this time to barneys, and, prue, just for you, i had to buy a diesel jacket. craig almost fell over when he saw it (and was a little pissed he didn't find it first) but i figured it was MY turn for a cool jacket!

after this little bit of retail therapy i had to find grand central to get to milford (milf to the guys), connecticut for a wedding (which is taking place in about 3 and a half hours from now). the train trip took me through harlem and countless other places - an hour and a bit later, i jumped off the train to be greeted by my sister aimee, her husband michael and the bride-to-be missy.

i now find myself with instant family - last nite was the rehersal, with pizza and beer following at cindy and joe's place (missy's folks) - and it was like a family reunion. i was here about 14 years ago, and bits and pieces of that trip keep flowing back. would be nice to have my mum here to relive this, but unfortunately she couldn't make the trip. so i have to put up with my sister and bro-in-law all by myself.

anyways - that's where we're at for the moment. i'll be sure to keep posting when i get a chance. remember to check out mikeandkings.com for photos, more news, the guestbook etc.

oh, and i have a US cell now so...mail me if you want the number.

ciao for now...

mike

client party

2004-12-10T06:44:00.000+08:00

tonite is the generator client party. basically, all the booking agents, tour people etc that book through the gen come down, talk to staff, and everyone gets a little messy...except me, cause i'm sitting here, on my very last shift, at least for the next 3 months.

i worked the old day job till 8pm, run to the tube, got home about 8.40pm, ran upstairs, grabbed my shirt, and ran back downstairs with my laptop for the second shift of the day - 8.45 - midnight. man i can't wait for this holiday!

i keep thinking, in 4 days time i'll be on a plane, in 6 days time i'll be wandering around new york...next weeked i'll be at a wedding in connecticut...ahh it's going to be a lot of fun.

i have to say congratulations and good luck to my uncle and his soon to be wife. andrew and holly are getting hitched on saturday back home this weekend, and although i can't be there in person, i hope they know i'll be there in spirit.

with my leaving getting so close, and this being my last shift, it's time for a bit of a rant...i have 30 mintes left, so i'll be cutting it fine...

a) if you can't find something after 3 seconds of walking into a room, try opening your eyes and having a damn look! it's not that hard.

b) you buy dinner from the chef, who's in the kitchen (it's the place with the big ovens), not the traveldesk.

c) to find the bar, toilet, phone, tv, reception etc...see point a.

d) if you bought a phonecard, try reading the instructions before you start abusing me for selling you something that doesn't work. it does work - you're just an idiot!

ok, just one more...it just came to me cause it's happening -

e) if you want to get drunk and angry, don't pick a fight with staff...you'll always lose and end up sleeping on the street.

my last shift has gone to hell so i'm signing off...

ciao for now from the traveldesk -- fear & loathing for northern america will be online soon

traveldeskguy - mike

i can almost taste the plane food

2004-12-08T03:57:00.000+08:00

in just a few days, i'll be sitting on a plane heading to new york, new york - the place is so nice they named it twice! anyway...it will mark the end of my current stint in london, allbeit for only 3 months. but it will also mark the start of a whole new thing - my north american adventure.

with only a few days left, i have a crap load to organise - and that's tomorrow, my one 'day' off (though i start work at 7pm). so tomorrow will be insurance organising, buying bits and pieces one needs when travelling (more socks and boxers etc) plus getting trained up for my travelling job.

it's been offered to me to sign hostels up to hostelbookers.com, which is owned by gernerator directors louise and kingsley (another one, not mr faulkner). for every hostel i sign up i get a commission so when i get back to london at the end of february, with any luck i'll have a nice little nest egg waiting for me - so that skiing trip to bulgaria may not be so far off after all...

i'm not going to be all reflective on the last 14 months living in london (i think i bored you with that last week didn't i?) but i will say this - if you've never come and lived here, or at least visited london for a fair amount of time, get your ass here today! london is one of the greatest cities in the world - she's a cruel mistress, and one that won't be tamed, but damn can she have some fun!

look how's doing some updating

2004-11-30T05:09:00.000+08:00

i know i promised pictures of the new-look desk ages ago, but i'm a slack bastard and have only just got around to doing it -- hell, half of the people in the 'know your generator staff' don't actually work or live here anymore...i'll update that this weekend hopefully!

so here, fo your viewing pleasure, are a few pics:

it's getting closer or; giving thanks...

2004-11-26T07:11:00.000+08:00

17 days...17 looong days and i'm on a plane. away from london, away from work...away from my second home! but i can't wait. i know i probably keep going on about this trip, but that's probably because i'm pretty damn excited! 2 and a half months travelling around the states and cananda. sure it'll be cold, but i know i'm going to have a blast.

PLUS, i get to see my sister aimee and her husband michael, and craig and julls - two of my good friends from back home. they'll all be in new york for xmas, and i haven't seen any of them since i left perth in july last year. it's only a pity the rest of my family and friends can't come over for a few weeks.

so in 17 days, i'll leave my second home, the placed i've lived for about 14 months. it kind of feels like i'm leaving all over again - like when i left perth. it's not a bad thing, it's just a little sad to leave all your friends and 'family' for extended periods. a lot happens in a year, and i've certainly had a fantastic time...i just can't wait to get the hell out of here and see what else there is!

happy thanksgiving to everyone out there. we always managed to celebrate thanksgiving back home, and this is my second one away. i remember last year, there was a big meal, the 'family' sitting around the turbine (that's our dining room here at the generator), and there was even a family fight, when noelle decided she'd wack me in the face and make me bleed...aaahhh it felt like a good ole thanksgiving.

this year, there's the thanksgiving superhero party. whilst i'm not quite sure of the connection, everyone seems to be having fun.

and that's what matters. that everyone is happy, healthy, and enjoying themselves. i've been down a bit these last few days with news from home, and it's encouraging to see everyone smiling - happiness is catching...

ok, i'm going off a little here. i guess what i'm saying is this: to everyone back home - i miss you guys! but i can't quite come home just yet. and you know that. i'll be home soon...and to everyone that i've met along my journey so far - remember that there's always a place for you in western australia (after i'm home of course) so feel free to drop in for a bit.

i think you can see where i'm going. i give thanks for my friends, my family, and the life i've lead so far. the ups and downs are fun, and it's the people there with you that make it all matter.

so happy thanksgiving!

new staff...

2004-11-19T04:08:00.000+08:00

firstly, results of the current poll (cause, it's been there for a while and all) --- at a massive 10 votes to 2, i DO love the traveldesk too much! but, i'm not really surprised by that. what i am surprised by is the 2 votes for no! :P

it's about time i put a new poll up, so i'll get that sorted tonight hopefully.

in other, perhaps slightly more important news, we have a new traveldesk type guy here now. russ, mr luton and traveldeskpimpman himself has taken the over where steve left off. russ is a good friend of mine here; we're quite often the entertainment in the turbine after the bar closes at 2am (and, no, not strip shows...more like acoustic guitar sessions, with more often than not loud drunken singing by everyone who's around).

i need to get some pics up of the new shop - i said i'd do this about 2 weeks ago, but haven't got around to it. as soon as russ gives my batteries back, i'll be able to do that!

monday marks 3 weeks till i jet off. it's a little daunting cause it's so close (and i'm oh so poor) but, i can't wait! it's almost like leaving home all over again. i've settled into london pretty well, and leaving my friends, family and home for 2 and a half months isn't going to be easy - BUT i really can't wait. it's been far too long between trips for me. i haven't been out of london for a few months (i think brighton was the last place i went, and that was a day trip of drinking!).

so canada and USA look out! i'm coming your way soon!

the church turned 25

2004-11-16T07:34:00.000+08:00

any antipodeans who've lived in london, even for a short period of time, over the past 25 years, have surely gone to (or at the very least heard of) the church. this is the sunday session institution that started its life in fulham broadway, moving a number of times over the years to its place in kentish town today.

from 12 till 4 every sunday afternoon, a few thousand people line up in their hung-over state, only to start all over again for one of london's biggest day-time drinking sessions.

and it's not just about the booze - there's a comedian, a stripper or two and good old music that reminds you of home.

yesterday was the church's 25th anniversary, and we decided it was time once again to head down. after a pretty full-on saturday night, it wasn't the most tempting thing to wake up early, catch the train to kentish town, and start all over, but...hell, they only turn 25 once!

so dion, garth, andy, phil, rick and myself pulled ourselves together, brushed off the previous nights sins and made the effort. sadly, kings slept through his alarm so couldn't make it down (piker!) but i think we more than made up for his lack of being there.

all in all, it was a great anniversary, even if the cloakroom line took a little over an hour to get through. the only annoying thing about drinking all day is staying awake at night, which i didn't quite make. i fell asleep watching tv on my laptop at about 7pm, but managed to crawl out of bed, do all my washing and have a quick beer before bed.

it's 4 weeks today that i'm outta here! canada and the US are calling, and for 2 and a half months i'll be enjoying the thrills of travelling once again. it's been almost 14 months since i got to london (and finished my 3 months of travelling around europe) so the trip is sorely needed.

to anyone over there - i hope you're ready! it's sure to be a blast!

do you want to work for the traveldesk?

2004-11-16T07:29:00.000+08:00

that's right kids, dust off those resumes, the traveldesk is hiring. steve has gone, left the desk and room 601 for other means of life. and that means we need someone to cover the desk during the week and every second weekend.

it's not all glamour here at the traveldesk - you'd have to count stock, clean up after shifts, and sell the wonders of our products. but in return, you'd get a place not only in generator history, but the life of an illustrious gen staff member.

don't delay, apply today. we need someone to start asap! as it is, i'm working double shifts this week, and really don't like the idea of working 40 hours of my day job, and 41 hours here at the desk! hopefully that won't be the case...

slack

2004-11-12T07:28:00.000+08:00

i know, i haven't been posting as much as i perhaps should be. but, there's reasons, and they probably relate to:

a) i'm a slack bastard
b) i'm tired as hell from working split shifts 4 days this week (that's 13 hours work, plus 2 hours travelling each day)
c) nothing really relevant to say, and
d) i never had a pony

i'm thinking of getting a pony, just for the hell of it. i think the gen is severly lacking in ponies - it could go on the new flyers; "the generator - the only hostel in central london with a real life pony!"

actually, one reason i haven't posted much is because i didn't want to rant on and on about a certain US 'president', counties where there were more votes than voters etc etc. and i won't - i'll just say that it was a sad, sad day and it's still not sitting well with me.

i was sent this link the other day. it's pretty amasing just how many pics are there...

ION - 31 days till NYC...ooh i can't wait, it's going to be fun.

i have to close up. someone leave me some things to do in new york, or any places i specifically have to go when i'm travelling around canada and the USA.

ciao
tdg

up...and at them...

2004-11-07T02:10:00.000+08:00

iiiiiiiiiiii'mmmmmmmmm baaaack! actually, i was back at work last nite, but was having a few problems with posting, and i sort of ran out of time.

a quick update on a few things. hardman last nite - arno, events supervisor here at the gen was running the show, and threw a girl off stage. so she proceeded to throw 2 pints of beer all over him. funny stuff!

dion and bobby (the man shunned), two good friends of mine, both arrived back in london yesterday. it's good to have a few friends come back.

the shop's undergone a bit of a complete overhaul - unfortunately, the decision was taken to ignore the poll results, however we now have two fridges, carlsberg, budweiser, smirnoff ice, k-ice, coke, diet coke, fanta, sprite, lift and water - and sandwiches will be coming in from monday!

we're also selling stamps, ear plugs, a-z london guides, alarm clocks, sewing kits, bum bags, eye masks, money belts, ponchos and we even got postcards. the fridges came in yesterday afternoon, and it seems to be pretty successful so far (which is good for the shop, but is more work for us).

i'll try to get around to taking some photos soon - maybe tonite if it's not busy.

oh, and the second poll results are looking pretty certain - i should change that tonite also ---- it seems that i do love the traveldesk too much. but i can't say i'm surprised by this... :P

anyways - drop me an email or some comments - it's just over 5 weeks till i fly out to the US --- and then it's 10 weeks of travelling (no work!!!! woooooooooooooooo).

until later...

family guy

2004-10-29T06:09:00.000+08:00

i'm going to watch an ep in a minute...but, before that. today is thursdau. tomorrow if friday, i work at 7pm, then saturday work 8-4 then i'm off till the following friday till 7pm...ooohhh yeah, time off is going to rock.

i dont have anything of any interest to say tonite, so i'll bore you for 5 more seconds beofre i go...tomorrow is camden town for halloween costume and piercing shopping. should be a bit of fun!

i'll be back tomorrow...someone leave me some comments about what i should do with my week off. i have nothing except for packing crap up for the trip in 45 days...so give me some ideas (in london, preferably...i dont have the cashola to be trekking around the globe atm).

until then.....
tdg

server probs

2004-10-27T05:51:00.000+08:00

sorry for the lack of pictures...the server with the pics is down at the moment, so everything there (mikeandkings.com) is not working. hopefully this will be re-booted in the next few hours.

took a nerdy look at codename longhorn tonite online (here). it looks pretty cool. hopefully one of my friends will install it and blow up their machine :P

pretty boring today. work, more work. henrik (our swedish chef) thought it would be fun to close my laptop lid with a pen and a highlighter sitting by the keyboard...hopefully the dead pixels won't stay.

next week will be good -- i've taken my final 5 days of holidays at the day job -- so i can either sleep in, get stuff organised to send home/store/take with me to the states, or i could go to ireland. i'm not sure which i will do. it's half term (school holidays) starting this weekend so flights aren't that cheap. not hideous, but not 59p + tax either.

so 5 days off both jobs...what is the traveldeskguy to do?

new things

2004-10-26T06:03:00.000+08:00

having a few probs uploading to the server atm, so the image below is broken...sorry. hopefully it'll be fixed tomorrow.

i had 4 days off the traveldesk, and so much happened, it's a little crazy. in desk news, we've got 2 new computers (thou i'm still on my trusty lappy), so now we've got a whole new system, new way of running the desk. everything is computerised which is pretty cool, but it also means figuring out what we're doing (but it's not too difficult). we've also got a heap of new products (and more to come) - these include stamps, thongs (sorry, flip-flops), we finally got alarm clocks back into stock, disposable razors, cold and flu stuff and t-shirts. soon, there'll be beer, food, coffee, ponchos, gloves, ear plugs...we're getting fully stocked up! no disposable enemias thou...

in non-desk stuff, a mate of mine from home came over to lunners last week. al's staying with my friend kings over in tower hill and got here on saturday afternoon. it was like old times pretty quickly, with kings, al and myself tucking into a 2pm beer as soon as i got over there. we headed out through the rain down to tower bridge for a few more and some lunch, then off to trev's house warming in kilburn.

this house party was pretty cool, if a little odd. it was almost like being back in high school. can't really place it, but i'll paint a quick picture: house party, drinking big cans of beer, sitting around chatting to perfect strangers whilst munching on chips and cheese...the cops rocked up at about 11pm which added that extra bit of high school flavour, thou fortunately it wasn't that roudy.

anyways, after the cool/strange party, kings and i headed home (we left al in kilburn - he was...busy - nothing like leaving your mate in a random house in a foreign city!) i got back to the gen, had a few more drinks, played guitar till 5am and crashed for a good while. sunday, as i've said before, is funday, and it was about time to introduce al to the boys.

we got there a little later than usual, but after a few beers and laughs the day was rolling along pretty well. we were sitting in belushi's drinking corona's watching the rain fall outside, when this little smart car parked rite out the front. smart cars are those tiny little half-electro cars that look like there'd blow away in a strong wind. the driver was having such a hard time parking this thing - the space was huge and the car tiny keep in mind - so phil came up with the great idea of picking the car up and moving it onto the side walk.

i wasn't sure whether this would work or not, but hey, what the hell right? so garth goes out to 'test' the cars weight - with a beer in one hand, he leans down and grabs the rim with his other...but alas, too heavy. so phil wanders out to help and both of them, one hand each, grab the rim a lift it a tiny bit...of course we got bored of the idea after they decided it was too much effort, but just seeing them grabing this car with one hand thinking it would lift...gold! al's got a pic, so i'll be sure to upload it.

b @ 1 followed for cocktails -- this week, we headed for the usual suspects in grasshoppers and rum runners, as well as a few squirrels, a bit of harvey, long islands, and something else that i just can't remember...i think phil ended up yacking at some point (he, garth and rick drank all saturday night at phil's place, and then started pretty early on sunday) so he left, and after this mass consumption of delicious beverages, the rest of us headed back to the gen for a final drink.

all in all a great 2 days off. it had been about 6 weeks since i'd had my last decent day off, so it was very much enjoyed. al's here till next tuesday, so this coming weekend (i'm off sunday again!!) should be a lot of fun too - with any luck there may even be a party at kings's place!

now playing: sasha - involver (i'm loving this album at the moment)

results are in...

2004-10-26T04:23:00.000+08:00

poll number 1 is done, and here's the results:

disposable enemias for all!!!

excitement +

2004-10-20T02:57:00.000+08:00

this is how exciting my life is at the moment: i cut out a new map of london, got it laminated, and now it's lying on the desk next to me...and i was excited about it.

day number 5 in a row in the desk. sleep is something that i've missed for a while, but i think it's slowly getting to that critical level where i'll be walking home from work and i'll just fall asleep on the road. that would actually make a pretty decent story...

so this weekend, i had a plan to sleep for 36 hours and catch up, but al (better known as jeebs), my good friend from back home, will be arriving in london on friday afternoon...so i'm sure that there'll be plenty of drinking, partying all nite, clubs, pubs, bars, box socials.....but i can't see me catching up on a lot of sleep.

i launched traveldeskguys bootleg videos at the weekend. basically, everyone was borrowing my movies to watch, and i was losing track of who had what. so...brian and i came up with the idea of memberships, cards...i even made applications. maybe i mentioned this before? oh well...you can read it again. i'm sort of losing track of a lot at the moment, so just bare with me...

traveldeskguy is suffering from temporary insanity -- we'll be back to normal by the weekend...

who's a lucky boy then?

2004-10-17T06:09:00.000+08:00

this pic is from the staff party on October 6th. there's a few more pics here

i'm very slowly going insane

2004-10-17T04:35:00.000+08:00

maybe it's all these hours i'm working, or other crap going on, but i think the above is true. i'm 6 and a half hours into my 9 hour shift, and already i'm going crazy.

but there's no one around, we've sold hardly anything all weekend. the bar is apparently dead (i can't really see it from here)...odd considering we're fully booked.

jan juts brought me a redbull - maybe this will perk me up. i got some mixing software today so that's been keeping me entertained for a bit. but i need more tracks. any thoughts?

oh, vote in my new weekly poll. this week: what one new product should we sell in the traveldesk?

news from the desk

2004-10-16T05:03:00.000+08:00

so a lot has happened this week. apart from my 16 hour shift on sunday -- no one ended up coming to cover, so i worked 8am till midnight -- there's been a few changes. the major one is that BTC, the backpackers travel centre, the company that did all the bookings through the desk, is no more. earlier this week news came through that btc had folded, so decisions had to be made as to what the desk would become.

these decisions came pretty fast - the traveldesk remains (yay!!) but instead of booking tours around europe and the world, the main functions of the desk are the shop (which is as it was before, but we'll be getting a lot of new products soon), and the hostelbookers booking desk. so if you're in london, and want to book a hostel somewhere, come see me, and i'll book it for you.

so the desk is looking slightly different, but we remain all the same.

but decisions have to be made as to what we should sell...i'm thinking beer. beer is everyones friend. and hopefully we'll be getting some fridges in here soon for this (does that mean i can drink on the job? :P) but we'll also be selling t-shirts and what i hope is a whole range of wonderful products that we've been thinking about selling for some time now.

we're full up here at the gen this weekend..i don't think there's a free bed in the place, which for a hostel with 7 floors and over 900 beds is no small thing. and it's not that strange that we're full. it's hard to remember a weekend where we weren't now. i just keep wondering who keeps inviting all these people to come and stay in my house. they make a huge mess, never clean up after themselves, but i guess i can't complain too much. they do keep me employed here right?

but even with all these people staying here, it doesn't seem to be that busy. that said, the discoparty planned for tonite has hit the back burner for the time being.

other news from the gen of late: russ (he's a friend of mine who stays here) was trying to force dave (another friend) to eat a gigantic spoon-full of spagetti last nite, to the point where dave refused, and russ tipped it all over him. but being the gentleman russ is, he threw a glass of water in dave's face to help him clean up!

not to be out down, dave snuck into russ's room, looking to steal some things (on a very temporary basis, just really to piss him off a little really). when he couldn't find his laptop, he looked around a little more, found the only clothes he had out, alond with his locker keys, phone etc and took these. that being said, russ had a pair of boxers and that's about it to run around trying to find dave for this stuff.

so russ borrowed some clothes, and ran around the hostel for an hour or so looking to kill dave...i'm still not sure if he found him, but i think he got all his stuff back. i'm kinda looking forward to russ's comeback, cause you just know he'll be planning something pretty big!

also in the last few days, nick, a NZ guy who's been here as long as i have (over 12 months) was happily sleeping, when one of his roommates mistook nick and his bed for the bathroom. this guy apparently rolled out of bed, whipped it out, and proceeded to piss all over nick while he was sleeping.

nick woke up, realised what was going on, went completely mental and dragged the guy upstairs to get hime thrown out (and i think/hope he had a shower straight after...and change his bed). os the guy gets thrown out, and all is good. but he came back! i'm not sure exactly, but i think he's here right now, and if nick finds him, it'll be amusing for all to watch.

funnie thing about this is that it's not the first time it's happened. well, first time to nick i'm sure, but - if you dig around the net i'm sure you'll find a story about a former guest who was pissed on and vowed never to come back!

but that's half the fun of the gen. you never know what's going to happen. maybe i'm one of the lucky ones - never been pissed on while i'm sleeping...i think if i was you'd hear me yelling all the way back home in perth! haha

one final news thing - i've made traveldeskguys bootleg video cards for all my friends who keep borrowing my videos. i figure we'll make a card, then i can track where they're all going! the card is gold...i'll think about getting an image up soon...

still loathing, or; will this shift ever end, 10 hours and going strong?!

2004-10-11T00:51:00.000+08:00

one of the backpackers is generally rostered on to work the traveldesk on sunday from 4pm till midnight. this is how it's been for about 2 months now. this week, dean was fired from his job as a backpacker, and it seems the little old travel desk was forgotten about, becuase i'm still sitting here at 8 minutes to 6! so much for covent garden (or lunch for that matter!)

because dean was fired, jan and brian are both rostered to work as backpackers, which leaves me, well, here.

fortunately, i actually get to leave in 6 minutes. that is, the bar should be reasonably quiet, so jan will cover here and brian will work the bar, while i go and eat and maybe trott down to covent for a few drinks...maybe i'll just sleep.

should i have stayed working, or should i have just closed the desk? did i stay just so i could bitch about it? probably...plus i've been waiting for my download to finish. i think i care about my traveldesk too much.

there's about 45 people in reception, all trying to check in. i think it's a german group.

did i write my rant about the australian election yet? i think i forgot to do that yesterday...and i'm too tired to do it now. needless to say, it wasn't a good result. i'll get some thoughts together and post about that on thursday.

i'll be online a fair bit this coming week/end. fellow traveldesker steve has his anniversary, so i rostered him off from thursday till the following tuesday so i'll be working 5 days straight. in return, i get his first born, and a virginal sacrifice - should be a lot of fun!

where's jan -- i want to eat......

the shunning

2004-10-10T22:24:00.000+08:00

i spoke to former traveldesk worker (and one of my best friends in the world) noelle last nite. the conversation went something like:

"so...have you heard from bobby?"
"well, yeah i got 2 personal emails and then those group ones"
"um, what? group emails? i'm not even getting group emails?!"
"oh, um...."
"ooh he's getting shunned!! that's it!!!!"

or something like that.

oh, and i got a call from richie last nite at 1am. richie, for anyone who doesn't know used to work here - for about a year! he was the events supervisor and went back home to newcastle (uk not aust.) a few months back. anyway, nothing like a chatting to an old mate at 1am when you can hardly understand what they're saying.

i finished work at midnight yesterday and decided it was time for a pint or three. then went to bed a little later than planned, and had to get up for my 8am shift today...it could've been worse - i could've got no sleep whasoever. at least i got a few hours.

once again it's funday...do i go out. i have 30 minutes left here, and could quicky chuck a shirt on and mosey down to covent garden to meet up with ppl. but do i have the energy today? do i want to spend all that money? well, of course i DO want to go, but should i? i haven't slept much in the past week cause of this and that, maybe i should rest up, watch shark hunt and fall asleep early?

then again, i could just go to covent garden...

traveldeskguy was on hiatus

2004-10-09T22:56:00.000+08:00

i'm baaaack. i only worked monday this week, so haven't posted since. but an hour ago i started my 17 hours in the desk this weekend, so i'm sure i'll get around to putting a few bits and pieces here!

wednesday was the gen staff party - a night of drunkeness unmatched by many! i think that giving backpackers, especially those that work for a hostel, free alcohol foran entire night is something that should happen every week! i don't quite remember everything, but i do remember drinking a crap load, playing pool for half the night, dancing for a bit...scene missing...playing guitar till 4am and passing out in the small hours of thursday morning. there's some photos i should put up today or tomorrow if i can be bothered - i'll post a link when i get around to that.

work the next day wasn't as bad as i'd thought - i started at 12 so it wasn't all bad. but by 8pm when i finished i was seeing through time. everything and nothing was happening, and i didn't care either way. i went to BRB in china town to meet up with people, but only stayed for 2 cocktails before i headed home...sad, i know, but hell, i was tired!

one of my travelling friends, anke from germany, has landed in london. she's staying with kings till tuesday - was great to catch up again, but it's a shame i'm working all weekend. we all almost went to fabric last nite (i had 3 free vip tickets and all) but decided against it. you can't really chat while you're jumping around dancing like a maniac. so shots all round, guitar till 3 then bed for me. i lost my voice so i could hardly talk let alone sing, but was still good fun.

i need to make one comment completely off topic, and it goes to bobby -- the little bitch who left and has emailed everyone at least once, except me...now, call me bitter, but what the fuck? where's my mail boyo? huh? pppffft whatever...

enough rambling, i think i need coffee.

now listening to: john butler

sunday is funday!

2004-10-05T03:12:00.000+08:00

ok, so i'm an idiot. i didn't buy a brand new wireless mouse and expect the batteries to die in 4 weeks...but hey, there you go. but really, it wasn't until the light stopped working that i thought maybe the batteries needed changing. well, i thought about it, but considering the light was still on before, how could the batteries be dead? oh well, i know for next time i guess.

yesterday was funday, that wonderful day of drinking that only occurs once every week. funday normally takes place in convent garden, and yestreday was, of course, no exception. blueshie's for 2 for 1 corona's, then on to henry's to catch up with wes (former gen bar man) for some cocktails, before heading to b@1 for2 for 1 cocktails until closing at about 11.

the cocktail bar b@1 is one of those special places that you only find by chance, or are invited to to join in the special celebrations there. the menu is a novel of cocktails, one that pingu would admire. from champagne to gin, vodka, specials, classics...it's truely something that is appreciated by the regulars (many of whom grace the walls in photos). anyway, b@1 is always one of the highlights of the weekends, and yesterday was as good as ever.

i didn't realise how drunk i was until i got home, and after the obligitory pizza decided it was more than the perfect time to retire to the penthouse suite for the nite. fortunately i didn't wake up with a hideous hangover -- but that could be put down to the litre or so of orange juice i woke up and drank at about 3am, and the 500ml of water i had at around 4:30.

tomorrow is my 12 months in london - nothing too extraordinary i know, but still a bit of a milestone. and wednesday sees the generator staff party...i'll let you know what happens when i work next (saturday) - it should give me enough time to recompose myself and string a sentence or two together.

rodent problems

2004-10-02T04:30:00.000+08:00

i bought a wireless optical mouse about a month ago. it's tiny and was perfect for my laptop. that is until tonite, when it decided it wasn't going to work anymore. why? that's a damn good question!

so, i uninstalled it, then rebooted. then reinstalled it and rebooted. then realigned the id for it - at least i tried, but to no avail! my mouse decided it was going to take a long sleep.

so now i have the task of trying to get it replaced, on my only day off! which will probably also mean i'll need to find my receipt. which of course, i probably don't have anymore.

so if anyone has any helpful hints on how to make my mouse work, feel free to leave me a comment. here's what it does at the moment: put the receiver into the usb slot. turn mouse on, the optical light (that red bright thing underneath) glows really bright, but stays on, and nothing happens when you move the mouse.

in other news, the end of summer party was on wednesday night, which was a hugely drunken affair. i managed to piece the nite together with a series of blinks and the 189 photos i took...although there's still a half dozen pics that i have no recollection of whatsoever. so it must have been a good nite! i'll get some pics up somewhere at some point!

wednesday was also voting day for the traveldesk guy. being an australian living in london, i had to wander down to the strand to cast my vote in our federal election. as you can probably assume from my previous post, i'm not a fan of mr sheen, our current PM, so with any luck i did my part to get him out of the lodge!

one final note - this coming week - tuesday to be exact - will be my one year anniversary of arriving in london. so feel free to post your congratualtions, send presents (monetary payments are always welcome), and wish me luck for surviving two nights of drinking (the gen staff party is wednesday nite so it should be a fun week!)

ciao for now!

tdg

election time...

2004-09-29T05:32:00.000+08:00

the australian elections are but a week and a half off. being in london, we get to vote a little early, so tomorrow i'm heading down to australia house to cast my vote against mr sheen, and hopefully restore some sanity into australian politics.

not going into this too much, except to say, if you ever need a reason to vote howard out, here it is:

John Howard Lie #9

"There'll be no more than a 1.9% rise in ordinary beer."
John Howard, John Laws Program, 23 September 1998

The Truth:

The price of beer rose 4.8 per cent in the September quarter
following the introduction of the GST on 1 July 2000, and was 8.5 per
cent higher than the same time the previous year.

Australian Bureau of Statistics, ABS@, Time Series Spreadsheets, Consumer Price Index 6401.0

a thank you

2004-09-28T06:09:00.000+08:00

for the first time, i got a very nice thank you from two german girls i helped. they needed info about getting to stansted airport in the early hours, and up until a little while ago, one of the only ways (after 11pm) was to catch the national express coach.

but they already had tickets for the stansted express, not cheap either, but the last/first train times were no good. then i remembered the express now has a coach starting at 2:30am till 4:30am, only takes 45 minutes, and their tickets are valid on it.

anyway - after finding connecting buses from kings cross to liverpool st, and printing all the info, they said danke and walked off...

then one of them came back for change, which for once i had, and after taking the 50p coin gave me a pack of cookies, smiled, said thanks again, and walked off. and it made my day! it really did, i mean, i like to help people when they want to be helped/are at least somewhat poliet to me, but rarely do backpackers appreciate the help. which is why i appreciated it so much.

so, to the two german girls who made my day with a pack of cookies - thank you! i won't soon forget it!

roster time

2004-09-28T03:43:00.000+08:00

the roster is something that has to be done every month, and i sort of gave myself the task of doing it due to a few mix-ups about 2 months ago. so, for the first small part of tonites shift i've written the new roster for the next, oh, month and a half. why that time frame? eh, why not!?

after yesterday's shift queensley was meant to come by so we could run around covent garden, but forgot. so i watched hellboy in the bar (um...yeah, not the best film, i didn't hate it, but...if there were any more cinematic cliches in there i would have walked out), had a beer or two, played some pool, then proceeded to watch half of the first season of futurama in bed. oh, and i bought a pizza for the movie...a damn good pizza, you know one of those pizzas that just melts in your mouth? anyway -- it was really good!

before bed i headed to the roof top terrace for a bit, just sitting there watching the low level cloud wizz past the BT tower. the image here is from a week or two ago, but you get the idea. it's a nice little spot to sit...and sing "chim-chimney" from mary poppins...the rooftops remind me so much of this! i'll get a photo of that too...hmmm maybe i can send steve upstairs now...

not much more to say. changed shifts, i'm working tomorrow nite and off wednesday. voting time for me on wednesday (more on this tomorrow), next week is my first official staff party, plus sees my anniversary of arriving in london! 12 months - ahh the times i've had.

travel desk products

2004-09-26T20:59:00.000+08:00

here at the backpackers travel centre, we sell all kinds of things for your travelling needs. condoms to tampons, adapters to cigarettes, we've got you covered. so why not come down to the backpackers travel centre in russell square, and stock up today?

bus tours

2004-09-26T06:54:00.000+08:00

we sell bus tours around london. they're actually pretty good vaule; you get a 24 ticket, it's jump-on jump-off, so you can stop and see things if you want (museums etc), there's 5 different routes (and you can change to any of them) and you get a boat cruise up the thames thrown in too. all for the cost of a cheapish meal (£15).

i think i tend to explain things pretty clearly, and when i say "you can jump on and off any of the routes as you wish", that seems pretty straight forward. why, i ask you, would you then say "so, is it just for the red line?"...um, NO, hello, listen. so i repeat, "no, you can go on any of the routes, it's for all of them"...."so it's for the yellow line?"....NOOO! "like i said, it's for all the lines..."

"what, even the green line?"

...when is this free weekend???

bobby has left the building

2004-09-26T02:37:00.000+08:00

former traveldesk employee (fill in for christel), james 'bobby' yates, is out. gone, off around europe. taking his slayer face, facial peircings and paeodophile shirts and leaving! and i can't help but wonder why? i mean, LEAVE the gen? sure, i'm leaving for the US in 79 days (who's counting) but...bobby can't go.

who's going to redwings salute the ladies with me? who's going give me the slayer face whenever they walk past? who am i going to annoy, drink with, and wander around the bar with now that bobby's gone?...everyone else, but, i still can't believe he's left.

last nite saw bobby's leaving drinks - i rocked up at about 7pm to start, james finally rocked in about 9, by which time i was getting nicely pissed. about 3 hours, 8 drinks and 188 photos later i figured it was about time to crash, went up to my penthouse suite (also known as dorm 601) and proceeded to promptly pass out after a quick sit on the roof.

anyway - have fun boyo! see you when you make it back to the sunny gen.

get to know your travel desk

2004-09-25T23:19:00.000+08:00

over the next few weeks, i'll be uploading a bunch of images to help you get to know your desk! look out also for get to you know desk quizes, as well as a generator staff gallery.

to get started, visit backpackerstravel.org - the official site of the desk. oh, scroll to the bottom and check out the image for oktoberfest...priceless!

2004-09-23T04:34:00.000+08:00

that's me...traveldeskguy

what is it about phonecards

2004-09-23T03:39:00.000+08:00

maybe i'm just bitching, but i swear, if one more idiot comes up here complaining that their phonecard isn't working, i'm going to snap! it's a simple concept - there's instructions printed ON the card...it's not that hard!

in other news, still working this whole blog setup thing out. anyone want to help me with formatting stuff, drop me a note. i need to get some pics up here, so you can all see the wonderful world that is, the travel desk!

traveldeskguy launched

2004-09-23T03:14:00.000+08:00

well here it is. the very first post on fear & loathing from the traveldesk. so, what is this 'traveldesk' and why would someone want to make a blog detailing everything about the desk? good question!

the traveldesk is in london, in the generator hostel. i'm mike, and run the travel desk at nights and weekends, which basically means i get free broadband when i'm 'working' - selling the odd pack of cigarettes or condoms, padlocks and laundry soap.

basically, i've been working here for about 3 months, and decided it was finally time to write something down while i'm working. hell, at the very least it'll give me something to do when i'm bored.

this thing should hopefully have some interesting shit here once and a while - it won't all be desk related. i'll probably go on some random self-indulged binge every other post, but hey, isn't that what blogs are for?

well that's enough of an introduction from me. with any luck i'll be getting a webcam set up at some point so you can all see me work as hard as i do!

but until next time...