Hey from Brisbane

Hey O,

Have been back in Brisbane since late X-Mas Eve.

Getting out of London wasn't too hard.

Flight was as expected. Delays, connections, cramped spaces, passable food etc. The seats were equipped with the multi-media stuff, but I couldn't play the nintendo games because of my broken thumb (I remember from the NYC trip that those games suck anyway). So after listening to some Abbott and Costello I killed time watching the TV shows and Movies they had on off; Family Guy, Simpsons, Bourne Ultimatum (nodded off all the time).

On a whim I watched Ratatouille, the computer animated feature length, and it turned out to be really good. Seriously. Smart writing, brilliantly animated and incredibly rendered.

Kuala Lumpur to Sydney I napped and read. All good.

Sydney to Brisbane: just chilled. It was only a short flight.

Got into Brisbane at about 11'ish. Slept.

Christmas Day: Immediate family plus significant others gathered. All good, no dramas.

After that headed to youngest brother's apartment on the river. Jet lag starting to catch up, so I nodded off on a couch for a bit. Went up to the roof (37th floor!) and enjoyed the view. Came back home.

Boxing Day: Went to Lone Pine because Elea's Boyf wanted to see koalas. Had a fun time. Came back, jet lag caught up with me and I passed out around five in the afternoon.

27th: Got up, checked out St Lucia Village. All shut until the first of January. Took a ride into the city and explored. A couple of new buildings, a couple of new shops etc. Ran into some friends. One I figured out where to find the 412 Bus Stop (the council moved it!) I schlepped home.

Somewhere along the way I realised that the clock on my phone was an hour fast. I had set it at the phone to someone else's watch, not knowing they were still on Sydney (daylight saving) time.

Yesterday: got up early enough. Cut dreads from cat. Went to Indooroopilly to see the new AVP movie. Looked at pre-paid phone deals, and the best I could find was about $60. I have my phone here, so I'd be on the roaming rate for that, but unless I send 100 texts or make 25 calls in the time that I'm here, it doesn't make economic sense to get a prepaid for Brisbane.

Came home and figured out how to get my laptop working with the house ethernet. Yay!

Had steak. Best steak I've tasted in three years.

Figured that if I was going to be using my phone for the occasional SMS, I should probably put more credit on it, so I logged into the Virgin site to figure out how to do that.

Then I passed out. Damn jet lag.

In town last night there was a metal show or a breakcore thing happening, and I managed to miss both because I was exhausted. Most annoying. Never mind, there'll be other stuff while I'm here.

Woke up at half five AM, and finished setting up the online thing to add credit to my british prepaid mobile. Neato.

Plans for today... I don't know.

I've just started ripping the first CD to iTunes. And I really should get cracking on catching up with people.

So I'm going to brainstorm on that for a bit.

Over and out.

-J

Yay

Just sent off a review that's been hamstringing me for a week.

Preparation to fly back to Brisbane for X-mas in hand.

Over and out.

-J

Back again

Saw the Hand Therapist yesterday.

I've been given a black plastic splint which I'm not supposed to take off for the next three weeks.

Skip to this time last week: After having the tape cut off my thumb, I started rubbing three weeks worth of dead skin off and went to see The Golden Compass, with the temporary brace on my hand. Halfway through the movie (which was pretty weak BTW, my thumb starts throbbing and burning. Bad enough to make me wish that I had collected the painkillers they had prescribed me on the 17th.

Skip back to yesterday: according to the hand therapist, that was a really bad sign: it meant that stuff was moving around.

Oops.

After the appointment I wandered along Tottenham Court Road looking in the technology shops, eventually making it to Soho. Just off Covent Garden I hunkered down in the upstairs room of a pub, busted out the notepads and brainstormed some notes for reviews and stuff.

After 1600 I tooke the tube back to Leytonstone to take care of some stuff, then headed back to cover a show by another Finnish band at the Astoria. The show was good enough, but I was pretty exhausted by this point.

Todat: housekeeping, more writing and seeing BlackDahliaMurder and JobForACowboy tonight.

A side note about the hand: the brace makes it really hard to type quickly and accurately. Annoying.

Over and out.

-J

Yay

Last night I covered a cello quartet that played metal (Metallica covers and some originals). Against expectation, it was a really good show. Tomorrow night I should be covering HIM, also from Finland.

Friday and Saturday I finished off my reviews and sent them over.

All of November I worked in a cafe.

As of the end of November I don't anymore. I'm not going to bitch about the job online this time, it just wasn't the right place, nor the right time and I wasn't the right person. Thems the breaks.

Speaking of breaks (uncharacteristically fatalistic words from me only used because it makes for a good segue), at the end of one of my shifts I managed to faint (exhaustion/skipped breakfast/etc), fall down a flight of stairs and bang my left thumb.

A few hours later, it was starting to really swell, so I took it to the UCL Hospital and had them x-ray it, revealing a break.

So for three weeks it was bound. Last Friday they unbound it and gave me a brace. Thursday I'm seeing the hand therapist. Sometimes I have to be glad of the NHS.

Monday Night I discovered that the boiler wasn't boiling, so I had a cold bath (with a jug of boiled water to take the edge off) and called the installers in the morning.

They called back, identified the problem (a water pressure issue) and talked me through remedying the situation.

To say that I was glad that the boiler was working again would be an understatement; it is currently fucking freezing outside! Overnight there was frost on cars, this morning there was frost on the grass in the courtyard of my block of maisonettes.

I keep threatening to wander down to Camden and get myself a parka. Something thick and fleecy that will keep the chill off. Not sure what style yet.

I've also been reading a lot lately. I finally finished Snow Crash, I've been reading Stephen King's On Writing and now I'm reading something called Contract by on Simon Spurrier, a comics writer who is veering towards writing straight prose. It's not bad; very stylishly written, but I'm wondering if there isn't a riff on American Psycho buried in there. Email me and I'll tell you what I mean.

In a minute I'm going to duck out, buy some concert tickets and then hunker down somewhere and write up my notes from last night.

I'm going to post more regularly again.

Lately I've just had a combination of time already occupied, energies diverted to other things and a desire to think on my own for a bit and keep my own counsel. Sometimes I prefer thinking over writing, even though I tend to treat writing as thinking out loud.

End note: I just received a package with some skin cream and soft soft. Yay. Winter, among other things, can be murder on the mittens, this stuff should help stop them from bleeding.

Over and out.

-J