New Toy….Confirmed!

Not much really happening here right now. Just trying to help my Mom with the healing process. Although Im finding it much harder than anticipated as we are both very different people, with different outlooks and beliefs, I havent lived at home for longer than a few days for close to 12 years and its so hard to try to analyse day to day routines and work out whether theyre normal or not. Its hard, but it will all work itself out, Im sure. 

However, I have made it out to Wolvo today and picked up a few things. Im surprised at how easy it is to just turn Christmas off in your head. I know Im looking at decorated tree’s and fairy lights but its like Im not actually taking it in. Ordinarily Id be getting excited and hyped up by it all , but it really is like Ive decided that Christmass isnt happening this year, and all of a sudden….its true. Its like Halloween for me. I know its going on, and the shops are full of cards and masks and all manner of tat, but because I choose to ignore it as a “holiday”, I dont see any of it.  

 Any how I managed to pick up a cheap (£22 new from Tesco) copy of the new Legend of Zelda game for DS, a very tasty dark minty Terrys chocolate orange, and the seasonal variety of Covent Garden Soup (white onion with stilton and white port). Im not sure about the soup but thought Id give it a try (results in teh next update!). Got myself a “Tipton Pasty” to eat too, which was a bit yuk. The detail: (mainly for Laura!). 

•  It was completely made of puff pastry
•  It had a side crust
•  It had very small bits of steak in
•  It had FAR too many peas in it
•  It had sweetcorn in (WTF!?!)
•  It tasted like a cheap chip-shop pie

So as you can guess I was less than enamoured with it. I would give it…..3/10 knockers!

On a more positive note, I managed to buy myself a new phone today (hence the photo above). Decided on the Sony K850i over the Nokia N82 for a number of reasons. I really dont like teh Symbian plaatform. My existing N73 was my first ever Nokia phone and I found it horrendously slow, far from intuitive. I know the N82 has sat nav and wifi (which the Sony doesnt) but the Symbian factor really turned me off it. So, I managed to pick up the phone on eBay for £250, and luckily the seller was really patient and heplful as paypal did some strange things with unconfirmed addresses and echeques. But everything panned out and I should be getting the phone by Wednesday. 

Weather is pretty crap. In fact, Enlgand is pretty much how we left it. Weather is shit. Its as dark as a cave. Its always grey and miserable. Public transport is fundamentally broken. The banks are total arseholes and its “service with a scowl” at all of the shops and cafe’s. However, it IS reaffirming to know we made the right decision to go to Australia. What IS good however is British TV. Dragons Den, Top Gear, Ramsays Nightmares, Peep Show, Father Ted, QI, Have I got News For You and the upcoming Extras Christmas Special.  Beats “The Chasers” in Australia - awful immature rubbish. 

all of the blood and sweat and meat…

Just got back from seeing Patrick Wolf at a venue in Richmond and he was fantastic! Gigs must work a bit differently here though. The doors didnt open at until 8:30, so we left at about 8:30 to get there “fashionably late” and because we’d done our homework and found that the 1st support band were pooh (some NZ outfit). The trams were packed so took a bit longer than usual, so didnt get to the venue until gone 10.30, but we were amazed and pleased to see that the headliner wasnt on until 11pm! And he was doing a 90 minute set, so we’ve only just got back (1am here now).

The venue was pretty good. A little bit bigger than the cockpit in Leeds, or about twice the size of the Academy 2 in Brum.  Considering this was his forst full band tour in Australia, there was a tremendous amount of support for him. Loads of people with a very positive reaction. Was heartening to see. Patrick also seemed really pleased with the reaction, and happy with the night. Overall, a great performance - really impressed. 

On a more boring note, we did nothing today. I played on my 360, Becca read books. Both went out to a Mexican restaurant up the road for tea. We ate like pigs! Nachos, enchiladas, burritos, and a couple of very big and very tasty margaritas. Still feel full from it, and probably will STILl feel full this time tomorrow! Fattys we are!  

Doing nowt has never felt so good!

In a practical sense, today, weve actually done nothing. Well, tell a lie, we’ve walked to a place, then walked back, but its felt like a great day! Been another scorcher here (about 26 degree’s) so we decided to have a stroll up to Port Melboune, not Brighton as I said yesterday. Was great! Ive put some more photo’s on Facebook if youre bored enough to have a look. Stopped halfway on the walk up at a beachside cafe, and had a soething called a Pide. I chose it as it looked a bit like a pasty, but we later found out from the waitress, that its a Turkish food, thats basically a turkish bread, topped with whatever (I had morrocan spiced lamb, Becca had chicken) then turned up so its a sealed, pasty shape. God damn it was good! Yet another tasty place to eat. 

Saw about a million dogs on the beach, some playing in the water, others just sat there puzzled when their owners threw their ball into the ocean! Saw a few more cockatoo’s flying around, and by christ theyre noisy! The parrots have nothing on these monsters! Huge too. Got a bit cross with the flies here. It seems the “never give up” Aussie spirit has even wormed its way into the insects here too. With a British fly, if it comes by your face, you move your had around and it goes away. Not so here. You move your hand around, and it flys the other side of your head. Move your hand around a bit more and it lands on your glasses. Move your hand to your glasses and it buzzes around your head. They just dont give up!  

After our walk there, we simply walked back. Nothing exciting. Popped out a bit later to catch the sunset, which looked great, then bought some sausages for tea. Spiffing!

Hot! Hot! Hot!

God damn its warm today! The news said 31 degree’s but it felt much more than that. Its still shorts and tee-shirt weather, and its 8pm! Feels about 23/24 degree’s now. Its been good though, as its been cloudy and sunny, rather than relentless sun all the time.

So as expected, we went down to St Kilda pier to get the ferry into Williamstown. Was great! What would have probably taken us an hour, to get from one side of Melbourne bay to another, it took 20 minutes! Williamstown is quite small, and more of a place to live than a “destination”. We also had our first crap experience at a restaurant. Well….I did.

They placed us outside (ok) but next to a bush that was teeming with bee’s and these strange wasp/fly thingies that were huge, but didnt bother us that much. More a visual thing. You see lots of insects and start getting itchy. However the thousands of tiny, miniscule flys climbing our drinks and hurling themselves in to a cider-ey grave DID annoy. I took the care to fish all of the tiny corpses out, Becca couldnt be bothered with her drink and supped them down! It took an hour for the food to come, and when mine eventually came it was pretty sub-standard. Calamari like rubber. However, Becca’s was OK. Service was lousy too, so we finished our drinks, paid and left. No tip for you! However, for nearly 7 weeks of on-and-off eating out, to come this far and only JUST have a crap experience is pretty good I reckon.

Walked back to the main Williamstown plaza and had a tasty ice cream while we waited for the ferry back. On which, while approaching St Kilda pier, someone spotted 2 dolphins close by playing in the water. Even though I dont like dolphins very much (attention seeking whores!) I had to have a look, just to say I had seen wild dolphins just down the road from where I live! And now I’ve said it!

Had an email a couple of days ago saying our shipping stuff has left the UK and it should reach us in the middle of November. Much sooner than I expected. I was hoping to watch the deciding round of the Grand Prix today…until I relaised it wasnt on until 3am. Pooh!!! Ah well, fingers crossed for Hamilton. No grand plans for tomorrow. I think I will pop into town tomorrow to trade in Sega Rally, buy some shorts and have a general mosey about.

We learn….make brain big!

Been a great day today - weather was fantastic. Blue skies all the way. We decided to take a to Melbourne museum, but before we get to that, important news……..

Sausage Update!!!!

We found somewhere you can buy decent pork sausages - YAAAAAAAAAAY!!!! Queen Victoria market has a ton of god butchers stalls, each of them selling nice sausages. Pork, pork and rosemary, spicy pork, italian pork…..Im a happy bunny now!

Anyway, I digress. SO we went to Melbourne museum which was pretty good. Only $6 in and we spent a good couple of hours strolling around, looking at Australian dinosaurs, australian stuffed animals, and they had a real good bit of the museum about the brain, and all things mental, where we took a quick test and found that I my main personality trait is “Decisiveness” and Becca’s is “Idealistic”  . There was also a “Virtual Room” they had which was a 3D  glasses type room, and was actually very good. Had a simulated rainforest bit too which had a lot of stuff inside it. They had one of those Bowerbirds, that makes a curved bow-type house thing on the ground to impress the female bird. He was a fantastic shiny blue colour, and they are apparently obsessed with blue things! He had all manner of bottle tops, pen lids and pegs he’d collected. Was a good day……

…..which is slowly being ruined by trying to update my ipod. Everything downloaded ok but it crashed halfway through updating and now wont do anything! Keeps asking to be updated, but the update is nerfed, so what now?!?!? Searching forums to try to sort it out, but no luck. Worst comes to worst, I’ll just pop to an Apple reseller and get them to update it. Can sort out why my Mac crashed the update later on - I just want my ipod back!

1st 2 bad things about Oz

The common sausage is bloody horrible! The pork sausage, it seems is in the extreme minority. Its hard enough to find a basic, common or garden, pork sausage, let alone pork and leek, or toulouse, or tomato and basil. No! The sausage of choice here is the beef sausage!?!? What?!? Well, I decided to take a punt one of these mutant sausages, and let me tell you its not very nice to say the least. It tastes of soap! Yuk! But dont fret, with all the meat on show at the market, and all the specialist sausage sellers (polish, german, italian, spanish sausages etc…) Im sure I’ll get my hands on a trusty British porker (insert joke here) very soon!And the gravy is horrible too. Well, Im not completely sold on this one as Im not sure what other brands we could have picked. But the brand we did pick said it was onion gravy granules, but I dont know what kind of onion they made them from! Horrible, cardboard coloured sludge. Time to pick better next time. However, if I find myself annoyed with these culinary disasters, I just ask myself, “nice sausage & gravy in kings heath” or “no nice sausages or gravy in St Kilda” and it kind of puts things in perspective! I’ll be sure to post urgent sausage updates as soon as we go to the market again! 

Izzy, wizzy, lets get busy!

Sorry Gareth, but still nothing to moan about here! Its just fantastic. Decided to get out of the apartment later today as we wanted to eat tea in Melbourne. Gave me a chance to watch last Saturdays Match of the Day I downloaded - so good to see some PROPER football again! Anyway, we left about 1:30, on a fantastically sunny day, and got off the tram early to have a walk around the river and the casino bit. The casino was very posh (nothing like Vegas) and it had a huge cinema at the top (which we are going to see Ratatouille at this week - its been out ages here!). Had a stroll along the Yarra river (past the HUGE mcg - Melbourne Cricket Ground) then on to the botanical gardens. Botanical gardens were bloody fantastic. So quiet, sunny, palm trees - it was just great! And we managed to see a grey poodle knocking about that I thought looked funny, and had an alarming similarity to Sweep, from Sooty and Sweep! As soon as I said this Becca couldnt stop laughing. Which wasnt really helpful when we stopped for a cuppa a bit later on, and the guy with the poodles came and sat opposite us! I was trying to take a sneaky photo of Sweep, all the time Becca was chuckling to herself, and trying to stifle laughs! Anyway, I slyed a couple of shots of the dog, so it all went well!Had a walk back into town after that but Becca couldnt decide where to eat (what a bloody surprise - Becca….indecisive!), and neither of us were really hungry, so we went back to St Kilda. Then,  I remembered a really good burger place I had seen folks eating at a few days ago, so we ate there. God damn they were good burgers!!! And the chips…..awwwwww, god they were some the tastiest chips Ive ever eaten! Also saw a great linen shop called…. well, look at my facebook photo’s!Oh, and I bought the Zombie Chew I saw a couple of days ago! Apple-sour-tastic! Oh, and another myth to dispel - you CAN get HP sauce over here - its even made in the same state! You can even get Marmite in the supermarkets! And….praise the lord - Wild Turkey is available EVERYWHERE!!!! You can even buy pre-mixed bottles of the stuff with cola. Same with most other spirits. Very strange seeing a 6 can pack of JD + coke though!I just found out where Ikea is so probably going there tomorrow. Then Friday is the big one….The Royal Melbourne Show! Ive reluctantly agreed to go with Becca, seeing as she missed out on the equally (ha!) awesome Newbury Show this year. At least in Melbourne I get to see dogs, and a piglet race!!! Go piggies, go!!!! Looser gets barbecued!! 

We Will Be Fat Pigs in a Few Weeks!

Bit of a lazy day today. Went into Melbourne again to have a look at TV’s, and housey stuff. Can get soem proper cheap stuff. 26″ HD LCD TV for £350! Fair enough its a non-heard of make, but even the Ssmsungs and LG’s are going for about £450. Ate the best sushi Ive ever had and stopped off in St Kilda later for afternoon tea and cakes. Found a great nik-nak shop in St Kilda too. You know, the kind of shop that sells Allesi stuff, posh bits and bobs, funky lights etc…. which is very dangerous, as we are now only minutes away from pointless crap to clutter up our place! Found that books here are quite expensive too -about £12 for a paperback. Maybe something to do with there being no Amazon. Also, Rice Krispies are called Rice Bubbles, and Weetabix is now called Weet-bix! Still think the stupidest Australianism is Manchester! For those who dont know Manchester (at least over here anyway) are bed spreads, sheets, duvets, linen etc….. Its just daft!And on teh recommendation of Andy, Ive changed the name of the blog. I dont know if this is temporary, or permanent, but it did seem a bit strange to have a blog called “grumpy grumblings” with me not having a bad word to say about the place. Nearly every post is a shining recommendation of Australian life, hence the name change. Whether my grumpiness was associated with England, or whether Im just in the honeymoon period, I dont know. At the moment, Im very happy, so the name sticks!

Party Shenanigans

Was a weekend of parties just gone. Friday was my (ex)works leaving do, Beccas last day at work drinks, and Saturday was the big goodbye party around ours. And even if I do say so myself, it was damn good! Got to catch up with a ton of mates and say our farewells. Even the weather decided it was going to be kind and not rain on the bbq! What was even more surprising was the fact that I had beer, wine, cocktails, cider and bourbon……and had NO hangover. I only hope everyone else enjoyed it as much as I did. But dont get me started on estate agents - bunch of fucktards. Despsite the fact theres only 3 of them in the office, NONE of them communicate with one another, and not one of them seems to want to show potential buyers around. Instead they ask if I can do it - fuck off! Dont you think I’ve got other things to worry about! What are we paying you money for? Fuck all by the sounds of it…..Had our last UK based Sunday roast at the local too - damn tasty! I can feel an afternoon nap coming on…….