WTF HAVE I DONE???????? :S

well aside from leaving it nearly 2 weeks from the last post, i have actually done quite a bit.

after the last real post which was written in a slightly panic induced state of mind, i posted up stating that i had bought tickets to Edinburgh, Scotland.

well i have since caught that train to Edinburgh.

Edinburgh for me is a pretty awesome place, aside from anywhere else in scotland really, how many places can you walk down the street and pass some guy walking along in a kilt and not having a care in the world, and further more to everyone else walking by its normal.

Where else in the world can you walk down the street and hear bagpipes playing, or see a castle in the middle of the city.

(the castle thing probably a few places)

and finally, where else have i been employed within the UK and actually liked it.

thats the big one for me.
i have a job that i like and i work with some pretty awesome people (and we stock bundy rum in 2/3 of our pubs :D at 2.40 a drink, so much cheaper over here)

So.

Within Edinburgh i have still had some bad times, but the good far outweigh the bad. so lets start with them


I have had the best weather in Edinburgh since arriving in the UK. no shit, everyone says this summers been really weird weatherwise which is more then likely true, but for Edinburgh its cool cause it means instead of rain 24/7 its only rain 20/5 haha.

The people, they're all so helpful and nice.
and the accent. i love the scottish accent, although there have been a few things where i have had to jokingly ask for them to dial down the accent a few times haha.

Work, the owner of the bar has 3 bars/pubs around the city, im working at 2 of them currently which is awesome. One is a regular old boys pub, so every afternoon the locals come pouring in and are just great fun and helpful.

the other place is in the city center and is a cocktail bar which is brilliant except i dont really know how to make cocktails yet. Its a lot busier then the first one which is cool but i quite like the quieter one as its got more of a personal feel to it.



a few of the bads though so far has really been isolated to 2 things.

The edinburgh festival and flathunting.

now these 2 are actually linked. normally flathuntings not so hard to do in Edinburgh, however arriving less then 2 weeks before the Edinburgh Festival makes it so as everyone who has a spare room usually ends up renting it out to festival go-ers for princely sums of up to 500+ pounds a week.

so trying to find a flat or sharehouse for more like 300 a month has proved to be damn near impossible at times, especially when the backpackers hostels are also in on the gig and go from 100 to 230 pounds a week for a dorm room.

230 pounds a week for a 14 bed dorm, its extortion its insane its highway robbery.
but for the 5 weeks of festival, the city goes from around 450,000 people to over 900,000 so i suppose the supply and demand dictates the price goes up quite a large sum, its just a pain in the ass for people like me looking to stay for over the 5 weeks of festival.

i did however find a place.

moved in yesterday after nearly losing it with the landlord but all seems to be good now. the only thing im a bit niggly with is that its a 12 month lease.
so although i have no qualms about staying in edinburgh for 12 months, especially with the amount of work i have available to me, is that if something came up and i had to or wanted to leave then i either have to pay out the remainder of my lease or keep paying it off and use it as a storage or something.
i dunno really,


the good thing about this flat though.

its got a lock on the front door and on my room door (sharehouse), the busses from here are close and go straight past work (1 bus to the cocktail bar 2 busses to the old boys one) and its also cheap.

like, CHEAP. ~220 pounds a month all inclusive.

Didnt have any sheets or duvet or anything though so picked them up today and now am set for well 12 months i spose. 

My Room

Still My Room

I have also done last Tuesday (24th July 2012)a few of the tours around Edinburgh.
Both run by the Sandemans group who did a excellent tour. One was the Free day walking tour which was about 3-4hours long walking around the city learning about some of the history and the other was Tuesday night doing the ghost tour which was awesome.

Edinburgh has a really bloody history, from burning and drowning witches to drawing and quartering living people for treason and murder.



heres some pics for those that are living on the edge of their seat through me.......

Edinburgh Castle

Sunset from the top of Calton Hill

Me and Flo (canada)

Just sleeping in someones tomb

Crazy Canuck

Fun in the Hostel

Hostel Life

Hostel Life again

More Hostel Life

I was actually sober for this pic

and now i have to go get ready for work,


will continue posting as things happen

WOO FUCKING HOO!!!!!

well as much as it pains me to write this, im leaving the brilliant town of rugby.

after applying for approx 100 resumes over the last week, i finally got a call back.
the only thing is, its in Edinburgh, Scotland.

so booked a train ticket and a week in a hostel tonight and i get on the train tomorrow

So my seemingly favourite place to write a blog post

Is by noting the most common locations and methods is on a train, whilst using the iPad.

I'm beginning to wonder why this is, could it be because of the rhythmic rocking of the carriages over the tracks, could it be that whenever I look up there's nothing but blurring greenery going past the window? I don't know to be honest but I just know from past posts that I have made a fair few posts from the trains of 2 different continents.

Ok so now to the brunt of the matter,
Money.

The root of all evil.

You either have it or you don't,
You either have enough or you don't.

Right now I'm I'm the latter of both above statements.

I don't have much left and what I do have isn't enough, so I have been searching through the town of Rugby for a job, I think I've handed out close to 10 resumes a day.

Nadda.

I have even gone further abroad looking for work, which is actually the reason for my being on a train at this point in time.
I'm currently returning from a job interview which was held just on the outskirts of the smallish town of redditch which is south of Birmingham.

All going well I will be getting a phone call from the company on thursday hopefully.
The company is similar to sizzlers in Australia but with a bar.

And theyre hiring for bar staff.

The isn't view seemed to go pretty good, the assistant manager liked me so she said she will pass on her thoughts to the manager when he gets in tomorrow.


Hmmm

Conundrums.

If I don't get money soon I have at best 3 weeks of doing nothing left. Then it's call the parents and get them to pay the changing fees for my return flight and back to aus I come.

Which is not really a desirable outcome at this point in time.
This job at redditch is s permanent full time position, so decent steady money.

Anyway thought I would out up a quick update of the situation so far.

all going well the trips still on, all filing I'll be back in aus within the next few months.

best game in the world....

Well im here in rugby, Warwickshire which is the hometown of rugby if you hadn't already guessd that.

Its a pretty cool little town, probably not much bigger population wise to say coober pedy in SA or beenleigh in QLD.

Been here  since weds trying to find a job but alas to this point in time I haven't had much luck so far. A few places have looked promising but nothing has come back yet.

will keep you posted, in thinking of going to the bell Ellis museum of rugby later and tomorrow is a fancy dress party with mates, they are going as Mario so in thinking of either Bowser or Peter griffin hHa, hilarity ensues

Anyway wish me luck and will keep you posted

My thoughts on England 2 weeks in.....

Depressing.

Utterly depressing haha, but aside from the mood dampening weather, it's not been too bad I must admit.

Work on the farm has been of a nature that I must admit I haven't gotten used to yet, it's hard physically exerting and at times complicated but that hasn't really bothered me too much, what has bothered me is the way my body is reacting to the country air.

The farm I'm working on is a proper working farm, it's all crops, and the harvest season starting in a month or so means that at this time the air is full of dust, and left over husks from last years season as we are cleaning out all the grain stores.
As such this is making my hay fever go nuts. Absolute bonkers.

So although the money is really quite good, and although ive only been there a week, Wednesday I'm done on the farm,

Having hay fever all day every day because of work is just no fun at all and when thes another 3 months left till I would be finished I just couldn't deal with it.

Does anyone know of any jobs going anywhere that isn't on a farm?



So yeh the farm job didn't work out, but all is not lost, im currently in the town of Winchester where I'm about to meet up with some very dear friends of mine I haven't seen for close to 4 years, Marie an Sharron :D

I met these two ladies when I was in the backpackers hostel in cairns way back in january 2009, they both sorta became the adoptive parent figures for me up there so I'm quite keen to see them again.



Sorry it's not much of a post but I haven't really gotten up to much since the last one. Ive worked and that's about it, I think once you'd take out my lunch breaks I'm up to 70 something hours worked in the last week.

Will post up again when I have worked something out.