And then there where four...

First off I have a bruise update as can be seen to the right:

I know it may be seen that I'm using my blog as a montage of personal injuries/aliments and indeed I am.

Speaking of blogs I would also like to formally farewell the following bloggers: Chia and Phoebe who both seem to be stuck in some sort of season time warp, Mahney who seems to have a fundamental marriage/blogging conflict and the blogfather himself Mat who, after a very brief resurface, has again vanished under the wave of binary obscurity. Farewell fair bloggers, facebook will have to suffice from here on in.

Chris Vs Car - Round 1

Ok, admittedly I lost round one but I like to think I broke their fist with my face (their fist being a windscreen in this instance and my face being my hip). So anyways, I was riding to work when a car decided to turn left as I was crossing an intersection and cleaned me up. I smacked into the side of her before vaulting into her windscreen. It was then just a matter of letting gravity take over and rolling down the bonnet onto the road. The end result of all this was the following:

• Severely buckled front bicycle tyre
• Smashed windscreen
• Very bruised and swollen Chris

And here's the picture of the last line item:

Right, so that's my news for the week. Until my next exciting road incident....

A year of Internet

Well, sad though it is, I find myself at home on a Saturday night not getting drunk. This is A) a bit tragic and B) good for my general health/wallet/blog. It has also given me the opportunity to ponder the fact that it's pretty much 1 year to the day since I started to publicly bog err, blog. In this period I've turned my life upside down, shaken a bit before finally coming back out more or less on the level. I kinda liked the inverted version but it's not really sustainable in the long term. It's a bit like eating an entire packet of timtams in one sitting; by the time you get to the last one you've kinda forgotten what a timtam actually tastes like and indeed why you are still eating. And you'd be a fat bastard if you did it every day.

Which leads me to England and thoughts there-on. I've been very lucky to have some fairly unlikely friends here who have made the transition not only easier but indeed possible. The extended group of people I've met all seem like a bang up crowd and, in parallel to the identity industry being so much more mature in this part of the world, it makes me think I'll be here for a while yet.

London itself is hardly a cultural leap from Melbourne. Of the 7 months I've been here the only things that ever really strike me as different is the fact you are expected to pack your own shopping bags and the squirrels (they still fascinate me even though the locals must think I'm a bit odd). Apart from that is it's like a big smelly Melbourne with a few more rediculious English accents thrown in for good measure.

To spice up the visuals here is a picture I took of some deer in Richmond park just up the road. There is a shit load of em and they just wander around the park dodging locals having picnics.

So happy oneth birthday blog. I really only expected you to last out Thailand so you've already exceeded expectations.

Chicken has flown the coop

Since my arrival to this sometimes glories, sometimes miserable part of the world I've been lucky enough to have a Tangles to help me acclimatise to grown up life in the big city. So a big shout out to our new European correspondent and all the best for your new job/life.

Nextly we have the shared birthday of Sassa and Bella. They are a few years apart but both pretty decent sheila's. And as September seems to be breeding season happy birthday to all the other multitudes in Hannah, Pan, Phoebe, et al.

Work has also been fairly crazy. I just returned from another 3 day trip to Vermany where there seems to be lots of potential so it looks like I'll be spending more time there over the next few months. I also go to Norway next Sunday night but it's only for a day so I can't see me really soaking up too much of the culture.

I like my old stuff better than my new stuff.

Amsterdam. What do most people do when they visit this city? Visit the red light district? Spend some time at the purportedly very good galleries? Relax at a cafe with a blunt the size of your arm? No no people, I spent my time there mostly in a hotel writing proposals and presentations or at client sites giving proposals and presentations. I did go to an EXCELLENT Japanese restaurant however and had a little wander around Sunday arvo so it wasn't a complete loss.

Compulsory canal shot (not to be confused with the compulsory Amsterdam 'carnal' shot).

Dutch people, on the whole*, seem to be very friendly and unassuming. It was certainly a pleasant break from grumpy Londoners.

Backing up a week to keep things vaguely chronological (or just logical for that matter), Greta, Robin and myself attended 'Get Loaded in the Park' at Clapham common last, last Sunday. This had some pretty good acts but as I did my best to be shitfaced most of the day it's all a bit of a blur (although they weren't playing). As it was a public holiday the next day I considered it my obligation to get as messy as possible before spending most of Monday (after getting home at 9AM) not sleeping and generally feeling like the bastard, unloved child of all four horsemen of Apocalypse. Add to this I set a new personal record by not eating for about 46 hours and couldn't sleep properly for the next few day and I had a highly entertaining working week.

This brings me to my last minute call up to visit a client in Amsterdam to do some consulting last Wednesday. I was suppose to have been going to the continent for a few weeks now but since everyone in Europe seems to take all of August off this has been difficult to get sorted. So after some last minute organisation I found myself in Amsterdam Sunday afternoon. I'm now in Munich with another couple of meetings then back to blighty for the weekend before back to Munich for a few more days next week.

Longer term (in the footsteps of other internet visionaries who need not be named) I present my plans: 10th ish November I'll be in Sydney for a few days then down to Melbourne (15th ish) and possibly over to NZ. It's then a week off (24th ish) to spend with all the lameos back home before back to London. Christmas & birthday this year will again be in a foreign city and if anyone is going to be in the region without plans I suggest beer and turkey should be involved (nothing like drunk turkeys to get the party started).

* I had to draw back from using the word 'hole' and making a bad pun. Just as well.