*burps, pats belly*

Been here for 4 or 5 days now.. I've walked downtown, gone to a mall.. even took a ferry thingy across the harbour or whatever they call it here, bought some stuff, but mostly I've been eating.

It's very full of functions at the moment, the 2 big reasons I'm here both have these sub functions related to them, which amount to about 3 things to go to on top of the actual events, and that's not counting stuff like barbecues, or visiting someone, which also involve meeting with people and eating lots of stuff.

Had about 3 buffets, I think, all filled with wonderful stuff that you pile onto your plate before you get to the part where the main course food is, it's a true dilemma believe me. The good thing is there are lots of salads and fruit things so I'm semi stuffing myself with food that's actually good, so I might get out of this not the worse for wear, that's if I don't drink so much, so.. well, I do that at home anyway so no difference there.

Went to the bat mitzvah already, that was all fun and weird and strange and full of people and revelry, and a lot of food, now we're moving into the wedding and accessories part of the trip, so it'll be a slightly different crowd of people for the next few days.. of course, the common element will be around, and especially the people living in the house are becoming quite familiar..

it's all so much, and also.. well, a lot of relaxing and hanging around, and as I said, eating, so hard to describe. I might get out to town or the seaside or somewhere worth visiting today.. but I don't know. Might just knock about here... and eat and stuff..

Hi from Canada.

So, after a lot of travelling, a very long day, with a lot of daylight we arrived in Vancouver yesterday.. the day before.. oh whenever. Now I'm in a house with a huge number of people...

so.. the longest day was, according to earth stuff, on the 21st, ie the solstice, no idea if the Orloj in Prague was working fine.. so let me know if you have that info, I'd like to know if the country I'm returning to is in peril or not..

anyway, we spent the solstice in Berlin, which was pretty fucking rad, if I may use that description, there was a city wide music festival, and every street corner had some music on it, so we wandered around the city, stopping a bit at Gorlitzer Park, and other spots, checking out a bit o music, and some graf here and there.. then settling nearby our hostel at Love Lite, where we drank beer and enjoyed a few bands, with a break to walk back for a rest, past a few more gigs, including the punk/metal fest... which I found enjoyable.

We got to bed quite late.. packed a bit and showed, and up again at 4:30 am. On to the S-Bahn, bus, plane to London, where we had relatively little trouble getting out of customs, and onto the tube into the city. It was a beautiful moment walking up out of Piccadilly Circus tube into heavy rain :/. Well it was nice, didn't rain the entire time, and got to walk to Trafalgar Square and get a photo on one of the lions are a short battle to claim the spot. Then the fun bit, Indian for lunch, and a beer in a charming pub, in the traditional English style.

So.. back to Heathrow, up into the airport, ride on a transit to our gate and waiting.. and the flight. We flew for about 11 hours, west... so it was the true longest day... something like 20 hours daylight.. we flew over Greenland, and Baffin Island and places in the Arctic.. it was pretty cool.. but too bloody long! Arrived in Vancouver.. relatively little trouble getting out except for a kinda long wait for bags, and onto the Sky Train on the Canada line to home! Got to Erik's place and no one was in the house. I think that's the only time I'll get to see the place with only 2, or less than about 20 people because after an hour or 2 everyone began to arrive.. his parents finally came late at night.. and then just one more wait for a few more people to show up... and after about 30 hours we finally went to bed.

So yeah.. pretty tired. Yesterday was hanging about day, more people arrived, we had a barbecue, and stayed in the house mostly, oh I went to the mall, a bit of North American culture I needed to experience.

It's nice to be here, I'm here for 2 weeks so I can settle a bit, and there's lots to do, lots of weddings, bat mitzvahs and dinners... well one each of the first 2 but lots of stuff related to them... so yeah, fun.

Weather's a bit crap though :/

Hi from Berlin..

Well.. we made it! done stuff, doing stuff.. off to London tomorrow to.. who knows, for a few hours.. and then Vancouver. Perhaps you can tell I dont have much time.. talk later.

One more thing before I go.

I mean I don't have time.. I still have to pack, and tidy up and.. well, the stuff I didn't get yet isn't gonna get got so.. spose I'll make it.

Been shlepping, rushing, waiting and.. well let's be honest spending plenty of time farting around, it's something I always manage to find time to do, but I've gotten stuff done, so you can be proud of me.

Speaking of.. just before I go, I don't want to forget, you know that thing? The thing I was going on about for like, ever, and never did anything, and then I did something but couldn't show it, and then I didn't do anything for a year and then I did and I fucked it up again, and then I did something else and for some reason didn't upload it, and then a little bit later did more and finally I uploaded an intro to the actual thing I'm doing?

Well this is the actual thing I'm doing.

See ya later.

Brilliant timing!

So.. leaving in... um.. tomorrow! Jeez.. and still have tons of stuff to do.. packing, cleaning, planning, shopping, and I've got a cool freebie thing to pick up which.. ok, it's good, it's really something I shouldn't grumble about but fuck.. I don't have the time, and can you believe there was a fucking transport strike yesterday! Well.. trams ran but few and far between and very packed, so it wasn't the most ideal situation for transporting stuff, or for getting to work for that matter, or for getting a bunch of tourists up to the castle...

The tour turned out alright, we got a tram and it was only seriously packed for one stop.. and after that, it was nice, spent a bit too much time int he brewery pub but so, the tour went over a bit and people seemed to like it. It didn't rain until afterwards when I was walking from the office to the tram stop.. with the monitor, and it didn't start getting heavy until I was just about to the stop, and a few seconds before I got myself to a bit of shelter. Then it stormed. Briefly.. well the storm ended and indeed it stopped raining before the tram came, and that's not only because of the weird weather we've been having, it took about half an hour to come. What was particularly vexing was that there were like, 2 number 9s that came before a 22 did. Yes, I need the 22.

So.. weird day, but overall ok, I spose. Now, to embark upon today. Still tons of shit to do, shit to bring home, heavy stuff.. packing.. etc etc etc. Jeez.

It's gaining on us..

Off for a big adventure again in just 3 days. On Saturday we're going to Berlin to spend a few days before going to London where we hopefully get to spend 4-6 hours in the city and then fly to Vancouver. Then we have a wedding and bat mitvah and a bunch of dinners and hopefully some seeing of the city and surrounding environs.

I really should get some sleep, but there's packing, cleaning, making sure all loose ends are tied together.. not forgetting anything, editing videos and uploading.. oh, did i mention? I finally uploaded something from that stuff I've been talking about for ages. Well.. the beginning portion, the intro that leads to the main part of what I'm doing so.. well here it is. I mean.. not much, the quality's bad, the sound is bad, I had to edit it in youtube's editor because when I converted the weird file the video was taken in everything was out of sync and.. well anyway, editing is average at best, but whatev.

So.. I really need to be doing stuff, proper stuff like, ya know, getting ready.

Why.. just why

So much to do.. so much.. stuff. Planning, packing, cleaning.. I have to work later and I'm not up to any of it. So far I've done.. well none of it. I was forced, positively forced to be out late last night, to watch some hockey game.. ok I could have come home but I finished work late and felt like staying out and having a beer, then we went up to the bar with the game on and.. well, that goes for 3 hours and I had to have enough beers to fill up all that time.. while drinking quickly of course.

And so here I am, getting nothing done.

Nothing in particular.

*whistles*

I got one!

*opening music to ghostbusters starts*

yep.. I got one. A ghost. Well... not so much got, as saw.. well, not necessarily saw but heard. Well.. I heard something, well I think I did.

The people I was in there, the underground that is, old dungeons and torture chambers, certainly think there was something there so I'm going with that..

First there was a noise of something falling or being knocked over. There was a guy sorta standing near something, though nothing had fallen, and he wasn't very close.. and he claimed it wasn't him though I personally would blame breaking some old and valuable artefact on a ghost if I could.. but yeah.. nothing was broken, or fallen so..

and then later on, after one girl had to be escorted out because she was so scared there was something else.. a screeching noise, or something.

So yeah.

We're in for a hairy ride...

So.. still busy. Had 2 tours yesterday.. 2 actual tours.. one on the bridge, which went ok if long apart from a couple of people coming late causing a slight discrepancy but.. was ok, despite the physicist guy wanting a scientific explanation for orbs.. or something.. I tried to come up with one, though I didn't have one.. getting better at that. You think I'd actually learn more doing this stuff, and after a while have the answers to people's questions, but no, I'm just better at answering the question without really answering it, I think I do it somewhat convincingly.

It went late.. way late, but I made it just in time for my second tour.. only 2 people so nice and cozy. It was just after one of them was talking about how they'd been stuck in the storm earlier on that day, on a tram when I overheard someone walking nearby wondering aloud if it was raining.. so I put my hand out, and there were drop falling down so..

went on, did the next stop and it was raining ever so lightly.. the next one after that it had started to rain a bit heavier so I pointed out a feature to them and we ducked into passage. Then it started fucking storming! It seemed like forever but was probably 20 minutes.. told them a little bit of the next one, but mostly we chatted and watched the lightning.. well, at least it's the right kind of effect for a ghost tour for once, it's dark, no one's about and it's raining heavily... with frequent strikes of lightning.

It was completely unexpected. It had stormed earlier on but by the time I went to work it was completely dry and calm.. we finally all crowded under the umbrella and walked back to our spot to go into the underground.. very slowly because it was lightly flooded... and we made it..

and then into some old catacombs that held dungeons and torture chambers.. which have had numerous weird 'sightings".. just the 3 of us..

another weird night.

A boring and meaningless ramble about stuff

Been busy. I might have mentioned that, or something to that nature, once or twice. Mostly with work, well with work, haven't had much else to do at all, and if I have I haven't done it. So June is suddenly summer, busy season, a few people left and/or on holiday and someone just got sick so I'm working almost every night doing 2 shifts, that is unless I'm doing the 3 hour (sometimes turning into 4 hour) Castle tour.. which is enough.

So.. I'm rushing around like a.. busy person, some of the time. Other times I'm just waiting around. I seem to do a lot of both of these things.. you see, this first tour we have of a night, and it depends on which shifts we're doing, but the 2 tours that are on these times are those that, how shall I say it.. NOBODY EVER BLOODY SHOWS UP FOR! One of them is the infamous bridge tour which I've done like 3 times since starting this gig, and the other is a new one which is as yet unknown.. so I go and wait, get no tour for the first one.. so I've got an hour and a half, to wander around, sit around.. just hang around... bit noyin, but not so bad, but I'm going to run out of ways to amuse myself if this keeps up.

Then I get a tour later, and it's usually like 16 people, which is a little less fun and a little more like work.. so if the people would just.. you know, like split themselves up? One with 6 and the other 9? That would be just fine. Please do that in future people.

Well.. this is all very boring and I had more to say before but I forgot it all.. the last few days has been a jumble of slightly crazy stuff. Went to the theatre the other night.. for the first time in 6 months or something.. got to keep myself in the scene, sort of thing, or I've been trying but so far it's done not much.. well.. haven't been doing it much.. then I have a no tour/tour night, the second one was kind of fucked up, I mean.. a little, not hugely so, and I finish about midnight and meet Erik and we go and see a hockey game of all things. well, this team is in the finals you see, so off we go to this pub and who do I see but some people in the cast of the show I'd seen the night before.. they're shooting a movie, of all things, right after doing a show too.. this annoys me a little and I whine to myself about how they get to do so much stuff when I'm doing nothing, but I hang out a bit.. talking to them about stuff and would like to hang with the film people more, but I go back to the sport people.. loyalty you know. It wasn't bad, the game... didn't pay attention but the revelry around it was fun. They won by the way, the right team that is.

So yeah... stayed out until well after daylight.. and yesterday got up at about a normal hour, so I was dreadfully tired but.. still had to do the two tours, or the show up for one to wait around then do a later tour thing... and now I need to work tomorrow again cos one of the guides is sick... I'm on like.. 6 days in a row! Can you imagine!

Hey, where'd everyone go?

phew!

*pants and stuff*

*starts grumbling about how one is doing o so much work and now has to work tomorrow too*

*feels all important and superior due to aforementioned work*

*types stuff*

Seems to be workin out...

that working thing.. like, hard and stuff. So far.

*falls asleep*

*puts on boots*

Well.. about to embark on what is probably the busiest month I've had for.. for.. um, ever. I mean.. I have in the past had multiple things to do at once, which each take about half an hour a week so I get on my big horse and go on about how many things I have to do, but this time it's mostly just the one thing, this job thing I have. I finally have a month where I got lots of hours, working almost every night, and 2 shifts on average per night so I'm almost up to about 70 or 80% of a regular person's hours. That is regular persons in one of those countries with very generous work week laws. Maybe. I dunno.

Anyway.. I do have another thing, that is the "job" I've had for years which I actually do a bit of work with, during the day, and my other stuff, my art stuff, my photography stuff.. my video stuff.. (still working on that btw).. so yeah.

Oh and after the 18th there's no work, but that's because I'll be doing something much busier.. going on holiday. I know that sounds odd, but you haven't been on one of our "holidays". I'm using an awful lot of quotation marks today. Well.. we're going to Berlin, to fly to London to change for a flight to Vancouver and going to a wedding and bat mitzvah and it'll be a few weeks in Van, but knowing us that will be anything but restful.. so.. that will take me to the end of the month and into July, so we'll see.