2011..

Is nearly over. There are 8 hours and 36 minutes left of this year in my time zone, as of posting. It's actually already next year in some parts of the world.. hi family.. how's 2012? Here, it's still the old year.. and time to reminisce...

*picture goes all blurry while harp plays*

Well.. really, it's been much like most other fucking years, didn't achieve nearly what I wanted to, or what would be a regular level of achievement for a normal person, or even the modest tasks which I more realistically set for myself, but it wasn't so bad.

Did some travelling.. big trip to Canada and a stop by Berlin, and London, and later to Paris.. started a new job, something completely new as a tour guide, and made a much more concerted effort to get registered with casting agencies. It yielded exactly nothing but.. well, that's actually kind of crap.

Was in a few video project thingies, and an actual movie.. at least I equaled my average for a year.. and actually began making my own stuff. Started quite late in the year, and didn't do nearly as much as what I wanted to, and it's all pretty.. well.. bad, but considering I'd done it not at all any previous year this is a huge achievement. I think, even with the travelling, and actually having some formal employment, this is my most prized achievement of the year.

And when I look back on what I said a year ago ..

For the next year.. I dunno, more of the same, more movies, acting in and making, better movies.. both again. Get a job, an actual job that pays money and.. well, just be super awesome in general.

I haven't done so bad, I mean yeah, I pretty much did all those things, an of course, the last one I achieved quite beautifully :)

Goodbye 2011.

bout time I put up a pic..

from this trip thing..

Vancouver.

Well.. it seems I'm almost going home.

I've been here forever, "literally" forever. That is, about 10 days... anyway I'm off tomorrow evening.. to fly to London to fly to Berlin and hang out there for an eve and then go home.. and back to work, and other things that are a clusterfuck of fuckedupness that I need to sort out which I don't want to think about but for today, I'm still in Vancouver.

So.. been to a wedding, a bunch more brunches and lunches and dinners and barbecues, some were fun, some were meh, met a whole fuckload of new people.. at least I think I did because I vaguely remember these people things, anyway I don't remember most of them.

Went to the beach, actually dipped into the water though it was really cold and... some other stuff, wandered around the city, a few bars. Hung around this house a lot. Seems like I've been here forever.. it will be so strange to leave.

Took a lot of photos too.

*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 :/

*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.