Mentalechoes

Coming from Bris-vegas we know about snow on a conceptual level, much like we understand that protons are subatomic particles, and that women can’t drive (heh heh… sorry, cheap shot I know . We even used to create snow as kids by opening up the freezer door and scraping a fork over the frozen condensed bits on the sides. You had to be quick though because invariably this artificial snow would melt almost as soon as it hit the linoleum floor, leaving just a big wet puddle that would have mum screaming at you to clean it up roooollll fast! So living in Europe is something that is pretty amazing for me when we get to that time of the year when it does snow for real… like today.

Right now outside my windows, the whole landscape has this picturesque Narnia fairytale look to it, that is really quite beautiful. For me this is the real look of Europe; the ones that you hear about in stories and legends. When it’s very quiet late at night, I can almost pretend that I am in some kind of fantasy land… but the swedish bikini team girls never run out of the bushes and beckon for me to come away with them.

Now that I have my new central heater system I can honestly say that I like this time of year. It’s taken a while to come to this point. I think it took me about 3 years just to acclimatise to winters where it got colder than 15 degrees. Having cold winters really helps you appreciate warm summers with long grass and late light though! Bris-vegas has this constant temperature most of the year around so the summer doesn’t really mean as much as it does to us living in Europe I reckon.

Well one of these days I just have to get a digital camera so I can take some photos of this once a year phenomenon, because the snow here doesn’t last. Maybe a couple of weeks, so it’s worth enjoying now while we have it.

Hope all of you had a nice christmas and are having happy preparations for the new years eve party coming up!

Padwanna

In a lot of ways I am relieved we are now on the other side of christmas! Finally it means a chance to really start relaxing (at least for one day before my new years eve friends fly in en masse). The last week before christmas was pretty much 12 hour days at work, which ended with christmas drinks down at a local shopping center spanish tapas bar (put on by my company in lieu of a christmas party) where I got absolutely shitfaced in front of my peers. Ahh it’s got to be done really! I’m glad though that I’ve got 3 weeks off now before having to go back and show my face to anyone again. I am not sure if I did anything wrong, or behaved badly, but it’s this not knowing that worries me a bit. See being an Australian I have a different yardstick by which I judge “bad behaviour” from that of the local Dutchies. Most of em are all a bit prim and proper in my view, not really prone to overt acts of spontaneity or drunken stupidity, which I’ve always seen as positive personality traits rather than flaws.

The drinks night started off harmlessly enough with an open bar and a room disconcertingly filled with a male majority (tech companies rarely have an equal number of men and women). Since my first beer marked the official start of my holidays I downed it in two gulps and promptly called for another as the second one meant I was on my own time and I no longer had to talk to anyone in an official capacity. As far as I can remember there was only one other person there actually taking the drinking seriously, so we quite naturally ended up in a drinking competition together. Fortunately the arrival of tapas saved me from an early grave, so I tucked into the plates of calamari and fried egg plant (the only two things I can remember eating) in a dignified feeding frenzy. Now unsurisingly, when you’re pissed as a bastard you do tend to revert back to the language of your native home, which for me is a peculiar Aussie dialect called ‘Brisbane-boy drunken yobbo’. Other Aussies understand it, but to dutch people it’s no more clear than high speed Klingon. I fancied my chances with two of the (rare) girls that were there, but when I swaggered up to each of them in turn and in my best charming bastard manner asked, “G’dday darlin, lurverly liddle swaree we’re ‘avin ere eh, so wad are you up to for chrissy”? I was met with exasperated glazed expressions much like you would see in rabbits that have been force fed strong hallucinogenic compounds and then made to stare at bright lights. I wasn’t getting through at all. Mind you, I wasn’t surprised either, this wasn’t a new thing for me. When the second girl actually turned around and said to me, “was that english”? I knew then there I was going home alone, so I proceeded to get really shitfaced. I have blurred memories of drunken discussions with a number of people, but none of the details seem to have stuck. I don’t remember the metro ride home, but I do remember coming to on the couch and seeing Batman Begins three quarters of the way through on DVD. Some of this has actually imprinted itself on my subconscious because now when I am out in the crowds in town, I sometimes get the urge to fire my grappling hook onto a roof top, grab a hot looking chick and pull myself to safety! (I hope this passess soon… or I get a genuine batman utility harness complete with grappling hook!) From here I poured myself into bed!

The next day – the day before christmas – I woke up to the feeling of some vicious prick applying a power drill to front of brain just above my left eye. I also had that bad nauseous feeling you get that make you wonder if you actually will be able to hold any liquids down (you don’t know until you try)! I moved myself from bed back to the couch (that great soother of all male hurts both physical, spiritual and emotional) and sipped on cold water and took small bites out of a bananna, being as how they are easy to throw up. It took me fully two movies to feel well enough to begin the real hangover treatment consisting of liberal doses of fruit juice and beef/cheese toasties done with ciabatta rolls. The left side of my brain must have been planning this big party in secret from the right side because I had all of these things stockpiled away in my fridge. By the time the evening came around I was functioning more or less normally and I had removed the offending drill from my temple. I was due to head out again, but decided against it. Christmas day was going to be another test of manhood in the eating and drinking department and I didn’t see the need to start it in a weakened condition.

I’m not a drinker really, so I never worry about these binge drinking episodes. The way I look at it, it’s good to go crazy once a year at your work do. Most of us work pretty hard for our employers who rarely show their appreciation in any tangible monetary way, so the drinks (slash) christmas party is one way we can get a bit of our own back; by drinking as much as we can on them. I’m only sorry that I work at a place with largely boring people. What I wouldn’t give for a good christmas party like we had when I was working for the Queensland public service back home. Now there was a swaree worth remembering (even though you mostly couldn’t); loads of alcohol, food, snogs, and tears from the girls; the odd marriage proposal; the odd threat to stay away from her; the odd boss hug; and lots of “I LOVE YOU MATE… NO, I LOVE YOU MATE… NO, I LOVE YOU MATE”! And the whole time this is being watched and enjoyed by the big bosses who are extremely happy that the staff are finishing off the year on a high note!

The good old days! )

Next up I’ll tell you about christmas day and never ending mini salmon quiche!

Padwanna!

I can’t believe that christmas is almost upon us! It always seems like the last two months just fly past in a few heartbeats. Every year it’s the same; we get to the beginning of November and then time starts to speed up and we begin to get pulled toward christmas like it’s a blackhole. Then once we hit christmas we’ve got so much momentum that we literally slingshot past the days leading up to new years eve in this veritable blur. There always seems to be heaps to do between christmas and new year as well. It never ceases to amaze me; even when you think you have nothing to do, you end having to rush around in a mad panic to get this huge amount of unexpected stuff done. Always too when you’re trying to take it easy after the massive over indulgence of food, drinking and drugs that was christmas and boxing day. But try as you might, no matter how hard you attempt to keep it casual, those days from the 26th to the 31st see you running around like the Mad Hatter at his tea party on liberal doses of high grade speed! By the time new years eve actually comes, we’re all running on pure adrenaline and shaking all over with excitement! It’s because we’ve reached that magical time where all our experiences and successes and failures and hopes and dreams for the 365 days before, and the 365 days ahead all align to one point in time; midnight! The beginning of a new chapter, and the ending of an old one. When the clock strikes twelve we all peak together, in a moment of exctasy with everyone else around us like a global orgasm. It’s the release we’ve all been rushing towards, and once we’ve experienced it, then everything seems to slide back into normality. But there is that afterglow period for the next couple of weeks where everyone is feeling better and more positive. For a few short weeks we all feel good about ourselves and about life. Then inevitably bland reality sets in and we fall back into our routines and begin the long march again to the next new year.

Or that’s the way it goes for a lot of us at any rate! Normally I don’t really like the lead up to new years eve, there is always this intense pressure to make it a fantastic night that it flops just because you’re trying too hard. Kinda like sex with someone new for the first time! But this year I am genuinely excited. I have this feeling that this year is going to be my year! I can’t explain it, but I can see a number signs that finally my time has come. It’s been really difficult for me the last couple of years, but I have the feeling that this year it’s going to be different! It’s feels good… I feel good!

I wonder how it feels for other people? This is the time of year where I become intensely interested in other peoples lives too. (I love hearing about people stories, everyone has a story, even the most boring mundane routine person.) If you feel like it, write me a quick comment and tell me how you are feeling with the new year upon us and what you want to do this year.

I’d really like to know.

Padwanna!

Oh how the hearts of two lovers beats with such fierce force. The will of man cannot extinguish such passion as his will is not equal to such intensity for love is greater than all the elemental forces of the world. But alas the will of a queen is not that of ordinary men. And so one alone of womankind saw a debt honoured; a bride married; and true love broken. Committing such lovers to a life forlorn, taunted by memories of the sweet touch of skin from tender moments stolen. Though their fire shalt burn always, for that is the nature of true love! — A short dramatic peice in homage to Shakespeare in love, by Padwanna!

I was working late and had just come home, and after cooking up a dinner of carrots, diced steak and leak (all thrown into a pan and stir fried), I did a bit of a channel flick to see what was on. When I saw Gwyneth Paltrow all dressed up in her period costume I knew I had found Shakespeare in Love, and figured it might be worth watching. After all a friend of mine said it was the worst fucking movie he had ever seen, which I took to be a pretty good recommendation, as he’s the biggest computer gamer geek I’ve ever fucking known! As a sideline, it was during the years when my family unit consisted of my mum, my sister, and me, that I developed something of a feminine side and so actually came to like love stories (it’s just taken me till now to be comfortable enough to admit it publicly).

This movie was so amazing, that I just couldn’t help but get totally sucked into it! Gwyneth and Joseph (Fiennes) made such an intense performance in their doomed lovers roles, that by the time the end act came around I actually had a tear in my eye when the queen parted them for good. So much did I want them to be together, but at the same time, the sheer tragedy of them parting actually made it a better ending because in so many ways that is how love in real life goes (or it has for me).

For a long time I have believed in love that exists in real life as it does in fairytales; that love that burns in two people so hot that not mountains, nor oceans, nor dragons, nor any obstacle can keep them apart. I find there aren’t many people who believe in love like this, because in the modern day we are taught that such a thing can’t exist and many people settle for something less as a compromise so as to make sure they don’t end up alone. Personally I would rather be alone than compromise love, but that’s another story altogether. Seeing this movie showed me that such love can exist outside of fairytales. Viola and Will, embodied in these actors completely came alive and burned with a love so fierce I could feel it setting my own heart on fire. If love this like this didn’t really exist then noone would be able to write about it, and noone would be able to act it, and certainly noone watching would feel anything. So in this movie I saw everything I believe about love vindicated.

Love becomes something trivial and mundane only when it is felt so in the heart of the man or woman who carries it. But if they believe that it is something magnificent and divine, then so shall it become. The only question then left for fate to answer is, whether in the myriad of chance two star crossed lovers perchance to meet!

Well there is always dreams!

Padwanna!

“Work like you don’t need the money, love like you’ve never been hurt, and dance like noone’s watching.” Jared Kesler/ DJ Code

I came across this little peice of wisdom today while browsing the site of my favourite internet radio station ETN FM and immediately it struck a chord with me. (I totally love the music that they play here. I don’t even bother listening to anything else these days) This guy Jared is only 19, but he has this passion about him that really impresses me. He is one of the founders of the radio station; not only does he spin his own sets there, he is also one of the web developers and reporters. You just gotta admire that kind of energy and drive.

As I sat at my desk listening to some sweet progressive house tunes by Kenneth Thomas I couldn’t help but get caught up in the spirit of what Jared was saying. I can look back at this period of depression I am coming out of and I can see that a lot of it is because I am simply not living the life I want. But you know, that doesn’t mean it has to stay that way.

Then, almost as a sign (I see signs a lot these days), I got an msn message from a guy I used to work with asking me if I was still interested in publishing something. I said I was and he said, well then lets meet, I think I have a project for you. Right then the tune peeked and I was overcome with this amazing feeling of happy righteousness (is the only way I can explain it).

Really all of life is a risk, but you know, sometimes you just have to let go of comfort zone and take a chance on something. Especially when it feels right!

Padwanna!

You know it’s funny how fate sometimes brings wierdos back into your life that you had thought you’d left behind. Whenever this happens I always wonder whether there is some deep significance to it, or if it’s just a cruel coincidence. About a month ago I came into the office where I work, and I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw who was sitting in a rolley chair just spitting distance from my workstation! It was a wierdo collegue from a company I worked for like two and half years ago. For the sake of the story lets call him G-man.

Now when I originally met G-man at this first company I immediately picked him as some special breed of mongoloid! He would wear black leather pants to the office with socks and sandals and a beret. Okay, sure some people are total fashion victims and can’t coordinate anything you would consider socially acceptable, but leather pants with sandals and socks! What the fuck, mate!? Then there was the day he really earned his place in my special wierdo mong list when he complained that our office space was too hot and we should turn the thermostat down from 22 to 21. Other people very patiently suggested he might take off his long sleeve sweater if he felt it was too hot. G-man not agreeing with this course of action then went to the WHO website and found some obscure reference to the optimum room temperature being 21, which he then took directly to the CEO, bypassing every other manager, to make his case for the 1 degree change. The CEO more concerned with running a multimillion euro high tech ISP came into our room and asked if we were comfortable, to which we replied we were, and told G-man to take his jumper off. G-man then grumbled like a 5 year old for the next two months at having to put up with these sweltering temperatures. He never did take off his jumper!

So it was with much trepidation that I asked him on the first day he was there to come with my regular lunch crowd to get something to eat. You know, after all it was two and half years ago I had seen him, perhaps he was off the crack and okay now. I’m actually a very friendly person who likes to give people the benefit of the doubt, which in this case was just plain stupid and wrong! On the first day he proceeded to tell my lunch crew about the evils of sugar, why he only uses cash to buy things (he doesn’t want the government to know where he spends his money), and how big brother can see you everwhere, even underwater! Fortunately nobody blamed me, but they weren’t too keen to have him back again cause he had red lined on everybodies wierdo-meter.

Over the next month I would watch G-man not make any attempt to get to know the rest of his new collegues, but instead complain about how they talked and laughed with each other, to his manager. He requested of his manager (much to his total disbelief) that the company should build a wall-to-floor cubicle in the middle of the office just for him so he could work in silence, and also not be distracted by the view of the outside that can be seen through the panoramic windows of our walls. If this wasn’t enough, he also requested that the water cooler be moved to another floor as it was too noisey when dispensing water to a thirty workers empty cup! Maybe some of you are thinking I am making this up. Well I wish it were so, but this is really how he was.

Anyway today it all came to a head. After not getting his private cubicle, and people continuing to talk and laugh, and the water cooler not be taken to another floor, he decided to quit. He came over and said he was leaving, so I shook his hand and wished him luck for the future (because he is sure going to fucking need it)! I asked him why he was going, and he said it was because he wasn’t getting any cooperation from the company. Well yeah, I told him I understood because the water cooler never shuts up, and has a surly attitude towards people wanting a drink. He didn’t see the joke in that for some reason. About a half an hour later he packed up and left.

Now that he’s gone I wonder if G-man coming back in my life for that brief month was a sign or omen… or something. I know I have been finding life difficult for a little while, but honestly when I look at myself compared to that guy, I know that I have it easier. I mean, at least I have social skills and good way of dealing with people. I know that people also enjoy having me around in groups and enjoy it when I’m talking. G-man just seemed to radiate anti-charisma that made people not want to be around him for too long a period of time. I suppose liberal doses of crazy talk, like how the government can spy on you underwater will probably do that. I feel thankful really that as a person, I may not be the smartest guy around, but at least I know how be at ease with the world around me and make friends (if I’m actually taking applications at the time). People like G-man who are obviously very good in their academic field but who have no social skills must find it difficult to live in society because they just can’t find a niche for themselves. I can’t see how G-man’s next job is going to be any better or go any easier. I mean, at my place right now, the collegues are warm and friendly people who like to have a laugh. Sure they might be nerds and computer geeks, but they are genuinely easy people to work with who make an effort to make the working day as fun as possible (in a high stress IT environment). If G-man can’t get on with these guys, then I really wonder just who the hell he can get on with. Perhaps the best thing a company can do is stick him in a sound proof broom closet somewhere with no windows and a single light above his desk and leave him be. I actually think he would like that! Maybe he ought to try to get arrested and see if he can’t get himself put into solitary confinement in prison, it could be the perfect spot for him to do great things!

At any rate, life moves on, and probably a new wierdo will come along to take his place. I have this curse where I always have to have one really bad wierdo working with me in a workplace. I think it must have been put on my by a travelling gypsy because in my last three jobs I have had to work with some real fucking wierdos that totally test my patience to the limit. I’m a wierdo magnet, but not in a good way where I attract fun wierdo chicks with loads of tattoos that want to have loads of hot sex! No, it’s always some guy that sets my teeth on edge. Maybe I should go and visit a travelling gypsy woman and have it removed. I wonder how much that would cost, and if it’s a one visit treatment?

Padwanna!

As my friends and guild buddies will all know, I am a fairly enthusiastic player – at this point in my life – of a game called World of Warcraft. Well it’s called a game, but that conjures up an image of something on an xbox or playstation, or a single player game on your PC. WoW (as we players like to call it) isn’t a game in this regular sense, it’s much more. It’s part of a generation of games called MMORPGs, which stands for Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game. So what the shit does that mean, I hear some of you asking? Well basically kids, it quite simply means a game based in a virtual world populated by thousands of people, and you don’t so much play a game, but more you live in this world and take on the persona of a fantasy character, and adventure your way through a virtual life!

And that’s what makes it so fascinating and addictive really; you become totally absorbed in your character and those characters that you meet in the virtual world. So much so that you can forget that it’s all ‘virtual’, and start to believe that it’s all real. I should qualify that before some of you start thinking that perhaps I really have just lost the plot and should be given a room in a psych ward somewhere. By real I mean the characters in the game that become your friends in the virtual world are as real to you as every day friends in the meat world. You are aware that there is a real person behind them, even though don’t know that person, and you probably will never meet that person, and they won’t know the meat bodied you. However they know me as a troll hunter with a wolf pet, and I know them as orcs and taurens and undead and other trolls. All with their own personalities and personality quirks, all with a particular individual look about them, just like people in real life.

Right about now all the MMORPG gamers are nodding their heads in agreement, while the rest of you are all wondering just how far down the yellow brick road I am to mongo-land. Well my guess is that as time passes soon enough everyone will have heard of online games; chicks in relationships especially because it seems a lot of girls are losing their partners to online games. I also think as online games become more prevalent we’ll start to see an increase in girls making guys fill out an application form for the purposes of starting a relationship, which will have questions in it like:

-5a- Do you play online games (y/n)
-5b- Do you play online games more than 10 hours a week (y/n)
-5c- If yes then do you also answer to the name of Lunark The Righteous, or Thrug The Conqueror (y/n)
-5d- Do you consider your online character to be as real as me (y/n)?

Then down the bottom it will have a section in fine print that reads: Thank you for application, if you answered yes to all parts of question 5 then there is no way in hell I am going out with you. More, there is NO WAY that you are ever going to see me naked and play fun games in the bedroom! Why don’t you go and screw one of your virtual girls instead you useless nerd! Thank you, and thanks for trying!

I find MMORPGs fascinating too for another reason besides all the fun of living an alter ego and slaying dragons and demons with my friends; and that’s because I see it being a one of the ways civilisation will start to evolve. You all saw The Matrix, right? (If you didn’t then you’re a techno-dipshit and I have no idea why you are even reading blogs… since that’s techno… technically) So you will all remember how humans were basically jacked in to a virtual world with implants. In the short term I don’t see this happening, but say in 60 years, this is certainly not out of the scope of possibility. So let’s look at it then. Imagine being able to jack into a virtual world where we can create personas that look as good as Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, and the sex feels as real as a good solid shag right now! Cause really, sex is going to be the virtual world killer app!

As a sideline I remember seeing the holodeck on the Enterprise for the first time and Jordie was doing some whitewater rafting. I also remember thinking what a waste of time it was. If you can make anything, then for sure you’re gonna make a tropical island with just you and the swedish bikini team (or Chippendales depending on which way you swing, or if you’re a chick) and a shitload of KY jelly. Who the hell would go rafting?! Well it was a family show I guess, but you know, the holodeck would really be a place to live out porn fantasies! Anything else is really just fantasy!

So back to my main point, say you are a 140 kilogram woman with a neatly trimmed beard, or a 65 kilogram man living in your mothers basement because you’re useless, it doesn’t matter in an online world as noone will know the real you, but instead know your virtual personas. The woman could opt to look like Jessica Simpson with Pam Anderson’s breasts, and the slacker in the basement could choose to look like Arnie with Brad’s head. Isn’t that a recipe for fun! (I should point out that these images aren’t necessarily fantasies of mine, but just illustrations to make a point… really)! If they fall in love, it will still be real love because the feelings are still coming from within each person, that’s not computer generated. Even now we see marriages in WoW between men and women who love each other as characters. What reasons will there be to interact in a real way? All of a sudden distance will mean nothing, because in a virtual world, you can be anywhere at any time. From this point on, the possibilities for work and relationships go somewhere that noone can really yet imagine.

Sure it’s all pretty far fetched, but I’m sure back around 1900 they said the same thing about putting a man on the moon. It’s also the same thing my high biology teacher Miss Schulty said about me actually doing something meaningful with my life! I’m still hoping on proving her wrong at some point!

Padwanna!

A friend of mine took me to the Teylers Museum in Haarlem, which is north of Amsterdam by 20 minutes on the highway, to see an exhibition of Michelangelo drawings. For those of you who actually got an education which included art studies of some sort you will know he was the greatest genius of the Renaissance period. For those of you who didn’t get an education at all, now you know something you didn’t know before. But I learned something today that really surprised me; Michelango was totally gay! I mean he was so gay that he would have fit right in on a float at the Amsterdam Gay Parade.

I was surprised because he’s Italian, and I’m forever reading Cleo articles about how Italian men are the best lovers in the world. Aparently they can give women multiple orgasms just by looking into their eyes and asking them out. Between the sheets the experience is something akin to a shuttle takeoff, only over several hours. So knowing this, I was surprised when we were just starting our walk through the packed-like-a-sardine-tin 2nd gallery and my friend turned and she said to me, “You know he was gay, don’t you”?!

“Bullshit”, was my my witty retort! “He probably rooted so many serving wenches he would have been the first guy to be called the Italian Stallion”! After all, artists are known for having huge sex appeal, and there was nobody bigger in the art world at that time than him.

As we started wandering through the individual sketches and diverse anatomical drawings I began to get my first inkling that she might have been right. In all of the art I saw, all of his subjects were men; men sitting, men fighting, men flying, men laying, men on divans, men on altars, men in hell, men in heaven! Men everywhere! I did see one drawing of a woman, but she was just the barest of outlines on top, with the intricate detail being of the robe draped over her legs. The only way I knew it was a woman was because the title said, “Women with a robe”. Nary a breast outline to be seen! By the time we got to the end of the gallery I was in no doubt. The man had a definite thing for blokes. He loved a mans shape and he loved arses! Michelangelo was definitely an ass man!

The drawings themselves were of course excellent. And even being a straight guy I gained a new appreciation for mens arses, and shoulders and legs and other manly bits that you can only get from a master (gay) artists work. But for me the biggest impression of the event was still finding that he was gay! Because that means somebody in Cleo magazine was lying about the Italian guys after all!

I knew it all sounded too good to be true!

Padwanna!

Right well I’m still in the flat, because just as I decided to go, it’s started to piss down rain.

Why is it whenever I want to go somewhere it starts fucking raining?

Is this some kind of cosmic conspiracy to keep me wet and cold? Damn well feels like it. Yes, Europe in winter time, isn’t it grand!

On the positive side, I have actually worked out the first four chapters of my book, which I am going to call, ‘What kind of drink is that: a backpackers life in a London pub’.

It’s going to be about my first six months in London when I worked in an pub in Bayswater. Should be a hoot! I’m chuckling to myself already with some of the notes I’ve written.

When I’m done you all have to buy a copy!

Padwanna!

Well I was on my way out, but I am sitting here listening to the new Moby CD ‘Hotel’. Jezuz this is a class peice of music. And his cover sleeve is such a great peice of writing (right up to the part where he loses it and talks about being a robot). I find it very inspiring. I play Moby mostly when I am writing because I find it really pumps my creativity way up.

It has struck me that now more than ever, music is such an important part of life. Good tunes transcend the individual instruments and lyrics and touch something deep inside our emotional core. It brings to the front of our consciousness a lot of feelings which can otherwise be buried away during day to day life. Music can also help us make sense of our own state of being, and give us an understanding of our place in society. A good friend of mine whose husband died recently told me that without the music she found, she may not have come through it with her sanity intact. I’m guessing everyone old enough to have experienced life in an adult way would be able to empathise with her. Sitting here listening to tunes that make me feel like life is good and I am happy to be here right now, I sure know what she means.

I think I might buy another couple more CDs while I am out this afternoon.

So yeah the other thing I just thought of was writing some kind of journal style book about living here in Amsterdam, in the same vein as John Birmingham’s He Died With A Felafel In His Hand. This book is hands down one of the goddamned funniest things I have ever read, bar none. It’s right up there with Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter. S. Thompson, and The Wrong Way Home by Peter Moore. Seriously I would suggest all of you to buy this book, cause man, it will have you pissing yourself with laughter (that’s a good thing by the way)!

The thing is, anyone who writes blogs can writes this style of book. Just like any traveller who writes blogs could have written The Beach by Alex Garland. These stories are collections of life events put together into a story that flows from point A to point B chronologically rather than being based around a traditional plot you find in mainstream fictional literature.

How hard can it be right? Like John (Birmingham) says, all it takes is a word processor and a few wacky experiences, and there you go, you’ve got a book!

Well for someone who’s life is actually the definition of wacky, I’m halfway there. And thanks to the pirated copy of M$ word, I’ve got the other half. Too easy to not try really!

So having said that, do any of you mind if I use your real names?

Padwanna!

PS: Bill, when I said “pirated”, I actually meant legally purchased at extortionist prices from a store downtown. Honest!