life

Day-to-day events and activities.

Sheepish update

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It seems that almost every other blog I read has updated today. I thought that I should, too.

I’m about to be very poor as I’m going to be paying rent and bills from now on! It’s time to rob a bank.

That also means my Tartu time is winding down. This weekend I will be dragging all the clothes (all the clothes I didn’t actually need to bring) back to Tallinn and dumping them somewhere else. I really should have a clean out.

This has been a rather lazy escapade in the “city of good thoughts”. This apartment has about 4 supermarkets within 4 minutes walk from the front door but it’s a fair way out from the centre. Well, about 25 minutes walk. In Sydney that would be nothing, but I’m spoiled from inner-city and old town life now. What that means is that I’ve spent most of the last month being utterly unproductive, just sitting in the bedroom with my laptop. Guilt has seeped in but it will be short lived. As always.

My rationalisation for this behaviour is due to my new lifestyle-budgeting scheme. Attempting to budget, I should say. I’ve certainly cut back on expenses here compared to my previous habits but unfortunately not quite as much as I imagined. Then again, there’s still one more week to improve!

I do feel like half of my body has atrophied. Never mind. It’ll come back. I just hope I find a lot of money by accident, somewhere.

This would be dole bludging; if I was getting paid for it

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Hello, dear reader. I’m sure you’ve noticed my absence of late. Not to worry! I’m only being extraordinarily lazy. Yes, even by my standards.

I’ve been spending time in Tartu for the last week-and-a-half. Mostly in my underwear but sometimes I wear a pair of shorts and a wifebeater singlet. It’s very comfortable. The days are flying by and I’m not really doing anything but the random bit of exercise and spending money irresponsibly. In fact, the only “decent” thing I’ve done is attempt to mail a painting made by Marika and myself to my mother. I’m sure she’ll think it’s crap but as a result of her long-suffering separation anguish it’ll probably be mounted over a fireplace or something.

Tomorrow afternoon I’m going back to Tallinn for the weekend. Little Liisu is having her first birthday! I hope there are streamers. Of course there won’t be, but still.

Crank II is out but I’m yet to see it. Hopefully I can rally up a gang to see it this weekend in Tallinn. I’ve been excited about the release of this film for a long time now. Here’s hoping it’s at least half as a fun as the original.

Yesterday I had a lot of things in my head that I wanted to write about, now I can’t think of them at all. I will blame all the water pipe abuse I have been partaking in.

Nannyknob

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This week has been phase 2 of my re-domestication. Now I’m allowed to play with infants.

Babysitting (or to be more accurate, in my situation: baby entertaining) is still new enough for me that I find it rewarding. I’ve had practice with Hugo’s kids but that was always in a “public environment”. Now I’m in the domicile and not only is it more natural, it’s more messy.

Part of the grubbiness comes from the fact that little Liisu is just under 12 months old, so she’s quite thrilled to be able to stumble around and pick things up, throw them, drop them, break them and bite them. I haven’t had to live with it every day for 12 months so I still find it cute. Of course her parents still find her adorable too, yet I’m sure it’s a lot less exciting when you’ve been doing it for that long. I guess the biggest reward is that you get to see the child develop more and more abilities and form a more complicated personality as they age. Delayed gratification, once again.

Fortunately I seem to be liked by the little ones. Yesterday I was surrounded by three toddlers of various ages, none older than three years old (I’m guessing). Maybe it’s because I look so different from most people here due to my long hair and beard that I’m met with a quiet curiosity by children. Then again, it might just be that I know what faces to pull at them now in order to avoid terrifying them (I used to have a great track record of inducing horrific reactions in small children simply by smiling at them).

When I’m not distracting babies for the purpose of providing their parents with a few moments of rest I tend to find myself cleaning up after them. After almost 3 years of hostel life this is basically second nature to me now. I no longer feel comfortable in an untidy environment that isn’t solely my own space. I admit I get a small high after cleaning or tidying something as the contrast is so blatant. In fact, I often find myself imagining what my “dream house” would have for a floor plan and what style of fittings – such as sinks and tables and chairs it would contain. I mentally rank designs according to function, simplicity, robustness and style. After having been responsible for keeping many kitchens, living rooms, bedrooms and bathrooms constantly clean and organised for dozens of people at a time I believe I have an advantage in determining how to furnish and lay out a room.

Of course I never went to interior design school or any of that crap but I’ve had years of hands-on experience and you can’t teach that, as they say.

Maybe that’s what I should do for a job.

Vroooooooooooom

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I’m enjoying the Bugged Out! Classics album at the moment, although laptop speakers don’t really do it justice. Still, what’s a boy to do?

Yesterday was probably one of my more pathetic efforts in the gym. I didn’t last long and I didn’t get much done. It’s amusing that I’m definitely less efficient and active now that I’m not living on a couch. You would think that I’d be able to develop a regular sleeping pattern and establish some kind of routine now that I have some privacy.

Instead I’ve been sleeping in until 1-2pm, not eating enough during the day and spending a fuck-tonne of money on alcohol as everyone seems to be in party mode again. It must be due to the weather lightening up and the influx of energy that comes with gaining two new, nice volunteers.

Don’t get me wrong – I’m having fun. It’s just weird. It’s nice feeling free again and having Levist lock-ins with the staff and receiving alcohol from them at no charge. I must be a little bit influential. Sometimes I wish I could be coercive as well but I’ve only got the ability to come off as “pushy”.

I really need to buy some new (or second-hand) trousers. I only own one set that does not have the arse ripped out of it. That doesn’t worry me so much because A) I don’t care and B) I have a nice arse. It’s just reassuring to know that my pants don’t run the risk of obliteration whenever I sit down or stand up too quickly.

Twitter is playing with my head at the moment. I’ve never been one to religiously follow conversations and spend 5 hours straight chatting back and forth to everyone (as it really does act like an IRC client in SMS-form) but I do enjoy updating my status with what I’m doing from time to time. Why is this playing with my head? Because it stops me from writing my blog properly as essentially this is paragraph after paragraph of what I’ve been doing. If you read my Twitter page it would be an even more brief summary of this site, potentially.

So, what do I do about this? I don’t know. I think I’ll try to balance it out and use this for thoughts and ideas and keep Twitter as a mood or status broadcaster. Of course, if I wasn’t so lazy with writing I would actually come up with a proper article or two for this site that wasn’t wholly to do with my own small world.

Then again, no one reads this anyway.

Twit to wit

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Yeah, I re-registered my Twitter account. Follow it if you like. It’ll be like this blog but even more concise. I might put a stream up here, too.

Gym was hard today. I feel a bit weak. Perhaps I should have some more protein powder as that surely helps give me strength. Like a proton pill for Roger Ramjet.

I’m listening to a Thunderheist album at the moment and after 1 song I think it’s good. Since I’m very fickle my opinion may change at any moment.

Last weekend I picked up Psychonauts and Beyond Good & Evil from Steam as they were on sale. They’re console ports but they’re reasonably well done and I find the games to be rather enjoyable. Psychonauts is definitely worth the purchase and deserves more praise and hype than it seems to have received. It has good review scores but I think it went over the heads of most gamers as it looks more like a children’s game… It’s not.

Tim is going to make chicken with potatoes and … mango curry? I can’t remember. On Monday I made burritos for everyone and we farted like there was no tomorrow. I even went to Levist with Tim and Marika for a gin and tonic. A dry gin and tonic.

In other news, I feel like having a fight.

Tartu break

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Yeah. I made it down to Tartu again for the first time since November. Marika’s very pleased. She managed to convince me to run away for a few days.

She’s moved into the bigger room of the flat. Looks good. The balcony is especially useful for providing fresh air. Unfortunately the floor-bed still kills my back while I sleep so I feel like an old cripple when I wake up in the morning.

Today we’re meant to go visit the toy museum. I’ve been trying to get to it for about a year and a half now and never been able to manage. Mum and dad will be jealous of me this afternoon.

Unfortunately I’ll probably miss two sessions at the gym this week. Never mind. I don’t want to look too good too fast, after all. I just wish my skin didn’t feel so dry. It feels like I’m shedding, or something. Disgusting.

Empire:Total War is pretty cool. It does indeed have long loading times but the game itself runs smoothly, although I do have everything set to minimum. I could probably up the details a bit but I don’t really see the point. It’s definitely a more complex and challenging game than the previous releases. I find even the starting campaign scenarios are difficult to manage if you don’t have a steady plan from turn one.

Last Friday a few of us went to a concert in Juuksur. We missed the main band but caught the second act, which was Rumour is News. I’ve seen them before and, well, they’re alright. A little boring perhaps. Marika was enraged that they didn’t play Flex Your Muscles during the set and they refused to even after she ran up to the stage to request it. She wanted this American girl that was drinking with us to hear it. Such is life.

On Saturday we made bread. Well, Marika did in Kea’s bread machine that Hugo bought her that she never used. He then gave it to me to put in the hostel. It’s like following a coin around, really. Raisin bread! It was fucking tasty. I’m too lazy to make more myself at the moment, but I will probably attempt to soon enough.

My hair is fluffy.

Huge guns

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I was so fed up with myself for being a pathetic weakling after 6 months in the gym. To remedy this, I decided to actually get a bit serious. I now write down all the exercises that I do each session and have altered my diet appropriately.

In the last 2-3 weeks I’ve begun to feel a lot better, have lost some weight and can see that I’m actually beginning to make genuine progress in the gym. I’m glad I’ve finally started doing things this way, I’m just frustrated it took me this long to begin.

My Baltic Tour is starting to come together. We’re really not as prepared as we should be after this long, for various reasons. It wouldn’t be such a big deal if we didn’t already have some potential business! There’s nothing like instant pressure to get things done. Hopefully we won’t fuck anything up with these first few clients and then we’ll be underway.

There are not many staff left in the hostel. Hugo’s started working almost every day, fortunately. He even did his first night shift last night. I don’t think the door bell rang once, so it doesn’t count. Ha. We haven’t had a big group of Spanish students stay here for a few weeks, so I’m not feeling ultra-negative at the moment. What luck!

Eagle 8 came back from Keri island with short blonde hair. I didn’t recognise her at first. It looks good. Nice one. I’m half tempted these days to cut all my hair off, too. I still like having it a bit longer, though. I feel like i look like a viking.

Unfortunately, I soon won’t look like a viking. I’m going to have a sauna and cut off my beard. I wish I hadn’t lost the power pack for my beard trimmer. Now I have to borrow Tim’s hair clippers all the time (or just shave more frequently). Fucking hair. Bah.

Turns out Darkfall is pretty useless. Well, it impressed me a lot more when I first read about it compared to when I first saw it in action. I suppose that’s normal, really, but still. The fighting looks like a knife fight in any other FPS game and nothing at all like a game that has been designed from the ground up for 8 years specifically for melee PVP.

Oh yes, I should mention that the Granny Smith apples that are imported here from France are tops. I’ve been annoying everyone by constantly pointing out that they were originally cultivated in Eastwood. I just began eating one when Anna stole it. Now she’s standing around talking some moonspeak language into her phone and not giving it back. Fucking slavs.

This is what happened today

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I woke up around 11 with a hangover and feeling sweaty under my blanket. My hair looked funny, too. We’d had a party for Val’s birthday the night before and I drank mostly red wine.

That wasn’t an altogether unfamiliar experience and neither was my stomach being bloated and flabby and my bitch tits slapping around under my arms.

Getting up wasn’t too fun. Fortunately Tim was kind enough to provide me with a fruit smoothie and a bowl of muesli for breakfast along with a cup of tea. I also got to play with Roosi. She still keeps demanding to see Marika.

Tim even made a tasty vegetable soup for lunch without burning it!

Sounds alright so far, doesn’t it?

I worked on some stuff for My Baltic Tour with Hugo and Pete emailed us a possible site redesign. Woohoo.

Somehow it became 6 pm and we decided to go to the gym. I then became wholly disgusted at how miserably weak I have become. I was stronger when I first went to the gym with no training compared to today. I also felt like I looked devastatingly round around the waist. Even the cardio session nearly caused me to faint.

To make myself feel better I decided to cook some good food. Chicken, onion, mushrooms, potatoes, capsicum, peas, corn, green beans and kidney beans! It was fantastic. Well, pretty much.

Unfortunately, I slipped in the ice on the way back and nearly fell. This sudden movement apparently caused the bottom of the grocery bag to split and all my purchases went flying across the road. Hurrah.

To make it worse, Hugo saw it happen. I then had to hold a gate open for him in the cold until he could drive his van out and away. I tried waving goodbye to Roosi but she just looked at me funny.

I finally returned to our kitchen and promptly embedded a small sliver of glass into my foot that took Maarja about 5 minutes of digging around with needles and tweezers to remove. She was kind enough to put a bandage on my bloody cut.

The food tasted really good, though.

I’ve decided that I will indeed research some proper nutrition and weight training. I’m sick of looking exactly the same as I did 8 months ago when I first joined the gym. This sucks.

Chili con carnYEAH

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Anna-Lotta just brought around some fucking awesome chili. Hot as hell and loaded with flavour. My mouth is burning, my belly is smiling and my arsehole is quivering in fear.

I want some more! That was the only thing that has happened today so far that didn’t suck.

Where’s Heli? Aren’t you meant to be here now? Lazy bastard.

The gym was alright. I feel so much weaker only after one week. I guess my bad diet over the weekend didn’t really help. At least I did some cardio for once. I’ve decided I’m just going to lift lower weights a lot more frequently in the (probably vain) attempt to enhance my muscle endurance.

Of course, I have no idea if that is the right thing to do at all. I’m just too lazy to read some proper literature on the subject. I think I fear that if I start I will spend about 6 hours going over information. This isn’t such a bad thing. Unfortunately, I am a bad thing.

I flossed my teeth earlier, now one of them hurts. What the fuck?