Someone should tell this guy that Vana Tallinn being awesome is old news.
news
Happy New Year!
Ok, maybe it won’t be so happy. I suppose we’ll find out as it unfolds… Yay for optimism.
I know I shouldn’t bother saying it, but yes, I realise it has been a while. Sorry.
Another roundup:
- I got my new passport ($330 later, that is)
- I got my new license ($130 later, that is)
- The new reception is all for nothing, as we’ve been kicked out by the owners. We’re moving down the street.
- I still haven’t been back to Juuksur.
- Rob came to visit.
- Suvi and Heli came to visit.
- Emily came to visit.
- My parents came to visit.
- John came to visit.
- Teo came to visit and didn’t do any magic tricks.
- A friend from high school, let’s just call him McKinnon, came to visit.
- Someone stole my iPod from the basement when I wasn’t here. I bought a new one. 160 gigs, woo!
- Christmas was very quiet and boring.
- New Year’s Eve was very loud and mental.
- There’s still no snow but the temperature is finally sub-zero.
- Marika and I are still together, even though I didn’t buy her a Christmas present. Old habits are hard to break.
I still haven’t learnt much more Estonian. I will have to try harder. Marika’s family gave me an Estonian/English pocket dictionary for Christmas. Subtle.
Yes, we’re moving out of Lai and down to Olevimägi. That’s right, opposite Levist Valjas. Uh oh. The building is great inside – newly renovated in fact – but probably won’t be very quiet during summer. Never mind, nothing ever is.
Our basement bar has also completely flooded with water and smells like death. Fortunately we managed to move out all the furniture just in time. Moving everything to the new building (everything that will fit) has already proven irritating but there’s not much left to take any more. Except heavy things. Like foosball tables.
At least we won’t have to carry the DVD player, since some stupid Erasmus students (I think) stole it. Idiots.
I still haven’t had a hair cut. Not for over a year-and-a-half now. I’m so wild. At least I cut off my beard every 2 weeks or so. Now for my fingernails…
We have a fourth Estonian working here now. Another young one. She’ll be remembered eternally for her New Year’s performance, but let’s not get into that on the Internet. Today there’s meant to be another girl coming to volunteer for 2 weeks. She arranged it months ago, when we thought we’d be staying in this building. I’m sure she’s going to be surprised.
In other good news: I don’t seem to have gained any winter fat. At least nothing obvious. Too bad I haven’t lost any, either.
Thursday roundup
That’s right, another randomly timed summary of my world’s events. Are you ready to feel the rush?
Good. Let’s get to it then.
Firstly, hostel related: Viru’s looking rather spic and span, all the rooms are beautifully colour-coordinated, clean and inviting. The sun’s shining brightly through the windows all day long and keeping the place warmer than it should be thanks to the combination of solar radiation and central heating.
The king of the couch is back on his throne, everyone’s checked out for the day and that laundry’s hanging up to dry. Tomorrow we’re getting more guests and it should be a piece of pie.
Nightlife: I can’t recall if I mentioned going out on Monday night. Well, I did. In the manner of all true good nights out it started somewhat spontaneously. Some cheap beer and a half dozen foosball games in the hostel with John kept me occupied for an hour or so and then we went out with Val and Ben while poor old Emily slept on the couch for night shift.
Levist was on the agenda, as always. We stayed there until it closed at around 3am, meeting and greeting some drunk and blind drunk locals. I received the privilege of listening to a 30-something bitterly intoxicated Estonian regale me with his tales of learning kick boxing after being beaten up by Russians and having a tooth knocked out, at least that’s what I think he was saying, since I could barely understand him. He also tried to channel with me telepathically or something by sending out energy from his palm to mine. It reminded me of the guy that tried to hypnotise me then collapsed on the floor and passed out. I’ve gotta keep away from these hippies.
Some girl that lived in a monastery (seriously) also joined up with us for the night. We headed for The Old Club of course, as it was late and it was Monday and we had no other option. As expected, by that hour we were speaking nothing but bullshit. Money got wasted on pissy flaming B52 shots, twice, to no effect. I just couldn’t get decently inebriated. It could have been due to the quantity of food I’d eaten for dinner that dear Emily cooked for me. Probably.
Around 5:30am the slightly toothless Estonian arrived in the bar with, of all people, a recurring hostel guest: Portuguese Miguel. Things felt tense for a few moments as we’d told Toothless that we were going home and we’d had a slightly awkward relationship with Miguel of late so we weren’t sure what to do. We did the normal thing, a pleasant acknowledgment and a civil nod of the head. They were in a group with some others and sat somewhere else and we didn’t have to move. We were happy until 6:30am when we left and wandered home.
Plans: Em and I are going to Vilnius on Monday or Sunday. We’re going to be down there for a few days. Em’s adamant that we have to be somewhere else for our 1 year and I’m too scared to argue. Hopefully Simone will have some free time to show us around, local style. Em wants to check out some little forest cottage that Livijus told us about as well, so if time permits that’d be really nice, too.
Miscellaneous: I read this earlier today. It made me laugh.
The system designed to protect next-generation DVDs from pirates has been cracked. Even the hackers are surprised at how easy it was…
Animal testing is hilarious
I mean, have a look at this fella:
Poor guy. Actually he doesn’t look too bad. Won’t be long now until we can all be cyborgs or have behavioural implants! Read about it here.
Apart from that. Not a lot to report. Viru’s rooms just got a major clean out yesterday so now we’re feeling rather dominant over the whole building. Well, this part of it at least. We even got to design the colour schemes for each room so that they look pretty. Aw.
I’ve been feeling pretty tired lately. Not sure why. Maybe I’m just lazy. Not as lazy as palmy, but still. I can’t even be motivated to cut my fingernails, for example.
I think I’ll watch Labyrinth tonight.
Tossing coins
So, apparently I’m employed here now. I don’t get a lot, but I’m getting enough to help me get by much more comfortably.
The problem now is trying to get myself an Estonian visa. Yes, to stay. Apparently I can visit the Australian embassy in Helsinki to try and get either a working holiday or residence visa. Christ knows. I’ll work it out when Em gets over here.
That’s right! Emily’s soon to be on her way. Thursday is E-Day. Things are going to be much more interesting around here, and life is going to be a lot more challenging. Only in regards to having to worry about the fates of two people instead of just my own. Oh, I’m so grown up.
So, I’m thinking about buying a laptop, too. A good one. Yep. Great news.
My last dilemma is what I’m doing for New Year’s. I could stay in Finland but they need me here to work but it depends if I get my visa back fast enough. So much to think about.
So little to worry about. Probably.
Bus drivers: universal arseholes
Time for a quick Seinfeld impersonation:
What’s the deal with bus drivers? Why are they always in such bad moods? You’d think you’d be happy if you got to cruise around all day in a vehicle so big only a monster truck or a semi trailer would mess with you. It’s not like they’re frustrated with traffic; they’re not trying to get home in a hurry.
Ok. Hopefully that set the tone for this piece.
I’ve never had good experiences with bus drivers. The only memories I’ve ever had are of them being aggressive and mean, horrible people. I never really took the bus to school when I was young but I remember everyone had to have a bus pass. I also remember that the bus drivers would act as if they were working border patrol as customs officers whenever an 8 year old would hop on without the correct papers. What’s the big deal? Who the hell cares if a couple of schoolkids hop on a bus without a pass? It’s not costing the bus driver anything and the kids only need to ask their school to give them the pass and they get one. They still don’t pay for anything. The same goes for trains, but I’m not going to go into that here.
Even after my schooling days, they still run around as if they’re upholding some important station in society. I got verbally assaulted once by a bus driver because I didn’t have small enough change for my ticket. I believe the fare was meant to be $2.40. I only had a $10 note but I did have $0.40 in coins on me, so to be considerate and make the drivers job easier for me I handed him $10.40 so that he could just scrape up my $8 in change without having to think about it. Boy was I wrong.
Apparently I was out of line. I was meant to have THE CORRECT CHANGE. Taken aback, I stammered something out about how I didn’t have any change and couldn’t help it. Livid, the driver yanked the cash out of my hand and with a red face and steaming ears, went to all the trouble of picking up a $5 note and two little golden coins and threw them at me along with my ticket. He then continued to complain about how I was somehow fucking up the system because he didn’t have enough money in his till to break $10 notes… Even though he did. To cut a long description of a pointless argument short, he was a prick.
I’ve had other ridiculous experiences in Sydney but there’s no point rehashing them now. I will, however, share a brief whine about one of my Finnish bus mishaps.
Being a good commuter, I arrived 15 minutes early at the bus stop, eagerly waiting for my ride to the city centre of Lahti in order to frolick down to the main bus terminal and take a 2 hour trip to Tampere for a night of fun and alcoholism. Again, story short, the bus was 10 minutes late and drove straight past me while I stood in front on the bus stand. I waited another 20 minutes for the next bus even though it should only have been 10 and in frustration decided to simply walk to town. Of course, I’d already missed my scheduled bus by then and had to make my friend wait for me and watch our bus drive off, as he was there on time. I think he got a lift or something.
The good news is that while bus drivers may be pricks, they’re also stupid. When I finally got onto the bus headed for Tampere I managed to down a whole bottle of vodka in the back seat while I listened to my 80s pop collection on my iPod.
It’s not easy being this hardcore.
Hi!
The good news is that I’m alive.
The potentially bad news is that I’m trying to update my travelpod again and it’s going to be a lot of reading (and writing).
These whacky Italian net cafes don’t ever seem to want to let me copy my photos off my camera, so they’ll be coming later.
The end.
P.S. I love you all.
Coughing.
TOFU GOT DRUNK LAST NIGHT.
I just had to make that official. Boy is he a cutie. The little darling just wanted to hug and squeeze us all evening. He’s still curled up on the couch feeling sorry for himself. I’m playing music to be a prick.
He actually slammed through quite a lot of vodka shots. Probably 9 or 10 along with a little KB, butterscotch schnapps and goon. No vomit. Hurrah!
palmy’s going to give me some videos and photos he took, so you can all spread the news over the intarweb.
I’m planning on going off to get my backpack today. Hopefully I’ll be able to find the MLC centre and pick up a sexy travel adapter because I want it.
Strangely enough, I’ve started to use the to-do list on my mobile phone as a reminder of the other odds and ends I want to get through before I leave in … 15 days! :O Fuck.
This phone burns through fucking batteries. I bought a new one off eBay and it still dies after about 15 hours of moderate use. What the hell’s with that? Maybe I’ll be able to nab another one O/S or just before I leave. Lucky I have a spare battery, but Jesus.
I found out that palmy was planning a surprise going away party for me. Unfortunately I fucked it up by accident as he didn’t realise I had other plans for that day. That’s the risk of surprise parties, I guess. I probably won’t have a chance to see as many people now, but meh.
I have fuzzy hair growing from my head hair down the sides of my neck and it’s quite long and it shits me. I need to tidy up the back of my hair a bit. Fascinating, I know.
Last night we saw an X-box with a controller in a pawn shop for $150. If I gave a shit/wasn’t leaving I’d be tempted to buy it for that kind of price. Tempted.
My hair’s long. I look like a wild man. Maybe it’s the beard assisting. Bushy. Brr. I’m impersonating Ryan Reynolds in Blade 3 but without the vampire slaying. I still have the weapons.
I really should use a dictionary. God damn it.
Blargh.
This keyboard sucks hairy, sweaty balls. Hot.
Never go wireless, kiddies.
First night out to the Townie for a long time. Just been out with palmy, enjoying getting drunk and smoking Winfields (don’t tell mum). Fuck this keyboard makes me want to cry.
We got free cheese twists from the bakery tonight. palmy paid for a cheese and bacon bun/loaf thingy each, too. Somehow we managed to nab a throwaway sourdough loaf, too. Good times.
I’m drunk. Like the olden days. I really should go to bed as it’s 5:20am. 5:22am to be precise. Meh.
I leave in just over 4 weeks. Anyone going to miss me? I suppose most of you won’t notice, especially since I’ve been somewhat offline lately. Partly pussy-whipped, partly no keyboard. Whatever.
I’m going to continue updating this LJ during my travels, as I’m too lazy to set up a gay travelling blog anywhere else in the meantime. I might check out travelpod, but I’m not that keen on it. Lazy, etc. I’m sure you’ll all be riveted to know what lame shit I’ve been up to.
In other news, my pussy whipping of spending time with Emily is fun, as most men know but hate to admit. Actually, it’s only fair that I confess that I would have updated/been online more if not for my broken keyboard, but that sounds like a weak excuse. Anyway…
Palmy’s addicted to World of Warcraft again. Fag.
I’m too drunk to care and he knows it.
Yay.
I’ve been listening to more music. Synthpop is the best. I’m very into De/Vision and Fischerspooner (just the Odyssey album, especially “Cloud” these days ;)) at the moment. Pirate them if you want a thrill.
Tally ho until the next time, lovelies.
Yo.
Hi.
Miss me?
Didn’t think so.
I swapped the fucking Atom with dad’s old Nokia 7250i. I’m much happier. I may end up getting a Nokia N80 when they become available instead of the 6280. Woo.
I may also need to actually buy a digital camera. It depends whether or not I get the N80, methinks.
In other news, I’ve wisely decided to start going out with someone two months before I leave the country. Dumb idea, really, I know. Still, a little drama always keeps things interesting. Her name’s Emily.
In a budget-rescuing exercise, palmy and I have started buying goon en masse for our “drinking habit”. On Sunday night we had 136 standard drinks worth of cask wine lined up in our fridge for the low-low price of $56 between us. They’re a great resource for drinking games.
My manorexia is being ruined by all the food I’ve been eating lately. I’m going to have to resist. I don’t feel bad for eating food, I feel bad for eating too much because I know I don’t do enough exercise. After having put as much weight on as I did a few years ago then managing to lose it all and more I simply refuse to let it happen again. It’s hard when you have no self control when it comes to flavour. Meh.
We lost netball on the weekend, even though we won 3 of the 4 quarters (so we get bonus points). Typically, the quarter that I didn’t play in resulted in a score of 20-4 to the opposition. The advantage was too great for us to recover. I certainly enjoyed beating up the female goalkeeper from the other team who seemed to think it was my fault that I kept running into her whenever she deliberated stepped in front of my path to block me. She didn’t look too happy when I pushed her off me simply by raising my arm up and shifting all her body weight downwards so that she staggered and nearly fell to the floor. The other highlight was when she kept pushing into me while I just stood there and held her off until the umpire called her for contact and I got to shoot a goal. Apparently after the game she ran straight off the field and complained to the management that the umpire wasn’t picking up any of my “dirty” play.
I wasn’t dirty, I’m just good. ;) Silly bitch.
Time’s running out and I need to get myself a UK visa. Thursday. Always Thursday. The weeks are going so quickly now, it’s freaking me out.
I went to my cousin’s 21st at the Harbord Diggers Club on Saturday. Even my mum said it was boring. I had more fun driving there and back. I also blew $40 on the poker machines in there out of sheer boredom. Think about that for a second.
palmy rolled his ankle after netball a week ago, then completely stuffed it last Friday when he went out dancing after breaking up with his girlfriend. He didn’t get it looked at until Sunday and by then it had swollen up to about three times the size of his opposite foot, with brusing all around the toes and heel. The ligaments are swollen and sticking up, too. Fortunately he got a massage from a physio student at work to clear it up a bit but he’s going to need to do some more work to it.
Last night was the first night in about a week that I’ve gotten a proper sleep. I crashed at 12:30am and didn’t bother getting up til about 1pm. I’ve picked up a sore throat and cold in the meantime, so I’m working on getting rid of it through lethargy.
Damn, I have to catch up on my Naruto and Bleach episodes. Berserk, too. Good times ahead.
the knob blog 