Saturday, January 10, 2009

Updaaaaate

Okaaay, I've been lax in my writing duties. I put this down to moving house.
Just before xmas I managed to rent a lovely little 1 bedroom apartment. Course it's costing me a bit of a bomb every month not to mention bills bills bills and more effing bills, but at least I don't have to put up with one little indian girl with a big arse (if I said "with a big ass" it would sound like she owned a donkey or something) stomping up stairs louder than a chimney collapsing, nor a fat couple who had a habit of blocking the hallways whenever they left their room. That's how fat they were. Nor a chubby indian girl (another one) who lisped and had a tendency to repeat her sentences. "Oh yah Australia is so sunny with all that sun" and rubbish like that, despite that she was ok to chat to.

Now I live in a nice quiet street with little traffic (the old place was next to a train yard and on a direct approach line for all the planes landing at Southampton Airport) and the only neighbours are a family of three who are fairly quiet, or that might just be the insulation. I won't post pics yet cos it's still barely furnished.

It took me about 2 weeks to get internet connected mainly because British Telecom or BT decided that everything was ok at their end but didn't check the exchange just up the road, idiots, so they had to get someone to work on boxing day, poor bastard. Still at least I am now reconnected to the information superhighway.

These days I feel more settled in. I guess it's having a place to call home, well sort of since home is really 15000km away on the other side of the planet. Having my own stuff, my own space. Funny how material possessions can give you the impression of a home. It's not entirely home yet since it is still not properly furnished. I only bought a bed, a futon mattress, this thing is awesome, doubles as a couch and lounging...thing. I haven't got anything else besides this. The bedroom is still empty since I do everything in the living room which is directly connected to the kitchen it's more convenient, especially as all the doors autoshut. It helps manage the central heating better so you're wasting heat, heating other parts of the apartment when noone's around. The bathroom is kickarse, I have a bathtub long enough to stretch out in so it's a bit of an indulgence to lounge around in one every now and then, especially as coming from a drought ridden state baths were too costly to really bother with.

Workwise, I feel more part of the team now. Helen, and her fiance Andy who has since left, being my mentors, which feels odd sometimes since they're the same age as me, helped me a lot. It's odd looking at the two of them, she towers over even me and I'm not short, and Andy is shorter than me. Sometimes reminds me of Rob Schneider and the "omg it's Bigfoot!" lady from Deuce Bigolo. Not to forget the other Andy who returned to the company having left a year or so ago to go home to Singapore. Since I work with them closely we hang out together as often as not and being the same age helps too.

The highlights that are coming up are an impending visit to that odd little asian nation, Korea, to go snowboarding with my lil bro, damn I miss that boy and in a few months a return home!!

6 comments:

NfOrCeR said...

happy new year ben! what did u get up to?

snowboarding in korea.. mad fun! wish i could go.... well need to learn first hah maybe this year...

hope ur not payin out ppl with lispssss there.. tsk tsk

when are u due back home?

Ben said...

happy new year to you too Joel! Your sms came in at 4am in the morning.

Well not really paying out ppl with lithpth

I'll check my leave application this week when my manager gets back, then I should be back on the day of my bday =D

NfOrCeR said...

hehe i was jus spreadin my love!
it was mid-afternoon on NYE and i was at the Adidas Originals store in QVB when i sent that msg :)

dont knock my lispssss!

wooo sweeeeeet. how long for? u got much leave up ur sleeve? hehe

Ben said...

plus the extra bit of leave i got for the contract period I can take 30 days of leave this year. I'm already taking 8 for korea and another 14 in march when i come home...22 days of leave taken and the first half of the year isn't even over....

NfOrCeR said...

sweeeet. back for a while.. be good to catch up!

hope u havent succombed to the ugly pommy accent :P

. said...

Happy New Year Benty, sorry I haven't replies to your texts, been busy and ill at the same time. I get on MSN eveyr now and again but it disconnects me and works up a fit so I gave it up in the end.

Hope you enjoy your holidays and plans - would be nice to get some updates through the blog ;)

take care!
- rina