28 July 2010
This is kinda an in between post so I aplogise in advance
Update on the return to New Zealand
This is an update mainly for people back home in NZ who may or may not be wondering when I'm returning to tend to my sheep. (I mean that in a "I'm going back to NZ" kinda way not in a "I'm Jesus" kinda way, just in case you mistake that for sheer arrogance...). The short story is that it comes down to visas. If I get my British visa within the next week or so then I'll be gone for a further 3 months and come back near the end of October. However, if I don't get my visa very soon I will be on a flight to NZ on the 7th of Aug. Which is obviously pretty soon. Bit strange I know - 2 weeks or 3 months 'til I get back, but that's the current situation. Will keep you all up-to-date on that situation. I really wish I knew which it's going to be either way, cause its really frustrating.
Emotional crap
Regardless of where I end up in the imminent future, I am coming to the end of my stay here in Belgium. This of course comes with its own mix of emotions. Sad that I'm leaving, happy that I'll be seeing family again (in Eng or NZ), happy cause I might be seeing NZ friends pretty soon, sad cause I'm leaving all my Belgian friends and Dirk and Terry... So its difficult to know what to think a lot of the time. I try to negate this by not thinking much. I know a lot of you would have some smart comments to make there so go for it :p
Thanks
Thanks for actually reading the last two posts by the way, I know they were complete bull, but I was bored. Thats more or less my only excuse. That and perhaps being a little strange but I think its fair to say I can blame/thank my family for that.
Future and stuff...
So after all of this I'm still keen to go into journalism - not sure exactly in what capacity, but I would definately like to do something writing related. So thanks to all the Stamp Media crew, it wouldn't have been the same without you guys - and I mean that in a good way :)
Back to the usual complaints
Tired.....
Public transport...........
.........people in general.
(in that order)
On the bright side... LUNCH! :D
This particular post is pretty disjointed and not very exciting - I consider it to be fairly representative of my mental state right now so deal with it.. Until the next post anyway.
Showing posts with label travelling. Show all posts
Showing posts with label travelling. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Return to Paris and other curious ailments
12 may 2010
I've had a busy last few days. Where to begin.. Ah yes, return to Paris. It was a really cool trip, some things I'd already seen, some things I hadn't, so all in all it was pretty good. Hectic scheduale though. We really didn't stop all saturday. The Sunday was the best I think. We did the cycling tour, which surpised me by being the highlight of the trip. Had a really good tour guide who took us to a lot of really cool old places in the city centre. Most importantly, I didn't kill anyone with my bike (mostly). By the end of it I was still breathing as well so I can't complain there. The people were pretty cool as well. Didn't know a soul before the trip but got passed that fairly quickly.
On Sunday evening I got back to Turnhout around 9.30ish and started watching a tv series called Carnivale (I think thats what its called anyway). So far I really like it, its really dark and strange, which is awesome. Keen to see more.
On Monday night I stayed in Antwerp with Bert to see a few people for a few drinks etc. Now bear with me, this is very exciting news. The Irish Times (our regular bar) sells polo shirts with Irish Stout and beer logos on it, as well as the Irish Times logo. Naturally we'd being eyeing those shirts up for quite some time... I thought to myself, tonight is the night. So we finished off our pints and went and sheepishly asked the bartender if we could buy the shirts.. I'm pretty sure we were the only people to ever buy them because he looked a tad confused. The kinda look which, with a few subtle facial expressions, calmly inquires as to how much we've had to drink. Well, I am proud to say that this magnificent purchase was the result of a great deal of sober thought and consideration. Anyway, so now I have this shirt, which looks awesome by the way. Although it does look like we're staff from the bar. I'm sure I can find a way to make that work to my advantage. Some mildly entertaining but completely impractical plan which I will never carry out in reality. Sounds good.
Tomorrow I'm off to Amsterdam until Sunday. Going to try see the Anne Frank museum plus some flowers at my mothers behest (God, I was 100% sure that was a word until I started rereading it).
Tonight I'm going to see John Malkovich in a play called "The Divine Comedy" (thats probably the name...). I'm not entirely sure what its about but hell, its got John Malkovich in it so I'm keen to see what its like.
Also for anyone who hasn't noticed, at the bottom of my blog I'm now posting random explosm comics which I change every so often, so if you feel the need, then have a look. Laugh muchly. Appreciate me more. Send me flowers (nothing overly scented please), or otherwise find ways of making me feel slightly more meaningful. Yeah.....
So Elise wants me to massage her shoulders. That crazy woman. Her and her demands.
Ok so I just massaged her shoulders.. oh I'm a sucker for trying to get people to stop whining at me.
All for now, peace people
I've had a busy last few days. Where to begin.. Ah yes, return to Paris. It was a really cool trip, some things I'd already seen, some things I hadn't, so all in all it was pretty good. Hectic scheduale though. We really didn't stop all saturday. The Sunday was the best I think. We did the cycling tour, which surpised me by being the highlight of the trip. Had a really good tour guide who took us to a lot of really cool old places in the city centre. Most importantly, I didn't kill anyone with my bike (mostly). By the end of it I was still breathing as well so I can't complain there. The people were pretty cool as well. Didn't know a soul before the trip but got passed that fairly quickly.
On Sunday evening I got back to Turnhout around 9.30ish and started watching a tv series called Carnivale (I think thats what its called anyway). So far I really like it, its really dark and strange, which is awesome. Keen to see more.
On Monday night I stayed in Antwerp with Bert to see a few people for a few drinks etc. Now bear with me, this is very exciting news. The Irish Times (our regular bar) sells polo shirts with Irish Stout and beer logos on it, as well as the Irish Times logo. Naturally we'd being eyeing those shirts up for quite some time... I thought to myself, tonight is the night. So we finished off our pints and went and sheepishly asked the bartender if we could buy the shirts.. I'm pretty sure we were the only people to ever buy them because he looked a tad confused. The kinda look which, with a few subtle facial expressions, calmly inquires as to how much we've had to drink. Well, I am proud to say that this magnificent purchase was the result of a great deal of sober thought and consideration. Anyway, so now I have this shirt, which looks awesome by the way. Although it does look like we're staff from the bar. I'm sure I can find a way to make that work to my advantage. Some mildly entertaining but completely impractical plan which I will never carry out in reality. Sounds good.
Tomorrow I'm off to Amsterdam until Sunday. Going to try see the Anne Frank museum plus some flowers at my mothers behest (God, I was 100% sure that was a word until I started rereading it).
Tonight I'm going to see John Malkovich in a play called "The Divine Comedy" (thats probably the name...). I'm not entirely sure what its about but hell, its got John Malkovich in it so I'm keen to see what its like.
Also for anyone who hasn't noticed, at the bottom of my blog I'm now posting random explosm comics which I change every so often, so if you feel the need, then have a look. Laugh muchly. Appreciate me more. Send me flowers (nothing overly scented please), or otherwise find ways of making me feel slightly more meaningful. Yeah.....
So Elise wants me to massage her shoulders. That crazy woman. Her and her demands.
Ok so I just massaged her shoulders.. oh I'm a sucker for trying to get people to stop whining at me.
All for now, peace people
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Protest in Antwerp
27 april 2010
Lots of excitement last night. After work we went for a couple of drinks to celebrate Fluers birthday but she had to go pretty early to catch her train. As we were walking out of the bar into the grote markt police cars rushed past us to join the 10 others already parked in the square. At this point it was just Bert, Vincent, Elise and myself there. Turns out there was a protest going on - people were upset that they had sound level restrictions placed on them which limited their... er... partying capacity. In any case, we rushed up to the office to get a video camera and microphone, then rushed straight back down to the scene of the action. The police had formed a line and everything, a few people got arrested, presumably for being drunk enough to actually attack the police. Oh yes, lets not forget the alcohol; I've never seen the streets so full of bottles. To the city's credit, the clean up began as soon as the protest ended. Which I can only guess is about the time when most of the protesters could no longer resist the tempting prospect of anything nice and greasy to eat frrom the conveniently placed local frituur (french fry place) or kebab outlet. It was really exciting - because the others had 'press cards', it meant we could get right up to the police without being ushered away all the time (although they didn't let anyone through the police line.) It was a really cool experience. Part of what made it so great was the fact that for us it was very spontaneous.
After the protest cleared we went back up to the office to begin editing and writing an article - they wanted to get it publicised as quickly as possible. As I couldn't really help too much with either of those things I appointed myself the food runner and went to grab food plus cigarettes etc. We were at the office until about 12 doing all that until Vincent, Bert and I made out way to Berts place.
And for your viewing pleasure, (for those of you who don't know Dutch, just look at the pretty video and listen to the music), this is what happened last night. Check it out, its pretty cool.
So that was my monday. Lets be honest, they don't usually come much better than that. The weekend consisted essentially of me being at the AFS mid-stay camp. Which was actually pretty good. Was nice to hang out with the other volunteers and get to know them better. Plus it gave us a good opportunity to plan some stuff for the next few weeks. We relived our youthful days of staying up late, wondering around in the dark, sacrificing demonspawn, that kinda thing. Speaking of demon spawn, at the place we were staying at (which had massive grounds), there was also a theatre group. Late at night as a dramatic exercise/just for fun, a few of them dressed up like cult members with dark capes and white masks and went around scaring the hell out of the rest of their group - which were wondering around in small groups in the dark. When we were wamling around we stumbled across three of these would-be-killers dancing around three lit candles on the ground. Now that was creepy. Anyway we survived.
During the day we played some stupid but fun games in between doing workshops on our community service projects and our host families etc. Which pretty much sums up my weekend.
Don't have time to write anything too crazy today as I only started this 25 mins before work finishes... Which was 10 mins ago.
Planning on going to Maastricht (think thats how you spell it) with Monica, Julie and Lisa this weekend - probably just for the sunday though. Which meansme and Monica will have to travel to Julie's hometown on saturday night so we can all leave early in the morning.
Ok, well thats it for now people, I shall return... Probably.
Cheers
Lots of excitement last night. After work we went for a couple of drinks to celebrate Fluers birthday but she had to go pretty early to catch her train. As we were walking out of the bar into the grote markt police cars rushed past us to join the 10 others already parked in the square. At this point it was just Bert, Vincent, Elise and myself there. Turns out there was a protest going on - people were upset that they had sound level restrictions placed on them which limited their... er... partying capacity. In any case, we rushed up to the office to get a video camera and microphone, then rushed straight back down to the scene of the action. The police had formed a line and everything, a few people got arrested, presumably for being drunk enough to actually attack the police. Oh yes, lets not forget the alcohol; I've never seen the streets so full of bottles. To the city's credit, the clean up began as soon as the protest ended. Which I can only guess is about the time when most of the protesters could no longer resist the tempting prospect of anything nice and greasy to eat frrom the conveniently placed local frituur (french fry place) or kebab outlet. It was really exciting - because the others had 'press cards', it meant we could get right up to the police without being ushered away all the time (although they didn't let anyone through the police line.) It was a really cool experience. Part of what made it so great was the fact that for us it was very spontaneous.
After the protest cleared we went back up to the office to begin editing and writing an article - they wanted to get it publicised as quickly as possible. As I couldn't really help too much with either of those things I appointed myself the food runner and went to grab food plus cigarettes etc. We were at the office until about 12 doing all that until Vincent, Bert and I made out way to Berts place.
And for your viewing pleasure, (for those of you who don't know Dutch, just look at the pretty video and listen to the music), this is what happened last night. Check it out, its pretty cool.
So that was my monday. Lets be honest, they don't usually come much better than that. The weekend consisted essentially of me being at the AFS mid-stay camp. Which was actually pretty good. Was nice to hang out with the other volunteers and get to know them better. Plus it gave us a good opportunity to plan some stuff for the next few weeks. We relived our youthful days of staying up late, wondering around in the dark, sacrificing demonspawn, that kinda thing. Speaking of demon spawn, at the place we were staying at (which had massive grounds), there was also a theatre group. Late at night as a dramatic exercise/just for fun, a few of them dressed up like cult members with dark capes and white masks and went around scaring the hell out of the rest of their group - which were wondering around in small groups in the dark. When we were wamling around we stumbled across three of these would-be-killers dancing around three lit candles on the ground. Now that was creepy. Anyway we survived.
During the day we played some stupid but fun games in between doing workshops on our community service projects and our host families etc. Which pretty much sums up my weekend.
Don't have time to write anything too crazy today as I only started this 25 mins before work finishes... Which was 10 mins ago.
Planning on going to Maastricht (think thats how you spell it) with Monica, Julie and Lisa this weekend - probably just for the sunday though. Which meansme and Monica will have to travel to Julie's hometown on saturday night so we can all leave early in the morning.
Ok, well thats it for now people, I shall return... Probably.
Cheers
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