conduit for sale

i never thought i'd say it, but it feels good to be working again. i was getting so bored of being at home and not really wanting to do anything in fear of spending all my money. strangely, it feels like my first job all over again, and i have a bit of a feeling of accomplishment on the walk home each day.

speaking of, being able to walk to and from work is a nice luxury. except it means i have to put my make up on before i leave the house, and not on the train like i used to. i have caught the bus once or twice when my feet have been sore, but i try to avoid it because it's rather expensive considering i'm on it for less that five minutes before getting into the city.

training so far has been really good. there's some genuinely lovely people in my training group, and the trainer is about the best i've ever had, well except for vanessa but she doesn't really count because her job title isn't "trainer." i already had loads of respect for this guy, but it sky rocketed at the pub last night when he told me how he asked stephen malkmus "i work for a company called conduit. well, is it still for sale?" what a champ! i'm currently making him a mix cd.

one of my house mates is moving out soon, which has made me very sad because she is quite possibly one of the most lovely people i have ever met in my life. but it comes with a few advantages for me. we currently share a bathroom, so until she is replaced i will have the bathroom to myself, and then i will be top dog, so the new girl will have to set her showering times around mine. i will also be able to take over her shelf in the fridge. currently, as the new girl, i have the smallest amount of space in the fridge. now i will be going to top shelf and will have all the fucking space in the world.  ahh sharehouse politics. i'm really glad i've found such awesome housemates, it has made settling in a lot easier.

all in all, cardiff life is good life. some mornings i wake up and think to myself "i can't believe i'm actually here." i'm so proud of myself for coming this far. and coming to a town where i don't know anyone. i thnk i've done pretty well.

there's heaps of overtime on offer at my work, so i think i'm going to take them up on it for a month or so and work like a crazy person to get some pounds saved up. one guy i was speaking to is pulling 70 hour work weeks, i don't know if i can do that much but even an extra 10 hours will add up. i've decided that i want an iphone. i think what i will do is buy it outright from o2, then get it unlocked and go on a vodafone sim only plan. that's a couple of months down the road yet. i'm also planning weekend trips to belfast, liverpool and edinburgh, and scamming tickets to the ashes game at sophia gardens. it's the first time an ashes game has been played in glamorgan and i am going to be the biggest aussie bogan ever. it's going to be awesome.

what the fuck internet? what the fuck?

this is the coke i got at the kebab shop when i stopped for dinner on the way home from the pub. not only is there no english anywhere on the label, but it's a completely random size; 400mL. it tastes the same as british coke though, so not as good as australian coke. i don't know what it is, aussie coke is a fizzier and this always tastes like it's a bit flat already. i only drink it on weekends.

a real, less cider fueled entry, is coming soon. i promise.

adventures in ghetto dining

this is what i had for dinner tonight: a small can of pork sausages and beans which was going to be on toast, until i realised i had run out of bread. instead i put some cheese on a tortilla and grilled it, and used that for dipping. all because we were too lazy to even go get a pizza.

what's the trashiest thing you've dined on lately?

yeah we sold her out

on monday i journeyed to the midlands in search of rock and roll. it was an interesting experience to say the very least.

a couple of weeks back i read on last.fm that eskimo joe were playing a few dates in england this week. once i found out that my new job wouldn't be starting til after easter, i decided i would go to one of the shows, but which one? manchester was too far away. london was an option, but accommodation and travel there is a bit too expensive. plus neets had warned me against seeing aussie bands in london because of all the aussie that attend. so it was decided, i would go to see the birmingham gig. i booked train tickets and a cheap room in a backpackers, and i was all set.

last friday i woke up with a cold. this is not supposed to happen, i am on holiday, there is no time for getting sick, especially when there's trips to be had. subsequently i spent the whole weekend in bed, downing cold and flu tablets and vitamin c like nobodies business, snorting vicks sinex like it was coke, and watching the us office. so much office, in fact that i dream about jim and pam almost every night. by monday i was better, not that i was going to let a cold get in the way of seeing my favourite perth lads, it just would've stopped me drinking.

the train ride from cardiff to birmingham was lovely. we snaked our way along the river severn, then through gloucester and cheltenham to birmingham. to put it politely, birmingham is the most ugly city i've ever been to. even when they were trying to be modern and sleek, they still managed to be ugly. the directions that the backpackers gave from the train station to their address were terrible, and the map in my lonely planet didn't have enough street names so i ended up getting totes lost and stuck in a shopping centre. finally i found my way to the hostel, which even though it was no more than two minutes walk from the centre of town, was in the middle of a huge industrial estate. then it took me like 40 minutes to check in, so by the time i got to my room i felt like crap because of the cold, and totally defeated by the city of birmingham. instead of walking around town and checking things out, i napped until it was time to leave for the gig.

it took me almost an hour to find the venue. it was mostly my fault because, even though i had written down an address, i hadn't written down a cross street or anything. i started out on digbeth high street at number 74, walking towards town i saw number 80. given that i was looking for number 160, i figured i was on the right track. once i hit the mall and the street name changed, i thought that i had missed it, so i started to back track but still couldn't find this pub. finally i gave up and walked on past 74 because i saw some policemen up ahead and was going to ask them. they happened to be standing on the exact corner the pub was on, which was 160 high street, digbeth so the street numbers had started again. i walked into the pub, and was going up to the bar to get a drink and to confirm if i was in the right place, then i realised that i was standing right next to kav and joel, so yes, i had finally found it.

after all that drama, the show was fucking brilliant. not as much old stuff as i would have liked, but i'm an indie fuck when it comes to stuff like that. the new songs they played were really solid, even the one they said they only wrote a couple of days before. older than you, pressure, and surprisingly black fingernails red wine were the stand outs. losing friends was probably the best of the new stuff. i managed to snag stu's setlist and a pick off the stage. during the encore kav mentioned that because of the football game on near by, we weren't allowed out of the pub untill all the hooligans had gone home, so we all headed out to the bar and i started chatting to some aussies living in birmingham. they were telling me how great birmingham is. i think they were on crack. we went over to the merch desk where the boys from the joe were hanging out. i got my setlist signed, and asked if they would play who sold her out if i came to the london show. the answer from kav "yeah... no" boo! we chatted for a while about how they should revive sweater, but they weren't buying it. they're good lads.

i walked back to the hostel in the rain. it was after midnight and no-one else was around. it was nice, but still kind of like walking around the back of minto. the next morning, given that we were in an industrial estate, the wreckers near by started to wreck stuff and make noise at 6:30am. fucking hell. i got up, got dressed [foregoing a shower because i had forgotten my face wash and because they smelled funky] and walked over to the main building to have breakfast and check out. oh yeah, i forgot to mention that my room wasn't actually in the backpackers, it was two blocks down the street on top of a diner. strange, but at least it meant it was quiet.

i had a few hours to kill before my train left, but there is literally nothing to do in birmingham besides shop, and i wasn't in the mood for trying on clothes. i sat in borders for a while and read a book. but then i gave up and got on an earlier train than i had booked back to cardiff. the first sign that you have crossed the border back into wales is everything is written twice, in welsh and in english. and you know what? it's comforting. i've only been here a month, but already cardiff feels like home. and i was glad to get back to the familiar streets and the number 17 bus.

i did have a good time. it's fun to go to new places, and eskimo joe were worth travelling for. however i will never go back to birmingham as long as i can help it.