beach!

well it had been over 2 months since i had seen the beach, waves, sand or anything that reminded me slightly of home back on the sunny coast, so i was pretty excited to be heading off to brighton for a few days last week. we got there at about 10pm on thursday night- as everyone had worked the early shift, so we jumped on the bus and 3 1/2 hours later, via london we had arrived. we hadnt organised any accommodation so that was the main thing we needed to sort out, i had grabbed a bunch of numbers for hostels and that of the net just before we left- and planned to just call when we got there and hope for the best. as it turned out- it was very busy and the only room free was like £100 for the night- (or like $243 aussie). i dont convert everything back into aussie anymore- i used to, and it made everything look extra mega expensive. we decided that we'd rather sleep on the beach for a few hours that shell out £100; but we continued to crusie the hostels and we found a little one that was booked out, but one of the reserved parties hadnt yet turned up- and they said that if they hadnt showed by 11pm we could have the room. so it was either the beach or the reserved room. lucky for us the other guys didnt show up, so we got a cool room right on the beach for like £25. great deal. we headed out to see what was happening down by the water, and it was pretty cool, a great atmosphere, there were heaps of people just chilling and sitting around fires on the beach and stuff and just taking it easy. and that pretty much what we all did for the next 2 days, just sit on the beach and relax, the weather was pretty good-no rain at least- so thats good weather. now about the beach, it was actually made of pebbles or stones or rocks, i dont know what was going on- it looked like they were put there like from a landscaping place- but the beach was about 50m wide and 2km long-surely not. and the water was like 5 degrees- only a few brave people ventured further than ankle depth- i wasn't too keen on hypothermia on my break days- so i wasnt one of the brave few. there was also the brighton pier which had all kind on arcade games and rides and rollercoasters and stuff. it was also home to the most uncomfortable rollercoaster ever made. but it was fun for the 23 seconds it lasted. we also played mini golf on the dodgiest course ever, but it was cheap and fun. thats all that matters, it it was a great couple of days out just relaxing, twas a great atmosphere with everyone just chilling and taking it easy on the beach. cool cool. anyways i'd better be off. things to do today. hope life is great where you are. keep smilin :) andyb

ps. i have a new moby number over here. 07886625009(uk), 447885525009(everywhere else)

plagiarism

well i am ok, havnt written for ages- not since the bombings, but all is well. i live about an hour west of london at the moment, so i wasnt near any of the action- neither were any of my mates who live in the city. bit of a shocker last thursday- seemed to come out of nowhere, and it seemed to have happened so easily. hardcore. well i actually have some things to report this time, i have been doing a bit of travelling and catching up with old mates so ive had a pretty cool week. I ended getting 3 days off work as i had some overtime clocked up, so on monday i went into london with a few of the saffa boys for the day, then caught up with andy after he had finished work, we are both on a pretty tight budget, so off to trusty old sainsbury's for dinner, we bought a loaf of bread(£0.19), 2 for 1 avocado (£0.29), a packet of salt and vinegar chips(£0.59) and for desert- a packet of vanilla creme biscuits (£0.39). deal. who said its expensive to live in london. ha. so we cruised down to hyde park to set up our picnic, and then we realised we didnt have a knife to cut the avos, we tried to scam one from some local take away shops, but had no luck. we ended up cutting the avo with a key and spreading it with a paddle pop stick. yes mum i am looking after myself. budget but funny, we had some people playing softball as entertainment, was heaps funny- one guy was complaing he couldnt pitch because he couldn't throw that far. it was like 5m. but he was an accountant, understood. after the game they sat down and had dinner and just chilled. it was winding down and we were still just sitting there and one of the ladies came over and asked us if we'd like something to eat as they had heaps. they must have seen the quality of our meal and felt sorry...we were like..umm..but ended up going over and just sitting and chatting with them for like an hour. they made us take food home. one of the ladies must have been a mother, and she forced us to take food. scary, so we took it and gave it all to some homeless people in the tube station. win win. we get rid of the food, and the homeless dudes are stoked. then me and andy went to trafalgar square and chilled. great fun. crashed at andys for the night.

Tuesday morning, caught the bus to kings cross station (really heavy security) and caught the train up to cambridge. i didnt have a ticket, so i had to buy one on the train. the guy tried to make me pay double, but he ended up sitting down next to me and we had a chat for 10mins. he was from texas, and we were just sitting there laughing- and he was acusing me of trying to get of the subjuct by asking me which nfl team he supported (which i was- mabye he would forget i didnt have a ticket), was heaps funny, everyone in the carriage must have thought i was an idiot- but it was funny, and i got away with paying the normal fair. win win. Got to cambridge and met up with my old mate from america, was great to see her again. (im not sure im your supposed to write peoples names in here or not, everyone who knows her- will know who im talking about-if you dont know her then it doesnt matter) She graduated from cambridge on july 2nd, but i think shes going to do a couple more years furthing her education. so it was ace to see her again, and that afternoon, we caught up with her brother and his girlfriend, and we went punting, which is a square-nosed boat that you push along with a stick/pole...kinda like the gondalas in venice. it was wicked fun, takes a while to get the steering right, but once you got the hang of it, was awesome fun. we toured the canal that went behind some of the cambridge colleges (cambridge uni is made up of 30 individual colleges, i think) punting was really popular and since the weather was great, everyone was doing it. was cool just cruising the canal, when i was poling(?) i saw this random little alley canal, so i thought id give it a shot-no one else had gone down there- so it was either an undiscovered mystery canal or you werent meant to go down it for one reason or another. have a guess. so i went to check it out. now in the main canal the bottom of it is rock so you can easily push off it with your pole and hoon along. my little random canal had a floor of mud. so id go to push off and the pole would sink 6ft in to the mud, no worries,but then id have to get the pole out. and id lose all the momentum because the pole was stuck in the mud. so we ended up going about 2ft per stroke. lets just say we were going at a leisurely pace and enjoying the sunshine. after punting we went touring through a few of the bigger and more famous colleges like kings, corpus christi (?) and the biggest one that you all would recognise if you saw it-Homerton. was great. and beacause one of us had a student card, we could actually go into some of the buildings, as opposed to standing on the path. how good is it to have contacts. for dinner we had pancakes and rockmelon, the best rockmelon i have ever eaten (thank you again sainsburys-jamie oliver endorses sainsburys- so it has to be good). got some great action photos of us flipping pancakes. they'll be up soon. hopefully.

wednesday we just chilled, and checked out some of the shops and a few more colleges, wanted to buy a cambridge uni rugby jersey, but they only had L and XL. do you know how L and XL the rugby boys are? so ill have to wait for my next visit and hope for the best. Went bowling that night it ended 1-1, so we had a bowl off/decider, when we both had to bowl at the same time in a finished lane, and whoever knocks down the most pins wins. lets just say that the gentlemen always lets the lady win. So i had a wicked time up in cambridge, heaps of fun seeing a new place, great weather, great company, great punting boats, and cool colleges and stuff to check out. the only downside was the rugby jersies being to big.ha. ill have to go back.

Came back to the hotel and worked for 2 days then had another day off- went to church which was fun- then another saffa mate, asked if i wanted to do something random, of course- so we jumped on a train to oxford. once again we didnt have a ticket (trains are really expensive over here) but luckily enough there was an 73 international school kids on a tour of oxford, so we just jumped in the middle of them and blended in, cause the teacher had 1 ticket for all of them. we sat next to 2 boys from sweden, they were heaps funny, one of them loved inxs and midnight oil an he was 18- how can an 18 year old swedish guys fav bands be 80's aussie music. so it was heaps fun chatting to them on the way up, and as im going to sweden in september got some great tips of where to go and what to see, now i think of it, i actually can't remember what they said- but i know theres cool people there. we got off at oxford and as we didnt have a plan, just walked around checking out colleges and old buildings and stuff. they have pretty much the same set up as cambridge i think. heaps of smaller colleges making up one big uni. and i saw the oldest university building in europe. 1400's i think. either way- its old. so we just cruised around- oxford has a canal with punting boats as well. the 2 best uni's in england. who's copying who. isnt that plagiarism. don't you get kicked out of uni for that. i brought a book of italian phrases, so i can learn a little before i head to italy, hopefully thatll make getting around a bit easier. im not fluent yet.

anyways that whats been happening for the last week or 2, have really had a great time. and some more adventures to come in the near future i hope. hope life is good for you. im trying to get to pics up tomorrow. if i do you'll see them. keeo smilin :) andyb

bingo!

well i havnt really done alot since my last post, so not alot to report. a few minor things, theres a girl at the hotel who loves to play bingo, shes not addicted-i dont think- she just goes every now and again, and she asked me if id like to go and check it out, id never played before, so i thought why not, so we rounded up a few people and went downt ot the good old bracknell point bingo. there was heaps of people there like 300 oldies, we were the youngest people there- we were there having a laugh and eveyone else had like magnifying glasses and like blinkers and serious faces so they could fully concentrate on their cards. on the way to bingo we were discussing how we would 'shout' bingo if we won, because apparently here, you just hold your card in the air or say 'yeah' or something- wheres the fun in that. i think we played a total of about 20 games that night. the 3rd game in i got a full house- which is the best one to win, you get the most money- i couldnt believe it- so i just shouted 'BINGO!' as loud as i could, and everyone stopped and stared at me, but it was ok cause i had won £30 and they hadnt, so i didnt care. i also won £15 at the end. £45 for an hours fun, not bad. the bingo girl from work also won £45 and another mate won £5, so it was a bit of fun. i think ill retire now, and end my career as a winner.

I also went bowling last night, it was like disco bowling with fluro bowls, quite exciting stuff. everyone knows what bowling is so i dont need to elaborate. im not sure if i wrote this in the other post, but im going to italy with a few mates from the hotel in august for a week, got some cheap flights so we thought why not, we came here to travel so we should take all the opportunites we get... cool cool... anyways the library internet time that im currently scamming is running low...ive gotta run...sorry for the low quality of the post, i hope to improve next time, and have something ace to talk about, hope life is great..hoepfully some pics soon as well...keep smilin andyb.