The Rock - Day Two

So as expected yesterday was another drinking fueled day. After having a cool beer at Keith's whilst he finished off some work we took a wonder down to Fortina Hotel and Spa - that's right a Spa day ;)

Fortina Hotel is literally 2 minutes from Keiths but the difference in view is astronomical. They have a great set up with 3 pools (1 for children, a slightly deeper one next to it and the main pool). This all overlooks Valetta which is full of old buildings making for an incredible view from your sunlounger. Keith had told me that it is 12 Euro for theday or 6 Euro after 1:30 - we went at 1:45 and the swines had changed the time to 3:30 which meant we paid 12. Keith owed me 55 euro from the night before so this time it was on him. Whilst the beer was a little more expensive it was still less than £3 for a Stella. Fantastic!

We chilled by the pool for a while with Keith dipping in. I have a bit of an issue about my back, ever since I got burnt at 14 it has become very sensitive which means that in the summer it flares up with spots looking like the moons craters or a volcanic eruption - not the best. With that in mind I decided to keep my shirt on, that soon changed and I took a dip in the pool briefly which was refreshing.
Here's the view!

 

Unfortunately, despite lathering myself in sun lotion my stomach is now a lot redder than normal - sigh!

After Fortina we left for a walk back to Keiths to change. At 8ish we headed down to Surfside to chill on the cushions and watch the football! It's a shame it was dark as the picture from the night doesn't really show the view. To give you an idea the bar is right on the sea/ beach so I had a projector in front of me, and to my left the ocean! Not bad. 

Now in Malta the locals either claim to be English or Italian - or both. This meant that after Italy's surprise victory we knew what we were in for. On the walk back to Keiths the roads were almost at a standstill with people leaning out the windows, sitting in the open boot waving their flags. Its pretty cool but very OTT.

Keith was a little tired so we posponed the night out and stopped for a tasty chicken plate which was super healthy and tasty. When we got back I stayed up to watch some poker on my laptop and Keith hit the sack. I ended up staying up until 3am ish and went to bed myself - hardcore haha.

THis morning sees the start of a festival in Malta. A great ceremony with fantastic decorations on the street - it also means that at 7:30 am they were setting off fireworks essentially outside my bedroom window. Great wake up call - and they don't show anything just smoke because it is day time!!! They were the loudest fireworks ever it felt like someone was on a gun rampage outside, ah well leave them be - probably the same people beeping their horns celebrating Italy's win yesterday that are now Maltese again ;).

The plan today is to head to the beach and chill there - less alcohol in the day for Keith so that he can be awake for a night out and I will aim to drink more water but will likely have a couple of beers on the beach front! Not a bad life right now at all Also due to the heat etc I've seen myself lose some weight here - also the fact that the food is pretty healthy in the way it is cooked and the copious amounts of salad served with it!

I'll keep you all posted!

 

A journey to the rock

So it's nearly July and my last post was back in May, wow that is poor. To be honest nothing major has happened recently,nothing blog worthy anyway. Unfortunately my knee is still really bad which is frustrating but ho hum it'll fix and if not here's to the operation.

I kind of made a promise to myself to write about my current trip as it will serve me well to look over in the future. I am in Malta at the moment in glorious sunshine and absolutely loving it. Some of the loner term readers may remember that I was living here and working for 3 months 2 years ago and I made a snap decision that I wanted to visit again especially during the Euros as the Maltese are passionate about football.

So Wednesday I woke up at 3:30 am to get ready for my 4:15 am cab to take me to Luton airport. Everything was packed and I was good to go. Cab arrived on time and after realising our M1 junction was closed for roadworks (WTF) we took a detour through Watford, always good to have loads of time in hand as it made the journey relaxing. I got to the airport at 4:45 and went straight to check in. It was pretty funny seeing the two people in front of me get to the desk and get told their bags were overweight... noobs. I had no such worry and was checked in within 30 seconds of approaching the desk - ship it Ryan Air. Interestingly as my flight was not until 6:40 Luton have a new policy where you go back outside and in through the arrivals to go through security. Again pretty damn smooth, apart from having my phone swobbed - not sure how to react to that, they clearly think either I look dodgy or I look like a genius that can bombify my phone, either way no biggy.

Unfortunately going through the arrivals means that you are entering at departure gate 1 which whilst it was the one I'd be leaving from, has very little to offer. I took the long walk to gate 26 to get my breakfast. £10 for a beer and full english (2 has browns, 2 bacon, 2 sausage, 2 eggs, tomato and mushroom... the last two were left on the plate.) Bit odd to be having a beer at 5 am but was kind of fun. My baseball team SF Giants were playing our rivals the Dodgers so I managed to get that up on my phone and chill out. At about 6:15 casual walk to the gate and was thankful I had paid the extra £10 to reserve a seat - meant priority boarding so whilst all the cheapskates were in a 100 deep queue I got to walk straight on. After a seat change due to an obscenely obese woman sitting in row 1 and therefore not being fit enough to help open the emergency exit I ended up with even more leg room. It;s a little uncomfortable having 2 attractive air hostesses sitting opposite you when you take off but I did what all men should do and flirted my way to a number. No intention of calling, it was more an ego/ confidence booster to get the week started.

Malta airport are super quick and I was off the plane, collected my bag and in my pre booked cab 10 minutes before my plane was scheduled to land. Cabbie was cool and dropped me off at my mate Keiths. Keith is a legend for letting me stay at his and it is an amazing apartment. First thing I realised is how hot Malta is again... woops. Keith had some work to do so I sat in the sun looking at the view and playing a bit of online super low stakes poker (prop bet with a mate where I have to turn 0 into a decent amount which I won't name within 6 months). Poker session went well as I span the $5 up into 50. Keith finished working so off to the bars.

We went to an awesome bar with really nice cold beer. 6 hours later and a meal finally eaten we discussed where to watch the football. By this point I'm a little tipsy and tired and paid the bill. (6 hours, a lot of beer and two lovely burgers for 50 euro between us... awesome!!) Unfortunately we had no change for a tip so I turned to the girls behind to ask for change Obviously we could of got change from the waitress but this was an easy opener. The girls turned out to be Samantha - a recruiter out here, and Mimi - a Swedish girl who she was prepping for interview over a bottle of wine! They were lovely and we persuaded them to come to the football at a bar later. We shot home to shower, I wanted a nap but Keith refused to allow me to, and we headed out to the bar.

The bar was a regular haunt for me before and after being forced to drink a Cisk the time was hitting me. Sam sent a text saying she wasn't coming and to be honest I was glad, far too tired to go anywhere after the game, and to be honest the game sucked a bit. So at half time we took the 2 minute walk back to Keiths to watch the end. Within 5 minutes he was asleep so I stayed up watching the game before hitting the sack. Great first day.

Today I woke up at 9 after a good 8 hour sleep and feel refreshed. Keith had some work to do so I played a bit more poker (up to 100 now... boom) and wrote this.

Plan today was to go to a 5* hotel to chill at their 2 pools with amazing view - 12 euro to get in for the full day. It's now 12:30 so we are just doing the PM session for 6 euro and Keith is making me a bacon sandwich. I can't really complain. I think after the pool we will shower etc and head to ether a football club or Spinola bay to watch the game - should be a good one but a comfortable 3-1 victory for Germany with Ozil getting a goal that he deserves. I imagine we will hit PV (clubbing zone) tonight and it will be a late one. I have a fair few mates in Malta that will join us so it will be a fun day.

Here's to enjoying this week!

Best Friend OR Worst Enemy

It's been a while since I have blogged and everything is going pretty well. I had a bit of a shock recently when I weighed myself, it turned out I had lost weight without realising, which is obviously great, but a little odd. I think a lot of it comes down to taking gluten out of the diet and being conscious of the amount of carbonated drinks I consume - this body is my only one, let's not destroy it.

So my knee has made developments, it is pretty damaged and the ligaments are not impressed with me. After it happened I purchased a new walking sticks, I'm so lame that I got a replica of Hugh Laurie's in House in the hope it would make me look AWESOME. In my opinion it did. The problem is that despite 3 people making spontaneous references to it, the only compliments I was getting were from the elderly ladies. They would ask me where I got my stick for and compliment me on it whilst I looked at theirs in disgust, I mean come on if you have to use a stick then surely get an epic one not some massive looped one that makes you look.... well elderly haha.

In all seriousness I have come on recovering ahead of my expectations. I am under no illusions that I am out of sport (baseball and football :(   ) for the next 3 months but I am free from my stick and this week started driving again. It is mental how much you miss not having full use, walking down stairs is super wobbly as the ligament that suffered the worst damage is the one that keeps our balance.... uh oh.

Being able to drive again is awesome. I really appreciated my lifts too and from work but unfortunately if your lift is late it makes you late and that ultimately pisses me right off as the one thing I hate is being late.

With regards to my love life, a lot of people have been asking. It's kind of a weird situation. It took me a while to feel ready to go out into the world as a single guy again, and I never go out looking to pull, that's just not me. Now that I was feeling better about socialising and my social life had come back to being great, my knee decided to go on vacation so, for the next few weeks at least, there will be no updates on the love life. I'm also in a weird spot regarding all of that. As regular readers would know my goal is to get back to America to stay permanently, and my timeline means this should be soon so I kind of don't want to date anyone here. I'm worried that what if I find someone I really care about and ultimately I end up staying here, would I end up resenting them for preventing me from achieving my dream?

Ah well - at least I have friends around, with regular poker happening with the lads again, my body and eating health wise improving (more on that in 3 months) and my mood being better than for a while life is looking goood!!!!

Catch up with you all soon and don't be afraid to comment :) Seeing how many views I get is such a boost for morale and thank you for that!

Memory or Delusion

I'm writing this blog post lying on bed with my left leg elevated by a folded pillow and 2 cushions, mellowed by pain killers yet feeling a constant throb threw the bandage.

Have you ever recalled something, a memory you can see as clear as day, and lived by it to some extent, or in some cases hindered your living by it, only to discover that things aren't quite how you remember?
As mentioned in earlier posts I have a phobia of hospitals - I found out recently that this is completely self inflicted. You see my memory of running around a hospital where my great aunt lay singing your nearly dead didn't quite happen like that. Sure enough I was visiting my Great Aunt, and yes, she was close to ending her journey, but she wasn't in a hospital, in fact she was in the old dears accommodation, a nursing home, a retirement home, the old folks inn. And yes, I did run around screaming your nearly dead, but it wasn't directly to her or the other people who were close to a surcease on their lives, instead it was in a quad outside. Sure their windows were all open and they definitely would have heard the cruelty, of a young child, filled with life, at the start of the journey, whilst they were coming to an end of theirs, a somewhat antagonistic situation for them, but I'd like to think that inside of them, they were smiling. (why is it when people get to a certain age where the pearly gates are in front of them, their face muscles have relaxed to an extent where they could be mistaken as Stalter and Waldorf from the Muppet's, or for the non Muppet fans, Fabio Cappello -that any attempt as an external smile looks more like they are in the process of breaking wind?)

Anyway, what does all that mean? It means I'm scared of hospitals because I created a memory in a parallel dimension, a different place, the fear is self caused and thus very difficult to work out the direct resolution, as surely people get over the fear by putting them in the situation that first caused the fear. In order to combat this fear I need to visit an old peoples home and have an enjoyable experience where I leave happy (please no pervy comments) and then remember it as having taken place in a hospital. You may see my dilemma, first of all, as sure as I am that according to the telly old people love random youngsters (oi I'm 24 that's still young in comparison) paying them a visit, I do live in London. London is a place where if a 24 year old male walks in to an old people's home, eyebrows will be raised and I am sure as hell to fall victim to an interrogation experienced by few. Security will be called by reception, and it's a pretty awkward conversation that would lie ahead, in fact let's play it out.

ME: Hi there,
Receptionists (from now on referred to as R and Security as S to save energy): Hi, who are you hear to see?
ME: Um nobody in particular
R: Sorry? Do you have a relative here?
ME: No, I just wanted to pop in and have a good time.
R: You wanted to have a good time in a old people's home?
ME: Yeah, pretty hard to explain.
R: Hold on one second (Security arrive, to security) This young man has come in but he isn't visiting anyone in particular.
S: Sir why are you here?
ME: Well, I had a bad memory of something happening in a hospital, but it actually happened in an old people's home, and in order to overcome the irrational fear that arrived, I wanted to come along and have a more enjoyable experience.
S: You had a bad memory that you thought happened in a hospital. Sir did somebody touch you and now you want to touch them?
ME: wooooah hold on sheriff not like that you sick perv, last time I was in one of these joints I was singing your nearly dead, and I want to remedy this.

And so on - not a conversation I want to rush.

So how does this all tie in to my current situation? Well playing football today I was using my blistering pace (OK it was a light jog) down the wing, skilled one guy (kicked the ball too far and slid to win it back) before doing a step over with my right leg (that was surprisingly meant) and went to flick it with my left. As i caught the ball with my left and the left leg returned to ground an almighty click/ knock occurred and a pain rocketed through my knee sending me in to a masculine scream. It turns out the click was heard by the person in the goal 30+metres away (although I may exaggerate this to be 100m at a later date, possibly even a mile for effect- he was the furthest away who knows how far it could be heard). I lay on the floor, something that is a regular occurrence in our games, but usually due to a small knock and me seeing it as the optimum time to catch my breath, only this time the pain didn't go, in fact it got worse. I've broken bones before, been electrocuted, twisted ankles, been punched, hit by a car, none of them compare to the pain I am currently feeling.

Here's the issue - I can't go to the hospital because I haven't conquered my fear and I can't now because if I walk in with a walking stick it will look like I am ridiculing the old people, and lead to another bad memory. So instead I lie here in pain, googling the symptoms and can 100% say that this is a life threatening injury and the end of my days..... fine fine, I'm sure it's ligament injury, and judging by the diagram and symptoms available at BUPA online (other medical online places are available but they are ranked number one on google so either they are shit hot or they have a guru at SEO (search engine optimisation - a techy thing), either way they are the ones I'm using) and it appears like it is the lateral collateral ligament. My options are these:
1) As some people have put it - Man the F Up and let it heal itself
2) Man the F Up and go to the hospital (even if I man the f up they aren't going to be able to treat it I'd have to wait for hours to see them to be told that I need an appointment)
3) Go to the Doctors
4) Go to a physio

I like option 4, sure it costs but they are cool. I happen to know an Arsenal Physio and due to the Jack Wilshire situation, I may go in with a torn ligament and eventually it will be claimed to be a burst vein or something 100 times worse that prevents me from ever being fit again, but that's a risk I will take and I am sorry to all my fans of my football but it may mean never being back to play hahaha

Anyway this blog took you on a journey, one of adventure I'd like to think.

A quote from Soren Kierkegaard repeated by Micky Flanagan "Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards." This quote pretty much means, as Micky put, we are unable to process the experiences we have in the moment, we can never be in the moment, instead it can only be processed in a memory, and my input - make sure the memories are real ones so you don't screw yourself up like I have :)

Stress? Zen? Candles?

Wow things are kind of manic at the moment, a little prediction for how this blog will pan out is, as per usual, a strange Titile, an interesting attention grabbing start, possibly a plan, and a failure to follow that plan. I guess this will be another journey through my thoughts as I type and at times some of you will get lost and give up, others will perserve, but ultimately all of you will more than likely finish disappointed and unfulfilled.

Ok so it's kind of odd - recenlty health has been a little off and its annoying, issues are that I have had brutal pains in my back recently and that is slowly getting better. Add to that the fact that I woke up on thursday with a pain in my jaw to realise I'd dislocated it from grinding, so I guess from stress. Anyway the plan is to get that all sorted. First off, on Dr's orders Gluten has vanished from my diet. I know this is going to be blooming hard and it will take a lot of will power to say bye to normal bread and pasta, saying bye to kebabs pizzas and chips is fine and I think I'll cope easily there, however saying bye to sausages, noooo :( The thing is in the few days I have been doing it I have felt a difference.I feel a lot more energetic, a lot less bloated and a lot happier. I actually bought a normal sandwich on Tuesday and took one bite and felt bloated so threw it away. Yes I failed quick but I moved on away from it immediately. My Gluten free package has arrived so I am going to be creative in the kitchen this weekend to see what I can do - I am so cool I bet you are all jealous.

Onto the stress. It is weird to have someone tell you that you are stressed and when you go to argue with them you stop and think about it and realise, damn I am stressed haha. I guess it is a whole load of reasons. At work I am the only Permanent Recruitment Consultant which makes things pretty tough as I have to follow up all Business Leads, fill all my roles and manage the processes. I kind of think I have tried so hard to do everything at once that I am spreading myslf too thin and ending up working until 7pm in the office and 10pm at home. Add to that the issue that myself and my colleauge work late once a week to target American companies and all of a sudden I am doing 70 hour weeks.

Other causes of stress are Ex friends, one in particular has been a bit silly for a while and I won't go in to the ins and outs but instead of moving on after something he has acted like a child and apparently made stupid claims which I;ve realised I can no longer be bothered with. It culminanted in me having to not go out with the group of friends for a mates birthday, but instead we went out the next day and it was an amazing night.

I've also decided to incorporate a bit of Zen into my life, just some of the mind relaxation methods and at the same time am thinking of taking it easy this weekend, weather permitted relaxing in the sun or sitting in my room with chilled out music and my eyes close for a while just to relax and take it slow. Like I said I am so cool with my cooking and meditating.

In terms of everything else family are amazing and I went to a beautiful wedding. It's odd because I'd kind of taken a step back thinking that I don't want to get married but being part of two amazing people's special day made me realise that who knows what lies ahead, I'm not adversed to marriage if I meet the right person. They walked down the aisle to "A whole new world" played on a harp which was pretty damn magical. It was good because I spent the weekend with the family before travelling down to watch Arsenal beat Man City.

The other great thing at the moment is I am getting my social life back, I am trying to leave work at a good time and have plans to go and see people in evenings as they let me stop thinking about work and relax. I am so happy to have certain people there for me.

Hm this blog has been odd - No more gluten, no more stress, more zen, more relaxing, more social life should lead to a happier me. Here's hoping!

Catching Up

So I have gone through the stage of ignoring this again. TO be honest I have wanted to write, I love doing it, just there is never enough time these days. That's a lie I could make time just I wanted to give this the attention it deserves when I write.

Anyway I realised a while back that my goal, dream, aim, whatever you want to call it, is to get to America, to live there and to grow there. People often ask me why, and I kind of can't explain it but I'll give it a try.

Life is complicated, that won't change wherever you live, but there will be different complications. My time in America was magical, the truth is I loved going in to work, I loved being where I was, but most of all I loved the people. In the UK if someone smiles at you or wishes you a good day we think they are a freak. People seem to believe that if people do anything nice they must have an ulterior motive. Since Jan last year, following my time in America, I decided to do one good deed a day, or one thing that puts someone else first. They don't need to know it was me, I don't go around looking for things to do, but there are numerous opportunities we get every day that use to be seen as common curteousy. I'm glad to say that to this day I have achieved it every day. It is awesome, the feeling you get after is such a buzz and at the end of the day as your settling down to sleep you can think back to it with a smile on your face. You see no matter how shit a day you've had, it's one where hopefully you have had a positive effect on somebody else's life... so it can't of been that shit.

This isn't something I can say I learnt in America, but it's something that I realised I needed to change in myself. The weather in Cali was so glorious and I made some of the best friends ever. I love Baseball and American football, I love the process behind it, that people play at school/ college and enter a draft where teams bid for them. It's perfect to allow for the competitive nature in the leagues and the fan support is an experience everyone has to have.

Another reason is my interests, where I see my working career go. I love the online gaming industry and the people in it, particularly poker. I am blessed to have some of the contacts I do, and to have worked in online gaming in 3 different countries at such a young age. My degree in law, whilst a realisation that it wasn't a career I wanted, developed an interest in reading some legislation and trying to see what they writers meant when they wrote it. I enjoy partiuclarly what is going on in America, it is exciting times for people interested in online gaming as it will determine the future, when America is legalized and they make changes most people, as per usual, will follow suit. I want to be a part of that and my working experience puts me in good stead for being able to help people out there. This is something I need to do.

There's not much to update on in my life. Things are going good and I have a great bunch of close friends. I'm working pretty hard putting in 16-18 hour days at least once a week which is a lot on top of 4 11 hour days. There's times I love it, and times I hate it, but it is what it is and I'm pretty happy.

I;ll do another update soon

Adventure's open your eyes

Wow, my life is so mental, I have had, what I must admit, is one of the best weeks in a long long time. I guess logically I should be starting from last Friday

To set the scene most of the time I am a hermit on Saurdays until 4pm following a late friday night. On friday my friend Kristy arrived from America with 2 of her friends along for the ride. So I left work and shot down to Aldgate East to meet them - one hell of a mission from Hemel via Edgware. Anyhoo I got there and they were all shattered but were game to find a bar with music.... good luck in London.

THe obvious decision was to venture down Brick Lane - unsurprisingly we were approached by 20 different Indian restaurants trying to coax us in but we escaped un-curryfied. We got to Vibe Bar and decided that 9pm was far too early for Vibe so kept walking. It's super difficult when you have people from America over, you are a Londoner, they expect you know your city, and you realise you know nothing about East London!! Anyway afterwalking the length of brick lane we jumped on an overground train to go back to past Aldgate East station and on to Tower Hill - if in doubt go to the pomellers rest, a hevenly spoons with drinks galore (but no music - and a place that I've found myself being asked to leave for talking too loud far too often).
Before we got to the Pommellers we stopped by and enjoyed the view of the Tower of London, it was whilst looking that we saw the most incredible playground. A slide that doesn't slide wasn;t enough to ruin it, the jump on merry go round, the amazing bouncy thing that I can;t describe, all I know was I was drunk before I'd drunk. Next up was the incredible walk over Tower Bridge. You know sometimes I really take where I live for granted and it's only by being with people that have never seen it before that you truly appreciate it, AMAZING. More of that to come later :)

On to the Pomeller: that's where the night really started, introducing the yanks to Koppabergs joy, the bottle of happiness that wakes you up! After a couple of hours, and far too many Jagerbombs we were on the move - not before Kristy had an interaction with a Cockney Lass. The Cockney Lass was insiting on calling a cab for us, and when we politely said no its fine its quicker if we jump in a black cab she turned on us rapidly! Lovely drunk cockney girls, curteous and classy.

Anyway we hopped in to the cab and I was sitting on the fold down chair facing back. Ali - Kristy's mate who it has to be said is awesome, decided she wanted to sit inmy seat so pulled me out of it and tried to sit down, not realising it was a fold down chair and ending up on the floor of a moving taxi. Hilarious! The cab took us to Vibe bar where it was £5 a head, and by now it was midnight. Thanks to their amazing american charm Kristy, Ali and Rachel got all 4 of us in for £10! Vibe bar has got to be one of the most unique experiences in London. Trance, house, dance, heaven in what seems like a dissused warehouse, worn down building. The music system sucks, the DJ couldn't mix to save his life, but the tunes and atmosphere made it incredible. If only the drinks weren't bank breaking.

Following Vibe Bar we made a trip back to the hotel via the off licence where we haggled our way to cheap booze. After a few hours in their hotel the night was done. Saturday was an early start and meeting up at 1pm at the Pomeller Rest.

After a drink or two in the Pomellers, and meeting up with Rachel's friend (by the way Rachel is so brilliant and amazing to talk to) Simon we walked to St Paul's Cathedral.... not before stopping off in All Bar One for a 3pm shot.... as you do. St Paul's cathedral use to be free, I don't get it, why is it now £20. Sigh we popped in, refused to pay, Kristy took some pictures and on we went.

Damn this is going to be long.... I'm going to continue for a bit until their is a cliff hanger.

Ok so we headed to Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese... the oldest bar in London, which is an incredible place. Damn that bar is older then America which is ridiculous. Kristy's photos are awesome and filled with ghostly shapes.... hmmm. Ok so there we met some Aussies on a pub crawl, the monopoly pub crawl, and Rachel and Ali wanted to follow (by now Simon had left). So we went in to a bar with them, with them clearly signalling that they didn't want us there. It was in the gents that I overheard them just ripping in to the girls. TO be fair some of the things they were saying were funny, but these girls were my Americans, nobody insults my americans except me!!! So that's where it kind of kicked off.... 4 aussies v me with 7 more upstairs.... why do I do these things..................................................