Family Guy Says it Better

The background story is pretty much irrelevant. Ben and I headed out to a private party at some club in London and neither of us was having too much fun so we headed home via some dodgey chicken place.

That was our mistake.

The next 10-12 hours was something like this:

The Montreal Crew Goes Christmas!

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Thanks to Aly and Rosie for unknowingly getting ripped off by me.

London and Leeds

Been in London for a week now. Ben's been studying hard (ie. doing nothing, just not partying) so I looked elsewhere to entertain myself. At the last minute on Friday night I decided on to visit Alex and Simon up in Leeds.

While they live in separate apartments now the boys live with remarkable similarity to how they did in Montreal. Student-style housing with lots of boys living in the same house, partying as much as possible, watching a stupid amount of football and squeezing some study in from time to time. Not to mention having Australians living on their couch...

Traffic upped my bus-trip from 4 to over 6 hours which was a whole world of fun but I managed to find someone to talk to who complains even more than I do which managed to shut me up for the duration. I got in just after 11pm and practically had alcohol shoved down my throat. It was good to feel welcome.

We headed to a few bars and ended up in one of the more notorious clubs in town. Somehow I managed to find my way back to Alex's place while he slept soundly inside with the door locked and his phone turned off as I drifted off to sleep on the landing outside. Luckily I didn't stay there long as his roommates came home shortly thereafter and let me in. I re payed Alex's kindness by climbing into bed with him and proceeded to deprive him of further sound sleep by snoring his ear off.

The next night went a little better and to our surprise we got into one of the best clubs in town. Cheap drinks, decent music, hot tubs and general shinanigans. I don't think I got to sleep until well after 8am. Good night.

I made my way back down to London in a more timely fashion and got some rest. The next day I met up with Dad again as he is in town for the week. We went out to the Wine Bar with some of his friends and ended up at a Tapas bar until they ushered us out. It was interesting seeing Dad - or 'Oz' as he is called - in his own environment with his own friends. Clearly he too feels a little more comfortable outside of Perth. But then most people who leave do...

I have just booked my flights to Norway and it looks like I am staying put until early December before flying into Oslo. Ben finishes his exams today and we're heading out with Jared. Hopefully I won't end up walking home in the rain this time. It's a fair bit colder now than it was in May.

Saying goodbye is hard

Only a few weeks left here in Sweden. I am pretty sad actually. It is a fucking fantastic country. Sure it has its drawbacks but what country doesn’t? Sure people could be a little friendlier (at first at least) and the days could be a bit longer (it gets dark around 4 now). It could be a little cheaper (how’s AU$13.50 sound for a middie?) and it could be easier to find a place to live (did I mention I am still sleeping on a friend’s couch?) but I am going to be sorry to go. In many ways this has been an introspective period for me. Plenty of time to think about what the hell I am doing – not many conclusions have been drawn however. Ah well. The next stage in my adventures is imminent.

Two more weeks and then I am off to London to see the very hospitable Ben as well as Shirley, Fagberg, Muel and hopefully Lizze and Mitchell up in Leeds. Ben is preparing for exams so hopefully that will give me adequate cover to avoid blowing what little of my savings that survived the Norway/Car fiasco along with what’s left of my liver. I’ll soon find out. There I will stay until I fly out to Norway for the season. I will have just over a week or so there before I start the pre-season: plenty of time to get settled into my new place, strengthen up my knees and ease back into my snowboarding – I have a long winter ahead of me and I would like to stay out of hospital as long as possible.

At least I have decent health insurance.

Halloween is here and we are decorating the restaurant today for a big weekend of costumes and other shenanigans. We are sending off co-workers Quintin and Sandra as they head of on a 7month trip to South Africa and around Australia this Sunday and me and the boys are starting to line up our last few nights out together in Stockholm. This is probably one of the hardest parts of living the traveller’s life – you just start to get close to people and pow: off you go again to start it all over again. It’s a tough life but somebody has to do it.

You know what really grinds my gears?

A few months ago I wrote about a very interesting movie I had seen: An Inconvenient Truth – basically dealing with the facts about global warming, a subject that many people try to ignore, and have successfully done so for many years now.

I just finished watching another film that runs along a slightly similar vein. Following Roger and Me, Bowling for Columbine and Fahrenheit 911- Sicko is Michael Moore’s latest documentary film that focuses on the health care system in the United States. Basically health care in the US is not free. You need health insurance- but what people don’t know is what this health insurance buys you. I highly recommend seeing the film- despite it being just another round of anti-US rhetoric that is so common-place these days.

It got me thinking about the US though. The film clearly outlines a certain apathetic mentality that exists all over the world; especially concerning environmental issues, health issues, unemployment, child care, education etc. You know, the usual issues that make you roll your eyes and steer the conversation (or change the channel) to something more interesting; travel, music, parties, drugs, celebrities and sex. You know, INTERESTING topics. - I would be surprised to see how many people actually make it through this blog entry! - I am no less a perpetrator of this than anyone. In fact I am probably more guilty than most.

With regard to these subjects, the government (both in the US and many other western countries) can do pretty much whatever they like. As long as they keep people entertained… who cares? I am not going to relay all the things the film much more convincingly, articulately and concisely covers. Essentially, from my experiences with America (particularly the shitty, rip-off ones in Florida) along with what I can gather from film and television it seems like Americans are experts at making themselves look good; both outwardly and inwardly. On television, Americans seem to be completely and blindingly certain that they live in the greatest nation on earth. As soon as someone moves away from this conviction and lose faith; they lose their voice. And so the avalanche continues.

Honestly, ‘as long as the people are afraid’ I think America is beyond hope. But it scares me a little that Australia’s government makes no secret of following in the US’ footsteps. Careful Johnny.

It’s interesting that films like Supersize Me, An Inconvenient Truth and Sicko are using the US’ most powerful tool against itself; but even if enough people watch them and become informed… then what? At the end of An Inconvenient Truth the credits rolled alongside a series of energy saving tips. I was waiting for the credits of Sicko to roll alongside tips on how to overthrow a media-driven totalitarian system. Any ideas? Ah well, in the meantime I had better get back to my traveller lifestyle - listen to some music, go to a few parties, take a couple of drugs here and there, meet my share of celebrities and so on.