snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes

it's all becoming real now. for those not in the know, the dept i work for in london is being moved to krakow to save shell money and i've been selected to be part of the team involved in training the new staff. this means i'll be spending significant periods of time in krakow which i find quite exciting as it's a great opportunity workwise and also to spend more time travelling in eastern europe which is a part of the world i really love.

i arrived in krakow yesterday arvo and we were informed on the plane that the temperature was -2 degrees. funnily enough it doesn't really feel all that cold and there's been winter days in perth when i've been more uncomfortable. i guess i dress more appropriately for the conditions when i'm somewhere really cold. it's also be snowing a lot since i arrived and i can't see myself ever getting sick of it. i now get that line in 'my favourite things' from 'the sound of music' cos snow is awesome. the only down side is that my converse boots get a bit wet and my feet start to freeze. the town itself is very pretty and atmospheric with buildings that are hundreds of years old but still look in great nick. i had tea at a french restaurant last night which was lovely. i started with a casserole made with quail's eggs, foie gras and prawn tails. it was very rich and very tasty. my main was goose breast with gingerbread crumble.. yum. even though the portions weren't big they really left me very satisfied.

my hotel room is also very nice. it's great when the company pay for you to stay in a 5 star hotel with all the trimmings and i think i'm really gonna enjoy my week here.

i've also expressed interest in taking up a 6 month expatriate contract in krakow for the second half of this year but my chances of getting it aren't great as it is offered to regular shell staff first and as i work through an agency i am at the bottom of the pile. still, if it's meant to be it will happen.

of course i miss hols whilst i'm away but we can speak on the phone and when i'm here for longer shell will pay for her to fly over if she wants to.

so this is the start of it all and of course will eventually lead to the end of our time in europe and a return to perth. there's a lot i will miss from over there but it will still be great to finally get home.

low vs diamond

i headed off to camden last night to see low vs diamond play at the barfly. they're a new band from LA on their first tour of the UK and i've gotta say that i was very impressed. there was a really good review of their show at water rats the other night (read review here) which prompted me to go and i'm really glad i did as it was a kick arse show. i was surprised at how mature their sound is (not mature as in boring but as in like they've played together for a long time and have that instinctive knowledge of each other) and how confident they are without coming across as arrogant. they're certainly a band that i'm looking forward to seeing again.

aussie politics test

it's always interesting to compare your self-view against an objective test. hence, i took the 'australian politics test'. i would have described my politics as left wing and therefore it was a surprise to me to find that on all indicators (political, economic, social policy & traditional values) i fall in the realm of 'centre left'.

in order, the parties to which i'm most closely aligned are:

the greens (82.3%)
australian democrats (76.4%)
ALP (66.7%)
family first (50%)
liberals (44.3%)
national party (37.9%)
one nation (24.2%)

anyhoo.. for anyone interested/bored enough to have a look at my results, click here

snow!!

yay!! we woke up this morning to a covering of snow. it doesn't happen often here so it's still a great novelty when it does. of course i do seem to be one of the few grown ups who get so excited but that's ok. hopefully it'll be snowing in krakow when i get there on saturday.

australia in the uk news

wow.. i don't think i've ever seen as much about the lucky country in the uk news in one day as i have today. of course, it's the usual type of news, ie: the airing of steve irwin's final doco; a bloke getting bitten by a shark; and little johnny howard's (correct) condemnation of the BDO organisers for asking people not to bring australian flags. it may not sound like an awful lot of aussie news but considering for most of the time you'd be forgiven for forgetting there is even a country outside of europe and america, this is a flood of news. speaking of floods, the floods in alice springs also made the news a few days ago which is of particular interest to me as an old friend is in the middle of moving there. let's hope her home hasn't been washed away.

on the move

our time of domestic bliss in finchley is coming to an end as we were informed last night that q and mi hwa are planning on buying a place of their own. hence, we have to move out by the end of february. it will be the first time we've lived away from finchley since settling over here and i'll be sad to move. it'll also be sad to leave q and mi hwa who have been great to live with. still, it's a good chance to live a bit closer in to town and reduce our travel time and, even better, to finally avoid the northern line. of course there's the inevitable discussions about where to live. i would like to live in the camden area whereas hol is more keen on the notting hill area. i guess time will tell which it is.

sheila's wheels

ok.. i need some feedback from folks back home on this one. is sheila's wheels an aussie insurance company or a pommy one that is using us as a gimmick? i certainly don't remember it being in australia but it is a few years since i moved over here. check out the ad below if you're not familiar with the company (but beware.. the song tends to get stuck in your head):

things i love about oz

i just love australia. of course that's no surprise to anyone who knows me but again this week one of the things i really love about the place was demonstrated by the NSW premier. his comments in which he described the truly hideous sheik taj din al-hilali as being "a few sandwiches short of a picnic" are a perfect example of the imformality that i fully embrace. i certainly couldn't imagine tony blair or ken livingstone describing abu hamza al-masri in such a way... although maybe they should.

2006 JJJ hottest 100

well it's that time of year again when we get to vote for the hottest 100 songs of the past 12 months. my exposure to a lot of the list is quite limited given that i've not been in australia. nevertheless, it was still hard culling the list down to the below 10 songs that i ended up voting for:

Bob Evans - Don't You Think It's Time
Fratellis - Chelsea Dagger
Gnarls Barkley - Crazy
Hard-Fi - Cash Machine
Killers - When You Were Young
Lily Allen - Smile
Saboteurs - Hands
Saboteurs - Steady As She Goes
Smoosh - Find A Way
Sodastream - Twin Lakes

last year only four of the songs i voted for actually made the top 100 so i'll be interested to see what happens this year. if anyone wants to post the 10 songs they've voted for in my comments i'd be interested to have a look

EDIT: well, my votes did better this year with 5 of the songs i voted for making the cut. they were: 'when you were young' (#4); 'crazy' (#6); 'smile' (#15); 'steady as she goes' (#28); 'don't you think it's time' (#37)

sodastream @ st giles church

the first band i saw play after arriving in london was sodastream and it's been a long time since then. it was great to see them again tonight in a very unusual venue.. a lovely old church in central london. they played a great mix of songs from the old days (lushington hall, horses) right through to their latest (very good) album (warm july, reservations). they also told some very entertaining stories from their recent times in the USA.

i missed the first support band but managed to catch the clientele who were fantastic. hopefully i'll get to see them again sometime soon.

5 - 0

how sweet it is!! what a great time to be living in england with the headlines in the paper and on the news bemoaning the performance of the english team. really they just need to accept that they're not that bad.. the were just beaten by a very very good team.

welcome back

as you will see from the date on the post below, it's been well over a year since this blog has been active but now i've made the move back and hopefully i'll be able to stick with this site for the long term. i figured there wasn't a lot of point in paying for a blog site as my blogging will probably be a bit sporadic this year given that i'll be spending some time working in poland.

i intend to set up a site where i can upload pictures so anyone who wants to see them will still be able. i'll post details as i know them.