My Swedish Shoes

I couldn't sleep last night because I have a wisdom tooth coming through on my jaw-line. It's not only the pain that pisses me off, or, that I don't need anymore teeth in my overcrowded mouth; but this evolutionary throw-back is ruining my entire bottom row of teeth. This being the bottom row of teeth that I had to have braces on for 3 years! Welcome back to that stereotypical British smile. So I decided to get up at 6.30am as Stuttgart and Barcelona were playing and it was on TV and I couldn't take the constant numbing pain (I'm usually doped-up on pain pills). I've been sat on the internet for about 3 hours doing nothing, waiting for Ingrid to get her lazy arse out of bed so I can workout in our room.

As I was doing my usual rounds on the internet on Saturday I saw that United had an early kick-off at 12.45pm against Everton. I couldn't believe my luck - I'd be able to see two games in one week! I managed to drag Ingrid out with me, sink a few pints and mingle with a few fellow Mancs who congregate there. Alas, I wasn't so lucky as we lost 3-1; a rare occurence. Who knows what will become of our season? We show some rare glimpses of genius, but largely we're not on top-form, albeit hanging in there still. At least Liverpool are shit.


I've clocked-in a couple of shifts at work but not started getting into the swing of things. My hours are starting properly next week and then hopefully by March I should be doing full-time hours or at least something resembling full-time. I went in yesterday to complete the last bits of paperwork so I can get paid and to pick some of my uniform. My allowance is a pair of shoes and three garments. The best thing about this is that's it's free and I get to pick whatever I want. Most people usually pick two t-shirts and shorts but I'm allowed to wear my jeans as well. I'm not a fan of shorts - I'm a serious man and shorts are for laughable characters and weak people. Anyways I picked a pair of shoes (for free) and thought about going the safe route...but then my head said to me 'fuck it man, they're free!' So I went for something a little more risqué. I usually play it safe when it comes to shoes, something white or black does the job well. So I got them home and was quite pleased with myself when Ingrid, rather begrudgingly pointed out that they have the same colours of the Swedish flag. Freud would have a field-day with that one! I calmly noted that if they had them in the colours of Norway I would've got them; but, to be honest, I wouldn't.

They remind me of an early Nicktoons cartoon. Maybe 'Angry Beavers'?

I managed to finish the Francis Drake biography in a little under and a week and promptly headed back to the history section of our fair City Library here in Melbourne. I was tempted to get another biography of a Tudor seaman but thought better of it and stretched myself a bit. I ended up with Henry Kamen's 'Spain's Road To Empire.' I'm familiar with Kamen from my degree and it was his name as well as the subject matter that caught my eye. He takes a slightly different approach in this book where he details Spain's expansion into Europe and the rest of the world through the 15th to the 18th century, detailing it's rise, dominance and steady decline. I've been getting into my history a lot more recently and I think it's time to start a more serious preparation for going back to university, whenever that may be.

Me and Ingrid are about to come to the end of a long, drawn-out project we started a few weeks ago. I'm not usually the most responsive person to cultural-happenings and such, and it takes me a little while sometimes; but, I've finally got into the TV series 'House'. We're currently on Season 5 and burning through it fast. All I'll say is - you know you've watched too much when you find it weird to hear Hugh Laurie's real, English accent.

Come on the Mighty Reds!

I'm so excited. After the Champions' League winter break, the knock-out stages are finally upon us! Not only are United in it, not only are they showing it here, but I get to watch it...live! Unlike the regular league matches that are on pay tv, for some reason the European games are shown on regular, free television. I managed to catch a few games last year and forgot about this. However, I remembered, I checked and my wish has come true. Finally I get to see United play in my own home and at a fairly reasonable hour (6.30am). We're playing AC Milan in Italy, which is arguably the biggest game of the year so far. I have faith in my boys and I know we can defeat the mighty (oncer mightier) Rossoneri and get that trophy back where it belongs - in God's own country, Manchester! COME ON YOU REDS!

Across the world and proudly displaying where my allegiance lies, at home in Manchester.

not 'arf bad for a yank!

I just finished reading 'Down Under' by Bill Bryson. I finished it in a little under a week. It's truly a great read and, for the most part he's spot on. It's the second book that i've read by him after reading 'Mother Tongue' in college. I decided to read it as a sort of fitting end to my travels in Australia. It's rounded things off nicely and I think it was the perfect time to read it, having been to a lot of the areas he's writing about. However, I do think if you're a novice when it comes to Australia it would be a good thing to pick-up. It's not a definitive travel guide (and doesn't claim to be), but his scholarship provides a great insight into the history of Australia, plenty of interesting facts and musings on a lot things I, myself have been wondering. It's nice to know I wasn't the only one. To quote my friend Jack, Bill Bryson most certainly 'drops knowledge.' He manages to fulfil all of this criteria whilst combining it with real experience and comedic relief in the form of his numerous encounters. Most importantly, he tells it like it is. Give it a go.

I can't wait to get my hands on 'Neither Here Nor There', Bryson in Europe. But, for the moment, it's back to the natural state of affairs - reading early modern history. I managed to pick-up a rather large biography of Francis Drake by Stephen Coote. If you don't know you Drake is then you can't be helped. Otherwise, get your wiki on.

A week on Friday is Soundwave Festival in Melbourne. It's at the Flemington Showgrounds which is only the next suburb over which is convenient. Ingrid got us both tickets for my birthday and I've been looking forward to it for a long time. I've never been to a festival at home, but I've experienced them in Norway and Sweden so it'll be interesting to see how the Aussies handle it. The bands I'm most looking forward to are Glassjaw, The Almost, The Get Up Kids and Jimmy Eat World.

I need the motivation

I thought it was about time that I got back into this. If not for anyone else, but for myself. It’s partly to do with a complete lack of interest, that we all get sometimes with certain things. It’s all to do with not having the motivation as well.

Over the last few months I just lacked interest in most things. It’s a real shame because I’ve haven’t had this much time myself in years. I feel like I pissed away a lot of the down-time I’ve had between travelling and trips, by just sitting around on my arse, watching tv and complaining to anybody that would listen. I am a little annoyed with myself for not utilising it and listening to the nagging feeling in my head that kept on saying ‘read, write, read, write - go to the fucking library for Christ’s sake!’ But it never went down like that. Looking back at it from the vantage point I have now and with perspective on my side I think it happened because I was unhappy. I don’t know exactly why this was happening but part of it is because I let myself get stale. I was, in no way exercising body or mind and I’ve realised that this is what I need to do. If you’re not a complete moron, this is usually the case for most.

The realisation came to me about three weeks ago when I was in Sydney. Over the last few months I’ve been travelling all over the place, and (to be honest) not really enjoying a lot of it. I don’t know precisely why but I was snobbish and lazy about it. I wasn’t totally uninterested in where I was going and what I was doing but I wasn’t writing or recording anything at all (which is usually my thing). I have loads of notebooks in England with musings and thoughts and observations. And from Australia? One page and then I gave up. So, to cut a long story short - I was in Sydney, knowing my money was running out, knowing the summer was nearly over, running out of steam, looking forward to going home, feeling relieved to be going home (to Melbourne) and I was the happiest I’d been in weeks. Why? I don’t know, do you?

I find this realisation quite interesting. I’m not quite sure what it tells me about myself though. What I’m most looking forward to now (and it sounds a bit of a cliché) is getting my life back on track. I don’t mean this in any epiphany-bullshit sort of way; I just mean getting back to some degree of normality. I’ve got myself a pretty standard retail job in Melbourne with Puma to give me something to do and make some numbers in my bank account. I’ve started eating healthy and drinking less booze. I’ve purchased some weights and started doing a proper workout like a used to. I’ve started going to the library and compiling a reading list to really get my teeth into a couple areas of history. Finally, I’ve started writing again - well, some semblance of it. If I don’t get anything concrete down I’m still making sure I put some ideas down, at least. Sometimes it can be the hardest thing to take the pen and paper out of your pocket at that exact second you think of something. Basically, it takes discipline. I used to have it, I taught myself to have it, I lost it and now I’m teaching myself to get it back. This isn’t supposed to be a self-critique or motivational rant - it’s just what’s happening right now.


I swear it's not vanity. I thought it would be a good idea to take a picture of myself before I started working out again, so I could see my progress. I'm going to track it every two weeks to see how I'm going. There was no way I wasn't going to look smug.


This is pretty much my uniform: just a plain red t-shirt with the Puma logo on the front. Not bad.

I've spent about 2 months finally reading all the Bond novels I never got round to. Before I'd read 1-7. This time I read 8-14 and none of them dissapointed.

Reading: Bill Bryson - Down Under (Travels in Australia)
Listening: The Almost, The Dodoz and The Early November