Cheesey at Cheers: the Beantown Send-Off

     
Click here to download:
cheesey-at-cheers-the-beantown-send-off-zfaAuDBuBqyCkcvmqxbA.zip (2128 KB)

My last hours in Boston before I hop a flight back to London will be spent playing tourist.

I'm at the Cheers tourist trap in Boston's Faneuil Hall. I'm surrounded by memories and merchandise. If I get drunk enough I will buy a t-shirt.

I'm drinking a delicious Sam Adam's Boston Brick Red and eating a bowl of chilli. "You don't miss yer water, 'til yer well runs dry".

New England vs. Old England...no contest. Maybe I could delay my flight...

(Aerosmith's, "Mama Kin", just came on the tune box. Perfect)

Tagged Aerosmith Beers Boston Cheers Hometown

Strolling London 26.09.2009

We have only been in London three weeks. Technically we are still tourists. Today we played Americans in London and walked all over the South bank and trotted over a few major bridges: London Bridge and Tower Bridge included.

It was a (picture) perfect day in here in London. The temps got up to 20 degrees Celsius (that is 65 degrees Fahrenheit for all you Yanks). They say these days won't last, so we were sure to give it a run for it's money.

I used the PicPosterous iPhone app to create this album.  You can add snaps on the fly very easily with it. Unfortunately I cannot delete pics from the collection of shots (there is no way to do this from the web or iPhone app unless you dump the entire album). There are two pictures, one in particular,  that I would like to remove.

Some asshole thinks it is a good idea to have a business where you trot out winged animals and chain them to a stump.  This way they get to stand there while idiots like me to gawk at and take pictures of them. I took two pics of two birds: a vulture and a bald eagle. I felt like the former taking a snap of the later. I may be living in London, but I am still from the land of the ol' baldy. 

I hate anything that is held against it's will be it humans or hawks. I can't stand zoos either. Prisons are another thing entirely. These birds did nothing to deserve the stump.

On that note, enjoy the rest of the random snaps. 

Have a look at the tags associated with this post to see where we went and what saw

                                                                                                 
Click here to download:
strolling-london-26-09-2009-ylkHbHqJCduxuGcwbGap.zip (22268 KB)

_____

Tune Tags (want to know what a Tune Tag is? Go here)

(Sorry, I had to do this. This was too perfect. At least I chose a live version. Get your lighters ready...)

Tagged Beers Big Ben Borough Markets Burough Market Chimay Dali Exhibit London Bridge London Eye Lunch Thames Tower Bridge Used Books

Look over Yonder...I'm guest blogging on YUD: "Release the hounds! The London job hunt has begun."

Unemployment is not such a bad thing.  At least that is what YUD leads us to believe. YUD, who lives in New York City, is unemployed and she is some one's daughter.  YUD, "Your Unemployed Daughter", maintains a blog detailing her exploits about "the halcyon days and sleepless nights of a formerly high-powered media exec".  

You can learn more about YUD here.  Want the Full-YUD?  Find it here. 

YUD and I have something in common...aside from a penchant for stiff drinks and so-bad-but-so-good KISS songs...we are both unemployed.  While YUD has more than enough to say to keep us interested about unemployment, I thought she might like an international perspective.  

I just relo'd to London from Sydney. In the process, I left my job behind and now rank amongst London's ever growing gang of unemployed down and out'ers. I am stringing together a few words about my London exploits and sharing them on YUD.  

Seeing as my wife (my "partner") is the one with her nose to the grindstone each day, I am taking on the role of YUP: Your Unemployed Partner.  It is all fun and games before the novelty wears off and YUP turns in to S.O.B faster than you can shake an unemployment check at. 

My initial post on YUD, "Take This Job and Shove It", can be found here.  For the latest on my lowdown-London-unemployment ways, go here and/or read below:  

Release the Hounds!

The one good thing about being unemployed in London is being unemployed in London. I am so busy keeping busy I haven’t had time to start the job search. There is so much to experience and explore here that I wonder why anyone would want to work in the first place

Apparently I am not the only one who feels this way.

The news flash this week told us that unemployment in the UK has reached a 14-year high, 7.9 percent. Since July some 210,000 people have become jobless. Bravo, Londoners. I am inspired by your decision to leave your jobs and stop letting this great city and all it has to offer pass you by

Oh, wait … you mean to tell me people are not choosing to be unemployed? Almost two million newly unemployed in the past 12 months is not a good thing

Of course it isn’t. People in London are struggling to find jobs. For those who have jobs, the prospect of a raise or receiving annual bonuses is bleak. Worst of all, “they” tell us it isn’t going to get better any time too soon

Timing is everything. Just two weeks ago I left Sydney and a six-figure salary. Now I sit in my rented London flat banging away on my keyboard entering my stats into online job-find sites. Me and 1.8 million of my new found jobless mates, looking for salvation via a search engine

And don’t forget about the zombie parade going in and out of the recruiter’s office. That meat market march is a chore I detest

Do I sound jaded? I’m not. These are just the cold, hard facts of unemployed life. No one is going to serve it up for you, and if they do, it’s probably too good to be true

Remember, I have moved three times to three countries and have had to find work with each relocation. I’m well-versed in this game. It is never a fun process, but it’s one that, at the very least, I have come to terms with

That being said, I have been doing more than sightseeing

There was some low-hanging fruit I needed pluck since my arrival—two leads that I had prior to leaving Sydney turned into interviews. Two interviews in 11 days … not too shabby. If anything, it was good to get back in the game

Interviewing is nothing more than the art of storytelling. People want to talk to you because they want to hear your story. You tell a good story and they listen. If they want to be part of that story, they hire you

My story, apparently, is an interesting one. The two interviews went well and there was promise of a second round from both companies. Nothing is nothing until it is something, so we’ll just have to see if they call back

In the meantime, I’m going back out to explore London. No sense waiting by the phone for it to ring … I did enough of that in high school (and she never called back like she said she would!)

The Museum of Natural History and the Royal Albert Hall are in walking distance (I walked up and got a ticket for Ray LaMontagne the other night…stellar show). Tower Bridge and Hyde Park are nearby as well

Not to mention all of the pubs. There is a pub on every corner and one in between. I have still yet decided what my favourite local ale is to be. I am sure I have plenty of time to figure it out before the second round of interviews … if they ever call back, that is.

_____

YUD asked me for a pic to go with the post.  I tried to get a snap of me enjoying unemployment at a local watering hole, but that was too hard and too creepy. Instead I gave her a snap of the friends that were with me: my beer, my book and my pistachios. I added the foolish pic of me trying to take a shot of me drinking a beer here for the hell of it...warts and all, I say.


Curious as to where I was when I took the snap and skulled my pint?  Go here.  I hate celebrity gossip...f'ing hate it... but I have some. When I bought this beer, Colin Ferrel was in front of me getting a pint of his own. The female bartender could barely keep herself upright. I didn't even know it was him. Needless to say, I was a letdown when I strutted up to the taps.

   
Click here to download:
Look_over_Yonder...Im_guest_bl.zip (2076 KB)

Tagged Bars Beers Books Guest Blog Post London Ray Lamontagne unemployment YUD YUP
Contributors
The 6149's Link Love