Tales from the Quim

So I made it back to Australia for just over a week before being told to get my ass to Canukistan with less than 24 hours notice. So I got over my hangover just in time to have a beer with Fatty at Customs house and get a few more Friday drinks in me at the office before flying out.

Air Canada, I love you for scrapping the traditional business class and calling it executive first, its much the same as upper class on Virgin Atlantic. Absolutely everything about it is better than Qantas. The lie-flat beds are a class ahead of the Qantas skybed which while it goes flat it is not horizontal, and then you still have to try to jump over some random persons legs to get out of your window seat to the dunny when they are asleep.

Air Canada does not feature Neil Perry designed crapped out meals, save it for Rockpool, this is Business class and if I wanted slop I’d just go to Woolworths and make it myself. And a good breakfast with Canadian bacon, not some cold hard toast and rock solid butter like Qantas like to dish out. I guess I’ll have to stick to Singapore and Star Alliance airlines, although it sucks for domestic as Australia has no domestic Star alliance members. waah. I’m actually looking forward to 15 hours of peace on the flight home.

So yea, Vancouver, its a great place and I’m sure it would be a lot better if it wasn’t 4 degrees and raining, still it’s good. Clothes and stuff are cheap, lots of Asian food to choose from. If you’re a fatcunt there is always BK Triple Stackers or Wendys Baconators at your disposal.
The scenery is awesome with views of snow topped mountains behind North Vancouver as you walk around downtown. It’s very snappy and pleasing to the eye also.

They have good beer and I think this comes from the climate, not as good as fine Tasmanian lagers and ales but acceptable never the less, after mistakenly cracking a Budweiser at Honolulu it was refreshing to come to grips that beer in North America can taste good.

So I’ve been working every day since I got here, tomorrow I have to myself, a 2355 flight arriving at 1000 Sydney time is awesome as I get to sleep and reset for the time zone, woohoo. If you are lucky I’ll take some more photos and they will be here.

Interest rates, I’m all for em. I’m sick of hearing how hard it is for everybody. What? I’m a second class citizen for having savings? Why should everything favour people that borrow money. Screw you. If another .5% is going to tip you over the edge you shouldn’t have control of your own finances.

And stop telling me that rent money is dead money, interest money is dead money too, and I can assure you that I pay less rent than the interest you pay on your 300k home loan, and I save the rest.. AND THOSE SAVINGS DESERVE A FUCKING FAT INTEREST RATE.

And don’t even get me started on this tax breaks for family’s too, why the fuck am I PAYING FOR SOME DOUBLE INCOME FAMILY THAT ISN’T STRUGGLING?

Seems to me like Australians just complain about the cost of everything these days, what happened?

HARDEN THE FUCK UP AUSTRALIA

So I got out of England safe, luckily we dipped out of the world cup before I had to put some cockney accent on to avoid confrontation, but it was somewhat pleasing to see them get pwned by the Springboks. London was better the second time around with all the touristy shit over and done with, work picked up momentum. I spent about 3 weeks there this last time around and the hotel was actually pretty good, other than the ₤5000 bill, thankfully picked up by the customer.

I did catch up with a few touristy things I missed the last time.. the tower bridge and London tower, and the British museum. The museum has probably more of Ancient Greece in it than Greece does, good for me. In true whiny English style there is a flyer explaining how the museum justifies having it all.. whatever.. least the Indigenous Australians had more luck getting their stuff out of the place. I did look but didn’t find any Indigenous Australian content in the museum. I guess the whiny poms are having a sulk.

The next best thing about London, Magners cider can be purchased in 1l and 50cl denominations, as well as the usual 568ml we see in Australia. The 1l variety can be purchased at a servo for around AUD$5.60. And people try to tell me London is expensive.. what a load of crap.

So enough about London, as with the last time, it’s really good while you are there, but when you leave you realise it is actually good to get out. Truth is you can earn more in other less screwed up cities, if you want to live there you really want to be making the most of London itself as the pollution and crap takes a toll on you. You can just go somewhere else in Europe (like Stockholm) and enjoy the travel benefits…

So I’m in Stockholm again.. in only 3 weeks it’s changed a fair bit.. it’s the worst part of the year as it’s in between cold/rain and snow. Snow is a lot nicer as you don’t get wet. If you have kids they are easier to dress (so I’m told by my expat friends) for the snow as it’s not muddy or wet.

A really good day today (3rd day of now live system) and it was event-free, no dramas. I got out early and had time to catch the company bus back into Karlaplan and walk back to Stureplan where I’m staying. I finally found 2 Systembolaget stores. Lets review this.. quote:
Systembolaget, the Swedish Alcohol Retail Monopoly, exists for one reason only: To minimize alcohol-related problems by selling alcohol in a responsible way, without profit motive.

So I guess monopolies are a good thing, saving us from the evils of alcohol-related problems and evil profit motives..

The evils of alcohol are easily tackled by closing bottle shops at 6pm weeknights (seems I managed to get out of the store at 18:04) and 2pm on Saturdays, and just don’t open on Sundays as we all know that’s when the majority of alcohol-related problems occur.

Profit motives are a funny thing, now back home, they have profit motives.. oh I think it’s actually called competition. I can pick up a bottle of whatever for around AUD$30. Luckily without the profit motives of this government owned business I only paid SEK279 for a bottle of Jamos. That’s because the government store does not make profits from the sale of alcohol, just the taxes :) The same stuff costs ₤14.99 in expensive London.. uhh.. right..

I guess Stockholm is OK… but I’m only here for another week when I head to Zagreb, Croatia for a couple of weeks.. rumour is I get to come home to Brisbane for a few days, then back to Sydney to settle..

Even the Swedes tell me Women in Croatia are really good (big call coming from Scandinavia) I challenged that comment and they say they are warmer.. I can believe that.. *cough* stuck up *cough* bitches *cough*.. I guess it’s just too much to have only a conversation in this place.

Stay tuned for a house warming/BBQ in Brisbane.. potential date is Sunday the 2nd of December.