Jetting Educated

I've just been on a trip, and what a fine journey it has been. I'm in the mood to start with the last place I visited, which was Munich.            In Italy last year I made friends with a lovely German called Mel who I then got fake-engaged to. A year later, we needed an engagement party. By no coincidence, when I visited her in Munich it was the time of the Oktoberfest. What could I expect? I had heard it was the largest beer festival in the world, and that, in all likelihood, it would get out of hand. It sounded great, so I slipped into some Lederhosen and we headed to Theresienwiese to find out. Like a pair of happy Bavarians As we entered, I could see that the rumours about the size are true- the area that holds the festival is 420,000 sq. meters.         The Hacker Brewery tent we were headed for could contain 6,900 people inside and 2,400 outside. Needless to say that tent was just one of many huge placed to hang...

A wonderful friend of mone quotes Ernest Hemmingway on her blpg woth the doctrine: "write driunk, edit sober". So i though i'D take her (and his) advice.  [After reading this back a few weeks later, I could see how the editing part was just as important as the getting wrecked. So I got to work on editing] I am relaxedly hazy from an onslaught of booze that I had to try 'for the good of the company'. I am on restaurant training and I'm at the part where we get to try stuff. We have completed 'wine tasting' which involved smelling, observing, sipping and spitting, although I did swallow most of mine as, like most people I know, I am a borderline alcoholic. We were getting told about different spirits, stuff the restaurant guests would probably never ask. There's a huge mark up on drinks in any restaurant, you may know that's where a lot of money is made.         For example a 660ml Peroni can be bought for ~£1.20 and sold for ...

[I am back in England now, of course. I did find this forgotten post, and thought I would publish it posthumously (the season's dead, not me)] On Thursday I will be coming back to England. During the past fortnight especially, I have been really looking forward to getting back. But now that I have done my last shift with the guests I know I'll miss the place, the people ad my great job.         I've been thinking about the start of the season fondly. Looking back on my first week from the distance of the final one is pleasant as it was a time of great adventure, yet so much has changed within that time. When we had just arrived, we were very excited (I was so hyper but trying to keep it on the down low a little since people didn't really know me yet)- a new place to explore with friends we had only known a week. All the had to do on the first week was clean the childcare rooms and play with the toys to, you  know, make sure they weren't bro...

Vacancy Location: The Palace Penthouse, Rue de petit St. Bernard, La Rosiere, France Duration: This week only as Roberto has been transferred Ideal tennant: A non smoking male who likes making noise, taking the piss/having the piss taken out of, and has a high tolerance for mess Rent: Nil, just prepare to have your personal possessions go missing The opening is to share with myself, Dion Bear, and 10 other guys in a staff accommodation known as the Palace. I feel that it does not deserve its jestful nickname, because, although it is not much to look at, its hardly a terrible place to live rent-free. The beauty of it, apart from having some of our female colleagues next door, is that with so many of us here there's rarely a dull moment. Organised fun- just as good as regular fun I used to live in a room with five others: Ed (often drinking tea and taking leisurely showers),  Ollie (child at heart who will smash glasses and throw cold water at you in ...

There is a bottle of 45 percent rum underneath my bed. Here it has rested since December 31st, when half of the bottle had either been consumed by myself or awarded to friends. Its pretty disgusting, but I bought it, so I intend to drink it, because wasting alcohol is a sin. However, it now sits there, next to a bottle of J.P Chenet and the dregs of someone's Malibu, untouched, as I am sober for January whilst on a Ski season in France. This marks the  longest period of time that I've not had any alcohol since I was somewhere in 17, which was seven years ago. My initial thought was: its pretty bad that drinking has been such a frequent occurrence in my life. But then who else could say that they've not had any booze in a month unless they were actively avoiding it? (I guess the answer to that is people who don't drink that much!) Having said that, I know I did drink too much. I had not been the 'responsible biologist' that I advocate myself as being...