Part 37 : Shaka Zulu Camden

The previous few weeks were a mish-mash of long nights conforming and a few outings here and there to the movies and a few nice dinners. This weekend was set to be a big one because Faye and Lucy were coming down to see The Lion King with us and also for a catchup and drinks out on the town.

Thommy Paton had started crashing at my place for a few weeks and a friend of his was having a party at a place called Shaka Zulu right in the heart of Camden. We actually started off in Camden during the day checking out the markets and stalls that are scattered around the side streets. I picked up a few street arty shirts and we all grabbed some mexican food for lunch. One of the best things was a shop there that made ice cream in front of you from liquid nitrogen. I remember seeing this as a kid on children's Tv shows and thinking its was an awesome idea. I suppose that its taken the world or someone about 20 odd years to cover all the insurance red tape and prove it was safe enough for consumption for a franchise to be born out of it. Overall I think the actual flavour of the ice cream wasn't too crash hot but the process and the novelty of it was quite interesting.

We eventually got ready and made our way out into the town. The girls really got dressed up and me and Thommy were quite happy to chaperone them through to the party. Shaka Zulu was actually quite nice inside. Its a all african themed club with a restaurant downstairs. Its fairly boutique and elitist and you have to book in advanced if you even want a chance to get in. I was told later that the food downstairs wasn't actually that good and you go there more for a seat and the experience then the quality of flavour. The handles and walls are all adorned with carved wooded african motifs while statues of Zulu warriors lit up by purple and blue lights watch over you as you drink and dance away. Dancers dressed up as Zebras come and entertain you around the drinking area upstairs while doing laps of the small escalators to the downstairs club section.

It was quite packed on the dance floor and the friends of Thom said that you have to book a table and pre spend at least £150 to get it reserved. You may think that that sounds like a lot of money but its actually not, not in this place. A bottle of Greygoose (a personal fav of mine) cost about £170 while a bottle of Dom Perignon costs a whopping £300. I know for a fact that Greygoose at the off-license is a minuscule £32 which I was told by friends is still way too much to pay for Vodka. each to their own.

In between the tables however were the most fit/hot dancing girls dressed in a loincloth re Tarzan and jane. Other then this we all kind of decided that paying for the incredibly overpriced experience of looking at hot dancing girls could be saved for another time and decided on heading to another club. Next time however Im sneaking in a bottle of my own :). £170 saved!!!

That sadly was the last club we went to as we slowly down geared from partying to eating to waiting for a cab to heading home to drink to eventually just going to sleep :( In the end it was a really fun night and we did have a big day of sightseeing and Lion King the next day.

Song: Not original music of my creation
"Shaka Zulu" by Margaret Singana
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cheers

Part 36 : Too Much Work

After a short time of no blogging… apologies to everyone following but I found that they're really isn't much to blog about if the only thing that you are doing is working way too many hours and then sleeping. And on the of night / weekend you end up drunk at a bar then blogging isn't the most interesting thing to do.

I have set my self up in London and a place in Tufnel Park, a good 5 mins bus journey form Camden and gotten back into that rut of working to pay rent to continue to be able to afford to be able to work. After 2 months of not seeing anyone or being able to enjoy going out and meeting new people and doing new thing without feeling like I was about to pass out and fall asleep I found myself in a position where I had to make a choice about the work I was doing in London.

Song: Not original music of my creation
"We Gotta get out of this Place" by The Animals
please purchase if you enjoy it
cheers

Part 35 : Edinburgh Fringe Festival

I was a bit relieved to be heading up north to get away and to go out and party with the boys. I had only met Troy once before but I was keen to have some fun. The weight of trying to get my life back in order regarding work and somewhere to live was getting to me and I felt like a carefree weekend away, see some comedians, live music and have a few pints with some scots would be pretty cool.

I took the friday off work because I thought we were leaving in the morning but it was actually 11pm at night. Oops. oh well it was good to have the day off. My first week of Tech support manager and it involved Jess being sick for every day other then the first 3 hours of monday. Apparently if he is sick I become the Operations manager which resulted in my first week at a new company and I'm acting Operations manager. lol.

So we get the bus and the 8 hr but trip up north wasn't the best of trips. I hate getting isle seats because I love just sleeping my way through travel. That didn't happen and so we ended up in Edinburgh on a few hours sleep. Hit up some mcd's for breakfast and moved onto our hostel in the rain. We got there early but couldn't check in till 12 midday. We got some complementary breakfast and had a game of chess. :) I lost. damn. first time in ages. Then checked in and finally caught up with Troy.

Edinburgh is such a pretty town. All the streets and building are all old and stone, cobbled streets and ageless. It seems like a place that hasn't changed from 200 years ago except for all the cars and take away shops about. We cruised around the town, through the main street and the hundreds of people spruiking to sell their shows. Got a nice baguette like thing even though mine got burnt to a crisp, and then eventually made our way to a performance of Oedipus. Overall the show was quite good but I do think that there was a significant section in the middle which I found to be quite non-eventful and so I had a slight nap and caught up on some sleep. Apparently… this is when the best bit happened. doh

We made our way back to the hostel and decided to head to the bar there and have a few drinks. Troy the ever so socialite that he is struck up a conversation with 4 american girls and before you know it were all sitting around a table playing cards. This game was similar to Uno but every time it changed suit you have to drink. This result in all of us getting really drunk really quick. A memorable moment of the night was me spilling my beer all over the cards hence ending the first game and tequila shots.

We eventually moved on to a bar called Lebowski because we wanted to se the dude, before heading to a night club. This place had so many levels that it felt that the further down you went into the club the more hard cord the dance floors became. This was probably true and so we ended up on the 5th I floor down and danced to what seemed like music from the crapital and hence my uni days. 80's rock and 90's pop. I was quite happy that the last song they played was don't stop me now by queen which I danced to horribly in my tired and drunken state :)

Song: Not original music of my creation
"Edward" by Old Blind Dogs
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cheers

Part 34 : Work Week 1

2 months and a bit of living in London and partying up with Iax, Phil and Rohan and now I'm starting to run low on cash. I've also run out of free liberty time of staying at Iax's. I managed to crash at my cousin Loraines place for a week or 2 but then she and her house mates were also moving out so I desperately need to get a place of my own. With work starting on Driving Wars in the next few week or 2 and time at my cousins running out I managed to sneak in a few viewings here and there and found a fairly cheap place in Islington where I could stay.

The guy who ran the place was Emmanuel from Kenya. I don't have any kinds of problems against African people at all since my two nephews and my niece, my brother in law and a few friends of mine are all from Africa, I however should have known better to get involved in business with this Kenyan guy, and by business I really meant he being my landlord and there being some sort of money involved.

I had moved all my stuff in via two trips across the city from Acton to islington and also through the tube which wasn't too nice but it got the job done in the end. The room was literally a room and the place had 8 or so rooms with a large share kitchen but no living space. This just meant that everyone kept in their rooms resulting in a very unsocial experience. When I checked the place the only thing that I really asked for was a internet connection which several times he stated that "yes of course there is the internet, they are all professional people how can you be professional and not have the internet"…there was not internet. :( massively disappointed.

Once I had gotten back from the first block of shooting he called to tell me that he was in breach of his mortgage agreement with the local council and that he couldn't have multiple leases for the one property and had to lease to 1 lease holder. In the end I was simply quite happy to leave and be rid of him and his constant everyday calling and shitty rental property.

On the other hand I had started work and was doing data on a cool TV series called Driving Wars and finally earning some pounds.

Song: Not original music of my creation
"I need a Dollar" by Aloe Blacc
please purchase if you enjoy it
cheers

Part 33 : Kings of Leon with Nina

Nina finally came back to Good ole England and after she had come to London we had planned to meet up. She was here to visit Shaun but he was at work. The original plan was to out for drinks and a catch up but it soon became apparent that Kings of Leon were a more then likely option. It all came down to ticket prices. Online they were advertised at being around £30 but after we arrived we soon saw they were more like £50. Then our luck turned for the better and we ran into a guy selling 2 for 1 and we ended up with 3 tickets for £100 :)

The overall day and atmosphere was quite nice even though there were small periods of rain. Once it got dark the place hummed into the similar rock concert niceties, people pushing rudely, long waits for both beer and toilets and the inevitable band playing. Once they had actually played I realised that I actually didn't know any of the words except for the chorus to sex on fire and the two words 'use somebody', this made sing along fun beyond all means but other then that a nice day out in the park drinking cider with friends and listening to some good music.

The best part I have to say was by far two bands before Kings of Leon who played a cover of The Devil Came Down to George. I loved it even though I'm sure most of the young kids there wouldn't have ever heard of it before unless they'd played a significant amount of Guitar Hero.

Song: Not original music of my creation
"Sex on Fire" by Kings of Leon
please purchase if you enjoy it
cheers