Wow I'm sitting here and it's Christmas Eve and has been 2 months since I left my last blog! So sorry for the delayed and lazy blogging. I guess we have alot to catch up on!So in a nut shell: I got a job, Luke arrived, I went on another traveling adventure, and amoungst all that I've been renovating the new house!
So the New House has been nicknamed the Whitehouse where Dad is the President as EVERYTHING is being painted white. We thought we might have it ready for Christmas but putting in 3 bathrooms, a new kitchen, 3 bedrooms and changing all the plumbing jsut dosent happen in 10weeks so here we are at Christmas eve after weeks of hard work with a house that is half finished but livable and hopefully able to contain the 38 people coming on boxing day!
As for my new job, I'm working as a barman/ waiter at a pub and I'm having a ball! Possibly the best job I have ever had! So good infact that I've delayed my Canada trip by another month to hang around and spend some more time in the UK. So with that job and working on the house I was racking up 70+ hours a week which helped pay off some debts to dad and the bank but I was in need of a hard earned break.
On the 4th December I left the house headed on the midnight train to Gatwick Airport, I had planned a weekend away in Amsterdam with some American friends that I've met along the way on my travels. The flight didnt leave till 615am so when I arrived at Gatwick at 1am I still had
alot of time to waste. I ducked upstairs and checked in my baggage then went downstairs to try and settle in for some sleep on the chairs, apparently every other man and his dog had the same idea and so there was zero room for me to lie down. So I did the next best thing, I scanned the room for some good looking girls and spotted two, conviently-with one spare seat beside them. So I got over there only to realise that they were speaking a TOTALLY foregin language which never helps when you are trying to make conversation. I tried Hello in numerous different lanugages and after several failed attempts and loads of girlish giggling they said hello in English.... GAHH! Why couldnt they just do that to start with? Turns out they were from a country called Estonia which is apparently somewhere in Europe. We went and got coffees and chatted for the next few hours waiting for our flights.
Come 615 I was on the first flight out of the country on route to Amsterdam. I imediatly passed out from sheere exaustion on the flight only to be woken 30minutes later as everyone was disembarking the plane!! Short flight!
The American crew arrived at 830am and we made our way into the city on the train. When we got off I was shocked to see a place I recoginised! Not from my own travels but rather the movie "Euro Trip" haha. It was Amsterdam Central Station. We got off the train and were confronted with an icy blizzard of snow and rain only to find out that we couldnt check into our hotel for another 5 hours. Being as we were in Amsterdam we went into a coffee shop, which arn
t hard to find! Now it shoud be noted that Amsterdam is one of the only countries in the world where it is legal to publically smoke weed. So instead of being given a menu for coffees we were given a menu of joints and hash. And I was shocked to see this sign posted on the window....It's legal to get high but smoking a cigarette inside can get you behind bars for the night. lol But I'm not a smoker never have been and never will be so I stayed well clear and stuck with my trusty bottle of English water!
We stayed at a fabulous apartment not far from central station for 150Euro ($300) a night, might seem expensive but between 5 of us it was affordable. Next day we hit up all the sights, and of course being the home of Heniken we went to the original brewery. Imagine 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' but replace Chocolate with Beer and you have the perfect vision of this factory. Complete
with beer waterfalls and beer tasting, with a lounge room bigger than any normal house complete with 7 projector screens and suround sound, with the roof made of beer bottles, it was the ultimate boys day out! Top the day off with a city organised club crawl throughout the streets of A'dam we didn't get in till 4am!Unfortunatly though it was only a weekend away and 3 days quickly passes, before I knew it I was on a flight home. On the 9th at silly o'clock (5am) Luke arrived from Australia. Was great to see him after 7 months of being away from home and family. The past few weeks have been spent working and chillaxing saving up some cash for the Snowboarding season in Canada. Last week Luke, Dad and I went and played Laser Tag which was a blast, followed by Ten Pin Bowling and I kicked some serious sibbling ass! 151 Vs 110
Now its Christmas Day tomorrow and we have loads of people turning up so this is me signing out! Hope you all have a GREAT Christmas season, I'm missing you all loads and look forward to seeing you next June! Have an AH-MAY-ZING New Year.
BLESSINGS & SMILES FOR 2009 =]
Matty
