Double Negative

Greetings to you all,

Once again it's been a while since my last update, so this has the potential to be a long one.

I believe my last update was just after Thanksgiving as I was preparing to go on my first night shift. Now that I've done a couple I can say that they actually aren't that bad. The worst part is the two days (nights?) off I get between shifts. The question is do you attempt to switch your sleeping pattern back to days or stay as a night creature. I've been a night creature. Problem is you can't really go out cause everything is closed. It still feels really odd going to bed as it's getting light and getting up in dark when it's not going to get lighter for another 12 hours. I've been a little unlucky with some of my shifts due to equipment breaking down right at the beginning of the shift meaning that the plant cannot run. 12 hours is a long time to spend doing online training.

I enjoyed an amusing birthday celebration with friends from work. Spent the beginning of the evening at my apartment before heading out on the town. Going to bars is a slightly different experience here. Most bars have an entire fleet of waiters/waitresses and it's pretty awesome not having to fight your way to the bar. Some of you might be thinking "Hang on Terry, you didn't like been waited on at Cloud 23". Let me explain, the waiting staff at Cloub 23 were crap and you weren't allowed to order at the bar. Here the staff are awesome, I don't often have to wait long with an empty glass and frequently they ask if I want another drink before I've even finished my previous one. Plus if you want to go to the bar you can. I entered in a raffle at one bar to win a free happy hour and won. 3 hours of free drinks, plus my mates paid $20 and got the same. I've now been offered a night bartending at the place. Haven't decided if I'll take that one up yet.

One of the most pressing problems I had when I arrived which got resolved very quickly thanks to Chris was where I could watch rugby. Thankfully there is a bar mere blocks from me which showed some of the autumn internationals. A very nice Irish bar (there's no shortage of them here), plus it's fairly cheap. You can get free refills on soft drinks. Seeing as the matches started at 8.30 I wasn't prepared to be drinking that early. I once spent 6 hours in that bar and essentially only bought one drink. It was awesome. Although it didn't show the Scotland Australia game which was a pity. Plus I only saw one SA game, probably good thing in hindsight.

Christmas brought snow and family, it's been cold here. I once left work when the temperature was -28 C with wind chill (-20 without). When the Americans are talking about negative temperatures you know it's cold. There has been no shortage of snow, although living in the city centre means that you don't see as much. Out in the suburbs the snow hasn't gone and the first snow was nearly a month ago.

Christmas was spent with the family. They arrived a few days before Xmas and left on New Years Eve (celebrating new years on a plane). Had an excellent few days exploring old haunts including our old house and schools. Went to a Basketball game which is excellent fun and also saw the Harlem Globetrotters (an exhibition team). New Years for me was spent more traditionally than my parents, partying at a friends apartment until 6am. Due the low temperatures we left the beers out on the balcony, which resulted in frozen beers.

Well I said this could be long one and look, it has been. For those of you who made it this far congratulations. Hope you all had an excellent Christmas and New Year. And here's an amusing video I found online. I should add that I haven't met an single American who is this stupid. Although I did meet one who tried to convince me that our accents were the same because he was from New England.

http://www.studentbeans.com/video/europe-is-a-country.html

Til Next Time,