New stuff

So, I’ve been back in the big smoke working at Viru for the past few weeks. Folding bedsheets is tranquil; going to Diletantide Avantgarde (or however it’s spelt) was bad this time, but we snuck in so it wasn’t extra disappointing; Christmas was fun and small but involved a lot of vodka and a visit from Santa; learning Estonian from my exercise book began well and is becoming more challenging; Avatar was pretty but boring; New Year’s was full of fish at a wedding and a late attempt to see fireworks; the last few days has seen my old faithful laptop of the last 3 years fall over on itself.

Now I have a new one.

I have a lot of shit to re-setup. Fun.

Vroooooooooooom

I’m enjoying the Bugged Out! Classics album at the moment, although laptop speakers don’t really do it justice. Still, what’s a boy to do?

Yesterday was probably one of my more pathetic efforts in the gym. I didn’t last long and I didn’t get much done. It’s amusing that I’m definitely less efficient and active now that I’m not living on a couch. You would think that I’d be able to develop a regular sleeping pattern and establish some kind of routine now that I have some privacy.

Instead I’ve been sleeping in until 1-2pm, not eating enough during the day and spending a fuck-tonne of money on alcohol as everyone seems to be in party mode again. It must be due to the weather lightening up and the influx of energy that comes with gaining two new, nice volunteers.

Don’t get me wrong – I’m having fun. It’s just weird. It’s nice feeling free again and having Levist lock-ins with the staff and receiving alcohol from them at no charge. I must be a little bit influential. Sometimes I wish I could be coercive as well but I’ve only got the ability to come off as “pushy”.

I really need to buy some new (or second-hand) trousers. I only own one set that does not have the arse ripped out of it. That doesn’t worry me so much because A) I don’t care and B) I have a nice arse. It’s just reassuring to know that my pants don’t run the risk of obliteration whenever I sit down or stand up too quickly.

Twitter is playing with my head at the moment. I’ve never been one to religiously follow conversations and spend 5 hours straight chatting back and forth to everyone (as it really does act like an IRC client in SMS-form) but I do enjoy updating my status with what I’m doing from time to time. Why is this playing with my head? Because it stops me from writing my blog properly as essentially this is paragraph after paragraph of what I’ve been doing. If you read my Twitter page it would be an even more brief summary of this site, potentially.

So, what do I do about this? I don’t know. I think I’ll try to balance it out and use this for thoughts and ideas and keep Twitter as a mood or status broadcaster. Of course, if I wasn’t so lazy with writing I would actually come up with a proper article or two for this site that wasn’t wholly to do with my own small world.

Then again, no one reads this anyway.

Tartu break

Yeah. I made it down to Tartu again for the first time since November. Marika’s very pleased. She managed to convince me to run away for a few days.

She’s moved into the bigger room of the flat. Looks good. The balcony is especially useful for providing fresh air. Unfortunately the floor-bed still kills my back while I sleep so I feel like an old cripple when I wake up in the morning.

Today we’re meant to go visit the toy museum. I’ve been trying to get to it for about a year and a half now and never been able to manage. Mum and dad will be jealous of me this afternoon.

Unfortunately I’ll probably miss two sessions at the gym this week. Never mind. I don’t want to look too good too fast, after all. I just wish my skin didn’t feel so dry. It feels like I’m shedding, or something. Disgusting.

Empire:Total War is pretty cool. It does indeed have long loading times but the game itself runs smoothly, although I do have everything set to minimum. I could probably up the details a bit but I don’t really see the point. It’s definitely a more complex and challenging game than the previous releases. I find even the starting campaign scenarios are difficult to manage if you don’t have a steady plan from turn one.

Last Friday a few of us went to a concert in Juuksur. We missed the main band but caught the second act, which was Rumour is News. I’ve seen them before and, well, they’re alright. A little boring perhaps. Marika was enraged that they didn’t play Flex Your Muscles during the set and they refused to even after she ran up to the stage to request it. She wanted this American girl that was drinking with us to hear it. Such is life.

On Saturday we made bread. Well, Marika did in Kea’s bread machine that Hugo bought her that she never used. He then gave it to me to put in the hostel. It’s like following a coin around, really. Raisin bread! It was fucking tasty. I’m too lazy to make more myself at the moment, but I will probably attempt to soon enough.

My hair is fluffy.

Hacking cough

I have a very raw throat. Fuck it. It hurts.

So, we didn’t quite make it to Angel. Instead, we went to a gay bar next door as the bouncer at Angel’s club entrance wanted 175 EEK from each of us before we could enter. Jim reluctantly joined us but soon left to Levist.

In this other bar I was molested in the bathroom as soon as I arrived. By a man’s face. In my crotch. It was brilliant.

Anna also danced away in a drunken stupor enough that she was cheer-leading in the bathroom while Tim and I relieved ourselves into the porcelain. She then vomited all over Tim and the dance floor, along with most of the back room when the staff tried to drag her out.

I got told off by the waitress for trying to take a picture of what was going on and nearly had my camera knocked out of my hand. I proceeded to argue quite effectively in Estonian and even mopped up the mess.

By the time everything had calmed down we’d lost Anna completely, even though I still had her ID card and money. Later we discovered that she’d managed to find her way back to the hostel and passed out on a couch. All in all it was an entertaining night.

The next day Catherine had convinced Anna to let us have dinner in the monastery, so we had some wicked fire-baked potatoes. We also got to meet Anna’s new little dog which is currently unnamed. I like to call it “Little Mate”. She’s a tiny little black dog that looks more like a miniature lamb.

I didn’t make it to the Brazilian night. I was starting to feel a bit fagged and went to bed around midnight, which is early for me and even earlier for a Saturday night. My early start on Sunday didn’t feel that great either and now here I am, sick.

It probably didn’t help that there was a baby blizzard going on in town over the weekend. Enough to cause power outages, road accidents and train delays. It also probably didn’t help that Ben convinced me to walk all the way to the harbour at Linnahall to see how bad the water was in the storm. It was like being whipped by ice. I did manage to get some cool pictures out of it, however.

So, tomorrow I’m going to stay with Marika for a while. Piia will be giving me a lift. How kind of her. I hope the snow doesn’t cause any complications for our trip!

Snow!

Yay! The first proper snow in the old town has just arrived today. I think it’s about minus 2 degrees outside. I hope it stays cold for the next few months. Last year was a horrible, wet winter.

I’m taking a couple of weeks off soon and will probably be spending most of it in Tartu. Marika is excited, to say the least. I am too. I’ll also be trying to do some decent exercise and lose a bit of weight, somehow.

On the other hand, my muscles are gaining weight. It’s kind of nice to see myself bulking up. The only problem is I have no definition at all due to my body fat. I’ve been like that for all my life so it’s not something I’m unfamiliar with, it just annoys me.

Tonight I think Tim and I will go to Angel, perhaps, along with Anna. It’s probably going to be hell so I will try to get very drunk first. Tomorrow is meant to be a party at Pikk street and our new volunteer Catherine wants to go to some Brazilian dancing night at Uberblingen… This time I’ll try to make her very drunk at Pikk street so that she can’t make it to the other club.

I need some breakfast other than chocolate. I would also like to finally buy a fucking blender. Pohhui.

Chefknob

Marika and I made roast lamb yesterday. It was actually good. I’ll be sure to try it again the next time I sacrifice one to the gods.

On Saturday we had a little party at Jim’s new apartment. It’s in the same building as Pete’s old place. Almost the same layout. Nifty. Pilly, Tim and myself polished off a litre of gin rather easily, on top of a few beers. It was surprising that I felt so good the next day, especially considering that I ate McDonald’s for lunch. Marika and I stayed in kala maja that night. Then we had our Sunday roast.

It was Elizabeth’s 6-month birthday yesterday, so we had cake and martinis, too. She’s a cute little dribbler. Amazingly enough, she’s one of the few babies that actually seems to like me. Huzzah!

Now I’ve returned to the old town and someone is playing Saw on the big screen, so I’m listening to it in the background. It’s still kind of creepy. I remember the first time I watched it was with palmy at his place. We sat together in the basement in the dark, shit scared. If only we held each other.

I think I should clean something. I think I should rejoin the gym, too. :/

Mental

The cops just came down our street with a megaphone telling everyone in front of Levist to bugger off. I haven’t seen that before. Awesome. It’s crazy out there.

It was crazy in here too, with some fine gents bringing two very attractive women (definitely too attractive, clean and well dressed for anyone sleeping in a dorm) back at 5 AM. They could have gotten away with it if they weren’t stupid enough to storm in and wake me up while I was sleeping on the couch (that wasn’t meant to sound like Scooby Doo, honestly). I had to chase them up the stairs and kick them out, after they lied saying that they were staying here. Yeah, right. Not with those shoes, lady.

Last night another fine gent (why are they always British? Oh, I think I know…) decided to keep me awake with his friend for a few hours in the early morning before passing out on the couch. That wouldn’t have been so bad if he didn’t then lean over and vomit all over the floor, again waking me up. I think I’m sleeping on an unlucky couch or something. It’s always uncomfortable and every time I lie down on it something goes to shit.

I haven’t bothered uploading any photos of my hair yet. Fuck it. There are some and they will come, but not for a bit.

The Viljandi folk festival was very cool. I took a 4 day pass and bought Marika one for her birthday, too. Lots of us went together and most of us camped outside, some at the grounds and some at Kea’s house a bit out from the centre.

The weather was perfect and my wallet became empty very quickly. It took me 3 days to recover from my trip to the gym the morning that we left. I could barely sit down or move I was so stiff and sore. At least if I can survive sleeping in a tent with a body that sore I know I should be able to cope as an old man.

Overall it was good fun! I did miss the old free stage, though. It’s pretty clear they want to stop all the drunk, poor kiddies from fart-arsing around and leaving garbage everywhere. Rumour has it that there won’t even be any alcohol served next year.

We decided to stay until Monday and then Pilly and I would take the train back. Sunday night was our big barbecue night and somehow I ended up having to take care of most of it. How impressive. The next day everyone else hitchhiked or took the bus in impatience, apart from Eagle 8. We met her by chance at the train station and she gave us some wine, so we vegged out on the couch until we pulled into town 2 and a half hours later.

Since I got back it’s been pretty good here. I even saw Wanted and the new Batman, The Dark Knight. One is better than the other, so clearly Morgan Freeman isn’t the difference. They’re both good in their own ways, too. Still, Batman is very over-hyped but it’s mostly coherent, Wanted is just cool to watch but the story is… well, even for a stylised comic book action movie it doesn’t make sense.

I have a big happy belly from all the festival food. Oops. Gym tomorrow, if I can stay awake.

Drama unfolds

The police came around to the Monk’s on Friday asking for business registration papers. Apparently it’s not allowed to do certain things in apartment buildings. I don’t know much about it, but Hugo does. Anyway, they’re checking all the places in town now it sounds like. I’m not looking forward to that.

Still, things should work out fine. It’s just a little worrying at the moment.

Apart from that, I’m very sleepy (as usual). Marika has what is hopefully her final exam for now on Tuesday. I’m sure she’ll pass, she’s a good girl.

Fuck it. Too lazy today to write anything. I’ve been drinking a bit these last weeks. Summer is coming, after all. Memories are hazy. I can’t even speak English any more.

I can’t, actually. It’s regressed since I’ve been staying over here. Oh well. Maybe I sound a little bit cuter.

Lazy bones

In more ways than one. Nearly 2 weeks since I went running and I haven’t done much other exercise. I can feel the flab and shame creeping up on me.

My excuse is that I’ve been entertaining guests and Marika. What a good person I am. It’s also still too windy for a little boy like me to be charging around and letting my hair get all frizzled.

We’ve been having nice folks staying with us lately and shitloads are from Australia, of course. It’s a much nicer environment in the hostel without all these big fucking groups that stick to themselves.

Drunk staff members help with the fun, too.

I’ve been thinking for quite some time about writing a book about my time in the hostel, the people I’ve met and the funny stories that come along with it. Just for fun. Unfortunately I don’t really (or at least haven’t yet) take any notes, so if I do ever end up putting something out there it could very likely be considered semi-fictional. That’s alright though, since it feels like my life here is anyway.

palmy wants me to make a blog on his site for his girlfriend. I’m doing it because I like configuring things from scratch. I could be doing something else, like kicking the arse of 5 countries at the same time in Medieval 2: Total War but this will do for now.  She even wants the same theme I use! Jesus.

They’re coming over to visit in July, apparently. Hmm.

I saw Indiana Jones 4 the other day. It was alright. Not brilliant, but fun enough. I won’t go into any kind of review because there’s already shitloads out there. Ford looks in pretty good shape for his age, I have to admit.

So, time for coffee with Pilly.

Itchy noggin'

I need to wash my hair again, methinks.

I’ve spent a few hours the last few days plodding through my old LiveJournal posts that I imported to this blog. Basically I’ve decided to categorise all of them. I don’t know why. I just feel like I should. It’s nice taking a trip down memory lane. There’s only 120 entries left to do. No problem.

For some reason I’ve been feeling really, really tired this last week. Maybe it’s because I’m eating shitty food. I’m not sure. Maybe a little bit of me has died inside since my beloved tofu left Estonia. Maybe it’s because we have a big group of students staying in the hostel for 2 weeks. I really don’t know. It’s nice to curl up and nap, though.

Marika has exams. Lots of exams. I hope she passes them all. I’m sure she does, too. Maybe I’ll get a chance to go down to Tartu with Tim in the next week or two. That would be nice. He’s drinking like a maniac lately. I can’t keep up. It hurts.

So, instead, I think I’ll go running tomorrow and yes, wash my hair. I like the route I take. I run around the outside of Old Town, through the park and up the hill to Toompea then back down and through the Old Town itself. It’s fun jogging over cobblestones. It’s not fun jogging up the bloody hill.

I forgot to mention I won a foosball tournament that the kids organised here. I was in a team with Thomas. He was mainly inspired to play because apparently there was 500 EEK in prize money. In the end we weren’t awarded that, but I was happy anyway. It wasn’t really a fair competition, we were all over them. I’d have felt embarrassed if ended up taking money from them. I don’t think Tom was too impressed, however.

They did, however, give us funny little gold medals. A nice souvenir.

I got drunk last night and fell down some stairs after Bella (new girl volunteering at Monk’s Bunk) asked me if I had a bed while I was walking around in the dark. It sounded like a proposition but it was only intended innocently. I realised this at the time but it didn’t stop me giggling at the situation. Falling on my arse down three stairs only made it worse.

We were drinking what I call White Estonians. It’s like a White Russian, but with Vana Tallinn instead of Kahlua. Potent stuff. Quite tasty when done right. Nearly lethal, too.

The other day I read through The Watchmen. It was cool. I should read it a second time but I’m probably too lazy to get around to it. I also have a shitload of e-books to read that I haven’t even started yet. Not to mention I got all three series of Arrested Development again so I can show people how good it is. Now that I just googled for that link, I see I could have just watched streaming versions. Fuck. Oh well.

Frosties are a fucking awesome breakfast cereal.