The Eight Ball [8Ball]

My current ASL is: 26, Male, AND in the middle of no where (Tindale). Not just any old no where but proper English countryside no where. For the past 3+ months I been stranded in Newcastle Upon Tyne up here in the North East of England and whilst I initially tried to find work (which lead to nothing) I ended up just basically relaxing and having a holiday. The house I’ve been looking after in town has had access to the important things like pubs, supermarkets, and coffee; my current situation is that I have landed a job for 2 weeks looking after 3 dogs and a house while their owners are away in Canada. This job is probably less of a job and more of ‘exactly what I was doing before but this time getting a few hundred squid for it’, not bad in my current financial state!

Currently it is day 2 of 15; day 1 consisted of me realising that I had forgot to bring my own coffee which then lead to the trying of various instant coffee lying around, finding out the reason that I don’t drink instant anymore, finding a tin of French press ground coffee, realising why I don’t drink coffee that isn’t kept correctly (I tend to drink it fast enough not to have to worry), reverting back to instant coffee and starting a timer ‘days left till real coffee again’. I also managed to further improve the haircutting process (see left) to a stubbly #0 length which to my surprise is quite a lot different to a #1 both in terms of ability to warm ones heeed and imagine having sandpaper on your head… now try to pull on a benni or hood on, not easy.

The countryside, especially the English is littered with a wealth of history. This particular area was once big tin mine, scores of old stone buildings litter the hills with most just barely still standing. The house that I am actually staying in isn’t a farm house like one might think but instead it is a normal attached house that one finds in the towns and cities. Imagine about 10 of these attached houses simply picked up from Coronation Street and more or less just plomped onto a hill high up in the northern hills with little else around them. They are the old miners houses, each room has a working sink/taps presumably because circumstances in regards to mining tin was probably just as average as mining anything 100 years ago.

The environment would have been a tough one to work, weather wise the wind gusts almost non stop it’s about 3-4 degrees colder then Newcastle (which in itself is about 4-5 degrees colder then London), and unlike most other places it rains 90% of the year. It is however very pure, generally unspoilt by man. Long stone walls sprawl out in all directs boxing off vast green paddicts or cutting of harsh volcanic like hills. The colour is rather stunning with the bright green of the fields mixing nicely with stone walls and finally finished off by a bush shrub that is currently in a bright pink flower.

Unfortunately not working for eventually 6 months has it positive and negative effects in that I love not working but that I am running out of cash and hence am having to come back to NZ in October. Lucky for me though that since I may not be back for a while the good old Ma and Pa have decided to come up to the UK and utilise my navigations skills to show them around for a month  Should be a hoot or I’ll be in jail due to having killed them both as they may drive me crazy… Hitting Beijing on the round trip back for a few nights then bring on the cheap flight from Beijing to Auckland via Sydney and taking 24 hrs!!! Just in time for ‘J’s never ending summer‘ to continue (#5), yay!