Blaaaaaaanche!

Helloooooo dears!

Well, here I am in Lisbon... well Oeiras actually, but it's all the same! I've sent most of you an e-mail with everything and a text with my new number. If you want my Portuguese number, just e-mail me!

My flat is in a very residential area, so it's nice and quiet. Downside is that the flat is quite cool at the moment, which I'm sure I'll be grateful for in summer, but at the moment, it's a tad chilly, eventhough it's 20ºC outside!

I found the beaches:


And my flat looks like something out of the Golden Girls Set!


Which I think is nice! Lisbon is a great city, with lots of nice squares and monuments, plus the whole place is easy to explore on foot, or you can go on the Metro if you're feeling lazy! I found a nice shopping centre close to my Uni called "O Centro Comercial Colombo", which is very Trafford Centre-esque, and caters for lots of tastes, and has a huge discount Carrefour-like shop in it where you can buy most things. It has a massive foodcourt, and basically, it's really good!

All the monuments and everything look nice and it's very "Old Europe". I'm glad I'm close to the beach too, so I can sunbathe, relax and have a read. Or if I'm feeling energetic, I can go for a run along the front, which has a nice smooth path to run along, which is a rarity in Lisbon, as all the paths are cobbled with white marble.

It's easy to get to and from uni, as there is a frequent train service, which connects to the Metro, and I think it'll take at the very most, an hour to complete the journey.

Well, that's all for now blogettes. I'll blog soon when I have more news!

Ben xxxx

And so... the end is near... and I face... the fi-nal curtain...

Oh how I have waited for this day! 5½ months to be exact!!! At 6pm tonight,
I will be released into the wild and will be free to do as I wish, without
the manacles of Frost-Trol!

It's then off to Lisbon! Incidentally, I rang my new landlady in Oeiras
yesterday and I didn't understand a word of what she was saying to me.
Well, I got the gist! A good start I see! lol

We're all going to Rokelín to eat at dinnertime. I wish I'd come into this
office sooner, as everyone's been so nice to me!! Dot should have a great
time! I feel kind of funny about leaving it all. I'll definately keep in
contact with people if they want to, even if it's just a couple of e-mail
once in a while!

Well, 9¼ hours to go!!!

Ben xxxxx

Telefónica are Shite

Well yesterday was crap. Now Telefónica have cut ff the Internet a week early, so I'm now disconnected from the outer world! I suppose it's only a week though!

 

Yesterday, Ulí had me doing a letter of intrest for a supermarket called Pyaterochka in Russia, which totally burnt my head out. Nieves didn't tell me she wasn't going home for dinner, so I had to go to the bar over the road and have a hard-as-steel baguette.

 

Going to Alicante tomorrow morning, which will definately be fun with Joanne and Geordie Jo! Going to get wrecked!!! lol

 

I'm on the home run now, only a week to go, and even then it's only Tuesday to Friday! Ahhhhh, what a sweet relief it will be to leave Castellón behind forever!!! FOR-EVER!!! Mwah-ha-ha-ha-ha!!

 

Ben

Report for University

This report that I have to do for University about Frost-Trol has become
the bain of my life. I've finished the main part, but now I'm having to do
finish one appendix, which is a book report about 1984. I really do love
this book, but it's so hard to grasp sometimes. No only are the political
contents within the book dificult to fathom, but the kanguage used can
frequently be obscure. Also given that some of the political theories of
the Inner Party (Partido del Interior) in the book, and the Newspeak
(Neolengua) used to describe them (e.g. Doublethink [Doblepensar]), it has
got a tad confusing. I have to keep re-reading sections to understand it
fully. I'm getting there, but the excerpts from Goldstein's book have
really confused me, and after three attempts of reading them, I've
submitted to reading those sections in English, as they are integral parts
to the story, as they explain how the World came to be as it is in
Winston's time, and an explanation of the whole Big Brother stratagem.

Well, I'm off for now! See you all soon Blanchettes!

Ben xxx

PS I mis-calculated the other day. It's actually 8 days to go today... too
much hope you see!

Three Things I Hate About Spanish Buses...

1) A group of 6 friends takes up space for 12 people and make a lot of noise
2) People stink of garlic and gas you out
3) There's about 1 every third Wednesday with a full moon

Well, blogettes, I'm feeling in a good mood about going to Lisbon, but also feel crap that HARDLY ANYONE LEAVES ME A MESSAGE!!!! Hmph *scowls*.

E-mailed Mike from when we went to Eccles College, but not head owt back off him yet. He's meant to be going to study in New York, I'll keep all interested parties updated when I get some info!

Work was crap today. Bo-ring, and I had to try and teach Wizadora how to speak English from a book that's got far too many mistakes in it!!! Plus he can't say the 'g' at the end of words like pig, dog, dig. He says "peekh, dokh, dikh", and sheet was pronounced "shit" and no matter how many times I tried to drum it into him, it didn't work. C'est la vie!

Took the Chav test Rob Holmes sent me, and I was 39% chav. Carmen was only 18% chav. I though 39% was quite good for someone from Salford, but I've been mocked by all! *scowls again*

Geordie Jo and Joanne will be here at weekend. I bought my tix from the train station. I used my Euro <26 style="font-style: italic;">Comboios Portugueses any day!

Looking forward to flat in Oeiras. Dunno what it'll be like, but if it's crap, at least I don't know and can't worry about it!

Well, that's all for the moment.

Leave comments and make me smile (believe me I need it!).

Bye all,

Ben xxx

More Religious Iconography

Not only do I have a Jesus picture above my bed, but I also have a small
statue of St. Pancreas on my desk. He's holding a book and pointing at
something! Apparently, if you put some parsley about his person, it can
bring luck in the lottery!!! D'oh! Now they tell me...

Bored! But only 8½ days to go! Yay!

Ben x

Stupidisco

*Cham-PAGNE for everyone!!*

How are we all at the moment? Happy, sad, stressed? Well, I'm in the usual ambivalence at the moment. This place is right pezz sometimes!! Today I just did the usual of bumming about and watching Lost with Heather. We'll do that tomorrow too!!

For my Saturday music I'm listening to "Ministry of Sound, The Annual 2005", which explains the title for this blog, and also provides me with a slight Saturday Night Feeling. I've decided I'm going to have to get over this "going out alone" thing... I'm going to have to do it in Lisbon, unless I find some other mental who wants to go out for a dance! Been looking at the clubs etc. there, and there's one there called Trumps, Finalmente, Frágil, and a smattering of bars and what not! So yes.... I might brave Clams disco next Friday... I'll see if Heather wants to come along, but I doubt she will, unfortunately! I'll see what she says! I'm going to meet Geordie Jo and Joanne in Alicante next weekend as they're coming over for a visit! It's a shame I'm not closer to them! BAH! Damn Salford Uni changing the placement at the last minute!

Anyway, WELL excited still about Lisbon! It better not be a let down! I'm sure I'll have a good time, and to meetother gays, I shall go to the LGBT Centre there where they have events, a café, a bar and whatnot! I might meet some people to go out with! Then again, it might be totally random, but we'll see!

How many days to go?!


Well, that's a happy thought! I'll need to pack pretty soon! Joy!

Spent €150 the other day on British Airways flights from Lisbon to London so I can go to Geordie Jo's engagement party! I forgot to say! Yes! Jo and Joe are getting married!!!!! I'm soooooooooooooo excited about that too! It's untold! So yes, to me, it's €150+ well spent!

Love and kisses and all that shite!

Your mate, Ben xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Vaqueros

I was told yesterday that I didn't have to wear shirts, trousers and shoes
to work, and that it was ok to come to work in jeans, t-shirt and trainers.
Thanks for telling me after 5 months! PAH! So today, I'm in casual wear and
I'm loving it! So comfy!

Ben xxx

Mª Carmen, you crazy mo-fo

Mª Carmen, our landlady came round for the rent this evening, eventhough in January we agreed that we'd use the deposit we paid in August to cover February's rent. She agreed this too, but now we have to pay the €510 rent and then sort out the return of deposit and bills etc. on the 24th Feb, the day before we go when it'll all be mental anyway! Grr!

Anyway, had e-mails/blog comments from Lorna and Crystal, which was nice, as I've not heard from them in a while! Especially Crystal, who made me giggle with her "on the beach in Valencia sipping margheritas all day" comment!!!

Had an e-mail from Jonathan, which was nice too, and I've been having e-mail conversations with Clare from uni, so all in all it's being very sociable at the moment! Not sure what to do at weekend. Wanted to go somewhere, but it's all too expensive now! Bummer!!!

That explains it then!

No wonder they have ended up with some mad people here! they let a computer
program choose the best candidate!! They get them to filin a form, and
Carmen has to put it into a webiste that generates a report!!!

They aren't interviewing any Spaniards though! We had a Bulgarian, Turk,
and a Russian, who couldn't speak a word of Spanish! How can they employ
someone who won't understand what they are saying to them! I know I'm a
foreigner, but at least I understand a lot of what's said to me!

lol

Ben xxx

Back in Work

After yesterday's shenanegans, I'm back in1 However, in my absence, someone
has upgraded my e-mail program to Lotus Notes 6. BUGGER!

"EH! I'm not fat! I'm just big boned!"

I've made a new piccy of myself. This is how bored I've been today. Go on my profile to see it!

Never thought I'd say it but: "Bring on Frost-Trol!!" KILL ME NOW!

Grafics Joy!

Soooooo bad.....

Well, I overslept for the first time today. I wonke up when the doorbell went for Nieves to give me a lift into work. That's really bad!! I made up some crap lie about having a dicky tummy from some fish I ate in a restaurant last night. Hmph!

I don't like doing that! I must make more of an effort to get up! I think it's because Heather's Brother and his mate are here, so I'm trying to be quieter in the mornings, so as not to wake them, but I didn't wake up meself. VERY BAD!

So tomorrow, I'll be in the Frost-Trol bosom... Lisbon T-17!!!

Ben x

Pearly Kings and Queens

Buenas a todos,

Hope you all had a fandabbiedoozie weekend. I had a great weekend in London! Everything went smoothly! Well, I missed the target Stansted Express by 2 minutes, so I had to wait for the next one, and panicked that I may miss the check in! All was well though, as Stansted Airport is not like Manchester Airport; the train station is directly below the departures terminal, so it was a case of in a lift, pop out in check in. It took all of 5 minutes!

So what of RyanAir? They weren't too bad. I would use them again, but only in the case of no other airline going to where I wanted to go (like some random place in Poland!). The plane took off ½ an hour late on both occasions, but managed to catch up/land ontime; however, I believe this to be because RyanAir pops an extra ½ an hour onto the real flying time incase of any delays. Stansted was easy to use, and to and from London was very easy on the Stansted Express, eventhough at £25 (I paid £16.50 Young Person's discount) it was a bit costly.

So... London! I have to say, I've changed my mind a bit over London. First time I went, I didn't particularly like it that much. It is true that the crowds of tourists can put me off, especially those annoying Americans, but for the most part, I've got quite accustomed to London. We went to all the usual places, looking at Big Ben and all that jazz, as well as going out on Saturday Night. We went to Chinatown in Soho and had a lovely Chinese! The crispy duck was to die for! We tried to get into Tokyo Diner, as I fancied some Japanese, but it seemed rammed, so we opted for Chinese instead. Afterwards, I let Mark choose a bar to go to, and he predictably chose G-A-Y, which was slightly packed, and full of scary Lesbians in one section. On trying to find the cloack room, some cowgirl Pat Butcher said "Sorry dahlin', this is a lesbian-space, you have to be with a woman to come in". I was like, "I'm only trying to find the bloody cloakroom!!". Christ! Anyway, as I knew it would be, G-A-Y is both overrated and overcrowded. Plus, I'm sure if there was a men-only space, the lesbians would be up in arms over equality and what not. While I'm all up for making sure that women are no longer repressed, the lesbian clique (especially the NUS LGBT campaign) are too militant in their attitude towards gay men. I'm in favour of women-only bars (like Vanilla), but all-inclusive venues should be that! Anyway, hope not offended anyone reading this! I digress...

Anyway, we went onto a venue I chose, Trash, which played indie music, with a tad of rock, and I'm sure Nicola Red would have felt happy going there. It was a bit small, but they played some cool choons I've not heard in a disco before (like Pulp, Mis-shapes). Anyway, I really liked it, but sensed Mark was less impressed, as Indie isn't really his thing, so we went to a pub down the road, had another drink and went back to the hotel. All in all, a good night. Glad we didn't go clubbing properly, as I would have been knackered and not got up properly. Well, I didn't wake up properly anyway, so we had a quick visit to Portobello Market, had a mooch and I went back to Liverpool Street to catch the Stansted Express back to the airport.

So, all in all, it was an excellent weekend! We even talked about the future, and that we might end up living in London, and we both decided that it wouldn't be too bad, not the end of the world! Anyway, we'll see!

PLUS! A good friend of mine gave me some very exciting news yesterday!! Not saying anymore!! I'm just very excited!!!!!!

Well, the Troll of Frost beckoneth...

Love, hugs and a million kisses,

Ben x

*Cham-PAGNE for everybody!*

Free Money

Vodafone España is quite good actually. If you spends so much in a months, they'll give you some free credit at the start of the floowing month. Today I got €10! Which is quite good really, seeing as I think I only spent about €30 in January. Dunno if Vodafone Portugal will do the same!

I´ve nearly finished my report now. I've done all the text, it's actually a little bit over, but I'm hoping they won't notice those 150 words!!! It's going to be a beast of a report! I don't think I'll have it done by Friday though, but i'm going to try. Just that at the moment, I'm still sleepy and my stomach hurts, badly. I just want to curl up and go to sleep all day! I can get through it! I'm going to bed at 9 though tonight.

So.... yes, I'm nearly done with the report. When it's done, I can just look forward to Lisbon then!

Rob sent me some piccies from when him and his motley gang went to Stalybridge (aka Stalyvegas) for a night on the razz. Apparently, it was chav-o-rama. A hermit living in a cave could have told them that Stalybridge is a rough night out! Bless! Well, I'll put some of the piccies up that he sent me! There's a good one of Rob and Jo!

Going for coffee.... need 30c....

Ben xxx

Quote of the Day

"What is it this time?! An Atomic Bomb?!"
El Señor Solsona, CEO, Frost-Trol S.A.

El Señor Solsona is the Chief Exec of Frost-Trol. He looks a bit like Mr.
Burns from The Simpson, and he shouts a lot like him too. We had another
power cut at work today, for about 5 minutes, and he phoned someone (either
in the factory, at the electric company, or at the Town Hall) and he said
the above quote as soon as they answered the phone. Total sarcasm! It
really ticked me the way he said it! I had to go for water....

Bye Blanchettes!

Ben xxx

I just want to sleeeeep

I'm so very tired today. For the past three nights, ive not been able to
get to sleep until 3am ish. With me waking at 7:45, I get about half the
sleep I should. I don't know why it is, I just can't switch off! Never
mind... I'll have a Café con Leche and see what goes down!

La Chupaya

More at-work blogging!

I'm looking forward to going to London for the weekend! It'll be nice to be
in blighty for a while! Was knackered this morning, but I'm much better
now! Actually awake and functioning well. Nearly.

Just been having a laugh with Gemma etc. Apparently in cuba they say "Chupa
mi papaya" for "suck my cock", which we were all wetting ourselves at. I
suppose you had to be there! We're all very naughty and should be
chastised!! lol Gemma said there could be a festival called the "chupaya",
which set us off further!

At 9:00 am we had some hunky spaniard in. He looked like a surf boy or
something, but he's apparently a teacher! He looked about my age!

Hunk and a laugh all in the same morning - can't be bad!

Ben x

Quote of the day...

"There are wonderful bits of coloured paper you can buy to find out where you're going - they're called maps."
Robin Gilmour, Scotland (On a BBC Website Article about RyanAir)

It just made me laugh - sums up people to a tea! Matt know's what I'm talking about! I cannot reiterate this enough - whenever you're going somewhere RESEARCH YOUR ROUTE!!! That way, nothing can (usually) go wrong!

A big grape-tastic "¡HOLA!" to Jonathan for sending me an e-mail which cheered me up today (well, yesterday now...) after a shitty weekend when I felt crap-o-rama. You're proper bo', I tell thee!

Well, ta-ra for now! Sleeeeeeeeeeeep!

Ben xxx