Friday, June 29, 2007

'Tis Scotland

So we've just had the longest day of the year, up here it is a very long day and for those who know it's also Sarah's birthday so happy birthday Sarah!!!

Once more i will be putting up some pictures of the sunrise, cause i just can't help it... so here we go.

The sky at 11:05pm on June 21st the summer solstice


The view from my bedroom window a couple of weeks ago


In this one I can just say that i think the sky is nearly purple

Yesterdays' sunrise, note the crazy girl from Alaska in the water to the left...cold, contaminated and rocky. She came out with her legs bleeding a little from many a cut, that's what you get when you don't listen to the staff members!

Lastly me posing as if from the Lion King on pride rock looking towards the hostel.....I always thought the sun shines out of my bum! ;p

It's Tough being a bartender!!

OK well the hours may be long and your weekend non-existant but all in all the job i have at the moment is the best job I've ever had (sorry to all the previous great places of employment :/) and maybe the best one i will ever have. The location the people the parties are just too much fun. So lets see what's been going on recently...


First of all we have had the GO FAST (energy drink) promotional team staying here the last couple of days. One of their promotions involves an American fella (Eric) flying around in a jet pack up and down the streets for 30 seconds or so. These promos are organised with the cities to get the product name out there. This is the same energy drink that we will (hopefully) be trying to break the Jager train world record with.

The stag parties have been as interesting as usual with people skinny dipping partying too much, wearing ridiculous costumes and playing tricks on each other....

Some twister action with the South Africans


One of the poor Stags (bachelor) getting tied to the tree and covered in gods knows what. 30 seconds later his father (no one else would do it) threw a bucket of water from the firth which i had half filled with ice all over him and it would have been very very cold out there. Slightly later he released his legs from the rope and proceeded to moon everyone then escaped any more torture.




Like i said, It's hard being a bartender. Here's Louise and Michelle from Ireland sneaking behind the bar for a quick picci. Hi girls if your looking, sorry i didn't have any pictures of all 3 of you. You managed some good drinking in your stay, well done!


Monday, June 11, 2007

Free promo night

No, not free porno night!

jeez!

It's always good to have a free promo night and this one was no exception. One of the tour companies for whom we sell tours to the travellers sent a group of people from different hostels off on a boat trip to one of the islands in the Firth of Forth. All the food annnnd the alcohol was free :) not to mention the day tour and the guides (the trip we did is an actual tour you can buy as a customer). After meeting in town it was off on the bus to the Firth to find our boat.

This is where we hopped aboard by the Forth bridge (a mini replica of the golden gate bridge, you can see this bridge from a distance in my crammond island post earlier)

As you can see it's a bit cloudy at the moment, I think I've been living in the land of the never ending cloud/fog/mist for the last 2 weeks but it is warming up. Once aboard it was burgers and cocktails followed by free bar and making our way to Inchcolm island. On the island there is an old, old abbey which i don't know what they used to do there. There is still one fella living there keeping things in reasonable shape.

More importantly once we docked at the 'jetty' it was off to the speed boat for the first 12 people to go check out some more islands, seals and puffins. I don't need to mention that i was on the first trip in the fun boat and grabbed the prime front seats for the view. Now here is the where we got to...
Our vessel, note my seats on the front

Our friends the seals


The 'floating' Lighthouse

The other island of interest...whatsitsname. During the first world war it was built upon so that to approaching enemy ships it would look like a British battleship guarding the harbour and be scary...boo

And here are the Puffins! There are 5 in this picture, find them. They're really small but they've cool orange beaks and feet

2 puffins a little closer

So after getting back to Inchcolm island it was time to explore the abbey. With half human sized arches leading into mazes of pitch black rooms it was a little freaky but more fun with a group of drunken people. It took me about 10 minutes to find the secret passageway to the hidden stairs that lead to the roof but finally i got there and waved to the others who had already started to make their way back to the boat after it had blown it's horn once, one quick picture and a wave later it was back down the unlit stairwell and a short run to the jetty.

The Abbey 12th or 13th century we were told...and the Internet agrees, 12th century
The view from the top, note other people much closer to the boat
The way down the hidden pitch black stairway. Yes i was using the cameras' flash. No person who has had a 'few' drinks should be trying to make their way down the stairs whilst taking a photo and holding a drink, remember children it's not safe.
So after all that we went back into town partied some more got back to the hostel partied some more then woke up in the morn...afternoon.
I think that was my longest post yet.

Saturday, June 09, 2007

World Record

Update!
We may be going for a world record long jager train, we think it will be around 200 long, I don't know when but hopefully soon.
I'll make sure there is some good coverage if we do :)

Friday, June 01, 2007

Sun

I know I may have put up some pictures of the sunset on the blog already but now i have to put up some more of the sun setting and rising right outside and inside the bar (work)
Sunrise on a Saturday morning just after finishing work
The same morning from the door entering the bar, the stragglers are still around
I think this is the same Saturday at sunset after a good days sleep. Quite a few guests were taking pictures of this one.

And this is what it looks like to be a Guinness glass just before the pouring begins, there's a perspective on life you probably haven't thought about before!

Cowboys & Indians !! Bang, phwack! Argh!.....Dead

As you can probably already guess we had a cowboys and indians dress up party at the hostel last night.

The day started quite early for me with some costume shopping withfellow bartender Josh then a visit to my old work in town to have a bite of lunch and a couple of 2 for 1 cocktails. So with those under my belt and the costume ready to go it was back 'home' to prepare for the party.

Later in the evening most people had come down in their costumes and the drink specials began with the record breaking jager train being the highlight of that genre. The night also consisted of a pin the tail on the donkey competition, a bootscooting scoot-off and the best dressed award. So here are some pictures of the night to clear the images in your heads up a bit....

Firstly here we have our donkey which was drawn by Vlad one of the globetrotter staff


Now I'm a pirate because pirates are the cowboys of the sea and that's a good enough excuse for me. Instead of parrots you can see green dog on my left and red dog on my right, they gave me some wise counsel throughout the night. It's fake blood on my head by the way.


Stu at his crazy best getting shot with his own weapon by myself...I was seeking revenge for having an indian arrow through my head all night


Some of the staff looking good - left to right - Mark (mexican/chef), Miranda (cowgirl/receptionist), Amanda (sherrif/receptionist) and Neil (sherrif/zorro/cowboy/duty manager)

The highlight of the night!! 55 long jager train. Here you can see me preparing the shots and Iain getting all the glasses ready for the train. When completed all the glasses are half full of Go Fast (energy drink) and the shot glasses get balanced inbetween each half pint glass. When everything is in place the first shot glass in the line gets tapped into the first half pint glass and on the way down it hits the next shot glass which hits the next one and so on, so we get a domino effect all the way down the line of 55. I do have a video of this which you will all need to see. I had the pleasure of setting the first glass off on its' way which was quite fun :)


Once all the shots had fallen into the glasses everybody who had bought a ticket or 5 ran up to the bar and skulled all their drinks...these were the days.