5ft and 50 litres

Sunday 23-11 - The End.

2008-11-23T20:55:00.014+09:00

This post marks the end of my travels. The time has come to restart everything put on hold. My life continues.

I spent more than six months planning for this year. Its hard to believe that its all over. Now the potential of the future is the memory of the past. For the most part, good memories. This year has had good times and bad times. Times of anger at myself and the world. Times of joy and gladness and comfort. Feeling close and feeling alone. Ups and downs.

I have traveled by

-Plane
-Train
-Bus
-Tram
-Funicular
-Subway/metro
-Taxi
-Sherut
-Car
-Minivan
-Boat
-Ferry
-Felucha
-Donkey
-Camel
-Horse and cart
-Segway
-Piggyback ride
-Foot

I´ve been pelted with tomatoes.

I´ve slept outside a Spanish train station.

I climbed and volcano and swam in a volcanic spring.

I did things I could have otherwise only dreamed of doing.

When I left, I had an idea in my head of the person I was going to be when all this was done. I didn´t know how I was going to become that person, I didn´t even know what that person was supposed to be like. I guess I had on of these movie ideas, getting of the plane transformed.

Now I have stepped off the plane. I don´t think I am that perfect person I imagined. But now I know what type of person I want to become. I know what it is I need to achieve. I think that might be better. I have something to strive for now, a path to follow.

Thanks everyone for reading this blog and following my journey. It has meant a lot that you could all share it with me. It made me feel a little less homesick, when I was feeling blue.

So here I go. Back into the world. Into my life. Into the next great adventure.

Wish me luck.

Friday 21-11 and Saturday 22-11 - Flight home

2008-11-23T20:32:00.004+09:00

The day started with sad farewells from the flatmates. Then Dani and I left hers. I made sure I had every with me.

Getting to Karens flat I realised I had left both my laptop cable and my phone. But we were hungry and hadn´t eaten yet. So we went to the over priced and touristy but interesting My Old Dutch pancake house. They specialise in bizarre combinations on thin enormous crepes.

I had a small starter of cheese baked in bread crumbs. Then chicken curry and chutney pancake. Very strange. Dani and I were both quiet. It hadn´t quite hit me before, but I was so close to leaving London for what could be a very long time. There were so many things I had gotten used to. So many things I had gotten comfortable with. I was going to miss this crazy city.

I tubed back to Danis to get my forgotten bits and then returned. I finished packing and got ready to leave. In the end I had taken my winter boots out of my bag and posted 2 kilos of books by sea mail. Hopefully these things would keep me under the weight limit. Then Dani and I sat watching bad American TV until the time came. I tried not to make a big deal out of it, after all we would see each other three weeks later. But it was emotional.

I was 3 kilos over weight, but the lady let me through without mentioning it for some reason. I did put on the young, lost and hopeless girl routine. Maybe that helped. You just have to tie your hoodie around your waste and look terrified. I looked for free wifi, but couldn´t find any. So I found a quiet spot to draw the time away.

We were 45 minutes to an hour late in taking off. I didn´t really mind. I watched The Incredible Hulk and The Incredibles, then the Big Bang Theory. There was Chinese chicken with rice for dinner which wasn´t too bad. The sleep was ok. There was a full plane. But the guy next to me disappeared 20 minutes into the flight, so I had 2 seats to sleep on. I enjoyed the breakfast they served. It had the yummy lemon and orange yogurt I tried at Karens. The eggs weren´t bad.

On landing there were a bunch of names called over the loud speaker that had to report to the ground staff. Mine was one of them.. I´ve never had my name called over an airport or plane speaker. It was interesting. Except that we had no idea what it was for. I thought thats just what I need, a lost bag to deal with. It turns out they just had to re-enter some passport numbers for some reason.

The idea of Australia started to excite me. I was liking more and more the idea of being beck there. Everywhere I went waiting to board, there were Australian accents. The flight over was short and easy. My mum and dad were waiting for me at the airport.

It was raining, pouring as I stepped out into the Perth air. It was a gorgeous night. I as tired, but buzzing. I was home.

Thursday 20-11 - Trek for tiles

2008-11-21T19:04:00.011+09:00

I woke up early enough to good bye to Karen and Aiden before she left for work. It was sad. But I knew it probably be too long before I saw her again. The nanny came to look after Aiden and I said a good bye to him. The next time I saw him, he would be much much older.

I set off to Danis. We went out to our favourite local for a huge and unfinishable breakfast. The plan was to stay around the house and watch movies together. I realised I had things of Karens I needed to get back to her,I so I tubed back to the flat first. When I returned Dani and Maria had already left the house to go on a house errand. So I joined them.

The massive party on Saturday had left the roof ties in a wreck, so Myles had ordered some new tiles and asked the girls to pick them up. He said a few of us should, as they might be heavy. We took the bus to Bow church. Then walked in the bitter cold for what seemed like a strangely long time. We should have looked at a map book sooner. We had gone the wrong way and walked half way home. We were too tired to walk back so we took another bus back up the road.

Back to where we started. We finally found the address, only to see posters all around that read:

We have moved.

We decided we weren´t going to give up on this, so we walked in the direction of the new shop. 15 minutes and a few wrong turns later we found the tiles shop. We looked very out of place, three small girls in nice clothes lost among the bricks, fork trucks and large men in reflective vests. We stumbled into the office and up to the counter.

We told the nice guy there which order was ours. He looked at us and said ¨Did you bring a car?¨
He subtlely laughed at us when we said no. Apparently Myles had ordered many large, heavy tiles and not fully explained this us. Somehow the three of us would have to get these home.

The man was a champ though, he called a minicab for us and even took some money off the price because he felt sorry for us. Over the awkward next half hour we got the tiles into the car and back to the curb of Dani´s house. It took two people a time and three trips to get them all upstairs. It gave us a sense of satisfaction though.

Then came our reward. we sat on Dani´s bed. We drank hot chocolate with mint baileys, ate biscuits and watched the Tick. It was a good afternoon. In the evening I said goodbye to the room mates in the kitchen. The boys went up for a bit of late night roof tiling and we settled or a quiet and relaxing evening. This was my last night in London. In Europe.

For a while at least.

Wednesday 19-11 - Welcome

2008-11-21T02:27:00.013+09:00

Dani and I met up. We went to the Wellcome collection. It was a collection started by the explorer Henry Wellcome. It is an exploration of medicine, health and the human body. We had wanted to check it out for ages, but had never gotten around to it. But time was running out. The exhibit was an interesting mix of art and interactive activities. There were sounds chairs that talked to you when you sat on them.

An assortment of human body themed pieces.

There were see through bodies with flashing lights and exhibits about obesity.

We decided to move into the design museum next. So we tubed to tower bridge. The sky was so amazingly bright. Maybe it was my leaving that made the twilight all the more vivid. I was really going to miss this place.

We got lost on the way to the museum. By the time we got there the place was almost closed. There was enough time to drool over everything in the gallery shop before heading back. We took the longer route, strolling down the water front.

It was the last evening I was going to spend with Karen and Aiden for a while. So we wanted to make it special. Well, special enough for Thai take out and wine. We drank and watched TV. Topped off by Dani going out to get crunchie icecream.

Tuesday 18-11 - Hummus and haircuts

2008-11-20T04:12:00.008+09:00

I finally got around to getting a fringe trim. It was getting to point of vision obstruction. But I had a nice chat with my London hairdresser. I told her about my tattoo and then she told me about hers. We shared stories about pain and itching.

I walked down to the British Museum to pick up the last bits on my list. It was good to get things done. I was supposed to meet Dani for lunch but it was going to be a late lunch. So I walked down to Long Acre to H&M to pick up the bits I saw the day I forgot my purse. I found a spotted shirt, black skirt and blue vest.

I met Dani for a late lunch. We went to Hummus Bros, a place that specialised in hummus and pita based dishes. Mine was a ring of hummus and a tomato sauce chicken centre.

The rest of the night was a chilled evening of rosé wine.

Monday 17-11 - Too much

2008-11-19T03:27:00.003+09:00

Monday I spent trying to organise my life and my leaving. I suddenly realised that there was not long to go before I got on that plane back to the rest of my life. I had built up a lot of memories over this year. I had also built up a lot of things. It hit me that I only had 20 kilos of check in baggage. The bits and pieces I had built up far exceeded that by the look of things.

Just the books weighed a ton. Or five kilos to be exact. Gifts weighed up to 7, the bag itself came in at 5. Already I was up to 17 kilos of 20. I would probably have to post some things back home to make the limit.

Aiden was back from his day out. I played with him for a while. I was really going to miss his little smile.

I had to go out and fetch more E45 cream, seeing I had left the tub at Dani. I needed the moisturizer for the tattoo, once a day or the first 2 weeks. It kind of helped to sooth. There was still a bit of flaking. But the itching was also starting. I kept wanted to scratch, but wasn´t allowed to. It got worse at night, so I took my mind off it with TV.

Sunday 16-11 - Aftermath

2008-11-19T02:58:00.009+09:00

We woke up at 9am. The sleep wasn´t great, but it was better than nothing. The music was still pumping in the other room. Dani and I got up to have a look. There were still people dancing on Maria´s dance floor. A few were huddled on the couches. The stair cases were clogged with people half dazed.

In the light I could finally get a good look at the state of the place. It wasn´t pretty. The floors were covered in club scum. Everything secured had been torn apart. The bed was covered in mysterious stains. There was dirt on parts of the wall no one could even reach. Out of the bedroom followed the trails of empty cans and bottles. There were unmentionable things in the toilets and showers.

My head was hurting despite the small amount of alcohol I had drunk. I was annoyed at all people,especially those who showed so little respect for other peoples things. Michael was manning the laptop music. None of the other house mates were anywhere to be seen.

After surveying the damage Michael and I picked up some garbage bags, bottles of cleaner and paper towels. We shut down the music and started picking up the sea of trash in Maria´s. I opened up curtains in hope of persuading the hangers on to leave. They just wouldn´t go. It was 11 or so before the dancing stopped.

We were feeling awful and had to get our of the house. So Michael, Dani, myself and 2 other guys walked down the road to an old mans pub. We had a pint and lunch. I had pad Thai. It was spicier than I expected and ended up making me feel even worse, but at least it was food in my stomach. We sat there for as long as we could, putting off the inevitable clean up.

But enough was enough. We walked back and continued the clean. The stragglers were gone. Dani went up to the roof to check the damage and I followed. There were broken tiles, caved in areas and for some reason a fire extinguisher.

I started mopping floors while other tackled the surfaces and the kitchen. After a while I decided I had done enough. I went to Karen´s to finish my recovery. When I got there I found out that Aiden had also not been feeling well. Neither had the babysitter. It seems that this virus had been all over the city.

I showered and rested for the rest of the night.

15-11 - The tattoo party

2008-11-17T04:08:00.020+09:00

I as feeling better the next morning. Not 100 percent though. My appetite wasn´t really back yet. Perth/Bristol friend Michael had arrived the night before and slept on Dani´s floor. While Dani as at work we started decorating the room. Josh and Michael and I set off to find the pieces we needed.

I knew that the cheap junk shops we needed were somewhere near the place. But ended up walking the complete wrong way. We walked all around the place and got even more lost. Luckily Josh´s phone had GPS and found our location. We took the long circle route to Brick Lane.

A good part of the afternoon was spent finding the shops we needed. But we found them. We got a dart board and playing cards for Danis room, plus a couple boxes of fairy lights for both rooms. Back at the house the boys strung up the cards while I drew pin up girls.

Both rooms were looking amazing.

It was about then that all the girls came home. We cleaned up the rooms to make then Party safe. Mostly it meant covering things up or dumping them in the lockable room upstairs. Then the girls, Josh and Michael went to Tescos to stocks up on drinks. A little bit of food also.

We covered Danis desk with the 280 or so temporary tattoos we had bought and cut up. I hoped people would get into them.

I certainly did.

The specified start time for the party had passed and people had begun to trickle in. Dani kept telling Josh and I to wait in one room or another. She would busily run about the rest of the house organising her present to us. Finally she was ready to give it to us. We were brought to Felicity´s room, followed by the other party goers. Maria and Felicity were sitting on the back of the bed, while Dani and her band mate Jason sat at the front. He had a glockenspiel and she had a pink ukulele.

With the girls doing vocal back up and accompanied by Jason, she sung the Triptych song. It was really beautiful. I was speechless by the end. Every word every line made me smile and made me almost shed a tear.

It was a really nice start to the night. Soon the lap top in Maria´s room was replaced by a mixing desk accompanied by huge speakers. The night was heating up. Roommate Myles was first to play D.

We started getting into the atmosphere as more and more people showed up.

The tattoo room as working well. On arriving at the party,everyone would stop off there. There were tattoos on arms and backs and foreheads (my favourite). It helped to connect everyone to the theme and to each other. Most people didn´t know most of the other partiers. The invites had gone out from 7 or so people each inviting their own friends. So the crowd was diverse.

I was having a pretty good time,even though I only knew a handful of people. But I was not yet over the virus I had the day before. Every time I drank some of my cider I felt sick. So I sipped only and drank far less than I had expected to. I wasn´t getting into the celebrations as much as I had hoped either. The rooms were getting pretty crowded, so I followed a bunch of people up onto the roof.

We talked about there for a while. The roof was also getting crowded. I had never seen so many people up there before. They were everywhere, on the tiles and the brick walls. I went back down to the party, which was now in full throng. Three of the rooms were open, packed with crowds.

The crowds became so intense it was almost impossible to leave the crowded room you were in. Getting through the corridors and stairs wells was even worse. Maria room became a packed club room. There were so many people you couldn´t even move to dance.

At about 4 I was feeling tired, slightly sick and awfully sober. I retreated to Danis room with my brother,sister and a couple of other people. We chilled on the bed for a while with the door shut to stop people coming in. It didn´t stop everyone but at least there were less people. I few hours later I settled to sleep.

Friday 14-11 - sick day

2008-11-17T03:56:00.003+09:00

Early that morning I was not feeling goos at all. I was awoken with pain. I weathered it out until it was late enough to get up. By then I was feeling quiet sick. I lay on the couch for a while. I rung Dani. It turns out she had also been sick. We both seemed to have caught the viral bug that had been making the rounds in the city. This is jusy what we needed. Today we were supposed to get everything organised for the party on Saturday. Instead all I could do was lie on the couch feeling sorry or myself.

I took off the bandage covering my new tattoo. This was the first time I could get a proper look at it. I liked what I saw. I was really happy with the font of the letters. None of the lines were crooked. A well done job.

I slept during the day and as feeling a bit better by the afternoon. So I packed up and went to Danis to see if I could help her with anything. Dani was napping on and off, so I hung around. Later in the evening we helped Maria decorate her room. The theme was nautical tats. So we drew marine pictures on long strips of white paper. I drew a sea monster and a mermaid and a sailor and a ship. It was a quiet Friday.

Thursday 13-11 - birthday

2008-11-14T19:53:00.014+09:00

The day started waking up on the couch. I had heard shuffling earlier on. Karen had very sweetly spread out some presents for each of us with balloons, each persons wrapped in a different paper. What a lovely way to wake up. We played with party blowers, but they frightened Aiden. He wasn´t used to all the commotion and was a little put off.

We took out the cakes with some candles. We blew out the candles on an amazing chocolate bomb cake. Then opened the cards and gifts. There was an adorable Einstein doll and a poster and Hello Kitty candy and some chocolate.

We skyped the family back home in Perth. It seems they were having a celebration on our behalf. There was even a cake. We got to say hi to all the wonderful family and friends back home. Dani had a uni tutorial to go to at 10, so we waited while chatted more on skype. I was getting more and more nervous. Somehow I had got myself worked up into a state through out the morning. I was shaking at one point. Luckily Karen was there to talk me down into a calmer state.

We had breakfast around the corner. I had a cheese and mushroom omelet with salad and chips, although I left the chips. I was still partly full of adrenalin, so a large meal was out of the question. But the egg was good. I had fresh orange juice as well to boost my sugars. When done, we took a photo of our backs with nothing on them.

Down we walked to Frith Street Tattoo Parlour. We were all nervous, but at the same time excited. We filled out forms. Then Dani went first, into the tattoo area. Our artist´s name was Valerie. She was sweet and tried to make us feel as comfortable as possible. She copied design onto the back, then sat Dani against a chair and the drilling sound started. Dan reassured us that it wasn´t so bad. She looked alright during the process.

My turn.

Not as ad as I expected, although over the bone made my teeth clench. But before I knew it, I was inked. We were all so excited looking at each others and trying to peek at our own.

All the adrenalin of our earlier nerves became a wild buzz. I was smiling and in a happy daze. We wondered down to Baskin Robbins to get Pineapple Sponge Upside Down Cake flavoured ice cream.

In the evening we went to Oh No Oh My with Dani, Josh and Maria. They were much much better than I expected them to be. A lot more raw and less poppy. I enjoyed them. They played lots of songs that I knew.

During the show it came out that one of the band mates had his birthday on the same day. What luck.

After the gig was over we went up to the merch stand,where the birthday boy was selling his wares. I bought a vinyl. He gave us each a set of buttons when we told him it was our day. It was a great way to end a great day.

Wednesday 12-11 - Prepare

2008-11-13T04:25:00.013+09:00

Today I wanted to prepare for the birthday the next day. The rule was no presents, so I planned to the the cards extra special. I went to Hamleys to find its and pieces for Dani and Josh. I had some specific things in mind, but not too specific. A little fluffy bunny, a small toy robot or astronaut. I thought Hamleys would be the best place to look,with its reputation as the biggest and best. They didn´t have any of the toys I needed. Up at the boys section. If there isn´t a movie or a Japanese toys franchise of it, there won´t be a toy. It got me really angry. What ever happened to good old generic toys. Sigh. I walked around until I was inspired. I improvised and got some very satisfactory toys. Then picked up some chocolate near the museum.

In the evening everyone was pretty subdued. We ate sushi and watched Dodgeball. Occasionally,as is ritual, one of us would pop out of the room for a time and then reappear without explanation. Its how we do things when three people have to organise presents or each other for the same day. I was getting both excited and nervous for the day to come.

Tuesday 11-11 - Dodos by the River

2008-11-12T19:07:00.018+09:00

I woke up earlier than usual. Karen, Aiden and I hopped the train to the outer zones to visit my great aunt. It can be a bot of a trek to get out there, especially with the pram. But I hadn´t seen her in a while and my London clock was rapidly ticking. The tube stop nearest to her is above ground. It 2 sets of stairs and two down, with no lift and no one around to help life a pram. Which is kind of annoying. But off we went.

It was nice seeing her again. In true Jewish style, she was anxious to feed her guests. I was so full by the end of the visit. She was delighted to see Aiden. We all chatted and caught up on the comings and goings of the family.

We stood on platform 3, waiting for the next train to London. The speaker told us that the next train would leave from platform 1 instead. So up the stairs we carry the pram and down the other set. A few minutes later we are told that the next train will in fact be leaving from platform 3 after all. Gah. Up the stairs, down the stairs. And all without waking the baby up.

Back in London we stopped off at Corams fields to show him the ducks and the rooster. I liked the autumn leaves now covering the ground.

The flat was filled with people all there for different reasons. We got some take out salads to tide us over. Josh arrived just in time for the gig. The three of us set out for Shepherds Bush to see Okkervil River and The Dodos. The new station there was finally open and very impressive. We waited for Maria and Eva to meet us outside the club. While we waited we chatted to the Dodos´ street team. It was getting cold, so we moved inside to wait.

We found a place near the front of the stage with short people. Eva and Maria turned up and we all waited for the Dodos. I got excited when I saw their trash can drums set up.

They were just like I remembered them from Belgium - full of energy and inspiringly good. I smiled along as they played my favourites Red and Purple and Jodie. Wow,his voice is just fantastic.

Okkervil River. Wow they were amazing. So much more energy than last time. His voice was great and everyone was in full swing. He played four or five songs off the new album. They played almost everything off The Stage Names, including Girl In Port as encore.

They played Stone off Black Sheep Boy to a tearful crowd. I lost all my breath when the lights beamed down onto Will Sheff as he started a perfect rendition of my favourite track, The War Criminal Rises and Speaks.

At the end of the night my ears were ringing and I was happy.

Monday 10-11 - Forgotten things

2008-11-12T02:09:00.009+09:00

I woke up late. I listened to the new Okkervil River album. It was really growing on me. I went out to H & M to see if I could find things to wear to hospital next year. I found a black skirt and a spotty top. I got to the counter, realising only then that I had left my wallet back at the flat. So out I went and back to the flat. The rain came thick and fast.

I walked through the rain, getting completely drenched. My socks were wet through and through. I was glad when I got back to the flat to change my jeans and socks.

Once dry and warm and more sensibly dressed, it was over to Danis but no one was home. So I walked down to the place where she was working. It was pouring once again, But now I had gum boots on my feet and Okkervil in my ears. I skipped happily under my umbrella.

I visited my sister at the book shop and picked up her keys. The rain was harsher now. On the way I picked up instant Asian cup noodles. They were a nice way to chill in the cold weather.

For dinner we had a veggie sausage salad, with Maria who was making her own salad with fish cakes. Felicity joined us soon after. The four girls spent the night watching American Dad on Danis bed drinking wine and cider.

Sunday 09-11 - Recovery Day

2008-11-12T01:33:00.006+09:00

A recovery day. I woke up at Dani´s,regretting the fast we had the night before. I decided that drawing anatomy was no good and I needed some practice. So I sketched in one of my newer books. Since being in London I seem to have accumulated sketch books. I just keep seeing books that I like the look of. So now I have quite a few, even though none of them are very full at all.

Dani had to work on her class projects and I didn´t want to distracther so I went to the west end. I got back to find Josh hard at study. Its a pity he had to spend so much of the day working, but he has busy course. I recovered with some of my favourite cereal.

A little while later Josh headed off back to Cranfield, leaving me in the flat to organise myself. I listened to more of Okkervil River to get excited about the coming Tuesday. The evening was not a busy one. I stayed to look after the babe.

Saturday 08-11 - Raindance

2008-11-12T01:20:00.007+09:00

Saturday morning was easy going. I didn´t go out so much because Josh and I had to baby sit Aiden through most of the day. The lord Mayer show was one and we thought of taking him down to see the military marches. But the weather proved otherwise. It as just too cold and too wet to take him out. So we entertained him at the flat. We fed and put him to sleep until Karen returned.

Perth band Snowman were playing that night. Dani and Felicity came to meet me and we set off. We met Josh near the bar. The door man was a bit of a jerk when checking our IDs. I don´t think he believed that all three of us were 22. I thought about the week to follow, when he would have to believe we were 23. It was both exciting and scary.

We arrived just after they started playing. I stood nearish to the front to watch,although the others disappeared. The set was good, I´m starting to get to know their new songs. We had some cider while we waited for the head liner to start. His name was Ned Collette, and apparently he was from Melbourne. I really liked his work and also his voice.

After Snowman we decided to go to Trash Palace. It was a good idea except for the rain. Only half of us had umbrellas and it was bucketing down. We paired up and ran as fast as we could, feet getting drenched by the pools growing at our feet. Finally we got to our destination. My hair felt like I had just gotten out of a shower.

We dried off while dancing and drank more cider. Dani met up with her friends at her old workplace. We danced to the cheesy dance tunes. Everyone had things to do the next day so we made our way home, after a KFC pitstop of course. Dangerous. But somehow delicious.

Friday 07-11 - Heart warming French film

2008-11-08T21:50:00.009+09:00

I woke thirsty and with a hang over. We spoke to the parents on the phone. Back to Karen´s we went to pick up art supplies. We picked up fried egg sammich from the place across the road and she went of to do more uni bits. Josh was on his way back to London for the weekend. I stayed around to let him in. It was good seeing him again after 2 weeks. I´ve been more and more excited about seeing the family here. Because this was the day I realised that in 2 weeks I would be flying back to Perth. After all this time,only two more weeks with Dani, Josh, Karen and Aiden. I got emotional at the thought. Perth seemed so foreign to me,so strange.

We dropped off his stuff and went to grab him some lunch, which turned out to be at Itsu. We walked down to Oxford Street to buy a ticket to the Okkervil River gig the next Tuesday. Dani and I already had tickets, but I wanted to see of Josh could be down in London before buying his. We got the tickets and then decided to splurge out on frivolous items like CDs and DVDs. I got the newest Okkervil album, The Stand Ins. It was rainly lightly as we walked back.

It wasn´t a big Friday night. But it didn´t need to be. We started off watching new American Dad DVDs. We all got Itsu salads and frozen yogurt. Then we watched Amelie. I hadn´t seen the movie in years. I should watch it more often, so heart warming. It makes me feel good about the world.

Thursday 06-11 - Noah and the Party

2008-11-08T00:10:00.014+09:00

The morning was quiet. Dani came around to the flat and then we set off to find some lunch. She felt like something small while I felt like something warm on such a cold day. So we found a place that did soups and healthy salads. I had a thick Moroccan vegetable soup with a chunk of brown bread.

Then to the British Museum. Dani had sketching to do for class. I showed her the hidden sections of the museum I had recently discovered. We sketched around the place. Then parted ways when she went to class.

That night Noah and the Whale were playing at Kokos. Neither of us had tickets to the sold out gig. I had only heard their stuff once before and hadn´t been instantly converted. But Dani ex-band mate and his friend were the support act for the show. With some messaging through out the day Dani had gotten herself on the door list. One of their friends had backed out and I was going to use their name,so we were both set to go to this concert.

My other plans had involved some free indie club night near Dani´s, but what ever the case, I wanted to go out. We went to Kokos. There was already a line around the corner. We walked straight past it through the guest list entrance. I love doing that. Kokos was still empty.

Slowly people dotted the floor. Planet Earth (Sam and Nick and Anne) took to the stage. They played short and lovely set.

We hung around and had some very expensive Kokos drinks. Wow they can really charge for drinks there. By the time the next band started the floor was packed. So were the floors above. I took a look around the room. It was a gorgeous red and gold trimmed place with a huge disco ball.

Noah and the Whale came on to an audience of screams. People are really really into these guys. This was the second time I had heard them. I started to get into them more. They´re not too bad. Every song was a crowd favourite, by the sound of things. At the last song the support acts came on stage to join in.

After everyone had cleared out we went up to the after party on the top floor of the club. Which was really just everyone getting even more drunk. We hung around there for a while,until the security guards shuffled the last partiers out onto the street.

We wondered around in search of another party. Instead we found night late kebabs and a welcome bed.

Wednesday 05-11 - Babysitting day 2

2008-11-07T03:31:00.006+09:00

The day started late. Soon after getting up it was time for lunch. Lunch was at Pizza Express. They have excellent chicken salads there. With croûtons and goats cheese and fresh, soft grissini. Then took Aiden for the afternoon. After Monday´s babysitting I was feeling much more confident with looking after him for long periods.

I took him to the museum again to see how long I could get him to sleep for. I had recently been told about a section of the museum I had never been to before. I always tended to stay around the ground floor. Most of the big stuff is on the ground floor, with the Rosetta Stone and Elger Marbles. The majority of the Greek statues with the Enlightenment room. But up on the 3rd floor are these Early Roman and Mesopotamian room. They were interesting and most importantly, quiet. There was hardly a breath or a footstep. A perfect place let the babe sleep while I sketched away with my new sketch books and pencils. He got an amazing 2 hours of sleep.

I took him home to feed him. Then a little later I gave him a bath and put him to bed. I was the only other person to have bathed and put him to bed without Karen being there. It all went smoothly. I thought to myself ¨I can do this, I´m getting pretty good at it¨. Next year´s Paediatrics will be much easier for me now. I think if I hadn´t had this practice with babies they would have completely freaked me out. Now I´m really comfortable.

I didn´t think I would be able to get him to sleep. It was Guy Fawks that night. I have never heard the town noisier. There wasn´t 5 minutes without explosions heard in every direction. Thankfully he didn´t wake up. With Aiden sleeping soundly, I had dinner and hung out until Karen came home.

Tuesday 04-11 - Election

2008-11-06T01:55:00.012+09:00

I washed my hair and did my laundry. Both really needed to be done.

Then made my way to Soho,where Karen was doing her thing. I picked up Aiden and took him to Hamleys. Outside the store the staff were dressed as circus masters and Dorothy. They filled the streets with bubbles. Being so close to xmas, the silver and red tinsel was already adorning every roof and eave. Aiden was in a good mood and smiled as I showed him the yapping toy puppies. Although he seemed far more interested in the holiday decorations above our heads. I showed him the wild animal toys and remote control helicopters.

I brought him and set off on my own to find lunch and an art supply store. I needed new pens. Luckily for my the next street down had 3 large art stores, all of which were having sales. I had a good time drooling over art supplies. I got nice gourmet pizza for lunch.

It was US election day. The first polls only closed at midnight our time. But through out the the news stations stations were building the tension. On the walk home Karen and I talked about what it would mean if Obama won. I tried not to be overly optimistic about anything.

Everyone else in the house was asleep. I snuggled on the couch with a doona and online election results. I lasted until 2. At that point Democrats were leading 103 to 34. I decided I could go to sleep without worrying.

Monday 3-11 - Babysitting Day 1

2008-11-06T00:36:00.004+09:00

Karen had asked me to babysit. Not for an hour, but for about 5. I had never looked after a baby for so long before. It was a new experience. I had done all the separate care taking activities in my time with Aiden. Changing him, feeding him, bottle feeding him, getting him to sleep. But not a day where I was responsible for everything at once.

We started out to walking to the British Museum. We looked at the statues and Egyptian things until he went to sleep. I took him around to a park while he slept, then back home to feed him. I was getting the hang of this baby thing.

What was interesting was the reactions of people to a baby, depending on who is driving the stroller. Everyone must assume I'm the young mother. I got asked things about the baby like I was the mum. And three different people asked me for directions.

In the afternoon I set out for the park. It was cold, oh so cold. I met up with Karen. Its funny how a kid who was an angel all day will become a screaming mess 10 minutes before his mum arrives. But he settled, then Karen and I had tea at Brunswick centre.

She still had some stuff to do, so I took Aiden to the toy centre at Coram´s fields. We played with the toys there until they kicked us out, then hung out at the park until it closed and kicked us out as well. So back home we went.

Karen met us back there. One of her friends came back as well, so we all had wine and talked once the babe was in bed. I explained about the culture of internet scenes like fanfiction and live journal. The night was good.

Sunday 2-11 - Vicar 2

2008-11-05T20:07:00.011+09:00

Being the first Sunday of the month, this Sunday was the second occurring of More Tea Vicar?, the free music and market event put on at the Bedford. This month Dani had made Halloween themed cupcakes. The vanilla, mint and chocolate icing cupcakes were decorated with marshmallow ghosts and candy bones. They all looked amazing.

This time we were far more prepared and there was no rain to make our lives difficult. Plus the girls, Felicity and Maria were coming with us to help carry and show support. We packed the cakes into Dani's new plastic boxes and set off the four of us. Down the tube line we went.

The room was the same room as last time but with more chairs and some couches. Dani set up in the same place as last time.

There were far less musical acts than before. The same host, a young guy with a guitar and the same 13 year old girl. There were also far less people. A few pairs, along with a giant table of the girl's family. They always buy lots of cupcakes. The lack of people meant we didn't sell as many cupcakes as the previous month. It was a bit frustrating. We ended up taking a third of the cupcakes home with us. But oh well.

It was still a nice time.

Dinner was sweet corn and veggie bangers mixed with parmesan and balsamic. It was good.

Saturday 01-11 - Rain and a short day

2008-11-05T19:58:00.004+09:00

I woke up late. At about 2pm I finally regained consciousness. Thankfully I wasn't hung over. I picked my self up and took myself over to the West End. I need to pick up the eggs I forgot at Karen's. I also told Dan I would find a muffin tray for the cupcaking that night. It was pouring with rain.

I got to Karen's to find no one home. And Lioni had the second set of keys. I tried calling her to see where she was, but my phone had died. This meant I couldn't get to the eggs, or a fresh change of clothes, or the location of the baking shop I needed. So I found lunch and went for tea at the British Museum. I sat in the glass covered courtyard in refuge from the cold outside. I sketched the people in front of me.

A short time later I made my way back to Dani, but not before picking up some more eggs. As I was arriving back, the other girls were just waking up from our big night. Dani got back from work, tired. So I made us some soup before the baking started.

The baking went well.

Friday 31-10 - Halloween !!

2008-11-02T06:10:00.021+09:00

I started out at Karen. We went out to pick up the last bits for Aiden´s first party. Karen was throwing a day time Halloween party for him and his little friends. In kitchen we had a hanging decoration with spiders and pumpkins.

In the living room was a blanket with Ghostie themed tables cloths and helium balloons. On the kist was a Butternut Jack´O´Lantern and witches hats for the mothers.

We had spooky cupcakes and red drinks.

The best bit was the baby costumes. Aiden had an adorable tigger hoodsie.

One by one the other babies came around. We had a pumpkin princess, a bat and a spider. They were all very cute.

The kids played with the table clothes and balloons while the adults had red champs with cranberry juice, plus cupcakes. Dani came around near the end of the party. Together we went to meet Stacey and go to an artist signing at Forbidden Planet. In past years I had seen photos that Dani had taken on Halloween. The staff were always dressed up in amazing and crazy outfits. It looked like a really fun place to be on Halloween. But this year everyone was wearing their FP shirts and no costumes. I was kinda looking forward to it and felt let down. We had fish and chips at Karen,then back to Bethnal Green to prepare for the night.

All of us girls were getting ready together, having some drinks and listening to music.

The party we were going to was on a boat docked by Canary Wharf. It was a Hallow´s eve birthday party with the theme of Ghost ship. I didn´t just want to be a ghost pirate. So instead I dressed as the ghost of pirate radio. With a pumpkin handbag.

We all wore white face paint and most of us were covered in fake blood.

We stayed at home drinking for a long time. Finally we set out for this party. Getting to the docks proved more difficult then any of us had anticipated. It took two confusing buses to get there, where we were met by one of the hosts and led down the wharf. It was also smaller than we had anticipated. A very small crowd stood in the belly of the boat, strung with colourful skulls. The birthday girl was presented with a treasure chest pinata and a crowbar with which to smash it.

The people were nice, but we didn´t stay too long.

We got tired of being there, so on we went to the next party. We hopped the bus with other people who were fleeing the party. There on the second level of the bus we had loud and enjoyable times. The driver turned every corner at full speed, sending us all flying in different directions.

The next party was a huge mix of DJs, dance floors and insane costumes. We danced all night and before we knew it, 5 oclock was upon us. We slowly made our way home.

Thursday 30-10 - More Oxford shopping

2008-10-31T21:57:00.002+09:00

Karen went to work for the first time, leaving Aiden with his new nanny. Lioni and I were with her as she left. Soon after I went to Danis place. We had bagels for breakfast and decided what we hadto do that day. Dani still was feeling a bit flu-y and had Uni stuff to get done.

We went to Maria´s room, where she was looking at concert tickets that she wanted to buy. There were so many amazing acts playing over the next month. So many I would want to go to. Thats the thing with London. Everyone plays here all the time, but you hardly end up seeing them. Okervil river were set to play a couple days before our birthday, supported by The Dodos. I had seen both these acts before,but could easily see both again.

Maria was going to meet her friend Eva and buy tickets near Oxford street. I decided to go with them. So Maria and Eva and I went to get tickets. Then Maria left to go to a lecture. Eva and I carried on down Oxford Street. We had to find costume things. We tried Hamleys. Big mistake going to the biggest city toystore in London in the middle of school holidays. It was a battlefield and we fled with our tales between our legs.

Eva left soon after,but I still needed to find the right tops of my costume. I planned on trying super cheap Primarq. I walked and walked until I got to the end of Oxford street. The wrong end of Oxford street. I had gone in the wrong direction. So back down I went to the other end in the rain.

I pushed my way through Primarq until I found my white top and skirts and stripy stuff. That place is an absolute jungle. Then back to Karen. I met Dani at the door. For dinner we had the most excellent salad. It consisted of grilled holoumi, watercress, rocket, oven grilled carrot, eggplant and sweet potato, onion, apple with balsamic drizzle, cooked spinach, rocket, olives and nice bread. Mmmmmm.

Wednesday 29-10 - Oxford shopping

2008-10-31T20:57:00.019+09:00

I hung out at Danis for a while. She had uni work to do. So I had a good time drawing in my new black sketchbook. I was in a drawing head space. Dani had errands to run around town. We headed to the west end first to Top Shop. Dani found some socks. The girl at the checkout was new. In fact it was her first day at the till. She was nervous but we tried to be nice to her.

Next and to Urban Outfitters. There she found an Andy Warhol style thermos. We also found silly straws that became glasses. We got three for the upcoming party. We went to top shop get socks and bits. It was the check out girl's first day at the till. The alarms went off as she forgot to take the security tag off the socks. I picked up a tiny pencil case.

It was dark at 4-30. The Northern Hemisphere was really in winter now. It made me sad. Dinner was a goats cheese salad. It made me happy.

Tuesday 28-10 - Apocalypse

2008-10-29T17:16:00.009+09:00

I got out the house late and walked down to meet Lioni and Karen at Wahaca for lunch. They do the most amazing Mexican style food. Especially good is the salad, which has lettuce, pumpkins seeds, avo, meat, black beans and quinoa served in a bowl made of deep fried tortilla.

Then Lioni and I walked down to the Tate Modern. I hadn't yet seen the new Unilever piece in the turbine hall, so I was interested. The only other Unilever commissioned piece I had seen was the set of twisty slides a few years back. They were great, I got to slide down tube slides that started at the top floor of the museum and ended at ground.

The new piece was by Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, called TH.2058. It was meant to symbolise a post-apocalyptic world of the future. As I approached the green and red plastic curtains leading to the exhibit, I looked up. I noticed the writing, journal-like, sitting above.

Stepping inside, there was the sound of rain around me. In front of me, 200 yellow and blue metal bunk beds. Above them stood the centre pieces of the room, two giant monuments that seemed to touch the roof. One was an abstract red metal sculpture. The other a colossal spider formed from twisted black metal. Its menacing legs perched ominously between the beds.

Scattered on the beds were books. I didn’t recognise them all, but they ran along a similar theme. The end of the world.

At the front of the room, a movie screen playing silent scenes from old apocalyptic films. Next to it, there sat some almost grotesque smaller sculptures. One like a rotten apple.

The other was the skeleton of a dog like creature the size of a dinosaur. It bared it teeth without moving.

The whole experience would have been chilling, if not for the mid school break. The room was full to the brim with kids. They ran around screaming and throwing the books. Oh well. I spent some time browsing the amazing Tate bookshop.

It was a really cold day. We briefly met the mums at Corams but it was just about to close. We got a message from Josh that it might start snowing up at Milton Keynes. That would be cool, I thought.

Back at the flat we had dinner. The others went to bed. I got a message from Dani that it was snowing in Bethnal Green. I looked out our window and sure enough, there was snow. It was a light fall. I could see the gently falling specks by the glow of the street light. A car parked below was covered in white. My brother and sister and I got excited as one. It didn’t matter we were in different parts of the UK.

Monday 27-10 - Getting things done

2008-10-29T03:06:00.012+09:00

I got things done today.

I had a long list of things that needed to be done. I did washing and organised uni things back home.

The I went out to buy things at the chemist. I topped up my UK phone card and got an exchange on a broken bag. After all this was done I got in touch with Karen, who was at the Xmas markets with the new nanny. She was showing her the ropes and the area.

I met up with the three and took a walk down the street while eating a burrito. I remember the street being crowded the last time I saw there. Last time was a few weeks before xmas. There were tree stall lining the roads and baubles all around. Now it was just sad and empty.

We all walked back to the flat. There we waited for the door to buzz. Karen´s pal Lioni was back from traveling the rest of UK. The rest of the night was quiet.

Sunday 26-10 - Giant burgers

2008-10-27T04:37:00.010+09:00

The clocks changed back, throwing the house into chaos. Trying telling a baby that he has to eat and sleep an hour later because of national legislation. His clock was a bit out of whack.

We stayed around the flat and then set out around the corner. On the corner of Karen´s street is a meat and steak type pub that started having Sunday roasts. It sounded like a good idea. We walked around until Aiden settled and then we settled ourselves for late lunch. We all decided upon enormous meat burgers. In arrived plates filled with chips and burgers as big as my head.

I managed to eat most of the plate, but was stuffed to the brim. Josh left to make his way back to Cranfield. Karen, the bub and I walked down to Paperchase. I love Paperchase, its like a stationary Disneyland. So much wonderful sights. I happen to be one of those people who are obsessed with stationary. There they were, blank and lined notebooks as far as the eye could see.

We browsed the aisles until we found what we wanted. I got erasers with headphones and mixtapes on them. Then set off home with our spoils of war.

Back at home we gave Aiden an adorable bath. Karen and I were still so full from lunch that neither of us wanted dinner.

Saturday 25-10 - THE Hamlet.

2008-10-27T03:52:00.010+09:00

This was one of those days that had been planned for before I had even left Australia. A year ago, some time in October I had booked tickets for a Royal Shakespeare Company playing of Hamlet. Hamlet, featuring Patrick Stuart and David Tennant. I could hardly have imagined two actors that I would have rather seen doing the play. I booked the tickets and got really excited, then not thought about it much as I traveled around. But this was the day. It was finally here.

We had 4 tickets, plus one that Steve had booked but couldn´t use. But with little cousin Aiden, Karen couldn´t make it. Then Dani couldn´t get anyone to cover for her at work and to our dismay couldn´t go either. So it was Josh, Me, Mara and Keith, who had bought some of the tickets off us. We found a buyer for the final ticket at the last minute.

The play was at Stratford apon Avon, 3 hours away by train. We got up early enough to not be in a rush to get to our 1pm matinée show. Except that the tickets were still at Dani. Crap.

I took a speedy Saturday morning cab to Dani´s place and then rushed to the station. The extra time meant we had to catch the slower train which left later. Not only was it slower, but also 10 pound more expensive and needed a change over.

But no matter. I used the time to read my book of Klingon Hamlet, which had the play in both Klingon and English. To my shame, I had never read the play before. I realised I should probably have some idea what was going on.

Our seats were quite high up, but right in the middle. The view was great from everywhere though. I was so excited to see Stuart and Tennant in action.

The Play.

The costumes and sets were modern adaptations.The opening scene was almost in complete darkness. The guards were dressed as modern guards would and flashing torches around. They used the torch reflection on the shiny floor to light up the other actors´ faces. Brilliant. The royal dress was like modern royalty. With the sounds of paparazzi in the background.

Early on in the play Hamlet (Tennant) is playing crazy. He wore jeans, an old orange t-shirt and no shoes. We all loved his bare feet. Actually he was in bare feet through most of the play, even when the rest of him was in a tux and crown. He was a master of the quirky and a slightly mad. What a perfect actor for the role. He sly remarks and glances, his sneaky off beat comments. It reminded me a lot of the guys down in Graylands mental hospital. He also brought the humour into the play. At one point he was rolled onto the stage duct taped to a wheelie chair. Very well done.

Stuart was just incredible. He had the presence of a seasoned Shakespeare actor. His voice was deep and majestic. I loved seeing him at work. His talents almost seem wasted on TV. Polonius was fantastic as well. He did the old man forgetful thing like it was the most natural thing in the world. Every one in the play was amazing. I tried my hardest not to be the squealing fan girl. But I couldn´t wipe the smile from my face.

It was already 5 by the time the play finished and we got out of the theatre. I didn´t much like the idea of the long train ride back, so we got the ok to jump onto the faster cheaper. It only took 2 hours and was direct to London. I ate a giant white chocolate chip cookie on the way.

I was exhausted from all the travel and didn´t go out that night. It was all worth it though.

Friday 24-10 - Girlie day and night

2008-10-27T03:13:00.002+09:00

I met up with Dani and Laura at Notting Hill tube and then with Stacey. Stacey had met a girl on the train who arrived in London 2 hours earlier. She invited her to peruse the market with us. They girl spent the entire time on the phone. Actually she spend it on two phones,often at the same time.

Down the road to Portabello Road markets. Of course we stopped off at Hummingbird bakery to get the awesome cupcakes. We stopped into toy shops and looked at vintage clothes. Dani found an old sailors outfit for the upcoming Halloween party. After Portabello Road we met up with Mara to exchange tickets for Hamlet. We also booked Laura´s minicab, because her flight was very early the next morning.

In the evening we started with girls night. We got scrumptious Chinese take out and bottles wine and pear cider. Then we sat and watched Empire Records. We all had fond memories of that movies. I grew up with it. I knew every line and every song. Well, I would have been able to if it wasn´t a strange fan edit version. There were extra scenes added in that none of us wanted to see. Apart from that it was good though.

Laura, Dani, Josh and I made our way to Popstars. We drank pear cider and danced to old White Stripes songs. Then down stairs to the pop classics room. I always liked that place. The songs are fun as long as you don´t take yourself too seriously. A lot of the people there do. I just enjoy the crazy dancing. Us girls moved off at 12 or 1 and got on the bus to the East End. I got off at Karen´s and left the others continue on their way.

Thursday 23-10 - Home

2008-10-27T01:49:00.005+09:00

I woke up really early. I jumped down to the next door bakery and bought an enormous bag of mini macarons. Some for Janelle and Yoann to say thanks, some for the people back home and a few for me. Then set out with a big bag of things towards the train station.

It was nice to be going home. I really had a good time in Paris. But I was starting to miss everyone,especially little cousin Aiden. I got off the train and made my way to the flat. No one was there, so I waited a little and then went acrossd the street to a sammich bar. I sat and had lunch there while I waited for Karen to get back.

Karen and I set out for the British museum to have coffee. We escaped the cold of London autumn. We met up with Dani, who was there with her class sketching.

In the afternoon Dani came over with Laura from Perth. The plan was to go to a public screening of this silent film. But it was cold and wet, plus dark so early. We were defeated by winter. Instead we got thick soup and crusty bread. We drank wine and ate chocolate.

Wednesday 22-10 - Catacombs

2008-10-26T20:01:00.009+09:00

I got up earlier than usual. With Janelle I set off for the catacombs. We got there at the agreed time and waited for Caryn (and Jullian) to appear. They were taking there time, so we got brekkie at a bakery. I am the kind of person who wants to keep giving everyone a little more time. Luckily Janelle was there to convince we that we should just go. So an hour after we got there, I made good on my promise to go with out the others.

Down into the combs we went. Down the spiral stairs to the tunnels. It was warmer than the air above, even if somewhat more damp. There was no wind, only a slight white noise that seemed to come from the deepest hidden cavern.

We walked through endless tunnels to the first rooms. They were houses for stone castles,like the most wonderful sand castles to be found at the beach. They had wonderful turrets and ornaments, but seemed out of place in a treasury of the dead.

A few more tunnels brought us to the Ossuary. Millions and millions of bodies rested here. They were all dug up when Paris´s cemeteries were shut down due to disease. All the bones were moved here. So here they lay, making up the walls of endless dark paths.

The walls were lined with femurs and decorated with skulls. Occasionally there were other parts showing, I gathered that for the most part, the other bones were dumped in a tangled mess behind the femurs. The skulls were made into macabre centre pieces, such as skull and cross ones and even a love heart. There were crosses and tombs scattered throughout.

Some people were shocked, but I have seen many many skulls before. I mean, yes, the shear mass of human bones was creepy. But I thought to myself, most of these people died of natural causes years before they were brought here. After Poland and the holocaust memorial, these bones didn´t seem quite as loaded with emotion. It was sad, but not chilling. Mostly just interesting.

We finished the walk and left, I still hadn´t heard from Caryn. So we walked around the shops a bit before heading back to Janelle´s house. We tried to get a hold of the others but to no avail. In the late afternoon we finally made contact.

We went to Montmarte to meet with Caryn, Jullian and Nick from Perth. It turns out we made the right choice in going to the catacombs without them. They didn´t turn up at all. Everyone went to a pizza place where we caught up with each other´s lives.

Tuesday 21-10 - The waiting game

2008-10-26T18:27:00.005+09:00

We had planned to see the catacombs but Janelle wasn´t feeling well. So Caryn and I decided to meet at the Musee D´Orsay. It was a cold and rainy day I got there first at 11, the meeting time. The queue was huge, even longer for the umbrellas. I joined whiled I was waiting.

The rain fell in the cold and half an hour passed. No word. Stilling waiting in the long and winding line.

An hour passed. I was now at the front of the line, but no Caryn. I let the rest of the line pass in front of me. She finally appeared after an hour an forty five minutes. She had brought with her a Frenchmen by the name of Jullian, that she met at the party the previous night. They explained that the tardiness was his fault for sleeping in. We all made piece and I finally got out of the cold wet air.

I love the D´Orsay. I could go back there again and again. Caryn had never seen it before. It was fun to see the happiness on a face as they discover each room and each new famous piece. I loved it, but was also looking at my watch. I hadn´t grabbed any breakfast before queuing and was now starving. So as much as I wanted to stay and see the art, my eye was on the clock.

We saw the important pieces and walked down the streets to find food. Jullian took us to his favourite patisserie where we got rolls,followed by chocolate pastries. We walked further and sat at a cafe for coffee. We sat outside to watch the rain fall.

We walked down the road. I enjoyed the streets just after the rain. They shimmered. The roads formed great lakes that mirrored the endless neon above.

Caryn and I parted ways from the boy.At the shopping district Caryn found a hair straightener and I found a blue top with pandas on the back. We walked down streets until we found the pompidou. Then Caryn found shoes.

We met up with Jullian and his friends at a local bar. It was a really authentic place. No English speakers except for us. The walls were covered in brown and an ocean of passport photos. There were also old lack and white pics stuck up everywhere.

We got a cheese plate to tide us over until dinner. Then an accordion player came along to perform her songs for us all. She sang only is Hungarian, Polish and Yiddish.

We moved on to the Jewish area, where we got crispy chicken kebabs. I don´t know what the spices were, but they tasted good.

Our final stop was at a grungy bar with lots of character. I think this is the type of place I would hang out at if I lived in Paris. The walls were red with street signs and gig posters. The chairs and stools were all mismatched and second hand. It had charm. Down a small staircase was a tiny gig room where a French act sung Blister in the sun. Only Caryn and I seemed to actually know the words. We sung along.

The others walked me back to the station. The next day we would do the catacombs. I jokingly warned them if they were late I would go without them. We parted ways.

Monday 20-10 - Free tour

2008-10-24T00:04:00.010+08:00

Today Caryn had to move into her new hostel. I waited for her at St-Michel fountain. From there we joined the free 4 hour walking tour.

The guide this time was Australian but with a strange outfit. He took us to bridges with Napoleon´s symbol and told stories about Napoleon. Some of them didn´t sound quite true, but they were fun to listen to none the less.

Then to the Louvre where we found out why Voltaire´s statue has a net over it.

The tour walked through the Touleries. I spotted some great contemporary art pieces that had recently been set up. There were tree houses in the trees.

He told more stories about oranges here:

And stories about con-men here:

The tour finished at the grand palias. Caryn and I weren´t sure what to do next, but decided eventually to walk the Champs-Elise to Arc D´Triumph. Under the arc there were olf and young soldiers with flags. There were also smartly dressed kids and teary women. One man told us it was a war memorial ceremony.

Back at Caryn´s hostel we met her room mate; an English translator named Polly. The three of us went out for dinner and ended up at a Chinese place. Good foods.

The other two left for a party of French guys, I caught the last train home.

Saturday 18-10 - Bass baby

2008-10-23T23:55:00.009+08:00

After the Friday night everyone slept in. The house woke up at midday. I went out to get some croissants from the corner bakery. Our lunch was cereal, followed by croissant and melted cheese, followed by apples and peaches.

Yoann wanted to buy a bass guitar. The best place to get a stringed instrument was in Pigalle, home of the Moulan Rouge. By the time we got out the door it was already 4 O´clock. He was right though about the place. There were streets dedicated to guitar stores. There were stores and stores that sold only Basses. I was in awe. It was almost as good as the street that sold only comics. Almost.

We looked around the large bass stored until he found an instrument he coudn´t resist. A fender jazz bass. It really was a thing of beauty. He was stilling making up his mind, so we all kept walking up the street. Everyone was peckish. So we stopped for some greasy snacks to tide us over until dinner. Samosas and dumpings.

Janelle and I walked up the street to find a scarf shop she had seen, while Yoann went to buy the bass. The streets were packed as we shoved our way past the stagnant crowd. Everywhere people were standing looking at maps or taking photos or just standing. I got annoyed at them. We couldn´t find the shop in the end. We met around the metro station.

Poor Yoann carried the guitar and bass amp all the way home. Back at the house Janelle and Yoann excitedly tore open the packaging like a birthday present.

Dinner was awesome Japanese. I thought back to Itsu. There was sushi, sushimi and meat on sticks. They were all good except for the final stick, beef and cheese. It tasted like an entire block of cheese that half melted and wrapped in a slice of beef. Interesting. The rest was great though.

By the time dinner was done it was half 11. Apparently the metro finishes just after midnight. That didn´t leave much time to get to the far out places we had planned to visit, and even less time to get back. Yoann told us the night buses were no good for getting back. So we decided to try our luck at drinking the next night.

Sunday 19-10 - Rabbit

2008-10-23T23:55:00.008+08:00

The next morning I was excited. My school friend Caryn was set to arrive that afternoon. I hadn´t seen her for a while and was looking forward to catching up with her. She had booked a place to stay from Monday, but had no place for the first night. On quick glance at the net, it looked like there might be some beds free at St Chris Inn, where I stayed on my last visit.

I had heard about a market in the North of Paris worth checking out. Marche Aux Puces is one of the biggest antique and flea markets. It was a trek to get all the way up North. Getting there from the station took a bit of time as well.

But wow!

I started at Paul Bert market for vintage furniture. Every style, every era, it was all there. 1960s spheroid lime green chairs and 1920s art deco wardrobes in perfect condition. Searchlights that would put Hollywood to shame. I´m not usually a furniture person, but walking through the maze of stalls I couldn´t stop smiling. I felt like I was in a wonderland.

There was a dark stall of scientific curiosities. Lots of taxidermied monkeys and bird skeletons. He also had monkey skulls, anatomical engravings a full human skeleton. It was a place to just stare at everything in wonder.

Another store had a full grown, stuffed zebra and half of a giraffe.

The next market of antique furniture was more upscale. I walked through to the exit to find myself back in London, at Camden. A massive modern market attached itself to the flea market, filling in street left unattended. I walked briefly down the street and got a crepe to snack on.

Back into the old stuff I dove. This market was full of smaller its, but no less interesting. A store of fountain pens first caught my eye. I bought some old French pins.

It was time to meet Caryn at the station. We hugged hello at the Eurostar exit then hit the metro. We had a lot to catch up on, we were talking through the entire trip. I took her to St Christophers Inn and hoped there would be a free bed for the night. To our luck, there was.

We dumped her things then set out to meet Janelle and Yoann. We walked along the Saine, the same route my siblings and I took when we first arrived. It was great to see someone so excited about the city. As this was my second time, I had been less than touristy, but was inspired by Caryn´s enthusiasm. She made me feel like I had never been to Paris before.

We met up with the couple and found an authentic French place. It was crowded with people so we had drinks by the bar until our table was ready. It was quite a posh little place, with hand written menus. I started with a veggie soup and then rabbit with veggies. It was really good though.

The four of us chatted away through out dinner, catching up on all the Perth gossip. It had been a long while since I had been with so many Perth people. It felt good.

Friday 17-10 - Carnavalet

2008-10-23T23:54:00.002+08:00

Friday started with a packed lunch and an internet search. We searched for museums with cheap or free entry. We found Carnavalet: a museum of the history of Paris. So we set off with a backpack towards the river.

Walking past the museum, the streets were full of young, trendy types. We guessed maybe they were art students, seeing as there was an arts school next door. We found a park near by to at our lunch. Cheese pasta, cheese with bread, apple pudding and twix.

Our lunch time show was provided by the arts students. Young couples were scattered around the park. Two couples in particular were playing on a nearby playground. They were being loud and crazy as they courted. The sight had Jannelle and I reminiscing on our loud and crazy days. We talked about days gone by.

The museum covered the history of Paris mostly through the past four centuries. There were old paintings and street signs and furniture. There were also some excellent city models. All of these would have been interesting and informative if only we could understand the labels. We had no idea what was going on most of the time. So as interesting as everything was, it couldn´t hold our attention for very long.

We decided to try our luck on the more gruesome French Revolution section. Again, all in French. The Bastille room was pretty good. There were paintings of people being dragged through the street and stabbed. Then paintings of imprisoned monarchs. And miniature guillotines. The rooms had amazing wallpaper. It was brightly striped in primary colours, with matching curtains.

We reached the exit through the Henry 15th rooms, which had an large model of some historic event. It made me want to build models. I don´t think I had ever built a model like that. Most of the models I ever built were paper dioramas or dinosaurs. I like the idea of building a tiny city.

On the train we went to another free museum. The fashion museum was supposedly stocked with incredible couture and fashion from centuries past. I wanted to see the old dresses, complete with bustles. When we got there the museum was closed, for another 6 weeks. I was disappointed, especially since I wouldn´t even be in Europe by then.

Luckily the area was full of museums. We spotted the Museum of Contemporary Art which had been closed for renovation. Even more luck, it had picked this day to reopen. We went to the free permanent rooms that had just been redone.

First there was a photographer who put his works onto glass. Most of them were pictures of cereal boxes and photocopies of other peoples books. Then pictures of dirty street corners. There wasn´t anything in his work to be excited about. We moved on to more abstract works. We got through a few rooms of crumpled material with paint splotches. An attendant told us the museum was closing and we had to leave. I hadn´t realised how it was. We would have to come back another day.

On the way back I saw the Princess Di memorial.

We returned to the flat to clean ourselves up and headed off to meet Yoann´s friends for drinks. They were mostly guys, with one girl who didn´t say much. The bar was the second floor of an Irish themed place. We sat and talked with those who could speak English. Most could speak it quite well. It made me jealous.

We hadn´t eaten dinner yet and were getting peckish. The group had thought ahead. They had ordered traditional French pub fare. Bowls of bread and a board with meats and cheeses. All the hams and sausages were there,along with a selection of cheeses in various colours and flavours. I picked at the bread and cheeses. I wasn´t really full at the end.

We moved on to another bar two doors down, more of a club. The was music, lights and a dancefloor. The French guys bought two dozen shots with different rums and laid them all out on the counter. One was enough for me. The guys went on to down them all over the night. We didn´t stay too late.

Thursday 16-10 - Graves for music and pen

2008-10-23T23:53:00.003+08:00

Attempt 2 to make the Luxembourg museum. But first a stop at Montparnnasse cemetery. It poured, but I got a nice call from Karen as got ourselves lost.

This graveyard was smaller, but more cheerful than the other cemetery we went to in Paris. The streets were more ordered and the graves newer. The clouds were grey, spitting drops of rain on us.

We found the combined graves of Simone De Beauvuoir and Jean Paul Satre. We lay a stone for them.

We saw Serge Gainsburg. We wanted to see Man Ray, but we couldn´t find him anywhere. Then we got hungry.

We passed an ornate stone labelled ¨Ricardo¨. We had no idea who he was. We would later find out that he was the assistant of the artist that made the stone.

After a few failed attempts to find crepes we got food from a supermarket. We walked to find a place to sit, except that everything was wet from the rain. Eventually we came upon a dry bench and ate lunch. Then half a baguette and cheese. I was stuffed.

The exhibit we wanted to see was finally open – De Miro A Warhol (from Miro to Warhol). Its a good thing they didn´t call it Miro AND Warhol. There was only one by each artist. In fact there were only 4 rooms all up. It was really tiny, especially considering the ticket price. They were nice pieces, but nothing special. There was also a good Tanguey and Litchenstein´s Mirror #1. They were my favourite pieces.

The gallery left us both feeling tired, sore and unfulfilled. The rain started again. We made our way home.

Then out again. Yoann joined us as we trained to the Latin quarter to have dinner. We picked a place with a set menu. Well, every restaurant on the street had a set menu or two. We picked a restaurant that looked decent.

The decor had a pretty traditional French set,although it felt like probably a tourist place. Apart from Yoann and the waiters, only one other person spoke French. Janelle and I started with salad while the boy had gizzards.

I had a confit duck plate for mains. I was still semi-full from lunch. But I ate still attempted most of the enormous plate. Yoann had tripe. The desserts were nice but I had trouble finishing it, I felt so full. I roll out the door as we strolled the streets a bit.

Wednesday 15-10 - Cake

2008-10-23T23:52:00.004+08:00

Yoann was up at 7 for work, though I didn´t really notice him passing me by. Janelle and I only woke up later that morning. We ate cereal with dried strawberries in it. Then brioche. We watched French MTV off the computer as we ate. Mostly because it was the only channel we could get that we could understand. If we listened carefully we could pick up the original English under the dub. We watched all the classics, date my mom, sweet sixteen and parental control. I coudn´t get my Internet connected.

We set off to Luxembourg gardens to see the new De Miro A Warhol exhibit. We found the gardens easily, but it took time to find the museum. We wondered around the grounds.

We reached the gates of the museum only to find out we were a day early. A red carpet flowed to the door, topped with people dressed nicely. Today the VIPs got to see the exhibit. We wondered towards Notre Dame.

The street we walked down was the comic book street. Shop after shop of comics and manga. It as like a dream, except that everything was in French. All the arty comics that looked interesting. So many beautiful worlds, but I couldn´t get in to them. Maybe I should learn French. Afterwards I forgot the name of the street.

We found a bakery near the church. We sat down to eat lunch. They got were part of our order wrong except for the water. That was ok though, we were fed. We let the place to a street lined with Asian style grocery stores. Stir fry seemed like a good idea for the nights dinner, so we picked up noodles and dehydrated mushrooms.

We were in the mood for cake. A proper patisserie had a wonderful selection. I couldn´t chose from the cabinet of amazing cakes. I picked one with raspberry and gold dust. We ate the cakes at a park outside Notre Dame. We had to use some of the cardboard as a fork. But it as worth it, the cake was amazing.

We took a look around the outside of the church and at the stalls near the river. We looked through some English bookshops and a small gallery art shop. The rain stopped and started. We walked down main streets with high street shopping. The rain stuck around this time. It wasn´t the weather to be out and about.

Back near Jannelles we picked up wine. Then we started cooking up veggies for the stir fry. We soaked the dried mushrooms,causing them to explode to life. The revived mushrooms were so large we had nothing to hold them in. Except that they were still too tough to eat. We tried boiling them and frying them. They were still a bit tough. Everything else was great though.

Yoann came back and we ate. We had made enough for 5 people, there was just so much food. It was tasty though so everything went down well. We drank wine and watched more MTV before making our way to sleep.

Tuesday 14-10 - To Paris again

2008-10-23T23:52:00.003+08:00

I woke up and went out with Karen. In the evening I was set to train to Paris for a week. I still hadn´t packed. But out we went anyway. For lunch we walked down to Lamb Conduit, to the family Italian. The walls were covered in retro music and Hollywood memorabilia. They make good pizza. We chatted away about bits and pieces into the afternoon.

I realised that time was passing and I hadn´t packed for Paris.

Back at the flat I ran around packing. Then spent some time with Aiden. Dani came over when her uni was finished. We had wine.

I watched the clock.

At 6-30 I once more picked up my backpack (now much lighter) and took the tube to the train station. Through the security and customs and sitting around until it was time to board. I took the time to refresh the French numbers. That's about the only French I knew anyway. The train was half empty so stretched out over 2 seats. It was after 11 when I arrived.

I got myself a ten pack of metro tickets and caught the metro. I was already running late to Janelle, who I would be staying with. She was there with her guy Yoann. He seemed nice. The three of us took the final leg to their flat in the South of Paris. We walked back and chatted.

The flat was nice, with a good view into a garden. Everyone was tired. Especially poor Yoann, who had been up at 5 for work. So we bid farewell until the morning.

Monday 13-10 - Live music and bagels

2008-10-16T05:50:00.006+08:00

I brought my things back to Karen to begin to prepare. I went shopping for things I needed for Paris. These included shampoo bottles and a going out bag. This didn´t happen. Instead I walked around for an age getting lost. Then I bought chocolate and a cd. I didn´t really get anything don't that I had planned. Except for spending time with Aiden. I got a lot of that done. I was stocking up on Aiden time.

In the afternoon we set out for rough traders, a record store. There was an acoustic set of Of Montreal for free. We just needed a wristband. We were and hour and a half early to get near the front of queue. there we waited with Felicity and Maria.

We got our wrists bands at 6, then were told to come back at 7. The others kept our place while Dani and I went for dinner. We walked down looking for a healthy Indian style meal. What a pity we ended up with burgers.

Then got the call that everyone was lining up. Stuffed the food into our mouths and hurried back to jump the queue where our friends were. Slowly we were let in. We crowded around the small stage which was bare, except for the giant pink axolotl head on the speakers.

Of Montreal came out for their acoustic set. They weren´t dressed in crazy costumes and make up they sometimes do. Just regular clothes. Their set was good. Mostly new stuff, but they played a couple of older songs as well. No one really danced. There wasn´t room and we were to busy listening to the music. They played a short set, then thanked us for listening and left.

The crowd emptied quickly and we followed. We walked towards the house, passing the Jewish bagel place on the way. Everyone wanted bagels so we stopped to stock up. Then I parted ways with the group. I said my farewells to the girls. I made my way back to Karen, a bag of bagels in my hand.

Sunday 12-10 - Quidditch

2008-10-14T22:58:00.008+08:00

Up at 1 o clock. Slowly the girls appeared, a little worse for wear. We were still feeling like doing girlie things. So we all cooked up brunch. Egg saturated with olive, mushroom, onion and zucchini. Toast, fruit salad, coffee and orange juice. We sat down and stuffed our faces.

Maria´s friend had found something very interesting on the internet. Some people were attempting a real life quidditch match at Reagants park. Just like in Harry Potter, except that I don´t think they could fly around on broomsticks. But it seemed so very interesting. It´s a pity we made the others so late. We only got out the house at the time it started and still needed to find the place.

Even so we had to stop into tescos for snacks. We picked up beer when we noticed the krispy kreme stand. We noticed the limited edition chocolate carnivale dozen. Chocolate fudge, biscuits crunch, mint twist and chocolate creme. There was no choice but to buy them.

The leaves were golden on all the trees.

At the park we walked around the football and lacrosse players. We kept asking people if they had seen group playing with brooms. Each group replied with ´they flew over those trees´.

We gave up on quidditch. Instead we found a nice place to sit and relax on the grass. We talked about boys and religion.

In the evening we had David Bowie night. We all put on Ziggy Stardust make up and watched Labyrinth. Great end to the weekend.

Saturday 11-10 - The Surprise and Girls Night

2008-10-14T05:45:00.010+08:00

Dani headed of to work and I slow got out of bed. I showered and dressed. Then I got a call from Josh. The uni had organised a day trip down by bus to London. They had about 4 hours to see all of the city. Even a weekend isn´t enough time. There were a few guys and a girl. I think most were French.

I met them at St Paul´s cathedral. We had lunch at subway (the only shop that was open) then we planned a walking tour of London. We walked up to the British Museum to see the contemporary statues and the Egyptian exhibit. Josh popped out to see Karen and Aiden. So I was baby sitting again, only this time it was international students.

The Museum was having its ¨The Big Draw¨day, encouraged young and old alike to draw. My Perth friends Mara and Gemma were at the gallery, helping out with the Big Draw activities. It was nice running into them. I tried to persuade Josh´s classmates to have a draw while we waited for him. Except for the girl, none seemed interested, but even she took time to convince. I sat down and started to draw, but Josh got back before I could finish. So off we went again.

The next leg of the journey went through Covent Garden up to seven dials, the sun dial. We took one of the seven roads that meet there, though I can never remember which is which. Then all the way down to Piccadilly Circus. They had really wanted to go there to see the big bill boards. I realised that I hadn´t been down there for years. I couldn´t think of a reason I would want to be there. The area was full of tourists and Ripley's believe it or not. Souvenir shops and the like. But they enjoyed it. I had more enjoyed the museum, with its spontaneous events and happenings.

By then it as getting late, I had told Dani I would visit her at work. I got lost finding the right street and had to ask for directions at a police station. Then a long walk to her book shop. She closed, then we were joined by her housemates Felicity and Maria. Back at the house we made up dinner of stuffed capsicum with rice and zucchini.

Then we all sat around drinking wine and reading the timeout. We went through a number of plans for the night, but just couldn´t decide what to do. Maria, Dani and I set ourselves on an indie band night in Shoreditch.

At the club we caught the start of the support act, Tin Can Telephone. They were really sweet indie pop and nice to listen to.

In between we danced a little. Felicity arrived with some other friends. We danced a lot more.

The main act Fryers came on, surrounded in blue fairy lights. They were more upbeat than the previous act, which suited us perfectly. We took up half the floor jumping about. Most of the crowd just stood still.

The boys that arrived with Felicity were not happy. They wanted to go elsewhere. So on a bus we all hopped, singing loudly as we went. We got to The Russian Club, at which the boys knew the bouncer and helped us skip the line. Drum and bass blared over the packed dance floor. Everyone in the club was wearing tracksuits and hoodies. We thought they usually dressed like that and wear kind of nervous. It was intimidating. Until we found out it was only a ´tracksuit party´.

None of us girls were enjoying the club, so we hopped a bus back to our first club. We stopped on the way for a small bottle of vodka to hide in a bag.

By the time we got back the place had emptied out. Plus they took our vodka away. So we left, picked up our booze at the door and walked in the direction of home. Still we were singing every song we could think of that was loud and fun. We bought Kebabs and sat next to some guys outside a club to eat. The bouncers tried to move us on but we stayed and chatted. The group worked at a bar down the road and had just gotten off duty.

We found an empty laundromat.

Back in the house kitchen we chatted away and ended up in fits of laughter until early in the morning.

Friday 10-10 - Babysitting

2008-10-13T23:04:00.005+08:00

Karen had meetings to go to. My job was to come with and babysit. My got to the first meeting early. We got into the lobby of the huge building and signed in for guest passes. Up to the top floor where Aiden and I waited on the luxury couch. I played with Aiden and read him a book while waiting for his mum to finish with her meeting. I tried to make sure he tried drool too much on their couch.

Next stop is running across town to the next meeting. We carried the stroller up and down and up the tube stairs. This smaller building had a garden in front, so I stayed outside with Aiden to let him sleep for a while. We watched people rushing in and out of the building.

The meetings were finished so I bid farewell to mother and baby. I strolled down to Portabello road. I had lunch at a trendy corner pub. There was a Moroccan chicken on crisp bread with home made crisps.

Then I walked down the Portabello road markets. I like walking through each section of the market. First the antiques and then the food and the second hand clothes. I looked around but didn´t find anything I felt like buying. Sometimes it´s just nice to wander. I did stop into the Hummingbird bakery to pick up vanilla cupcakes.

I tubed to Dani. As I got near the door I got message asking me bring something good to eat or drink. Good thing I had those cupcakes. We hung out with cupcakes and cartoons. Dani had to get up early for work, so it wasn´t a big night.

Thursday 9-10

2008-10-10T03:20:00.009+08:00

The day of the fast. Usually I try sleep in as much as possible if I´m fasting. Except this year I was up at 7-30. Way too early. I went with Karen to run some errands. They helped to take my mind off the not eating or drinking.

Then to the British Museum. There was an exhibition called Statuephilia. 5 pieces of contemporary art were placed in amongst the exhibitions of ancient civilizations. We picked up a map, leading us on a kind of treasure hunt to find them.

The first piece was in the foyer. It was a scaled down version of the Guardian of the North:

Next was a Damien Hurst piece in the enlightenment room. It was cases and cases full of skulls with messy pain all over them. Dozens and dozens of colourful plastic skulls. Not too impressive.

Next was an enormous and life like head. It sat in front of a large stone Statue which also had a large head. It was like a huge death mask. In the Egyptian section was me favourite. It called Dark Stuff. The profiles of the two artists heads on spikes were created on the walls by shadow puppets. Shadow puppets made from mummified animal corpses. Everything was there, from the bones of a bird to the half rotted body of a dog. I just can´t work out about they did it.

The gold statue of Kate Moss doing yoga was also interesting. I wondered where the artist got so much gold.

In the afternoon we went to the park. Dani joined us for the rest of the day.

Evening: at last time to break the fast. Karen made us dinner. There was a roll, spinach and ricotta ravioli and then awesome awesome summer fruits trifle. We were full and content. No more fasting for another year.

wednesday 8-10 - Park life

2008-10-10T03:19:00.008+08:00

I met up with Karen at Patisserie Valerie for lunch. We both wanted Caesar salad. I wanted mine without bacon and Karen anted hers without dressing. Instead they brought a salad with neither and a salad with both bacon and dressing. Aiden hadn´t been sleeping well for days. So after lunch I took him out to the park for a while.

I realised I had never had time alone with him before. Sure I had entertained him while people were in the other room. But I had never been in a place with just me and him. I wanted to spend as much time with him as possible. I just thought about all the time I wouldn´t have with him when I would go back to Perth. All the things I would miss, like his first words or seeing him crawl or walk. He´s only my cousin. But I want to hug him. I want to spoil him with toys and treats. I want to be a part of his life. I hate the thought that I come back to London in a few years and he doesn´t remember me. I hope that of all the time I spend with him, at least some of it will stick.

We sat in the park blowing bubbles and then read a book. It was great.

I walked down to H & M to get get new socks. I managed to finish great socks. When I got a call from the family back in Perth I remembered. It was the start of Yom Kippur that night. The 25 hour fast for purity of the soul and all that stuff. On the way home I picked up Itsu salad and their amazing frozen yogurt. I ate and officially started my fast, then fed Aiden.

Tuesday 7-10 - Snowmen in London

2008-10-10T03:18:00.008+08:00

I hung around for a time before meeting Dani for lunch. She was having lunch with uni friends. I met up to grab food and to grab keys to get into her place. Then moved my bag of clothes back to Karens, now that the rest of family were gone.

This was the night that Snowman, a Perth band, were playing. They were all in London and were finally having a gig. I was very excited to see them play after so many months.

Our first stop was a party held by Dani's uni course. It was full of design students, free food and an open bar. I got through a whole bunch of free cider and then the food was looking more and more tasty. Olives, chips, samosas, spring rolls, falafel, corn chips and calamari. So much tasty food. We chatted to all the students before heading out.

I was still buzzed and hungry. I found myself at a Japanese fast food place buying chicken onigiri. At the 100 club we waited for the doors to open and met up with our Perth Friends Mara and Gemma, then Simon who I hadn't seen since Perth. We had all pre-booked tickets, just to make sure that we all got in. The place was packed.

The first band reminded me a heavier version of Explosions in the Sky. The sound system was overbearing, leaving a ringing in my ears. I chatted to the Perth crew. I also drank a lot more beer.

Next up were Snowman. They played new songs, I didn't recognise any of them. it didn't matter though, they were style very good fun. Those guys really know how to rock out. They were followed by the headliners, Pivot. They were also from Australia but I hadn't heard their stuff before. They were good, but I was exhausted from the beer and cider. I was glad when they finished playing. I bid farewell to everyone as Dani walked we back to the flat.

Monday 6-10 - park, haircut

2008-10-10T03:06:00.011+08:00

I met up with Karen and Aiden at baby orchestra at St Lukes church. All the mothers were singing and the kids were running, smashing into walls. The teacher had an a very animated voice. We walked down to meet Karen´s friend and her bub. Then went to a parl that had its own deer farm.

Lunch was with the 2 mums and 2 bubs at some trendy cafe. Salmon in pastry with a huge salad filled plate.

Later on I decided it was time for a haircut. I had been needing a trim for at least a month and my hair was in a horrible state. Half the length was split, breaking. We passed the hairdresser on Lamb conduit, but it was empty. I called on the mobile and got a 5 oclock spot.

In the meantime we took the babe up to Brunswick centre. I wondered around the shops and came apon a pair of Amazing boots. Neon pink wellington style boots at a kids shoe shop. It was fine though, half of my shoes come from kids stores. They fit perfectly and were half price. Yay!!

At the hairdresser I sat down in front of woman with a most spectacular red afro. I told her I wanted a fringe and a lot taken off. Terrified, I watched 30cm pieces of hair falling to the floor. The end of cut came as I looked in the mirror. She had done it so well, I couldn't stop smiling.

I wanted to go out with my brand new hair cut, but no one was around who wanted to do anything. So I stayed to give Aiden his night feed.

Sunday 5-10 - the stall

2008-10-09T21:28:00.005+08:00

This was the day of the very first More tea, vicar? A monthly afternoon event organised by our cousin Sarah. Free admission to a gig with vintage clothes stalls, board games and most importantly, a cupcake stall. Sarah had invited Dani to sell her baked goods and Dani had happily accepted.

The night before we had done the baking. The count was 56 cupcakes.

A quarter in vanilla with amazing red icing and heart candy
A quarter in chocolate with white milk bottle lollies
Half in peanut butter with choc coated peanuts on top

Everything looked amazing, ready in white boxes. The only problem was the rain. Of all the days for a downpour, this was the worst. We covered the boxes in garbage bags, making then almost impossible to carry with umbrellas. We tried bag combinations for a while before finding a large bag to put them all in. Iced baked goods must be one of the most awkward items to carry. The boxes can't tounch the top or side of each cupcake and must be kept carefully upright to stop sliding. Also, 56 cupcakes start to get heavy after a while.

We got to the tube station to find, once again in our hour of need, that the station was out of order for the day. Grrr. So in the rain we dragged our bags over to the bus stop and rode it to our intended tube change over. Then we caught the tube up to Balham. Outside we found even more rain. Against the wind we walked until we found the hotel.

The event was in a room at the back of a busy pub. But what a room! A huge round space that went up 2 stories and had a roof like a circus tent. The first floor had arches. The second floor had railings interspaced with some kind of family crests. On one side was the stage. Every surface was speckled by blue light from an enormous disco ball.

The stall was set up with purple paper and lollies.

Dani's cupcakes sold really well. The vanilla were the first to go.

The peanut butter were the last to go, mostly because there were so many of them.

The bands were all amazing. First was the Fancy Toys. A British guy and a French guy.

Then a 13 girl played 2 songs. She had more talent and charisma than most women. The room was silent while she played, attention only on her. Next was the Jackboots, who I thing will be huge.

The host Anthony Moore started and finished the music. He started with guitar and moved to keyboard. He said that he played guitar in the band (Cutting Crew) that played Died in Your Arms Tonight. Then he played the song on keyboard. Except that apparently he plays it and tells his story every single time he plays a gig. He just has to keep reminding everyone.

After the gig had finished we chatted to some of the musicians for a while before heading back. The rain had cleared. Dinner was instant noodles, to which we added oven veggies. We ended the night watching Secretary and drinking wine with the girls in the flat.

Saturday 4-10 - Milton keynes

2008-10-09T16:30:00.013+08:00

Dad left in the morning. Dani was at work, but the rest of us waved to him from the window. I had two jobs for the day. First I was to go up to Cranfield with Josh to help set up. Next I was to help Dani bake cupcakes for her stall the following day. I had slept at Karen's, so the only shoes I had on me were my new heeled boots. Not the best shoes for carrying moving boxes back and forward.

A driver and black mini-van arrived to pick up 1 bag, 4 boxes and 2 people. He was a nice, chatty guy. He even offered us lollies. It must have been a long trip, but I didn't notice the time pass. Before I knew it we were outside Josh's residence. It was a nice new building with huge windows. Time to move in.

We dragged the boxes through the lift to the room, all the while with my toitering on dangerous heels. The room was surprisingly large. It even had an ensuite. We unpacked the books onto shelves and then took a taxi to Milton Keynes.

A note on Milton Keynes (from the ol' wiki). Milton Keynes is the closest town to the university. One of the first post-war 'planned towns', from 1967. It has that 'perfect small town' feel about it. It has a shopping centre, a train station and an indoor ski hill. It is kinda of boring. But replace kind of with very. Everytime we tell people that Josh will be there, they say 'oh god, I'm so sorry'.

The colossus of a shopping centre is basically the centre point of the town. I think half the population of MK was in that building. Within it is every shop known to man. All we needed was home wares. Bring lunch time, we looked to a food court. Finding food there was more difficult than it should be in a huge mall. we ended up at Giraffe. I had grilled chicken, spicy prawn and mango salad.

Josh needed bed sheets, bed cover and towels. So we hit up the big homewares stores. Part of my job also included colour coordinating the sheets and towels, since Josh has problems with reds. There were some other things on the list but we were already exhausted. He could always come back another day for the rest.

The taxi dropped me off at the train station. A few hours later I was back at Dani. Dinner was awesome soup and yummy bread rolls. It was exactly what I needed.

We made cupcakes all night, while watching cartoons off the internets and drinking wine. My favourite cupcakes were the vanilla icing batch, with red icing and topped with love heart candy.

Friday 3-10 - big lunch, farewells

2008-10-09T00:35:00.007+08:00

Everyone went to the classy Chinese restaurant Shanghai Blues. The grandparents and Mum were set to leave for the airport that afternoon. This was a fair well lunch.

First we waited for Josh to train back from Cranfield. He had gone up to Cranfield the morning before to register. He has had spent the night there to partake in the meet and greet party that night. We were all anxious to see how his first night there had been. He later told us it had gone well and that the other students were really great people.

The restaurant was quite smart for a Chinese restaurant. We squeezed 8 people and a pram into the corner of the room. Everyone was getting the special lobster lunch menu. It entailed a dim sum starter and then lobster with rice or noodles. The dim sum were really great. Some were seafood and some were vegetable.

Next we had crispy peking duck for the table. In truth this might have been my favourite bit of the meal. An entire duck's worth of meat cut onto a tray. Then all the usual wraps and vegetables and sauces in D-I-Y fashion. Even after the bread and sauce was gone, we were all still diving for the last bits of duck with our chopsticks.

The main course, the lobster. He came cut up on a bed of noodles. Escept for his head, which sat on the front of the plate, staring at me. It's a good thing I'm not the type to be put off by animal heads. We all dug into the head and claws and tail unto all the treasure inside was gone.

By that time I was very full. It was also time for the travellers to collect their things and be on their way. There was a teary goodbye outside the restaurant as we parted ways with our Grandparents. It wasn't as bad for me as for the other two, I would see them again in just under 2 months. The rest of us walked slowly back to Karen's flat.

Then the second round of goodbyes. Mum left for the airport and we waved from the window until she disappeared from sight. Now it was Dad, Karen and three of us.

Josh needed warm jackets for the freezing Cranfield winter, so we went with Dad to my favourite addiction (H and M). We tried the near by store and were successful, but there was a jacket we had to pick up from the other store. So off we went. On the way we stopped at a candy store so Dani could get supplies for her cupcakes. Then to a dvd store to splurge on cheap dvds. We browsed dvds for the longest time, easily distracted. By the time got to the other store and bought the jacket it was dark.

We had originally planned to go to dinner with him, but after that huge lunch no one wanted to eat. So we got take out and watched 2 days in Paris. I hadn't heard of it, but Dani recommend it so I thought, why not. I enjoyed it a lot, kind of funny French humour.

It was a much nicer, much more chilled way to spend the night with Dad.

Thursday 2-10 - Bags and Billy

2008-10-08T18:12:00.006+08:00

Mum and the Grandparents were set to leave on Friday. Gran and grandad wanted to give me my birthday present before they left for home. So the granparents, mum, Karen and I went to Neil street to find a bag. I had wanted a handbag that didn't have cartoons on it, like every other bag I own. Something nice. Off we went.

Gran and I walked around everywhere but just couldn't find anything I liked. All the bags looked the same. Just not my thing.

We got a call from Mum saying that they had lost Grandad. They were retracing all their steps, but could not find him anywhere. We kept looking for bags. The time passed and we were about to give up. Plus Gran was starting to get worried about granddad. So we found our way back to Neil Street. I tried the only shop on the street we hadn't tried yet and there I found it. A giant clasp bag with holographic Japanese prints.

Ok, so maybe not the most adult bag, but I still liked it. We got back to the flat to find Grandad waiting outside. We were all relieved.

The last night with the Grandparents. We went with them to see Billy Eliot: the musical. It was an interesting piece. The emphasis was on the mining strikes as much as it was on the dancing. Interesting also because I had never seen the film. The songs were good as was the dancing.

In the intermission we had mini ice creams. They weren't that good. The second half had the professional dancer who played adult Billy. He was incredible. There were really sad parts in the show that made me kinda teary but also happy parts to balance them out. Its not the type of musical I would have picked, but I don't regret going. I also got to spend time with the grandparents. It was a nice night.

Wednesday 1-10 - Second day

2008-10-08T17:47:00.003+08:00

I slept at Dani's house and we made our way over to Russel Square station. Everyone was supposed to meet there so we could go together to our cousins for New year lunch. We set off much later than planned, mostly because organising 7 disorganised people can be hard when no one is actually in charge. Then we had to catch the right train. We could only take 2 of a possible 6 trains, but our 2 never turned up. So we caught another train to the point they forked out. Keeping everyone together was chaos.

The cousins lived quite a few zones out. On Dani's advice I had brought a book. I started Anthropologist on Mars, which was neither about anthropologists or Mars. It was one of these books about bizarre neurological conditions. I read through the trip.

Soon enough we were out of one train and soon onto another. From there we walked around for a while trying to find a taxi. When that failed we walked. I was reminded of the times in Europe when Josh and I ended up lost and confused. Except that now we also had the entire family, parents, grandparents and all. We got to the house more than an hour late.

Once inside we all relaxed and chatted away. I love their adorable dog who happens to be blind. I felt bad that I laughed every time he walked into a door or a wall. Then again, it was pretty funny.

We sat down at the first authentic Jewish table I had seen in months. It was like being back at home. Blessings over wine and challah. I thought it was interesting that we each had a choice of a small cup of wine or peach schnapps. Then chopped liver and egg salad. Than yummy lentil pie, stew and chicken. Dessert was ice cream, jelly and other assorted goodies.

I was chock full by the end of it. We all chatted and laughed and bid farewell. We all walked slowly back to the station, still in conversation. The train back was much easier, since all the trains went to the same place.

Only the grandparents, Dad, Josh and I wanted dinner that night. So we popped round to the local Italian. I was still so full, Josh and I shared lasagna. It was enough.

Tuesday 30-09 - First day

2008-10-05T17:00:00.004+08:00

First day/ second night of Jewish new year. I was told to at the flat by 10-30. So after Dani left for her first day at uni I got got dressed and made my way over, only to find everyone else asleep. Almost all the others had overslept and were hurriedly getting dressed. We got to shule later that expected.

The guy at the door asked my age as he gestured me towards the high school kids seats. Then looked suitably embarrassed when I told him how old I actually was.

It was a nice service. The rabbi´s speech was bit preachy but not too bad. The congregation was then squashed into the entry hall, trying to stay out of the torrential rain. We could only wait for so long before making a run for it. What a fine day for everyone to forget their umbrellas.

We ate Itsu salads for lunch. I had wanted their amazing teriaki chicken noodle soup, but it was the height of lunch hour and they were sold out. We headed back to the flat and relaxed. The rest of the evening was quiet, spent at Dani's.

Monday 29-09 - First night

2008-10-03T16:51:00.004+08:00

Went over to Karens. Tonight would be first night of Rosh Hashannah, the Jewish new year. I had left most of my good clothes at Karen´s, but still brought some bits and pieces with me. At the flat every thing was already arranged. The living room had been transformed into a space that would hold 20 people comfortably.

There was still some cooking to do but nothing for anyone to stress about. Josh and I had the job of fetching the last food from the shops and picking up the preordered fruit tart. First I had to charm the chicken guys to cut our chooks into 8 pieces, instead of the usual 4. The grumpy older lady who served me the first 2 chooks wouldn´t budge. When she popped out the nice young guy diced our last chook up extra tiny.

We picked up fresh salad ingredients and then to the amazing tart. It looked even better than its online picture (found at http://www.patisserie-valerie.co.uk/)

In the evening we went to shule. We took Karen´s friend´s child with us. He had never been before and we were happy to look after him. All dressed up for the high holiday we got to the tube station. Right in the middle of rush hour. We threw ourselves into the living human mass that is rush hour tube traffic. Slowly, slowly we moved.

Finally through the underground and a short walk later we found the synagogue. It was sadly empty, but beautiful. Like an old church it was decorated. The pillars and the ceilings and the stained glass windows were all intricate, made with care. The arc at the front was topped with an enormous structure not unlike a mini Taj Majal. This place felt like it had real history. A sense of presence. We stayed for a short evening service.

By the time e got back to the flat all the other guests had arrived. Lots people drinking wine and chatting away. It as nice to see many of them again, especially my cousins. We went through the chicken and salad I had fetched early that day. What I couldn´t wait for was the dessert. The fruit tart was worth the wait. So amazing. The Cupcakes,now with their honey icing, were just as good.

Everyone left feeling full and happy. Dani and I bid farewell to the rest of the family and went home.

Sunday 28-09 - Making cupcakes

2008-10-01T18:08:00.004+08:00

Slightly hung over.

We started baking cupcakes.

Well, Dani did the baking. I was the sue chef. I did the apple cutting and flour sifting.

The first batch was just vanilla. They were flight and fluffy. Perfect.

The second batch was for Rosh Hashannah. She decided to use the apple and honey theme of the festival. So the cupcakes were spiced with apple pieces in the base. The icing was honey butter cream. So good.

We slowly made our way to the flat, were we spent the rest of the day and the night.

Saturday 27-09 - Night out

2008-09-30T22:51:00.007+08:00

I woke up still overstuffed and drunk from dinner. We slowly got dressed.

We went to Brunswick mall to find our Grrandparents. They were planning to see a movie there. There was no success in phone them so we assumed they had already gone in. We decided to wait for them with a light soup at the amazing Japanese place The Hare and Tortoise. We walked in the door to see the grandparents, eating laksa. They just hadn´t heard the phones. We all got a big table and ate big bowls of soup.

The afternoon was spent in the park, blowing bubbles to Aiden. We sat amongst the crowds of people. Strange,there weren´t usually so many people around. Also, not usually so many hippies doing yoga and meditation. Turns out down the street was a annual festival of life. The street was full of veggie powered cars and organic coconut drinks. We walked around, watching the festival goers. Then to the local pub to poison our bodies with cider and wine. Karen, Dani, Josh,Aiden and I sat in a tiny walled beer garden. We looked for the sun behind the walls. With it the garden was cold,so we went to meet the others at the grandparents´ hotel. There we had some more drinks.

That evening Dani and I went to afterskool club. It was full of young hip things dancing away. We were going there to meet at least a dozen Perth originated people. We took over a chunk of the dance floor with our silly Perth dancing and good times. I had my second ever snake bite (larger, cider, red cordial), but my first snakebite in London. Dani kept telling me stories about the lethal Afterskool snakebites and now I finally got a chance to try one. It wad a good night.

Friday 26-09 - la gavroche

2008-09-30T22:02:00.010+08:00

My father having had just arrived, we walked to the park to have a nice brekkie outside. It was Russel Street park. Dani and Josh and I all had fried egg sammichs. Except that I had baguette, Dani had bap and Josh had toasted bread. We sat, the whole family outside. The weather was gorgeous.

After breakfast we split up. Gran and Grandad and I went to Knightsbridge to shop. I wanted to pick up some things. We started at ...nicks. It was more upmarket than I was comfortable with, so we looked around for only a little while. Grandad got tired of waiting for us so he went on ahead to Harrods. We got to the street and walked until I saw a shop I was very comfortable with. H and M. That place is dangerous for me, I keep seeing things I want to buy. We spent a while there.

I soon discovered it is also dangerous to shop with my gran. She is the adorable devil sitting on your shoulder saying 'just buy it'. She got me to try on things I never would have looked at otherwise. But some very nices choice. I had stopped in only looking for a jacket. I ended up buying a navy jacket, stockings, an argile V-neck, a white cardie and a grey dress.

Next stop was Harrods. We had fun looking at the ridiculous extravagance we found in that store. Thousand dollar cardies that weren't even that nice. Awefully tacky shoes. Disgusting shower fittings. It was all in good fun. It was nice to spend time with Gran. We didn't often get a chance to hang out just the two of us.

We headed back and had a light lunch. We really didn't want to fill ourselves up. For tonight was a night we had been looking forward to for a long time. For joint fathers and grandfathers birthdays we were all booked into La Gavroche. A restaurant with 2 michilan stars, owned by none other than Michelle Rue Jr. So exciting.

We got dressed up in our finest. I wore an amazing black dress I had bought before, plus the grey stockings and boots I had recently acquired.

In our shiny best we had some champagne and cake. We toasted to the birthday boys and drank champs. We didn't cut the cake.

We stood for an eternity on High Holborn waiting for a taxi. There just weren't any free taxis, being a friday night. Eventually we found two and made our way. From the moment we walked through the door I could feel the atmosphere. La Gavroche means street urchin, with a big drawing of an urchin boy by the front desk. They took our coats and lead us with sincere smiles down the ornate stairs.

The room was large and dark and full of tables. The wait staff were dressed up down to every last detail. Actually, everything was perfected down to the last detail. Metal centre pieces of different animals (ours was a lobster). The handles of the cutlery were in the shape of the urchin boy. Above us chandeliers swayed.

We were served apertisers with duck and some sort of pastry. We drank champs.

We got up to go to the bathroom. We were led to the door and when I got back my serviette had been refolded and waiting for me. After searching the amazing menu we all decided on the degustation. Each course had a wine served with it. I would have to be very careful not to drink too much. I didn´t want to be that person who passed out and missed the amazing food. But there was so much booze! At any one time we each had 3 to 4 different glasses of wine in front of us. It was a sea of glass.

Food highlights:

The first plate was seafood in a boat of some like of lettuce. With this most incredible sauce dabbed around it. I really liked that one.

The second was cheese soufflé. It was like air. I´ve never tasted anything quite like it before. It it disappeared in your mouth.

The meat was a duck thing is pastry and a braised beef with parsnip mash. Incredible. It was served to each person under a big round silver cover. Then all were lift at the exact same moment.

Cheese course was choices from a huge cart of cheese. Then a truffle with so much chocolate it could cause a blackhole.

We taxied back to the flat and then Dani and I were sent back to hers in the taxi. It was so much better then taking the tube or bus. We rolled in the door and collapsed into bed.

Thursday 25-09 - perth times

2008-09-30T21:49:00.009+08:00

Shoe shoppig at Neil Street. I needed some, and rather really wanted, some new boots. All my past boots had been flats or big chunky platforms. I wanted something sleek. I wanted something sexy and modern. All the girls minus Dani went to Neil Street near seven dials. I started off at Mr Shoes, the place I found my wellies.

My feet are inpracticaly tiny. Finding shoes to fit becomes so much of a chore I usually end up at a kids shoe store. This shop has so many shoes in my size. I found some potential shoes and settles on the most perfect pair of boots. The most perfect pair of boots I have ever owned. Tall heels, but not too tall. Thin points, but not too thin. Pointy toes, but not too pointy. A sleek black leather looking finish and a good price. So much love.

Lunch was at Itsu again, where I was introduced to their awesome chicken teriaki noodle soups. We ate their until mum wasn't feeling too good. She left early and I left doon after to see if she was ok. Back at the flat mum went to sleep off the sick feeling. We hung out.

In the evcening we headed off to see the Perth band The Bank Holidays. They had come to London to tour. We were lucky enough to be able to see them. I was so excited. I hadn't seen them play in such a long time.

We got to the bar and it could have been any Perth pub, except that we new less people. We had some cider as we watched the opening act. The front woman was incredibly charismatic with a spectacular voice. She had great short black hair that made me want to cut my hair short again.

Slowly more and people I know showed up. Lots of people I knew from Perth who all happened to be in London. We were all drawn together by the adorable pop of the Bank Holidays.

They played an excellent set. All the old favourites we had come to know. I sang along to myself. Of course I knew all the words. I felt excited and giddy like a teenage girl who just spotted her favourite popstar walking down the street. They danced around the stage. I just hoped that the Londoners would grow to love them as much as we did. The final song (Greatest game, my favourite) had Dani and I singing along out loud.

Aftet the set the now enormous Perth crowd sat outside in the chill. We caught up and shared our plans for the near future. Everyone started to get tired of the cold, so we all headed together to the tube station home.

Wednesday 24-09 - bday 1

2008-09-25T15:56:00.007+08:00

Today was our Grandad´s birthday. So the day started with a setting up birthday cards and waiting for the birthday boy to join us. We all met up and started the walk to the Tate modern. The sky threatened to rain, but only threatened. It was cold today.

I love the Tate modern. It has such wonderful things to see and do. Plus an amazing bookshop. The walk was long enough that some of our party was getting sore legs. We all decided to break for lunch before walking around. We went to the upstairs restaurant and got in the half hour wait for a table. While we waiting we had wine with olives and nuts. Not a good idea for me to start drinking so early in the day. But oh well.

Lunch was nice, with the same pesto and pumpkins and pinenut penne I had the last time. We fed Aiden, whom we were babysitting at the museum. We put him down to sleep. By the end of lunch I could feel the alcohol.

We walked around the Surrealist section. I lost track of everyone but found an abstract expressionism exhibit focused on this Australian painter (have forgotten the name). I think he perfectly captured the feel of the Australian Landscape.

We didn´t stay too long, but first popped into the bookshop. No visit to the Tate is complete without a visit to the bookshop. I love the design books and the photography books and the illustrations. I kept Aiden busy by running his stroller up and down the hill of the enormous turbine hall. I was exhausted afterwards. But mostly sober.

We put the GPs on a bus back to tho hotel and then we walked. Back at Karens there was a visitor from the flat above.

Grandad´s Bday dinner. We got to the Japanese style restaurant we had planned to eat at only to find a queue far into the street. So we walked in the direction of the flat. Everywhere was full on this bustling Wednesday night. There was a Thai place no one had tried yet with room, so that where we went. I´m glad we did, the food was great. After all the wine at lunch I decided to stick to water. Everyone else thought I was mad, but I didn´t care. The high light was the banana fritter and ice cream dessert.

I slept at Dani´s house.

Tuesday 23-09 - movie day

2008-09-25T15:55:00.003+08:00

First, to Bethnal Green to have breakfast with the granparents in Dani´s area. We took the Granparents to our favourite fry up place. The servings are huge and cheap, the food is good. I had omelette with vegetables. It came with the sides of salad and the most chips you have ever seen in your life. We all enjoyed our enormous meals.

Everyone bussed to Brunswick to meet Mum, Karen and Aiden. There we saw a Turkish coming of age film called Winds and Times, I think. It was 2 hours of the most beautiful shots ever taken with a camera. Lots of long spaces without any speaking and slow music. Kids sleeping on rocks and walking through crooked streets. Any real storyline was more of an after thought. I enjoyed it though. I don´t know how much everyone else did.

After the movie we went back to Karen´s to have some dinner and hang out. Then it was off toanother film at a different cinema. Dani was meeting her friend Novak there. We were all going to see Hellboy 2. It was a very different sort of movie. From the word go there was, action, action, action. Cars exploded. Buildings exploded. Complicated plots to follow while crazy special effects flashed infront of the screen.

It as also Guillermo Del Toro, whom I love. He did one of my favourite films, Pans Labyrinth. Many of the crazy creatures in the film could have easily come from Pans. Slightly creepy but amazing at the same time. I can´t remember the last time I saw so many movies on the same day.

Monday 22-09 - Golder´s Green

2008-09-23T15:29:00.007+08:00

Today we went with the grandparents to Golder´s Green. Golder´s Green was the home of the Jewish communities in London and is still home to much of religious Jewry. As soon as you step out you see kosher restaurants and people dressed modestly (more so than everyone else in the now cold weather). The whole area is slightly scary and sad. It is the place you picture when someone mentions a dreary London winter.

Josh and Mum had gone down there earlier in the week to buy supplies for the festivals, but had left some important things in a shop. The grandparents also wanted a good old fashioned London Jewish saltbeef on rye. So down we all tubed. First we sat for lunch at a well known kosher restaurant, Blooms. The first thing I noticed was the walls. Murals with torah stories painted everywhere. I was a little more scared. Eek.

I ordered the chicken shnitzel with latka. The latka was almost the size of my head. The chicken was three times bigger. For their gargantuan size, though, they were good. A huge lakta can never go wrong. So much food. I was disgustingly full.

Then we moved to the store of Jewish paraphernalia to pick up our things. We walked back to the tube as the rain started to drip drop. It threatened but never followed through, which was lucky. We picked up round challah and chicken liver.Already it was feeling like Rosh Hashannah.

It was late afternoon when we reached the flat. We arrived to the delicious smell coming from the kitchen. Karen was making a stew. I couldn´t wait. The grandparents went to recharge at the hotel, then came over for dinner. The stew was good.

Everyone wanted dessert. So out Dani and I went to buy before the shops closed. We got dark chocolate and kitkats, then a summer fruits trifle. The trifle was amazing. Cream and custard and cake and summer fruits in sauce. Exactly what we all felt like.

Sunday 21-09 - crazy day, again

2008-09-22T00:48:00.010+08:00

The morning started out so nicely. Mum, Karen, Aiden and I went to Summerset house for coffee. We sat in the sun and read the paper. We also took a look at the cyclists. Today was a once a year event. Many of the main roads in London were closed off, with huge crowds cycling around. It was bike day in London, everyone seemed to be having such a great take just biking around.

We got a phone call from Grandad. There had been a fall at the Holbourn tube station. We couldn´t believe it. It seemed impossible. Months ago my Bobba tripped while in London and needed a hip replacement. We were still all recovering from it. Now my other gran had done the same thing. Like a dream.

We packed up and walked quickly to the station where she was waiting at the station master´s office. We heard an ambulance coming from behind us and driving past. The last thing we needed was for gran to disappear in an ambulance before we got there. Then we saw Dani whose was walking to meet us at Summerset house. She was cheerily strolling towards us with her headphones on. She hadn´t heard her phone ringing. I ran and got her attention.

¨Dani! gran fell at the station. We have to get there before the ambulance¨.

She was very confused as I pulled her along. We ran up to the station as the ambulance stopped and made our way into the office. Gran was sitting there. She had tripped on the escalator. Luckily there were only superficial cuts and no serious damage. She was only a little shaken up.

The paramedics led her to the ambulance to take a better look at her. They tested her blood pressure which was a little high but to be expected. They wanted to take her to hospital to proper tend to the wounds and make sure they didn´t get infected. Eventually we convinced her to go to the minor injury department. Grandad and mum went with her.

Karen and the three of us didn´t really know what to do with ourselves. We had some sushi and walked around for a bit. We got a call that there was no hold up at the hospital and they were on their way back. So we waited in a park until then and met them at Pizza Express. Having had already eaten, I shared a pizza with Josh. We dropped the grandparents off at their hotel.

We walked slowly back to the flat. Bikes were riding everywhere. A pack of young kids rode past us, fast and noisy. They were riding all over the place. One of them called ¨they coming!¨. The kids dropped the bikes where they were and scattered in all directions. The bikes lay all over the place, wheels still spinning. They were all gone except for a young girl in a white dress, who looked about 10 years old. She quickly sat at an outdoor table of a nearby cafe. She picked up a mug left on the table. Mum fetched the one bike off the rode so it didn´t get crushed. A minute or so later a police car slowly turned the bend. It was clear that these bikes did not belong to the kids.

Karen called across the street to the little girl in the white dress.

¨Whose bikes are these¨

She replied ¨I don´t know, I´m just sitting here drinking my coffee¨

¨I don´t think so¨

She looked at us, dropped the mug and sprinted down the street.

Another worried boy came along to fetch one of the bikes. The other bike we left with the coffee shop.

What an interesting day.

In the evening we took the grandparents out to a pub for beer and nachos. We chatted about our travels and about their travels.

Saturday 20-09 - burlesque

2008-09-22T00:47:00.031+08:00

We walked over to the hotel where the Grandparents were staying. Then we all made our way to Brunswick centre to Carluccios. It is traditional in our family to have breakfast at Carluccios when anyone first arrives in London. So we did. I had scrambled eggs on toast with mushrooms and tomato. We all fawned over Aiden.

Just outside the restaurant was a Saturday morning food market. The stalls were incredible. We were all sorry we had just filled our stomachs. Pastry stalls and cheeses and roasts and olives and cupcakes. Fresh pasta and pesto. All this good food, so fresh. So we decided to have a lunch picnic. We got some of the cheese and bread and pastries and coucous salad and Greek salad and olives. We strolled over to Coram´s fields and set up lunch. The weather was gorgeous again. we ate, then I lay in the sun and slept.

Mum and the three of us parted ways with the rest to get ready for the afternoon. We had booked tickets to Afternoon tease. An afternoon of high tea with burlesque. It was a chance to spend some quality time with our mum. Every dressed up in nice dresses and shoes and jewelery. We got to Vouluptre dressed in our finest. It was too early to sit so we had cocktails at the bar. I had a huge mojito. We were soon led down to our table. The lower level was dimly lit with old fashioned wallpaper and posters. Each table had candles and lovely table settings.

We were sat down at the table. Women in skimpy maid outfits poured us champagne and plates of finger sammiches. Later we were served cakes and tea. Then huge scones with clotted creme and jam. We were stuffed by the end. I was almost drunk.

The first act. Big, blonde and beautiful. The girl had a skimpy outfit and a pink apron. And a wooden spoon. She danced around and did the full tease dance. Complete with spoon self spankings. She was great. Also, her facial expressions were priceless. She stripped down to tassels.

The gateaux vivants. A pair of girls who did the traditional tableau vivant acts - freeze frame poses. They only ever wore underwear and fishnets. They half covered themselves with different props. The first lot were mixing bowls as they posed eating the raw dough.

the second act. A ukelale cabaret. She sung a song from the jungle book, then a French song and then Petula Clark´s Downtown. Her voice was amazing, but it wasn´t really the show I was expecting. It was more of a cabaret show than a burlesque show. It was still fun though.

More vivants with food related poses.

the third act. Kitten Von Strumpet and her ice cream for sale. She was a 50s style ice cream seller with a tray around her neck and thick retro glasses. She flipped discount signs (10% of,20% off, every thing must go) and stripped. She was sweet. We were at the front table so she gave us an ice cone bubble blower.

The final vivants. The best vivant. They covered themselves with iced cupcakes. Then broke the freeze frame rule as they stuffed the cupcakes into their mouths. Then stuffed the cupcakes into each other´s mouths. It was hilarious.

the fourth act. Marrianne Cheesecake and her fan dance. She wasn´t quite as curvy as the other girls. Not a very burlesque like figure. But her dancing was good. Red sequined g-string with bra and corset, red suspenders and heels. Giant feathers in her hair. Two huge feathered fans. She kicked her legs and flicked her fans. She slowly removed more and more clothes until there was only underwear. The fans kept the rest of her hidden until the last moment when she threw them up to reveal her sequined red tassels.

We were exhausted in the evenign and didn´t do much. We hung out with the grandparents.

Friday 19-09 - itlapd

2008-09-20T20:04:00.007+08:00

Yarr..

Ye ol day began with a trip to ye ol furniture stores. We were on the search for plates and glasses for Rosh Hashannah. We scoured the seas for the perfect set which we found sometime in the morning. We put them aside and walked around waiting for Mum and Josh to meet us. The sun was out and the day was gorgeous.

We walked until we found a London Graphics Centre, and they were having a huge sale. Which got me very excited. I got a thick, bound, lack A4 sketch book for a steal. Very happy. Across the road was a pub down up with full pirate decoration. Posters on every window and pirate wait staff.

Josh and mum got back from Golder´s Green. We all met for lunch at a nearby restaurant. It proved difficult. Londoners, being Londoners, pack the streets when the weather is warm. The streets came to life. We found a pasta place with a free outdoor table. I had tasty pasta.

We picked up the plates and took a taxi home. Then to a park to enjoy the brief moments of summer like weather. The park was beautiful and green and full of people. I wore my pirate hat,while Dani and I sat with our new sketch books.

Josh brought his new remote control helicopter.

We all had a go.

Its harder to fly than it looks.

Next was the buying of yarr Captain Morgan for ye pirate punch. It was a very strong punch. While we mixed it up we ate vegie burgers for dinner.

Jason arrived and we started the game. By half way through the film I was feeling sunken under the power of the rum. I remembered how intense the drinking game was. You have to drink constantly through out the entire film.

I also remembered how much I loved that movie. It is definitely one of my favourite 5 movies.

After the movie Maria the housemate came in with her friends from Vienna. We danced with them for a while and drank more. We went up to the roof for a while.

Jason and Dani gave their first ever concert of their band. They played their song for us on ukelalee and glock. They were awesome.

We all talked about going to this carpack-warehouse party. But turns out it was 12 pounds for entry and I didn´t even think the music was going to be that good. At that point all the booze really hit me. I was was basically asleep. I had to excuse myself, as did Dani and Josh. I fell straight asleep.

Thursday 18-09 - darwin

2008-09-18T14:51:00.014+08:00

We made our way to the Natural history museum. Once again, we were probably more excited than Aiden.

We started with breakfast of scones and coffee at the cafe in the museum. While we ate we looked at the snakes and the pandas.

Its strange, watching all these dead things. An entire building full of the dead, waiting to entertain and educate the London population. And also to entertain me. I found them really interesting. Especially some of the stranger animals. I fell in love with the pangolin. Like a scaly ant eater.

We got to the best bit, the dinosaur section. Complete with moving T Rex that roars at you. He´s just so great. Luckily Aiden wasn´t scared.

We went on to the giant room with the blue whale and all the elephants and ungilates. I felt like a happy kid again. We heard there was a lecture about Darwin and evolution at that time. So we sat on some benches and waited for it to start.

The lecture started. It was like a talkshow, about the conserving the Galapagos islands. It was kind of boring. Plus Aiden was restless, so we left half way through.

We walked around the fish for a bit.

Then we looked at the giftshop. There are sooooo many things I wanted to buy. I thought of coming back to uy some things.

For lunch we went to a recommended Polish restaurant down the road. Its food was Polish, but most of it just seemed like Jewish food. That was our roots. It was good to see. I had chicken soup and mushroom golabki (cabbage wrap).

We split up soon after. Dani, josh and I went to a candy store to get snacks.

In the evening we had an appointment to babysit. He was quiet for most of the night, letting us watch Pan´s Labyrinth. I hadn´t seen it since the other time in London years ago. Aiden became agitated later. Dani was the one who managed to get him finally to sleep. We never saw the end of the movie, with the other two arriving home after a little too much champs. First night of babysitting Aiden: Success!

wednesday 17-09 - Getting things done day

2008-09-18T14:50:00.003+08:00

In the morning we had administration duties to attend to. We headed to kinko´s to print, fax, scan and send documents. It took most of the morning. Then we moved over to Dani´s. The plan was to help her move a bunch of things to Karen´s basement. Her things, our things, friends´ things. Our plans were delayed by sitting to watch DVDs in Dani´s living room.

We dragged bags of clothes and boots and assorted bits to the flat basement. I finally moved all my travel goods down and brought up my staying-in-London goods. The backpack was gone and a light sports bag would be my new closet.

Back at the flat we finished the night with a goats cheese salad. Yes, another goats cheese salad. I think we have all become obsessed with them. But at least its a healthy meal. It was a nice night in all.

Tuesday 16-09 - Pharohs, pineapple

2008-09-18T14:49:00.002+08:00

The morning started with baby sitting. The mum went to meet someone and we took the bub out. We walked around for a bit before stopping at a Thai place for lunch. I haven´t had fish cakes in ages so it was really good to taste again. Also green curry and rice. Yum. Aiden was pretty good despite not having slept that night.

We went to the British Museum with Aiden and Karen and Mum. I think we might have enjoyed the place more than Aiden, although he probaly had a good time as well. I hadn´t been there in a while.

We started in the Egyptian section. I pointed out interesting facts when ever I could remember them. It had been months since I was in Egypt and a lot of the names and dates were fading from my mind. I new about distinguishing royal statues and about the only female pharoh.

Something was missing. Icecream was missing. So off we went. At Baskin Robbins I got pineapple upsidedown cake flavour. It was pineapple icecream with pineapple ribbons, sponge cake pieces and glace cherries. God amazing.

After that we took a stroll and headed back to the flat,where we chilled for the rest of the night..

Monday 15-09 - Homeward bound

2008-09-18T04:08:00.006+08:00

Woke up with a hang over and early. Got maybe 2 hours of sleep. The uses were backed up to the point that we had to wait more than an hour. The organisers apologised and did everything they could to fix the problem. They even sprung for taxis to take of us. We were pointed towards a taxi that we shared with 2 girls, still in their PJs and with mascara from the night before. We were all exhausted.

Getting on the train was painless and we got seats in an empty carriage. I let my eyelids shut and before I knew it we were at Waterloo station. We made our way back to Karens. We stayed around the flat, being tired. Our mum made us a nice dinner, before we passed out from tiredness.

Sunday 14-09 - End of the road day 3

2008-09-17T17:18:00.014+08:00

Up late again.

This time breakfast was a fry up of egg, beans, potato and veggie sausage.

We started with Sons of Noel and Adrian. I was heavily impressed. Lots of strings and horns and a choir like sound.

The Wave Pictures were on next. Everyone seemed really obsessed with them. They didn´t thrill me. They were ok I guess but not worth the hype. We left as soon as they were over for the comedy stage.

We got in early and caught the end of the act before Darren Hanlon´s. The crowd got thinner and thinner until there was hardly anyone left. Darren had a small audience, but all the better for us. We got a really intimate performance from him. He told us all stories and sung his old and best songs. Nice and relaxing and full of good memories.

Lunch was a Moorish wrapped pastry with goats cheese and spicy lamb sausage. Excellent.

We found a hidden forest with masks and fairy lights hanging from the trees. I love this festival.

Beyond the forest we found a tiny outdoor dancefloor with 70s music and colourful flashing lights. I really love this festival.

We stopped in for Scandinavian treats and cinnamon buns.

Jeffery Lewis was on next. I didn´t know much of his stuff but he soon won me over with his adorable stage presence. His songs were funny and endearing. So were his comic book detective nior ¨films¨ that he read through on stage. All his stuff was good. Part way through John Darniel from the Mountain Goats ran on to do some guest vocal. I got really excited.

The Mountain Goats were better than I ever could have expected. After Low´s performance my expectations for the main acts was, well, low. So when John Darniel came on stage and broke the A strong before one song I had no idea what to expect. We waited another 5 minutes.

Then they started with one of my favourite songs, Palmcorder Yajna. And it was beautiful. So wonderful. Better than I could have expected. John was so funny and charismatic. He had this incredible smile whenever he wasn´t singing.

He played a couple of the songs I knew and liked from Heretic Pride. And from Sunset Tree he played Dance Music and Tetrapod. He jumped into a reggae style song and the crowd was absolutely silent. We cheered. He said that it was the quietest a crowd had ever been for that song, so to thank us here was a song about child abuse. Then they jumped into This Year. Amazing. I was in a joyful daze.

After the set we wondered down to the cider bus. We had cider with 2 shots of apple brandy in it. A bit too strong maybe. We decided to drink them in a well lit pagoda with half open wooden walls. Who should we find on walking into the same hut but Dani´s friend Sam and some of his mates. We sat next to then and got to talking. Some waves of tiredness washed over me at that point. Or maybe it was the booze, which is weird because it was the first I had all day. Either way the time jumped passed and suddenly we were on our way to see Zombie-Zombie play at the big top. Josh id us goodnight at this point. The band were good. We got to dance a bit to them, although i was still waking up a bit.

After zombie-zombie we weren´t sure what to do with ourselves. We happened to come across Sam again with some of his friends. And standing next to him was none other than Jeffery Lewis. For some reason they had met up with them and they were all hanging. We joined the group. Everyone was pretty drunk by that point. We all wanted to go back to the hidden dance floor with the glowing lights but that whole area was closed off. There were a few members of the group with Artist wrist bands on, so we hatched a drunk and hilarious plan. After practicing we went up to the security guard. We all said in unison ¨I - have - let - my - instrument - on - the - stage¨. It didn´t work like we had wanted and just left the security guard confused as we walked away laughing.

We made our way to a pagoda and tents belonging to some of the guys. They brought out a bottle of brandy and some red wine which got passed around. They also brought out a travel guitar and a melodica which got passed around. They played Bob Dylan. The one guy I was chatting with turned out to be from Sons of Noel and Adrian. We went on like this well into the night. Us, the guys from the bands and Jeffery Lewis. It was at least 5am before I got back to my tent.

Saturday 13-09 - End of the road day 2

2008-09-17T16:35:00.004+08:00

We woke up late. Which is ok because nothing happens in the morning anyway. The night had been really cold. I woke up a few times in the night, shivering. I had two pairs of socks on. I got dressed in my tent and ready for the day. The place was still a field of mud so we continued to live in our wellies.

We wondered around to the festival site. Our breakfast was a brekkie burrito with organic savoury potato, egg and some other greasy carb-y bits. I loved it as a woke up from the night before. The other two seemed to regret the eating of the burritos.

By the entrance of the camp site were two tents: the making tent and the doing tent. The doing tent had some storytelling activities while the making tent had creative stuff. Dani and I painted pictures with the kid safe paints. I painted a sloth while Dani made duck. Then we stuck them on the wall.

We went to get money out of the cash point. Only to find out that it only took British debit cards. Fuck. And according to the info guy that was the only atm for 6 miles. So for now we would have to rely on Dani. We did manage to by a jug of Pimms from the garden bar. The garden bar was the only place that used cards and the pimms had a 10 pound jug deposit that we got back. So we managed to get another 10 from that.

I wanted to see Darren Hanlon play at some point, I hadn´t seen him play for ages. His main show was on at the same time as Jeffery Lewis who I wanted to see. But he was also set to do a set at the comedy stage. So we wondered down there. We discovered a beautiful garden area with green grass for sitting.

The comedy stage was a small building with wooden floors and a low stage. Every had to take there wellies off first and left a forest of gum boots sitting on the stairs outside. We sat in socks.

We sat for a while listening to his guy do his stand up. He was self proclaimed whimsical and brought up a volunteer to insult his whimsy. He brought up a young boy with scary face paint like the joker. It made for an interesting show. Only then I glanced at the timetable and realised Darren was only on a day later.

Then it was time for Noah and the Whale. Everyone in London seemed to be enthralled with these guys. I hadn´t really heard of them until I got here. They were pretty good, but they didn´t make me swoon like everyone around me was swooning. I enjoyed the set.

We drank more Koppelburg cider and ate gourmet hotdogs for lunch.

We sat on a garbage bag in a muddy tent for a band I had kind of heard of, Seabear. They turned up with their gorgeous Icelandic accents and thousands of instruments and just blew my mind. I wanted to marry everyone in the band for being so damn adorable. And funny, with this great dry wit and dead pan honour. For sure the high light of my entire day. I went back and bought a vinyl copy of their album after the set and Dani ought the cd.

We had coffee and cake an the tea garden, a cafe set up with polkadot tables clothes and green hedges.

We wondered around for a while and had some more cider. We saw the peacocks and the macaws that were supposed to live in the gardens. It reminded me of the peacocks at UWA.

Before Low was another band people were crowding to see It made finding a good spot a bit hard but we ended up second row from the barrier on the right side.

As Low were starting a guy pushed in front of us to his friends. Josh got really angry about it but I thought Oh well, I would have done the same thing. I only got angry when they started making out in the middle of the set and blocking everyone´s views. I started passive aggressively standing on my toes to see and ´accidentally´ losing balance and falling onto them. Soon after they left and I got the spot on the barrier.

I realised that Low must have released a record while I had been traveling around. They played mostly songs I didn´t know but that everyone around me seemed to know very well. It dulled the joy of the experience slightly, but they still played some of my favourites.

It was an interesting set, with interesting banter from Alan Sparhawk the vocalist. It went along the lines of ¨I know you all had a great day, but I had a crappy day. Today everyone I loved told me they hated me¨. His wife and bassist replied with a upbeat ¨not everyone¨. At the end of the set Alan started to swing the guitar around like a madman. Then he let to go and sent it flying into the crowd at high speed. Everyone was shocked and a gasp. I thought it would have definitely hurt someone. Later the bassist came back out and apologized and asked if anyone had been hurt. It seemed that everyone was ok and some happy Low fan had earned himself a guitar (or what was left of it).

After the set Mercury Rev played. We were at the back of the crowd for this one and I just wasn´t getting into it. I enjoyed the Pukkelpop set more. So we listened for a while then went to get late night burritos for dinner. We chatted to other people from the Low set. Everyone gossiped about how shocking the nights events were and talked about if it would make the papers. I didn´t think it would.

To keep us up we got cider at the cider bus. We danced with people and played limbo with a tree branch. We didn´t stay up too late. The day drinking left me exhausted. We made our way back to the tents.

Friday 12-09 End of the road day 1

2008-09-16T01:23:00.010+08:00

As of 7am we had no train tickets, no festival tickets and no tents. Good for us.

I got an email from the festival organiser. On ringing Sophia I found out that the tickets were sent to Karen´s flat and not to Australia. I was so relieved. It just meant an extra stop. So we split up. josh went to Argos to get the tents while Dani and I went to Liverpool station to pick up the train tickets.

The tube was packed with peak hour traffic. We gave up and took the crowded bus. We got the tickets and made our way to Karen´s. It was becoming more and more clear that we weren´t going to make the train. But at least it was only a case of a new train ticket and not new festival tickets. We met up with Josh at the flat, where we ate take out egg sammiches with coffee.

At the train station I went to get new tickets. It turns out they are open tickets so we could use them on the next available train. We jumped on but couldn´t find a seat, so we perched in the hallway. Sharing our perching spot was an assortment of trendy types also on their way to the festival.

We were sitting next to the bathrooms. A blonde women was standing in the queue and started up a conversation with us. Turns out she was the scandinavian relative of the organiser Sophia who had helped us and was on the very same train. We sent our thanks for all her help.

At Salisbury there was a long wait for the couch bus that would take us to the festival grounds in the middle of nowhere. It cold,rainy and generally miserable. We also realised we had no food or alcohol. We didn´t get a chance to buy any plus this tiny town had no visible shops.

The coach bus took us past tiny towns and through green pastures. We moved deeper and deeper into the country. This place really is in the middle of nowhere, otherwise known as Dorset.

At the camp site I was surprised. The only camping experience I had with festivals was pukkelpop. The tents were crammed and dirty. This was different. The tents were spaced out and there were garden gnomes. We set up our cow tents.

The whole festival was kind of like that actually. Every stall was locally sourced, organic, fair trade and mostly vegetarian. Stalls with Goan fish curries and Moorish wraps. Kids everywhere with family activities, clay and paint. An ´arabian´ cinema tent showing short films. All very excellent.

All the first day it rained, much like in Belgium.

It made the ground a field of mud. I think the ground was filled with clay so it stuck to everything. It splattered onto my pants and everywhere else.

The Acorn were the first band we saw that day.

They were spectacular. I was instantly in love. They played songs that I had been obsessed with the entirety of my travels. Even the rain couldn´t spoil this amazing set.

A hawk and a hacksaw played next. I had heard good things about them. I wasn´t disappointed. A lute?, a violin and a piano accordion are strange instruments for a band but they work. We danced around and watched they spin tunes. Also, I watched the one guy´s enormous and charismatic moustache. Dani and I did more of our beloved synchronized hand dancing and then skipped around like a barn dance.

The rain started to clear. We were peckish so we found organic chocolate cake for tea.

We walked around. At the Scandinavian food tent we were delighted to find Koppelburg pear cider for sale.

Dinner was pizza and pear cider.

We went to the big top tent to see Akron/ family. I only knew one song but really liked it. It was a slow, pretty song. And not representative of the rest of their work, which was loud and crazy and funky. They shouted and had guitar solos. They even got the entirety of The Acorn on stage to play with them. The guest band took up drums and melodicas and aanything else they could get their hands on. The whole tent was full of music and movement and life.

Josh went to bed soon after. Dani and I got some warm cider to keep us going. We returned to the big top tent where the End of the Road DJs were playing prince and other dance classics. It was a great time had by all. We skipped around in the mud to New Order before making our way to bed later in the night.

Thursday 11-09 - Freak out

2008-09-15T22:45:00.010+08:00

We started the day with breakfast at a bakery. I had chai and a lemon meringue pie cupcake. It a was filling and deceptively large cake. It was awesome until I accidentally got sticky lemon meringue in my hair.

After breakfast everyone went their separate ways. I got ready for the upcoming festival. I made a decision to leave the backpack at home this time. Instead I would use my sports bag that tucked away into its own little bag. It was perfect because it became a tiny bag and didn´t take much space inside the tent. I packed only the bare essentials for this trip. just enough shirts and only one pair of pants. It weighed about 5kg all up.

Mum, Karen, Aiden, Josh, Dani and myself met up with Paul, Josh and our friend Mara all met for lunch at Wahaca. We ate excellent Mexican food. Everyone had a chance to catch up with each other.

After lunch we walked around with the boys and stopped in for a drink. I had pear cider and we talked about boys, girls and relationships. A nice afternoon. We parted ways and made our way to Argos to pick up our tents. Stopping in for a drink wasn´t the best idea. Argos was closed by the time we got there. Sigh. We would have to get one the next morning.

We got to Dani´s and decided on a whim to check the e-tickets. My heart almost stopped. There were no e-tickets, or any tickets on the internet at all. All there was, was a paypal receipt with a billing address that read Perth, Australia. Fuck. Where had I sent the tickets the tickets. Had I sent the tickets to Australia? I couldn´t for the life of me remember. I freaked out a little.

We called the festival organisers and left a message to inquire. Then we drank red wine and watched Anchorman. I just needed to calm down. I had troubled sleep.

Wednesday 10-09 - met josh and paul

2008-09-15T22:44:00.012+08:00

I woke up feeling great after a night on Karen´s couch. Its quite a comfy couch. We had eggs for breakfast. Yay eggs!. We tubed to Oxford street to our friends from school, Paul and Josh. It was very exciting to be seeing them. We all met up at the apple store then waited for Dani near Regent street. I was listening to their plans and tried to give the two of them advice about backpacking. They had packed a bit too much.

When Dani arrived we had lunch of burritos filled with chicken tikka. Mmmmm.

Then we walked to Frith Street. This was the place we had decided to get our tattoos. Some of Dani´s friends had been inked there and recommended it. We went to the desk and asked to book some tattoos for November. We said we wanted them on our birthday and showed him our IDs. Each tat is going to cost us 70 pounds and we had to put down 40 each for a deposit. Then it was done. Our tattoos were finally booked and set in stone. Suddenly this wasn´t just an idea, it was actually happening.

We saw the boys off at the tube then back to the flat. We took Aiden to look at flats with Mum and Karen. On the way I ate blueberry frozen yogurt from Itsu.

The place was near the British museum and we checked out some stores near by. I found some of my favourite Asian strawberry chocolate.

At night we made salad for dinner. Our ingredients included lettuce, cucumber, tomato, carrot, capsicum, corn, goats cheese, raisins, walnuts, chicken, veggie sausages and balsamic. Except that everyone had their own preferences for he salad. None of the 5 resulting plates had the same combination of salad.

We spent the night drinking wine and laughing and telling stories.

Tuesday 09-09 - Back to London

2008-09-15T22:42:00.003+08:00

By late morning we were still at the hostel. We weren´t in any kind of rush. We packed and ate and slowly started our journey to the airport.

The airport!!

I hadn´t flown since the Krakow-Prague flight. I had been so used to trains.
- Getting to the station just before jumping on.
- Hardly any security.
- Having your bag with you.
- Nice seats.
- Keeping your phone on.
- Easy to get to stations.

Good things about trains.

We got to the airport and checked our bags in. I remembered how nice it was to not have to think about all the luggage.
- Not having your bag with you.
- Much faster then trains.

Good things about planes.

The flight was fast and painless, but left us at Gatwick airport. We picked up our bags and caught the Gatwick Express (a train!) to Victoria station. Then the metro to Karen´s flat where she and Aiden were waiting for us.

We ate pizzas and watched TV. Exactly what I hoped to be doing. Later in the evening we heard a buzz at the door. We were reunited with our mum who arrived only a few hours after us at Heathrow. It was great seeing her again.

Monday 08-09 - Walking tour.

2008-09-15T22:41:00.009+08:00

We got up and went for some coffee. Then on to a walking tour. The company that did the excellent walking tour in Amsterdam also did tours in Madrid. So we went towards the large plaaza of Puerta del Sol to meet them. There was an American guide and an English guide, we picked the latter. We made the right choice. He was very funny and cared about the tour. We started at the bear and tree statue.

To explain the old monarchy he got 5 of the guys up to be the kings. Steve and Josh stepped up. Josh was Charles the second, who unfortunately (but hilariously) was severely inbred. We all had a good laugh at the boys´ expense.

I didn´t know much about the whole political situation in Spain 1936-1975. Only a little about Franco. Eddie (the guide) explained everything really well though. He gave me a better appreciastion for Spanish history. We learnt about the statue built by the lazy king.

We hit the palace and the cathedral. Luckily they were facing each other.

We stopped for lunch at a chain restaurant. It specialised in tiny sammichs. Between us, Josh and I picked 7 out of their 100 various and delicious rolls. We had prawn, tuna, chicken, tortilla, salmon and duck. With fresh chips in the middle.

Back on the tour we passed the letters district, dedicated to writing and novels. We passed Cervantes´ house. As we went we kept seeing statues and plaques surrounding the Franco years. Everywhere there were reminders.

We ended the tour in the afternoon, sitting at a park. This is where he tackled the sadder and more serious part of the tour, but it was all things worth knowing. I´m glad I tracked this tour down again, it really is the best tour around. We gave Eddie 20 euro between the three of us. Then Josh and I decided to take Steve to the amazing Chocolate and churros. It was great like I remembered.

Very great.

In the evening we decided to get Chinese. We followed the directions given to us but managed to get lost in the backstreets of Madrid. We had to go back to the desk and get the directions drawn on a map so we could actually find the one chinese place in the whole area.

Steve had to leave early the next morning so we said our fare wells before we went to bed. I dreamed of london.

Sunday 07-09 - Tapa vs Prado

2008-09-11T19:28:00.004+08:00

Everyone had slept late into the morning. I don´t think any one was too upset about the mix up the night before. I was a bit dissappointed. But dancing is dancing and touring is a bit more important. We had coffee on the way to a tour meeting point. We joined tapas tour we heard about at the hostel. Our guide was from Venezuela and had was into computers. The boys all enjoyed chatting about hardware and internet and things. There were usually lots of people on th tour but ths time it was just the three of us.

The first bar we got sangria. The tapa was all pork sausage though so Josh and I snacked on the bread. We stayed for a short time before moving onto the next. At the second bar we had better sangria with apple bits. Our tapa was chicken wings and an awesome plate of seafood paella. We scoffed it down. Our guide was a really interesting guy and we all enjoyed getting to know him.

The third place had awesome sangria but pork based foods. We ate cheese and bread bits instead. The fourth place was at the Plaza Mayor. We had beer for the drink. The food was olives and a traditional garlic potato salad. We hung around into the afternoon and then bid farewell to our new friend. We said we might join his pub crawl that night.

After lunch we went to the Prado. Sundays were free entry so we had planned to go that day. Its always nice to get into museums for free. The line looked long but moved quickly. We passed through the doors and were given tickets.

I could spend hours and hours there. I think the boys were a bit bored after a while though. My favourite part was the Goya room. I stood in front of Saturn devouring his Son for what seemed like an eternity. It was so amazing. I couldn´t take my eyes off it. Just that one painting made the visit worthwhile.

After the gallery we hung at the hostel. After dinner I was exhausted (also from drinking during the day). I couldn´t face a pub crawl or the people on it. We stayed at the hostel that night.

Saturday 06-09 - Paella, Plaza Major and Poor Planning

2008-09-11T19:10:00.003+08:00

We woke up late and slowly got ready to leave the hostel. It was near lunch by then. So we wondered around. We ended up at Plaza Mayor. As a rule I never eat food at tourist squares but we were all hungry and tired, so I decided to bite the bullet. We sat at one of the touristy places with a waiter standing outside. We ordered drinks which took forever to get there.

We got paella which was probably frozen and not really worth the price. It was still tasty though and I enjoyed filling my stomach.

After filling rice dishes we headed back. I really wanted to go out again this night. The Saturday in Madrid was sure to be awesome. So we hung around the hostel for the rest of the afternoon. We ate snacks.

Then shopping and more snacks. Really awesome nuggets.

We all decided to nap before eating pasta for dinner and going out. So I set my phone for 10-30 and set to sleep.

I woke up confused at 4am, looked at my phone and swore. I had accidentally set my clock for 10-30 AM.

I lay back down and set back to sleep.

Friday 05-09 - Reunions

2008-09-06T20:55:00.003+08:00

We jumped a quick train to Madrid. The last we were in the city, we were trying not to fall asleep through out the night. We took the same metro. This time though the renovations on our line were finished and we didn´t have to take a bus for half of it lie last time. We realised that our hostel was right near the renovations. Thank god they were finished.

At the hostel we waited around. Our stay in Madrid was to be shared with my friend from medicine, Steve. He had to take a later train than he had wanted and only got in in the evening. We waited in the bar/lounge downstairs. I quite liked the hostel this hostel,it had a good feel.

Meeting up with Steve was great. I really missed all the people back home, so seeing a familiar face was amazing. We all went out to find a Tapas bar. We found a place in the Lonely Planet book. It was full of young students chatting away in Spanish. I think that if we didn´t talk, we could have almost passed for locals there. Until we talked that was. We got the small local glasses of beer and tried to get us some food. It was tricky, we couldn´t tell how it worked there. Eventually I went up to the bar and got some tuna things with the help of the cute barman.

We hung around for a bit then returned to the hostel. Steve was tired and went to bed, but Josh and I were hyped to go out. We went to an area with lots of bars and clubs. We saw everyone standing in the street drinking. It was almost 1am. We didn´t know how late people went into clubs. The streets were packed.

We popped into a club that was actually just a bar. No dance floor, just us and some other people stand drinking and moving around a bit. They had there own energy drink brand.

We ended up back outside with everyone else. At about 2 we swallowed our pride and asked a group of people where they go out. They said no one clears the streets until at least 2. Wow I thought, Madrilenos are almost nocturnal. They invited us to follow them and thats what we did. We spent the night dancing in a fun club.

They even played a Spanish song I knew! Everyone else got as excited about it I did. Josh and I sang loudly with the rest of the club in our broken Spanish.

Thursday 04-09 - the last day in sevilla

2008-09-06T20:54:00.006+08:00

We woke up and checked our emails. A few days earlier we had noticed we couldn´t find the emails confirmations of our Madrid to London flight. We called British Airways and got the reservation number. The site said there were no flights booked. We freaked out a little. So we called them again. They told us the flight we had booked through a third party a month ago had been cancelled the day we booked it, by that third party. We were shocked. We don´t know why they would cancelled. Checking my statements, no money had been taken out. They didn´t tell us they had done any of this. I was furious.

We than had to find another find at 5 days notice. It was tricky. It ended up being more expensive and with a not so great airline. But at least we had a flight again.

All this chaos meant we only left the hostel as the siesta was starting. Everything was closing for the afternoon. So we walked down to the hip young area. The sun was hot and there was no shade. We ducked into a cafe for iced coffee. like many places in Europe, ice coffee means expresso and a glass full of ice. As I poured the coffee I prayed the heated would not crack the glass.

Back at the hostel we ate on the terrace and watched the view of the cathedral light up in the distance.

Wednesday 03-09 - Seville lost

2008-09-06T18:08:00.013+08:00

We got out at a reasonable time this morning. Armed with a map and a LP guide,we were determined to see some of the sights and do some actual touring. We quickly realised how small Sevilla was. The blocks were tiny and took no time to get anywhere.

We wanted to find the large cathedral first, through a large and lovely park. But got slightly lost and ended up at the huge and old uni campus. The students everywhere gave us a bit of a clue. I wanted to spend alunch there, pretending to be a student.

We were closer to the Plaza de Espana so we went there instead. It was gorgeous and well worth going to. Blue and white ceramics covered all the railings.

The buildings and fountains were covered in Mosaics. Josh said he recognised it from a Star Wars movie.

We hung around for a little while in the shade. Then we moved towards the river. We walked along until we hit Torre de Oro. It was on the list of sights but nothing too spectacular.

We headed away from the river to finally find the big Cathedral and neighbouring palace. It was nice, but I think I´m a bit over cathedrals by now. So we sat for the chicken and cheese sammish lunches we brought with us. We ate perched on the top steps of some memorial statue. From our higher plain we spied women doing the herb thing. The type of women who hold bunches of some kind of garden herb (a lucky charm maybe?). They go up to tourists and give them a sprig,then stand there demanding money for them. A classic tourist trap. But these women didn´t seem sneaky or destitute like the usual suspects. They were dressed nicely and spent most of the time stand in a group gossiping. When the whim took them they descended onto the same group of tourists and over powered them with numbers. I don´t know if their hearts were really in it.

We walked past the church and into the maze of tiny winding streets. Again we wondered around lost.

In the evening we had dinner and then went to the free flamenco show the hostel pointed out to us. We found the red door and went inside. Not too many people to start with, but numbers grew. Spanish and not Spanish alike filled the benches around the stage. The show was supposed to start at 10-30. It only started at 11-30. I was already trying hard to stay awake.

Three people came on stage. A woman in a black and red flamenco dress, an older man in black and a young guitarist. The older man gave an introduction in Spanish before they all sat down. The show started with lovely guitar playing. The other two clapped and stamped their feet in time with the music. The rhythm was amazingly intricate and irregular. I was impressive that they managed to keep the time.

The older man started to sing. The most beautiful, clear and powerful voice. No microphone, but his voiced filling the entire bar without breaking note. Incredible. The dancing hadn´t even started yet.

After a few songs the woman got up and started the flamenco dance. The most impressive part of all of it was the rhythm. I would have messed it up after the first few bars, but she kept time effortlessly with her hands, feet and body.

I was beat after so we left and walked back. A good time had by all.

Tuesday 02-09 - Good Omens

2008-09-03T21:32:00.005+08:00

Getting to the train station was far easier then leaving the station. We hopped on and off the us without trouble. At the station we booked the next train to Sevilla with no problems. Nothing was going wrong,even in the slightest. I was thinking around then about every time something had gone really wrong and left me in a state. Usually something small went wrong earlier in the day. Some small annoyance like a missed bus or lost key. Today there were no bad omens.

We had lunch at a wok while you wait type place where you chose your ingredients salad bar style. Tasty. Then an easy train ride to Sevilla. The directions in the website said the walk was 20 minutes. It felt like it took much longer with the backpacks. We walked through sun soaked streets. The hostel was nice. We were checked in by a sweet English receptionist.

The terrace was nice and had big round chairs that swallowed you whole.

Dinner was instant tuna lasanga and corn, with the all too familiar sangria in a plastic bottle. We sat on the terrace roof while we waited for our food to cook.

I heard a song I recognised but couldn´t place wafting up from the lobby so I popped down to ask the receptionist who it was. It was the Klaxons and then Hot Chip, both whom I enjoy. I asked if he knew any places in Sevilla that played that kind of music. He said he had been there for 6 months and still hadn´t found any. I was disappointed to hear that. There were so many in Barcelona. Maybe Madrid would be better.

We hung out at the hostel the rest of the night.

Monday 01-09 - Malaga, Icecream

2008-09-03T21:10:00.002+08:00

We woke up late and as a result ate breakfast late. I fried up large scrambled eggs with cheese on toast. Then sat out on the benches to eat, right next to some incredibly hung over Irishmen. I felt a small sense of cruel joy in seeing their faces at the smell of my meal.

We set out to walk around a bit later than planned. I knew it would get very very hot. So this time I brought my umbrella with me as a parasol. I walked along in its merciful blue shade. We checked out the castle on the mountain. It looked like a smaller version of the Alhambra. We didn´t fancy climbing all the way up in the ever growing heat so our visit was superficial. Instead we worked our way around the pedestrians malls of the large streets. They were covered by stretches of clothes hung between the roof tops.

We checked out a few shops, but by then the shops were closing for the afternoon. They all close at the same time, about 2-30. We found a an icecream shop. I realised it was cheaper to get a half litre to share between us than to each get a decent sized icecream. So we picked passionfruit and mango. We sat up a large church. First we had some of the mini biscuit sticks they gave us.

Then we tucked into the icecream. Both flavours were amazing. I only planned to have a bit of it. I ended up eating more than I had expected. Ech.

We returned to the hostel. The neext few hours were spent in the Spanish art of siesta, or lying on the couch recovering from the heat and feeling sick from too much icecream.

In the evening we made instant tuna bake with peas. We had a little sangria and chilled in the garden lounge.

Sunday 31-08 - Too many churches

2008-09-02T01:33:00.008+08:00

We ate late breakfast at the guest house. Then a short walk down the hill to the bus stop. At the us station I was happy to find we could get on the next bus. It was 2 hours ride to Malaga and only cost 10 euro a piece. The ride took no time at all.

Malaga was just as hot as Granada. We hit the hottest part of the day as we looked for the bus stop to get us to our hostel. Sweating in the heat we caught the bus and tried to follow the website directions ¨get off when you see the church¨. There were lots of churches passing us by and we didn´t know which one they meant. So we got off about half way too early. We found ourselves on a long street. We had a map from the tourist centre, but out street was slightly off the top edge of map. It use useless to us. High above us was a mountain with a castle on top. We walked towards it and found an info booth. They pointed us in the right direction. Malaga had its own Moorish castle and Alazaba. It didn´t impress me, I had just seen the bigger version in Granada.

We kept walking up the street until we gave up and hailed a taxi. The heat was too much with the backpacks. I completely understand by they do the siesta thing. He got lost trying to find this street. But he got us close enough that we found the place. It was another small guest house run by some young guys. A cool place with a good chill out area out back and a terrace. There were 2 huge dogs in the house, a father and son. I fell in love with them.

We walked down the main street. 200m in we found the place we caught the taxi. We were so close!! The street was wrapped around and hidden the church from us. The church had a massive flights of steps in front of it. It was strange even to think that the taxi driver got lost so close to the enormous tourist site.

We settled inside on couches. I sat next to a kiwi guy who was working through a beginners level spanish exercise book. So naturally I was interested. I ended up half going through it with him. My basic vocabulary was far better than his so he kept asking me what words meant. There was also an Israeli girl, a Uruguayan guy and some Irishmen.

In the evening we all moved outside to the benches. We ate pasta and talked with the other hostellers, including a snooty French guy and someone from Morroco. I love how diverse the crowd was, not just Australians.

The hosts set up a projector against the garden wall. They started playing the Phantom menace in Spanish but stop 5 minutes in. Then 5 minutes of Lemony Snickett. They settled on a black and white movie that I didn´t recognise. I watched a bit while I ate then turned in.

Saturday 30-08 - Cobblestones and castles

2008-09-01T22:02:00.009+08:00

We got off the train at 8-30am. My neck ached, so did my shoulders. Directions on the website involved taking two buses. We took a cab for the first leg as we were tired and couldn´t think straight. The second bus was a small coach.

As it drive through smalled and smaller streets I got my first view of the Alhambra. Enormous castle walls rise in front of us on a green mountain. The bus climbed higher into the maze of small houses. After our most recent hotel I was getting nervous about the location we had picked. The streets were gorgeous though, really authentic. We stopped by a monestary and found our hostel a street down. Everything was cobblestoned. Every house had tiles with the name of the shop or family. Everyone on the bus knew each other. I was captivated by the world created within these streets.

Our guesthouse was run by a single family. They were all so lovely and helpful. The courtyard of their house was set up with deck chairs. The rec room had tv and comp and tea/coffee set up with board games on a chess table. We could see the castle from the balcony.

We cleaned up and set off. The Alhambra tickets we booked at the station the night before only let us in at 2pm. So we started at a panorama 2 minutes from our hostel.

We strolled back down the winding streets. To our surprise it only took a few minutes to get to the main tourist square. We ate tuna pastries for breakfast, followed by a donut.

We strolled the streets. We looked through toy shops and squares. Some of them were toy shops. I was excited when I saw a figurine of David Bowie from his role in The Labyrinth. We took the bus to the entrance of the Alhambra. Since we had pre booked tickets we skipped the queue and printed them out at the machines.

The Alhambra. Built by Moorish sultans on the hills of Granada. It has a palace and a fortress and gardens. The most famous part is the palace of the Nasrid. There is no art hung around the palace to see per se, the palace itself is the artwork. The engravings on every wall are from both the Islamic period and the later Catholic take over. It was one of the last refuges of Islamic rule in the area.

Our first stop was the Generalife - the enormous palace gardens. They were huge and largely made up of a hedge maze.

There were all sorts of arches with overhanging plants alongside decorative ponds. it would be the perfect spot for a picnic.

The garden got a bit boring after a while. However it afordded great views of the Alcazaba, the fortress walls.

Within the Generalife was a garden palace. It was a taste of what was to come later. The buildings were semi walled, leading out onto garden courts.

At that point one can´t help but notice the engraving art the spanned the width and length of the walls. It was so beautiful and done with such care. I just wanted to ran my hands along it´s many nooks and crannies. To truly take in its presence.

Past the courts were the water stairs. A set of flight of stairs at first glance. But the waist height walls on either side had aquaduct like channels with water rushing down to feed the fountains in the courts below. Josh liked this one alot.

It was almost four. Unfortunately our ticket only allowed us into the palace at 6. We still had another 2 hours to kill. We walked around some of the other areas. My mind started to wonder. I started to think about the David Bowie toy I had seen earlier. I thought about that movie and some of the riddles in it. Specifically I thought about the riddles of the two doors. One that lied and one that told the truth. I mention to Josh that I was trying to work out if the protagonist had gotten the right answer and if I could work it out.

We both concentrated on the riddle as we walked around. Then we were consumed by it. We just couldn´t work it out. The heat was getting worse. We found a coliseum like theater and sat on its cool stone for a while. We thought more about the riddle.

After that we went to the Alcozaba, the fortress. We walked up onto the guard tower. It was then that Josh, genius that he is, worked out the answer to the riddle. We were both really excited. Now my mind would be at ease. We went down the stairs and sat with some beer to celebrate.

There was still an hour to go. We sat and took in the atmosphere for a while. Finally it was our turn. Really worth the wait. Each room was more spectacular than the next.

We went through the palace quite quickly. It was incredible and all, but we had been hanging around for a long time and were both tired. So I tried to take in everything without staying too long at any one place. A great experience.

We took a park walk down to the main town square. From there we looked for a market to find food Everything was closed for the afternoon so we kept walking. Without map we walked, getting more and more lost. After we found a mini-mart we had no idea were we were. So we took a cab back up the mountain to our hostel. We ate instant noodles and relaxed for the rest of the night.

Friday 29-08 - Day to Kill

2008-09-01T21:46:00.005+08:00

I would have slept in if I could, but Dani had an early train. So we got up early went with her to breakfast and to the bus stop. We bid a fare well and made our way back. Slowly we got packed and ready. At 12 we checked out and moved to Valencia. Our first task was to find a luggage locker at the station. I prayed we wouldn´t have to drag our bags around the whole day.

Thankfully there it was so we dumped our things in an enormous locker. Then we headed out. We ate excellent kababs for lunch. Mine was chicken with white cheese. We checked to see if an English language film was available but all the cinemas were closed. So we walked to a distant cinema. It was nice because I realised that the whole time I hadn´t seem any of Valencia. There was a park and garden running the length of the entire city. We passed over it on a bridge as we went.

The further cinemas were also closed. We retraced our steps to a Starbucks near by. We sat in refuge from the heat for an hour. I had a caramel creme frappe, which was heavenly. Then back to the station. There we used Ozymandias to watch some net TV and pass the time.

In the evening we returned to the Japanese buffet. This time though we took our time. We ate slowly and until we couldn´t eat anymore. I hadn´t eaten that well in a long time. Then we sat at the station. By then it was 11. I dosed for a couple of hours. At about 1am we waited for the train. It was late and everyone was grumpy. I made myself as comfortable as I could on thhe seat and slept.

Thursday 28-08 - Station

2008-09-01T21:18:00.002+08:00

I woke up the next morning sore. My muscles ached from the events of the previous day. We were in no rush to get out. We went down to a late breakfast and showered. Then we took the bus into town. We started at the train station to organise a way out. The place was packed. Half of the 40,000 strong crowd from the festival were trying to get out that day. It was a mad house. I was glad we only needed tickets for the following day. We took a ticket and waited for the international booth. There we tried to get Dani to Amsterdam. She got a ticket to Barcelona. From there she would take a regional train to Cerbere in France and then an overnight to Paris, with the final leg the next day.

By the time we got that all organised and got our own ticket, the line was even bigger. We got some crazy Orxata drink while we waited. It tasted like dirty soy milk.

Then we got licorice straws and bullets. We kept waiting for an hour more.

Eventually we got to the ticket counter. The only train we could get to Granada was at 1am the next night, with a seat instead of a bed. I had another small freak out. So we went to get as late lunch. We went a Japanese buffet but had to order quickly before the kitchen closed. We ate tasty Japanese food before making our way back to the bus stop.

2 hours to get back to our hotel. We relaxed in our room.

Wednesday 27-08 - La Tomatina

2008-09-01T01:47:00.006+08:00

Over the course of the day I experience a wide variety of emotions.

Excitement

We woke up early. Got dressed straight away in our special tomatina gear. For me this meant my black shorts, a double layer of cheap pink tops and bathers that were already stained from mud baths. I wore the new cheap gold sneakers. Down we trod to the bus stop. We even missed breakfast. There were other English speakers waiting in similar gear. They had been waiting 15 minutes more than us and the earlier bus hadn't shown.

Annoyance

We waited and waited and no bus came. 10 minutes late. 20 minutes late. 30 minutes. I was getting hungry. We could have eaten the breakfast at this rate. Some of the group went to the other bus stop. The rest continued to wait. Eventually more of the group jumped in a random Spanish guys van to another stop. Only a few of us were left. Eventually we gave in and walked to the other stop. It would be another 30 minutes until the next bus. A taxi came past and we flagged it down. It couldn't fit everyone. Actually, it could fit everyone except Dani,Josh and I. So in the end it was just the three of us sitting on the side of a highway for a possible bus.

Hopefullness

A trip that should have taken 30 minutes took 2 hours after all of that. We got to the station and jumped on the metro to get to the rural train station. On the bus I thought ¨there is still 2 hours before the fight starts, we will be ok and get there in time¨. We had even played with the idea of not going, in our most hopeless of moments. But I thought to myself, it will ok. The fight only starts at 11.

Frustration, Anger, hopelessness

We jumped off the metro with the crowds climbed up the metal staircase. With each flight I became a little more excited. The train was there, about to leave a few minutes later. We rushed through the turnstyle. Every door of the train had people hanging out of it. The security personnel made it clear that we were not getting on that train. We stood with the group with sad faces at the end of the platform, who had also been barred. It was only then I found out that the next train was at 10-15 and took over 45 minutes. I knew then that everything would not be ok.

I felt anger and hopelessness wash over me. I tensed up and freaked out. Dani tried to calm me down but I didn't want to be calmed. I wanted to be angry and tense. So for an hour we sat on the platform with the other forgotten children. We chatted to guys doing language courses from London.

Excitement

The train arrived on time and we got on. Everyone was getting excited. It got us there on 11 on the dot.

Now I was all pumped up. We walked quickly down the long road. We didnt stop to eat or drink or buy disposable cameras (hence the lack of photos).

Thinking I was going to die

We pushed our way into the crowd. It got more tightly packed with every step until we reached a small street. I couldn't see any tomato fighting, maybe we had missed it? The huge tomato tankers drove towards us. The already packed street parted to let it through, so that our only space had been halved. Everyone become pressure packed, worse than almost any mosh pit. At any moment I thought my ribs would give way. I kept my headed tilted up in an attempt for fresh air. I have no way to gauge the time that passed. It felt like an eternity.

More people tried to push into us from the outside. We were shoved forward in short bursts, each knocking my legs from under me as I struggled to stay standing. I didn't want to think of what would happen if I got caught under the crowd. We were like a glacier. Moving slowly and surely along our path between the walls. Nothing could break the dense mass.

I heard a girl next to me scream. I heard myself scream with each painful wave. I heard Dani calling ¨help her, help her¨, like there was some way anyone could have. No one was in any position to raise an arm, let alone help. All the crowd could do was try to keep breathing and keep moving. Girls were clinging to windows above us like a tree branch in a torrenting flood. Eventually it started to thin out. We went towards the less crowded street. Through some miracle the three of us managed to stay together through it.

Adrenalin

We found ourselves suddenly in another small street with some people in it. Many had come from the crush with us and were panting. Dani and Josh just wanted to get out of it all. We thought this was the whole festival. I had been pumped full of Adrenalin doing the crush and now it was pouring through me. I was bouncing off the ceiling with energy. The other two kept on having to pull me back while they caught up. We noticed that people covered in thick tomato were still emerging from one direction. So we walked that way. There was more and more tomato mush on the floor. I thought, this nice a few tomatoes throw. We turned another corner.

Then we saw it. We had found La Tomatina.

Absolute Joy

A thin sloping alley. There were people,but not in a crush. Just enough people and just enough space. A thick tomato puree with chunks was pouring like lava, flowing thick down the streets so that it covered our feet. So we fought with tomatoes. We scooped up the ammunition the threw it at someone or at no one in particular. And everyone threw it back at us.

It took only a moment to get used to the smell. Only a moment to get used to the sensation of the goop hit your skin and being smooshed into your clothes. To not care every time it covered your hair. The slippery ground was hard to get up. One had to hold the wall to move upwards. We stayed on the slope for a bit. Then we moved up to the flat main street above. The experience was surreal. The river went higher than my ankles. My world was red and pink. My eyes stung from the acid but I didn´t care. We danced and jumped and threw. We tossed red at people.

Contentment

I was happy. We walked down a street to th river. Every few meters was a local with hose. We would stop for a few seconds to stand under each, getting a little cleaner. We walked further to the empty river bed, where we found a mass of metal showers. It was good to be clean again. I dumped my socks and a layer of shirt that weren´t salvageable. There we wondered the streets.

Concern

As we walked the locals were already in the clean up process. Every street was water and tomatoes. Dani slipped on a tomato bit and grazed her elbow. The cut wasn´t too bad but we hadn´t eaten or drunk anything the entire day and had also been crushed. She felt light headed and couldn´t stand. A nice local lady washed her cut and showed us to the medical room. The doctor disinfected the cut and made sure she was ok. I got the chance to chat to him for a bit using my basic Spanish. We compared medical schools in the different countries. I asked what they saw most of at the med tent. They said in previous years lots of drinking, but this year it was mostly head injuries and scrapes. From the walls and tomato beatings.

Exhaustion

We found food and the train station. We were tired and wanted to get back to the hotel. The queue to get into the station took an hour, in which we had to stand in the sun and some got burnt. Tops and shoes were needed to board the train, items that many were now lacking. So people grabbed clothed from the mess. Girls walked onto the bus with a small black converse shoe and a giant orange sandal. Guys wore girlie strappy tops. Funny stuff. Everyone was pink, as most had been wearing something white before the fight. The train barely had sitting room on the floor. A few hours later our bus arrived at our hotel.

The day was intense. I did enjoy it, but I don´t know if I would need to do it again. Doing something a second time is never quite the same. But I´m glad I did it.

Tuesday 26-08 - Into and out of Valencia

2008-08-29T16:54:00.011+08:00

Our early train to Valencia was already filled with Australian and other English speaking tourists. Everyone was flocking towards Valencia and the other towns that circled Buñol. In a few days 40,000 people would be in that tiny town pelting each other with over ripe tomatoes. I had been so excited about La Tomatina when I booked our accommodation 12 months prior. Even back then it was near impossible to find three people together for the three days around the festival.

Boarding the early train and leaving it, we ran into a pair that had been on the gothic walking tour with us. A guy and a girl from London. Together we looked for a tourist info place to get a map and directions. We found it eventually. Then onto the metro.

Our hotel was in the outer zones. I think strictly speaking it was an adjunct town of the Valencia region. 30 minutes on the metro and we were in the middle of nowhere. We called the hotel. They had very poor English and but managed to tell us that we were in fact at the closest station. But that it was still a taxi ride or a 40 minute walk away. Where the hell had we booked?

A nice English speaking local lady was passing by with her kid. we showed her the address. She helped us hail a cab and talked to the driver for us in Spanish. She was a god send. The taxi only cost 7 euro and before we knew it we had arrived at this strange 3 star hotel. we weren´t the only foreign young people with backpacks around.

Our room was huge. Each bed was a double and there was room for 3 more. Our bathroom was larger than our room in Barcelona. At least it was luxurious. And cheap. we washed up and got a bus timetable. Then to the supermarket one street over to get rolls and fillings for lunch. Then walking around lost. We gave up, sitting on a random bus stop to eat before retracing our steps. We eventually found the right bus stop. We waited almost an hour in the burning heat for the bus to arrive. Then a 30 minute bus ride to Valencia.

Once we were there it was ok. We spent the afternoon finding cheap shoes and clothes for the fight. We didn´t expect that anything we wore would be salvageable. Dani and I found gold plastic sneakers for cheap. Then some small tops. We had been told to layer because people try to rip the clothes off you. I found everything I needed except for the shorts.

All that walking around and shopping made us thirsty, so we stopped at a cafe for caramel iced coffee. I started to see it everywhere. Australians. Everywhere you went there were Australians. The accent penetrated the air like a think smoke. Australians had already been getting on my nerves this trip. Now Valencia had been covered with them. and they all seemed to be wearing the same shirts. yellow shirts a version of the Hienz logo on the front. everywhere I turned I saw yellow shirts.

Next we were to meet some friends from Perth / London who were also there for the festival. We went to the central macDonalds and waited for them. While we did we watched yellow shirted Australians. Everywhere we looked there were loud Australians. Drunk and all under 20 years old. Shouting into loud speakers and knocking over bins. Being generally annoying. Australians can make me so ashamed sometimes. We met ours friends. They agreed with us about the ozzies. They were also on the yellow shirt tour. However they had the good sense not to wear the shirts out, which is why we got served at the bar.

We all talked about travelling and our plans for the day ahead. The drink was nice, but the last bus back to nowhere left at 9-30 so we had to leave. We said farewell and wished each other luck.We walked all the way down to the bus stop. It wasn´t the right one. We looked and looked and walked everywhere but we couldn´t find it. So we went to the nearest metro station. The train took us again to the middle of nowhere.

We decided to try walking but after many blocks we needed a taxi. Calling the hotel just got us laughed at. The number we got from the nice ady on the first day had a rapid spanish voice on the other end. I tried my best to understand what he was saying, but it was just too hard. I was exhausted and completely overwhelmed by everything. So we kept walking.

Taxi found us. Showing him the address (la Eliana, Valencia), he kept shaking his head and talking about San Antonio. He drove around strange places. We were already tired and started freaking out. The others were depending on me to know what was going on ut it was too fast complicated for me. After a stressful taxi ride we found the hotel. We gave him more than he asked and ran to bed.

Monday 25-08 - wrong day

2008-08-29T16:17:00.005+08:00

We got up early, very early. We packed all our things in the dark of the dorm room. I was just about done when Josh called "stop packing". He showed us the hostel booking sheet. We were only booked into Valencia from the Tuesday. We were very confused. We went down to the reception and then realised what had happened.

When we had booked the Barcelona hostel we realised we had one night spare between then and Valencia, so we added another night to the end. We had forgotten and gotten mixed up. We still had one more night there. We felt a little silly and annoyed at having gotten up so early. But on the bright side we were out of the hostel before midday. It meant that we could finally catch the free walking tour of the gothic area that we missed every morning despite the best intentions.

So after a quick breakfast we trained to a bar called the Travel Bar. It was kind of like the Walkabout in London. Only english spoken there, mostly Australian. Only enhlish TV played above the head of the travellers. I tried not to frequent these places if I could help it. I would much rather try out a local bar where I didn´t speak the language. We hung around the bar until the tour started.

We were out into the group led by a loud blonde Californian guy. He started by taking us to the plaza reale to give us a quick history lesson about the city. It was kind of interesting. We learnt that growing pot and public nudity are both legal there. We mostly went to the area with the roman ruins and places were Colombus visited.

We spent a lot of the time in the old Jewish quarter. It was a forced ghetto until the expulsion from Spain. It seemed like everywhere we went in Europe, there were sad Jew related stories. I thought I was done with that once we finished Isreal and Poland and Prague. And then Italy. And then France. And then Amsterdam. But everywhere we go we get reminded of it. I just wanted to find a country with a happy story.

I smiled as I thought about Monty Python, Spanish Inquisition.

Other things we found out about Barcelona. It only got beaches and running water in 1992 for the olympics. 1992! I couldn´t believe it. I had always pictured Spain as a modern thriving country.

The tour ended back at the Travel Bar, where we all got free middies of beer. It was decent as a tour, although not as good as those in Amsterdam. We were starved by then but didnt want to eat at the bar. We walked La Rambla and tried a pasta place. The prices looked decent. Until we were served 5 largish shells of tortellini in a flower pattern. It was ridiculous in the way that you just had to laugh about it.

We left and made our way to the train station to book the next day´s tickets. The queue was huge and took forever to get through. we took our number and waited for it to come up on the screen. Josh and I wanted an early train rather than one in the afternoon. I like just getting the travel bit of the day over with. We booked for 8.

Back at the hostel. I sat on the cough by the reception and slowly made my way through the Spanish comic I picked up on the first day. It was relaxed. None of us felt like going out.

Sunday 24-08 - Smurfville

2008-08-26T00:59:00.009+08:00

We slept in again, but this time it seemed like we had reason. I was happy to try and recuperate. It was, after all it was our last day there. We got out and walked around the local area.

Then to the gothic area,where we walked around more. We found some old roman ruins and modernisme style architecture. Then some how found ourselves at Maremagnum shopping centre again. We saw they had a Ben and Jerrys. So we had ice cream. The rest of the afternoon was quiet.

In the evening we were recuperated and looking for something to do. We had picked the wrong night to stay in. Saturday was huge and Sunday was very sleepy. Most of the clubs or bars we wanted to try out were closed. We searched the internet for a while. We found a maybe bar that seemed merely ok. Luckily we were staying at a hostel that cares for the party times of its guests. There are always things happening if Barcelona if you know who to ask. We asked the receptionist / evening activities coordinator Tom from Brazil. He told us there was a huge street party a mere 10 minutes walk away. We waited in the lobby until we had gathered a crowd of hostellers willing to give it a go.

We started the night in the basement recreation area. We drank champs and then the cheap sangria. We watched Oceans Eleven on the hostel system and met a bunch of new Americans and Australians. It was past midnight by the time were ready to go out. We were quite buzzed by then.

We all headed out towards the party. Tom had printed some maps for us and said he would meet up with us to party when his shift ended at 2am. He said the party would be going to 4. We followed his map but no one could get the directions quite right so we went the very long way around. We did find it eventually.

The first street we came across was baby themed. At the entrance stood a giant crib with a giant baby inside. Beyond the infant gate keeper was a packed street. Mexican music came flowing from the band. A stall sold mojitos. Above us hung a canopy of baby clothes stretching as far the eye could see.

We walked around and through the crowd, taking in the spectacle. There were oversized play pens and high chairs.

The next street had a canopy of red streamers. In the centre a platform held a man and his mac book. He programed almost metal music for the crowd below. By this time we were looking desperately for a bathroom. Only a few of the bars were open along the street. Finding a bathroom would be difficult.

The next street was my favourite. It was a smurf village. Giant glowing mushrooms next to wooden houses with smurfs of them. Smurf cut outs hanging above. People walking around, dressed as smurfs. It was great.

At this point Dani and I really needed the bathroom so we seperated from the others. By the time we found a place and got back they were gone. We spent the next 10 minutes looking for them, but there was no trace. It was about 2am by now, although we didnt have the map to know where to meet Tom. The party was finishing up a couple hours early. Everything was shutting down and the music was gone. So we made we way back to the hostel.

On the way we saw a pair of swings in a playground. We spent some time enjoying the swings. They really are one of life´s simple pleasures. Then to bed. After all, we were leaving early the next morning.

Saturday 23-08 - Police

2008-08-25T02:36:00.010+08:00

Still half drunk, I was awoken by a sound. Standing at our bedroom door Was a policeman. Which was a bit confusing. The hostel guy next to him said that he needed to have a chat and would give 5 minutes to get ready. I quickly to on a shirt than was lying on my bed. Only then did I realise he was talking to the girl under me in the bunk, not the whole room. she ran out to him. I heard muttered words of "we didn´t know what happened to her at the end of the night". I fell back to sleep as if it were a dream.

The rest of the morning I spent nursing a killer hangover. When asked, no one was really talking about what had happened, other than to say things like "well I was with this other person". People came and went, bags got dragged into our room and changes of clothes were taken out. We walked around the area for a bit and got some snacks from a near by shop. On the way back we got a call from Karen, which cheered me up a lot. We came back to the hostel and relaxed for a while. All the while we chatted about the morning´s events. Dani, Josh and I speculated as to what had happened. We thought being caught with drugs or maybe a minor overdose.

In the evening we set off to have a nice dinner at a place called La Fonda. Both the hostel guy and the LP book had recommended the place. It was near where Sidecar had been, at Placa Real. There was line around the corner for the place. It was amazing. It was a proper restaurant, not some fast food joint with a high turnover of customers. I didn´t know how they would work through some a large queue at normal restaurant pace.

But somehow they did. We drank sangria ate a huge pan of vegetable paella. It was good and left me time to sleep afterwards. I really needed the sleep. When we got back, the group involved in the mystery incident were curled up in PJs on the hostel couch, sharing blankets. In my experience, that type of thing means it something quite serious.

I thought about it more, then climbed my bunk to sleep. We never found out what happened to her that night.

Friday 22-08 - The Zoo and the drunk

2008-08-24T01:01:00.008+08:00

Another late start.

We decided today was the perfect day for the zoo. So we packed our bags with sangria in water bottles and Halloween themed potato snacks and off we went. Some of the other Australians said they might join us. We didn´t really expect them to follow through though.

It was over cast when we reached the zoo. I hoped that this wouldn´t be the one time it rained while we were in the city. The first animal we saw was the alpaca. We watched it for a while.

We saw a bunch of animals that were fun. We drank the sangria as we went. The rain started, at first only as a light shower. But we didn´t mind so much.

The selling point of the zoo was the dolphinarium with the live dolphin shows. It was strange seeing dolphins in the middle of the land locked grounds around the desert creatures.

I fell a bit in love with the sea lions. They barks like dogs and act like dogs, if dogs were made for swimming. Plus there was a pup. Adorable.

It started to rain. Really rain. We didn´t let that stop us. We bought popcorn and pints of beer (in a zoo!) and headed to the dolphin show. We huddled under umbrellas on the open seats in front of the pool.

I sat on my bag to save myself from the seats, which were as full of water as the pools were. Bad idea. After a mediocre dolphin show I realised that my bag had been soaked right through. Everything was drenched. I was tipsy from beer and spent 15 minutes drying my bag and sopping wet skirt under the bathroom hand dryer. The electronics were ok, but some of my cards were soaked through. The sun came out eventually.

We continued to do our round of animals. The reptile house and primates were all good, as were the tapirs and the albino wallaby. The penguins are always fun.

We almost ran to the big cats because the zoo was going to close soon. Then we meandered back via the slide of a children´s playground.

Back at the hostel. More drinking games. So much to drink. The on the metro with the group to a place that gave us free shots. Then someone bought a round of shots.

We took some of group and went to a bar called Sidecar that was supposed to have good tunes. Someone gave me some of their beer.

Entrance to the club came with a free beer. I think you know where all this is leading. I recall the strap of my bag finally breaking and almost passing out. I remember insulting one of our companions´ dance moves. But not much more than that.

Thursday 21-08 - The church

2008-08-23T18:35:00.010+08:00

Again we slept in.

We went down to breakfast/lunch to find the rest of the group recovering from a long night. They were planning on hiring bikes and riding around the city. We thought this sounded like a great idea. We went with them to the bike place.

On the way one of the girls commented on how short I was. At the bike rental we put down deposits and paid the fees, then we were given the bikes. It was only then that I realised their bikes came in only 2 sizes: too big for Emma and too small for Emma. The bike was so tall I could hardly get on it. I wanted to go with them, but there was no way I could the monstrosity without falling over. I would have to be in constant motion the entire time. So the rest of group went off while the three of us got refunds. I felt a bit guilty. Dani had really wanted to bike around one city on our trip, but we hadn´t been able to.

We took out refund money and had a nice lunch instead. It started with sangria. Then tasty tuna belly salad with asparagus. We shares some tapas of patatas bravas and tortilla/tomato bread. I felt a whole lot better after the meal.

The Sagrada Familia. It really is a most outstanding church. Each little detail is magnificent. I love Gaudi´s attention to detail. I love his style. We were told by the hostel people not to bother buying a ticket to get inside. We trusted their advice so we walked all around the church before heading back.

We found the place to get the cheap sangria we had seen people drinking. One euro for a litre and a half of sangria is insane. We went up to the roof with the rest of the big Australian group. They were playing drinking games. They wanted us to join them. At first I said no and watched. Drinking games are not good for a person who can´t drink much.

Eventually I gave in and started playing with them. It probably wasn´t the best idea. It was a fun time though. Looking over at the other table on the roof, there were people we hadn´t met yet. They turned out to be some nice Canadians, Americans and an awesome Finnish guy. I sat with them for a while and we listened to Finnish guy tell us about the army service there.

After drinking we set for the shot bar. Every one had been talking about this bar with a huge shot menu and everything only cost 2 euro. It sounded too good to be true. We went down with everyone to this bar. Across the wall were boards packed with words and phrases. Every shot name one could possibly think of. We spent time staring at the wall, trying to decide what to get. I settled on a verano loco and a snoopy.

Dani, Josh and I had read about a club set up like a carnival. Bumper cars and fair rides at a bar. It sounded amazing and was only a few blocks from the shot bar. We took the Finnsh guy with us and went to find it. It was ok, nothing too spectacular. I think mostly because it was empty-ish. It would be great if it were packed with people. We only stayed a few minutes then headed back to the shot bar.

Well, we tried to, anyway. We got lost with our drunk directional skills. 20 or so minutes later we found the bar again. The rest of the group had already moved on to their next drinking spot. So we stayed a little longer and had a shot called banana (banana liqueur with a candy banana in it). I was getting really knocked out so we decided to head back. The four of us caught a taxi and made our way home.

Wednesday 20-08 - The mountain trail

2008-08-22T19:13:00.007+08:00

We had planned to wake up by 9-30am and get out into Barcelona. Instead we woke up at midday. No really minded though, we desperately needed the catch up sleep. We lazily washed and dressed and then headed down to the kitchen for lunch. We had the most enjoyable meal I´ve had in a while. We had slices of Spanish Tortilla with salad and tuna. I had eaten nothing but hamburgers and hotdogs and chips in Belgium. The salad was a god send and the tortilla was delicious.

Then we set off to the mountain in the South West corner of the city. It is the place that houses an olympic area and a castle. We didnt really want to see either, but the mountain gardens and view seemed like a good idea.

We caught the metro to the foot and of mountain and promptly got lost trying to get up, in the heat of the Spanish day. The path of stairs we saw when we found our way was canopied by trees. We were thankful for the shade. Up we went. Slowly at first, but Dani and I started to race. We ran as fast as we could up every flight. Panting, we were only a few steps from the top (I was winning) when Josh snuck in from behind to take the gold.

At the top of the stairs was a tuck shop so we bought strawberry and white chocolate magnums. They were amazing as we sat looking at the view.

All around us were gardens. We walked through the paths surrounded by green. I watched the other people around us as I went.

It was relaxing and cooler than before. This place seemed so different from the bustling city.

We were looking for a part of the mountain that was full of over 800 types of cactus. We found the place,but most it was fenced of for works.

So we looked around for a bit then started to make our way down the mountain. On the way we passed through more gardens, a restaurant and a hotel.

Down the mountain we found ourselves at the port. We walked by the busy port streets and past the tall coloum of Columbus. We walked down to the curvy bridge out a giant shopping centre. There we found a place by the water and sat for a while, watching the fish that swam beneath. It was really nice.

The book said this shopping centre had an H&M. Josh had lost his jacket in the haze of Madrid, so this was a good place to find a replacement. As we entered we saw a stall selling flat caramel things. We had to have one.

We found Josh a jacket and browsed the stores for a while. On the way out we found a chocolate shop with amazing looking delicacies. We had to have them.

From the port we strolled up La Rambla. La Rambla is the very big and very touristy walking street. It is the place you think of when someone says Barcelona. It is also the place you think of when someone says "watch your bag in Barcelona". Living statues line the sides of street like the hard candy of M&Ms. The chocolate centre is the tourists, packed in between the street performers. It was fun to walk though.

We side tracked into a food market with colourful stalls. I love the look of food markets. The candy stores and the fruit stores always look so full of colour and shapes and patterns.

We reached the part of La Rambla that I remembered. Back in 2001 when we went there with our parents, I recalled the kiosk along the street selling animals. Birds chirping loudly and turtles everywhere. I was looking for them this time around and finally there they were. Except now when I looked at them all I saw was appalling conditions and sad, sick looking animals. A few years can make such a difference.

Back at the hostel we had food and drinks and went out with the hostel group. The hostel had a guy whose job it was to take people out to bars and make sure they had a good time. We went with them to a bar that had a jazzy cover band. The place was cramped and most of the crowd spoke English. I wasn´t really into it. We stayed for a while and had some drinks but left after a while.

Tuesday 19-08 - A new day Barcelona

2008-08-22T00:55:00.005+08:00

...The rising sun was our alarm clock. Drifting through sleep and consciousness we sat outside the station in Madrid through out the night, until it opened its doors near 6am. In a daze we picked up we things and headed for our train. We didnt really talk much, we just kept walking. On the 3 hour train to Barcelona I got some sleep, leaning on my hand.

We found our way via Metro to the hostel. Well, first we got lost by the poor directional skills of the tourism office girl. But we did get there and when we did I was most impressed. We stayed at the Sant Jardi Sans. A bit out of the central area but still in walking distance. It had all the modern conveniences and free sheets/kitchens of a large chain hostel. But was actually quite small. Small enough for the staff to know every guest´s name and personally show you around and point out the best sites on a map. They were friendly and truly seemed to care about your stay.

We showered (yay!) and then went to find some groceries. We sat for Spanish tortilla baguettes which were amazing. We then spent a lot of the day with a much needed blog and photo catch up. We did this until we couldn´t concentrate anymore. Then set out walking towards the centre of the city. It was nice. We walked through local streets with the warm air around us. We would stop every block or so to check out shops. We stopped into health food shops and bakeries for snacks. All very relaxing.

We found a giant chain book shop. There we bought a TimeOut guide to Barcelona. I was browsing the comics and saw the most amazing travel journal comic. It was covered in printed material and called Conejo de Viaje (Travel Rabbit). It was all in Spanish. I bought it anyway and planned to work through it as I got better at the language.

We sat for coffee at a slightly touristy place on Rambla de Catalunya. It had baileys and tasted heavenly. Turning around, we realised we were sitting right near a famous Gaudi house.

Metro back to the Hostel. Went to bed early.

Monday18-08 - everything falls apart

2008-08-22T00:17:00.003+08:00

I think it was always heading to be one of those days. We woke up at the bright hour of 6-30am to get off the train at Henday. The final stop was Irun. We move quickly to the ticket office only to find that the only way to get to Barcelona was from Irun. Thanks who ever sold us the overnight tickets. You were a real help.

So we catch the local metro to Irun (getting very confused as it pronounced like ichun). There we fumbled our way to the international station at 8-30 in the morning. We queued in line and got to the front only to find that every train to Barcelona or Madrid was sold out until 3-30 in the afternoon. Not only that, there were no available trains from Madrid to Barcelona that day leaving after after we would arrive.

I had a small freak out. I just couldn't deal with it all. I thought my head was going to explode. Dani grabbed me and hugged me and told me everything was going to be ok. We stood there for a short time. I let her hold me until I could breath again.

We formulated a plan. We booked the train we could get plus the 6-30am Madrid to Barcelona for the next day. It was the earliest we could get. We took our bags and walked the near by streets. We found a reasonable private triple room in a Pension a few minutes from the station. We would spend most of that day recharging. We needed it. I hadn't showered since the Wednesday before, almost a week. I felt disgusting. Finally I got to wash my hair and scrub myself down. I felt so refreshed. Next we walked around until we found a shoppuing centre with a laundromat. We shopped for food and did a well needed clothes wash.

we got tea and coffee. We sat by the washing machines dunking dinosaur shaped chocolate cookies. I felt a lot happier than I had a few hours before. One thing I did notice was the language. we were in France,right on the west border with Spain. But all anyone spoke there was Spanish. It was my first real chance to try out my Spanish learning. I used it to find our way to the shops.

3 Oćlock came and we rushed back to the station. we spent the next 7 hours of that train getting to Madrid. We arrived at 11-30pm. We were still exhausted. We hadn't gotten a decent sleep in a real bed since before pukkelpop. We were numb as we moved from the train to the last runs of the metro from the North station to the South. Half the line was under reconstruction so we had to get off half way and take a special bus. Somewhere on the metro Josh managed to lode his jacket. I dont think anything really registered for us anymore.

Off the bus and into the other train station. It was just closing down. We were too late to drop our bags in a storage locker,so we were stuck with bags and tents for the night. We had 7 hours to kill, through the middle of the night in the middle of Madrid.

we were all so tired we became quite grumpy. At the drop of a pin we would make snarky remarks to each other or sarcastic responses to reasonable questions. We were also the poster children of indecisiveness. Eventually we decided to call a cab to find us a place to be. We wanted a late night bar that wasn't too busy so we could keep our bags with us. The driver Max knew only a little English. I tried to explain what we wanted with my limited Spanish and did an ok job I think. We remembered a cafe mentioned in the lonelyplanet that had amazing chocolate drink and churros. It stayed open all night. Max knew the place and took us straight there.

The place was hidden down an alley behind some closing pubs. The decor was almost Art Neuvou. The waiter was smartly dressed. The serviettes were blotting paper. The churros were indeed unbelievable. So was the chocolate sauce. We ate slowly to kill time somewhere warm and light and safe. Then we ordered juices that we drank even more slowly.

Just after 3 we were too tired and caught a cab back to the station. The driver was crazy. We sat against a wall by the station that was well lit and had a security guard near by. There were still a few hours before the station reopened its doors. Luckily it was a hot summers night.

We lay on our backpacks, drifting in and out of sleep....