Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Photos of trip!




Ok, I thought I'd post a few of my favourite pics from our little adventure.

'The line'. Need I say anything else?

I really like this one taken of Boo and I at the ruins at the base of the Big Hill

Not the clearest of pics as I borrowed it from Tru's album but it shows how damn windy it was atop the Big Hill!

Poor Alex, looking jet lagged, bemused and slightly scared after spending his first hour with us.

I just think this is such a Reservoir Dogs walk! Don't they look tough!

I've said it before and I'll say it again, Matt is a real sweetie for putting up with me! Who else would don a tiara and get out of bed especially to give me cuddles?

Smerk and Alex before the radio interview. We had trouble keeping a straight face the whole way through it!

Tru, dressed to kill, or at least to inflict serious heartbreaking injuries.

And finally, I suppose I should post this one of my attempts to dress 'goth-like'. I believe I failed miserably and ended up looking more like a 1920's harlot.

Ok, that's about it for now. I've got more I can post later but my fingers are frozen stiff and it's hard to hit the 'upload' button!

Tuesday, May 30, 2006

When No means 'No, I do not want another piece of fucking cake!'

Ok guys, Mum and I came home five days early from our trip as it was one disaster after another and I had just had enough.
The day I left Edinburgh I had started to get a sore throat and I just got sicker and sicker as the days passed, making me feel miserable enough as it was without the numerous other incidents that occurred along the way.

We arrived in London Monday afternoon and Mum astounded me once again with her complete lack of direction, getting us lost on the way to Buckingham Palace (in fact we ended up about as far away as you could get from the palace without actually leaving London) which was very convenient as it started raining, heavily the moment we got into town.
The next morning we took a tour on one of those open topped buses which started out fine, albeit cold and we saw the dungeons, Madame Tussauds (sp?) and took a cruise up the Thames. Then it started to rain, again and we got absolutely soaked therefore leading us to the decision to not do the London Ghost walk for fear of hypothermia setting in.

Wednesday morning we set off for Berlin and when we arrived we discovered, after catching a taxi, that our hotel was 4km away from Tegal airport, not the airport we had just flown into. And so a 40 euro taxi ride later we were dropped off in front of the dodgiest hotel ever! And I mean dodgy. Mum and almost ran for it right there and then but we soldiered on and found our room to be not quite as dilapidated as the outside indicated. We went for a quick walk around the immediate area and figured out which trains to catch the next day to get us into the city centre (mum was amazed that I only took 90 seconds to work out the underground system as we have nothing like it in Perth).

The next day however turned out to be a public holiday and the whole city shut down. We had one full day in Berlin and we couldn't do much at all to explore. We caught a crappy bus tour that just pointed out the sights and then we went to the zoo and aquarium. I was rather shocked to see that they still keep lions etc in concrete cells as I'm used to Perth zoo which is world renowned for it's conservation and habitat-simulating methods. It was rather depressing all in all. We then walked up to Checkpoint Charlie and then headed back to the hotel where I proceeded to finish re-reading Hippo and started again on MoH. Oh and I also stood up too close to the radiator in the bathroom and now have a nasty bruise on my shoulder blade which hurts like all hell.

Berlin was rather disappointing to tell the truth. I was told by my cousin that there's heaps of old buildings, which I adore, but I found that not to be the case at all. As it was so heavily bombed during the war and then rebuilt, most of the buildings are quite modern and ugly. Plus the people there are awfully unfriendly.

Anyway from there we headed to Frankfurt where my second cousin and great aunt picked us up and took us to Biblis, a quaint little town near Heppenheim made all the more lovely by the nuclear power plant half a kilometre from the town centre. Obviously 'Chernobyl' doesn't translate!

This is where most of my troubles started. I was still sick with a cold, my asthma was playing up because of all the goddamn cigarette smoke in Germany and only my second cousin spoke a splattering of English. I am a social creature and found it really hard to cope trying to communicate with a few words and gestures. Most of our conversations revolved around the weather and simple concepts like 'what a pretty butterfly'. Plus there's the fact that I was missing Christian terribly by this stage and hadn't had a cuddle since I'd left Edinburgh.

Now, one thing I've learnt about the German's (or maybe it's just my rellies) is that they love to eat. And they want you to eat lots too. You will eat all that you can possibly fit in just to keep them happy but it's not enough. They will then proceed to stitch your arsehole closed and keep on shoving food into your mouth. It's ridiculous. I got so frustrated by having to say over and over 'No thankyou, I'm full. I can't eat any more.' (although it went more like 'Nein danke, I can't eat any more' with lots of gesturing). I seriously started to lose my temper after two meals with them.

That first night I ended up at the hotel in tears and almost hysterical saying I wanted to go home. I think mum was a bit worried about my sanity at that point as we rang Qantas the next morning and changed our flights to Sunday night. The hard part came trying to explain to the rellies why we were running away. Mum ended up just blaming it on me being sick and hoped for the best.

That's pretty much the main reason's why we came home early. Lots of other little things went wrong along the way and it rained every day except for the last day I was in Biblis but I'll leave them for now. I can only fit so much whinging into one entry after all!

I'm home now thankfully and enjoying just being back on familiar ground. I would give anything though to spend another few weeks in Edinburgh, as that was so much fun!

Sunday, May 21, 2006

And so it comes to an end...

Well, here I am, sitting at Flora's puter, depressed, not looking forward to tomorrow. Everyone else has departed, and now only my mother and I remain. The last two days have been very sad as one after another, members of our little group have had to say farewell.

I arrived here eleven days ago and straight away I felt like I had always been here (except for the freezing off of my butt constantly). Everyone got on so well together, we were all a bit surprised actually. Sarah is just so sweet but also much naughtier than we were led to believe (which is a good thing!), Flora and Rowenna are just like Barb and I and so I felt very much at home with them, Amber is the pharmaceutical queen who has a drug for every occasion and is just gorgeous, Matt is a big sweetie who never complains about having to give a complete stranger hugs and Alex is just so wonderful. We were all rather scared about meeting Alex as we think of him as 'God' but after the jet lag and sleeping pills wore off he quickly fit in with us and gets my two thumbs up of approval as he let me use his shoulder to slump on constantly.

We have gotten up to so very much and I'll post more in depth later when I get home, complete with photos but Edinburgh is just lovely. We've got so many in jokes and sayings now that I'm sure we'll piss of everyone else in the forum as we just spout out random quotes that we all get but will mean nothing else to the rest of the regulars.

Anyway, that's about it for now. Tomorrow morning will be hard for me as I have to say goodbye, but I'm sure in no time I'll be home again and chatting to everyone on MoH. Plus there's the up side that I'll get to see Sarah fairly soon.

See you all in a couple of weeks.

PS COWS!

Tuesday, May 09, 2006

I wanna travel on a jet plane, get on board a fast train, far away...and break away.

Just thought I'd post one final time before I leave for bonny Scotland since I don't think I'll really be arsed to post while I'm away. I might, but I doubt it.

I am so excited about my trip but in one way I really don't want to go. It's only been dawning on me in the last day or two that I'll be away from Christian for a whole month. That means that only 11 of the 12 months in this year I'll be spending with him! It's scary as all hell. I keep on grabbing him and hugging the breath out of him in an attempt to store up on hugs before I leave.

*sniff*

I'll miss my beloved Christian so much.

I am excited though, honest! I am very much looking forward to it. Only one day to go!

Sunday, May 07, 2006

The Count Down Begins

My philosophy this weekend was to cram as much as I could into three days so the time would fly by and then the day I leave for Scotland would be so much closer!

On Friday after work I met up with a Kat, a girlfriend of mine who works with Christian. We were going to Sexpo, an adults only exhibition being held at the Perth Convention Centre. We didn't really know what to expect as we'd not been before but we were both thinking it wouldn't be as risque as it was made out to be. Upon entering our minds were changed by the topless women handing out brochures. If we got to see boobs within thirty seconds it couldn't be that prudish!

We both had immense fun there. We rode 'The Gerbil', a ghost train with a bit of a difference. Apart from the fact the handlebars were erect dicks, we were bamboozled with scenes of bondage, S&M and golden showers, not the sort of thing you'd find at the Royal Show.

We got to have a feel of all the vibrating goodies at a toy stall and we bought showbags and then headed off to see a strip show and a lingerie parade.

We left to go get some dinner and met up with Christian, Dan and sexy Mike who had been having their own fun at a nerdy Magic tournament. Apparently there had been a geek punch up, however the bloody noses didn't stop the nerds from playing for long and soon all was forgiven.

We headed off for a few games of pool, Kat and I enjoying ourselves immensely as Mike got changed in front of us. Then we all headed back to Kats place until the wee hours of the morning, finally getting home at 4:30 to find two very hungry dogs waiting for us.

Last night we went to a Tarantino Theme party for a friend's 25th. It was a great night but we didn't stay out too long as we were both pretty buggered. After one of the guys demonstrated his fire baton twirling skills we headed off, but not before I remembered to get some pics (I always take my camera but never remember to take any photos). The ones of me and Christian were taken here before we went out but the rest are from the party.

This is me as a very unconvincing vampire

Christian as Mr Pink


Dan as Kevin from Sin City

Mike (not sexy Mike, but still rather hot I reckon) as Seth from Dusk Till Dawn, some random guy I don't know dressed as some character I don't know, and Glenn, dressed as a generic victim from any number of films


Julie, our lovely hostess, dressed as Alabama from True Romance

So, soccer this arvo, last minute packing and shopping for stuff I've forgotten tomorrow, then off to catch up with my sisters before I leave, work on Tuesday and then Wednesday I leave. Yay! See, the time is flying by already!

Thursday, May 04, 2006

In a past life, I was Santa.

My most favourite part of Christmas is buying present for everyone. I just love buying stuff for people. I probably don't make the best selections, but as long as I'm having fun, I say 'What does it matter?'.

So when I discovered that it was going to be a whole group of people coming to Scotland, I went into over drive and started shopping. I've bought everyone a little something, I just hope that I haven't gotten then something they will hate. For most of the pressies I shopped at Australian Geographic which is one of my favourite stores but I didn't limit myself to just Australiana, especially for Smerk. Why buy her a stuffed Kangaroo when she can drive past a dead one on the side of the road? (Ok, I apologise, that probably wasn't necessary...).

I just hope I can fit it all into my luggage. I guess there's always my hand luggage though...I'm sure I'll manage :-)

*note to self* If Acci doesn't end up making it, I must remember to get his postal address so I can send his over. Not showing up isn't enough to get out of getting a pressie!

Tuesday, May 02, 2006

Weddings, parties, anything

My Dad gets married today. I'm rather upset as he chose a spot some 9000 odd miles away and so I couldn't attend. I wish Dad and his new wife Di all the best of luck for their future together.

Another reason to celebrate is that in a week (and a few hours) I will be getting on a plane and heading to Edinburgh where I shall finally meet Boo and a host of other wonderful people. Will the world come to a crashing halt? Only time will tell. However, it is a reason to party, even if it is an end-of-the-world party.

And onto the 'anything' part. I have realised that I have read very few new books lately as I have a tendency to re-read my favourites. So here's a list of books that I have recently devoured with a note next to them on how many times I've read them.

Hippo Eats Dwarf by Alex Boese (once - sorry Alex, I haven't had a chance to read it again as yet. However, I do happen to have a 20 hour flight soon so there will be plenty of time for that then)

Omnibus by Grant Naylor, also known separately as Red Dwarf - Infinity welcomes careful drivers and Better than life (twice)

Polgara the Sorceress by David Eddings (more times than I can remember, at least fifteen but probably more)

Wizards first rule by Terry Goodkind (yet again more times than I can count but I'd guess about ten times)

The Plague Race by Edward Marriott (twice)

Black Maria by Dianna Wynn Jones (five times)

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J K Rowling (ummmm, I don't think I'll saw how many times I've read this one as it's kind of embarrassing...)

Assassain's Apprentice Trilogy by Robin Hobb (three times. On a side note, I fell in love with Fool and Nighteyes from this series. Just thought I'd share that with you all)

That's about all I've read in the last six months. I haven't really had a chance to read much lately, which is why, apart from enjoying the stories, that I tend to re-read books. If I get busy, I can put it down without wondering desperately what comes next.