6 February 2004
Earls Court
Time is just a-flying. Seems that way at least. Which is actually kinda surprising since I haven't been doing anything.
We all went out to the Richmond last night for the first time in ages. It was a "moving out party" for Naomi, and it was a good turnout. Definitely a lot of fun. I think I may have had something slipped in my drink though. I woke up this morning with the mother of all hangovers, and I never get hangovers - I've maybe had three in my life. And I only had 4 beers last night over 6 hours so there's no way it was from that. But aside from that it was a good night.
So today is Waitangi Day, which means there are going to be lots of drunk Kiwis out celebrating this weekend. The main attraction seems to the be The Circle Line Pub Crawl tomorrow. It involves hopping on the tube - Circle line funny enough - and getting off at every stop on the line and having a half pint (or pint depending who you talk to) at the first pub you stumble across. There are nearly 30 stops on the Circle Line, so there will be some seriously pissed Kiwis roaming about. I think I'll be giving that one a miss, but it'll be good fun to see the state of the Kiwis when they get home tomorrow night :D
8 February 2004
Oxford, England
Talk about a spontaneous trip. Saturday morning, I'm just rolling outta bed at about 11, when Cynthia comes back from the internet. She decided it was high time she got out to Oxford to visit her friend Nicky from Malawi. Still half asleep, I figure 'Why don't I come too?'
So just over an hour later, we're sitting on a bus out to Oxford, cursing the English weather, and the stupid little voice that told us wearing a light jacket would be just fine. The bus ride cost only 8 for next-day return (thanks for that student card Gray - very useful little thing) and took about two hours, and it was very uneventful.
Nicky was still at work when we got into town, so Cyn and I just wandered around and took some cheesy photos, and basically just froze to death in the cold. But all was not lost, we found an actual honest-to-goodness shopping mall! I didn't think they existed in Britain. Anyhoo, we managed to find some cheap sweatshirts - 8 for a hoody (something I've been wanting to have for months - I love hoodies!) and by that time Nicky was off work.
We went back to her place for some very tasty spag-bol (spaghetti bolognaise for non-English slang speakers) and some wine, and some Malawi gin, and then it was off to the local establishment for some drinks with Nicky's friends. I have to mention that I spent a grand total of 3.20 on drinks last night - chivalry isn't dead after all! We followed the drinks up with a late-night dash to a Thai restaurant and proceeded to breathe fire for the next hour - I forgot how spicy Thai dishes can be. We managed to stumble back into Nicky's place about 1-2am-ish, and promptly all three of us passed out on her rather small bed...very cozy :D
This morning we were up early because Nicky had to work. Cynthia and I were too tired to do any more sightseeing - and we saw pretty much everything there is to see yesterday. So it'll probably just be straight to the bus stop and back to London.
13 February 2004
Earls Court
Back in London once more. Well, Sunday was a pretty uneventful day. Cyn and I just caught the first bus back to London, ad did nothing the rest of the day. We were both pretty wiped.
There hasn't been much going on the last week. A lot of new people have moved into the hostel though. It's good to see some new faces. The newest addition to "the gang" is Olivia (Aussie). She's a load of fun, and she's offered me a place to stay when I head down under next year. Most of the newbies are randoms though - doesn't look as though they'll be sticking around for long. Sort of along the same topic, Layla is going home on Sunday. It was a pretty sudden decision, but she decided to head back to Jo'burg for a few months and come back in the summer. It will definitely be quiet without her around.
Tonight should be interesting. Jess has wrangled us all into going out to the Earls Court Tavern tonight for a pre-Valentine's Day "Meet your Match" night. It's supposed to be more a battle of the sexes than a singles thing, and it better be, otherwise I'll just walk right back out again! It should be a lot of fun though. Callum is coming down from Aberdeen for the weekend, and a lot of people are planning on turning out for it.
Tomorrow is Danny's birthday, so we're gonna be heading out to a club in Fulham for a few drinks. We haven't figured out yet if it really is his birthday this time. He's had at least 2 birthdays already since I've known him :D Any excuse for a party...
Actually it's been quite fun lately even without going out. Everybody has been very flirtatious and upbeat the last week or so. The temperature is climbing, the days are longer, the flowers are blooming and everybody is flirting with anybody. Spring fever is definitely in the air.
20 February 2004
Earls Court
Friday night turned out to be a non-event for Sian and I. Neither of us were really in the mood, so we just chilled back at the hostel with some of the boys. Everyone else had a good night at the Tavern though.
Saturday night was good fun. It was actually Danny's birthday this time. The club was really good. It was a fancy dress night with everybody wearing the name-tag of a celebrity. Since it was Valentine's Day, the object was to track down your celebrity match. So if you were Jennifer Aniston, you would have to find the person who was Brad Pitt. We didn't actually know about this before we got there, so we just sat back and watched the fun.
On Sunday, Cynthia and I went to see Cirque du Soleil's Dralion. It was an amazing show. Dralion is just the words Dragon and Lion merged together, and the entire show was themed on Africa and China. The Chinese Acrobats were absolutely incredible. We left it a bit too late to get tickets unfortunately, so we ended up in the Standing Gallery, but the view was still quite good. The only problem was the family with the obnoxious 5-year old brats, and the loud and annoying teenaged Spanish girls who decided to park themselves next to us. Otherwise it was great.
Nothing else this week really. Just a lot of people moving on in the next couple of weeks. Layla went home last Sunday, Sian is moving out this weekend, Shaun is going to Italy, Brett is heading over to Belfast, Matt and Sam are going to Brazil next month, Danny is either going with Matt and Sam or heading home for a visit, Emma is going back to Oz for a couple of weeks, Gail is heading back SA for about a month...That pretty much clears out all of the long-termers. The place is going to seem pretty quiet.
26 February 2004
Earls Court
The end of yet another month draws near. Lately I've had that bizarre sensation of time flying yet not seeming to move at all. During the day to day, it seems to be moving so slowly, but when I stop and think about the fact that I've been here for 8 months now, it seems to have just flown by. I've also just realized that this is my halfway point for Britain. 8 months down, 8 months to go.
So, on Friday it was Jess's birthday party. It was a very drunken pub crawl. I actually didn't drink that much, but Jess had been drinking since 1pm and was determined to keep going...and going and going and going. At last count she had 20+ drinks over 10-11 hours. It was about this time that she (understandably) passed out in the street on the way home. It took 4 of us to carry her back to her flat, but we made it there eventually. Quite a fun night all around.
Saturday, Steve and I - this would be the Steve that's been coming and going since the summer - went out to Islington to see a travel show. Turns out Phoenix Expeditions (the company I was looking at doing my safari with) was there and they were offering a 20% discount for booking at the show. With a minimal amount of arm twisting I decided to go for it. So 1000 poorer, I'm now booked on the Istanbul to Cape Town portion of my trip. Unfortunately, the expedition doesn't go through Ethiopia any more - it was becoming too dangerous and difficult to keep going - and that was a part of the trip I was really looking forward to. But oh well. C'est la vie.
So with the money that I saved on the expedition, I decided that I needed to take a little trip for Easter. The original plan was to go to the Canary Islands, but they proved too expensive. So then the plan turned into going anywhere warmer than here. Cynthia and I scoured the web and the travel agents for anything we could find, and last night we reached a consensus. The two of us, plus Emma and Olivia, are going to Majorca for 4 nights for a good old fashioned girls weekend. Only 229 each for flights, self-catering apartment, and local transfers. The apartment has it's own pool and it's only about 500m from the beach. All good. I just booked it this morning, so it's not 100% confirmed yet, but hopefully everything comes off without a hitch.
