Sitting at the Dock...

... of Southampton

OK, so I live in Southampton, so this doesn't really count as me going away, but last weekend someone came to visit me and it was magical.

I picked them up from the airport early last Saturday and we took the bus to my house, quickly catching up on some lost time. We then went for a day out in Southampton City Centre and had a great time shopping and wondering around hand in hand. We spent about half an hour having coffee and lunch in the Starbucks inside Borders and proceeded to wonder around the shop. In the end we spent about two hours wondering around Borders before finally deciding to move on to other stores. We had planned to go to IKEA at some point during the visit, but I refused to go during the weekend as everyone knows IKEA on a weekend is just short of a death-wish. We briefly visited the Apple Store, Curry's Digital and John Lewis. We spent quite a while in Primark and eventually decided to go home to dump the shopping and come back into the city to go out for dinner. On our way home we popped in to Whittard's and spent about forever in there; we found a few teas and hot chocolates we wanted to buy and they were on offer 3 for £12. We spent so long trying various different ones and eventually settled on some Aztec Chilli Hot Chocolate which was awesome, some Turkish Apple Tea, and some Mango and Passion Fruit tea which were both fantastic!

That evening we ate at Frankie & Benny's, we originally went to T.G.I. Friday's but there was a half hour wait for a table. I couldn't help myself and went for the burger which was great! It was quite a romantic dinner and I think we both thoroughly enjoyed it. The next day, Sunday, we didn't get up to much, we got up quite late and had to go shopping for food in order to cook dinner, but as fate would have it we arrived at the Supermarket just as it was shutting and so couldn't buy anything. That night we were meeting my friends at the pub so I decided to just eat at the pub a little before they got there. The night with my friends didn't go exactly to plan, but it went quite well. And my friends all remarked that they thought I had made a great choice, a good catch if you will, despite their shyness/quietness.

Monday was spent mostly at home; I had a couple lectures and a meeting to go to but it was nice to have someone to come home to for a change. I had intended to take them to meet my Jiu Jitsu friends that evening, but we got a bit carried away and started cooking dinner very late, so I decided not to go and just stay in. We had a few nibbles followed by a fantastic salad of my own creation with a dressing from Mexico that tastes of amazing-ness (an actual taste you know!) and then a brilliant Spaghetti Bolognese cooked by yours truly with some creative input from my guest. It was so good and I learnt a few cooking tips and tricks which was good!

Tuesday was our last day together, and I spent the first half of it writing an essay that ended up being several days late anyway. Then the plan was to go into town and have dinner in IKEA, but by the time we'd both showered and gotten dressed, it had gotten a little too late. I had bought tickets to the Laughter Lounge, a fortnightly comedy club at my student's union, and they usually sell food there so we had little choice but to eat there. Sadly when we got there I found out that they no longer did food like they used to, no more hot dogs and burgers, just nachos and chicken wings. We ended up having two combo-platters which were quite good, but the onion rings and garlic mushrooms weren't very good for kissing if you know what I mean. The comedy night was really good, with a nice MC and ever improving acts. We bumped into two of my Jiu Jitsu friends and their house-mates so at least they met SOME of my Jitsu friends. Afterwards we went home, finished packing and enjoyed our last night together.

Then on Wednesday morning at approximately 0530 I drove them to the airport where after check-in we spent our last half hour together having coffee. They remarked just as I was about to leave and they were about to go through security that this was the first time we would part knowing exactly when we would meet next! Needless to say I can't wait for these next 14 days to pass.

I won't relate to you our exploits in the bedroom because one is not supposed to kiss and tell and I don't quite want to go parading it across the internet (even though I practically have on some other websites), just know that they were great!

Camels and Straws

Shrug...

A little upset today... I hate how I'm such a strong person 9/10 times but then just that once, I'm crushed.

Well something happened that annoyed me today. But perhaps I need to backtrack a little... Here at Uni I have 4 best friends. 1 of them is in the year above and so I rarely see her. The other three live in the same house, so whilst they don't do it on purpose they often do things spur of the moment and forget to include me.

I had kind of organised/proposed that we go to IKEA this evening for £1 meatballs for dinner. Two agreed it was a good idea and would propose it to the third, the one with the car.

So I called a little earlier to see if we were still on with the plan, and they tell me they can't be bothered to go into town *again*. I asked what he meant by "again" and he said they'd just been down to go buy a football, some boots and a pump, and also go to Primark. All these things are right next to IKEA and we could easily have rescheduled for half an hour or an hour earlier (when they went down) but instead just went without me and now don't want to go again.

I hate to sound so damn pathetic/dramatic but I hate being excluded, on purpose or not. And now I have to put on a brave/happy face and go with them to the comedy night. Bleahhh,.....

A holiday amongst the stars

Well it's Thursday, which means I have taken way too long to write this post!

My life has once again taken me to a far away land. Last Friday was the birthday of the most special person in the world; they are my life, and I wouldn't have missed it for the world!

The tragedy of this story is that this person lives 550 miles away from me! I've found that it's an 8 or 9 hour trip no matter which way you look at it! But I did the trip gladly, I'm only sad I can't do it more often!

I took the first bus/coach of the day from Southampton to Heathrow, leaving at 6:30am! It was an easy enough trip as I slept most of the way, but it was the first of many stages. I checked in at BMI's new premium check-in section, which was very nice, and the lady was very helpful. I should have gone to the Duty Free and bought a bottle of Champagne or something, but I just went straight to the BMI Business Lounge which was right next to my gate. I was travelling Business, or Premium or whatever they call it now-a-days. It was great, it's THE way to travel in my opinion. And with the free Wifi I managed to post a DailyBooth while I was in there. Finally arriving at Edinburgh I took the bus into the city centre which was very nice, or it would have been had it not been for all the road/renovation/restoration/improvement works that were going on. It was a giant building site. I then bought a ticket to Leuchars, and had to wait 20 or so minutes for my train. Then it was a short bus journey from Leuchars to St Andrew's.

Arriving at St Andrew's I began walking towards the town centre and I hadn't gone more than five paces when I saw the most beautiful sight in the whole world, waiting for me at the street corner. I ran up to him and hugged him, perhaps a bit too hard, and gave him a small peck on the cheek. I walked with him to his lecture, so I could at least see a little part of the university, and left him to do Spanish while I went for a wonder.

The rest I'll leave to the imagination, mostly. It was his birthday so we went for dinner first, then a flat party in his halls, followed by a night out at the Student's Union! The dancing was great, and got a bit frisky by the end of it (thanks to the Alcohol).

The next couple of days we spent together, on Saturday he cooked for me, and that was fantastic! And on Sunday we ate out for lunch before I tragically had to leave for home :(

To sum up, I had the best weekend of my life! And I can't wait for it to happen again! :)

Uno, dos, tres...

Recently, for my DailyBooth I was asked to give five facts about myself, now usually I find it really difficult to think of these things but once I got the ball rolling, I couldn't stop! Which unfortunately lead to me writing a hell of a lot!
So I thought I'd share these 5 facts with you! Here they are:


1) I like making new friends, and to be honest I make them pretty damn fast, if the person is nice and open :) But regardless of how quickly I make them, my friends mean everything to me and when I make a friend, they're a friend for life! Unless the wrong me, but even then I'm quite forgiving and I believe most people are good and so deserve second chances. If I ever call you a Best Friend, then you know that I will always be there for you no matter what!

2) When I was little I was super shy and very insecure, I was bullied at times and to overcome it I became a bully for a while. All to deal with my insecurity and longing for social acceptance. Then (thankfully) one day I decided I didn't like myself like that, so decided to change and become more confident and just be myself, let people decide if they like me or not for who I am, not for who they want me to be. This is mostly me jumping into things biting the bullet as it were, which helps me confront my insecurity head on, but I must admit that insecurities are often still there. One just tries to overcome them!

3) I LOVE to help! I have never felt helpless and think I have lots of people to turn to when I'm in trouble. So I despair when I see someone in need, I love to help people! I feel I have already experienced a lot in my (so far) short life and so I can relate to lots of different situations, and I love giving advice. It's something I do automatically and without thinking, which considering I don't always articulate my thoughts well, I tend to blabber a lot sometimes which in the end doesn't prove as useful. But I do seem to give a lot of advice.

4) I have been gifted with great friends and a great family. And that family, namely my parents, has allowed me to travel a lot in my life. I Love travelling, I have visited most of Western Europe and both East and West US Coasts. I've been on safari to Africa, and to the beach in Dubai. I've had it good. And I love travelling so much, that when I saw my first plane
ever I knew right then and there that my destiny was in Flying. I'm currently studying Aerospace Engineering (Rocket and Plane Science) and next year I hope to go to Pilot school to become the most bad-ass commercial pilot ever! I love flying so much!

5) I couldn't decide what to write for my fifth fact. Perhaps my Love of Stargate (I've seen it ALL!); or CSI; or NCIS (I LOVE Gibbs!!). Or perhaps that I'm good in bed, or that I can't talk about myself easily. But I think I'll finish it off with the fact that I shamelessly can't help myself blabber my mouth off when asked to explain something about myself even though I consider it impossible to talk about me!
Or my indecisiveness? :P

Now you know a little bit more about me!

London Baby!

So after some nothingness in London I decided it was time to return to Southampton.
Turns out I returned to nothingness there too! So after a week of gauge-out-your-eyes boredom I got that "London's Calling" feeling and decided to return to the homeland.

On Thursday the 10th it was a lovely sunny day, so I decided to spend it in Central London. I bought a return ticket to Waterloo (£2.70) and walked from there. I went via Westminster and Downing Street towards Trafalgar Square. From there I continued on to the Bond Street and then Oxford Street. I went along Oxford Street (popping into the Apple store in Regents Street briefly) and carried on until Tottenham Court Road. I made my way down to Covent Garden having done a sufficiently large loop, and looking on the map finally realised how close Covent Garden is to Waterloo. The trip took me three hours, which included some dilly dallying in a couple of shops. My main aim was to learn lots of new routes for when I'm in London.
That evening I had a long over-due reunion with my good friend Ben, from back in my St John's days. He very kindly offered to meet me in Wimbledon and we went to the Village for some drinks. We hit the Fire Stables, a fantastic 'gastro-pub' off the High Street. We got through two rounds there, over an hour of chatting and catching up. It's great when you have such a good friend that literally years can go by without you seeing each other, but once you meet, you just pick up where you left off as if only a weekend had passed.
After a couple rounds of drinks we were starting to get a little tipsy and hunger was setting in. So we made our way to Strada which is a fantastic Italian restaurant on the Wimbledon Village High Street. I ate a fantastic pizza called "Speck" which has lots of mozzarella, Italian ham, and rocket. It was a very good night and we managed to chat a lot about lots of stuff.
I fear I'm using the word "stuff" or "things" too much, but that is in truth the best way to describe it, also I don't exactly remember the details of the conversations, though obviously a lot had to do with our friends from school or how and what we were doing now at university.
We had desert and paid the bill, it was a very good meal and we were positively full by end of it. We decided that since the conversation was good we'd continue at a pub that is the favourite of one of our mutual friends Mike. It's called the Rose & Crown and is just off Wimbledon Common. The conversation carried on and finished on a high I think, including some great revelations!
Friday was pretty unpleasant weather so I didn't get up to much but Saturday was a beautiful day again, and rather late in the day I decided to finally satisfy my dinosaur cravings that I'd been having and go to the Natural History Museum. I again got a return into London (this time getting off at Vauxhall) and walked from there. I walked past the SIS building, and through Belgrave Square (where a lot of Embassies in London are located) and up to Knightsbridge, then on to South Kensington.
I Loved the Natural History museum, and I saw almost all of it's exhibitions! Except the Creepy Crawlies because, well they're called Creepy for a reason!!
It was fantastic, and the pictures can be seen on here:




On Sunday I saw Ben again, and I caught up with a huge bunch of other people I used to hang out with. We took part in a pub quiz and generally had a great time. I spent the night at Ben's house, in his spare room at the end of the garden. It was great, and his house is very nice (quite different from the last time I went!)
And so Monday and Tuesday so far haven't been very busy, I've just been relaxing from all this excitement! Now I'm pondering when to go back to Southampton, it's Boat Show time and I think I really need to go!!

Strolling

After quite some time of rather dreary weather today was finally a nice day, and as a pure coincidence I decided it was time to get out of the house, after all it's just not healthy to be indoors for so long!

I plugged my iPod and set off; I like to walk into town, it gives me an oportuinity to listen to my iPod and reflect on life, love, 'cos maybe all it takes is a little understanding... plus, the difference between walking is 10 maybe 15 minutes and £1.50 which suffice to say, isn't really worth it.
I went to Waitrose to take advantage of their Ecover product offer, which ended today, and so I got lots of cleaning products that are nice to the environment, yay me! On my trip to Waitrose however I realised that the day was in fact a lot nicer than I had thought, and jeans were a bad idea. So I came home to drop off my pollution-busting purchaces and quickly donned some shorts. They're brand new shorts that are quite tight, so I couldn't fill the pockets as I usually do, but worst of all they're Orange! Now I like orange, but I couldn't think what colour shirt would go with it, so I stuck with the pale/pastel pink Lacoste Polo I was wearing. It seems alright at the time, but upon further reflection, perhaps not; what do you think?

Well I set off into town, shorts on, iPod plugged in, and bag over my shoulder. I took my favourite white hoody because you never know how or when the weather's going to change! I was cornered by a guy from this charity that helps people all over the world feeding the hungry and stuff and he managed to bleed £12 a Quarter from me. I'll probably pay once and then cancel the Direct Debit. I love to give, but I can't support 3 charities at once! Two is already taxing, I may have to drop them too.
I arrived at IKEA (where else?!) and promptly got a cup of coffee. I sat in the caffeteria for a while, enjoying my coffee and my Harry Potter book (which is in Spanish). After finishing my coffee I strolled around the shop and showed exceptional restraint in only buying stuff I needed! (mostly). I went back for a stroll around town, and was starting to get very hungry. I walked into McDonalds, but promptly walked out; I decided that I was going to go for something cheap and (kind of) healthy, and the best place for that is IKEA! I had their meatballs with fries and gravy (ok not very healthy but got to be better than a Quarter Pounder!), an apple, a bread roll, and a tea, all for £1!!! (AKA super cheap!)

Now I'm excited about returning to London, I've decided I'm getting up early, and going to go touristing around for a bit. All on foot! (almost, just to save on the travelcard!)

On which note I'll wrap this up, don't want to bore you!

One last thing though! When I got home, I had to put the bins out (for tomorrow's collection) and I found this massive spider had tied it's web to one of the bins. I felt bad having to destroy it :(



Ok, it was two last things (and this is becoming very long!) but I was saddend to see that broken sun flower is broken :(

Home is where the heart is...

Well I've just spent another lonesome week in Southampton, and I'm likely to be here for a while longer.

Why am I here? None of my friends are here, no-one I know is in Southampton and I haven't left my house in days!

I guess it's because this place is home now, I have my bed here, my computer, and all my stuff, here. Everybody else is at home, with their parents and the rest of their family, seeing their old friends from school. But I am not. My parents moving to Mexico put a damper on things, it's not like I can go and see them often or anything. And even if they were still here I lived miles away from all my friends and half of them are now scattered across the world so it's not like I'd be a lot less lonely.

It's very clear to me that I need to get out of here... but where do I go? Summer's not nice when you rather be somewhere else.

But I guess September came along fast, and since I do have quite a lot to do it'll probably go quite fast and before you know it Uni will have started and I'll be having the time of my life!

Because you Live, Je t' ecris...

"Es dificil en tan solo unas palabras, poder describir lo especial que has llegado a ser en mi vida;

pero lo que si quiero es agradecerte por todos los gratos momentos que hemos compartido y en los que has traído tanta felicidad a mi corazón.

Definitivamente el compartir contigo, ha sido una gran bendición del cielo."

To save you time, I provide the translation bellow:

"It's difficult in so few words, to be able to describe how special you've become in my life; but what I do want is to thank you for all the fond moments we've shared and in which you have brought so much happiness to my heart.

Definitely the sharing with you, has been a great blessing from heaven."

Sense & Sensibility & STFU!

I was debating whether to delve into the usually controversial and problem-causing waters of politics and current affairs, but there are some things that are really grinding my gears at the moment!

Naturally, as with most of the world's problems, the USA has something to do with it or is involved somehow.

First of all I feel compelled to defend the NHS. It, like any other system, has it's flaws, big ones, but in principle it is a brilliant idea and if it managed to get its act together it is what every other country should aspire to have. They may have long waiting lists, but health is a human right, and the state should care about its population and provide them with the health care they need, period. The US's system doesn't work, is biased, and helps too few people. Change is a vital part of life, the Democrats promised it, so they should now deliver, the Republicans need to get a grip and stop dragging their heels, change can be good! and it's what the world needs now.

Secondly, Abdelbaset Ali Mohamed Al Megrahi, known as the Lockerbie Bomber and recently released from prison on compassionate grounds. The world is up in arms about it, the US is pissed off, Libya is having a party, and London is brown-nosing everyone. Now I don't claim to be incredibly knowledgeable about this topic but I'd say I'm just above average.

The only crime here is the way the Libyans treated Al Megrahi on his arrival, as a hero! A hero of what?! Seriously what are they trying to say? He's a hero because he killed 270 people? He's a hero because he beat the justice system? He's a hero because he's innocent? I just don't see how in any way he can be labelled a hero. Libya what the hell are you doing?!

Scotland, I can totally see what you were thinking. Here's a guy, who about 10 years after the attack you managed to convict of the bombing. It took you 10 years to put together some pretty shaky evidence, and I think you knew that if it went to appeal or was re-tried it probably wouldn't stand up that well. He's also an old man, who's dying of cancer none the less, and who's served 8.5 years in prison. Now 1 year in prison is no pic-nic, let alone 8, and did I mention he has cancer, which isn't one of those die quietly in your sleep / no pain kind of diseases, so he hasn't had it easy. So three months before he's supposed to die, you let him out, I think that shows some compassion, which is what you were aiming for, well done!

London, Westminster, the UK government, whatever you want to call yourselves, seriously, what are you playing at?! First of all the USA used to be your BFF, since WWII none the less!! Be nice! put your arm around it's shoulder and comfort when it needs it! Obama is the new C in C, and he's a no nonsense kind of guy, you can't sweet talk him like you did ol' Dubya, he's not a politician he's a human, who needs to be talked to like one! They are certainly a better friend than a North African dictatorship!! You seriously need to stop brown-nosing Muslim ass. I think relations with North Africa and the Middle East are important, and we need to accept them as they are, confrontation solves little, but neither does submission!! You shouldn't be playing with them whilst turning a blind eye to their faults! And if it was for Oil then "ashamed" doesn't begin to cover what I feel. You should start acting like the Superpower that you are, but you also have to work to earn that status! Gordon, I feel so sorry for you, but you should really get out. I may even just about be willing to agree that you were one of the best candidates to get us out of the recession, but you fail at every other aspect, and a PM needs to be an all-rounder, and you're not, so go, please, for both our sakes. David, I have to admit, you've got the personality, you're engaging and charismatic. But I'm convinced you have no spine, you aren't clear about your aims, you aren't decisive nor progressive. I have to admit, you are going to suck as a PM, it's just not for you, go do PR for a company or something, just not PM please!

As for my American friends, you have plenty of problems to deal with, get over the Lockerbie thing, seriously. Tragedies happen but we all have to move on! You're a young nation and still have that revolutionary thirst for blood, the more civilised nations over here are kind of over it, you should really get started on that road! We're not going to kill Al Megrahi for some sort of crappy revenge. You shouldn't be criticising Scotland but Libya, and maybe a slap on the wrist to London, but forgive them, and take us back! We still want to be BFFs!

SW19 to those in the know

What to say? What to do?!

Well after my brief trip to Sommerset I went home to Southampton... and it was a good week. It's nice to be at home and once again have my command centre at my disposal!
I spent the whole week watching season 8 - 10 of Stargate SG-1 as well as The Ark of Truth movie, and a few CSI season 9 episodes. Basically lots of TV :P lots of sitting around and lots of doing nothing. Well, I say nothing, I always ended up spending a lot of time on MSN talking to certain people ;) and twitter and DailyBooth take up their fair amounts of time.

I planned on leaving for London on Wednesday, to arrive at the same time as my friend Fausto was returning from Salt Lake... but Wednesday was rainy and I don't like rainy, so I was waiting for it to stop so I could make it to the train station all dry and all. Alas it didn't, so the revised plan was to leave on Thursday morning, getting there ASAP.

As fate would have it, on Thursday morning one of my best friends calls me and asks if I'm in Southampton, I concede that I am and invite him over for tea. We had lots of tea and a very good chin-wag! It was good to catch up, tell eachother all about our holidays and what we were up to until Uni starts in October. Eventually he got in touch with one of his housemates so they could let him in! So he went to move in and I went to have a shower and get ready, finish packing and left the house!

On my way out, as I was walking into town I get a call from another best friend asking the same thing, if I was in Southampton. I told her yes, and offered to go to IKEA for coffee. We met up in town and made our way to IKEA for a bit of shopping and of course Coffee (free :D).
I finally made it to SW19 just in time for dinner, so I didn't get to see my friends until Friday.

Turns out not to have been to bad, I went to Kingston to meet up with them and we had lots of coffee and we walked in and out of Waterstones and Borders. But it ended up being quite boring, my friend Alex was broke so he couldn't do anything. So I've spent the rest of the weekend with my surrogate family here in SW19 and have been maxing relaxing (and talking to a special someone on MSN).

So yeah, like a lot of other people's lives, a little boring! :P

Where dragons rest

The day my parents left for Mexico, on Monday the 17th, which just so happens to be a my cousin's birthday (well one of them :p) I left for Somerset. Final destination: East Horrington (near Wells) via Bristol Temple Meads.

One of my best friends, with whom I went to primary school, well I know his family really well, and Tuesday the 18th was his little sister's 18th birthday! So having come back to England sooner than expected I was invited to attend the celebrations. I did what I could to help out with the preparations, though to their credit (as can be expected) everything was already sorted. The party was on Tuesday evening and it went rather well! I helped man the door as it was strictly invitation only, but thankfully we had no gate-crashers! It was held in the function room of a small hotel near Wells's High Street. The food was good, the music was... alright, and the company was great. I had a wonderful time!

On Wednesday I went up Glastonbury Torr, and on Thursday went to Tarr Steps and Exmor... I tweeted all about it :p Even though not much happened. It was a very relaxing holiday and I had a fantastic time.

I left on the Friday in the middle of the afternoon, which was good I think, having spent 5 days I didn't feel I had over-stayed my welcome, but I didn't quite feel compelled to stay longer, so it would seem it was just right :)

I'm sad that now my tweets come out of my monthly text message allowance :( but oh well, it was going to happen SOME day...

A little bit of Sol

So, family trip... stressful, very stressful, but I do enjoy them I have to admit.

My sister is studying Hospitality at Les Roches in Switzerland, and this summer is on placement at the Ritz Carlton in Marbella. It's a very nice hotel and she's having too much fun there I think :p

The family trip was organised to go visit her, and she took a couple of days off and spent them with us.
We also have some friends who have an apartment there and a speed boat!

I must say we didn't get up to much. The holiday consisted of driving to one town, eating and drinking... going to the beach and sunbathing... went on the boat once, and then more eating out.

Just as holidays should be :)

It was a little stressful with the going to and fro to different places and stuff and trying to co-ordinate several people's schedules... but all in all a good time.
And I finally got a semi decent tan... but out of the 5 days I only sun bathed on three of them, so I felt that I could have done with a bit more... but I think that's me done until Christmas :(

It was also good to see my Sister again, and I spent a lot of time with my parents which was nice(ish) as they weren't working for once :p

My parents, my brother, and I returned to England and met up with some old family friends. I had a great time catching up with them all, and Sunday dinner at a friend's house was fantastic!! Will have to go back there more often :p

An abrupt end, and Lufthansa

While I was going loco down in Acapulco (thanks Tom Jones :) ) in a phone call with my mum an interesting proposal was put on the table.

I was offered to return to Europe almost a month earlier than planned, and to join my family in a holiday to Marbella in Spain. It took a lot of considering to come to a decision.

I didn't quite want to return because I had spent the first month paying way too much attention to my Mum's side of the family, and not much to my dad's. And considering that on my dad's side are the cousins I get on with best, I felt I was missing out on a lot!

On the flip side, I was really far away from someone I care about a lot, and thought I should jump on the oportunity to reduce the distance by 90%... I still wouldn't be with them, but I was convinced that being closer, or at least in the same time zone would make me feel a lot better.

I asked just about everyone and received a fairly consistent message of "GO!" so I did.

I changed my ticket to a few days after the rest of my family were leaving, so I could have a little extra time to see my cousins and then I jetted off back to civilization.

I flew Lufthansa which I will take this oportunity to say is AMAZING :) The food is great, and the blanket and pillow (in Economy) were fantastic. It was a feather pillow!! (with a plastic case for the alergic people) and a cotton cover!! And the blanket was very warm. The service was great, the only down side to it all being lack of individual IFE system :( but small price to pay I think!

Acapulco

Don't panic, my last post was long...

and this one will be brief... maybe... I'm not good at brief

There's only so many lines I can fill yammering on and on about how I sat around all day watching TV, sunbathing and reading!

I was devistated that my trip to Mexico wasn't going to include even a short trip to Acapulco for some much needed sunbathing! Thankfully my aunt called me up and asked if I would join her and my cousins on their trip to Acapulco. So the weekend after Oaxaca (again with the weekend) I set off for Acapulco!

Not much to say. I met my cousin's boyfriend which was interesting. He's really nice, shame he's a bit ugly, but then I can't really talk can I?!

Food was great, though unfortunately there seemed to be a bit of a bug going around Acapulco because four of us fell rather ill (myself included). It wasn't Swine Flu before you start! :p but yeah, that put a damper on things.

Mind you, ill or not, 5 days in Acapulco ill or not, was much needed.

My only complaint is that I got a bit lonely, despite having my cousins around. I guess it was the lounging about, but I had hoped that I'd take a certain someone to Mexico and Acapulco would be one of the main pit-stops where we could lounge about together. So that depressed me a little. BUT swings in roundabouts...

Polo Polo & Oaxaca

So, like most people it seems that travel often falls on weekends... and everybody knows the weekend starts on Friday, or sometimes even Thursday, but sadly must end on Sunday :(

So after Tequisquiapan, from which we returned on the Sunday morning in order to make it in time for Tea at grandma's, the week was fairly uneventful, but plans had taken shape for the weekend :)

On Thursday my cousin took me to go see a stand up comedian called Polo Polo. He's Mexican, old, bald, but funny as hell!! My cousin had promised to take me since I was sixteen! five long years ago. Alas this comedian is also an alcoholic (or if he isn't you wouldn't be able to tell) and so all his shows are done in fairly small bars that have a drink minimum... naturally I had to be eighteen before I could go. Crazily enough my 18th came and went and it wasn't until this summer that he finally got round to taking me. It was hillarious, I had such a brilliant night, and discovered that I actually quite like Jack Daniels!

Early on Friday morning my mum and I left for Oaxaca (at like 6:40am) to catch up with my aunts and uncles (who had left on Thursday) to go sight-seeing for the weekend. We stayed in a super-cool boutique-y hotel in Oaxaca city center. We rendevoused at a place called Monte Alban where there used to be a massive Aztec city... with plenty of cool pyramids and temples and stuff.

After Monte Alban we went for lunch at this increadible restaurant known as (though not actually called) the 100 dish buffet. Basically it's all you can eat, massive buffet with loads and loads of different dishes... I didn't quite count 100 but it looked like it could have been! So we totally pigged out and were pretty pooped. There was an awesome plane in the garden, a very old one (I'm not good with the old model numbers and stuff, so forgive me). Basically it was almost like heaven :p

That evening we went around the central Square and went to a couple bars, which was fun... basically lots of talk...

The next day we hired a tour that took us to five pretty awesome places. Firstly was the "Tule" tree, named after the Tule plants that grow around it... It's a massive tree who's age is estimated at 2-4000 years old (they're only certain it's older than 2000). It's not that tall, but even it's 42m height is quite a lot (twice as tall as the church next to it). It has a 58m circumference and is as deep as it is tall... and weighs 636,107 tons!! It's big.

Then we were taken to Mitla, which was a place built by a race previous to the Aztecs that were dying out, and this was to be their final resting place. There are no huge pyramids or things like that, just some tombes and a small palace. But the remarkable thing is that it's still there (in an earthquake prone zone) and its ancient pain is still on many of the walls!! It's super cool and pretty :p

We were then taken to lunch which was followed by a demonstration of how the locals make Mezcal which was a pretty sacred drink of the Aztecs but now anybody who wants to get wasted fast drinks it. Its made from the more spikey looking cactus (there are lots of diferent types...) and tastes similar to tequila, but is not the same. Not a fan I have to admit.

Then came Hiervel Agua, which comes from the Spanish meaning "boiling water". It's a spring, at the top of a cliff where water comes out (duh)... but this water is very high in salts and minerals, and as it falls down the side of the cliff (very slowly, like a small trickle) it evaporates in the sun leaving the salts and minerals behind. Over millenia, this had formed some giant white structures (of salt etc.) that look a lot like water falls, made of rock in essense... so they're knon as the frozen waterfalls... because that's what they look like... an utterly amazing sight!

Finally we stopped of at a town known for making some stunning carpets, all hand woven and hand coloured. All the colouring is done naturally from plant, bug and seed extracts... I won't go into the details of the colours but they can make literally any colour just by mixing the right ingredients... and just about any pattern, it's crazy how amazing these people are. Respect.

That's the major Oaxaca stuff, and I highly recommend going there if you get the chance! It's a fantastic place!

Tequisquiapan

So I while in Mexico I went to Tequisquiapan. It's a small town in the state of Queretaro, about an hour and a half's drive from Mexico City.

My uncle (from mother's side) married a very nice lady quite a few years ago, well she's awesome, one of my favourite aunts and her parents have a house in Tequisquiapan. So she asked to borrow it and organised a BBQ type thing for my mums family, but extended family was invited, so my mum's cousins and their children came!

Not everyone was able to turn up but we managed around 35 people!! This was awesome because this is a frequent thing on my dad's side, but a new idea on my mum's. (however on my dad's side we pull in around 150+ people...) This was a fairly uneventful weekend but it was very pleasent. I met lots of distant relatives and got to speak to a second-cousin or uncle who is a pilot and has taken me flying before.

My cousins (those mentioned in the previous post) took my uncle's scooter for a ride (without permission) and fell off it... one of them was fine, but the other was baddly scratched and she had to go to hospital, though it wasn't that serious. I felt kind of bad, because I didn't have any simpathy for her, she's not a nice person and I though Karma had the last laugh on this one.

Mexico

I will try and give this a little bit of order, but don't expect much!

So, at the end of June I went off to Mexico for my holidays. My family lives there and I went to spend the summer there. I was hoping for a relaxing break after a very hectic academic year, but alas Mexico is nothing if not hectic, well Mexico City at least. I have an Aunt who lives in Valencia Spain and she was down with my two cousins, so my first few weeks in Mexico involved spending a lot of time with them. By the end of that I was ready to shoot myself, they're quite nice people but they do test your patience and are very very intense.

The only reason I go to Mexico really is for the food, because Oh my god the food is amazing, but mainly my family. I really enjoy spending time with my cousins and dedicating my grandparents a couple days really makes them happy. Saddly I don't think Mexico is a nice place to live, not for too long at least. It is a very young contry founded by people who are only in it for themselves, it's run by a very selfish society. And worst of all, as it is a developing nation it seeks to emulate and grow into a developed nation, and the one it seems to copy is the USA. I don't have much against the US but I don't think that the way it does things is necessarily the best way. The US is changing a lot, it is vastly improving by reducing it's capitalism, it's pollution, and improving it's healthcare system. But it hasn't gotten there yet, and Mexico won't improve until the US finishes it's evolutions which will take a while.

I'll post about my great and mini adventures both in Mexico and out of it.
Stay tuned...