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...