I also forgot that on Friday 23rd evening, I went up to San Francisco to have a meal with Daga before she left for Poland and the UK. We went to a rather nice little Indian place, and it was delicious. And it was also very sad saying goodbye to Daga. :(


So, woke up fairly late on the 24th with the intention of heading down to Santa Cruz around 1ish to help Mads with the evening's meal. What actually happened was that Anh called me and asked if I wanted to come over for food, which turned out to be a huge Christmas feast with his family. Which was awesome. There was some really delicious meat there too, which I'm glad I didn't ask what it was until after I had eaten it. A pig's liver, heart, arteries, stomach and lungs can actually be quite tasty.

Chilled out there for the afternoon, beating Anh and his brother quite spectacularly at Halo 2, before driving down to Santa Cruz via a shopping place to buy 2 litres of Bacardi Gold Rum, a bottle of Port and some red wine. Picked up Patricia on the way too, and had a nice pleasant journey down the 17, with much fewer near-death experiences than usual.

Meal was *fantastic* (Much Kudos to Mads), and after a little euro-politics over a glass or two of Port, the serious partying started. Everyone drank loads, and there was much dancing and singing to Christmas songs.

Of which I have some recorded.

The people who ended up staying for the night were Anh, Patricia, Mads and I, though Collette (a girl from Germany who I'd met at a party a few months before) and Viola, her friend, also stayed for most of the night. Between us we managed to drink pretty much all the Bacardi and a fair bit more. We played a whole bunch of drinking games (Anh got me a set of drinking games for Christmas :D), and finally got to the whole "I have never". Great stuff.

Collette was supposed to be driving Viola home, but she was completely sloshed and by 4am I was sober (sadly. We were watching Home Alone though, which I hadn't seen in a while, still as amusing as ever) so I drove her home instead.


After not much sleep we got up, cleaned the house up, had breakfast, and had a wrapping paper fest. I hadn't expected people to buy be presents, but Mads had got me a whole bunch of stuff for the car I had just bought of him, and Patricia gave me a really cool San Francisco t-shirt. So yay :D

After chilling out, and having a left-overs breakfast (the gammon was especially delicious, especially when fried with free range eggs fresh from Mads back garden), we decided to go see Fun With Dick and Jane. Absolutely *hilarious* film, great stuff.

We all went home after that, though Anh and I hung out for a bit more before going to get Christmas dinner at Denny's. That's right, I had Christmas dinner at an American Diner. After watching a movie in the afternoon, I felt like a true American :D


Boxing Day was *not* a day of rest... instead it was a day of being even more American and spending an hour battling for car parking spaces in a huge mall, meeting Patricia, Saldy, Kristy and Phoebe for some Boxing Say Sales Shopping. Boy, was that fun. Got myself some new shoes though. Wheeeeee!
Headed home 'round about 8 (after going to a second mall) and played Guildwars for hours.

27th was a mooch day. Went and bought some stuff for my car, then played Guildwars for about 10 hours straight. Got myself to lvl 20 finally, and wandered around exploring huge parts of the map. Felt very acomplished :D.
I also watched Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang. A most excellently hilarious movie, I recommend it to anyone. Hilarious. Also watched American Pie: Bandcamp, which was good for a good few laughs.


Today I mostly hung out with Patricia. Went and spent $56 on excellen chinese food for the two of us, wandered around downtown San Jose, went through the truly wonderful "Christmas in the Park" (loads and loads and loads of 1.5m high Christmas trees hat have been decorated by the local schools), got covered in fake snow, then went shopping and bought a nice jacket.

And now I must sleep, for I have a flight to Ohio and a week long aiesec conference tomorrow. This should be *fun* :D

Ooops?

So. It's been faaaaar too long since I've updated this, which means that you'll all be treated to another uber-post covering about three weeks of my extraordinarily interesting life. You know you love it.

Mon 5th: Work
Tue 6th: Work, with a trip down to San Jose for an aiesec Executive Board meeting.
Wed 7th: Work
Thu 8th: Work, followed by a Jazz concert, followed by the last GPM of the year. Good stuff. I won the "Most likely to kill the LCP (Local Community President, in this case Anh) in a road accident (a reference to the countless time's I've almost killed Anh on the road. Kinda amusing, really :D) Was excellent to catch up with some people I hadn't seen in ages.
Fri 9th: Went to the doctor about my hernia. Fun. Took work off, 'cos of feeling bleugh. Still had to go to San Francisco with Anh, Anh's friend and Gary in the evening though (me driving) because I had said I would. Went to the Aiesec SF's Crimbo Party, and despite arriving right at the end of the party (and missing a whole bunch of people), we took the party back to Robert's house. And what a house. He lives there by himself, 3 bedrooms, a kitchen full of alcohol (and cooking stuff that he *never* uses); the guy is sorted. We drank a whole bunch and played "I have never". Good times.

Sat 10th: Watched Narnia in the evening with Anh, Colin and Anna and some of his friends.
Sun 11th: Went to SFO to pick up Briony and her sister from the airport. Eventually found their hotel, and after a nice walk with them along Fisherman's Wharf, went to see Narnia again. This, I think, successfully conquered their jet lag. w00t.
Mon 12th: Slept for most of the day due to not being able to sleep at night because of pain :( Went to San Francisco in the evening though, to meet up with Alice and Sabine who were down from Portland. Also got pulled over by the police (I got confused at a junction and accidentally turned the wrong way down a street, with a cop car *right* next to me), but only got told to drive more carefully, despite not having my license on me. Phew.
Tue 13th: Died
Wed 14th: Still dead.
Thu 15th: Still dead, but managed to drag myself into work to do the stuff I had to do.
Fri 16th: Got woken up at 6 by Mads, and went down to Santa Cruz, bought his car off him, and came back up. I now own a BMW 325e \o/. Worked for the rest of the day. Went to Jan's farewell party in the evening and got fairly sloshed.

Sat 17th: Went into San Francisco in the evening for Daga's goodbye party. Went to an excellnt pub called The Bitter End, and chilled out there for a good 5 hours or so. There's a pub just across the road called The Dog's Bollocks. Excellent.
Sun 18th: Despite not getting home 'til 4am, I was up at 7 to drive down to Santa Clara, meet Agnes, and drive through the pouring rain to Santa Cruz. Spent until midday shopping there with her, great fun. Was also great just getting to hang out and chat. Driving back was also fun, as I started aquaplaning around a corner and almost crashed. woohoo \o/

Mon 19th: Work, then died.
Tue 20th: Work, then died.
Wed 21st: Work, Went down to Santa Cruz with Gary to one of Mads' farewell partys (He's leaving after WSC to go to China for a 6 month traineeship, then going to the UK for University). Great stuff, drank a lot but stayed fairly sober. Met a bunch of new people (and some who I'd met once before), and that was all good. And I was topless not 2 minutes after walking through the door... good drinking games :P Meant to leave around 11pm, actually left around 4am. Good stuff.
Thu 22nd: Work, then went down to Almaden to the Britannia Arms with Gary (who was driving) to meet Marissa and Tracey. Had an *excellent* night out, drank a *lot* and got pretty tipsy if not drunk. Excellent. Really, really good :D Didn't get home 'til 4amish. w00t.
Fri 23rd: Work, then home for a nice relaxed evening of GuildWars.


I'll update about my christmas weekend later today or tomorrow. Later, 'taters.

DRINK!


That's the 2nd night ina o2w that I've drun ,ots. whoohoo. Work tomorrrow, eh? wheeeeee

Ill, sorta

After watching a jazz concert last night, I got up to leave and found a really painful bump just above my bellybutton. Slightly concerned, I decided to see how it was in the morning.

Well, it was still kinda there this morning, so I went into the local doctors surgery to get it looked at, and aparantly I have a Periumbilical Hernia. w00t.

It's basically a hole inside my bellybutton that allows stuff like my intestines through. So that bump was most likely a bit of intestine trying to break free. Fantastic.


Aparantly, it shouldn't cause me too many problems... if anything tries to make a run for it, I've been told just to push it back inside. Forgive me if this makes me cringe slightly. My other option is surgery, but seeing as how the American medical system involves paying horrendous ammounts of money to get anything done, I may just wait til I get back to the UK for that.


So, fun fun fun. :D

Ooops?

It's been over a month since ROKS and Tahoe, and I haven't put the photos up yet. It's been a week since New York, and I haven't even started sorting the photos from that. I have 6 episodes of various TV programs to watch, I have plane tickets to book, people to meet, things to do.


I should maybe possibly actually think about starting to do something...

Of parties and hot tubs in the chill December air

I went and picked up a new rental on Friday (a green Ford Focus) that I'll have for 2 weeks before I buy a car. Yay. In the evening, I headed across to Anh's place, and we went down to San Jose to a music concert; the symphony orchestra and the woodwind group-thingy were playing, good, if a little long. After that, we both went across to Marija and Helena's place for a party, which turned out to be really, really good. Lots of drink and fun and games. And dancing. And drinking games. Good times, good times.

Gave Colin and Anh a lift back, and picked up a Christmas tree at Anh's place for the Christmas Party the next day. Colin managed to throw up over the car. Fun.

Saturday was pretty cool; I had organised a big Christmas Party for the whole of aiesec Bay Area, where everyone was supposed to bring some food along to share with everyone else. I ran around in the morning picking up bits and bobs, then spent the afternoon cooking at Patricia's house (I made cheesy mashed potatoes and sausages wrapped in bacon. I rawk :] ), before setting up the party with Patricia, Anh and Kristy.

Once people started arriving (an hour late, as usual), the party kicked off pretty well. And there was karaoke, and music, and everything was great. Would have been better if more people had bought main courses instead of dessert though. Played chubby bunnies too, which was *highly* amusing :D (Oh, how I miss Westbrook)

We moved the party back to the hotel then, so the serious drinking could start. Execellent party, it really was. Even if I had to drive 2 people up to San Fransisco at 2am. Didn't mind it though, I love driving :D

Sunday was also excellent. Anna had stayed over, so Colin and Anna came around for some breakfast with me (all the other trainees were in Tahoe for the weekend), after which we decided to go and see AeonFlux. Sadly, it was disappointing. The action and concepts were good, but the acting was bad and the dialogue atrocious. Still, entertaining. Headed back to the hotel after that, and after mooching around for the rest of the afternoon, went out for sushi in the evening. Sushi goooood.

Then, as soon as we got back, we decided to go out into the hot tub. There really is nothing like swimming in a warm outdoor pool in December, with the water glowing and shimmering, chatting with friends, with great chillout music playing in the background. Was just so awesome. Friends++
Got out after about 30 minutes, whereupon we watched Deuce Bigalow:European Gigolo (amusing) and Lord of War (really rather serious).

And now it's today. And I'm really, really tired -_-
That was one kickass weekend.

I may be drunker than a rat in a keg o'beer


Wheeeee!

Of small coins and misty breath

Why, oh why, when I'm trying to be healthy, do I go eat a fantabulisticly gigantic 1lb burger with *everything* on it? Bad move.

Anna came over on Tuesday evening, and after an hour in the gym with her, we went back to my room to watch The Usual Suspects with Colin, Gary and James. Excellent movie, just as good as the first time I watched it. Then started watching Have I Got News For You, which was possibly a bad idea, as I couldn't stop. Borris Johnson t3h funny.

Anna is coming over again tonight, whereupon we shall go shopping before relaxing in the hot tub at the hotel. Fantabulous.

o/~ New York, New York

Ok then. The big update. Ready?

Took a jetBlue red eye flight to New York on Tuesday evening. Anh gave me lift to San Jose airport, and the flight left pretty much on time. Usually, I don't have much problem sleeping on aeroplanes, but the one time I counted on sleeping, I couldn't. *Reeeally* annoying, so after arriving in New York at 6am (3am Body Clock Time) and getting to Farid's house (the guy I was staying with), I slept for a few hours. Woke up feeling refreshed, and after grabbing some breakfast with Farid, I headed out into Manhattan. I walked around Little Italy and Chinatown mainly, both of which were quite cool, and also headed north a bit towards the City Hall. Spent a good 5 hours there, before heading back to Farid's place to go to La Guardia to pick up Helena and Marija. Went out for some food that evening, before getting an early (2am :P) night.

Woke up early (7am >.<) on Thursday, ready to head off to Broadway for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Especially entertaining was Barny's leg hanging off, and hearing kids ask their parents if he was ok. After that, we went to a cathedral mid way up west central park, then headed across Manhattan to the tram to Washington Island, and got some good views of East Manhattan. Met Farid for food at a Turkish place (great food), before heading down to the Staten Island Ferry, where we went across to Staten and got some good views of the Statue of Liberty in the dark. And the view on the way back of the South Manhattan skyline was excellent, although the pitching of the boatd made it pretty tough to take any decent photos. It wa also absolutely freezing cold, easily -15 Celcius factoring in the wind chill. The rest of the day had also been cold, but no where near as bad as the ferry. After that, it was up to Times Square and Broadway (I *love* Times Square, so much better than Picadilly Circus) and the theatre for Phantom of the Opera. Good stuff. After that, we froze to death in Times Square for a bit before taking refuge in the New York Hard Rock Cafe, where we got some food.
Then, around 1am, it was back to Farid's for sleep.

8 am start on Friday, and we spent the day in museums. Went to the American Museum of Natural History, where we saw some excellent exhibits. Some really cool planitarium/lightshow things about space (One very much reminding me of the Total Perspective machine from Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy :D), one about the Galapagos Islands, and a very cool butterfly exhibit, where we got to see all these really beautiful tropical butterflies. I had one land on me, which was cool :D
After that, we went down to the Museum of Modern Art around 4pm, and got in free (thanks Target!) and spent a good 3.5 hours in there, looking around everything. Was *really* cool.
After that, we wandered around the area for a bit, ending up at the Rockerfeller Center, then meeting up with Farid and a friend of his from Chicago for some food at a cool pub-type place with it's own brewery. Had a pint or three of some really good beer and a great steak. Then it was back home for a movie and bed.

Started at 9am on Saturday (notice how we're getting up later every day? :P) and spent the day wandering around Manhattan, mainly the 5th Avenue area. Really, really great; Skipping down the road arm in arm with Helena and Marija was particularly amusing :D. Saw, amongst other things, Grand Central Station, the Chrysler Building, the UN building. New York Public Library, Times Square (again), Greenwich Village (and a good italian lunch), then went up the Empire State Building. Took 2 hours to get up because of the queue, but the views from the top were amzing. Would have been nice to jave seen it during the day, but the view at night was still pretty awesome. Then went shopping at the Manhattan Mall (got a great new hat :D), went into Macy's quickly, then wandered around Broadway for a bit before heading back to Times Square and muching on a fantastic all you can eat chinese buffet. Delicious.

Back to the early start of 7am on Sunday, we managed to fit a whole bunch of stuff in before we had to leave in the afternoon. First we went to Brooklyn Heights, with some spectacular views of South Manhattan and the Brooklyn Bridge. Then we walked over the bridge to Ground Zero, which was surprisingly emotional, and around Wall Street for a while and eventually found the bull, before heading up to a church that Marija wanted to visit. After that, we went to Central Park, and spent an hour there, ice skating. So cool :]

Cue a mad-capped dash back to Brooklyn and Farids house to pack things up, and then to the airport. I *almost* missed my flight, but somehow, both I and my bag managed to get on it. jetBlue is an *awesome* airline, cheap *and* with great customer service, friendly crew, and funny captains. Definately recommended. Finished reading my book, and got picked up by Anh and Anna when I landed, and after chilling out with them for a bit, hit the sack.

And that was New York. I think I prefer London to New York, except for Times Square and Central Park, but it was pretty cool to wander around and see all these famous places. I think spending one more day there so more time could have been spent in Central Park would have been good, but I had a pretty awesome time as it was. Muchos hugs to Marija and Helena... not sure how you put up with my zanyness for 4 days, but it was an excellent holiday.

And now, work for a month before Christmas and my insane running around the country.