Blurred memories

Sven's, Inge's and Swedish Meatballs

nadscol — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 15:00:00 GMT

OK, first and foremost i would like to write a retraction from my last story. I did not go to the city hall in copenhagen for a tour, the Nobel Prize Banquet is not held there, it is held in the city hall of Stockholm, Sweden. I'm sorry i got my days mixed up. I'm writing this a month late people and there is a damn good reason that this blog is called blurred memories!

So, i went to Sweden. And did a city hall tour in Stockholm evidentally. Sweden is lovely. There is unfortunately not as many tall, tanned, blonde, handsome young men named Sven as i was hoping but hey, maybe thats one of those unfair stereotypes. (On a similar note i got asked today by an old pommy guy if i was lived in summer bay - smartarse).

Anyhow Stockholm is lovely. Its alot like Copenhagen in the fact that there are more bicycles on the road than there are cars. No wonder everyone looks so fit and tanned. (Pay attention England and Australia! I think they are onto something here- if you provide good cycle roads people will ride to work, reduce traffic, and be healthier- it's not bloody rocket science!) Stockholm is made up of lots of little islands that are all interconnected. Its really pretty. There is an old part of the city called gamla stan (i think), and its all alleyways, cobbled streets, cosy stores charging ridiculous prices...that sort of thing. At the edge of this sort of is the royal palace. I went to the changing of the guard here too. Very different to the Danish one. Denmarks was musical and cheerful with fit looking mainly young men. Swedens was much more 'military', it was more like 'we are gurding something and not just putting on a show for the tourists'. Sweden is also a much more equal oppotunity employer in their armed forces. People i saw as part of the guards included: women, a woman who looked awfully like a man with a crew cut and everything- very g.i. jane, an old guy who looked at least 60, a fat guy,and a guy in sunnies. I thought it was pretty good.

After that we went to one of the more famous, yet embarassing museums in sweden, the Vasa Museum. This museum holds a very well preserved, very old boat. The story goes that in the 1500 or 1600s (can't remember the exact date) a big boat was built called the Vasa. On the day it was launched they put it in the water, it sailed about 1km, and sunk. I think it only lasted a few hours. Turns out the guy who built or designed the boat didn't really have much idea how buoyancy worked, and the thing was built all wrong and was always going to sink. Lots of innocent people died cos someone was a bit of a dill....or maybe just not very good at his job. The museum was really interesting, about 400 years after the boat sank they managed to dig it up from the harbour. It was in really good condition and alot of it was quite well preserved, sails, equipment, rigging, and the bones of some of the poor people that went down with it. Definately worth a visit, 2 thumbs up.

Stockholm was a very laid back relaxed place. I did the essential touristy things: boat ride, ate real swedish meatballs (no Damien the ones from Ikea don't count), saw the worlds first IKEA, shopped at ridiculously expensive prices, got lost, ate a lovely mixed plate of deer, reindeer, and elk. The first 2 weren't bad, but i didn't much like elk- much too strong of a flavour. When i ordered the plate i asked the waiter when it arrived which was which. He was pretty good but he completely forgot the word for deer. He stood there perplexed for a minute and said...'you know, um, Bambi!'. Needless to say i pissed myself laughing and enjoyed my bambi. We also went to one of the first ice bars. You know one of those places where everything is made out of ice and you wear a silly polar thing. It wasn't bad, but i expected there to be more ice.

The campsite we stayed at wasn't too bad but was in one of the outer parts of Stockholm. (NB be careful of lifts in train stations- you never know when the buggers will just stop without warning with you in them beteeen floors!- a few nervous moments there going into town!)Nearby there was a really lovely lake which we had campfires at 2 nights in a row and i got fully aquainted with my bottle of Baileys. The only problem was that the lake also seemed to be the drunk teenager hangout. I know this may be a gross generalisation but drunk swedish teenagers are some of the most irritating little buggers on earth. And some bastard stole poor Gavo's beer!

Good times, off to Norway next. Damn it i ran out of Baileys! And everything is soooooooo expensive! Scandi tan not making any progress really.

There is nothing like a Dane

nadscol — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 15:00:00 GMT

Ahhhhh Copenhagen….what can I say? Well for a start it was pretty damn cool. I don’t know what I was expecting going to Copenhagen for the first part of our tour. We left early from Berlin and drove north to Rostock to catch a ferry to Denmark. It was lovely. I suppose you could call it my first ‘cruise’; I don’t think that the Manly ferry counts really. This boat had duty free (Baileys in a plastic bottle! Bargain!) Sorry but it was a definite novelty to me. I’ve never really been ‘at sea’ unless you count the ferry to Rottnest Island or the ferry to the Isle of Wight. That kind of sounds dumb doesn’t it? Well I’ve never been on a boat that is travelling to a different country then. And it was pretty cool driving off the boat on our bus and seeing the Denmark sign.

The day we arrived we sort of did a sort of mini tour of the city. We went and saw the famous little mermaid statue and I must say it was pretty bloody disappointing. When you see it you’re like ‘is that all?’. I mean it was a nice statue and all but I don’t see what’s so damn exciting about it. I thought it would be bigger. After that we went to this place called Christiania. It’s kind of like a big hippy commune in the middle of some prime real estate in Copenhagen. I had heard stories about it and saw quite an interesting documentary on it before. It was a bit dingy. I don’t know what I was expecting, but what it was, wasn’t what I thought it would be like. Needless to say I didn’t stay long.

The next day we did a tour of the city hall (nice – I can see why they hold the Nobel Prize there). After that we went to the royal palace and saw the changing of the guards. Not bad, nice music. Just before the changing started this car drove out with someone sitting in he back, I couldn’t see properly but apparently it was the Queen Margrethe. So it’s pretty nice knowing I’ve been that close to royalty.

In the afternoon we had a cruise through all the canals which was lovely, although very chilly. So much for establishing a Scandi tan – I’m still pasty white!

That evening I was going to go to Tivoli gardens, a big amusement park in the city. But in the end some others and I decided that paying a fair bit to get in, and then having to also pay if you wanted to do anything once you were in there was a bit rich for our liking. We’re not made of money!

Anyhow, off to Stockholm tomorrow to hopefully see some lovely blonde, tanned young men named Sven.

Ich bin ein Berliner...again

nadscol — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 12:16:00 GMT

So I’ve finally gotten more than 5 minutes to tell you all about the most awesomest, fantasticest, bestest trip ever. OK, so I may have invented a few words there. But I had a damn good time. I know I’m about a month and a half behind and a lot of my recounting will be a bit haphazard but honestly the whole trip passed in a big blur.

So, here goes…..

As I had booked a ridiculously early flight with air Berlin from Stanstead (NB. A big pain in the arse airport to get to from where I live in London) I had to leave ridiculously early from home to get there in time for my flight. I had a taxi booked for 4am I think. So rather than go to bed early and attempt to get to bed super early to be well rested for my trip I thought bugger that, I’ll just sleep in lots the day before I leave and then stay up, she’ll be right. Now it was a good plan in theory but after a 4am taxi, a one hour bus ride on a full bus, a few hours wait a the airport, a boring one hour flight on a full plane, a half hour bus trip to the centre of Berlin and finally a momentary loss of direction in finding my hostel that resulted in about a 25 minute walk with a full pack, …I was feeling a little huffy, very buggered, a trifle stinky (nice hot weather they have in Berlin) and in dire need of a bed. It was about 1215. So, I finally get to the damn hostel to be told, sorry check in is not until 2pm. I could have cried. Anyone who knows anything about me will know NADIA IS NOT A MORNING PERSON, and, SHE IS A LITTLE GRUMPY WHEN TIRED. So I sat there, for nearly 2 hours, with my pack. Too exhausted to be bothered to go out and explore. I think I may have fallen asleep on their nice lounge. So when I finally got let into my room I had a lovely nap. I think I deserved it.

Anyway, enough about that. I didn’t have to meet my tour group until 5pm the next day so I had some spare time to explore Berlin. After a lovely nap and meeting a cool Aussie chick who was also on the tour we went off to explore. Seeing as I had already been to Berlin once before and had spent about 4 days there I had a good idea of the things I wanted to see, and where most things were once I’d found the main drag. Mandy, my new friend had never been so I became a quasi tour guide trying to remember all the things that I had been told about the city the last time I was there. I imagine I was a pretty haphazard tour guide but she didn’t seem to mind. We spent the next day together as well and then met up with our tour group.

The group was a pretty big one, mainly Aussies, nearly all chicks. Looks like there was no man of my dreams on thins trip. There goes that idea hey! Anyhow, no dramas, off we went for a big welcome dinner. The food was, well…... bloody awful actually. I was kind of like, “would you like soggy vegetables and sloppy chicken gunk with your salt?”. Not impressive!

The next day we went on a walking tour of Berlin focusing on the War. It was really interesting. The guy certainly knew his stuff and the history nerd in me was in absolute heaven. The strangest thing happened on the tour. We were looking at the site of Hitler’s Bunker and there was another tour group not far from us. I looked over and did a double take. I thought I swear I know that couple over there! Gosh they look familiar. But seeing as they were a little away and I didn’t want to yell out and make an arse of myself I kept quiet. Right through the tour I kept on seeing them but they didn’t obviously see me so I didn’t say anything. Then, right at the end I smacked right into them! Bit of a shock. It was some very old friends of mine from Goulburn (Lauren Downey and her boyfriend Andrew for those of you who want to know). I hadn’t seen Lauren for at least 8 months. It was crazy, you go all the way to Berlin just to see people from home.

The rest of the day was spent exploring more of Berlin. I finally got to go to the Reichstag – the German Parliament building. I had wanted to go last time I was there but didn’t have enough time. I must admit I was kinda disappointed. I had heard all these stories about it and its see through dome roof thing. I had heard the theory was that the people can always watch over their leaders because the leaders should be representing them. So in going up onto the roof I thought you would be able to see down into the parliament and see all the ministers sitting. I thought it was a wonderfully symbolic idea. But very disappointingly, you can’t see in. I was really disappointed. There was a nice view from the roof. It just was not what I was expecting.

After that when we were walking back to the hostel we saw this big demonstration going on with all these flags and music and stuff. As it turns out the Dalai Lama was in town. There were heaps of people there to see him speak. I didn’t hang around though. I have never been a big follower of the whole free Tibet movement.

That night we went out to a German beer place. The food was ok, the cocktails were great, the karaoke was dreadful, and as it turns out I’m not too bad at darts. Me and a nice German guy who worked there played quite a few games, lots of fun!

So the next day we had to get up early to go to Denmark. That is the life!

Off on a big adventure!

nadscol — Fri, 16 May 2008 08:52:00 GMT

Well theres only 8 hours to go and i'm off on my big trip! 36 days through scandinavia and russia. Can't wait! For the last two weeks of blissful unemployment i have been a woman of leisure. Long walks through the park, a lovely bike ride, i've gone to a west end musical with friends, shopped, slept in (alot), gone to the hairdresser, gone to a beautician to get 2 eyebrows (rather than the one that i was sporting). So it has been a hard life. Unemployment is nice, apart from the whole not getting paid thing.

So, i'll talk to you all in 36 days. Don't know if i'll have a chance to write anything. Please keep up with the comments and emails so i know you all still care.

No more Winchester!

nadscol — Sun, 11 May 2008 15:59:00 GMT

I'm officially unemployed. It's a new experience for me, seeing as i have never been without a job since i was like 16 (which was like 9 years ago-gosh i'm old!)whenever i have quit one job i have always had another to move on to. Hopefully you can understand my nervousness at this, and my elation! So as a woman of leisure i am enjoying my newfound freedom and lack of responsibility. My last week at work was lovely and i kinda felt bad about leaving. I enjoyed Winchester alot, both at work and where i lived. At home i had my first experience of living with a bunch of blokes- which was different. And messy. You think i'm untidy- you haven't met James, Steve, Emmanuel and his mate Suen. To put it succintly- our house was a bit of a bombsite. I think I had my room tidy in self defence. But beneath all the messiness and constant playstation they were fantastic blokes and i'll miss the boofheads and our constant trips to the pub to watch the football and have a few pints. I now can quite confidently say that i know a little bit about football. And i can't wait for the champions league finals. Go Chelsea! I'm sure that watching the football without the boys just won't be the same- especially cos i'll have to start paying for all my own beer.

Work was great. After a slow start in which i felt a touch out of my depth i definately learnt to really like the place. Everyone was fantastic- especially the girls Ami and Chaleigh - they really made me feel welcome. I'll definately go back, if only for a visit at least.

So for now its onwards and upwards- well north anyhow. I'm off on a big trip on the 16th. 36 days through scandinavia and russia. Can't wait!

The Queen and I

nadscol — Sun, 11 May 2008 12:57:00 GMT

So i finally made it ti windsor to see the Queen. Well i saw where she lives at least and the flag was up so she was definately in. I have wanted to go to Windsor for years and i must admit that i was pretty excited when Emma and i went for a day trip there courtesy of her birthday present from her mum and dad (castle entry, afternoon tea at a lovely hotel). I started the day pretty early (a 430am bus from winchester to london). I had intended to get back to london on the friday night but a last minute invitation to a night out in portsmouth changed my mind. Great night out, awesome dinner, great club, new favourite drink- kopperberg pear cider). So after a fantastic night out which resulted in me getting home to winchester at 2am, i had to get out of bed a bit before 4am to get to the bus on time. I deserved a much bigger hangover than i got- i suppose i was still a touch ummmm....festive maybe and thats why i wasn't feeling it yet.

Anyhow, i got to london a few hours later feeling a trifle seedy and frozen to the bone due to over exuberant air conditioning on the bus. I think emma was a lttle shocked to see me there so early (about 830ish- after the bus i had to get the tube back to her place). So off we went quite early to windsor. oh and by the way i am now the proud owner of a under 25 young persons rail card which gets me 30% off rail travel. I managed to get it a few days before my birthday. So yay!

Windsor is lovely. I can totally see why the queen lives there most of the time. We had a look at the castle, which was awesome- can i have a castle for m next birthday please?

I think my favourite part of the castle was seeing all the artworks. It is so amazing seeing artworks in real life that i had only seen in books.

One strange thing that happened during the day was when Emma and I were standing outside the castle waiting for the changing of the guards and emma said to me-

"Nadia theres this guy looking at you like he know you or something"

So i looked around and who did i see?

Well i saw a friend of mine named ryan who i used to go to uni with. He was the first person i met from my course. I sat next to him in my very first day in my very first class. So small world eh?!?

The rest of the day was spent wandering about windsor and eton wishing i had about a trillion extra dollars.

Lovely place. Wish i could afford to live there. I'll definately have to put forward my wedding to Prince Harry. He doesn't know about this yet, i'm sure it'll come as a bit of suprise to him!

I'm ooooooooooooooollllllllddd!

nadscol — Fri, 9 May 2008 12:00:00 GMT

Well it's official. I'm old. I've turned 25, a quarter of a century. I still like to think of myself as being in my early 20's (not mid 20's......i'll be there when i turn 29!)

Firstly a big thanks to everyone who sent me messages, rang me, emailed etc. It's nice to know i haven't been forgotten just yet. I had an awesome birthday. Poms are the best! The people at my work in winchester are absolutely lovely. Some of the girls were worried that i would be sad eing away from home on my birthday so they made such a fuss. It was fantastic- presents, cards etc etc. better than i have gotten at home at times!

Went out that night for much much much too many drinks with the girls from work and the boys i live with. Great thai, tooooooo toooooooooo toooooo many drinks (we got refused entry to a club in winchester!). More drinks, we ate some poor barmans biscuits- pete number 1 (go ami getting the guys phone number!- even after we relocted all of his biscuits and shared them with the whole pub).

anyhow, great times.

big thanks to mum, dad and laura for the awesome orange ugg boots. am trying to work out how i can justify packing them on my trip through scandinavia and russia.

old old old

Wighting up my life.

nadscol — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 05:24:00 GMT

I went to the Isle of Wight yesterday. I quite enjoyed it. Well parts of it. I got up at the ridiculously early hour of 730 on a saturday to get there. So i was thinking as i grumbled down to the train station "this had better be bloody good!"

And it was. Well parts of it (like i said). I heard various things about the isle of wight before i went there. Most of it seemed to equate to the fact that the locals there were fiercly protective of the fact that they were from the isle of wight and not 'the mainland'. Apparently even if you had lived there 25 years you still weren't really classed as a local. Well i certainly wasn't a local but didn't give a shit. I tookthe boat over, and immediately got onto the train to shanklin which was a town at the end on the line. I loved it there. Part of shanklin, what is know as the old town was one of the most pretty little places i had ever been in my life. Very olde english country with thatched rooves, gorgeous gardens etc. I went to a little teahouse nad had a lovely cup of tea and scones with jam and cream and was in some sort of heaven. It was so beautiful. And so so so typically english (well at least to me - that happy thought of beatrix potter type set up). From there i got mildy lost in some of the lanes and gardens but eventually found myself at Shanklin Chind. Which was like this gorge type this that had waterfalls and little bridges as was ......tranquil. It led through this gorge thing, past thins wonderfully stereotypical english cottage and teahouse down to a pub on the beach. Lovely.

From there i walked right along the coast and beaches for a few miles to a place like 2 towns down. The beaches actually had sand too. Not rocks like those buggers in brighton. I finished off by having fish and chips (well kiddy burger meal) at a fish and chip shop called greasy joes (or something to that effect).

After this i didn't seem to enjoy myself as much (no it wasn't the food) i think it was just that i had enjoyed myself so much in the morning that everywhere i went after that was mildly disappointing. The wax museum was frankly quite unnerving (see phobias story), it was harder to get around, the weather got shittier, and everything was more spread out and seemed to require so much more effort to get to.

So i can quite confidently say that i had a lovely morning and lunch. I'll definately go back, because there was a whole side of the island i never got to (its quite big). But i think if i go back i might hire a car or a scooter or something to get to the places not on the trainline.

Shanklin was lovely though.

Weired Phobias

nadscol — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 04:00:00 GMT

I'm embarrassed to say it. But i've developed a strange ann unnatural phobia of museums. I'll tell you why.

About 2 weeks ago i was bored, it was sunday, i had slept in and decided it was too much effort to go anywhere far. I had fully intended to go off somewhere for a day trip like i usually do but had unfortunately forgotten about daylight savings and this had but my whole day out of whack. So i did the normal sunday thing. Went for a walk to somewhere interesting, went to the markets, had a buffalo burger (a new fetish of mine, theres this store at the markets that sells them and they are bloody awesome) walked around a bit more, think i may have gone up another of the many hills in Winchester, looked at the view, took a photo, cursed the shitty weather and when back down. After all of this and on my way home i passed all the military museum places. They are all in this one area and are housed in these gorgeous georgian buildings. I had heard good things about the gurkha museum and tought i would give it a look. I think it was about 410 in the afternoon, the museum closed at 5 but i thought how long can it take?

So i wandered in and i must say it was pretty damn good even though i was the only one there. And big. With lots of stuff to look at. So it came to about 5 to 5 and i hadn't even gotten halfway through. The curator guy came through to where i was a said that they were closing so would i mind going now. No dramas.. so off i plodded round the rest of the bottom floor, up some stairs, quickly through the second floor (realising how much i had not yet seen but oh well) and finally to the exit. Which was locked. I jiggled the door and pulled and pushed for a few minutes cursingand thought that he must have meant to go back the way i came cos it was closer. No drama, back i went through all the top story, down the stairs to the bottom floor, on a little bit, then......darkness. Oh shit. Pitch dark, in a place that was like a bloody maze and had about a 1000 sensor that all set off war sounds shooting bombing screaming, in the dark, locked in a museum. It was so dark i thought bugger this i coundn't find where the hell i was and decided to go back the other way. Through all the bottom in the dark, up the stairs, through the top, the lights were on but i was mildly frazzled at this stage worried that i was locked in, finally to the end where a smiling curator said to me 'thankyou, there was no need to rush'....i nearly punched him.

So this experience was not something i would like to repeat. I thought is was maybe a one off. Scary at the time, getting locked in a war museum in the dark, in an old building. So yesterday on the isle of wight i decided 'oooh a wax museum that looks good!' i perhaps should have thought a little clearer. Old wax museums as they are, are naturally creepy. Nothing like madame tussauds.....more crazy house of wax. I was the only one in there. It was quite close to closing. And it was bloody creepy. Part of the museum was in this old house which was built in the tudor period and was apparently haunted by this old french count who was murdered in his bed in the upstairs bedroom (which they so delightfully depicted). Most of the museum was in semi darkness and you could only see the displays if you turned on these little switches which would light up the wax figures mostly in a quite eerie light. In the house i just felt plain uncomfortable, thoughts of getting locked in the damn place by myself made me not enjoy the creepy wax figures for as quite as long as i might of had i not been alone. In that damn house there was alot of unexplained bangs.

Strangely enough the place i was least uncomfortable in was the chamber of terrors. They had all of these tourture implements from the 1600's on display that had actually been used to tourture people. They were on loan from germany. Trust the germans hey ! What a sharing caring people to share their tourture implements with us so we can enjoy them too.

Anyhow as it wasi have never been so glad to get the end of the museum to a bright shop which actually had people in it. I must have gone through at a fair pace. It was quite a strange museum really, not only did it have creepy wax figures, real tourture implements, but also the largest collection of taxidermy i have ever seen. Some bugger really liked to stuff animals.

So from these two experiences the thought of going into another museum alone fills me with a sense of dread and makes my heart race. I'm not sure that i'm scared of museums as a whole, just old creepy ones, right near closing time, that are empty. If in fact i do find myself in this possible situation again i think i may bring a friend to hold my hand.

I'm such a sook.

Ach! Bonny Scotland!

nadscol — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 08:42:00 GMT

Well i'm attempting to name this article something scottish - but i find my knowledge quite limited there .i.e. my 'scots' vocabulary is kind of limited to kilts, lochs, and haggis.

Anyhow, i spent the easter long weekend in scotland. And quite frankly to say i had a bloody awesome time would be understating it a touch. On good friday i had to get out of bed at 330am - a ridiculously early time that i gernerally only see if i'm on night shift or still at the pub. I arrived it Aberdeen quite early in the morning and it snowed, alot, all day. This is the first time i have ever experienced a white easter. Different certainly. Aberdeen is a very very grey place. Apparently they call it the granite city- which i reckon is pretty spot on. I had a pretty uneventful day there- shopping (no i didn't buy anything much- just a book), looking at the art gallery (quite disappointing after the national gallery- i don't understand alot of modern art- i think most of it looked like strange furniture or some sort of trash.) - i will say that they had some excellent watercolours though. (Nadia the art critic- i know pretty ridiculous hey!)

So, i caught the afternoon train to Elgin where Rocky lives. It was snowing there too, alot. I'd just like to say Rocky is the best ever. She cooked an awesome roast dinner. The next day we took a trip to Loch Ness- big, cold, pretty damn impressive. No i didn't see nessie apart from all the damn souveneirs of him. It was still snowing - alot. The we went to Urquart Castle which i think was totally worth the £5 entry fee. Rocky was ridiculously excited that they had a treberjet (sorry if that isn't spelt right- i'd never heard of one before) which is like a big catapault thing that is one of the weapons in age of empires. I have lots of photos- whether i liked it or not.

After a lovely lunch- macaroni cheese pie- a traditional scottish dish according to Elaine- we went quad biking through the forrest at a place called rothiemurchus. Best fun ever! I got in trouble for going too fast- especially through the river crossings. Needless to say i was covered in mud by the end of it but it was totally worth it.

On Sunday we had a lovely relaxing day. I woke to find that the easter bunny had visited and left me a trail of easter eggs and a chocolate quad bike- thanks rocky! Sorry i mean easter bunny! Lunch at the Pub was lovely. And then we took a nice trip to the Glenfiddich distillery. It was still snowing - alot. We did a tour of the distillery which i must say has givem me a whole new appreciation of whisky (which i intend to continue appreciating on a regular basis). After the tour we built the worlds best snowman. I'm not kidding, it was brilliant. (See my facebook for photos- coming soon). We had all the traditional things......well not really. It did have a carrot for a nose, and sticks for arms, but we had to improvise on the rest. It had potato eyes - quite difficult to do, funny seed pod things for a mouth, £1 coins for buttons, Rockys furry hood thing for a scarf, my beanie- after much arguement: it was bloody cold- and still snowing, and some very dashing eyebrows made out of twigs. The finished product was brilliant and we even had other people taking photos in front of our snowman. I think they were indian tourists- so our bloke is now internationally famous. It was totally worth the wet, crippling, freezing cold.

Monday involved a nice sleep in. A trip to a shortbread factory. mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. And another trip to a castle. They seem to have one every few k's up there. Good on em i say. Castles are brilliant.

Due to the continuing snow my flight home was delayed but nevermind no dramas. I'd like to thank Rocky for a brilliant weekend, Elaine for letting me crash at her lovely house, and Poppy her black Labrador for reminding me of home.