... In a land far, far away (thirty something hours), Tracy actually made it to London at 7:30 in the freezing morning of 27th Dec, 2006.
I'm staying with Libby in Wimbledon, a beautiful part of Ole' London-town, right near the tennis courts, above a row of cute little shops.
I got all the paper work I needed to do done on day one, so managed to make it to Wales with Libby and Jo for two days.
We took a road trip along the south coast of Wales (only a couple of hours from London), stopping the first night in the pretty capital of Cardiff. The streets are hung with Christmas fairy lights and there are, of course, pubs on every corner.
We stayed just across from Cardiff Castle and the Millenium Stadium (Rugby!) with a view of the river in a hotel with a pillow menu- yes really!
Despite my jetlag, I dragged myself 'out on the town', and, after tuckering-up on satisfyingly warm, Welsh cawl (lamb stew with lentils) headed down to the only 'rocking' venue for a Thursday night- the Walkabout- yes, I got to Wales to find the token Aussie wateringhole!
The music was daggy- including "I come from a land downunder" but the clientelle were definately Welsh, with thick, "Lord of the Rings" accents and plenty of alcohol. Libby and I managed to get our jackets stolen that night- we figured the overdressed (mmm...underdressed) chicks in their short shorts and boob tubes in the middle of a Welsh winter must have gotten desperate when it came to leaving time!
The next day we drove further east through a little town called Llanelli and checked out the 12th Century Kidwelly Castle in the freezing wind, then drove onto Tenby, a classically Welsh seaside town with colouful terraces lining the high street which curves around the beach.
We arrived at our B&B- one of these colourful terraces with perennials clustered (looking rather wind-beaten) out the front. Inside the room there was more flowers, in fact 'floral-overload' comes to mind. Floral bed-spreads, floral wall paper with floral borders, floral pictures on the walls, potpourri, baskets of dried flowers, foral writing paper, floral curtains- two types, and yes, even newly sprayed floral air-freshner making us gag as we open the door to the ensuite. But it was so perfect for this town! Our reaction was 'aahhhh... so cute'!
That was until 3am!.....
There was a loud thump from above us.... then a timid "hello...."
Having no idea what time it was, except that it was still dark, we thought it was rude guests trying to check out early and thumping their heavy suitcases down the stairs. The second "hello" from above us warranted a "hello" back from Libby. It was the third "hello" that got us out of bed to see if there was something the matter.
The ceiling had collapsed on the couple above us. "Mike" had just turned on the tv to hear about Saddam's execution when a chunk of ceiling dropped on his head. As we came up the stairs, there's Mike, with plaster dust all over him, a sizeable wound on the back of his head and looking pretty bleary-eyed, with his wife and a serious gape in the ceiling. When we asked him if he was ok, his response was "Well, not really... and we we're going to have sex this morning..." ...... at 3:30am????
