Author: martinksmith

Florida: Oh Stacey, look what you’ve done

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Day 2 — Woke up, generally lazed around until everyone was ready and then we went to Publix to buy our Islands of Adventure passes. Then we went to Chili’s for food.

After Chili’s, we started off to Orlando, with Abby driving instead of Janine, due to the fact she’d started to feel ill. The trip there was fairly uneventful, once at the hotel we were staying at though, we decided to check out Universal CityWalk. Paying $15 to park, only to find out Universal CityWalk is shit. We left disappointed and headed back to the hotel room.

It was at this point we found someone special. I don’t want to overstate anything… but… I found love in Orlando, and that love’s name is Stacey.

I don’t want to stay too much about Stacey, other than she has great stories to tell — stories that we could listen to all night, she’s enthusiastic and passionate about her job. She also likes pwning things.

I tried to get a video of Stacey for you, but despite the fact that she’s definitely not shy, I failed to get one.

Day 3 — Hogwarts!

We’d booked ourselves on the shuttle from the hotel to the park at 10am and headed pretty much straight to ‘The Wizarding World of Harry Potter’. I’d researched it a lot online, but it was still a lot better than I imagined it being. We walked through Hogsmead, just taking it all in and went into Hogwarts. The inside of which is the line to ‘Harry Potter & The Forbidden Journey’. Inside the castle was awesome. The detail is amazing. With little things from the books/movies across littered along the path.

The ride was cool too, essentially a simulator. You go from the Great Hall and fly out of Hogwarts and across the Hogwarts’ grounds.

From Hogwarts, we went to Jurassic Park. Got a little wet and moved on to Toon Lagoon and got soaked. Literally, not a dry spot. From there, Spiderman! The Hulk! Cat In The Hat…

Then we went off to the Three Broomsticks for some Butterbeer. It was nicer than I thought it was going to be, but it was extremely rich. I felt like I’d drank loads and then looked down at the cup to find next to nothing gone. I didn’t finish it.

DUELING DRAGONS! AWESOME. [I’m getting tired of blogging right now]

Then I went shopping. Oh, I actually went shopping before, I bought a t-shirt in Hogwarts. The other stuff I bought was from Honeydukes. A couple chocolate frogs, and some any flavour beans, as well as just some Honeydukes Milk Chocolate. Which I just realised will not taste good, cause it’s American chocolate. It’s all American chocolate. Oh dear. Hogwarts, you’ve let me down. Hogwarts is in the UK, it should be British chocolate!

Now we’re back at the hotel. Where we’ve decided we’re the cold open of Friends. I will not expand on that at all.

Florida: Flying Without Wings

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There were wings.

Left the house at about 11pm. Stopping off for a cheeky wee burger on the way away, at McDonalds. From there, we got on the road to Glasgow International Airport.

The drive down was fairly uneventful, the remoteness of Scotland’s highlands was only emphasised by the fact that there was absolutely no radio signal for a good hour or so. Oh, and I say uneventful, there was a big ol’ lorry that’d burst a tire and was half way across our side of the road. Apart from that though.

Once at Glasgow, we parked up and headed inside. Waiting to find out what desk I’d need to check in at. When it came up, we headed down. There was already a fairly big queue, so we joined the back of the right one. Something that was apparently harder for some people than others. A guy had gone to the front of the other one, only to be sent back, cause he wasn’t business class/hadn’t checked in online.

“It’s a fucking disgrace!” – he said. What? That you’re incompetent when it comes to reading signs?  — He asked to speak to a manager when he eventually got to the front of the right line, the check-in staff told him where to wait and pretty much laughed it off as soon as he was out of earshot.

Out of all the airport I was in (and I was in four) Glasgow Airport, for some reason, was the hottest. Sitting in the foodcourt area, I was literally sweating. It was dark outside, and in Scotland. Why are you so hot GLA?

Next stop was Amsterdam. I got off the plane and searched for a board to tell me what gate I needed to go to, and whether or not it was boarding. It said the gate was open, so I ran to it. Or walked at quick pace. I’m pretty fat and lazy.

I got there and there were already massive queues, I attempted to stand in it for a while. The queue wasn’t really moving, due to the weird security system they had going on. So I went and sat down.

The set up they had was a set of five or so podiums, with 5 or so security staff. They were taking passengers and sending them to a podium, scanning their passports and then doing the whole “Did you pack all your belongings yourself” routine. It literally took me like… half an hour to move 5 feet in the queue, which is why I went and sat down.

Seeing just how big the queue had gotten though, I decided I was gonna just cut in. Didn’t say anything, just pretended i knew what I was doing and joined the queue at the mid-point. No-one said anything.

Security went fairly well, apart from being told I was going to get “Extra Special Security Attention” — I didn’t, as far as I could tell. I got patted down, that was about the extent of it. But it did leave me worried about the american customs, if Amsterdam were being all SSSS about things.

The flight over was LONG. Not the longest flight I’ve ever taken, but LONG anyway. I got, maybe, 45 mins sleep in total and was sat next to a guy, who I think was dutch, but I couldn’t swear to it. He smelled a bit. Though, to be fair, I probably did too.

Delta wouldn’t stop feeding us. It was like they were trying to fatten us up. First up were snacks. Peanuts or Pretzels? Then Lunch Chicken or Pasta? Then more snacks, then copious amounts of coca-cola product beverages, then dinner. pizza and gelato. then more snacks. and more beverages. They were never out of the aisle with those trolleys.

Arriving in Atlanta, the customs went surprisingly well. I’d filled in a blue card on the plane, which I’d double checked with one of the stewardesses as to whether or not it was filled in properly. The guy was asking some awkward questions. The ones where they try to catch you out on something. But eventually let me go through. Despite the masses of people and no real queuing system, Atlanta was far easier to navigate than LAX. It was also made that bit easier when I found some Atlanta Travel buddies. An older couple, who were flying home from Munich to Tampa. I’m sure the guy’s name was Horrace, but I didn’t get the woman’s name. Let’s call her…Emelda. We helped each other through the train system at Atlanta, and went with each other to the gate. Saying goodbye on the plane. It was only an hour from Atlanta to Tampa, so I read some more of my book and in no time at all, I was on the ground again.

Arriving in Atlanta, I followed the baggage claim signs which took me onto a shuttle train. Eventually, I came across a group of people sat on some chairs with a banner saying “WELCOME MARTIN!” — That’ll be for me then.

We got to the car and drove back to Lauren’s house. Where her mum introduced herself “Hi, I’m Mrs. Field, but you can call me Cathy. We hug here”.

I’d been warned before hand that she would want to feed me and after the Amsterdam-Atlanta flight, I really wasn’t hungry. I hate some stuff though and then we all just sat around the table chatting. Eventually taking the conversation to the couch.

Later, we took Abby home, where I met her family as well. Her mum also hugs.

When we got back from Abby’s, we sat and watched the “Blink” episode of Doctor Who, before going to bed.

Florida: So Far, So Good.

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Today, the day before I leave, I decided it’d be a good idea to try and find my bag.

I bought a big backpacking backpack for going on the Eurotrip and I last used it when Ryan & I went to Paris in 2008. I thought it was in the hall, I was sure I’d seen it there recently. So, after lying in bed most of the day, wasting away the hours online, I decided to go look for it.

It wasn’t in the hall. Not where I thought I’d seen it, or anywhere else. Great.

I checked the kitchen, the other bedrooms (I knew it wasn’t in mine), I checked the livingroom. Nothing.

While weighing up some other options (I considered calling Jonny and asking to borrow his backpack — something which, it later turned out would have been a pointless endeavour, due to the fact that he didn’t have a backpack for Europe, he just had a normal suitcase), I checked the loft. Thankfully, just inside the hatch, there it was.

It’s now, 3:25am. In 24 hours, I will be sat in the airport. I’m not packed. At this moment in time, I’m filling Paula’s mp3 player with music for the journey.

Florida: The journey…

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In the process of packing, making sure I’ve got all my chargers together and stuff. I was going to write this before I actually left, but odds are I won’t have the time. Away to pack my clothes and stuff now and by the time that’s done, it’ll be time to leave.

Throughout the journey I plan to throw up a few tweets here and there, but I won’t be able to actually check anything until I get to the USofA.

TWITTER!

Florida: Dollar Bills

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I’m currently waiting for some printer drivers to download, so I can print a few things off before we leave.

Went into town today and got some dollars and some sunglasses. Surprisingly (or perhaps not) hard to find sunglasses in september, in Scotland — You also can’t help but feel a little silly, buying sunglasses when it’s raining outside.

I’ve got camera’s on charge at the moment, so all battery meters are at full when I leave.

Florida: What came before.

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It’s September 11th, 2010. In three days, I will be boarding a plane, set for Florida. It’s far from the first time that I’ve been on a plane and it’s not even the first time I’ve travelled myself, but still, the thought of it is daunting.

I fly out of Glasgow International at 6am, going to Amsterdam Schiphol. From there, I fly to Hartsfield-Jackson, Atlanta International, before the final flight to Tampa, Florida.

The last time I travelled alone was back in 2006, when I went to Arizona, and while I got there in one piece and didn’t lose anything, it was still anything but a happy time. The problems only really came about in the American airports, where it felt like you were being treated as a potential terrorist. A case of “We don’t want you here, hurry the fuck up and get out of our country!” – Being shouted at, moved from place to place, without a second thought as to how confused and wary the passengers might feel.

The return journey was possibly worse than the outward journey. I’d checked my bags in at Phoenix. Using an e-ticket machine to print out my boarding card for the flight to LAX. Fine. I asked the woman who was there if I’d need to re-check my bags at LAX, or if they’d go right through. I was told I’d need to re-check them – with this in mind, upon arriving at LAX, I made my way to baggage claim, to collect my bag and then re-check it before the flight to Heathrow.

I waited. And waited. And waited. Nothing. I waited until every last bag was off the carousel. None of them were mine, I wasn’t the only one who was apparently missing their luggage, a woman, also british, was left waiting as well. We both made our way to the helpdesk. At the desk, a woman asked what flight I was on, I told her and when I did, she all but laughed in my face, telling me that my bags were checked all the way through. Great.

I’d wasted loads of time waiting for my bag that was never meant to be there in the first place. I rushed out of the baggage claim area and made my way around the airport (LAX is set in a circle) to the British Airways spot. Not knowing where exactly it was, I had to go around every single bit, checking each sign as I went. Eventually I found it. I went in, and searched for an e-ticket machine to get my boarding card for the next flight. I couldn’t find one anywhere and so went up and asked someone who worked there.

“Excuse me, could you tell me where the e-ticket machine is?”
“We don’t have any.”

What? Figuring she must have misheard me, I asked again.

“Could you tell me where the e-ticket machine is?”
“We don’t have any. What flight are you on?”

I told her, and she informed me that the flight was boarding and that I’d better hurry up and get a ticket and motioned behind her to the British Airways desk.

I ran to the desk, the whole area is pretty much empty (the flight was boarding!) I ask for a boarding card, and the woman at the desk asked for my bags.

“I don’t know where they are…”, I told her. Confused, she printed a boarding card for me and I ran around the corner, only to be faced by a large line for security.

Now, keep in mind that at this point I’ve been informed by the ‘helpful’ woman that my flight was already boarding. The queue had, at least, 60 people in it – all having to take off their shoes, empty their pockets, be scanned. How the hell am I going to make it to the gate in time? — I stood in line, as it slowly moved along. Sweating. On the verge of tears. Just wanting to get home.

Eventually, after what seemed like a lifetime, I got through. I ran to the departure lounge only to find… The flight’s not boarding at all. Not even close. So not close, in fact, that I had time to sit down — calm down — and tell the whole story to my Mum, via phone, before they even started boarding the flight.

Here’s hoping this adventure to the USA goes better than the last, in terms of travelling.

57:39:22N (57.656), 3:18:27W (-3.30739)

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Alright, first thing’s first, I guess… Paris.

We got into Beauvais airport at around 9am and after collecting our bags, we got a bus into Paris – the plan being from there, to get a metro to the hostel, drop our bags and meet Siobhan. Awesome.

Not awesome. The metro station, next to the bus station was PACKED – mainly with people having got of a number of buses. All different nationalities, shouting over each other, packing into what was a very small space.

There were Italian’s throwing their kids over the barriers, because they couldn’t get the pushchairs through. The metro staff really didn’t seem to care. We were in there for about 40mins, before we got a ticket.

Eventually though, we were on a metro and heading for the Aloha. When we got there, we checked in and packed away our bags in the cupboard and left again, heading this time for “Rue des Boulets” – The metro stop next to Simon’s apartment – to meet Siobhan.

Meeting Siobhan is never a simple process, she told us though,
to wait at the metro stop and she’d meet us there. So we did. We sat on the bench, and waited.

And waited.

And waited.

Until, eventually, from across the street, came a woman riding a bicycle. She had arrived. We crossed the street and went to a small café and got something to drink. Not knowing the journey that lay before us. Siobhan had decided to take us to the park. The park, it turned out, was about an hours walk away. Off we went though, map infront of us showing us the way.

After the massive journey, we didn’t stay at the park for long. We headed back to the metro stop, and back to the hostel. Agreeing to meet Siobhan again later.

Back at the hostel, we got our bags and headed up to our room – it was, thankfully, smaller than what we’d booked. It was a 5 bed room, the other beds, it seemed, were already taken. One of our roommates, was there when we got there, a Slovakian called Mike. (I think) He told us his name and stuff, but I didn’t hear it right. Ryan says it was Mike though. There’ll be more about Mike later.

I called my mum, my phone had died earlier in the day, so as soon as it had some charge in it, I took the opertunity to let her know we’d arrived safely an’ all that jazz. While I was out of the room, Ryan had gotten into bed. Siobhan had said she’d call when she was ready to meet again, which she did, I woke up Ryan and we headed back to Rue des Boulets and again… waited…

She showed up, eventually and took us on a big ol’ walk to find a supermarket. On the way, she filled us with some fear, with things like “You should stop speaking English.” and tales of seeing a guy getting beat up on a subway train.

We bought some food at the supermarket and headed back to Simon’s, where she cooked us some food. I hadn’t slept since around 9:30am on Wednesday, it was now nearing midnight on Thursday night. So, understandably, I was tired. I’d slept for a bit on the plane, but not a lot.

Got back to the Aloha and tried desperately not to wake everyone up as we entered the room, then went to sleep.

The next day, I woke up pretty early and read for a bit – Ryan had finished High Fidelity in Prestwick airport, just before we left, so I took it and read it over the weekend.

I then woke Ryan and we headed off to Disneyland. Last year we didn’t pay for the RER to Disney, not because we were out to con the Parisian train system out of a few euros, but because we didn’t realise we had to pay as we left Paris – the metro day pass lets you through the barriers which gets you down to the RER platform and at Disney, we’d tried to buy tickets, but couldn’t work the machines properly and ended up with 5 metro tickets – tickets that were of no use to us.

This year, we decided to be good people and pay for our journey… that was until we found out the price. €6.50 1-way. Meaning we would have been 26€ for the two days. Fuck that. We used our metro ticket to get us onto the RER platform in Paris…

At the other side, a french guy, obsessed with the rain seemingly let us follow him through the barriers. From the station, we headed to McDonalds, ate and then headed to the Studios park
and straight onto Crush’s Coaster.

I don’t think either of us had any high hopes for the coaster being that great, but it was the closest to the park entrance, so we went for it.

After a fairly long queue, it actually ended up being pretty cool. The basic idea being that you sat on a turtle shell as you went for a ride through the East Australian Current. The shell spins around as you go.

From Crush, we went to the Tower of Terror, which as a ride doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. Why would you be staying at an abandoned hotel, why would you agree to go up in a service elevator? I mean, sure, the ride’s good. But why does the service elevator have seats? – Seats with seatbelts, no less. It’s almost like they were expecting something bad to happen.

We then headed to the RockNRollerCoaster avec Aerosmith, then as part of our Aerosmith double-bill, we went to see the Armegeddon Special Effects thing. Which was weird. You were basically taken onto a set of a space station, whereby it was then hit by loads of astroids/meteors and you were supposed to be… acting scared? Im not sure. There was just a lot of stuff happening with not much explanation.

We went on the park’s little Backlot tour thing, which was pretty cool, but also seemed very… empty. They had a couple of big set pieces, but it seemed they were making a much bigger deal of it than what it actually was.

We also went and saw a car stunt show.

We did all the big rides twice (RockNRollerCoaster, Tower of Terror and Crush’s Coaster) – On the second time with Crush though, we went in and made it almost to the end of the queue, when the ride broke down, leaving people stranded throughout.

We were told it could be around 20minutes before it was fixed and that they had to get the people out from the middle of the ride. We waited and waited… The atmospheric lights were turned off, in favour of brighter, more practical lighting. It kind of ruined it all. Eventually though, the ride was fixed, which brought on cheers from the queuing crowds.

After that though, we left the park (it was the plan, we weren’t annoyed) and headed to Rainforest Café – We were seated straight away and given menus, which we promptly opened up.

The cheapest meal was around €19. Ryan picked out a burger which came to €19.90 and I picked out the one thing on the menu which appealed to me at the time, which was some Turkey escallop thing with spaghetti and cheese… Im not sure… it came to €19 though – added onto that was two cokes at €5.90 each. (500ml cokes) – Anyways, I sorta picked my way through my meal, eventually giving up at less than a third of the way through. We asked for the bill, to which the waiter asked me “You not like?” (in a sort of angry, french accent) – “no, sorry…” I replied. He took my plate away and then, after a few minutes, came back over with our bill “I’ve taken the price of your meal off the bill, because you didn’t like it.”

Awesome!

We then headed for the station and jumping the barriers, headed for the Louvre.

The Louvre is free on Friday nights to under 25’s, we only really went in to see the Mona Lisa – which was surprisingly hard to find. “first floor.” it said, we followed signs. Until there were no more signs, except for back the way we came. Also, the ‘first floor’ is up several flights of stairs, because you go like, underground from the pyramid. We found it though, eventually…

It was stupidly protected and I can’t really see what it is that makes it so great, so loved… but I’m glad we saw it, if only so we can say we saw it. However… On the opposite wall from the Mona Lisa there is, a massive painting which pretty much covers the entire wall on which it’s hung. I realise this may not be a common opinion within the art community, but I’m of the opinion that bigger is better, therefore the painting opposite the Mona Lisa, the painting you can go up to and touch if you want is surely a thousand times better than the postage stamp that is the Mona Lisa, surrounded by her glass casing and barriers. We had a look through the museum, saw the Egyptian stuff, before leaving. It would be cool to explore further, we barely saw anything of the actual museum, but I still felt we’d seen heaps.

From the museum, we headed back to the Hostel and to bed.

The next day, Saturday, we woke up and headed to Disney again. Again, using our metro tickets to get onto the RER platform in Paris and jumping the barriers at the other side. Having been to the park last year, we decided to take advantage of the fastpass thing. It was good, insomuch as it meant we never had to queue longer than 5/10 minutes for a ride, which in turn made the ride more enjoyable, because there wasn’t a massive buildup to it. However, it just meant that instead of queuing, you we were left to kill time in the park itself. Which wasn’t always that easy to do. However, we got around everything a lot quicker and were out of the park pretty early.

We headed back to the hostel and chilled there for a bit before heading off to meet Chris and Pascha (Chris’ bird), we were meeting them and walking with them to find Siobhan. She was playing at Le Kibele – A restaurant/bar/venue place. It was pretty cool and she was good, as were the other bands that played (all french). We hung around there for a bit, but ultimately left pretty early and went back to the hostel.

The next day, we were practically chucked out of the room – there’s a lockout thing from 11am-5pm. I spoke to Slovak guy for a bit, it was his last day. He was off to the Louvre, then heading to Milan next, before going home.

We quickly got dressed and headed out to meet Siobhan, Chris, Pascha and Wilson at Rue des Boulets. We went to the supermarket and bought some food, me and Ryan bought food at least, Ryan, along with the others, also bought some extremely cheap wine and lots of it and we headed to the park (the same one as before) and everyone got drunk. Everyone except me – passers-by could have been forgiven for not realising this though, as I tried to stand up.

It didn’t so much work as planned. I’d been sat cross-legged for a while and had obviously cut off the circulation for my foot/feet. So, when I tried to stand up, my feet couldn’t support… anything and I just fell right back down again.

I then waited a minute or so and tried again. Nope. Fell down… Again. I decided just not to try again, until I knew I was definitely gonna be able to stand, so, as everyone around me laughed (rightly so, hell, I was laughing too) I waited for the feeling to return to my feet.

They played a bunch of drinking games at the park, everyone getting extremely drunk. Until Siobhan had to go back to Simon’s apartment.

We all went along with her and her and Simon left us there while they went off to see some opera thing. Ryan passed out on the couch (after passing out on the toilet) and Chris, Wilson and I chatted on the balcony for a bit. After around 3 hours, Ryan woke up. Not knowing how he’d gotten from the park to the apartment and generally not knowing where he, or anybody else was. We were there for a few more hours, drinking resumed when Simon and Siobhan got back. Then at around 00:15, we were told that the last metro was in like 15 mins. So Ryan and I left as soon as possible, catch the last metro trains back to the hostel – for we are kings of the metro!

On the last day, we woke up and packed up all our stuff and went down to reception and checked out. Leaving our bags, once again, in the cupboard, we headed to the Eiffel Tower. Instead of just going to the tower, as we had done last year (because we had no intention of climbing it again) we decided to go across the river, to see it from that angle. Seeing the tower, something sort of clicked into place. A couple nights beforehand, the tower had been shining bright blue. We had asked Siobhan if she knew why, but it’s Siobhan and she doesn’t know much about her surroundings. However, attached to the tower were big gold stars. It became apparent that the blue was to create the look of the EU flag – The french have EU Presidency.

From there, we headed to the Arc De Triomphe and this time climbed it. This marked the first and only time I needed to use my inhaler on the trip. Which I thought was pretty good, given that I actually got to the top (well, the exhibition room) before stopping/needing to use it. From there, we headed down the Champs-Elysées stopping off for something to eat, before sitting at the Louvre fountain for a bit. We had to meet Siobhan again and so were killing time before heading to Rue des Boulets to wait for her. In the mad rush to catch the last metro back to the hostel the night before, I’d left my camera at Simon’s, so we had to meet Siobhan to get it back.

We sat waiting for ages, until I eventually saw her walking down the opposite side of the street, towards the crossing. Instead of crossing though, she, instead, went down into the metro. Quickly, we ran down into the metro, to find her. She was at a ticket machine. We walked over and stood behind her. It took a couple of seconds, but she noticed us and confessed that she’d completely forgotten. She gave me my camera and we parted ways. We headed for the Sacré-Coeur. On the way up, we stopped off at one of the tourist shops and bought some things, before heading up to the place itself. Both ways, we were subjected to the thread guys. We sat there for a bit, before deciding to go try and find the Statue of Liberty.

I’d seen the Statue of Liberty on the maps last year and had since seen it in the film classic that is National Treasure 2 – Book of Secrets.

Slovak guy had mentioned it when Ryan had asked him what he’d done one day. Ryan had said he was pretty sure he was mistaken, afterall, Statue of Liberty is in NYC, non?

We got the metro back to the eiffel tower and walked from there, the walk proved to be longer than expected though. I saw it from the metro train and knew it was on an island. But how did you get to the island?

We walked down the road and eventually found it, we crossed a bridge, on what turned out to be the wrong side which meant having to run across the road, avoiding french traffic, to get to the other side and the steps that took you down onto the island.

From the Statue, we walked the length of the island and up the other side, onto another bridge and then walked back to the Eiffel tower. This time, walking underneath it and sitting at the other side for a bit, before eventually deciding it was time to collect our bags from the hostel and head to the bus station again.

The rest of the journey’s went off without too much hassle. Once back in Glasgow, we went and visited CC, Logan and Bobby for a bit, before heading to Stirling.

The next day, I messed around online for a bit, went into town with Ryan, then eventually went to Glasgow on the train and met Heather, Claire and their friends. We went for something to eat and then to the cinema, after the cinema we all went for a drink. Most of the group left, and we went back to Heather’s.

At Heather’s I tried to sign onto her wifi, but it wouldn’t work. I opened my browser though, to try something and I was presented with a Cloud WiFi login page. So I used that. I woke up the next day, Heather had left for work, I had planned to go into town and get some stuff then come back for my bag, but instead I just lazed around there for a bit. I then packed up and headed to HMV to get a few DVDs and then Waterstone’s to get a book and give Heather her keys before heading to the Station. I got teh train back to Stirling and my mum picked me up at the Station, with both dogs in the car.

On the way home we stopped at the motor grill, finally getting back to Elgin around 8pm or something. However, once back in Elgin, I wasn’t home.

Henry Winkler is Alive & Well

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June 19th, 2006

Woke up today, Kara was at class, JJ and Kristin were both still in bed. I had something to drink and watched TV for a bit. Kara came home, JJ and Kristin got up not long after. We sat and watched TV for ages, Ellen, Jeopardy, Millionaire (which has some weird new lifeline), then we headed to Urban Outfitters, where JJ bought some stuff.

Then we went to No Anchovies, a pizza place. I had a cheese slice and Coke. We then headed to Espresso Art, to use the wifi. Once we were all done, we headed home.

Sitting on Kristin’s bed, MSN signed on, we had the internet! – Not for long though.

Kristin and I then headed out with JJ, to go to Fry’s. When we got back and watched Letterman and Craig Ferguson before going to bed..

June 20th, 2006

I woke up, and headed for a shower. Once I was dressed, etc. I headed through to the living room. We watched Fear Factor for a bit, then went to Target.

I needed/wanted a memory card for my camcorder. Once I found the right one, and after looking at the books, we headed out. The alarms went off, I stopped, although I’m sure I could have easily have walked out, the security guard was so slow in coming over.

We headed back to the apartment, picked up Kara and headed to Bookman’s  – a bookshop, with old/used books & video games.

I bought a book for 27c – cheap! It’s called The Lone Conformist and is actually pretty good. After that, we went to the library, then dropped JJ off at work, went to Brooklyn and got a pizza slice.

Later, at night, around 7, we went to the library again. Kristin needed to check something. Kristin and I, cycled there, while Kara walked The plan being that I’d walk back, while Kara cycled. On the way back though, for half the way anyway, Kristin and I used the same bike. I peddled, she sat on the seat. She wussed out though. I used to do it all the time when I was little, but neither Kristin or Kara had ever done it before. I was kinda shocked.

Later on, JJ and I sat and watched Letterman & Craig Ferguson (possibly the best show ever) I went to bed about half way through Ferguson though, cause I was sleepy.

June 21st, 2006

Didn’t do much today, went to Brooklyn again, after dropping JJ off at work. Some homeless guy, named Andrew ambushed us outside, a radio held to his ear, singing whatever song was playing. We got past him, and into Brooklyn, he followed us in, but didn’t hassle us. From the side he resembled Saddam Hussein (when they found him in the Spider Hole).

At night, I watched Letterman, Jimmy Kimmel and Craig Ferguson. Then we ended up watching a show on PBS about Dick Cheney. After that, I went to bed, read some more, before going to sleep.

June 22nd, 2006

Woke up late-ish today, after watching some TV, etc. Kristin and I headed upstairs to put my clothes in the wash, once they were washed and dry, I had a shower and put some on. Then we went to the library, where I talked to Ryan for a bit, then sorted out Myspace.

Rochika had called, inviting us all to a restaurant, we went, I ordered Pizza (possibly the worst pizza Ive ever tasted – I almost gagged on the last bite I took). After that, we went to Fry’s, where JJ made fun of me for saying something about Kristin taking a strop except he used an English accent to mock me, so it didn’t really work. Got what we needed and came home.

Didn’t feel well, blame the pizza. I went to bed not long after.

June 27th, 2006

Woke up today, at about 2:30, and after having a shower, headed through to the living room.

Kristin was at work, both Kara and JJ were still in bed. I went online, and spoke to my mum for a bit, amongst other people.

I found myself almost shouting at the TV, when Millionaire was on. The question was about tableture and it asked what it was used to teach, the answer being guitar, but the guys phone a friend had chosen C. Blueprints, the 50/50 had left him with Blueprints and Guitar, and the audience had left him 54% / 46% split, in favour of Guitar – not the best. He got it in the end though, thank god.

Later, when Kristin got back, we watched Syriana, then decided to go to the cinema. Employees of the cinema can bring 3 friends and everyone can get free refreshments, provided they bring their own containers. Kara took a carrier bag for the popcorn. It was Cars we went to see, cause we couldn’t see Superman for free, on a premiere night However, the bulb blew about half an hour in, and we were told that although we could stay, it’d be half an hour before it was fixed.

We went home and watched TV for a bit, then I was online for a while before heading to bed around 3.

Why people should wear goggles during sex…

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Woke up this morning to the sound of Kristin talking. I must have been in a deep sleep, ’cause one minute it was silent, the next, her voice was coming from right beside me.

It was about 10am though… So it wasn’t too bad. I got up there and then, we still had the net, so I went onto Kara’s Mac, cause she went to class… and spoke to some people there. Then I moved onto Kristin’s laptop, cause as i’ve previously stated, I don’t like Macs.

When Kara got home, and after we’d watched Ellen, Jeopardy and Millionaire (a daily ritual now), we went to Fry’s, where Kara complained a lot, but we got some Sprite, amongst other stuff.

When we came out of Fry’s, it was raining. It was nice. Only problem being it was still roasting. We drove to the video shop, and picked up Syriana and Northern Exposure…(Kara’s pick).

We watched the first episode of Northern Exposure (the pilot) and then watched TV for a bit… Kristin came back from the cinema (where she works), and we watched Letterman, before going to Fry’s again, to get the stuff Kara wouldn’t buy, aswell as some cake mix.

However… Before we went to Fry’s, JJ came back from his little outing. He had a sore eye…

“Why was his eye sore?” – I hear you cry! “Tell us!”…

Well kids, his eye was sore, due to the fact that he had cum in it. Yup, that’s right… cum. Now, I would like to direct your attention back to the title of this blog.

“How did he end up with cum in his eye?” Is that what you’re asking yourselves? … Well… never fear! I shall tell you…

In JJ’s words… “I didn’t want him to cum in my ass, so I told him to cum in my face…” – “Ow… my eye…”

I hope, from now on, JJ is known as “the guy that got cum in his eye”, just cause it’s funny as fuck.

We went to Fry’s, all the while JJ was complaining about his sore eye, when at Fry’s i pointed out a few things that might be useful for him in the future… Swimming goggles, being the first thing I saw, there was also another set of goggles, but they came with a snorkel, which somehow made the whole thing funnier.

We got back to the apartment, and watched Craig Ferguson, while Kristin put together the cake mix, and put it in the oven.

…and, after some talk of penis size.

A guy named Matt has a 7 and a half inch, and Alex is the size of Kara’s hand… Kara has fairly small hands…

Now, im sat in the livingroom, watching the second season of Northern Exposure.

That people, was my birthday…

Good times.

The Grand Canyon (Amongst Other Things)

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June 16th, 2006

Woke up and headed through to the living room. We were supposed to be leaving for the Grand Canyon today. Kara said that Kristin wanted to make a day trip of it though, I told her that I didn’t want to get up at 6am.

We went and bought a tent and some torches, then went to the library.

After that, we quickly went home, grabbed a few blankets and pillows and left. The journey to there was fairly straight forward, except we nearly ran out of fuel in the middle of nowhere – Good thing there’s a lot of towns in the middle of nowhere.

There was also a lorry, which was transporting a heap of other lorries. It started to swerve and looked like it was going to tip. The driver sorted it out though, and we passed it.

We got to the Canyon just in time for sunset. We waited until the sun had gone and went to Pizza Hut, then onto our camp ground.

It was dark when we got there, so Kristin pointed her car headlights at the area we were gonna set up. I’m not sure it was set up properly, but it was shelter.

At the beginning of the night, a baby was crying. Possibly one of the creepiest things I’ve heard. Then there were people walking about outside and stuff. I rolled onto my side, to sleep, and got a rock in the ribcage.

It was freezing, all night.

June 17th, 2006

We woke up about 6:30am and sat in the tent for ages, working up the courage to leave what warmth we had inside, to face the world outside.

When we eventually left, we made as mad a dash as possible for the car, and put the heating on full blast and then went to McDonalds, got some stuff to eat, and then headed over to the IMAX across the street, to watch the Grand Canyon Movie (The most watched IMAX movie, ever, apparently).

Then after thinking about it for a while, and seeing the views, in the movie, I decided that I did want to see the canyon by air. We went over to the desk, the woman said that we could take a plane with a guaranteed window seat, I didn’t know how she could guarantee it, but it sounded good, and we went for it.

Turns out, its easy to guarantee a window seat, when there are only 4 seats in the plane, including both pilot seats. The flight was cool, as was the pilot. There was an Italian woman in with us, her boyfriend was scared of flying, it was at this point the pilot announced that he wasn’t scared of flying, but did have a fear of heights.

After we landed, we took a few pictures by the plane, and headed back into the airport – The pilot gave us a couple souvenirs, and then Kristin and I drove up to the canyon. We walked around there for a bit, taking pictures and stuff, then left.

We went to the village, where I bought some postcards. Then headed to see Meteor Crater – The worlds best preserved meteor crater – It was cool.

The guy at the door asked where I was from on the way in, when I said Scotland, he made some joke about how he didn’t have to ask, it was obvious. On the way out, he thanked us for coming, all the way from Scotland(!) and shook my hand.

After that, we headed to Winslow. Which is on Route 66, so we drove some of that. Winslow, is the town, made famous by the song ‘Take It Easy’ by The Eagles.

I was standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona, Such a fine sight to see, Its a girl, my lord, in a flat-bed ford, Slowing down to take a look at me.

…and they’ve really cashed in on that.

Winslow, itself, is really run down and definitely not the City In Motion that the leaflet described it as, unless of course that motion is a downwards motion.

From Winslow, we headed to Kristin’s Mum’s house. We were passing through the town of Snowflake, at first glance, it looks pretty nice, then, after Kristin told me some stories of what’s happened there, you realize it looks too perfect. Too nice.

We got to Kristin’s house, her mum hugged me, then set about trying to give me food. I wasn’t hungry though. Her Mum’s friend, Rudi, was there, he was an Apache.

We had some really interesting conversations. Then, her mum kicked us out, because she didn’t want us to be home too late. We got back to Tucson at around 1am, I headed to bed pretty much straight away.