Wow, blog FAIL!

So I really sucked at doing the blog thing this time. My bad. Next time, ja? ;)

Anyway, I've been in England the last week and a half. I came over and spent a fabulous weekend with Lara in London, then got picked up by my aunt, Carol, and stayed with her for five days. Whilst there we visited Cambridge (U Dortmund could take a few architectural tips), Windsor Castle (pretty awesome), met Carol's daughter, my cousin, also named Sarah (a running theme, it would seem), had a fabulous lunch with Carol and John's friends (hey Em, you think we've been friends a long time (coming on 2o YEARS, girl!), John's been friends with one of these guy's for 60-odd years -omg!), then on Friday we.... crap, I have no idea. Oops! ** Just remembered - I went into London to buy the last of my presents for people. How do you forget that?? I went to the Camden Markets, V&A Museum, then wandered around Covent Garden reminding myself not to buy anything because there was no room in my bags.

Saturday I went up to Morpeth (near Newcastle in the north-east) to visit my cousin Derek and his wife Beryl again and to say good bye. They picked me up from the station and we wandered around Morpeth, a gorgeous old market town, then went to the Metro centre in Newcastle, a big shopping centre. Had to keep doing the whole, "no room!" thing, but I think I'm going to go back to one of the stores and buy something. Woops. I'll just mail stuff home. Eurgh. Then on Sunday we went to visit Derek and Beryl's son Mark and his girlfriend at their lovely Victorian/Edwardian house. It was great to see them because they're now expecting a baby, due next month. Nuts! Then we went to my Auntie Winnie's house to meet up with her again. Auntie Winnie is my Nonno's sister and she's just adorable - pint-sized and really lovely, and she says words like "bairns". Bless! She also looks exactly like Nonno but with prettier hair. It just weirds me out a little. It was a good get-together: there was Auntie Winnie and Uncle Sid, their sons Martin and Jim, Martin's wife Ines and his daughters Sarah (told you there was a theme) and Jemma, as well as Sarah's daughter Thea. It was so lovely to catch up with everyone before I left because who know's when I'll be back again? Then on Monday (yesterday) Derek and Beryl took me to Hadrian's Wall which was pretty damned awesome. It totally would have sucked being a Roman soldier though and having to patrol the thing because it was in the middle of nowhere and the wind just cut across the valleys in the cold. From there Derek and Beryl had a surprise for me. I thought we were driving home and looked up and saw a random castle in the middle of the woods, and just as I exclaimed, "Ooh look, a castle!" we turned up the driveway and went into Langley Castle and had a coffee and some sandwiches. Oh yeah.

Now I'm on my way back to Carol and John's place on the train. Gotta love the free wifi on these Eastcoast trains. I go home in two days' time and I'm more than ready to go, especially after the bad news I received last week. Missing everyone like crazy and can't wait to see everyone again.

Just some quick observations:

• there were no Australians in London this time! When I was here last year every second voice had an Australian accent. This year all the tourists were Italians, Spanish, and Germans. I think the Aussies have gone south for winter.
• Northumberland is still the most ridiculously gorgeous place. Serious thoughts of living there one day. It probably didn't help that Derek took all the gorgeous scenic routes whenever we drove anywhere.
• For such a small island, and with such a big population, it's astonishing how much open space there is here.
• If it weren't for the crappy weather I wouldn't hesitate in living here.

General whinge because I'm sick, tired and just cos I can!

So, after almost 25 years (do you know how hard that is to say without wanting to cry from the shock of it all?!), I know myself pretty well. One thing I've found about myself is that when things start to feel like they're getting on top of me, I pretty much just shut down. I do absolutely nothing but think of all the things that need doing. I sit and stress and stew and do absolutely nothing. Then, at the 11th hour (is that the right saying?), it all comes together, I pull my finger out, and for some odd reason it all seems to work.

So it is that I spent all day today doing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. I got woken up by the dickwad downstairs who thought that 6:30am is the perfect time to play his shitty techno music. Actually, it is the perfect time if you want me to Lorena Bobbit you. Especially because I've (of course) got a cold. Argh. We all know what happens when I'm sick. Rash decisions are made when I'm sick. I like to hide away from society and only come out for food and tea. I had planned to sleep all day and then work on assignments that really need to be done before I leave.

But of course, that didn't happen. Instead, I watched TV all day.

And I stressed. And stressed. Mostly about all the crap I have to do in the next 11 days (11 days!!!).

I also stressed about all the crap I have to pack. Oh. Shit.

I'll definately need to send a bunch of stuff home. Namely, books. Oh gosh, the amount of books I bought while I was over here! Crap. And not just books to read, but bloody tourism books, like The Guide to Edinburgh Castle etc. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

Something else that seemed like a good idea at the time (nay, EXCELLENT idea at the time) was buying mugs at all the Christmas markets I went to. Yeah, good work. Breakable and heavy. Just the way I like it.

Plus all this uni stuff that needs to be sent home. And shoes, although I think I'll be throwing a couple of pairs out. Unfortunately, I'm going to have to say goodbye to my beautiful tan boots. They were never designed to have to deal with a real winter, and they haven't been the same since I fell over - twice - in a random Prague nightclub. (You should have seen how bruised my legs were! Lesson: absynth is BAD!)

And now because of the fog my head is in with this cold, I've forgotten what I was talking about. Can't be arsed re-reading. So Tschüss!