Bombs!!!

After i got back from Biarritz i was online talking with Mike. We talk nearly every day and i enjoy this. But my phone started ringing and it was George. 'Where are you? Are you in town? Dont go there' I told him i was only at the internet up the road, nowhere near the centre of London. And thats when he told me that 2 explosions had gone off on the tubes. Oh Shit!!! But we were both fine. I told Mike, and then rang mum straight away. The news of the bombs hadnt got out yet so the line thru to N.Z was good. I asked mum to ring Aunty Claire and tell her that George was fine, (he works on the underground tubes), so would have been a worrying time. I said my good byes to Mike, wrote a quick email to everyone then high tailed it back to the flat. It wasnt long before the phone started ringing. George rang again and said that he had heard from Ange, La La and Derrin but we had not heard from Kirk. We were all a bit worried but knew that he did not use the tube. Not long after that Ange got hold of him, he was fine. George came home early and we sat on the couch watching it all unfold on the tele with a beer in hand to calm the nerves. It was a nervous day. One by one all the flat mates arrived home, thank god for the smallest of blessings. So a new found lease on life was found and they all headed off to the local pub for a celebration of life drink. They still dont have final death figures for the bombings yet and some of the tube stations are still not open. There were 4 bombs in all that went off and they have found the culprits. All suicide bombers they think. This is a day i will never forget.

Meeting old friends again!

After getting back from Biarritz i was on a train and on my way up to Clitheroe. This is a small town up the north of England. Chris was waiting at the train station when i arrived. It was great to see him again. I first met Chris when he was working in New Zealand at Nic and Gerry's place. I met his mum and she dropped us off at the hotel i was staying at, 10 mins up the road from her place. Oh my god, what a sight when we first drove up to it. Eaves Hall Country Hotel. I found out that this use to be a private members only country club accomodation. It was fantastic. They have only had it open to the public for 2 years. It was awesome. Well i got settled in and Chris and I walked down to his mothers place, stopping on the way for a beer at the pub. His family are very nice, i also met two of his brothers(Paul and Ian). Then we got dropped off in town and had a great meal and some drinks as we visited the other bars. Talking for hours, it was good to catch up again. Chris had taken a couple of days off work so the next day we went up to the Clitheroe Castle and had a look thru the muesum, england has so much history. They also have Pendle Hill which has a story about witches surrounding it. No time to lose tho we had to met Ian at the Vets. He drove us out to a farm that Chris use to work on. So different to New Zealand. They calve all year round, which means they milk all year round. They cant have their stock in the paddocks in winter, because they are just to wet, so they hous them in big sheds. To do this they feed them a mixture of things. Silage, hay, grass and even potatoes, they thought i was weird when i said we feed turnips sometimes. So to feed them all, the paddocks in summer have to be cut(usually twice), then they collect the grass and store it in huge sheds. Some of their cows dont even step foot into a paddock their whole life. Oh and I saw the funniest thing. Chris showed me into the milking shed, they have 130 cows and they put them thru a 4 aside shed. Gosh it looked funny, no where to run if a cow starts shitting. And their stock are huge too. Most of the cows' backbones were taller than me. Thats over 5 feet tall to their back bone. Made me feel very small and rather scared. The next day Chris, Ian, Hannah and I went to the "Great Yorkshire Show". Its like our feild days at mystery creek. It was great. And so hot. They show alot of cattle at these shows. and the biggest bulls i have ever seen. Later that night Chris was meeting me at the hotel for dinner and he had bought along a bit of a surprise for me. He had Lindsey with him. It was great to see her again, unfornately she had to take off to work so i only got to speak to her for about half an hour. But she was looking well. Day 3 and i was back on the train again. Chris and i went out for lunch then i went back to London. I was buggered. It had been a full-on 3 days but I enjoyed every minute of it. I glad i caught up with him and Lindsey again, and will maybe catch up again when he comes to Australia.

Glastenbury

Glastenbury Music Festival!! Well it meant nothing to me when i first got told about having tickets to it. Now however, it means a totally awesome time, and one i will never forget. Packed up George's van on Thursday night and got ready to roll. I couldnt believe that they had 8 chilly bins in the kitchen filling every single one with beer and ice. How could we possibly drink all that, i wondered. Still they were all saying i still dont think we'll have enough to drink. We hit the road, headed for the biggest music festival in England and the 2nd biggest in Europe. Got there at 1am and started by having to open every chilly bin for it to be checked for glass. The 7 bottles of Jack Daniels had to be poured into plastic bottles along with the 4 bottles of Vodka. And then we were allowed in. We set up our tents and at 2am i managed to crawl into my tent and sleep. Woke up the next morning to rain, and heaps of it. It poured down. George had some white overall things that we all wore, we looked so funny. but we were dry and thats always a plus. The rain stopped about mid day so we headed, by foot, thru the mud to the festival. And couldnt believe it when we saw that alot of the tents had had water right thru them. And mud!!! Mud for miles. We had a ball. George and I took off and wandered thru the whole festival grounds and by the time we got back, we were covered in the stuff. We watched a couple of bands then i took off for some sleep cause i was buggered. The next day got up and headed to the pryamid stage to watch the All Blacks kick the arse of the Lions. Here we were, sitting in a foot of mud listening to the english commentors saying how the nz weather was terrible and that england was having a heat wave. Yeah Right!!!! Not!!! There was not much i wanted to see that day on the stages so i went back for breakie, then spent a quiet day in the tent reading, and sleeping, much needed. Sunday was the day i had been waiting for. First up was James Blunt, fantastic. Then the others arrived down and Jools Holland came on. He was alright. Then the man himself, Van Morrison, i couldnt believe it. He had Ruby Turner with him as well, it was 'hosh gwaan'. George and I then headed for the Jazz Stage and got there in time to see 'The Wailers'(Bob Marleys Band). I couldnt help but cry, this was so surreal for me. I was having the best time doing things that i could only have dreamt about. We got back to the pryamid stage where the others were and rocked out there for awhile, then about 12.30am George said he would walk me back to the tent. It was a very wobbly walk back as we were both quite pissed. He managed to push me and i landed straight on my arse in the mud, which he thought was quite funny. We had had the best day. It was great. Totally mind blowing and just as the girls had said, we ran out of beer.

Amsterdam!!!

Well these people are known to be the most open-minded thinking people in the world! And i have no doubt that is true. We rocked up to Amsterdam and it was hot. So we had a couple of beers and got ready to do our optional excursion. This had been kept a surprise from us the whole trip. So when we got there we were told that part of the Amsterdam culture includes the "Cafe scene" and also the "Sex scene". So if we so wish we could go to a live sex show. Well, when in Rome. Just about every one was on the bus for this one, ha ha ha. And what a laugh. There was totally no emotion in it what so ever, it was a performance really, and a funny one at that. I learnt a couple of things that night. One, that you could smoke a cigar out of your ... and two, it answered all my questions about black men. ha ha ha. The chick that did the cigar thing, oh i had to give her a standing ovation, she was good, next thing all my contiki friends were standing clapping along with me. Pakko got to go up on stage, he had to lay on the floor while this girl crouched over him with a pen stuck up her and wrote on his chest. ha ah ha. he thought all his christmas's had come at once. She wrote "The End". We had a ball. After the show a group of us did the Cafe scene. Over here they roll there joints with tobacco so you have to smoke alot to get stoned. Shan Shan came with us, and she really enjoyed herself, something she had never seen or done before. The next day we had the whole day to wander Amsterdam by ourselves. So i took off to the nearest sex muesum. I had heard they were very good. Well it was so interesting, and some of the things they had on display had me in histeric's. I must have spend a good 2 hours there, then it was time to catch the bus again. Amsterdam is certainly so different to anywhere i have ever been to, but i loved it. They have such a broad way of thinking. And believe me, every body is happy there. Definately a place to go back too.