So Rob left on 5 November and it is now 2.5months later and he is returning in 2 days so I thought it was high time I kept everyone informed of how I´ve been keeping myself busy, not a difficult thing to do in London anyway, but with Christmas as well it was near impossible to have any spare time.
Firstly, Anni and I headed to Cardiff 2 weekends after Rob left to visit Sarah Laurence who has been living there since about July. We managed to get ourselves seats on the train after running ahead of people and a bit of pushyness on my part. We probably should have thought about the weekend rush for the first train, but it hadn´t crossed our minds and there were some poor people who had to stand or squat in the isle the whole 2 hour train ride. Friday night was a quiet one in and Saturday we headed into town to wander the walking streets and Christmas markets. Trying to find a pub that did steak and Guinness pie, which we had our heart set on, was a bit more of a challenge than we thought it would be mainly because all the pubs were packed with male Irish soccer fans who were over for the Ireland v Wales game which was being held in Cardiff that weekend. We went into about 5 pubs without any females in them. This seems to a trend in Cardiff, because when we meet Sarah later on in another pub there weren´t any ladies either and then out at night was definitely a higher men to women ratio. Still probably not the first point of call for single ladies cause they weren't of the classy variety or that good looking either.
Saturday night was a laugh, seeing Cardiff at it´s skanky best and bar hopping to places I couldn´t recall on Sunday. It pissed down with rain just as Anni and I were trying to catch a cab home, and there were none to be found. We couldn´t cross the road without getting soaked it was so bad. At one point we stopped into a phone booth to call a cab (and get out of the rain) and the phone mouth piece had been ripped off. A girl then joined as to tell us that she was really going to have to pee, at which we took as our kew to leave. We stopped into chippy lane for some chips and cheese and meet some friendly Irish fellas and then followed a bouncers advise to where to catch cabs. There were none and we meet some other people who had been given the same advise who had already been waiting about 10mins. There were actually some cabs but they wouldn´t take us, so after about a half hour and hypothermia later Anni convinced them that it was very irresponsible of them not to take us so we jumped into the cab and finally got home.
Sunday wasn´t much better weather, but we still tried to make the most of it and headed to the harbour before heading back to London by bus.
The following weekend I headed to Ireland to meet up with the Cuzzies. Odette my cousin is living in Dublin with her boyfriend Tony and her brother Nick was visiting with his fiancee Dee and her brother Phil. We hired cars and drove up to Belfast stopping along the way at a coastal town in Northern Ireland. On Saturday we wandered the streets of Belfast city, went to a German market, drank mulled wine and found ourselves some Guinness. I managed to drink Guinness the whole time I think. Good work.
On Sunday morning we did a black cab tour around the wall murials and the wall dividing the Catholic and Protestant areas before making our way slowly back to Dublin following the coast. Pretty good trip all in all I think and great to get out into the Irish countryside despite the weather.
Except, that on Monday morning when Odette and Tony dropped me at the airport at 5am (thanks guys) one of the rental cars wasn´t there. We didn´t really have time to think about it then, but when I arrived in London I got a text from Nick asking if I had the keys cause he couldn´t find them. We hadn´t got the additional insurance so any damage/thief etc had a $2,000+ excess. Bummer. So the rental company was advised and the excess charged to the credit card. Finally the the police were informed where the car was found in one piece along with the keys which were left in the car door by Nick when he went to retrieve his wallet. We still haven't decided who's more Irish, Nick for leaving the keys in the car door, or Odette for going to Stansted airport instead of Luton where her flight to Paris was leaving from.
So then there were the Xmas parties and far to much alcohol and getting sick because I wasn´t taking care of myself. And then Christmas itself with some other orphan kiwi´s which was heaps of fun and particularly good because of the Christmas costumes people decided to wear.
And finally to Barcelona for New Years where I return from with a sore throat because again of too much "making a party"(as our Spanish rental agent saids). We had a fantastic apartment with 10 people where we managed to get the Spanish Noise control to visit. I think we managed to get around most of the Barcelona sights, but really Barcelona doesn´t have the much to look at other than Gaudi art, which I don't think much of. The night life's great though. We went to a great club on New Years Eve which held 2000ish people and was like a rabbit warren warehouse, easy to get lost in it's many little secret rooms, which I of course did.
Now it is January and I am having a month of sobriaty. Except that I had a few glasses of wine last weekend. I was in a Piano bar, how could I say no.
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