Were going to see the we queen!

A long long, but much overdue.

SO home was very short, well at least it felt that way. It was still really good to be home. Emily had a fabulous Christmas party where I of course was in bed by 11:30. No wonder I am always the first one up in the morning. I got to go to NY to see all my friends from Catholic which was awesome. It was so good to see everyone and to all be together minus Tricia. We really missed her that night. This will come as no shock but I had a very ridiculous fall that ended in pointing, laughing, and the flashing of cameras. I thought it was funny too, but I dont know if it was really necessary to push be down and take pictures while others were trying to help me up, Jackie Lodge.

The next few days all flew by, Pollyanna, Christmas eve. A word to the wise don't always listen to Christmas songs. When people sing to bring some Figgie pudding, don't believe them. Americans do not like Figgie pudding. Even when I tried to tell them that they could not have the delicious looking Reese’s pie until they finished some. They still won't eat it, I guess it really didn't help that I was going for the Reese’s too.

Another thing I learned on my vacation at home was that you should not choose the song lip-gloss for karaoke. I learned this when Grace and Karen decided to sing it on David’s new karaoke game he got for x-box. It is a fun game, but I swear you could be the most tone deaf person in the world and as long as you shout and do absurd hand moves then you can win.

All in all home was a very successful trip. I only managed to loose one thing during my time there, that has to be a world record for me. Unfortunately that thing was a car. Don't worry though it was quickly located and picked up by Emily and yours truly and all we had to do was walk 10 blocks, take the speedline and then cab, we were there in three hours, no biggie.

The day after Christmas Mama and Papa bear helped the four girls pack up the car and kiss are lonely brother goodbye for our travels across the UK. From London to Scotland in 8 days! Well not really but it sounds much more exciting that way!

Day 1 in London:
We finally arrived in London, after an 8 hour flight and 1 hour trains ride, hailing 5 suitcases to off the tube to our hostel, only to arrive at our hostel and find out we were on the 4th floor. When we finally put down all our things we walked in the room to find a middle aged couple and daughter all sleeping in their underwear. Soo we decided to get out of there, fast and went to get something to eat. It was really late, like 11.30 so we wandered around trying to find somewhere to eat besides McDonalds. We passed a Lebanese restaurant and since they all were looking at us when we walked by we decided to ask if they were open. Of course they replied. We asked if we could have a bottle of wine or if it was too late. Our server said he would have to ask the 'bartender' (there was no bar.) He came back telling us they were no longer allowed to serve alcohol, but the bartender would like to serve you. Uhh so what does that mean yes, or should we order a coke? Apparently that meant yes and the bartender came over smiling but not saying a word. He poured our wine and then walked away. Uhh thanks. We all got our meals and had our wine. We were then surprised with free dessert on the house. It was really good. When we finally asked for the check the bartender came over to our table.
"How can I see you," he asked?
Hmm lets think about this, you can start by opening your eyes. (we didn’t actually say that.)
"I want to see you."
After some awkward conversation of us not really answering his questions and getting nowhere I told him we were staying in a hostel not far from here and maybe he would see us around. I don't think the others were very happy with this, but it got us away from the pale Lebanese man flashing his blinding white tummy at us, off to a much better situation, sleeping next to our half naked, middle aged roommates.

London: Day 2
The next day Emily and I got up on a hunt to find some towels because the hostel didn’t have any, and we didnt bring any. After going in about 5 different stores we decided that the two baby wash clothes we bought would have to do. Try drying yourself off with a inch of water at your feet, in a little square with a washcloth fit for Polly Pocket. Yeah, its not easy.
When we were finally all dressed an ready we headed out. We decided to give our selves jobs for the week to make our lives easier.
Emily: was the tour guide.
Yours Truly: Linguistics and Logistics. (I got to ask the questions no one wanted to ask.)
Grace: Key, Hair, and money manager. Since is a stickler with the mulah.
Karen: Director of fun. Ironic, I know since the first night she shoved a hand over her wine glass, saying, no, no that’s enough. I was concerned since that amount of wine wouldn’t even get Verne Troyer drunk, but I have to say she did a good job.
We started off at portabella market. It was very cool and we walked around. Gracie bought a Ellie the elephant watch necklace and I bought a hat that would put the Russian mob to shame, well that and make me look like a little boy.

We went to lunch to Wagamama's. It was really good. It was a Japanese noodlely place. We had some wine and sat there for a very long time. After I went into the men’s bathroom, purely by accident (don’t worry it was only a one person), we decided it was time to go. We then went to the National Gallery and Portrait Gallery. Then Big Ben, Westminster Abbey and walked all around before ending up at a pub to get some dinner. We all had different versions of bangers and mash, except Karen she had fish and chips. We also had two ales each. After sitting there for a very long time. (we took advantage of any indoor time we could get, it was cold outside) we went to look to see if there was a movie playing. We ended up going to like 9 places but nothing played after 9 and it was a Saturday night!! I know, bloody England. So we took the tube back to our hostel and got some ice cream before reading and going to bed. I guess it was a bad idea to make the director of fun a person who is obsessed with twilight and had just started the second book. She thinks it is better then the Harry Potters, I know, she is seriously disturbed.

London Day 3:
So we decided to let ourselves sleep in a little bit today. We didn't realize it would be till 11.30, but I guess we needed it. So we went to Hyde park, which was really nice. We had some lunch, walked around and headed to Buckingham Palace. We walked around for a while and saw a lot of the guards. We decided to go see if we could get some cheap show tickets, but the line was long and we were frozen. So we headed to a coffee shop instead and read our books. No I am not joking, we read books. After we had some coffee we decided it was way to cold to be outside so we headed to Sports Centre or at least we thought we were heading there. See the problem was we remembered walking by it at one point, but we don't remember when that was, or where we were going when we did. It was like searching for my mom at the Holy Saviour Bazaar, impossible to find. When we finally found the place we got our own little booth with out own little T.V. and were weirdly enough surrounded by Americans watching American football. We ate and had some pitchers before moving upstairs to watch the Eagles game. Emily and Karen were social and played pool, while me and grace sat on our butts and watched the game. The bar stopped serving at 11, so time to go and catch the last tube to go home, until..... Well the last one or two pitchers must have brought the director of fun out of her shell because we were walking out the door and all of a sudden she was missing talking to one of the Giants fans who was sitting next to us earlier, telling him she knew the Eagles would win. They were all a bunch of Americans, so we went with them to some club, to find it closed. We walked around for a while so we said peace, and found our way home.

We woke up at 5:30 in the morning to our new roommates. Four French men speaking not a word of English. Grace claims though before she went to bed she heard one of them sing, "if I were a boy."

London: Day 3
The next day we got up and decided it was museum day. Well first we went and got tickets to see a show that night. We choose Blood Brothers. It was cheap, it was English, and the description was, "two brothers separated at birth coming together to conquer the world" didn’t sound to bad. We took our chances. After we got our tickets we took the tube to where Emily used to always get her fish and chips. She claimed she was a little embarrassed by it because it was a little sketchy but we trusted her. She said she always got it to go in a little bag and she said that was the best part, but since it was so cold out, we decided to sit inside. Inside the shop was pretty nice and everyone was being extremely civilized and eating their fish and chips on a plate, we quickly changed that.
Waiter: "Can I take your order?"
Emily: "Yeah, Hi. Can we have four orders of the fish and chips, but can we have that in the bags."
Waiter: "You want to eat here?"
Emily: "yes."
Waiter: "but you don't want it on plates."
Emily: "No in the bag please, so we can add the salt and vinegar in and shake it up."
Waiter: Very strange looks. "Sure."
So we sat looking like complete animals with our fish and chips in bags while, others had plates and silverware.
We finished our very tasty fish and chips and then headed to the Tate Modern. We felt a little bit queasy at times. I am not sure if that was from the fish and chips or the modern art but we decided it might be time to get out of there. From here we headed to Shakespeare's theatre. We wandered around while Emily told us a little history. We then headed to a prison, where Charles Dickens parents were once placed. A really old cathedral, that smelled stale, and took a little glimpse of London Bridge. We had a lot more time before the show that night so we headed to Hampstead, where Emily used to live to check out a pub from the 1500s. When we got there Emily mad me ask the tube man, what time the tube closed.
Me: "What time do you close"
Difficult Tube Man: "What time does the station close or what time is the last train."
Me: "Train"
Difficult Man: "To where"
Me: Uhh I was tempted to say London, but I knew that would not be the right answer. He said a station that was in the opposite direction of where we wanted to go. "ohh yeah, not that station. A different one."
Man: "A different one."
Me: "Yes like opposite direction."
Him: "oh okay. 12."
Me: "Thanks." Serious eye rolling.
12 I told Emily, wondering why in gods name she mad me ask the man that when we had a show at 7.30. We hiked up to the pub only to walk inside and see it was way to crowed to find a spot and stay. We took a good look around and were back on the streets. We walked back down to town. Emily kicked a small child's bouncy ball and probably ruined both his and his parents evenings as he started to cry.
"Did you just kick that."
"No well, it was going down, it hit my foot."
"So you did."
"No, well, yeah."
We then went shopping for amount 1.2 minutes and guess what we did next. You will never guess it. Well you probably will.
We got on the bloody tube, with the stupid difficult man standing right there. It was approximately 15 minutes since I asked what time the last tube was. Ugh I put my head down as far as I could go, completely embarrassed.
We went pack to where our show was playing, had some pizza and then went to the show. Well the show. Haha, how do I describe it? Well let’s see. The singing was good and the acting was not bad, but....
There seemed to be only one or two songs. One of these songs went a bit like this. "And he was stuck in jail being prescribed pills, just like Marilyn Monroe. Every 8th line was, "just like Marilyn Monroe." Even if it had absolutely nothing to do with Marilyn. It could have been, he got his hair dyed blonde, just like Marilyn Monroe. I would say it was a bit more than a stretch. We all kept waiting for the conquering the world part, but of course that never happened. When the big dramatic, climax of the story came about, with a big bang, I laughed. I could not help it, it was so ridiculous, I couldn't control myself. We got back to our room to find out that we had been moved to another room. Yayy we thought, a room to ourselves, with no tight whitey middle ages people!
Well it was to ourselves, but it was freezing, there was zero heat. We were all packing up to leave the next day when there was a knock on the door. I answered to find two boys running up the stairs. Two minutes later there was another knock on the door.
"yes I said."
"can you open the door." in a French accent.
"uhh why."
"please."
"oh, alright."
I opened the door to find two little French man holding our toothpaste. Now let me explain that some of the toothpaste we were using were the little ones that you get on the plane, that say toothpaste on it. These little Barbie sized toothpastes clearly had nothing in them, but hey it’s the thought that counts.
"ohh thank you so much."
"so now you want to open the door."
"well I am sorry, but last time I opened the door you ran away."
He looked at me very confused. "Speak slowly," he said.
I swear I heard some aww's behind me.
Okay, "last time you knocked and then ran away." using my hands to act it out.
"That was him." The front boy pointed to the boy behind him.
"Why did you run away."
"I stupido."
"ohh that’s okay."
"Thanks for the toothpaste."
They were really nice. They left to only come back with more friends and ask us to go bowling, but we were tired and had to get up at 5.30 to go catch our train so we declined. Apparently I was mean about it, but I mean come on, they spoke very little English. I was doing my best.

Scotland: Day 1.
The next morning we woke up really early to catch our train to Scotland. We got on our first train and it took us about 20 minutes to find a place for our entire luggage. Let me correct that, it took Emily and I 20 minutes. Grace and Karen were clueless and very little help. We got to our first destination, with very little trouble where we had to switch for another 45 minute train to Edinburgh. The next train was packed and there were people in our seats. We sent Karen and Grace to their seats and Emily and I sat in the hallway with our entire luggage. We were a little bit in the way of the bathroom but it wasn't a big deal, we made some friends. Our stop was the last, and the only stop, or so we thought.
So when we started to slow down, we got all of our luggage ready to hop off. Since there was only Emily and I and four suitcases and a pile of people behind us we had to do it quickly. We were extremely successful. Only to realize in about 10 quick seconds no one else when getting off.
Shit
This is not our stop is it? We had about another 20 seconds to get all the suitcases and ourselves back inside the door. We were doing the best we could when all of a sudden Karen and Grace were behind us. They had seen us get off and freaked out that they should do the same. So 4 people with 5 suitcases and purses and book bags were trying to squeeze in the little door before the train took off again. It was like from league of their own. We pushed each other in to collapse on the floor. I can only imagine what the people in the cars around us were thinking. First we block the hallway to the bathroom, then we cause a great big scene. It was all very embarrassing, but we made it. We took a cab to our HOTEL!! It was such a relief to be staying in on after four awful days in the hostel. We had heat and running water and towels.!!
We dropped our stuff to get some lunch and to see the castle. The castle was beautiful and the view was pretty amazing. I was getting funny looks from people but what else is new. We walked around and did a little souvenir shopping for our parents and Dave. We decided to go to a pub and have some wine. We split a bottle and then had some Strongbow. "It makes you silly," says Emily. We decided it was time to go since we would be having a ridiculous New Years Eve. We went to the grocery store to get some dinner and then went to bed.
Scotland: Day 2.
The next day we woke up, showered and got ready for the day. We all took about a half hour to get dressed since we were putting on so much clothing. We all had some mimosas in a bottle, Buck Fizz, it was called. Pound Fizz, it should have been called since it was so cheap, but it did the job.
We took the bus to town and on the way I realized I had forgotten our tickets to the street party. Absolutely perfect. I actually wasn't that bothered about going back, I was used to this happening to me, I just thought, hmm we have no phones besides mine. How am I going to get back and get the tickets and then find the others? We decided to meet at a restaurant we had been to before. We ate our lunch at a Scottish Fridays. After lunch we wandered around and got some fabulous donuts. I usually don't like donuts, but these were good. Too good. We got some beers, baileys, and coffee, you know the essentials and hung around for 2009.
It was a really good night, we met some interesting people. Jamie, who is singer. He just got back from L.A. were he was working on his C.D.
Uhh Andy. He was wearing pink star ear muffs and lost his friends as the count down started so he hung out with us for the New Year and sang Auld Lang Syne with us.
We walked along the streets with everyone else as Karen yelled to people Happy New Year and got in pictures with them. It was a really good night.
We met some nice people, and went with them to a Scottish party. When I say really nice, they were nice but when they tried to put us in age order they said. "hmm well probably you to Emily, hmm you just look like a young boy to me, and then Karen, then Grace, she has a young face they said.
"umm wait excuse me did you just say I looked like a young boy."
"yeah with that hat you look like a young boy, take off the hat."
"hmm you still look like a young boy."
And you wonder why I am mean to people. But they took us to a party, where we checked our mail, and then left to go to bed.
The next day we got up and headed to Barney. After having some free breakfast of course. My school was terrifying because there was no one there and it was soo big. We were a little scared but it was alright. I broke the news that they were actually at Hogwarts and I was a quidditch teacher. I think they believed me. I introduced them to some curry at the place we always go to and they were of course friendly as usual. We then watched a movie and went to bed.
The next day I walked them around Barney which took about 10 minutes, we had some lunch and then read our books. Director of fun obviously had a long week. We then took a cabbie to Darlo and I said my goodbyes till July. All in all it was a really good trip.