NottingHill Carnival 2007

Everyone has pretty much gone now, Zeus and his sister, Maria left for Paris two days back and Rafa left for Madrid this morning, life is quiet again, i suppose...

that's why ive signed myself up for a bar and hospitality training at the RSA (royal society of arts), and you know what the best part is? they pay me for taking up the course, it does sound too good to be true, doesnt it? well, it's true... £6 an hour, from nine to five...i would hate to sit around at home and wait for my trip to start in two weeks...

due to some unforeseen circumstances, i might have to cancel my Moroccan trip of Marrakech and Casablanca, and head on to Germany earlier, but on the way back to England, ive added Prague (Czech republic) and Amsterdam (netherland) to my itinerary....

cant wait to speak some foreign languages soon...


Zeus and Maria (Mexican)


Edu at the Chinese Buffet


Artistic picture attempt #2


Tower palace


Tower bridge


Canary Wharf


Suya at the Eye


Eduardo and Rafa at camden town


Carola and Petra (german girls)


Christmas comes early in London

Alright, first thing first, some updates...

my sushi days are officially over, spent some memorable time with my coworkers on my last day and i know how much they will miss me, as much as i'll miss them, hell, i miss them already...

but then again, when you gotta go, you gotta go...

i have purchased a one way ticket from London to Barcelona, flying on the 4th of September...that means i still have some coupla weeks in London to chill for a bit...and guess what, the ticket only costs me £0.01, unbelievable? you better believe it...(let's just go along the flow with me and pretend that there is no tax, fuel surcharges and a million other things...)

my tentative travel plan is as follow...

London - Barcelona (Spain) - Valencia (S) - Alicante (S) - Jaen (S) - Granada (S)- Cadif (S)- Casablanca (Morocco) - Faro (Portugal) - Madrid (S) - Munich (Germany) - Vienna (Austria) - Frankfurt (G) - Hannover (G) - Hildesheim (G)

my plan stops at Hildesheim where Chloe is staying and im not sure where to head from there...it all very much depends on my funds and if im good enough at budgeting and still have some money to spare after Oktoberfest, i'll be heading to Amsterdam to find Archie, my saviour in Australia...

will update more soon when i get the details...


****

Last week, we planned a surprise party for Jolanda (spain) who was leaving london for a SE Asian trip beginning from Vietnam and ending in Singapore...her initial plan was to skip Malaysia altogether, but i managed to persuade her that it is still worth visiting, at least go to Kuala Lumpur, i told her...

it was an Indian themed party and everyone dressed up as indian ladies...Yes, everyone, including the boys...it was my first time cross-dressing and it felt really weird, but the experience was worthwhile when we saw Jolanda's face...she burst into uproarious laughter when she saw us, walking out from the room one by one and performing indian dances...

we later walked down the street in our costume and passers-by were amazed and very much entertained by us, wooing and taking pictures with us and giving us the thumbs up...

and since i've stopped working, i had the time to bring my visiting German friends on a 3-day London tour, we went to all the obligatory tourist spots during the day and hit the popular bars at night...and as the girls are really into drinking (they are germans), we really spent most of our time in the bars...

Rafa from Spain will be visiting us today and will be crashing at our place for a week, and tomorrow i will be meeting Suya who is coming all the way from Devon to London to babysit her nephew...

Zeus's sister is arriving from Mexico on saturday, and yes, it will be fullhouse in our humble house and lotsa fun is expected...

pictures later...

Latin Carnival


Nelson´s Column


Statue of the Angel


Buckingham Palace


Green Park


An afternoon indulgence: A good book, good SB Coffee, good SB Panini, and a good tub of Ben & Jerry´s (the next best ice cream after Haagen Daaz)


Meal attempt #2


we probably had the best weekend last week since summer started, the sky was blue and temperature hit an all time high of 26 degrees, it was really hot! anybody and everybody who has a life were out in the sun, filling every inches of every parks with deck chairs and books and food, soaking in the sun for all they´re worth...

it was already late by the time we got to green park, half naked sun worshippers were already all over the place...so we took a stroll to the buckingham palace, hoping to catch the ´guard changing´ceremony...but alas, they only do it every other day and it so happened that we were on ´the other´day...

not to be downcasted, we walked to trafalgar square where we were supposed to meet Eduardo´s friends: a bunch of spanish students studying in Brighton and were on a one-day trip to London...

so we were basking in the sun while waiting for them to arrive, when Eduardo suddenly turned around, put on a solemn face and asked:´what are you gonna do when you meet the girls?´ I was like: ´what do you mean?´ by then he can no longer control his grin and asked:´are you gonna give them the two kisses or the hand shake?´

knowing very well that we dont embrace intimacy so much from our part of the world, the dude was having a good time picturing me in the embarrassing and awkward moment when he should introduce me to his friends; he then went on educating me that the hand shake should best be avoided if i do not want to offend anybody...

i didnt want to spoil the fun by telling him that ive traveled and have met people outside my country, i know very well when to give the kiss and when not to, thank you very much...

as it turned out, his concern was totally uncalled for, upon the exchanges of names, the girls simply reached out their arms, grabbed your back, pulled you closer and sticked their cheeks towards your lips for you to give them two pecks, you hardly have time to protest, not that i wanted to.. :p

it was really great meeting new friends, albeit for only few hours, we had the obligatory drinking session, chilled out for a bit, i listened to everyone babbling in spanish and everyone made an attempt to talk to me in their limited english words that they learned from school...

The same thing happened on Sunday - Me having a lotta Spanish exposure...we went to the latin music carnival at Burgess Park, in Elephant & Castle...it was a massive event, thousands of revellers having the time of their life, dancing to non-stop hispanic songs, enjoying the rides and food fair, and for the most part just lying down on terra firma and taking the infamous Spanish Siesta...

i met two of Fabian´s friends from Barcelona and Madrid, getting the contacts so that i have places to crash when im there later next month...

it´s gotten so comfortable that it´s a lil´hard to leave right now...

why am i such a confused and indecisive person?

hola mi amigo...

the sun is out again and everyone is pretty much getting the most out of it whenever they can...summer has finally arrived!

nothing much happened for the past few days except i feel that my days making sushi are numbered...it´s just time to move on...

will try to make some plans now and see how it goes...dun wanna procrastinate anymore...

till you hear from me again...