Gossip from inside my head

London is all in chaos! The magic tubes that hold it together have failed and inflicted disorder and confusion upon us all. Strangely, eerie packets of order exist within the chaos - streets full of people all walking the same way with the same purpose. It's amusing to watch everyone zoom around like this, their normal pattern disrupted, and everyone is trying to weave a new pattern.

Getting to work took two hours, but was actually fun in a way. Got to Leytonstone tube station, found it shut as expected. Bus stop queue of doom. Meh. Walked to Maryland station faster than the not-moving traffic. First train at Maryland too full to board, next two trains didn't bother to stop there, but 4th train stopped and even got me a seat! Yay. Trained it all the way to Liverpool Street. Walked the labyrinthine streets of the City until I reached the river at the Tower. Then got the free Riverboat, just about to leave! Yay! Got seat right at the front, so lots of fab views. Got off at Westminster, crossed Westminster bridge on foot and walked to Waterloo station for the fast trains to Wimbledon.

Now I need coffee ... I had to get up much earlier than usual. Wah! *stifles yawn*

Tell me tales of YOUR exciting adventures across London today. How long did it take YOU to get to work? Tell tell tell! :)

On a whim, I ended up in Portugal last weekend...

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This weekend has been much more relaxed, catching up on anime, drooling over Doctor Who, eating nothing but hot cross buns and chocolate easter eggs, although today I did make it out to Eastcote with the tubewalkers for a pleasant stroll through a park.

Am already wondering where I should travel to next? The cities of Central Europe are calling me, but so are the deserts and lakes of California. The volcanos and glaciers of Iceland are tempting, or should I go to China for the eclipse? I could always go back to my beloved Japan? Or should I head to Tanzania to climb Kilimanjaro? Belarus and North Korea are also tempting for being weird, but I’m strange like that. What to do, darlings? I fear I have excessive wanderlust.

Am in Portugal on one of my little adventures. They want to feed me Portonic. As in, Port and Tonic. I am not yet convinced this is right. Explain why this exists to me, please.

So. Where was I? At the weekend, I fled the country for a little while to those strange little countries just across the water ...

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Oh yes, lots of photos. Best ones are up in my photo Gallery. Brussels photos and Luxembourg photos. I already had lots of good Bruges photos, and didn't feel the need to take any more there.

More adventure is on the way, fear not. In less than a week I’ll be in Portugal. Mainly around Porto and Lisbon. WHAT TO DO THERE? Any advice on where to go is welcome, as I don’t know Portugal at all. I’ve heard Sintra is good, and think I might brave Braga in Holy Week. I suspect there will be lots of lounging around bars reading a big book.

Looks like Google streetmap has finally reached London.

And so the internet is STALKING ME. Go to Google Maps, search for Fillebrook Road in London, press the streetmap button, and go to number 37 Fillebrook Road. Find the white van, and zoom in on the person walking past it. That's ME.

EDIT: Direct link to stalking me here

So, to hide, I'm off out of here for a few days on a little adventure. First to the land of chocolate and beer and art nouveau pretties, and then onwards to the land of fairy-tale castles.

Behave yourselves while I'm away. ;)

I am enthralled by snow. It makes my brain all fuzzy and happy and unable to think about anything else. It has been snowing nonstop for the past 24 hours, and there is LOTS of snow here. I went for a happy walk hunting snowmen in the winter wonderland that is Epping Forest today, and found some gorgeous snowmen. I then built a SNOW DRAGON in front of doseybat‘s house. It is the awesome!

*happy snow bounces*

So where was I - oh yes, just about to escape rainy Tokyo on a Bullet Train ...

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There’s so much I still want to see and do in Japan, and someday I’ll go back there again for a much longer stay. Until then, I’ll miss Japan horribly.

Japan was lovely, but the jetlag of doom (and other, ahem, distractions) stopped me writing about the strange land until now, and it’s going to be a big splurge here, so here goes *deep breath*

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To follow later - more adventures in Japan including Bullet trains, Temple lodgings with real Buddhist monks, Spooky graveyards, Bamboo groves, Geishas, the Cat Bus and Totoro, Shark-fin soup Ice-cream, the Tokyo Tower and not enough sleep!

Not dead. Still reading this, you know, just been a little busy to actually post anything.

So I’m now eating Strawberry and balsamic vinegar ice-cream, and it’s totally delicious, and thought you should all know.

What’s everyone’s favourite strangest ice-cream flavour? *wonders*

Words fail me. The mud. The MUD! *quivers* *twitch*