Tuesday Summary: Day: Sleep/Laundry/Tahiti Bar/E-mail, Evening: Bora Bora, Night: Hang w/ brits/Sleep
Woke at 9:30am in the basement of the Jet Apartments on one of those couches. I have no recollection of how I got here, but felt good about the fact that I was here. By this time I was desperate to do laundry (both my pairs of shorts were filthy), so I got my things together, caught a dip and a shower on the beach, and left my clothes with a man who would do my washing for me. (Spain believes that coin-op laundry is much too complicated for an untrained individual to handle themself, therefor a trained laundry-dude will handle your laundry needs -- for a fee, of course.) At first he wanted me to pick them up after 6pm, but then I explained that he had all of the clothes that I owned aside from the swim trunks I was wearing. His revised time was 1:30pm. I went for breakfast and then lounged on the beach -- gawd I hate laundry, don't you?? ;oP I went back at 1:30pm on the button and was told to return at 2pm. Ok, no worries. I went back at 2:30pm (ever the optimist) and found that he had split my massive load into two, charging me 2200 ptas for the whole job. No use arguing, I paid the man, knowing full well that I don't have enough things to fill a single washer, let alone two. After, I re-met this DJ guy that I had directed to Playa d'en Bossa via the bus from San Antoni the other day. He was working his magic at the Tahiti Bar (also a beach bar). It's more fun to watch a DJ when you know the person. That, and this guy was into more funky music than I was hearing at the other clubs I'd been to. It made for a fun afternoon. Whilst listening, I got a chicken+bacon+salad sandwich, chips, and an interesting fresh melon juice to drink (tastes oddly like melon -- go figure). The sky turned overcast around 4pm, so I took advantage, spreading my towel out on the grass and catching a few zzzzz's.
Damned clouds burned off and I awoke at 6pm with a slight burn on my back. For those of you that don't know me, I'll clarify. A "slight" burn for me would be considered more severe to others. What I got is something that is painful to touch but not so bad that you think about it while moving around. It will definately peel and looks worse than I would like it to look. I was annoyed. I caught another shower on the beach, changed to more appropriate clothes for clubbing, and did 30 minutes of e-mail (500 ptas for 30 mins, that's like US$6.00 per hour - cak!). After a bit at Bora Bora (it's kinda like home now) I went up to Kristian and Gary's for a pre-Amnesia party (Amnesia is the club that we were planning to attend that night). At 10pm only Andrew and Vanessa were at the apartment, which was kind of odd since they were staying in the other place. It turns out that the one they were staying in has lousy ventilation and is smaller. We sat and chatted about the day's events: Basically everyone had been sick all day except me, Kristian, and Andrew. They were just feeling well enough to go for a wander, which is where they all were. Around 1am everyone returned, turns out they had been thrashing Kristian at mini-golf -- a more than noble pursuit. Everyone was ready to hit the hay, so I wandered off to the lounge in the Jet Apartments. A bit later security wandered through and utterred that word I hate in any language: impossible. Damn. I was going to clean my contacts that night (weekly wear: remove and clean once a week), but since I had to be mobile I decided to hold off. I went to walk the beach and found a large dark blue beach towel -- cool find, as my other towel was much smaller. I found a discarded wicker loveseat (2 person sofa) in a low traffic, shaded (the sun will come up eventually) area and slept on it at 3am.
Happy Anniversary Gary and Sara!! (3 years)Wednesday Summary: Day: Sleep/Beach, Evening: Hang out/Bora Bora, Night: Sleep
I woke at 6am, 9am, and finally succumbed at 10am. After switching to beach gear I trekked down to burger king to procure a whopper meal (grande-sized) and an extra whopper. Feast in hand, I ventured down to the beach where I met my group of friends, settling in at midday to eat. We all hung out there until 5pm, which means of course that I got a nice burn, but this time on the top-front of my legs, a strip along my waist band, my chest -- my back was still burned from before. On the up-side, the strip along my waist gave me a bit of a neopolitan look with the burned strip sandwiched between the tan of my stomach and the white of my unexposed, ummm, nether regions. All in all I still considered it a good day :o) While the rest of them went back to clean up and change, I grabbed a shower on the beach after a dip in the sea and then hung at the Tahiti Bar for about an hour. Andrew and Vanessa offerred their couch for me to sleep on, which I gratefully accepted after the previous night's security issues.
The group of them were going out for dinner to celebrate Gary and Sara's having put up with each other whilst bound in matrimonial servitude these past three years -- what troopers!! ;o) My plans were to go to Eden who was hosting Gatecrasher, but my sunburn was annoying enough that I decided to take advantage of the empty apartment and just hang out and chill while I had the opportunity. A bit into the evening, I saw some english women who were staying opposite the pool/deck area from our patio (where I happened to be sitting at the time) trying unsuccessfully to operate the lock on their door. Figuring it was simply an operator error, I went over to offer my expert lock-opening-when-you-have-the-key services. Ok, the lock was broken. The women turned out to be quite nice, two mother-daughter duos ('round 40 and 13, respectively) from somewhere in England (boy, all those geography classes are really paying off now! ;oP). They hailed an apartment maintenance dude who got in through their window in about 15 seconds with a screwdriver -- very secure, indeed! After he opened the door from the inside the lock seemed to work fine -- problem solved! I was skeptical. We went our separate ways and did what we each had planned to do -- for me that was not a whole lot ;o) I saw them return a while later to have the same luck with their door. I went out again, this time as an old friend. (c'mon, we had a history. We go wayyyy back!) The same maintenance guy came with the same screwdriver and this time told them that he would replace the lock first thing in the morning -- just don't double-lock the dead-bolt. That seemed to work fine. They offerred me wine, and I drank it :o) We chatted for a while about life, the universe, and everything until the group returned. The plan then became to go to Bora Bora for some beers (the mother/daughter duos didn't follow). I was kinda hungry, so I got a big ol' hamburger with an egg, chips, and the requisite beer 'round 'bout midnight. I went ack and chatted some more with the two english moms 'til about 2am, when I retired to charge my minidisc batteries, clean my contact lenses, and sleep on my friend's couch.
Thursday Summary: Day: Hang out/Bora Bora/Tahiti, Evening: Bora Bora, Night: Cream at Amnesia
Ahhhh, slept 2am-11am and feeling good :o) Andrew told me that the coffee at the restaurant mere feet from out patio was excellent, so of course I had to check it out -- and it was yummy! I hung out and chatted with Andrew and Vanessa for a while until they went out (kinda puts a damper on conversation when one side vacates ;o), then did my routine and prepared to venture forth into the world. They returned just as I was about to go, so I merely went to the store for beer, crisps, and popsicles (they call them "ice lollies", a term that I cannot allow myself to adopt) and returned to hang out. Later, I made it as far as the Tahiti Bar, and then over to Bora Bora where I met Gary and Sara. They had been checking out the sites and things but were unable to get back into their apartment as Kristian and Hilda had the key. This place seemed only to have one set of keys per apartment, go figure. Turns out that Kristian was being wooed by a time-share (it's not a time share!) salesperson. Now, I was a bit cheeky back there when I referred to it as a "timeshare". It's merely a flat that he owns a portion of and can use only for short times during the year -- my mistake ;oP At any rate, they returned at 9:15pm with plenty of time to discuss Kristian's recent acquisition and still get ready for Cream at Amnesia. Sadly, Andrew and Vanessa couldn't go to Amnesia that night as Andrew had foot issues. His right ankle was swoolen up and had turned a nasty purplish color. The worst bit was that he couldn't put any weight on it at all. We were all thinking major sunburn at first, but then it grew darker and more painful so we all changed our thinking to jelly fish sting. Poor guy. His new best friend became this blue bucket that came with the apartment. As long as his foot remained in the cold water then it didn't hurt. I figured that he could just take the bucket along to Amnesia, but he didn't go for it. Vanessa got burned mainly on her legs. Andrew has various burn patches in odd places where the cream either didn't cover or got wiped off, his back and ankles being the worst areas. Sara got burned on the insides of her lower legs (we had no idea how she managed that). I've already detailed my roasting and don't feel the need to go into it again. We did see an irish guy walking, or rather hobbling around the pool area here. He had blisters about half inch in diameter on the backs of his knees, and then later re-appeared with his knees totally bandaged in a professional manner with gause. It turns out that he was chatting up some girl all day and his skin, apparantly having never seen the sun before, punished him dearly for it. The twisted bit is that he was still out and about in the sun after taking such a crisping. It boggles the mind...
We got to Amnesia right as it opened at 1am. The upside was that we could easily bumble around the club seeing everything without swimming through crowds. The downside is that I was unable to sell Andrew and Vanessa's tickets as there was nobody around except groups with pre-purchased tickets. Things picked up after about an hour and I was able to hear a couple of extremely famous DJ's: Seb Fontaine and Paul Van Dyke. When I later saw Andrew and Vanessa, I tried to project disappointment and tell them that the show sucked, but god's truth is that it was the most incredible night of music that I've experienced (I'm writing this after being in Ibiza for a month and then attending Cream Fields -- it flat rocked!), I'm sorry that they had to miss it. The only downside to the whole night is that the place was utterly packed making it difficult to breathe, much less move. I did meet a friendly Canadian guy named Ryan from my neck of the woods, Vancouver BC. He's on holiday alone over here, so we hung out, and relaxed a couple times in the chill-out room, which was aptly named for two reasons that night: 1)it was a nice place to relax, and 2)the air was cool and readily breathable -- a definate plus! Once again, I got separated from my group, who left around 5am I was told the next day. I stayed on 'til 8:30am when they kicked everyone out, and headed back to Playa d'en Bossa via the city bus. Not ready to sleep yet, I hung out at Bora Bora until just after midday, when I was finally able to sleep at 1pm.
Friday Summary: Day: Sleep, Evening: Pre-Extravaganza party at Tahiti Bar, Night: Extravaganza at Privelege
Morning found me deep in sleep at 6pm. I got in a partial workout trying to wake up, and was able to pull myself together enough to go to the Extravaganza pre-party at 8:15pm with the group. For 6000 ptas you get free (bad) beer for a few hours, a free meal, transportation and paid entrance to Extravaganza at Privelege. Sounded like a good deal to me, and my friends were going, so the lemming in me was satisfied ;o)
First off, we all had to meet at a lousy little bar very near the Tahiti (beach) Bar at 8:15pm. They kept us there for a couple of hours to make sure that we drank when we had to pay for it. Then, finally, at 10pm, we moved to the Tahiti Bar where they had set up enough tables to accommodate the hundreds of us that had bought into the package. As fate would have it, our group was seated directly in front of a speaker that was larger than my first apartment. We had it moved as far as possible, and it was still too close. The beverages served were lousy sangria and a really bad beer. I had one glass of sangria, a swallow of beer, and decided that I wasn't thirsty. Food came along at 10:30pm and was surprisingly good. The rest of our group wasn't interested in salad, so I ate the salad brought for our table. Aside from that we had a prok chop, potato, sausage, bread, and fried eggplant and zuccini. I ate all of mine and whatever the rest didn't want as I was hungry and the food was delicious. We were finally herded onto busses at midnight. When we got to Privilege it was virtually empty except for those of us arriving on the busses. Another great exploratory opportunity. I played tour guide as I had been in Privelege a couple of times already. Bumbling around the club, I found that the music wasn't bringing me up like it usually did. The live acts were Chicaine and a single (short) song of Brian Adams with them. I was utterly unimpressed by the night. Gary, Sara, Andrew, and Vanessa left early (even before Brian Adams sang, can you believe?!?). Later, I got separated from Kristian and Hilda when I went up to chill in the jungle room. There I met quite a few groups of people (that's actually why I go up there, that and the fresh air) including a couple of american girls: Lisa and Claudia. I was the first american that they had met in Ibiza, and I commented on how few americans I had seen here. It seems that people in the states don't know about Ibiza because the british music scene isn't very big in the states (yet). It got to be nearly time to shut, so I went off to find Kristian and Hilda but came up empty. 7am, and the night is still young... ;o)
Saturday Summary: Day: Space/Swimming Pool, Evening: Touristic wandering, Night: Hang out/Sleep
I re-met Lisa and Claudia in one of the side rooms of Privelege that was still playing music. They were talking about going over to Space, and I offerred to share a cab over to Playa d'en Bossa with them since that's where I lived. On the way over I told them about Bora Bora (which is a free beach disco from 10am-midnight). They wanted to check it out, so we changed targets and went to sit at the beach for a bit. It would have been better with music, but it was only 8am at the time. They wanted me to go to Space with them, but the entrance was 5000 ptas and I really didn't have the money to throw at it. Not wanting to go alone, they paid for me to get in -- I really had no option there (ouch, my rubber arm ;o). About half an hour after getting in, Claudia really began feeling the effects of the long night at Privelege. We sat in Space's outside area for a while, but she wasn't feeling better. At 9:30am she threw in the towel and caught a cab back to her hotel, leaving Lisa and me blinking at one another. We bumbled around the club and got to know eachother a bit better. The two of them met whilst attending university in London, a very common thing to do, and were about to leave for home but decided to get a last weekend in Ibiza in first.
By 1pm we were done with Space and headed over to Bora Bora to experience it in full swing -- she was duly impressed. I went by Andrew and Vanessa's to pick up my swimming gear and to let them know that I wasn't dead (they worry so ;o), and then headed up to the resort that Claudia and Lisa were staying in to a)make sure that Claudia didn't die, and b)swim in, and hang out by their pool. It turns out that the place that they were staying was a good half-hour taxi ride (about 4000 ptas) from Playa d'en Bossa -- sheesh, I didn't think the island was that big! We arrived to find out that Claudia had gotten back fine, gotten ill, and slept some but was awake when we got there. First order was to sit by the ocean and drink coffee (it's fun, try it). Then, the pool. The water felt so good after a night of clubbing, and was complimented perfectly by a ride on a pool-side lounge -- it's a rough job, but somebody's gotta do it ;o) We went for food around 9:30pm. I ate (I know you care) a tuna salad that was excellent, and a chicken and mushroom pot pie that was nothing more than mediocre. We then wandered through the small shops in the little, totally tourist town that their resort was plunked next to. During our little excursion, Claudia got a henna tatoo on her ankle with her sorority symbol (an anchor). Having a tatoo, Claudia suddenly required beer. I wasn't thirsty for the swill they were slingin', so I watched them drink their beers in a country-western carnival type family bar -- it was surreal. We then went up to their deck and chatted until around 4am. We all decided that it would be silly to try to get a cab at this hour, so I had a nearly comfortable, extremely brief, night's sleep.
All of that, no sleep, and still I got in a partial workout. What a trooper I am :oP
Sunday Summary: Day: Home at Space, Evening: Home at Space, Night: Home at Space
Needing to get to Space to meet my group of friends, I left the lovely resort early. (Home at Space happens every sunday from 8am until 6am monday -- one entrance gets you 20 hours of clubbing! They were offering a prize for anyone that goes the distance, and I wanted a prize :o) Equipped with my uncanny direction sense, I turned the wrong way out of the hotel and wandered around the lovely touristic town in search of the cab stop. After a while I sat down on a step to collect my bearings and woke up two-and-a-half hours later! This was not good. So much for getting to space at 8am :o( Refreshed, I walked to a cafe on the ocean and had 2 double espresso, 2 peanut m&m's, a snickers, and a donut. I was revitalized! From there I easily found the cab stop and met Natasha, with whom I could share the cab to Space. She's a model/dancer from England, just arrived in Ibiza. If I had to pick someone to share a taxi with... ya know what I'm sayin' ;oP~~ I got back to Playa d'en Bossa by 2pm, dashed to the apt and hid my things on the deck under Andrew's bucket, sprinted to the cash machine, found 2000 ptas on the ground (heh), and entered Space at 2:30pm. I actually found Andrew and Vanessa within the crowds of thousands. Kristian and Hilda showed up a bit later, but Gary and Sara weren't coming as Sara was feeling under the weather. Carl Cox (DJ extraordinairre) was about two hours through his set when Andrew came down with the dry heaves -- poor guy. I wouldn't wish that on anyone. He and Vanessa left shortly after as there was no signs of them letting up. I went back in and hung with Kristian and Hilda until they left for a break to eat and clean up. I went out at 9:30pm for the same reasons, eating a whopper, drinking two red bull energy drinks (tm), and taking a much needed shower. Andrew showed no progress, and was simply painful to be around. I got back in at midnight, just in time for them to shut down the outside stage (?!?). Everyone crammed inside, making it much too hot and crowded in there. I waited it out, bumbling around with Kristian and Hilda, eventually venturing inside where the music was actually pretty good. They left after a while and I stayed on until 5am. Not yet ready to go to sleep, I walked on the beach for a while with The Sundays and Suzanne Vega providing the soundtrack, and was finally able to drift off at 6am. End of Friday, 60 hours minus about 3 hours sleep sunday morning. Time for a nap! ;o)
Unthinkable, but I got in a partial workout again.
Monday Summary: Day: Sleep, Evening: Sleep/Hang out, Night: Manumission at Privelege
Morning tried to find me at 6pm, but I dodged it and woke finally at 9pm. Breakfast consisted of two peanut-butter-and-jam-and-banana sandwiches and a red bull. We hung out for a while in anticipation of Manumission, the biggest event on the island, the best show I'd been to, definately something to be anticipated! We got there not too early, when things were in full swing -- that was definately the way to do it. It was as good as I remember it, bumbling about in the 10,000 max capacity crowd teaming with energy, everyone having an awesome time. It's basically a circus in a disco, and ya gotta love that! :o) Back in the jungle room I met a large group of students from Bristol England, including Adele (tanked, in the most liquored up sense of the word), and Emma (sweet, real girl-next-door). Whilst talking to them, representing the U.S. quite well I might add, a guy stepped into the room directly in front of me and waved a ticket asking only 1000 ptas for entrance to the After Party at Space the next morning. I bought it before he finished speaking. On top of that there were busses shuttling people from Privelege to Space leaving at 8am. Way cool :o) I went again to try to find my group, but alas had lost them once more :o( But wait! Whilst waiting for the bus, I saw Kristian in the back of one just leaving. Cool, they were headed over to Space, or at least were taking the free ride back to Playa d'en Bossa to sleep. I waited patiently and squeezed onto the last bus around 8:45am.
Tuesday Summary: Day: Manumission Post-Party at Space, Evening: Sleep, Night: God's Kitchen at Amnesia
I caught the bus from Privelege acrossed to Space at 8:45am for the Manumission Post-Party. It turns out that I bumbled into Kristian, Hilda, Gary, and Sara sitting in the outside area of Space. Way cool. We had a great time just hanging out. We didn't even dance much, just took in the atmosphere and chatted. Hilda and I behaved like a couple of two-year-olds, nearly giving Kristian a stroke. I was above it all, but she started it! I must say, it was all good fun in the end ;oP Gary and Sara left just a bit earlier than we did, us going at midday. I walked down to Bora Bora to chill enough to go to sleep, and finally went back to drift off at 1pm.
I grudgingly woke at 11pm, but wasn't my normal pleasant self before midnight (sorry Andrew and Vanessa ;o) The lethargy clung to me all night, even a partial workout didn't snap me out of it. God's Kitchen was loads of fun, but the energy didn't grab me right as I bumbled around with my friends. Andrew had the best night of his holiday, which I'm glad I could be there for. Andrew, Vanessa, Kristian, Hilda, and I danced until the wee hours got big, Gary and Sara leaving just a bit earlier. We all went back and convened at Andrew and Vanessa's (my place ;o) to relax and enjoy the night all over again as the sun rose higher. Man, Andrew was simply off his head. Heh, glad I could be part of it as it made that one of my best nights/mornings in Ibiza :o) Everyone else went to bed, but I didn't want it to end, so I drank a couple of those lovely cups of coffee on the beach and went to bed at noon.
Wednesday Summary: Day: Garden of Eden, Evening: Sleep/Hang out, Night: Gatecrasher at Eden
Morning found me at 10pm in a much improved disposition over the previous day (thank god, couldn't have been worse). Since this was their last night to go out, I wanted the whole group to go out and have a great time. The only problem was that Andrew and Vanessa's budget didn't agree with my plan. We arranged that they would help me to get to Cream Fields, a rock festival held at the end of august up just outside of Liverpool. In exchange for that, I would buy their entrance for Gatecrasher. After all that, it turns out that Kristian and Hilda were totally knackerred and unable to make it. The five of us had a great time, but Andrew came down with the heaves again part way through -- poor fella, still kept insisting that he was fine :o( It was still a good last night, even though our broken group was falling apart. Gary and Sara went the distance this time, which made it nice spending time with them. Right near closing time I met the oddest couple of english chicks yet: Tracey and Lindsey. Utterly hilarious and totally out of their heads. They convinced me to skip the free bus back to Playa d'en Bossa (Gatecrasher Post-Party was being held at Space) and go to the Garden of Eden with them and their friends. I was convinced, and made the trek over to the next room as Eden shut at 7am.
Thursday Summary: Day: Garden of Eden/Sleep, Evening: Sleep/Last Supper, Night: Relax with Irish guys
It turns out that the Garden dies off after about 10am. By 10:30am it's a complete morgue. This was not the atmosphere I was looking for :o( It was a fun morning though, it just petered out a bit. I got the 11am bus back to Playa d'en Bossa via Ibiza Town (it's the only way to go from San Antoni), and the sun was turned up on HIGH. Back at the ranch, I sat on the deck with a cup of coffee and some chips. Kristian said later that he and Hilda happened by to find me asleep there in the chair, but I remember nothing of the sort. I moved over and sat on the couch around 1pm, preparing to shower before going to bed. Vanessa said that I was found sleeping in a sitting position on the couch and that she moved things off the couch so I could lay down, but I told her that I was going to shower first. Again, I don't recall anything to substantiate these claims. ;o)
I woke, fully clothed, laying on the couch at 7:30pm. The plan for the evening was to go to a nice restaurant for a "last supper" type of thing before they all left -- I was invited :o) We left at 9:30pm and had an awesome meal at a restaurant right next to the Jet Apartments reception (my old home :o). I had a tuna salad, their mixed grill, and a bottle of house red wine. The rest of them ordered this roast beef that was simply amazing (they had enough to share, I should have skipped my mixed grill and gotten what they got -- you were right Kristian). The occasion was kinda sad, bringing all of this to an end, but the setting, the food, and the company were great.
Later, after everyone else had gone to bed, I took the opportunity to meet our Irish neighbors (There was a group of them, and they spent their time sitting on their deck drinking. Again, no national slurs here, it's just what that group of them liked to do.) They were a great group of guys. We talked about stereotypes, and it turns out that they can actually drink beer all day and not get drunk. Each of them had had about 8 bottles thus far and didn't appear the least bit drunk to me. I, on the other hand, am a very cheap date :o) Once their group split up (they went out to the irish pub next door), David came over and chatted with me on our patio. He was soon joined by his friends Christopher (aka Cribber aka Skooch) and Kevin -- nice folks. We all just chatted and relaxed and basically enjoyed a night in Ibiza. It turns out that the person swimming in the pool was David's girlfriend Suzanne, who was very drunk and very loud. David was half gone himself, and skooch was well on his way. We decided that David's deck was a much better place to be loud than Andrew and Vanessa's patio, so we moved our little party upstairs. Remembering that I had to get up in the morning to vacate, I called it an early night and slept at 4:30am.
Damn. My alarm didn't wake me at 10am, but Vanessa did at 10:30am. Needless to say, it was hard waking up in the am :o( I got all packed by noon and dropped my bags off at reception just like I was a paying guest ;o) I went and joined the group by the pool and basically swam and lounged for a few hours whilst waiting for the bus to take them to the airport. My plan was to hitch a ride with them, but the woman wouldn't have any of it. Then I tried to get a taxi but there was a huge queue at the cab stop. I went back to Jet reception and asked them to call for a cab, but they said that the line was busy and that they couldn't get through. I asked them to try again, and lo and behold they got through (go figure). They then told me that there were no cabs available. Amazing. I asked them to try again. To be fair, I was a bit excited, and when I get excited I tend to project my voice very well. They braced and told me that it was not their fault. I turned it down a notch, explained that I needed to get to the airport asap, and asked them to please try again for a taxi. They did, and told me that there was a taxi coming for me and that I should wait at the curb and only take the one that comes from the call. Ok. 45 minutes goes by and I'm still waiting for the taxi when another one pulls up to drop some folks off. I hail it and they ask if I phoned one -- of course I didn't. I get in and away we go to the airport. The flight I was hoping to get on with my friends was now long gone. Flights at the airline counters are more than I was expecting to pay (23,000 ptas, about US$140.00 one way to London). I start asking different questions and find a way to get on stand-by for Air Brittania, but the counter isn't open right now, wait 'til midnight. Ok, no problem. I fall asleep at 11pm.
I woke a couple times but finally at 10am (I actually dreamed, how fun!) -- just missing the 10am flight on Air Brittania into London-Gatwick (d'oh!). Incidentally, the Thompson Travel desk in the Ibiza airport sells tickets on Air Brittania stand-by. Also, the #10 bus travels between Ibiza Town, Sant Jordi, and the airport. The next flight, for 17,000 ptas, goes into London-Luton airport on the north side of London at noon. At least I'm able to check my bags :o) Ok, as planes generally do, this one did not follow the plan. An hour after it left London-Luton airport, my plane turned around and went back due to some technical difficulty. Great. They'd keep us posted. At 5:45pm I went to Pans and Co. to buy enough food to use up my coins (change places don't take coins). As soon as I got my food, the board switched to "BOARDING" -- of course. I ate what I couldn't bundle up and take with me, and bundled the rest to take with me. They showed british comedy all the way across. I found it hard to laugh only at the comedy and not at all of the folks speaking the same as the hilarious people in the comedy -- content is irrelevant when you have an accent like that ;o) I got into London-Luton airport at 6:15pm. Check that, I lost an hour making it 7:15pm. The knob on my watch broke off a while back making me have to do math now: adding an hour and subtracting a day (june only has 30 days, my watch thinks every month has 31 unless corrected...). I went and waited for the bag containing all my worldly posessions to come off the carousel. When the luggage quit coming down and mine wasn't there I began to worry -- and then I read the signs and moved over to stand next to the carousel serving my flight that just started moving. I actually found that incident humorous. I wonder if it's this type of thing that makes those people you think are lunatics laugh for no apparant reason.
I got my bags and moved on to the information counter. The info-wench was extremely helpful (for a pound) and found me a B&B for £25 (that would be like US$40). Since that was the only thing on her list available, I took it. The sheet listed it as 1km away, so I decided to walk. It was a lovely night, and just after 9pm. Man, they have really big kilometers in England! It turns out that the place is over 2km from the "new" airport entrance -- I think I made excellent time with two packs, arriving at 10:45pm, although I was in need of a shower. Since nobody numbers their houses in England (why should they? the postman knows which house is theirs.), I had to enlist the help of Neal the helpful drunk (who had been drinking all day) to help me find #19. After a bit of wit gathering, he was able to guide me to it. Cheers Neal :o)
I got my workout, my shower, and then watched a show that's massive over in the UK called Big Brother. It's sort of like The Real World except that the people living in the house cannot have any outside contact, and they have to vote someone out of the house each week. After that, I watched a very frustrating X-files (first of two parts), finally getting to sleep around 2am in Luton, just north of London England :o)
I slept very well, and had dreams again :o) The woman running the place knocked on my door to wake me at 11am. Her son, Edward, will set me up to check e-mail on his computer so I can get Jean's information that I have stored there. Breakfast was great: Egg and beans on toast, jam on toast, and coffee. I got a shower and shave and was ready to go in short order. Johnathon, the lady's husband, gave me a ride to the train on his way out -- these folks are really nice. He also gave me his card, telling me to call if I have any problems or need anything whilst in the area. I went out to the car and stood next to the door on the right hand side, waiting to get in. He kindly told me that I would be needing to sit on the other side of the car -- right! The whole driving on the wrong side of the road thing has been the hardest adjustment to make (we drive on the "right" side of the road, the opposite of that would be the "wrong" side -- correct?). The train cost £16.50 and took an hour to get to Gatwick Airport, from which I called Jean at 2:30pm. I almost headed off to Uckfield (where Jean lives), but bought a book instead. The book is called "are you experienced?" and is about a young guy and a girl travelling in India. It's cool because I can relate to some of the adjustments that they are having to go through, and laugh at some situations that I've been in. Reading about travelling while travelling -- sort of a voyeuristic introspection ;o) I read for a while and called Jean back at 4:30pm. Good book. He arranged for us to meet at a tube station (Ealing Broadway) in London at 8:30pm. Tons of time. The train ticket wench was able to refund me part of the ticket I bought earlier in the day because I was backtracking. What was a £10 ticket became a £5.10 ticket after refund, taking me from Gatwick to Ealing Broadway.
Ealing Broadway: I exited the station and looked for a pub -- there were many to choose from. Fine, I looked for a pub that had space for me to sit down -- that was harder ;o) I finally ended up at the Town House Pub where I sat and nursed a guiness for a couple hours as I read a book that looked interesting and was just laying by the table that I sat at: Enemies of the System by Brian Aldiss. I phoned Jean at 8:30pm, telling him where I was, and he met me a few minutes later. I was half-way through the book. Weird one. The plan was for me to get his key and go stay the night at his place where he'd join me the following day. Since it was sunday, however, that plan had to change as there were no trains to or from Uckfield on sundays (?!?). The new plan was for me to go over to his girlfriend's and her mom's house (that they were just moving out of) for dinner. After spending the evening over there, I would then go stay at the Caspian B&B (cost £35, £20 of which Jean paid as he was earning pounds now and the cost was utterly unexpected and outside my budget -- coolof him, and thanx Jean :o). Dinner was good, and I got plenty to eat. I went back to the B&B at 11pm and watched some lousy TV. What I've seen of England reminds me alot of Portland, Oregon. There's alot of old architecture, green, rain, and just the overall feel feels like some of the older areas of Portland. That's not entirely a bad thing, just an observation. I got to sleep around 2am.
Again, I've failed to set my alarm correctly. I won't explain it, but suffice to say that I did it wrong, again. Breakfast (in the room) was included in the cost, so I ate all three boxes (individual size) of corn flakes, the box of orange juice (poured over the corn flakes, of course), six slices of toast with jam, and two cups of coffee. My mission for the day was to buy another pad to jot notes on as I cruise through life. The one I had had run completely full after my breakfast inventory. Therefore, you can deduce that anything I type after this will be coming from the new pad that I have yet to purchase -- what a paradox! This time I'm definately writing in a smaller font!
After the clock cock-up, I managed to wake at 11am. That wouldn't be so bad as checkout is at noon, but I thought I woke at 10am so I took 2 hours to leave, still getting in only half my workout. The guy was just coming to see if my corpse was about to start stinking as I was preparing to go. Damn, not a very good impression on my second day in the country! In my search for a new pad I found a Starbucks!! I blew the whole "no dairy" thing and had my old stand-by: quad-venti-carmel-light-chocolate-mocha-whole-milk-no-whip-no-foam. I mentioned blissfully that I hadn't had a decent coffee since leaving Seattle in december. She also left Seattle in december -- what a coincidence! (whatever, where's my coffee?!) The thing was well worth every drop of it. The best part of it was that they put it in a big ol paper cup and let you walk out of the store with it. This whole porcelain thimble full of lame ass coffee crap is for the birds. You don't miss it until it's gone... It turns out that Ealing Broadway is basically a mall -- the entire town. It's got sub-malls, but basically the whole thing is a mall, with a park -- there are parks everywhere here. I passed a bookstore that has books in english (ok, time to get over that) and actually had a copy of the book I've been looking months for: Fear Nothing by Dean Koontz. I bought it even though it was like US$10. I'm now reading three books: Enemies of the System, Are You Experienced?, and now Fear Nothing. I should finish Enemies of the System today as I need to return it to the pub, though I don't think they'd miss it. I found a pad that I wasn't entirely pleased with (it's purple and the lines are too wide for me), and a pen that didn't turn out to be as cool as I thought (they don't let you test drive your pens here) -- mission grudgingly accomplished.
I may have an inner ear and/or sinus thing going on, as I've been dizzy for a few days now -- maybe as long as a couple weeks. I'm sure it'll clear up. I met Jean at 5pm at the pub and had a pint, finishing the book (Enemies of the System) as I waited (weird one on anti-communism). We headed down to the tube station and I almost forgot my bags at the B&B (that would be bad, like crossing the streams...). The train was £7.50 to Oxted, and then another £7.60 from Oxted to Uckfield. The whole trip took from 6pm-9pm to get from Ealing Broadway to Uckfield. We went to the grocery after dropping my bags. £13 and I didn't feel that things were priced that high, but I am comparing to Seattle prices. After dropping the groceries at Jean's, I went down and got some take-away curry. I ordered the hottest item in the hot items list and nearly cauterized that wound that was my brain -- what was I thinking?? It was almost as hot as that time when my friend Tad chose to insult the chef at The Maharaja (indian food joint in seattle), telling him that he simply couldn't make curries as hot as they could in India. Now that was painful, but oh so flavorful :o) Jean and I caught up on things, continuing our conversation from the train ride. I slept in my sleeping bag on the cushions from Jean's sofa laid on the floor in his room. No complaints, as I've had worse. I dropped off at 11pm and slept well.
Morning found me at the crack of midday. I took advantage of the less-than-frantic pace of Uckfield and lounged for a while. I listened to some local radio station serving up pop music (a nice change after Ibiza), and read some of Jean's DJ magazines (I actually had some clue as to what they were about!). By 3:15pm I had built up enough steam to go for a wander about the town with Savage Garden and Sting providing the soundtrack. At 4pm I decided that I really like England. Sure, I hadn't seen much of it, but the whole narrow lane, brick houses, quaint language thing is kinda cool. If only they could drive on the right side of the road and straighten out their cars accordingly... Also, I find UK women much more appealing than Spanish women. Actually, it's not just UK women, that whole Germanic thing is all good. On a more utilitarian note, I found a store with an electrical outlet shape changer that I purchased for £3.98 (priced at £4, what a bargain! ;o) It turns out that Spain and England use different shape outlets, still at 240v though. Too bad I don't have any heavy appliances from the states with me, they all run off 240v. Maybe next trip... Here's an interesting difference: On my wander I saw two couples of kids (not more than 12-13 years old) sitting together on a lawn next to a busy street at 4:30pm making out (snogging) like there's no tomorrow. I don't think they're that cavalier about it in the states, but then again I haven't really been out amongst people in years, so what do I know. Now I wonder if I should have made a note about it. How old must one be to be a dirty old man? I bathe, does that help? I went back at 4:45pm to wait for Jean to show up, he got there shortly thereafter. For dinner I had a huge tuna salad that was nowhere near as good as the ones I'd been buying (what do they do differently??). After dinner I chatted for a while with Carol (the woman that Jean rents a room from) about life, the universe, and everything (that topic seems to come up alot). What can one say about a conversation that is nearly three weeks in the past? It was pleasant :o) Jean and I sauntered off to the local pub, there may only be one, but just in case there are more pubs in Uckfield, I'll let you know that we went to The Cock and Bull Pub. He was supposed to meet a friend there, but missed. It was horse race night at the pub. What they do is get people to bet on the horses, then someone picks a random tape (each tape has a different horse winning), and the person who picked the correct horse walks away with some dough. Part of the money obviously goes to some charity or something, but at least it's an interesting way to do it. No, I didn't bet.
On the way home, we passed a Blockbuster Video. I had been meaning to get a Blockbuster Video card for years, so I commented that I should go in and get an account. Jean was sure that I couldn't get one, but being as I had a Visa card I was confident that I could. I won. I am now the proud carrier of a Blockbuster Video (Uckfield) card. Sadly the computers aren't networked yet, so my card is only valid in Uckfield. Wonderful. I rented American Beauty and Fight Club on the recommendation of countless people in the last nine months. Once everyone went to bed (about 10:30pm), I descended upon the VCR like death on a, ummm, dying thing. American Beauty was first, and I loved it. Fight Club came next, and I didn't like it so much as I thought I would. I did watch some disturbing television about child suicides in between, so that may have sullied my mood. Slept finally found me in the spare room in the house in which Jean rents a room from Carol in Uckfield England at 6:30am.
Deep, probing questions and somewhat less than insightful comments deleted...
Please read on, it must get better than this!