London for X-Factor

Everyone is sitting around the TV watching X Factor whilst I type from the kitchen table. Marina disagrees with Cheryl Coles new choice of hair colour. I have a glass of tap water with ice from the freezer, really thirsty but stuffed full with pasta and ice cream so there is no room. Went to a Sabrepulse gig in Shoreditch at Public Life. Amazing glass entrance leading underground with £3 bottles of beer and a pointillism light display. I preferred support band Comptroller to Sabrepulse, Max preferred Sabrepulse as it was powered by Nintendos.

Yesterday we went to the V&A museum, I ran out of energy and needed coffee. There was a jewelery exhibit with stuff from 1800BC. It was interesting to think of the Romans that wore each piece, leading up to elaborate modern day designs, such as a catwalk gold cage face mask and gold bra. One coffee later and we were at a Yin Yoga class at the Life Centre. Ultra relaxing, more meditation style, I felt asleep so badly. Max went to yoga again today but I stayed back and spent the afternoon staring blankly at my dissertation spreadsheet, achieving nothing except a rearrangement of numbers.

The long awaited trip to Kew Gardens took place this morning. Just as good as I remembered it from a previous visit when I was a lot younger. My favourite place was the Princess of Wales Conservatory with 8 different micro-climates, starting with arid and ending with temperate. The best by far was the tropical wedged inbetween which has a big pond with large, spiky lily pads. There were also some tanks containing seahorses, puffer fish, sting rays and poisonous dart frogs. Sadly, the carnivorous plants area was closed off but we did get to see the Indonesian Corpse Flower and some orchids. I managed to find a rattan in the palm house which was great, Calamus rindorensis I think but already forgotten. Coming back on the tube, we got off at the wrong stop as both too engrossed in phone games. Me playing Plants vs Zombies on iPhone and Max playing Sudoku on my brand new state of the art Nokia, no camera but it has a flash light. And solitaire. We went to Itsu for a late lunch of sushi and have been fat lazing round the warm house till now eating ice cream. Leaving in 4 minutes back on the coach to Southampton

Managed to survive the fearful Batavia flight which turned out to be only half as long as expected. It was extremely creaky and there was a crack in the plastic part of the window. Not a very good take off and we landed super fast with loads of turbulence on the way down. I was shitting it but in hindsight it was actually OK and I’m really pleased we made it. The people here are SO short, like even shorter than your average short person. Our group are all quite tall so there have been a lot of photo requests from the locals and everyone so far has been extremely friendly. The second hotel is again another surprise. The minibus kept slowing down near shacks near the road, so I expected that to be our accommodation. Kendari doesn’t have that many nice hotel-looking buildings. However, this is a big hotel and our room of 5 people this time is amazing. It has a large lounge with a rocking chair, big TV and nice paintings. There is no pool or spa but there is a karaoke machine.

Just got back from a walk outside in the rain. Really warm and large raindrops makes it quite pleasant and it hasn’t been overbearingly hot yet. It was really slippy and Jess fell over and got covered in horrible green slime stuff and broke her flip flop. However, the incident was really funny and she managed to fix the flip flop. The currency, rupiahs, is all in tens of thousands and millions. I think I have about 2 million rupiah which is a bit less than £200. We are sharing with two guys from Portsmouth, Henry nearly had to share a double bed with them, but one is sleeping on the sofa. Me and Lottie have a massive bed can’t wait to sleep but we need to be out by 6.30am tomorrow to catch the next bit of transport: a 5 hour speed boat.

Been travelling for 2 days and we are now in Jakarta at the Resort Hotel near the airport. I’m sitting in the triple share hotel room with Henry and Lottie. Me and Lottie are sharing a rather small double bed. The hotel was completely above expectations; there is an amazing pool with hot and cold Jacuzzi, sauna, steam room and gym. I braved my fear of cold water and managed to go in the cold Jacuzzi once, Louise was the best at it and actually she quite enjoyed it which is a bit odd. Me and Jess shared 3 courses for tea and they were all super yummy, plus serious drink envy over her orange juice and Lottie’s banana milk shake which had vanilla ice cream in it.
I was eyeing up the fellow travellers at Newcastle Airport to see if there were any despicable possible seat next to me candidates. Luckily there were no obese people (salad dodgers). I was hoping to sit next to some quiet middle-aged man who just said hello and maybe an interesting tale or two but nothing more. Instead I ended up sitting next to a young guy called Tom which was a bit of a disaster because he wanted to talk the whole way and I just wanted to watch a film and sleep. Nevertheless, he turned out to be quite fun although we got super drunk on red wine mixed with coke and extra strong vodka oranges served by Yui. There was an amazing air hostman called Guille from Paraguay and we spoke in Spanish to him for a bit.
I sat next to Lottie for the Dubai-Jakarta flight which was possibly one of the longest flights I’ve ever been on as it was too weird time to sleep, yet too tired to read or open my eyes to watch movies. We watched Hercules together which was really good and I also watched How to Tame a Dragon, the black dragon was so cute.
So far Indonesia trip is turning out well after fearful expectations of terrorist attacks and plane crashes. We have the 5 hour Batavia air tomorrow and have to get up at 5am but I’m feeling OK about that one too now seeing as there are so many of us.

Here is the cutie himself.

Arriving home to Newcastle

I travelled back up yesterday in the carnal comforts of National Rail First Class. Sadly, I haven't come across a pot of gold, the ticket happened to be the same price as standard fare. I bought a £3.99 ham and cheese baguette from Deli France at Kings Cross and sat in my front facing, lots of leg room seat and finally relaxed after a hard month of exams and rat traps in the bathroom. The train was beautiful I got free tea and even a biscuit. Surprised it only took 3 hours as well, usually I'm prepared to be stuck there for at least 5. So bloody expensive though, £80 single ticket. No wonder people drive. Me and Matt get up to Leeds for around £30 between the two of us.
There seems to be massive fuss at the moment over public use of mobile phones. The announcements plus the 2 magazines I read both had complaints about it. Lo and behold the old man behind me chatted loudly for at least 15 minutes. Needless to say I was suitably incensed. Apparently it distracts the brain more as you subconciously try and work out the other half of the conversation. I myself had a one-way conversation with 3 mobile. After having the worst contract in the world ever I've buckled and gone for another. However, this time it's only £10 a month with unlimited texts so it should be OK. I'm still reeling for the £60 phone bill I got back in January.
Was very amused to be greeted at the door by Fudge wearing a pearl necklace. That dogs' masculinity is at risk. I can't find the pink princess hoody I bought him anywhere, hopefully he hasn't managed to dispose of it whilst I've been away. A tutu would probably be a sufficient substitute.