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Monday 29 July 2013

Work, work, work…

Hello everyone! Hope you are all well; it certainly has been a tiring month! As you may remember from my last blog entry, I had just gotten back from my holiday to California. I really wish I was still there, having time to relax, none of this full time work malarkey!

Not a great deal has happened to me this month; I haven’t been able to do anything, because I've not had the money to do so. That was the only downside to going away, because I wasn't working, I wasn't earning any money, so the pay for this month was… well, only enough to cover my phone bill and a few other direct debits I have. To be fair, I've been so tired from both working 9 until 5, and from the hot, humid weather, that I've not really wanted to go out.


The only thing I've done this month is going to the house of one of my flatmates for her birthday weekend. It was only in Surrey, so it didn't cost me much in train fare, and the club we went to on one of the nights was in Kingston, and wasn't too expensive when it came to entry and alcoholic beverages.  Overall it was a fun weekend, even though it did leave me feeling quite hung-over (I've not been drunk for a while, and I hadn't eaten much on the day). The only downside to the weekend was I couldn't afford to go to Thorpe Park, so whilst everyone else went there, I had to make my way home… it was sad times, but I can always go another time.


At least next month I will be able to actually do things, as I will have some money from all the work I've been doing this month, and I also should have gotten used to working a 35 hour week, meaning I should have more energy to be a more sociable person!

Hope you are all having a good summer so far and are keeping cool, or if you are away on holiday, I hope that you’re having a great time wherever you are!


Until next time, take care!

Monday 8 July 2013

Back from California

Hello everyone, it sure has been a while since my last blog entry. As you may remember, I was going away to California on holiday for 3 weeks, and unfortunately I am now back. I say unfortunately, as like most holidays, I was having too much of a good time to want to come back.

So let me tell you a little bit about my time away. The first thing to any holiday is getting there, obviously. My journey to Los Angeles International was sadly not direct, and I had to go to Dallas first, and then catch another flight. Because Heathrow doesn't seem to have many runways, there was a queue on the runway for a before the plane could took off, which meant that there was a delay taking off. I was already worried, because I only had 2 hours between landing and catching my next flight. The journey to Dallas wasn’t the best experience I had, it was just under 10 hours, and I had to sit behind someone who had their seat reclined for the entire length of the flight, meaning I had very little room. Well, less than you normally get in economy.

Fortunately for me (but unfortunate for some) my flight from Dallas to Los Angeles was delayed due to bad weather… bearing in mind when I arrived in Dallas, it was 32°C, with a clear blue sky. But apparently there had been thunder storms earlier in the day which had delayed all flights for 2 hours, which did work in my favour.

I didn’t do a great deal of travelling, in the sense that I only visited a few places during my stay, including: Santa Barbara, Bakersfield, Fresno, and ending up in San Luis Obispo, which was my favourite of all the places I visited. The view in the evening of all the places I went to was stunning; this is more or less the view I had in all locations.



Whilst I was in San Luis Obispo, there were a couple of places worth taking a picture of. One was of an alleyway full of chewing gum. That’s right, you read that correctly. It was amazing to see, but at the same time was incredibly gross.

And the last one is of a theatre called the Fremont, which is one of those amazing movie theatre places that look like it’s from a film in the 50’s, this was my attempt at trying to take a photo of it (I was in a hurry to catch a bus that comes every 40 minutes). If you want to see a better version of it, a Google image search will come up better photos.

Speaking of theatres, whilst I was away, I went to see Monsters University, which came out whilst I was there, and doesn’t come out in the UK until the 12th of July. It was an amazing film, and I would recommend it to anyone who loved Monsters Inc. Unfortunately I didn’t see it in the Fremont theatre, but the cinema that I did see it in, the ticket only cost me $7.50 (not even £5). I don’t know why this genuinely shocked me, maybe because cinema tickets here seem to cost an arm and a leg. The smell of the popcorn was also the most amazing thing ever.

Speaking of food, one thing that I discovered whilst away, and is something that I've not found in the UK (from all searches I've done) is white sauce pizza. It’s basically a white sauce similar to that found in a lasagne that replaces the usual red sauce on pizza. It has the most amazing flavour, and I can’t even describe the taste, only that it is better than any pizza I've ever had.

My holiday mainly consisted of some travelling, but mainly just of me catching up on some much needed relaxation time. There were days (especially the one where it got to 40°C) where I didn’t do anything, and just spent my time taking it easy, leaving me feeling very relaxed.

My journey home felt like a never ending journey, totaling around 18 hour’s total. The last place I was in was San Luis Obispo, which is just under 200 miles away from Los Angeles, where I had to catch my flight from. To get there, it meant getting another train (I traveled by train to each location) except this was the longest one, taking me 5hr30 station to station, with the journey starting at 6:55am. Although the trains are rather large, and had two levels, they were so slow, which was the main reason why it took so long.


After a flight just over 10 hours, I arrived back in rainy London, where I found out Sharon Osborne was on my flight! She was standing at baggage reclaim with her body guard who collected her bag for her. If only I had someone to do that for me!

In other news, I officially passed my second year of university! Only one more to go, hopefully! Fingers crossed that all of you manage to pass as well.


Until next time, take care!