Alan and I have just been to the mall in Winnipeg, narrowly escaping the busyness. I bought a cover for my iPhone because I have seen so many iPhones with smashed screens. I went for the recycled plastic option. We also got some thermals, it’s going to be a cold winter.
So winnipeg was interesting. Out couchhost was a fun girl, plenty of time having recently been made redundant, along with most of her crazy friends but we spent most of the time partying, there isn’t much else to do in that town. It is the grain trading capital of north America.
And the people there are crazy, many of whom walk around making wierd sounds, screaming or talking to themselves. There’s too much winter, no excitement or hope, not even any population growth, the gun crime capital of Canada so we are told.
So we are now in the real prairies, you can see for miles and miles, forward the road dissappears on straight to the horizon and to the sides are endless yellow field where crops grew in the summer.
It’s so straight and boring that they have giant signs to keep you mind active like odometer checks. But no worries if you fall off the road asleep, there’s nothing to hit.
It’s barely above zero degrees and they’re still harvesting.
So wawa was no too interesting, lots of goose statues.
Thunder bay, out host wasn’t too talkative until we got him a bit drunk, and he hit on us.
So the most important thing we did was go to an employment centre to canadianise our resumes. We’ve applied for several jobs now. Not much response yet.
The car is super dirty because I decided to do some off roading just to wake me up from the boring drive.
Oh and I got myself a lovely yellow hat, mmm warm

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Last night super tired after I love you man
Nightmares underground growing progressing each time I fell back to sleep
Then this morning and disaster dreams
To top it off the road construction going on from early.
All in I’ve seem thousands of people die in my dreams, too much bad energy.
I sooo need sleep some day soon.
Well on a lighter note, Halloween was great fun, always great getting dressed up.
So alan went in a suit and my pig mask, a corporate pig. Some of the guys at the party just didn’t seem to understand this concept, stupid.
And I wen as popeye, simple, fun but with a can of beer instead of spinach.
We all had fun playing cards and drinking before we went down to a house party. Then an after party back at courts and well that led to waking up feeling pretty rough yesterday.
But having pizza in a restaurant around the corner, it felt good to see plenty of the employees had been having fun the previous night, not looking tip top.
Alan, Cara, Laura and I went for a walk to Kensington Market, toronto’s Camden style area. We had the idea to have a contest to see who could have the most interesting costume collected on our tour of the shops, and if the picture shows then you can see mine, and I won! So they all owe me a burger from this excellent veggie restaurant across the park, I’ll cash in later and have a great breakfast tomorrow.
So off we’ll go today to see niagra falls, so it should be cold and wet.

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Here I am sat at the waterline. Watching the screen I see nothong but blackness.
I’ve been playing and drinking with alan. It seems that the spellcheck doesn’t work when you are drunk? So it is all down to me.
I don’t ubdrstand why spellcheck wo t work.
So alan and I drank a fair bit, unpleaseant drinks, I’m so bloated that if I could make myself sick, then I’d feel good.
So I came for a walk along the sea shore. Mgmt . It helps to walk. I’m tired, and aftr our last camping experiences then. Maybe I’m aprehensive!
If only there wasn’t the mosqiyo problem and I could sleep here? But if I did they’d eat me alive, if not the the mermaids would.
Tonight we had the most psycadedic sunset ever, maybe out whole trip

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Nouvelle Orleans.
It’s interesting to say the least. The experience thus far has been great, almost overwhelming.
So we drove through the back roads, swamps, alligators, needing the toilet like no other day. We drove the most zig zag route into here in search of interest.
Our host is intriguing, involved in politics here, half Jewish, half catholic, half Italian, totally American and gay. I/we haven’t had so many/strong discussions that aren’t bullshit in a long time, well as brothers, ever.
We’ve had a great tour of town, and local beers, and some else.
We watched a football game, on TVs. We had a bar crawl, being that each bar that we went to wasn’t fun enough for supporting the local college team. We met people, well Vincenzo knows everybody in town. We met the bucket man, who sang alan and I a sang inside a bucket!
In the end we came back home, I guess at 11pm ish to cook gumbo, and for me, pasta. The other couchsurfer came back from being musical, and together we chatted away while cooking failed. But we drank the chili wine. We chatted about life and Krishna, and lucid dreaming, and ioraska(maybe I can’t spell that), and katrina, and new Orleans, and now everybody is laying to sleep in the dark but me.
I think it’s time, gone five hours of cooking, eating and chatting to meet the zzzzz’s

it’s pretty humid, got the fan on my legs, and alan’s laptop roasting my legs.

we’re couchsurfing again in texas, and it’s warm. we’re staying with a group of students, of all different ages, but young, and it’s been pretty cool, melissa is the girl that is the organiser, but we’ve been having fun with all.

we came to austin to party, and party we have. we’re even staying a day extra for some reasons. reasons to stay, cheap drinks tonight, and pretty girls asking us to stay, good enough? yes!

so what’s happened, we arrived into austin, and arrived at the house, and i kind of though that melissa’s brother knew we would be coming, but he didn’t so it felt kinda awkward until we explained our invasion. it’s their first time hosting, so their couchsurf virgins, not the first time for us, but i quite like being with people who’ve never hosted for them. that way, not only are we new to a place, but it’s a new situation for them.

so after that, alan and i went for a nice midday run by the river in the afternoon sun, super humidity, almost 40 degrees, owch and swaety that was, fun, but tiring, the first time i have gone for a run since cross country when i was 12. then we headed down to barton spring for a dip in the cool cool creek, and chilled in the sun.

come evening melissa, sharleen, emily alan and i met a couple other guys, had dinner and then almost went to a heavy metal gig. we were aiming for a rock gig, but got lost walking round the block. i think the metal was lively like we would hacve liked, rock being too mellow, no dancing or anything, but it was cool, and we even got some 3d specs! trippy, well the guys beard was when we were wearing them.

afterwards, a little tipsy, some more than other we all went and climbed some old thing and watch the night city with wine.

then for more stupidity and grazes we came back and with beers climbed up a tree house in a field out back. melissa had lotsa trouble and i hacve embaressing photos to prove, but i kind of fell/slid half down the tree, so my arm is looking pretty bad ass.

then most of the guys found some sort of a bed, emily and i lay in the field, no stars, a field in a city, but no cows, was wicked though. i’m finding fields can be one of the funnest places!

so yesterda, i called fed ex to ask where my macbook is, and they were useless, had no record of it, let alone trying to deliver it 7 times and leaving notes at my mate’s office in san francisco, bloody idiots. so i got on to apple customer care, and after several periods on hold, and thirth minutes of a call, she even complained that the line way crap, so i informed her that i was on a iPhone of course, and she found me a lady who know where my computer was being held. it had been returned to apple in Tenessee, great! so now it’s being delivered to ian’s mom in new jersey, so i hope this works better for me and my laptop.

we finally got to town in the end at almost 5pm, and time for cupcakes.

then end.

not.

alan just pointed out to me that my 3000 photos that i’ve taken matches how many miles we’ve done, a picture per mile! but i have no macbook to view them with!

oh yeh i was doing some couchscouting for new orleans and came across this profile, check it now!
There are two requirements if you stay with me:
2) EVERYONE (collaborative efforts are OK) who stays has to draw me a picture in my picture guest book at some point before departure.
I can bake like a motherfucker; it’s science.
I’m still alive. Stand in awe; bask in my glory.

to say the least.

back to yesterday and we saw some crazy shops, but best off found our halloween costumes, but u can find out at halloween!

we had a little bar crawl down to the colorado to see the millions of bats fly out from roost, to go eat the pesky bugs.

out again we went last night, and sonow we’re kinda shattered, thus chilling before we go out again tonight.

i am covered in mosquito bites, it’s a little annoying, but i hope not a sign that it’s going to get bad.

that’s it for real.

So it’s been ages and I’m laying by a pool in las Vegas.
Since last I posted we said our farewells to Connie and Gunnar and drove off into the desert. We made a stop by a beach near Santa cruz deep in the fog, where there was a semi sunken ship, home to thousands of birds. Then to San Francisco to meet mike. I met mike at the burning man festival two years back and stayed in contact over facebook.
Mike lives in a lovely place near height street,. So almost central, and has two spare beds, so ace! We had some drinks and went off to party, eventful it certainly was. We couldn’t have hoped to have met some many interesting people, or gone such places had we been tourists. Crazy colombians to ex google start outs and lots of partying fun.
We woke up late the next evening and did relatively little, took a bus tour on an old english bus, but the gear box died on a hill and we spent the evening walking around admiring the architecture of SF.
The next day, Monday I think, alan and I went to the apple store to hand over my MacBook for them to send off for repair, the second time in as many years, but all to apple’s cost.
So after we wandered the water front to pier 39, to catch our ferry. As per usual off into the pacific fog we drifted to the infamous island known as The Rock. It’s pretty cool, über touristy as to be expected and much of the island is inaccesable. The audio tour is cool, being guided by ex-inmates and prison guards. We finished off the day doing some shopping, and had some nice food before passing out.
In the end the San Francisco experience killed off the jet lag, and brought on something else.
Tuesday we set off again, east towards Yosemite. There’s been a huge fire recently which has levelled a large area, and it’s still smouldering, but it’s still breath-takinly beautiful. While driving I decided, ‘alan turn right!’ so we found this waterfall, maybe 250m tall. After a long clamber over the boulder stream we found the pool at the bottom of the rainbow, er waterfall. It was a cold swim and dive, but oh lots of fun. This is where a waterproof camera would come in handy, but the one I’m interested in is so popular that nobody has it.
So off we drove taking photos along the way and found some hitch-hikers from the east coast living in the Rockies. So a lots of chatting about snow and hiking and we had the tip off to a free night in a campsite.
We didn’t lack in alcahol, managed to play two person flip-cup and drink until we saw shooting stars. It was bloody cold and at 2am I woke and went and slept in the car.
Finally cold and tired I woke alan at 7am and we dove out to the park exit. Then we proceeded to climb mount Dana. As we walked the sun rose, and as we rose we ran out of air. It’s was beautiful, but I can’t remember ever climbing a mountain and seriously doubting the liklihood of reaching the summit. But we made it to almost 14000ft headachey, exhausted but to some stunning views. It’s took us 2.5 hours to get up and less than an hour down.
So yesterday we had a scorcher of a drive down through death valley, enjoyed the sunset from below sea level.
We arrived into Vegas last night so to the neon capital of madness, and rather than going crazy we collapsed into a cheap little hotel to sleep.
It’s getting hot, and time to check out. Time to check the town out.
Good luck.

So today has been a wonderland adventure with zoey.
We started off with Breakfast with the bugs and plants in the sun until zoey chipped the top off a molar chewing her muesli! So after some calming, emergency over and back to having fun. I love hanging with her, there’s always soo much laughing smiling and fun. So we had an park hopping walk across Mayfair to selfridges, she’s never ever been before! We had some photos with Santa in Christmas land, and then went to see the icecreamists. Down underground is a sexy ice cream lounge. We sat down in a black ice cream van all vinyl and fluff inside, with the queen in shades at the wheel. At the centre of the table was a red lit up button, and as curiosity would have me do, I pressed it. A couple of seconds later and a loud tune blared out, the tune to call children a running, the ice cream man is coming tune I didn’t go for the most expensive ice cream at £39.99 but the second at almost twenty quid. For that I got some natural stimulant milk ice cream, so toffee like that which adorns your toffee apple, and a shot of La Feé absynthe and even a badge. It was a delightful breakfast, and well worth the money, we even had an ice cream sex show off in our periphery.
Feeling dizzy we wandered the floors of selfridges laughing at the crazy things to buy, playing with the fun bits, and gawping at the funny people. I bought some White powder that when added to some water turns to snow, which turns back to powder and can again turn to snow. To finish off we bought some pies and had a lovely sunny goodbye so off back to dad’s I fly.
Yesterday I had a long walk around doing nothing but feel tired.
After ben finished work we went to a Moroccan restaurant which I’ve wanted to go to for years, so yummi cocktail and grilled halloumi.
Then to brick lane, but there was a music festival on and we weren’t there to pay to get into a bar that we wouldn’t be able to chat in, so the gun by spittlefields, a good old fasioned English pub was just right.
It was wonderful to have almost all of my best London friends all around one table, it made me really happy.
After some trouble and a slagging match with some waiters we found a nice restaurant where the waiter offered us 40% off our meal, bingo! We all heartily stuffed our faces until we couldn’t ven drink any longer.
So I’ve had a very memorable last time for a while in London.
The last few days have been so great, I couldn’t ask for better.
Time to start packing, off to LA tomorrow.

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Cooling off.
Dad, Alison, Paul, sophie, alan and I are near Salisbury at the maybe’s house in the country. We had a nice nature hunt in wellies. Then snooker, the oldies being smashed by the kids. A lovely home meal was followed by a crazy three a side familiy on on family ping pong match, which was pretty chaotic. Five balls at once is hard to follow.
So what better way than to have a sauna/swim session? So ultimatly I feel tired but freshhhh.
My walk Tuesday was great, I wrote a poemish thing. Then sweated a whole load and ate lots of free fruit.
Wednesday involved doing Very little. Dad alan and I saw district 9 in letchworth cinema, nice, comfy, cheap. I must say that the film I worth watching, it’s a new idea, with good morals. The basics are refugee treatment, and solidarity and freedom, see it, it’s wicked!
Yesterday we had a memorial for Ian/Nam, with some old family friends, families who we grew up with, nanny, some of his school friends, and family. It was emotional, but wonderful. Again yo hear such wonderful things, atop a hill under the sun was great. Being talked into taking part was definately worth it, it was cleansing, and left me feeling great.
Afterwards, some came back to dads for dinner, and it was the first time that us Home Farm kids were together in donkey’s years.
So to bed and a day of who knows what tomorrow.

Sat by a baby river in the glorious sun by the reeds, loving nature.
It’s great to wander about, get stung by nettles, use Dock leaf to take the sting away, enjoy juicy Blackberries, and sweet nettle flowers.
I met with sean the other night and we had a bit of a crazy run around, having the odd pint, great conversations and laughing at kareoke in the only open bar we could find late sunday night in Peterborough.
Now I’m down cambbridge way to chill and organise myself for the next week before heading away. I had to get out of the house as the Internet and tv were making me feel stupid.
Oh and I had some fun with smarties and camera this morning.

I’m sat in Leeds city train station due to get to Peterborough later this evening.
I’m super smiley happy, I’ve just spent the evening with henna, plus a couple of pints of nice cider and a great salad.
I haven’t seen Jenna in four years there abouts, and she was my best friend in school. She drifted up north while I drifed south, then abroad. So we had great times together in the past, and still it’s like times haven’t past, we are still cool just the same.
The salad was halloumi and mushroom, so lush as a duck, and Suffolk cider to boot
Leeds still has the cool vibe I felt last I was here, I like.
This morning dad, mike, ruth and I went for a nice walk, supposedly 3miles, which turned to six, it was pleasent, with pretty scenery.
Then I spent a whole load of time working out how to meet jenna. She is thesame old nightmare to reach by phone, and all I had to go on was knowing that she worked in HMV. So I had my lunch, and spent time working out the HMVs in Leeds, calling about. It ame down to one HMV that didn’t answer, the rest didn’t know her, so I sat and waited outside until she emerged. Of course it was going to work out.
So now I’m on my way to meet Sean her little brother, and see the family again.
Distant memories, time of now.

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