General stuff

Ok, so I got back from the states just over a week ago, had about 5 hours sleep and went to get my A level results.

They were worse than what I was expecting, and so I didn't get into Manchester uni, but that doesn't matter now as my second choice uni, Aston, decided to accept me. So I now know where I'm going to be for the next year. And I'm looking forward to it. It should be fun. But at the same time it's a completely new experience. Yeah, I've been getting used to not being around one parent for a few weeks at a time, but there was always the possibility of going round to the other house, as they were only across town. Birmingham is a little bit further away. But as my mum said to me earlier, it is only a 4ish hour drive or a 2 1/2 hour train journey, so it's not too bad I suppose.

When Ryu heard what I got we arranged a get together to make me feel better about it, but by the time that arrived I had been accepted, so it turned from a condolences to a celebration. Invited baka around, and watched a few films. Then next day played Trivial pursuit... Without the board or the counters or the wedges... So basically had a general knowledge quiz.

Ok, if you were asked "What do call a meteor that doesn't burn up in the earth's atmosphere?" I said Armageddon, I mean if that happens you're pretty screwed, as it'll crash to Earth, probably with giant ecological affects, making the earth inhabitable, and so yeah, the end of the world. I don't care that the correct answer was meteorite, if it was to ever happen it would be pretty close to Armageddon!

So I finally turned 18. But we didn't do what I wanted to do for it. I would have quite liked to have gone out for a meal with my family, but dad said that we'd been doing that for the last 3 weeks in the States. But then that was because we were basically in a different place every other night, and so if we didn't go out for a meal we didnt eat. This was meant to be a celebration of me turning 18. But hey, I still had fun. Went to the cinema with some friends and saw Charlie. How that film was only a PG is beyond us, but yeah it was cool.

Had some friends round yesterday for a meal which I cooked with Judi assisting. Seemed to go down well. Was good to see poeple again. A couple of hours before it started got a call saying that Lucy had gotten into music college, which I knew she was ecstatic about. So yeah, was really happy for her.

Also reminded myself during the evening just why I like cooking so much and the exact reasons as to why I dont like whiskey. OK? I don't like the stuff! Right, now that that is out of the way...

Today has been sort of a wired day. Not quite sure why, it just has been. Been thinking alot, which is never a really good thing for me. Still, was bound to happen sooner or later.

God I feel old. I mean, yeah, it ws my birthday 3 days ago, and I was cool with that. But the last couple of years it been ok, I turned 15/16/17, that's fine. Now all of a sudden I'm 18, and I'm an adult, and I can do all these things that I couldn't do legally before, and I dunno, I guess this birthday has hit me harder than all the others. M'eh.

Wow, this is a completely random post. Guess I do ramble on about random things. Sorry if I have confused anyone by all this, I guess I'm just having one of those days. So I'm going to end this here.

Just a note.

Went whale watching.

Saw killer whales. And a humpback from a distance. And a blue whale. And some more killer whales.

Twas cool.

Yeah.

Disneyland

Tigger:
Oh the wonderful thing about Tigger’s
Tigger’s a wonderful thing
His head’s made out of rubber
And his tails made out of springs.
He bounces bounces bounces
Bounces all day long
But the bestest thing about Tigger’s
Is I’m the only one.

Ok, so I went to Disneyland, made a big huff when it was decided that we would go to the newer park with bigger rides, and was much happier when we discovered that there was a park hopper ticket that allows you to visit both parks in the same day for only $20 more.

What? I’m a big kid. You should know that by now. Yes, I wanted to do the Winnie the pooh ride and the Dumbo ride and the king Arthur’s carrousel… is that so wrong?!

When we got off the Winnie the pooh ride the guy there said “have a Tiggerific day” or something like that. Judi heard that, turned and looked at him, and said “do they pay you to say that?!” The thing is, she has quite a broad accent, if you’ve heard her speak you know what I mean, it just made the thing that much more fun. As we walked away she kept saying “I didn’t mean to say that. I really didn’t. It just came out. I was only meant to think it.” And that sort of thing.

Oh, and there was this other ride which was this “jungle cruise” thing where we were sat I a boat and had a guide telling you about different parts of the trail that they had set up. Of course our guide had to be a know-it-all sorta guy. As we were first in the queue for the next boat, when we got on he started talking to us while the other people got on. So he asked this group of people behind us where they were from, and they said Hawaii. He then asked where we were from, so mum said England. He then went into this accent that was sort of a cross between American Australian and English and said “like totally dude.” To which Judi, who was sitting closest to him replied, in a perfect imitation of the accent he had just put on “like totally not dude” which got the rest of us in tears laughing. He then offered her the microphone thing and asked her to say that again. But she got shy and wouldn’t.

Now for those of you who are wondering, this is a BIG DEAL!! My sister NEVER shies away from anything… ever! Especially something that includes entertaining other people and making them laugh etc.

Um, what else have I been doing? Oh, went to Universal Studios as well. That was pretty cool. There were less rides there, but then that’s to be expected I suppose. Went on a tour of the studios, despite there being filming happening at the time. of course we weren’t allowed down those bits, but hey. Saw the sets where they made films such as Spiderman, Spiderman 2, the stages where they filmed Pirates of the Caribbean, CSI etc.

Ok, have just come back from walking the walk of fame… or at least a fair whack of it. There are a hell of a lot of stars on the walk. And that’s just on Hollywood boulevard. They’ve got so many they’ve had to start on vine street. But saw quite a few of people I knew, even more of people I have never heard of. And then we went to see the courtyard where the stars have their hands and feet in concrete. It’s strange, Donald duck had both a star and concrete prints, yet Mickey mouse only has a star. I think I’m thinking too much about that. So I’ll stop now.

Oh, and there is an update that is in the works for what happened before this one, but like I said, it’s in the works, and this one is ready now.

holiday update

Hey all.

See, this whole “having my laptop on holiday” thing is great, cos it means I can update this. Woo hoo!

So we’ve been in the states for just over a week now, and I’m slightly sunburnt. Again. Still, it should mean that I’ll have something of a tan when I get home.

So holiday so far has been:

Tuesday: Got into San Francisco, found the hotel, had a sleep, went for a walk, went to bed.

Wednesday: Went for a walk around San Francisco, went down to pier 39, had a look at some boats, went for a walk along the coast for a bit, then caught the cable car back to the hotel. And I swear, you think you know hills? You don’t know the meaning of the word until you go to San Francisco.

Thursday: Left San Francisco via the golden gate bridge. Went up country for a bit, went to a winery. This country sucks! What kind of law gives 16 year olds the right to drive cars, but not drink until 21? Not that I’d be legally to drink if I was at home anyway. Carried on to a little place called Napa. Nice little village.

Friday: Went to Sanora via Yosemite national park. It was really really cool, but it was completely different from anything else we’d seen so far. It looked like it belonged in British Columbia or something instead of California. Sanora is a little town/village in the middle of Gold country, about 5 miles from Jamestown, one of the man gold mining towns that operated in the early 1900’s. Got there in the late afternoon, went for a walk around the place in 100F. That’s almost 40C. In other words… HOT!! Oh, and I noticed that a town that hasn’t been used for about a century has a Harley café.

Saturday: Changed room when the ceiling decided to leak on me. So called up the janitor dude, who was a gal, to find out what was up, and it turned out to be the air con thing from the floor above, so to fix it would be too hard, and it was easier to just change room. Visited Jamestown and went on a steam train that was operating when the mines were. It was actually pretty interesting, as well as the steam engine that was operating, the roundhouse was also the home of the engine that starred in back to the Future III, along with a few of the props from the film. Then we went on to the Columbia state history park, which was a open air museum thing like Beamish, but was a mining town, complete with theatre with shows and everything. That day was pretty cool. Went back to Sanora for tea.

Sunday: Left Sanora and headed east. Visited Bodie, which is a ghost town, and by Ghost town I mean ghost town. There were cars that were just sitting in fields rusting away. After visiting the ghost town, went to Mammoth Lakes, where we stayed for the next 2 days. It was pretty high up in the mountains, at about 8000 feet. That’s about the size of Ben Nevis, to give you some idea.

Oh, and now mum is trying to get Judi up by tickling her. It’s actually quite productive. Seems to be the best method we’ve tried so far.

Monday: Stayed in Mammoth lakes. Went for a walk up a mountain to see a waterfall. It was pretty cool, but hot. Not as hot as 100, but fairly close. And I got sunburnt again, but at least it’s going down now. Also saw a basalt rock formation known as the “devil’s post pile”, which was alright. There was this café, which had a sign saying “Harley parking only.” So if you’ve got a Yamaha or Suzuki tough luck, can’t park there. Guess Americans really really like their Harley’s.

Tuesday: Drove. Drove. And drove some more. Went through Death Valley, and recorded our new record of heat at 116F. That is over 45C, so very very pigging hot! Travelled about 350 miles that day. Saw the very southern tip of Las Vegas from the road. Counted about 3 casinos in Las Vegas.

Just come back from breakfast, and yeah, I totally melted the plate! It wasn’t my fault. They shouldn’t give you polystyrene plates with food to put in the toaster. Newsflash, it’s gonna get hot! So yeah… I melted the plate with a toasted waffle… but at least I got a waffle out of it. (And syrup everywhere… but let’s not go into that!)

Anyway, back to Tuesday. Stayed at Boulder city, which is the town the workers used when they made Hoover dam. Not much there, just a few café’s. According to Judi the pool was the best so far, but as I don’t tend to go swimming much these days I can’t comment on that.

Wednesday: Visited Hoover dam. You should have seen my dad; he was like a kid in a candy store when he saw all the turbines. Yes, he creates turbines on a daily basis… or looks over people who create turbines on a daily basis… or something with turbines. So he’s been working at the same place for the last 12 years… doesn’t mean I have to know what he does! Had a 10 minute introduction talk before going to see the turbines and the guy giving it was really good. He had the auditorium in stitches every 20 seconds. There was this picture which he said “this next picture is really cool but I don’t have anything to say about it.” He then put it on the slide, waited 5 seconds, then moved on to the next slide.

Then after the dam we arrived at the hotel at the Grand Canyon. Went out for tea. Oh, and then Judi and my mum decided to compare me to a cross between a kangaroo and an elephant for unknown reasons. So I’m not in the best mood with them today.

Today: Went to the Grand Canyon. Words cannot describe this place. It is incredible and so much more. You have to see it to know just how utterly mind-blowing this place is. Went for a drive along the south rim to a place known as death view. Not sure why it’s called that. Cool watchtower there with an amazing view. I managed to use up an entire film in about an hour. But OH MY GOD!!! (Not trying to make people jealous at all… nosiry)

Right, well, better get ready. We’re going to watch the sun set over the south rim… just as soon as this big thunderstorm cloud goes that is. Hopefully soon. (I think I’m slightly hyper…)

Have fun and take care guys.

Miss you.

Oh, and one more thing… as you can I see I am posting, and I also check comments. So be nice and DON’T SPAM!! Thank you.