Sarah

I had my first peak experience of the holiday. *

We caught our train to Villinius at 9.42pm. Our 1st class cabin was made up into two bunk beds and when we had settled in and checked all the gadgets Tom went to get beer (50p a bottle) from the little buffet booth. The train tracks from the central station in Warsaw all start underground so it was about 8 mins before we were in the open. Then the view was a sunset, looking over the river, an amazing bridge and looking back on the lit up skyskrapers of Warsaw.

It was all just so exciting. We tried to get to sleep but at about 1am we had both been unsuccessful. I didn’† want to waste a first class cabin on sleep. Everytime another train went by I jsut smiled because it was all just like being in a film.

At 3am we heard banging at the end of out corridor and then someone banged on everydoor. We had heard lots of stories about people being gassed and robbed, and even the guard told us to put the extra chain on the door. Then it was silence for about 20mins. Then three men came back and then took about 5 secs to check our passports. Tom was a bit dissapointed because they didn† have guns.

Then we were able to sleep becuase Lithuanian train tracks are so much quieter than Polish ones.

Now we are in Lithuania - no actually we are in Latvia. The money coins are messing with our brains. I don† think I have eaten a fresh vegetable for 3 days, just meats, pickled and preserved things and beer….mmmm

Today we went to the Museum of Occupation which was amazing and unbelievable and very current.

I think Tom has explained all about the film and sink holes and motor way service station farms.

*Kate will know what a peak experience is as we found out about them in A level Psychology. They are when everything forjust one split second is totally perfect.

btw - my last post finished suddenly becuase the woman from the British council came and told me off for emailing and I said I wasn† I was writing in my blog. But she couldn† see the difference so I had to stop. Now we are paying for internet.

Lunch today was a modern polish feast. It was also like having pudding for my main meal becuase it was so sweet. I had duck, mini pancakes (they tasted of fresh doughnuts), poached apple and cranberry sauce. MMmmm it was lovely but very rich. Tom had veal with poached apples and he tells me it was served with bison grass but I don’t know what that is.

I think we had better go as I have just read the conditions of using the internet for free here at the Bristish Council ………………….ooohps

hmmmm our fish was lovely.

Supermarkets here are reallyreally great. SO cheap. Our lunch (rolls, ham, cheese and beer) was 1GBP each and dinner which was quite a hefty shop with fish, kuskus (guess whatthat is), lots of beer and vegetables came to 5GBP each.

My mum told me not to walk the EasternEuropean streets at night and now I know why. Last night on our way from the airport we got a bit lost becuase the directions for the hostel were a bit rubbish. While looking at street map a man tried to help us. He tried to give us directions but could’t so phoned the hostel and then intsited on taking us there. I don’t think Tom trusted him. I think this becuse he kept whispering I don’t trust this man. Then later he said that he thought the man had made a fake phone call and was going to lead us somewhere other than the hostel. His drunken breath made me want to barf. We got rid of him in the end but and luckily our hostel is near all the embassies which have lots of men with machine guns outside so he would have been stupid to try anything.

Tomorrow we are going to have a long lunch, look at the unknownsoldier and then in the evening at 9.45 we get in our first class cabin to lithuania. Think of me at 8.45 your time.

So on my way to Poland I stopped in London to have coffee with Justin. While walking around we bumped into Charlie who I haven’t seen for about 2 years. We had a lovely chat.

Now we are Warsaw in a great hostel. We have a posh roomwith a balcony and the bathroom ismassive. The only problemis the spacebar on the keyboard isnt very good.

Tom is cooking us a meal of fish tonight in the nice kitchen here. Today we also booked our train tickets for a 1stclasscabinto Villinius.

No spacesareannoyingI’moff

At a fuction today at which I was chief photographer I had to take a picture of a Dame. She is a VVVIP. Probably the most VIP I have ever met. She is the most important female judge in the UK, as well as being a dame!

So I was taking a photo and she called me by my name…yes the dame knew my name. We hadn’t been introduced or even had words so how did she know my name?

I was deeply impressed and I knew why she had become VI, because she has a great short-term memory and therefore makes everyone feel a little bit important.

After an enjoyable night at the theatre **correction** the theatre was rubbish so Jayne and I walked out at the interval and went to the pub (the theatre bit was a work thing). So after an enjoyable night in the pub with Jayne I remembered the names Kate and I used to give people we didn’t know, but used to see all the time. It turns out that Jayne is also a great user of this technique and she was telling me about ‘no face’ (a girl who apparently has no features) and my favourite - ‘pleasin on the eye’. Yes you can imagine how attrative he is.

I know we wrote a list of ours but I can only remember a few:

TV dinner man
Strawberry Chewit man
Chess boy
Ring man
Brick head (I think she was also known as no eyebrow girl or something like that - sounds attractive doesn’t she?)

Kate - over to you….

Is my mum geekifying?

She is on a boat in France and phoned…..asked how I was, but immediately asked how my blog was, what had been happening, anything else been happening on the internet?

I didn’t have much to report because she is not here, so there have been no risky comments about people who have read my blog. What a shame.

My task for the afternoon is to put the finishing touches to my holiday with Tom. I am going to plan how we are going to cope with five different countries and therefore five different currencies. Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Sweden. I’m not thinking about five different languages today. I am most looking forward to sorting out the Estonia part as I want to know how many EEKs we will need.

In other news:

The tea in my phone has exaporated

The Stranglers are headlining the Ashton Court Festival

I found out where the phrase “Taking the Piss” came from but it’s far too complicated to explain here. It involves Ships, barrels of urine and it originated hundreds of years ago.

The Boots travel range is really exciting.

I am so disturbed my my phone fighting for life. It still has a fair amount of tea in the screen, which I think is solidifying by the minute. It has actually turned into a bit of an executive toy and you can play for hours trying to get the air bubble in the middle. Yesterday afternoon I put the back on and it took three quick gasps followed by a long one. It was sad and I thought that was the end. Then in the evening in my room I heard brrrr brrr brrr brrr brrr brrr brrr grrrr grrrr grrrr grrrr grrr. It was very quiet and coming from my bag. It was the phone of course trying to come back to life. Alas the tea remains so I think it’s just a matter of time.

The most confusing thing about all the news coverage on the Big brother fighting has been the report that members of the public called the police when they saw the fighting break out on TV. Do they think the channel 4 production team go home at night and they are the only person in the world who is watching so they feel sort of responsible for them? I wonder if they called 999 or their local police station. Whatever, I hope they thought about it and felt really stupid.

I was having a dream about a nice big bee. It flew over me and landed just next to by bedside table so I reached out and tried to catch it. Then I woke up because I realised the friendly dream bee was actually alerting me to the fact that my mobile phone had fallen into a cup of tea.

Oh no….I saved the sim and the battery but the screen is full of tea not going anywhere and I can’t open it to get it out. I have to do it soon otherwise the milk will start going off, but there is just no way to open the phone.

I wonder if it was the bee who knocked it in.

Tom Smith and I went for a lovely walk today in Leigh woods which is only a 10 minute walk from my house.

We walked along the Avon gorge, collecting stones to PAP. PAPPING is the most satisfactory activity ever invented. You need a big expanse of fresh virgin mud and a platform above it, ideally about 5m (it is crucial to be in sound range as this isn’t just a visual experience). Then you throw you stones, a big underarm throw and wait to hear the PAP. I decided that before I die I want to pap myself. This may actually be just 5 seconds before I die.

So then we walked through the woods, past the super posh houses, the buddist centre. Then across the suspension bridge, past the old funicular railway, down the zigzag path, accross the lock on the cumberland basin. We watched the lock open while sitting on a cannon. The lock man told us not to steal the cannon.

I felt like a tourist in my own area and it was nice.

I had to fight my way back to my house because Elton fans were flocking to my hood. It was disturbing. Elton fans don’t know how to use a bus and I don’t think they ever go out on a friday night.

Now Elton is seriously rocking out. He just played the one “I’m sa-ad *sad* soo saaa-ad, such a sad sad situation” mmmm yeah

The preparations were on the evening news and Sally Challenor was on talking to the fans. Chris Vasher asked her if she was a fan and she said “um yes” but she wasn’t very convincing, I think she was just doing her job. She had a sneek preview of the dressing room which was a football changing room draped with curtain lining and it contained two of Elton’s personal sofas. It looked a bit rubbish, especially when she made her way through the drapes to his bathroom which was the football players shower room with the big white tiled bath and loads of sinks. I can’t imagine Elton and David….

…. in there and I really don’t want to try.

Tom and I were discussing the nightmare of being the Elton tour manager and arranging to have his sofas flown round the world. Two days ago he was in Italy and in two days he is in Austria. Tom worked out he was getting paid half a million pounds, so I guess with so much money you can have your sofas flown wherever you want. By the way, Elton travelled in by helicopter. Luckily he doesn’t have to worry about getting the last no 24 home with the other 22000 fans.

boy at work have you noticed all the England flags around, on all the cars and in the houses, there are LOADS!
the rest of us yes there are loads
boy at work yeah it’s like living in the 1700’s or something.

Just be careful what you say on the internet as it will come back to haunt you.

Andy from Sobarna Tibetan Mastiffs, England just sent me an email:

Hi Sarah

I found your post whilst searching the internet. If you get chance, please have a look at my Tibetan Mastiffs then tell me whether you still think they are vicious
Many thanks
Andy
Sobarna Tibetan Mastiffs, England

no they don’t look vicious Andy and that picture did even get an “aaaah” from the ladies at work. I still think they will grow up and get big and scary. eeek

If anyone is a fan of Elton John you should come and hang out in my bedroom this Friday night. He is playing in the stadium behind my house. Last year I had the pleasure of a Bryan Adams concert and remember baking a cake while humming along to the one about Robin hood.

Anyone?

I took her picture of my hairstyle to the hair dressers and look what happened:

Kate just told me she thinks I should have my hair like this. Shall I keep her as a best friend?