I was on a music blog kick and decided to do the shallow thing and explore bands based on their names. I came across this 60s all girl band The Shaggs cause well, c’mon now – a pretty awesome name for a band I’d say.

I downloaded their Philosophy of the World album. I can’t decide whether to laugh, admire or just enjoy it. The lyrics are so simple and …laughable. Everyone’s doing their own thing when it comes to the instruments. Think lo-fi “jazz”. It’s actually quite charming. Charming in the way you find “special” people. Charming and special like these kids: http://kidsofwidneyhigh.com

This is how Chicken the cat wakes me up in the morning when she wants to get her noms.

Today started off at what I would have thought was a good day but a sudden sadness hit me when I got to my parents place for the weekly “parent/child” get together. My dad still has flu/cold symptoms and when I saw him he was high on some kind of medication so he felt real tired and was zoning out. My mum wasn’t her chipper self. She was kind of moody. I left about 1 1/2 hours later and made my way to Ikea to use the gift vouchers I got for my birthday. Traffic was ridiculous and my car airconditioning was blowing hot air. I thought some Ikea retail therapy would lift my spirits up a little but it didn’t really do much. I did get a bed in breakfast tray which I’m currently using as a laptop ‘table’. That’s kinda cool I guess. I also got a handy ironing board cause I’m going to start taking better care of my clothes (ie – ironing them!) and the usual scented candles and pet hair removal rollers. I also spent close to 200 rm on groceries (!).

I guess before talking about today I should haven’t talked about yesterday, which was Halloween. I got my bangs cut so I could go as Buttercup of the Powerpuff Girls but had the black/green dress coordination all messed up. I ended up just putting lots of blood on my face and facial ‘prosthetics’. The latter didn’t really stay on for long with the humid weather here. Oh well. I had another back-up – Edna Mode. Ha ha. Mel dressed up as Olyve Oil and Ben was DICK IN A BOX. Pretty sweet. Maybe I can pull something decent off next year! It was a pretty early night. (Jump to first paragraph if you want the ‘chronological’ string of events)

So I’m in the here and now. I am recording a VO demo tomorrow. I’m hoping this is a step into the world of VO’s (and extra cash).

We arrived in London on my 29th Birthday (10/10) and by the time we got to our hostel it was late. By the time we all freshened up, it was later so in the end we ate a late dinner at this restaurant Punjabi @ Covent Garden. The food was excellent though and the bottle of white wine cheaper than an appetizer . How adult of us no? No crazy birthday antics though and no conversations with taxi drivers about Jupiter and all that. Pretty low key and I think everyone was tired anyway.

The next morning Cece & Carly were flying back home. After spending a week with those girls (and I mean almost every waking minute with eachother!) it was sad to see them go. Carly teared up and I did too..sigh. If all goes well I’ll be back in the US again next year “The seas parted ways and left em’ to be!” (Seas = C&C and EM’ = M&M) ha ha I know I’m so special. So yeah it was just Marie and I for the rest of the day. We were waiting for Aash to call me back so he could give us directions on how to get to his apt for us to store our shit for the rest of the day. In the meantime though we made friends with the tube guy at the Royal Oak station. I dunno what we talked about but he liked us enough to offer his office for us to leave our luggage in while we got breakfast and all. In return though we got him some breakfast and he gave us a surprise big bear hug as we made our way to Aldgate East/White Chappel to meet up with Aash.

Aash lives off Selby Street @ White Chappel. His living room view is a cemetary where people died of Bubonic Plague (refer to past reference of Bubonic Plague). White Chappel is also where the Jack the Ripper murders took place. Lots of awesome history if you ask me! We didn’t have time to have a personal tour of the area but he did take us to the only ‘farm’ in London town aka Spitalfields City Farm. Well, we actually just walked by it cause we were answering the call of hunger… LUNCHERS @ Casa Blue on Brick Lane. Casa Blue is a nice cozy… cafe (?) There aren’t really any proper tables to eat on. Lots of beat up couches and places to lounge. It’s a place to snack and drink basically. Food was good though! I think we ordered their special platter and this special cocktail mixed with energy drinks and other stuff…it was called thai something or other (not the actual name but it had the word ‘thai’ in it). It was really good and before you know it, a bunch of people I’ve met in various stages of my life grouped together drinking from a fishbowl, in harmony. Aww….  Eventually we moved from Casa Blue to the Vibe Bar (hazy recollection of events!) and then finally to this bar/club that was in a warehouse – right behind the RootMaster ‘bustaurant’. Finally about 10 p.m. or so I had to make my way to the airport to catch my flight back ‘home’ – beligerent, sad and a tad confused. It’s a good thing the airport officials a) allowed me to sneak in an extra 5KG for my check-in luggage b) allowed my overweight carry on luggage on board. All good in the hood. Stansted airport officials aren’t assholes after all…well when it’s close to midnight that is! (A reverse Mogwai!?)

So that concludes uSUK Tour 2009… “tour” because it was like going on tour. I was constantly with people and I imagine being in a band ur always around people and at times they get on ur nerves and also it’s hard to get some “alone” time etc..etc.. It was also very tiring but all worth it. It certainly did not SUK (as in uSUK – blah baadd wordplay sorry). Now that I’ve been “home” for nearly 2 weeks, I’m enjoying some time alone doing absolutely nothing. At the same time, I’m doing a lot of thinking which I did little of when travelling. Soooo.. you know how that goes.

Now for some pictures to accompany this post:

Cheers! And it’s back to ‘mai’ random ramblings whenever I feel like it!

….. continued from sCAUGHTland pt.1

Early the next morning we drove out from Edinburgh and made our way to and through the Scottish highlands via Inverness with a final stop at Lochness. Driving there was fun! Lots of nice scenery to take in, fun music and of course good company! Once we got to the actual ‘highlands’ there were stops where we could pull the car over to take photos and stuff. It was insanely cold though!

(L-R) Maya, Carly, Marie, Cece

Some castle we spotted while driving up in the highlands

View of the road whilst driving in the highlands

We saw lots of sheep, horses, cows and HIGHLAND COWS!~ They are sooo cute! Marie thinks they look like a young Kurt Cobain.

** images of Highland Cows taken from here

We had the opportunity a few times to pull over on the side of the road and take photos with the farm life but were kinda racing against time and could only probably afford one actual stop

The drive to finally reach the Inverness information centre (which is 30 minutes away from the Lochness tour place) took about 3 ½ hours from Edinburgh.. While at the Inverness Information Centre (the one in the south cause apparently there are more than one Information Centres in Inverness) we got our selves together..stretched a bit, went to use the loo and guess what we saw?!

I guess no one will understand this as it was an ongoing joke throughout the whole trip. Something to do with some guy who coughed on the tube in London and some lady going totally ape shit on him accusing him of spreading the Bubonic plague!

Anyway, when we finally arrived to the Loch Ness Tourist Trap Centre and waited a bit before jumping on board a bus that would drive 5 minutes down the road to the dock where we road the NESSIE HUNTER with our skipper Howie. It was an uneventful ride on the water. No signs of Nessie, cept some ripples the waters created which could have passed off as something. The water was really dark, black even. I learned a thing or two as to why the water is so dark. For one, the water is full of tiny floating pieces of brown coal. Also the hills (and trees?) surrounding Lochness may have something to do with its colour. Whatever the reason, I would hate to ‘accidentally’ fall in and not be able to see underwater. I have a super phobia with dark waters… I even get into a bit of a panic attack when I go snorkeling in clear blue water and I can suddenly see a big drop down there and no sight of an ocean bed (I also felt kind of claustraphobic during Finding Nemo when Dory hit her head somewhere and sunk down into abyss like waters…..ack) Right, anyway – during out boat tour we all got to stir the boat once. Marie made a full donut even!

We headed down south again about 5 ish or so. It was starting to get dark and our hellish drive to Glasgow begins! No street lights about 90% of the time. Lots of one lane roads with oncoming traffic in the opposite lane and no divider in between. Also, once it got completely dark, we couldn’t even seen the beautiful highlands and it was kinda like driving into an abyss (in relation to my phobia for things dark and not being able to really see anything) – also lots of signs for sheep & cow crossings) Not to mention I was completely knackered by the end of the day so Carly volunteered to drive for a bit. Bless her little heart hehe

Driving back took longer than getting there. We had to make a couple stops plus a dinner & gas stop in some town (crap the name of the town escapes me but we stole a Christmas menu from there so I’ll have to correct myself later). When we’re not totally pressed for time it’s kinda awesome “getting lost” and discovering new things – like this town. Not a non-white person in town! They musta thought I was an alien! But if there’s one thing I’ve noticed is that I’m pretty sure most pubs/restaurants in most cities and towns in Scotland have a pact with www.naughtyvend.com – “Naughty toys for girls and boys” !

Restaurant/Pub we ate at in the town of which the name escapes me!

We finally arrived in Glasgow at around 10 something and compared to where we’ve been sleeping since our trip, our Bed & Breakfast was like a 5 star hotel! McLays we LOVE you! J And since it was going to be my birthday, the gals gave me the double bed!  Albeit kinda late, I still wanted to check out what Glasgow nightlife had to offer. We were a stone’s throw away from Sauchiehall Street - one of the main shopping/business streets in Glasgow. By the time everyone “settled down” it was close to midnight. Cece and I walked about but all the pubs were closed and we felt we were dressy enough to attempt entering any clubs. There was this one indie club we wanted to check out (it was all lime green and dimly lit) but they were closing too! Lots of ladies were walking about barefoot holding their 6 inch stilettos. People were in alleys puking. Lots of people hanging outside of kebab and pizza places eating their post-clubbing food…. It was a sight to take all in although weren’t fortunate enough to actually participate in any of the debauchery. Glasgow def. has more “charm” than Edinburgh. I guess any place that’s kinda dodgy has ‘charm’. Take for example Baltimore – aka CHARM CITY! Dodgy as hell but charming all the same!

Crappy mobile phone shot outside of some club in Glasgow

The next morning after a good night getting McLay’d we all woke up in time to have breakfast. It was good but I was hoping to try some HAGGIS. No dice! Maybe I had to ask, or maybe they ran out since we were kinda late …..  We had a couple hours to kill before dropping the rental car off so we took a map of one those drop on/off bus tours and followed the route – just to get some sights and scenery. I’d love to go back to Glasgow – well Scotland in general! Two days there is like watching a trailer for say Lord of the Rings or something (the trailer looks good but the movie is EPIC!) …

Back to London town, my first official day as a 29 year old (gasp)… And for record purposes, it was Carly and I that got stopped by airport security this time. They randomly asked us to fit our bags into the bag sizer thingie and well, it couldn’t fit so we had to pay 30 friggin pounds! Happy Birthday to me! We celebrated on the plane later with rum straight up and a pear cider…. Hello again London…

Last uSUK Tour 2009 post is next….