It is a beautiful day!! It is supposed to hit 61 today!!! WOW! I better enjoy it because it is supposed to start raining tomorrow and last through the weekend. Oh well, who cares? I will be home in LA in 1 week!!! Then I will be hot!!! YAY!!!

Here I finally got the pics from Cornwall!

Here is my favourite....

Here I am in Vevey. The person I am supposed to meet was supposed to be here at 9:30. It is now 10:15 and still no sign of him... I hope he shows soon. I have to leave at 3!!!! This could be a very wasted trip.....

Getting excited about going home!!! 1 week from Thursday!!!

Great weekend but I don't think I will be able to get the pics up til Wednesday. I have to leave right after lunch for Vevey so my morning is packed! I get back tomorrow night. But to tide you all over, here is a beautiful picture that Katherine took while she was here of the London Eye at sunset.

We are off to Cornwall first thing tomorrow morning. It is at the southern end of England.. not sure what exactly we'll see.... let me guess... rain and sheep?

So Katherine is on her way home, she decided to skip New York. I guess this crappy weather finally got to her! Those of you that travel know that it is not relaxing! Anyway, she is going home to relax. I am alone again.... :(

But hey.....Guess what I signed up for yesterday?

THE WORLD'S GREATEST RACE ROUTE!

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Entries are strictly limited with charities, Corporate Teams and individual Gold Guaranteed entries accepted on a first come first served basis so enter now to avoid disappointment!

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Who wants to join me?

OH OH OH!!! I see some blue sky out the window!!! oh wait.... no.... there it goes.... no more blue..... oh wait, it's coming back!!!! Oh no, there it went again.....

Surprise, the weather is dark and gloomy! I spoke to Jamie last night and he said he has to run the air conditioner just to be able to sleep...... I miss California!!!

Well we braved the weather all weekend and had a great time despite it! Friday night we had dinner with Mike and Reed (Katherine already knows Reed from Glandale) then we all went back and watched Friends. 4 Americans sitting in a flat in London watching Friends... hee hee.. kind of makes me laugh!

Saturday we went to the Museum of London, then on to Harrods!!! We were just going to have lunch there then go to a park to see flowers but the call of the shopping was just too strong! Especially since we knew what the weather was like outside!! So we spent all the rest of the day there (not difficult to do!!) I only bought a couple more walking in London books and Katherine didn't buy anything, but every woman out there knows that it is not important that you buy anything to have a great day shopping! (Probably one of the top 10 differences between men and women!)

Sunday we went to a little town in the Cotswolds and had some lunch.



We then headed back to Blenheim Palace. We encountered some amazing weather along the way. It would be sunny to the left side of the car and dark grey to the right. Sometimes we were in the sunshine and then we would be pounded by rain!!! We did eventually see a rainbow but it didn't last long enough for us to find our pot of gold... We also tried to stick to very small roads and even were on some where you have to squeeze over to let cars pass you. It was absolutely beautiful though and Katherine seemed to enjoy it very much.

Monday we went for a guided walk around the Mayfair area. It was sunny then rainy and kept alternating but... again we suffered through it and enjoyed the day anyway. (Check out the pics, I have a picture of the American Embassy and the monument to Sept 11.) We had our High Tea at the Savoy and TOOK OUR TIME! We spent 2 hours having our tea and it was worth every minute! it was all high falutin, fancy-shmantzy, and just all around fun. The food and tea was good too!



A bit of a wander around Covent Gardens and on to a play. We saw When Harry Met Sally and it was excellent! Luke Perry is just "Oh so dreamy...." I do recommend it although I would wait for Allison Hannigan to come back. She was off this week and boy did we miss her. The alternate actress playing Sally was absolutely awful. Whenever she spoke, she yelled her lines and just wasn't believable at all. Thank goodness Luke Perry was so good and the rest of the cast was also very good.

Today I am back at work and Katherine is again venturing on her own. The forecast is about 45 today and tomorrow with rain both days. She was hoping to do the London Eye but I am not betting on it....

Here are our pics... Katherine Visit

I am sure you are all dying to know..... did Katherine get here? did she sleep in the airport? did she give up and hop on a plane to China? Well you will all be very glad to know that she is here!!!



It turns out that as soon as she hung up the phone after calling me, the driver arrived. Since she had flown 1st class and her flight was very early, the driver just ended up being late for her but on time for most people. Anyway, his cell phone was not working so they weren't able to call me to let me know he got her. I received a call from Katherine around 4 when she arrived to my flat! YEAH! I hurried through a couple of meetings and rushed home to a freshly showered, ready to take on London, Katherine! We went to dinner at Il Ponte which seems to be the tradition, so any of you coming to visit, plan on your first dinner being Italian. It seems everyone is always starving by the time they get to my place that good, large portions of italian cooking is just what they need! We then did the quick tour of downtown Croydon and went back to my flat. That is when she did what everyone else does.... fade fast!!! By 9pm, she was sound asleep. When I got up this morning, I saw she was awake and was worried that she didn't sleep through the night, but she did! I hope it doesn't hit her tonight!!!!

The weather has turned really bad, I think it is the worst I have seen. They are predicting 60 mph gale force winds for the weekend and non-stop rain. Katherine's original plan for today was going to be the London Eye, but out of fear of it being blown over, she has changed her mind. So it's adventure time!!! She is braving a train by herself and going to Windsor Castle! I hope I see her again!

Speaking of (writing of... thinking of...) Windsor Castle, Renee sent me this picture from when we were there:



It was in the Chapel that is inside of Windsor Castle grounds and it is the most beautiful statue, carving, whatever that I have ever seen. Angie, Renee and I stood there staring at it for a good long time. It almost brings you to tears. It truly looks like real people were frozen into marble. The detail of it up close is outstanding and so heartbreaking.

We have a full weekend planned! Shopping all day tomorrow (don't be concerned, I will try to remember how wonderful it feels to not have credit card debt and I will keep it that way!!!) Sunday we are going to Blenheim Palace, England and Monday we are going to a proper English tea at the Savoy and on to Mayfair. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. Sossi, Geroge and Hrag, enjoy your first weekend with William!! I hope you get some sleep!!!

Remember that beautiful weather I talked about? Yeah, well it's gone now. Just in time for Katherine..... Speaking of Katherine, I got back from lunch and there was a voicemail from her that she is at the airport and my guy that is supposed to pick her up is not there!!!! I just called the company and they said he just called them and he can't find her.... luckily she said where she was on the message so I told them and hopefully they will find each other... what a nightmare! The last thing you want after a long trip like that is to have to wait forever to be picked up!!!! Poor Katherine.... I'm sure by the time most of you read this, she will be at my flat safe and sound....

Thanks to Katherine!! Here is a picture of William Vahag and his big brother Kyle Hrag!!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAT GOULD!!!

OH MY GOODNESS!! It is so amazingly beautiful today!! I DID NOT see my breath as I was walking to work! That is a very big deal!!!! The sun is out and it feels about high 60's. I don't know how long it is going to last but I want to enjoy it while it is here!!! I hope Katherine gets some of this beautiful weather! I walk past a small park on the way to work and I have been watching the plants in it. I can see little green buds on the things that look dead. They are coming back to life!! It is so exciting!!!

Enjoy your sunshine and say a word of thanks to God who has created this beautiful day for you! (I think it is just for Sossi to welcome in the new baby!!!) and think of Katherine as she leaves today to fly over here!

THE BABY IS HERE!!! THE BABY IS HERE!!!!

Sossi had her baby on Monday morning at 6:30 am. His name is William Vahag Badalian and he is 8 lbs. 5 oz. I am sure some of you already know this but since I am a bit of a distance and a few time zones away.....

I will post pictures as soon as I get them!!!!

Congratulations to Sossi, George, Hrag and all of the rest of their family!

Fantastic weekend!! Mike, Reed and I went to Dover Castle. Here is a lovely shot of the White Cliffs of Dover....



It was freezing there, some 2000 years ago someone said "Hey, let's build a castle on top of these cliffs overlooking the ocean so that we can keep the enemy away by FREEZING THEM TO DEATH!!!!" There were times that you had to stop walking and face into the wind so that it didn't blow you off your feet!! I gotta say though that since I have seen my fair share of castles by now, that the castle was ok. What was truly amazing was the Secret Underground Tunnels. There were a series of tunnels that were built during the Napoleon wars to house soldiers since there wasn't enough room in the castle (and they didn't have any use for popsicle men...) Then the tunnels were abandoned and during WW2 they were re-discovered and thought to be such a brilliant idea that they built even more of them. We were able to take a tour of the tunnels and I must say that they did a fantastic job with setting up the tour and making it look like how it would have been during WW2. Unfortunately, you aren't able to take pictures inside sooo...

Sunday Mike and I braved the howling wind and rain and went into London. He went to the British Museum but I figured I had enough culture for one weekend and I went shopping instead! Then to Pacifico (the only decent Mexican food in London)! Rumour has it that it should get up to a whopping 15 degrees sometime this week (about 60) I sure hope so!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JULIA ON SUNDAY!!!!! I hope you have a wonderful weekend!



They look so sad!!! Angie and Renee are probably at the airport by now. Renee didn't want to go at all and promises to come back.

We went to dinner last night and as we were leaving, Angie opened to door and squealed. I thought it might be the cold but then she went out and started giggling and dancing around. It was snowing!! Not just a little flake here and there but actual snow! It wasn't really sticking yet but it was still quite lovely. This morning it had stopped but there was a little on the cars and on grass.



I thought you all sitting in the heat might enjoy that picture.

On a personal note, (isn't this entire site a personal note?) I have reached a milestone in my life. As of today, I have mailed a payment to my credit card that now makes me credit card debt free. For those of you that know me, you know that I have had credit card debt since I was 18, so it only took me 13 years to get rid of it. I am very happy about this and feel a large boulder lifted off my shoulders.

Have a great weekend!!

This was the view out the back of our hotel and below is a pic of us at the bar in the hotel



Alrighty then! Here are the pics Angie and Renee Visit - Bath 2!! Enjoy. Included in here are pics of us dressed up to go dancing and our trip to Bath. Here is probably my favorite picture of Angie ever... I think she looks very pretty... too bad it is a bit fuzzy but that makes it artistic right?



Well they did make it home last night and sad they had a wonderful day. They saw Chitty Chitty and also said it was very good. Angie got her special red boots and Renee found a pair at Harrod's!! Woo-hoo, boots from Harrod's, how exciting! They are off today to do all of the super tourist stuff.

I was sitting in the living room this morning, getting ready for work and noticed that although there was a blue sky directly above, there was snow falling. I hurried in and woke up Angie and Renee who ooohed and ahhhed. Angie then called her mom who told Angie that although it was 12:30 in the morning, it was still around 80!!! I bet you all wish you had some of my snow!!! (Don't get too excited, none of it stuck.)

We had a fantastic weekend. The dance club on Friday night was not as good as the time that I had gone before. The music was a lot more techno and the people seemed to be more drunk. We still had a pretty good time thought but if we all three lived here, we wouldn't start going on a regular basis. Especially since we still got home at 4am!

Saturday we went into London for their first time. Ooh! a real train and ooh! a tube (subway, underground... whatever you want to call it.) Despite the dirt and unsavory people, I think Angie still kind of enjoyed it, I KNOW Renee did. We went to Camden Market and shopped amongst the hippies for a while and then on to Leicester Square. We were lucky, there were a bunch of Hari Krishnas singing and dancing around. We don't see that in the Montrose parade at Christmas too often! Walk, walk, walk and we were at Covent Garden! At this point we decided no more dilly dallying and we rushed on to Oxford Street for the important stuff! Selfridges!! Woo-hoo! (You wander around and marvel at all the pretty things you can't afford. Every man's nightmare.) Along Oxford, Angie found some lovely (I'll be nice about them on the website) red boots and Renee found a fantastic shoulder bag. I must say I am very proud of the restraint the two of them are showing!! I guess realizing that everything is double the sticker price limits your ability to splurge. We then went to Waxy's (my favorite pub) for dinner and called it an easrly night (about 12)

Sunday was the very uneventful drive to Bath with the exception of stopping at Stonehenge. The girls got out while I sat in the car (already been a few times...) and found it to be wow but smaller than expected (I warned em....) We did a quick tour around Bath then settled into our lovely hotel,The George Inn (http://www.thegeorgeinn-nsp.co.uk) It was so nice to get in early and have a dinner and relax. Renee and I went to the hotel pub while Angie went up to read. We lucked out and met some pretty nice people. Renee was hoping to get an idea of the culture so it worked out perfectly for her.

Monday was the grand tour of Bath and an amazing dinner at Sally Lunn's (http://www.sallylunns.co.uk/) I think this was the best food we have had...... the garlic toasted bun and the cinnoman buns. Oh my, my mouth is watering just thinking of it!! We were really fortunate as the weather was beautiful and never rained. It was a bit nippy out but not too bad since we were prepared for it. Renee spent the evening in the pub writing postcards and reading while Angie and I talked and talked and talked. So lovely and relaxing!!

Tuesday was the drive back and we stopped at Windsor Castle, which worked out great. They just started their summer hours (Summer?) so it was still open when we got there. Angie and Renee's first castle! I had seen it back on my Contiki tour but that was soooo long ago, so I really enjoyed it also. And then a lazy night at home with some Pizza Hut pizza.

I left them both in Renee's capable hands as they tour around London today on their own. I hear rumours of seeing the play "Chitty chitty Bang bang...."

I'll have the pics up for you all by tomorrow.....

!!

Angie and Renee made it here all right. They are both back at my flat sleeping. I don't know how Renee slept but I do know that poor Angie woke up at 1 and was awake until about 3.... Jet lag really sux. As you can see in the pic below, they have already started making friends!



No blog again until next Wednesday as we have a very busy weekend planned and then on to Bath from Sunday - Tuesday

They have landed!! At 3:08, I just checked the website..... I won't see them for another 2 hours or so but at least they have landed!

Well it is a bit warmer today, amazing how that happens when there is some cloud cover!! So Angie and Renee are in a plane right now somewhere over the East Coast would be my guess but by the time most of you read this they will be at Heathrow airport!! I am hoping to see them by 6pm.... we'll see how that goes.

I booked more tickets yesterday for my mom and I. We will be doing a whirlwind tour of southern Ireland in 2 days. I'll send her back to LA exhausted!! That's for sure..... and I will only have a few days rest (work) before Gen then Ashley and Brittany come! What am I going to do after June? I don't have anyone else planning on coming..... I have a spare room, who wants a break?

Good afternoon from sunny Croydon! I hear you are all getting a bit wet back in LA. Well it's dry here but still very chilly....brrrr.

Well I sure am looking forward to all of my visitors coming! I booked tickets to Rome and Paris for when my mom comes. I also spoke to my cousin Renee and she is going to join us to Paris! Anyone else? Mmmmmm... Creme brulee... mmmmm...

Part 3.... So we ate some dinner then put on our bright orange shirts and headed out to the VIP thing. You go in at street level and up to the 2nd floor. There is a balcony that looks out over the street and the trios that are passing by underneath. This would have been cool except all of these types of places are balconys made like very large scaffolding. Pipes and plywood. If you stood still you could watch the whole thing shake around you as people jumped up and down and danced to the music. I left it as quickly as possible and went down a back corridor into an actual building where they had more of a regular dance club set up. This is where I finally started to loosen up. there was just me and a few other people and slowly the rest of our group started coming down. We were all dancing and chatting and just having a good time. I was finally enjoying myself. The highlight of the evening was when Tami and Gephart danced together. They looked like professionals and did this swing dance type dance where Gephart even flipped Tami upside down (never mind the stone floor below...) It was fantastic!! We got back somewhere around 2am.

The next day we had an evening trio so some people went shopping and some went to the beach. Tami, Nancy and I did both with a third bonus, we slept in! After shopping, we had lunch at an italian restaraunt looking over the ocean. This was one of my favorite times. It was so lovely to sit and have lunch with the girls. So relaxing and just purely enjoyable. We then walked along the water a bit and went back for a nap!

The trio that night was astronomically better. It turns out that when we were between the two trucks on the first onoe, that that wasn't a good idea. As the trucks moved, the people in front of the second truck got pushed forward into the rest of the people that were stuck behind the first truck. Hence all the pushing and shoving and crowding. This time, we learned from others that it was better to be in front of the first truck adn as far forward as the men with the ropes would go. We were still part of the trio but since we were at the very front we were able to keep the pace better and there was noone to crowd into (most of the time) This was wonderful. We had room to dance to the music and talk to each other. Still had a bathroom problem but I just tried not to even drink water and that helped alot.

We had one more trio the next day which was the same as the first trio we had done. This time we got real smart about it though and had our bus pick us up about halfway through. At the point where we went down the hill to the ocean and then would have turned left, we got out. We wandered around the Centre and absorbed more of the local culture. There were small parades of locals about 15-20 people. There would be some costumed dancers at the front and a marching type band at the back. Behind would be local children and people of all ages dancing along behind them. This was my favorite part of the whole trip. The dancers were so amazing to watch and the music was so good, I wish we could have done a day of it. We wandered over to an italian restaraunt and had some pizza. We were outside and there was a band playing in the square that all the restaraunts faced onto. Well it didn't take us long to get up and start dancing!! It was fantastic!! By this time it was evening so it was a nice temperature and that beautiful ocean breeze would come up. Everyone around you (except our group) were locals just having a fantastic time. (Gen remember when we danced on the tables in Miami and how much fun that was? This was like that!) Later that night we went to dinner at a real Brazilian Grill. It was excellant!

The next day a large portion of our group left to go to Morrow. It was an island nearby and they were staying there for a few days, so there were lots of goodbyes the night before. About 8 people went to the beach and myself and 4 others went back to the Centre and the Black Market. We did some shopping and wandered around being tourists. This was the perfect way for me to end.

And you already can assume the rest with the 36 hour trek back to England (which was 0 degrees when I got here and snowed later that night......) On Saturday I went to the National Wedding Show and got a lot of ideas. I even bought a tiara! I have no idea if it will work with my dress but it was so pretty and I have such trouble resisting pretty things!!

I woke up today and smiled. It is starting to be light out when my alarm goes off and it was beautiful and sunny out. I had gone to bed at 9 last night (very tired from staying up til 3am on Sunday to watch half of the Oscars) So I woke up well rested. Now I can't wait until Thursday when Angie and Renee get here!!! What a surreal and wonderful life I am leading.... :)

Well part 2.... (if you haven't already read yesterdays message... you might want to or it will all be so confusing!!! and you will start to cry and well we don't want that!!!)

First some pics, a guy here at work (Reed Edwards) had a friend that went to Carnaval in Salvador also!! Well he was more daring than I and took some pictures of the crowds, you can see one of the trio trucks in the picture.



These guys are called "filhos de gandhy" (sons of Ghandi) There were zillions of them everywhere. They were celebrating the anniversary of his death. This picture is one of the main spots they congregated. When our trio (I'll explain a trio in a bit) came down this hill towards the ocean we saw them to the right. In this picture it appears they are marching the route we eventually took up to the left and along the ocean.

This next pic is just an evening pic somewhere, but it gives you a general idea of the types of crowds we were in constantly.



Lastly, when we were in the trio's there were people walking around taking pics and then they would give you these little notes with their websites. Here is a pic that I found on one of those sites. This was taken at our first trio, you can see me in the back with the blue hat on.



And now back to the storytelling!! I arrived on Saturday with Tami and we took a cab to the hotel. First impressions were that it reminded me very much of Mexico. Poor in the man made areas but the beaches were beautiful. When we got to the hotel there were a group of people in the bar by the pool and we had caught them just in time, they were about to leave to go sightseeing in the Old Town Centre. So we rushed upstairs, dropped our stuff and went with them. The Centre was beautiful (I do have some pics from the last day at the Centre) We all had a Camprihana (oh my spelling is terrible!) Which is a drink just like a Mojito (Gen!!) It is the local rum, sugar, crushed ice and lime. If it is made well, which these were, then it tastes like lemonade. We walked about a bit and some got some food but we were all pretty tired and went back to the hotel pretty quickly. Back at the hotel, we finally met up with Nancy!!! YAY!!! I just get so happy whenever I see anyone I know! That night we all went (27 of us) to dinner and called it an early night. Jet lag all around.

The next day was our first trio! I was very apprehensive. There were all the warnings:
1. Wear closed toe shoes
2. Don't carry anything valuable
3. Don't wear jewelry
4. Wear lots of sunscreen (I wore a hat too...and I never burned!! YAY!)
5. When (not if) a guy comes up to kiss you, you say no and if he asks again you say "Say-fora!!" This means go away! Let me explain this one a bit, it is the custom for people to kiss each other randomly. I personally thought this was disgusting and even when I was younger I think it still would have been pretty disgusting. The boys were all sweaty and not and sstinky and wearing tanktops, so you could see their hairy armpits and some of them were even drunk!!(Surprisingly there were a lot less drunk people than I expected.) They even have a popular song that everyone sings that says "Kiss me, Kiss me, It's hot, It's hot!" Generally though it was done just out of fun and they guys were not overly aggressive so if they asked to kiss you and you said no, they pretty much left you alone.
6. Drink as little as possible because there is no where to go to the bathroom!! (We weren't told this one but we figured it out pretty quickly.)
7. When you are in the crowd and it gets really pushy, just roll with it and don't fight it....
8. Have fun!!! (This one I didn't pay much attention to on the first day, you'll see what I mean....)

We get dressed in these special shirts that we all have to wear. Guys and girls get the same shirts but some girls alter theirs. We cut the bottom off of ours but some girls go all out and get these shirts a few days in advance and hire a seamstress to make them into these fancy halter tops and such. Since we only had a tiny, mini swiss army knife with microscopic scissors, we weren't getting too creative with ours.
We get to the general vicinity and then start to caterpillar (I say that because we did it alot. We would hold hands like 5 years olds and wind through the crowds like a long 27 person caterpillar.) Thank goodness someone knew where we were going because next thing I knew it people were saying "We're here!!" I look around and in front of me is this huge semi truck with a stage built on top of it and speakers all over it. I don't mean little car radio speakers but speakers that were the size of the truck! You sure didn't want to get too close to it! The setup was that there were two semi trucks, the one in front that the band would perform on as we drove around the streets and a "support" truck. (I say support very loosely) The support truck had toilets and a bar. The toilets were everything you would expect them to be, hence how I learned so quickly to not drink anything and avoiding needing to use the toilet! The bar was basically a hole on the side of the truck that you would have to fight your way to and walk along beside... I never even tried this, it looked very unpleasant.
Around the front, back and sides of the two trucks were all sorts of locals that held a rope around the trucks and all 5000 of us. So we 500 ended up in front of the first truck, in between the two trucks and in the back. If you were unlucky enough to end up on the side of a truck, you tried to get away from that as quickly as possible. That is what is called a trio. What we did was called hell. If I were to ever imagine hell, this would have been it. So packed into people that the only way you move is when you are forcibly pushed forward with the crowd. It is almost like your feet get lifted off the ground and you float forwards, except your not floating. You are being crushed, with elbows and knees jabbing into all the very important parts of your body. But the worst part is the sweat. i don't like my own sweat, but to have all sorts of other peoples sweat all over you incessantly, that is another level in the skyriser of hell. Picture yourself being as short as me (and o h the poor people that were even shorter!!!!!) You look around, gasping for air and get a huge, hairy, dripping with sweat armpit shoved in your face!!! Ahhhh!!! I am reliving it as I type! Hell, pure hell!!! This went on for 6 hours. I started to descend into another dimension where I just started to not care, but then I would come back to reality and just start praying that it was almost over and that I would just suffer through it. I would think about how I wasn't going to go to the next 2 that we had already paid for.... oh the horror. At one point I was in a lovely place in my mind and and elbow crashing into my skull brought me out of it..... But it wasn't just all that, there were the occasions when a guy would make his way over and try to kiss me... SAYFORA!!!! SAYFORA!!! They would look at me like I was crazy and run away!!!
At one point, I finally lost it. This is a bit embarrassing but Angie will recognize it as something I would do. I can kind of start to laugh about it now.... kind of... There was this wonderful Brazilian girl that was part of our group. Her name is Marina. She is definately street smart and can take care of herself. She had these trios before!!! Anyway, a guy wanted to kiss her and she was telling him no. From my point of view he was being overly aggressive (I guess this is considered ok with most peopel down there and he was just playing) I thought she needed help and that it was up to me to save the day!!! So i called over Vandy and he recognized it as playing and went back to enjoying himself, frustrated I took matters into my own hands and went up to the guy adn started eylling NO at him. He must have thought I was a funny, silly thing and he grabbed my hat, put it on his head and started dancing around. Well as you all know, I can have a bit of a temper sometimes and if I am uncomfortable and unhappy, my temper is worse. So I hauled back and punched this 300 pound Brazilian and grabbed my hat back! He then realized the error of his ways and started to harrass me with "I'm sorries" At this point Vandy stepped in and asked him to leave me alone and the guy just kept saying over and over that he was sorry and he didn't mean to upset me.... So my anger melted into embarassment and I just felt like a stupid idiot. Icing on the cake for the day. The last 2 hours of the trio were spent by me just sulking along, wanting to go home, hoping it would end soon. I was hot, tired, hungry and desperatly needed the toilet!! It finally ended and we got back to the hotel to shower and prepare to go out again. Oh how I didn't want to go!!!!! But it was supposed to be better!!! They promised!

OK, my fingers hurt now... I'll finish up tomorrow... I'm exhausted just thinking about how miserable I was!!!!