To Suz and I's favourite littlest sister I must say happy birthday Genzofline! We only get one 18th and it's not often that it's celebrated with both siblings overseas. I must ask everyone reading the blog to toast the girl who just got her license, is working her ass of at Cino's and can eat more roast than anyone I know.
Have a good one Gen.

For a taste of one of the best vintage stores in the world, and what we get up to in them check out www.harryandbriony.blogspot.com. I bought the shoes.

We have been in Scotland for three days now. We arrived after a 9.5 hour bus trip during which the bus toilet backed up and we had no rest stops. Ole walnut bladder here had a few issues with that, but eventually we arrived in Edinburgh. It was raining but still beautiful and we're staying with Harrys' family friends in the worlds' nicest and largest apartment. We (Harry, Briony and myself) love Edinburgh. It's small enough to walk everywhere but old enough for it to always be interesting. We've swum in Victorian pools, walked up Princes St, visited the National Portrait gallery and had the best curry I've tasted since i left home. And today, in an exercise feat I have rarely attempted, we hiked up Arthur's Seat. It went FAR better than the walk I tried up Smith Rock with Kevin and Bree, i.e. there was no passing out and only one oldish person passed us on the way up. Briony and I then bravely (read stupidly) decided to walk to THE summer promenade, Portobello Beach. It didn't look far. It was. And sadly, in all my travels I have yet to see a beach that compares to home. Whether its the grey weather, brown sand or the massive pump dumping god knows what into the water, Australian beaches kick other beaches ass.

And as a tribute to Suz I'll try and remember the movies I've seen since I've been away.

The Devil Wears Prada
Thank You for Smoking
Step Up (dancing movie, loved it excessively)
World Trade Centre
John Tucker Must Die (teen revenge movie,loved it excessively)
Material Girls
Rocky Horror Picture Show
Akeelah and Bee
Random art house movie in New York. Can't remember the name.

So my tally is actual good movies-1
Crap but awesome in their own way-7
Actual crap-Akeelah and the Bee

Now for the record, I have done a LOT of touristy things since I've been in London. We've been to the Tate Britain, the British Museum, Camden Markets, lots of English pubs (and pub meals), we saw Wicked on the West End and we frolicked in a giant British toy store ('s candy department). However, tonight i saw one of the most awesome things ever. Someone in the UK decided to broadcast the the great mystery that is the "talent" segment of the Miss World competition. I don't know if I could do Miss Portugal justice but let's just say it involved interpretive dance, a unitard, a homemade, smudged banner that said SHARE YOUR HEART and a small world globe that she ended up hugging, in the foetal position on the floor. And of the 40 odd girls who were in the semi-final, she made it into the top ten. A prize to anyone who can get footage of it! I'm off to Scotland with Briony and Harry tomorrow. More actual travel updates soon, I promise.

Don't you just love my cutesy titles? Well I thought I'd draw people in this time with a riddle/question. To what do the listed numbers refer to?

1)The number of people staying in Bonnie's bedroom at various times in the last week
2)The amount of television I've watched per day, for the last four days OR
3)Respectively, Harry's, Briony's, mine and Bonnie's Luuurve Test rankings.

Yes folks. It's 3. For the low, low price of 20p you can get minutes worth of entertainment from these things. For the record Harry is "mostly hot air", Briony is "warming up", I am "sensuous" and Bonnie is "hot stuff". And if any of you lucky devils ever get as high as Bonnie did, be warned. The machine starts to wail and beep if you get to 9 so not only do the guys in the store next door know how "hot" you are, the whole of the Leicster Square tube station knows that you were testing your Luuurve Skills. Forty seconds to take the test and five minutes of hysterical laughter later and they are officialy the most value for money entertainment in London.

Since I got to London I've been lying pretty low as I've been sick and trying to conserve my mo' money. I did get down to Brighton to visit Bonnie on my own but it's in the last two days that Harry and Briony, despite their jet lag have been pulling me into their uber-tourist sphere. We've been trekking around Turnpike Lane (the suburb we're staying in), we went to Borough Markets where we ate venison burgers and learnt that Bonnie sweats if she eats too much cheese. We walked along the Thames, went to the Tate (where i found my favourite artwork, the museum bench) and made it to the Greenwich time line thingy. Today we hit Harrods, Hyde Park (and Speakers Corner, Harry started talking to a Christian but Briony saved him), Notting Hill and we're currently in Leicster Square, planning our dinner in Chinatown and our walk to Trafalgar Square. Tomorrow Bonnie and I are thinking of shopping and watching a movie just to balance it out.

I don't know what I'm going to do with this blog without the guys that hit on Emma. The ones that hit on me just seem to stand innapropriately close or stare for a really long time. She gets ALL the interesting ones, this gem happened on Saturday night and he didn't go away until he'd completed his conspiracy rant.

I've finally completed my US of A grand tour. I've been to Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, Madras, Bend, Denver, Reno(briefly),Chicago, Washington DC, Schenectedy and New York and I've Amtrakked(?)through roughly 15 US states. I have to thank the entire Richards family and Jen for having me and I have to curse the food, especially the cupcakes for giving me a "pot". Luckily I caught something on the way to London and haven't been able to eat properly for two days, hurrah!

And now a dot point write-up of my time in New York.

BAD
Jazz on the Park Hostel rooms
American caesar salads
Coney Island in the daytime/the Atlantic
Staten Island

GOOD
Pizza
Cupcakes/Dylan's Candy Shop/Chocolate Factory
Diners-All over America, i love them.
New York Sex Museum
Pizza
Central Park (Ben Harper in particular)
Rooftop films that are played inside
Disney films made into musicals
New York bowling alleys
Pizza
Harlem
The Staten Island ferry
The lower east and west sides (and the fact that i now understand what that means)
Pizza

And much, much more. But i'm a little dizzy and it's time for bed.
So to sum up. Awesome country, lots of good food and way too many people who thought I was British.

Thus I was dissed and dismissed tonight as Emma and I walked back to our hostel. A dodgy looking guy rounded the corner and greeted us with the "hey sexy". Obviously petrified that my be-shorted self would be immediately drawn to his obvious charms he felt the need to clarify.

Other than that, Emma and I are having a fantastic time. We've seen a show (Beauty and the Beast, much MUCH better than we were anticipating) and tonight we hit the motherload when we hung outside the Ben Harper concert hoping someone would sell us their unused tickets. A lady sold us her two spares for ten bucks less than she originally paid for them and we've just got back from a two and a half hout set in Cenrtral Park. It was awesome.

Hasn't it? No-one in the common room believed me when I said that he was killed by a stingray. So freaking weird.

I am currently in New York with Em, we've just finished eating in Little Italy and we pretty much walked the length of Manhattan from the top of uptown Central Park to the World Trade Centre. Where both of us nearly cried. I dare anyone not to, it's so goddamn sad! But i figure that I should give a bit more of a pre-New York update.

I went to Albany/Schenectady to visit our friend Jen, "the American", an old PC exchange student. On my first night I was taken to the Albany plaza where we set up and played an improptu croquet course for a few hours. It was awesome. We had the added excitement of dodging the ever-changing directions of the plaza sprinklers, as well as winning a nail-biting finish for second last. We then headed for Boston for a couple of days. I loved Boston. It was a gorgeous city but easily the two most exciting things that happened were 1) the discovery of ice-cream injected cupcakes & 2)The random night drive to Essex/Deliverance-ville USA looking for a "bar" Jen's friend owned. It turned out that by "owned a bar" he meant, my friends and I get drunk in the shed next to my parents house.

Since then we got tipsy and watched Kindergarten Cop, played mini-golf (i lost, i'm no better at it than i am at plaza croquet)and watched a midnight screening of Pulp Fiction while we waited for Em to arrive at 2.45am. We made it to the Big Apple yesterday and we're loving it so far. Plans to go to shows, Staten Island, museums galore and a film festival. And that's it so far. Oh, and I think our dorm room smells slightly like baby sick but Em thinks it's more like rotten fruit. The doors do lock though. A MAJOR thank you to Jen for her couch, her car and her video collection.