You'll always find your way back home

One week in the UK, flown in by Singapore Airlines (meaning transit in Singapore), and no swine flu! Hah!
Even though swine flu is a very big worry over in Asia… Here, not so much, lol. In fact, the only people I saw wearing the masks were Asian.

Before I completely begin this blog, I would just like to make a special mention to Terminal 3 in Singapore Changi International Airport because damn, that place is awesome. I say this because that was the first time I went there and it was huge.

The week before I left, my stomach was in a constant jumble when the thought of going came to mind. Going between excited and terrified that I was finally going back home. Terrified because it’s been so long that I was apprehensive about the things that would have changed in my absence. And excited, well, that doesn’t really require much of an explanation, does it?

When we landed, I felt this sense of ‘rightness’ and I knew even if this holiday turned out not so good, I’d still love it because I’d be home. It took me awhile to find my groove in being back though. I still knew the ways to go but I think my body was still trying to catch up with my mind. After landing, everything else was pretty smooth sailing-ish. Passport check went by quickly, baggage claim took a little longer. Went straight to Heathrow Express to get to Paddington, which is where I had my first cup of coffee (and tuna melt Panini). Jet-lag is nobody’s friend, lol.

It was going to be awhile before I had to meet up with James as our train was at 12 so I decided to hang around for a bit. I topped up my Oyster card, bought my train ticket to Plymouth for the 18th (which is where I am now until the 22nd). Buying a ticket one week in advance still doesn’t help, apparently, lol. Either that or the train prices have gone up, again. Doesn’t matter anyway now.

So I met with James at King’s Cross, where we waited for Adam, and when 12 came, we boarded our train and left for Berwick-Upon-Tweed. The Secret House still looked the same, but the garden looked less bare than it was before. A lot less bare. But it was great. I could feel the effects of being there already working on me.

Now, the reason why I post this a week after the fact is mainly because there is absolutely no internet connection in The Secret House. Which was an awesome thing. Last time we were there, I had my 3G Vodafone thing, but this time, I had nothing. Though James and Pete were doing their best to find some sort of internet connection, lol.

So here is a very short run-down of the day to day things in the Duns:
That first Saturday happened to be the last day of some week long festival thing in the Duns, so they were having some sort of party. We got to hear some music from where we were.
This was also my first time meeting Roz, Pete's girlfriend. She kinda reminds me of Roxanne, actually she reminds me of Roxanne a lot, but that's a good thing, since I love Rox and all. Roz and Pete made Pimm's, and barbecued our food. It was all very relaxing.
I tried to hold off and stay awake but my jet lag won and I went to bed, I think it was about 9. But in a way, it was good 'cause my sleeping pattern stayed the same, of going to bed at about 9/10ish, and then waking up at 6. Which I did.

On the Sunday, we went to Berwick. We walked about, went on a trail thing, it was pretty cool. Even the weather stayed pretty cool for the day, until we went to eat, and it started raining. We found a place to eat, and stayed until it stopped raining. After that, we went back to the house, had another BBQ with Pimms. I think, this was when we watched the movie The Doll Master. And if you know me well, you know that I have a fear of dolls. But I managed to make it through the movie, by making a lot of jokes. Then, we sat down to watch Bill Bailey but I got too tired and just went to sleep early again.

Yes, the whole sleeping early thing is a pattern for the next few nights, lol.

On Monday, we went to Eyemouth, which is on the coast. We climbed up this hill thing and took pictures of the ocean from there. I walked a bit further away from everybody to take some closer pictures of the other side of the hill. It was gorgeous really. Then we climbed down, and walked over the shore rocks. And they were pretty rough rocks. I was afraid that I'd fall over but I managed to get through the whole thing unscathed.
When we walked back, we walked towards the harbour. I lagged a little behind to take some pictures. When I went to catch up with everybody, I saw a hand climbing up the ladder on the side of the harbour, and it was this kid in this wetsuit, and I was like, "What's going on?" I soon found out that this kid, and his other friends, have a thing about jumping over the harbour into the water. And it's not some puny two or three feet of a jump. I'm not even really sure how big of a jump it is, but it's pretty huge. There was this one point, where they climbed up a pole thing, and then jumped from there. I wish I were that fearless though 'cause just watching them do that, gave me some shot of adrenaline.
We also saw some seals, and they were just cute. After that we went on a tour in a ship-museum, that was cool too. The lady that was there brought in her dog, I can't remember her name, but she was a lovely dog.
Then we found a place that does the yummiest fish and chips, though I just could not finish mine at all. After that, we went back, I went straight to bed (see what I mean?), and I think everybody else did some drinking and watching a DVD, lol.

On the Tuesday, after we got ready, Pete drove us down to Glasgow, leaving Roz behind. The hotel that James booked, was inconveniently overbooked because of the Bruce Springsteen concert happening nearby. But it was okay because the nice girl compensated by getting us rooms at the Hilton which was much nearer to the gig that we were going to. So, score. After we settled down in the hotel, we went in search for food, and we went into this restaurant called Ketchup. And they make the hugest burgers I've ever seen. I barely managed to get through mine but I finished it. It was very delicious. Adam ordered this thing called the Colossus, it was pretty huge but Adam got through it rather easily. Laura finally arrived and we all had milkshakes before we went back to the hotel to get ready for the gig.
We got to the venue (using the subway, which I have to say, is tiny), and while it wasn't a long queue, it was still a pretty impressive queue nonetheless. Raggedy Angry were the support, and I definitely cannot say that I'm a fan. But I think that's more due to the fact that I've just passed that part of my life where I would like that kind of music. The Birthday Massacre were awesome though. I haven't listened to their music in effing ages but I still enjoyed it. Chibi (the lead vocalist) is a very cool lead. She interacted with the crowds, and just gave them what they wanted. My small crush had graduated to a full-blown crush because of that. And it became an even bigger crush when she came out to meet the fans after the gig. We waited for all six band members and James (and Laura and Adam, I think) got the autographs of all of them.
Oh yeah, the audience... I'm pretty sure that the 60% of the crowd were lesbians, haha. Everywhere I looked were either gay girls making out or gay girls cuddling, or just gay girls being together. I seriously need to start hanging out with a more gay crowd, lol.
By the time we were done, it was nearly James' birthday and we were on our way to Revolution at the Queen Margaret Union. I think we got in for free because there was somebody who knew Pete. Always good. We drank, we danced (yep, even me), and we had so much fun. And this time, I actually managed to stay up past midnight until about 3. We had to leave the QMU about 2, and we went to get some chips, and walked back to the hotel. The boys came into our room and hung out for awhile, until about 3.

On Wednesday, we got up, got ready and left our stuff in Pete's car. We got breakfast from this place called Crepes a Croissants. I got the crepe with banana and melted chocolate. Heavenly, by the way. After that, we walked around, got on the subway to get to... Hellfire? This shop that Laura wanted to go, to buy something for her friend. After that, we went to Starbucks to hang out for awhile because Laura's bus wasn't until 3. It started raining pretty heavily when we walked Laura to the bus station, where we left her and drove back to The Secret House.

On Thursday, Pete and Roz decided to do their own thing, and went to Kelso. James, Adam and I, on the other hand, went to Coldstream. Another loooooong walk. Despite all the growth we encountered, it was a lovely day. When we went in search for food, it was around 2.45 and we discovered that every pub there stops serving at 2. But luck of all lucks, we found a small cafe that serves yummy sandwiches. A small cafe that also happens to sell some home decor items. It was a bit eccentric but still pretty cool.

On Friday, by the time everybody was awake, it was raining and it was reported to rain all day so we stayed in. Everybody was in the living room, reading, going online, playing games, while I was in my room, writing and reading. Roz cooked up some haggis, which surprisingly turned out to be pretty good. And it tastes familiar to something we have back home, not sure what it was but it was good.

On Saturday, we all got ready, and got on the train down to London. I went straight to the train station, to wait for my train to Plymouth to my sister's place. All the trains were delayed due to a fatality at Southall (somebody fell on the tracks).

And that's it for the week. I'll get to this next week's stuff next Saturday (25th).