Yesterday we decided to explore the area of Georgia that is close to where Crystal lives, in Warner Robins, Georgia.

After a leisurely start we headed to Lane's Peach factory. The Peach is the national fruit of Georgia, and there are peach trees everywhere as well as Pecan (pronounced Peekahn) trees.

The Peach factory consisted mostly of a shop, so we spent a good while perusing the shelves, looking at all of the different manifestations of peach products that were available. Peach bread, peach wine, peach jam, peach salad dressing, peach crisps... as well as other local products containting pecans or local onions.

After we had taken a good look around and earmarked some of the tasting things that we wanted to try after lunch, we took a walk around the factory. I have never been to a Peach factory before, so it was quite interesting to see how that all worked. There were thousands of peaches being loaded onto sorting belts with various workers along the way responsible for checking the quality of the peaches, and sorting them into 'Fine for packaging', 'Suitable for consumption within the next couple of days', and 'Needs to be consumed TODAY'. There were some that didnt even meet that criteria so they were just dumped straight into the water shute to be washed away.

We had a good look around, and then headed back into the shop and the cafeteria so we could get a bite to eat. I ordered a chicken sandwich, and picked up my cup to get my self service drink as many as you like coca cola. There were signs all over advising us to 'try our peach cobbler with icecream', so - we did!

Everything in Georgia seems to be sweet. They have a cold drink called 'sweet tea' and by golly it is SWEET!! It's 'suck the inside of your mouth and teeth jarring' kind of sweet. The peach cobbler was sticky and sweet too, and the icecream was also sweeter than I am used to.

As we were eating, we decided that the Peach factory (Crystal has just corrected me - the Peach processing plant) would be an ideal place to film my song for Georgia. The factory was large enough and loud enough for us to find a little corner on the observation deck to film the song, and my thanks go to Crystal for her excellent cameramanship - as you will see from the movie.

As we came out of the factory, we saw that the heavens had opened and it was pouring down. We took our time tasting all of the various dips and salad dressings, and then did a wine tasting (we had to pay 2 dollars each!! The cheek of it!). I tried some of the sweet wines, because that seems to be the preferance over here, but I just couldnt bring myself to like it - except for one that was quite fruity and almost liquery, and might have been nice extremely cold and in a shot glass after a meal.

By the time we were ready to leave the rain had stopped, and we headed in the direction of the tourist information bureau to pick up some leaflets on Atlanta, and run a couple of errands for the house.

We arrived home and I had a little snooze because I hadnt slept too well the night before as I had been a bit chilly. It is 101 degrees outside at the moment (that's about 38 degrees centigrade), but the airconditioning here is very efficient. Most houses have a central airconditioning system, which is pushed through the whole house through ventilation shafts, so you can set the temperature for the whole house. This system of course is used for heating in the winter, but at the moment it is set to very cool, which is a real blessing when you step in from outside, but chilled me a little bit at night time.

I had my snooze and then we were up to get ready for dinner before our trip to the Theatre.

We punched the address for the theatre into 'Maggie' the sat nav and headed on our way. The area of Macon that we drove through first was quite run-down. Definately one of those scary towns you see in the movies where people get mugged or killed quietly in a corner and no-one sees anything. There were signs along the road advertising 'the largest indoor market in the road' and also 'The gun shop, buy your guns here - only $5.99!' This is where we chose to stop for gas, and I was given the task of going into the shop, with iron bars on all of the windows to stop robbers at night time, to ask the teller for 20 dollars of gas please, thank you very much, please dont shoot me. Of course, it wasnt nearly as bad as my imagination and the chinese immigrant behind the counter was pleasant enough, and of course I didnt get shot on my walk back to the car.

We found the theatre quite easily and parked the car to go in search of food. We found a restaurant that had a farily good reputation - the Rookery. There has been a fair bit of investment in Downtown Macon, and so this area was more pleasant and spruced up. We ordered our food, starting with a plate of fried green tomatoes, and a couple of beers. I asked for a half, and the waitress looked a little confused. Crystal explained that there is no regulation on measures of alcohol or drinks here. It just depends on what size glass they have in the bar you are drinking in. I got ready to show my ID, but they dont seem to be that concerned with that here either. As long as you dont look like you are 12 - you're ok!

We finished our meal and made our way quickly to the theatre as we had taken a bit longer over dinner than we had intended. 'Cats' is touring the country and last night was their second and final night in Macon (pronounced like bacon). We had fairly good seats in terms of viewing the stage, but we were on the balcony on the second floor, and the theatre was quite old - so the same ventilation system that kept the houses nice and cool didnt work so well in the theatre and we were pretty warm in our seats. The Macon crowd seemed to be a bit blase about the fact that such a wonderful production was in town, and continued to talk on their mobile phones, send text messages, munch away on loud rustling snacks, or slipping their shoes off and hanging their big smelly feet over the seats in front of them, which meant the rested gently on the shoulders of the people sitting in front of them!

Despite all of this, we thoroughly enjoyed the show, getting goosebumps when Grizabella sang memory. Despite the apparant casualness of the Macon audience, they did seem to enjoy the show, and gave a standing ovation at the end.

We left the theatre and did a bit of people watching and then headed home for the evening.

Day two in Indiana was thankfully a touch cooler than my first day. Heather's partner cooked us up a hearty american breakfast of bacon, scrambled eggs, mini sausages and pancakes with maple syrup. Mmmmm. I showed my 'foreigness' by starting off with the savoury stuff and having the pancakes second, instead of lumping everything all on the one plate.

Our mission today was to find Olivers Winery, not far from Franklin, about an hour's drive, apparently close to a lake and with beautiful gardens.

Luckily we had the trusty Sat Nav with us on Heather's mobile phone, so we punched in the address and away we went. The directions took us towards Oliver's winery and before long we saw a sign indicating that Oliver's winery was just 9 miles away. Shortly after that the Sat Nav started getting a bit upset and told us we had to do a U-turn so that we could turn right (or what would have been left as we approached it the first time). We were a bit confused as it was taking us in the other direction from the signs, but surely the Sat Nav knew what it was talking about - perhaps it was a back way there, or the old road? The route took us along a beautiful tree lined road through the hilly countryside with large houses on plots with private lakes and woods flanking each side of the road. After a short while the Sat Nav declared that we were almost at our destination, and then advised that our destination was on our left. Unfortunatley all we could see on our left were many, many trees!

We kept driving, with the Sat Nav getting really upset now that we had missed our stop, and frantically re-calculating our route. We decided to listen to the Sat Nav - perhaps we had missed something, did the required U-turn and headed back to where it told us to go. Once again it told us our destination was close, and this time advised us that our destination was on our right. We desperately tried to find some kind of building structure amongst the trees that the Sat Nav was sure our destination was to be held, but we really couldnt. We decided our best bet would be to go back to the high way, and maybe rely on the huge signs by the side of the road that told us, and all those other folk who were looking for the winery that maybe didnt have Sat Nav, how to get to the Winery. Our detour took us about an hour, and shortly after we got back onto the highway, we were relieved to see another sign. Ten minutes later we triumphantly found the winery and parked the car.

Our first stop was the wine shop, it seemed to be where everyone was headed. The shop was packed full of tourists, and after a swift walk around, I headed towards the wine tasting area. I quickly found my passport to prove to the staff that I was of age to taste the wine, and worked my way through some recomended options. I try to taste wines that I normally dont like, to see if there are versions of a particular wine that might surprise me. I tried a Rose which as usual I didnt really care for. The Sauv Blanc, which I usually like, was fine, but the surprise for me was the Pinot Grigio that had quite a nice citrusy flavour to it which I quite liked. We went on a tour of the vineyard, and then for a walk in the gardens down to the water area - which personally I couldnt really describe as a lake - more of a big pond really, with enormous golden coy carp in it.

This was a good opportunity to do my song for Indiana - and I think you might find my inventiveness quite amusing when coming up for an appropriate song for this stage in my travels!

It had taken us so long to get here that we were getting a bit peckish by now, so I bought my souvenir bottle of Pinot Grigio and we headed back towards Greenwood in search of food. Luckily Heather knew the way back to Greenwood, so she turned the Sat Nav off, which was good because it was draining the battery of the phone. We saw the exit sign for Greenwood and took it, in the happy knowledge that we would soon be able to get some food, and I was particularly happy because a delicious cheescake had been promised afterwards. Unfortunatley, it seemed that somebody had come along and re-arranged all the roads in Greenwood, because Heather soon realised that she couldnt quite figure out where we were. The phone - and therefore the Sat Nav was dying, so we couldnt risk turning it back on and being incommunicado. We drove around for quite a bit and finally, thankfully found a landmark that we recognised - the town's Target. We put in an SOS call to Heather's partner, quickly managing to tell him where we were before the phone gave up its last gasp of breath. We sat, hot and slightly despondent in the car-park of Target, and before long were saved by our knight on a shiney blue motorbike. Heather's partner threw us a withering look before leading us in the direction of the town's best Chinese buffet.

We re-fuelled on chinese food and refillable soft drinks and then headed to the town's italian restaurant for the most delicious creamy cheescake with a bruleed crust. Superb!

The next day we decided to have a down day. Two days of driving about in the summer heat had taken it out of us, so we spent the day catching up on old times, as I tried desperatly to find a way to plan my trip to the Grand Canyon. I have left it far too late, with much of the accomodation in the area being booked up to a year in advance. I have toyed with the idea of staying in a nearby town and hiring a car, but I dont think that would be wise from any way you look at it. The current option seems to be going to Las Vegas and taking a tour bus from there. We shall see.

We did take a trip to Wal-Mart in the afternoon so that we could pick up some bits and pieces. Heather had explained to me that Indiana seems to have suffered particularly from the current economic crisis. Many people have lost their jobs, and in fact many of her neighbours have had to move away from her area to try to find a rental with a lower rent, simply not being able to afford the small semi-detached houses in the estate any longer. In Wal-Mart car park we saw the perfect example of people just having to make-do. A truck had clearly had an engine fire, and you could still see the patch of burned metal on the bonnet of the car. The owner of the truck clearly had no money to fix the truck or the engine properly, so had wedged a common household fan underneath the bonnet, seemingly plugged in to the cigarette lighter inside the truck.

I also had to get some cash, so we drove to a drive-thru cash machine! You just drive your car up to it, and lean out of the window to use the machine! We had to drive the wrong way to position my window next to the machine, but once we did that it was quite easy! And pretty cool.

The afternoon passed in a blur of playing with Heather's cute one year old and opening my wine, which I was happy to find I enjoyed just as much at home as in the environment of the Vineyard.

The next day I woke early to pack my bags and we headed off back to Indy so that I could board my plane for Atlanta, Georgia. We found our way to the airport no problem and I was sad to say goodbye to my friend. I went through security pretty quickly and found a seat outside my gate. Just before we were about to board one of the AirTran staff announced that they were looking for 5 volunteers to offer to take the next flight to Atlanta at 7pm (instead of 12.30) as the flight was overbooked - and they were offering a free return ticket to any AirTran destination. Unfortunatly Crystal's trip from her home town to Atlanta Airport took about as long as my flight, and I didnt think it would be fair to tell her to go home and wait for me, so I let this one pass, but have my fingers crossed that this offer will come up again when I havent got someone waiting at the other end for me!

The flight to Atlanta was very quick and we were soon landing. Atlanta airport is HUGE and it took me ages to walk from the arrivals hall to baggage reclaim. I kept on ignoring the train that indicated that it was going to baggage reclaim - favouring to walk and get a bit of excercise to try to walk off all these cheese-cakes that I have been eating. But you know what? They offer a train for a reason - beacause it is a really, really long way!

Anyway, I finally got there, and was delighted to see Crystal, the next in my list of friends that I am visiting that I havent seen for about ten years!

We jumped into the truck and drove the hour and a half down to Warner Robins and her home.

We talked non-stop until Luke came home from work, and after warm hugs we set off for some good old fashioned southern cooking. I ate all sorts of dishes with Ocra in it, fried chicken and fried pork, and for the first time ever - Fried Green Tomatoes! (Which, by the way, were very yummy).

We headed back home and sat in the back garden watching the various bits of wildlife enjoying the cool of the evening. Where Cyprus has ants and cockroaches, there is a little army of millipedes making their way around and in the house every so often. They are not as gross as ants or cockroaches, and you simply have to scoop them up and flush them away. More interestingly, there were plenty of birds eating from the bird feeders scattered in the garden, and then, after the sun went down, raccoons coming to get their evening snack of dog food from their little perch on the fence!

We spent the rest of the evening looking up exciting things to do in Georgia and researching my song for this state, which I will post in due course!

It was time to leave New York. I gladly packed my bags to leave the hostel and stepped outside to wait for my taxi at 7am, the earliest I had been awake for many days! My flight was at 9.45 from La Guardia, which was pretty cool as I got to explore a second New York airport. I arrived at the internal flights section of the airport and quickly got my boarding pass, left my bag at the drop off area and went through security. I was surprised to see that the section of the airport that I was departing from was quite small and in need of refurbishment. I was also fairly surprised to see that my flight was delayed for an hour and a half!

Luckily I had bought some chic lit to read, so happily tuned everything out and read my book. My flight was finally called and we boarded pretty quickly, and as I was looking out of the window as we were taking off I was surprised to see that we were leaving New York. One airport is much like the next, and I had quite forgotten that I was in NEW YORK!!

The flight was quite quick, and after about 20 minutes of snoozing and the head bobbing that went with it, and more chapters of my book, I landed at Indianapolis Airport. On disembarking from the aircraft, we had to walk through the departures hall to get to baggage reclaim. I had seen landing passengers walk right past me in the departures hall in New York and was surprised that arriving and departing passengers would be mixed up like this. But of course, this was an internal flight I was taking, not international, so the protocol is different. I walked out of the departures/arrivals hall and into the main terminal, where I then had to take an escalator to the floor below to collect my luggage, another change from what I am used to.

Shortly after that I saw my friend Heather. I haven't seen her for ten years, but there was no mistaking her clear blue eyes and strawberry blonde hair. We got into her car and quickly drove the 30 minutes to her house in Franklin, and I was excited to see another side to America from what I had seen in New York, and the kind of houses that you see in films like Erin Brokovich, brick built houses with wooden slatted fronts. Beautiful big front yards and picket fences out back. We soon arrived at Heathers house, and had time to drop off my bags before heading back to Indianapolis - or 'Indy' in search of a couple of the museums. We were using the sat nav, but unfortunately as we had ten years of talking to catch up on we didnt really pay much attention to what it was telling us. We took one wrong turn after another, chatting all the while, but not really minding that we were getting lost as we were seeing different parts of Indianapolis along the way. We finally reached the museum we were looking for, but as it was shut by that time we took a walk around the beautiful gardens attached. The route we chose had quite a few stairs which were difficult to negotiate with the stroller and in the heavy heat of the afternoon. Up and down stairs we went until we finally found a huge fountain where we greatfully stuck our feet into the waterfall to cool them off and sat in the shade and the breeze. Heather and I were both getting grumpy from the heat, so we decided to call it a day, and drove home via a nearby liquor store where I picked up some Coors beer (I had had a couple of Budwisers in New York so thought it would only be right to try Coors this time.) I was looking for an American wine, but they were all Reislings or Zinfandels which I am not a huge fan of, so I chose a New Zealand Sauv Blanc.

Heather's partner had fired up the BBQ to cook us some chicken, I opened up the wine and we settled in for a pleasant evening of good home cooked food, nice wine and UNO with the next door neighbours.

My last day in New York today. I woke up even later than yesterday, and dragged myself into the shower. There was a bit of a queue for the shower this morning - or should I say a 'line' - that's what they call it here. But eventually I had my turn and was finally out the door.

I had a few things that I wanted to try to do today, things like visiting Astoria, a walk in Central Park and finalising the few eating bits and pieces that I wanted to try.

So, first stop was Astoria. This was my first foray off the island of Manhatten (not counting the trip to the statue of Liberty) and it felt good! I sorted myself out on the right train to take me to my destination and before I new it there were signs for 'Andrew Michalides - attourney at law' and 'Hermes Bakery' and all sorts. The language spoken on the train changed slowly from mostly Spanish to Greek. I hopped off the train at the end of the line and then just followed the train line back down again, walking up and down the various shopping streets as I went. Astoria seemed familiar like the Manhatten skylilne, and this neighbourhood had more of those smaller houses that you see in the movies, with wooden slated fronts painted yellow or light green. The skyline was generally flatter, although not particularly more attractive. It was raining today though, so everything always looks a lot duller in the rain, doesnt it?

After my stroll through Astoria, I got back on the train to head to the Rockefeller centre. I had gone past this on one of the tours yesterday and found that there was a branch of Magnolias Bakery here - that famous bakery with the cupcakes. So, that was my mission, and I found it quite easily. The actual space of the shop was quite large, but the majority of it was given over to the actual business of the producing of cupcakes and tasty baked goods. The retail area was quite narrow, and it was packed! They do a roaring trade in cupcakes! There must have been about 10 or 11 members of staff in there, either serving excited customers or preparing trays and trays of more cupcakes and other treats to put into the oven. The smell was overwhelmingly sugary, and I was totally caught up in the excitement of trying to figure out what delicious looking thing I could make MINE.

I decided to forgo the cupcakes and I chose a key lime cheesecake and a cup of tea. There are no tables to enjoy your hard earned cake at, the place is just too busy for that, but they did have a bar stuffed into the corner of the room where people could stand and hack into their pudding if they wanted to. As it was still raining outside, I chose this option and my oh my was that cheesecake tasty. Yummy, yummy, yummy. I was so dissapointed when I couldnt eat anymore!

Back out into the rain and I needed to search for a bathroom somewhere. I remembered I had seen a Hilton hotel back up the road, so made my way towards it and nearly cried when I stepped into the Lobby. This is where I belong! I dont belong in a hostel, where bugs, imagined and real crawl across the carpet, and weird fellow hostellers decide to just cut their hair in the bathroom - as you do when you are travelling! I belong in a place that has soft music piping into the lobby. Where young men in crisp white caps open the door for you, and where somebody rushes in of an evening to turn down your massive duck down duvet and fluff up your pillows for you before you retire for the evening!! Anyway, I woke up from my reverie with my bladder nagging me and headed instinctively to where I knew the toilets would be.

But the luxury couldnt last for long, and, having noticed how massively HUGE my hair had gotten in the rain and tried to tame it back with a hair bobble, I left the hotel to try to achieve the last couple of things on my list. I was heading in the direction of Central Park and I passed one of the many Tee-shirt sellers and picked up my mandatory 'I heart New York' tee-shirt. And then I plunged myself into the depths of Central Park.

It is indeed a very clever little space. Quite literally as soon as I stepped into the park the hustle and bustle of the city seemed to dissapear. A few steps in and the sky scrapers were obscured enough to let me forget about them and enjoy the tranquility of the park. There were many people enjoying the park today, families out with their children, couples walking hand in hand, tourists taking rick-shaws around the park or for the foolish with too much money a horse drawn carriage ride. There were musicians, mostly saxophonists, but one guy was playing on his bagpipes. The saxophonists were busking, with their cases out for any donations, but the bagpiper was under a bridge out of the way, so I can only assume that this was one of the few places that he could come and practice his bagpipes without disturbing anyone too much. You cant exactly practice something like that in your home when there are 40 other people living on the same floor as you, with the same number of people living above you and below you. He wasnt bothering me at all, and in fact I thought he was quite good.

There were some people playing baseball in the park too, there are special pitches set aside just for this purpose. I thought that I may have stumbled across the New York Yankees practicing or something, but then I noticed that the men were all oldish, and, shall we say, past their prime? There were women playing in the teams as well, so I swiftly concluded that this probably wasnt the New York Yankees, but fun to watch anyway.

It was at about this point that I received a text from Sarah asking me if I had done my song for New York yet, and with all the excitement of the last few days I had completely forgotten! So, now was my chance in Central Park. So, I got the camera out, tried to find a spot where there werent too many people and did my thing. It only took me three takes until I got the shot I was satisfied with. See for yourself the video at the end of this entry!

I continued on my walk, but, as you might imagine, as I had no neatly numbered roads to follow and was using only my dreadful sense of direction, I came to a road at some point and realised that I had just walked a complete cicle, and had also somehow managed to miss out the majority of the park! But, to be quite honest with you, by this point I had run out of energy and desire to do anything else that involved walking or doing anything new. Ideally I wanted to go back to my room at the Hilton, have a lovely soak in the bath, crawl into the big bed and switch the TV on. Of course, the prospect of going back to the hostel was not quite as inviting, but then I remembered that wonderful Martin had filled my laptop up with all sorts of movies and things while I was in the UK, so that would definatly do me for entertainment.

I got back to the hostel, watched a couple of the TV programmes that were on there for me, nipped out of the hostel up the road to a sushi place that I had spotted at some point on my walks and got myself some yummy sushi and a very big bottle of Japanese beer, and returned chirpily to the hostel.

And now I have managed to pack all of my bits and pieces into my case, and I am ready for an early start tomorrow morning, flying off to Indianna to catch up with the first of a group of friends that I am visiting that I havent seen for ten years!

Day two in New York and the first challenge was getting myself out of bed!! I was already pooped from touristing it up yesterday. But a nice hot shower where I could get my hair wet and dry it with my new hairdryer and i was good to go.

I found the stop for the uptown tour bus which was only two streets away from my hostel and waited for the bus to arrive. Yesterday i bought a ticket which included four rides, the Uptown tour, the downtown tour, the Brooklyn tour and the night tour, which lasts for 48 hours. What they didnt tell you is that it is impossible to do all four tours in 48 hours, unless you actually just sit on one bus after another after another! Yesterday I managed to see about 1/3 of the downtown tour, getting off at various points to see the Empire State Building and Statue of Liberty, and that was it!

So, I took the bus from the area of my hostel uptown to go downtown. I was headed for Bryant Park, where Ivan told me there was a free concert of Broadway musicals for an hour! So, the bus took about an hour and took me past all of the museums, the building where Jackie Kennedy lived (woo hoo) and the most amazing huge 'town houses' built by millionaires in the early 1900s and now mostly museums.

It also took me alongside Central Park, and I am hoping to be able to visit there today.

Once we got to 5th avenue I left the bus and walked confidently in the direciton of Bryant park, picking up a picnic along the way. It was very sunny and all of the seats in the shade were taken, so I found a spot right in the middle of the park, and sat on the grass to eat my picnic and enjoy!

We heard songs from A little night musicm, Falling for Eve - a new musical, Chicago and Rock of Ages. I was quite pleased to see the Chicago set, as I had seen the London version. I dont know if it was the thrill of seeing it for free in the glorious sunshine in a park in New York, or what, but I felt that even though the cast didnt have costumes on, or any lighting, and the sound quality wasnt that great, the put their hearts and souls into it and I enjoyed it more than the show in London.

Rock of Ages was brilliant too, and they finished off with a crowd pleasing "Don't stop believing" which I thoroughly enjoyed!

After that it was time to get on the downtown tour bus again, and finish the tour that I hadnt managed to get around the day before. Our tour guide was a Greek Portuguese called Tomy (his real name was Anastasios but he said nobody could pronounce that, so call him Tomy). He told us all sorts of fascinating facts about New York - cant remember any of them in particular now... could be because I was just looking at Tomy instead of the sights!! Lol

I think I may possibly have had information overload, because I couldnt really take much more in. I did think that the South Sea port looked like a lovely place, and if I can make it down there i will, but I also got more of a view of Central Park, and I really want to take a look in there, which is my next stop after going to the Rockerfeller centre where i dicovered yesterday there is a shop of Magnolia Bakery so I can get a cup cake.

The tour bus dropped my off at Times Square, so I went to the theatre to collect my ticket for West Side Story and then went back up the road to the street of restaurants and pubs that we had just past. I went into a Pizza place and ordered a slice of pizza and a bud. I was scrabbling around in my bag for my passport to prove my age, but the lady in the Pizza place wasnt that fussed about it. The pizza was delicious, probably the best pizza I have ever tasted. I think I may have shown up the fact that I am not a local by not eating it properly. After I had devoured my pizza I took a moment to look around me and it seemed the correct method for eating Pizza is to fold your slice in half so that you sort of make a triangular sandwich with it with the crust on the outside and the gooey cheesy filling in the middle.

I popped next door for a slice of Cheesecake - which was dissapointing, and then walked back down the street to the theatre.

I was meeting some friends from Cyprus at the theatre. We had arranged it while we were chatting during the performances of My Fair Lady when we realised we would both be there at the same time. So it was great to see them when they arrived, and we were delighted when we looked at our tickets and saw that I had successfully managed to book a seat next to them... until we passed through into the theatre and one of the front of house members told me to go in a completely different direction to them. I had booked the next sequential number to their tickets, but in the Orchestra, not the Mezzanine level as theirs was! Oh well, no biggie, we arranged to catch up in the Interval. West Side Story was fabulous. Hands down the best musical I have seen so far. The dancing was brilliant - it tickles me how these boys can look tough while dancing beautifully! And the singing was just wonderful too, Maria's voice in particular was superb. The 'PRs' spoke quite a lot in Spanish, so it was good fun trying to remember my Spanish and keep up.

At the end of the show Chris, Pete and I went for a drink up the road. I was walking through the door and eyeing the bouncer to see if he was going to ask me for my ID. He did, more fumbling in the bottom of my back pack and then I was allowed in.

It was fun catching up with my friends, and quite bizzarre to see them in the middle of New York, quite far from home!

The last reserves of my energy left me quite quickly and after a couple of drinks I had to go home. We walked out the door and thanked the good fortune which meant that there was a subway stop right outside the door of the pub, which was going in my direction. We said our goodbyes and I descended into the subway and caught the train. Only to find out it wasnt in fact my train and it was indeed going in the wrong direction. I exited at the next stop and found the train going back in the direction from which I had just come so that I could connect to the train I actually wanted. But the train didn't come for ten minutes, by which time the couple of drinks I had drunk had worked their way to my bladder. I left the subway and hailed a taxi directing it to '"94th street west". I still havent quite worked out how the street system fully works, so that was the best I could do. He took me to 94th street and I jumped out and walked quickly down the four blocks until I got to my hostel, dodging the street rats along the way.

It was another greatful return to the hostel, where I quickly made my way to the bathroom and then sunk greatfully into bed, with the airconditioner roaring away in the background.

Wow. New York, New York!! (Well, Manhatten, Manhatten really!)

My first day was a bombardment for my senses and I finished the day with a crick in my neck from looking mostly upwards, but also left and right and up and down trying to drink everything in.

The hostel is not as crappy as I initially thought, the bed is clean and comfortable, the bathroom is also pretty clean, the room is sparse, but seeing as I left the hostel at 9.30 yesterday and didnt get in till past midnight, with a repeat expected for tonight (bar leaving the hostel a little later after sleeping off the exhaustion of last night), it will certainly do for my stay here.

I picked up a transport map from the hostel, and - lucky for me, the streets in New York are extremely easy to navigate. There arent really any street names for the streets (ok, there are for some of them) but they mostly go by numbers. You go in one direction and the numbers go up and you go in the other and the numbers go down. Simple! No more of this getting lost business to me. Look at the map, find out which street you are on, and away you go.

So, I found the subway stop which is just two blocks (see, I used the word blocks) away from my hostel and went to buy a 'fun pass' to travel on the subway as much as I like all day. All I had though from the bank in Cyprus were 50s and 100s. The machine wouldnt take a 50 and the lady in the booth wouldnt change one for me either. I stepped outside the station and saw a McDonalds. Perfect! I walked in and asked the lady for 'a bottel ov wahtah please' in my oh so british accent. "it's a what now ma'am?" 'a bottel ov wahtah perlease'... I said, a bit louder this time. "Oh, a battle af warter?" 'yes perlease, thenk yew'. I got my bottle of water and change, then asked the lady in the subway to change one of my newly acquired 20s and hey presto, I bought my ticket from the machine.

There are only one set of gates in New York subway stations, people going in use the same turnstiles and the people going out and the turnstile can turn both ways. Cool eh?

So, I went through and caught the train to Times Square (I thought this would be a good place to start). The train got there in no time at all. I later found out that it was an express train, so missed out quite a few of the stops.

Times square was madness!!! Sooooo many people!!! I suppose I wasnt so amazed by all the sky scrapers because I have had my experience in Hong Kong, but certainly being there was exciting. I found a tourist information office and picked up another map and a bus ticket for the tour busses of New York.

Then it was time for breakfast, a bagel I thought would be in order, so I found a little place and joined the queue of shouting new yorkers for a bagel. I chose a table in the middle of the restaurant and tried out my new mantra for eating alone. I like eating alone! I dont care about being on my own in the middle of a crowded cafe!! This is fun! Well, it seems like I might have been giving off an air of confidence, because a French family sat down at the same table and started asking me all sorts of questions about how to get tourist information! I advised as much as I could, finished my bagel and headed out again.

It was time to catch the bus. The first stop was the Empire state building. Incredible building. Did you know that they built it in FOURTEEN months???? FOURTEEN months!! That, is quite unimaginable! It took me probably about an hour from when I first joined the queue to getting to the top. I picked up an audio tour along the way, which was very helpful once I got to the top, and quite entertaining. The whole queuing process was extremely organised, there really wasnt any chance that anyone was going to go the wrong way or make up their own route.... Except for one particular bunch of tourists... They decided they didnt want to go the same way as everyone else, look at all of that spare space over there... we'll just unhook these silly red ropes that are getting in our way and go off over there. They got roundly told off by the crowd control people and almost threatened with removal if they didnt behave themselves. I tried to tune into what language they were speaking to identify these naughty tourists. And how I laughed when I heard that they were Greeks!!

Finally one of the crowd controllers opened up a small door which lead from floor 80 to 86 - the observation deck. Those of us who couldnt be bothered to wait for the queue for the lift and who didnt mind walking up 6 flights of stairs could save about 30 minutes of waiting. My dislike of waiting in a queue overtook my dislike of walking up stairs and so I took that option.

I finally got to the top and took in the view of New York, New Jersey and all the rest of it. Quite stunning and quite overwhelming! I listened to my tape and fairly quickly made my way down again. The crowd was just immense and it was difficult to shove your way to the front to get a better view. I didnt take any photos, my photos arent that great and we all know what New York looks like. We can google it!

Back downstairs and a trip to Macy's. After a look around the shop, slightly diminished in excitement factor as I dont want to buy anything and fill up my luggage, I went to the basement for a recomended salad. There was quite a choice to choose from and I eventually made my salad, picked up a bud and went to pay. Fumbled in my back for a few minutes to find my passport to prove my age for the bud, then sat down for food.

Refreshed I got back on the bus and got off at City Hall, which was the stop where I had seen an advertisement for an electronics store. I was desperate to pick up a hairdryer, having left mine in England as the voltage wasnt right for the US. All of my other appliances have converters on the chargers, so I also picked up an adaptor so I could charge those up.

This was also the area for ground zero so I went to have a look at that. It is impossible to imagine what it must have been like on that terrible day. The buildings around the area are huge, but they were nothing in comparison to the twin towers. And they came falling down. The tourist guide on our bus told us he lost 8 friends on that day. 3 of them made it to the hopsital but died soon afterwards.

It was getting late and I was feeling quite tired. It has been truly hot, and I didnt have any sun lotion with me. I was feeling quite frazzled and due to be meeting a friend of mine in about 3 hours. The next stop was for the ferry to the Statue of Liberty, and although I wasnt sure about doing two such big tourist things in one day, I was so hot and the thought of a ride on the ferry was quite tempting. So, I jumped on the ferry (after going through airport type security - I even had to throw away the rest of my icecream that i had just bought!)

It was so hot, that even the breeze that the moving ferry generated wasnt that great, and before long we were at liberty island. It was very, very exciting to think that I was there, underneath this great icon that I had seen so many pictures and movies of. I had time for a quick walk around the island, a few photos and then caught the next bus to Ellis island. I really didnt have enough time to do the whole thing justice, but at least I was there, and soaked up some of the information and the history.

I caught one of the last ferries back to New York and quickly jumped on the subway to ride slighly back uptown. I was due to meet my friend Ivan at Rockerfeller Park for a free Reggae concert. I havent seen Ivan for about 5 years, and 5 or 6 years before that we met for the first time at the Pennisula Hotel in Hong Kong (thanks to my mad sister making friends with his band). Our phones werent communicating with each other, so I didnt find him straight away, but eventually I saw him standing on a wall and we went and sat in the park together. It was a great way to wind down after a frantic day of tourist activities, and the music was fabulous.

The sun went down, it got cooler, which everyone was thankful for and we went for a long walk along the Hudson river which was really very lovely, again a much more pleasant side of Manhattan than all of the chaos on the mad streets of the city. Ivan played tour guide and showed me exactly what I was looking at (New Jersey, a huge illuminated clock etc etc) and we went for a quick chinese meal and then for a drink in the Red Lion on Bleeker street in the village. There was a band playing and it was a really great night, but sadly my exhastion from the heat of the day, coupled with a touch of jet lag and senses overload from everything that I had heard and seen during the day, meant that I was fading fast and Ivan walked me to the nearest subway station where I took the local train back the hostel, this one stopping at every stop along the way.

It was certainly a very good start to my trip to the US and I collapsed into bed, very happy, with the airconditioning on, not evening noticing that it sounds very similar to having a moped revving in your room!!

Well, here I am, in New York baby!

My last two days in Devon were just delightful. I think that is a very good word to decribe my time there. Sunday was another just beautiful day, and Sarah took me to the Devon moor, which is simply stunning. There were moor ponies, cattle and sheep left on the moor, which is common ground, and going wherever they please (particularly right in the middle of the road when you are trying to drive past).

We walked up to haytor to get a wonderful sweeping view of the countryside. I only whinged a little bit about walking on such a steep uphill, and then climbing up the rock, and then whinging just a little bit on the way down again...

I was mollified by a trip to the pub afterwards, such a beautiful little pub where we feasted on a cheese ploughmans. Imagine a cheese that tastes as good as clotted cream, mmmmmmmmmmmm

One of our tasks of the day was also to video my song for this part of my trip. We put quite a lot of effort into it, I can tell you! We didnt think about the fact that if you turn your camera sideways, as you might to take a picture, then the video turns out sideways and you cant easily rotate it like you can a picture. Then we had wind trouble, then light trouble. I have put our second attempt up here because it is funny and the view is superb from the top of haytor, and I have put our final accepted version up, as well as a short video of me demonstrating how to do a gate vault!! :-)

After all that activity, we returned home where Sarah once again produced some of the most amazing food I have ever eaten, a delicious joint of devon raised beef with a mustard coating, new potatoes that were divine and veggies from her own garden. What a talented chef!! And she's MY friend!!!

Monday was a bit of a preparation day for my trip to New York and today... hurrah!!! I am here!! The flight with Virgin Atlantic was fine, they looked after us well. The inflight entertainment system was having major problems, and try as they might to fix it, they couldnt fix my screen. Instead of getting "The Blind Side" I got some japanese war movie... not ideal entertainment for myself. Still, I had my book and I chatted a bit to the lady sitting next to me. She was on my deaf side, poor love, and it took her five minutes to get my attention to let me know she needed to go to the loo. I told her that I was deaf and she needed to give me a prod if I wasnt responding to her. Well, she was excellent after that. She prodded me several times, didnt feel embarassed about it at all, and made sure that when she spoke to me she was looking right at me. She was doing alright for an old woman until she said the dreaded phrase "you never know, you might find the man of your dreams on your travels". Still, I was in too good a mood about being in New York to hold it against her for too long.

I got through passport control just fine, and eventually got my case off the conveyor belt. It took a bit of time to come through and I panicked a little, but it did come in the end. Yesterday I had booked a shared mini bus from the airport to my hostel and it was all very smooth sailing. The driver was italian columbian, and he gave me my first example of the conversation i can imagine having quite a few times here... "where are you from?" "Cyprus" "What's a Cyprus?" lol. He was quite chatty, asking me how long I was staying "three days" "Ah, shame, not long enough for me to cook you dinner" and "so, is this your first time here" "yep" "you looking forward to it?" "yep" "you have a boyfriend?" "er... yep!!!!"

And here I am. The hostel is grotty. I am itching all over at the thought of staying here for the next few days - but, as with the hotel in London, I shant really be staying in the room for that long, filling my days instead with wondering around this amazing city. I'm looking forward to getting my bearings tomorrow and trying to figure out where I actually am, and enjoying NEW YORK!!!

Autumn seems to be over as soon as it started and summer is here again in England. And what a positively glorious day it was. It was the kind of day where you gaze up into the sky in admiration of the startling blue, take in a deep breath and simply be greatful for being alive.

We explored the beautiful rolling hills of Devon, stopping off at a chilli farm on the way, and then determindly seeking out a beautiful hotel tucked away on a hill top for a delicious cream tea.

It was a lazy day and once we had had our fill of cream teas we hopped back into the car for a scenic drive through the countryside, seeing Devon's beaches, picturesque villages with tiny marinas, little old ladies struggling across the road.

There is nothing quite like a cooling beer in the beer garden of an English pub with a gentle river meandering by. A dog owner kept us all amused by throwing sticks into the river for his beautiful blue eyed Alaskan husky to jump into to fetch for him.

I dont think I could have asked for a more pleasant day, lovely weather, great company, good food and good drink.

It was a perfect autumn day yesterday in London. There was a cool breeze, light drizzle and yellow leaves being blown off the trees. It was my last day in London, so I thought a stroll along the Thames might be in order. I went on another walk suggested by my guide book, this one starting in Richmond and finishing near Kew Gardens. After the usual debacle of trying to figure out which tube line to take and which stop to use to change trains, I arrived at Richmond tube station. I'd actually been there before, I realised, to get on a bus to take me to see England v Italy at Twickenham, but this time I ducked under a walkway and found myself in another beautiful part of London. Beautiful gardens, remains of old palaces, and that familiar waft of damp dog poo as I strolled along the streets.

My walk took me on a wooded path along the Thames, my hair - now taking on huge proportions thanks to the drizzle, was being soundly swept about by the wind. Two 3 mile walks in the space of two days is probably overdoing it a little bit for me, so I didnt enjoy this one as much as the previous day, but it was still nice to explore a part of London I didnt know existed.

I arrived at Kew Gardens and pretty quickly started looking for the tube station to take me back to Heathrow where I had left my case in left luggage and to catch the coach down to Exeter. Before reaching the tube station though, I walked past a very familiar face indeed. It was Alf from Neighbours! I walked straight past him and moments later regretted it, thinking I should have gone up to him and spoken to him. But I probably would have said something stupid like "Hey! You're Alf from Neighbours!" and then, I realised a bit further on that it was probably a good thing that i didnt do that, because he would have looked at me and said "No, I'm Alf from Home and Away!!" So that would have been embarrassing. But anyway, I saw him. Alf. From Australia.

Back at Heathrow I picked up my case, which, by the way is not the case that I originally started my travels with. Alright so I cheated going through customs in Cyprus, carrying in my hands the stuff that wouldnt fit into my carry on case. But I didnt think this would fly with the customs people in the UK or USA, so I thought I would try to find a slightly bigger carry on case. The woman in the shop was very helpful, and even let me re-pack my stuff in the shop into the new case, before I even bought it, so that i could check that my stuff would fit in. I could tell that I was probably not the first person who has done this. She assured me that this new case was still within the proportions of the allowed hand luggage and with this lovely news in mind I bought it. Turns out she was lying. It is too big for hand luggage. Still, it is still the smallest case I have ever gone travelling with, so that is still a tick in the box.

Another quick sandwich from WHSmiths and I was ready to board my coach down to Exeter. We arrived in Exeter 3 hours and 15 minutes later and I stepped off the coach in search of my friend who was picking me up from the coach station. Well, that was the plan anyway. It was tipping it down by the time I got to Exeter. I wandered up and down the station in search of my friend, past the youngest teenage mother I have ever seen who was busy talking to her friend on the phone in the most drawn out accent I have ever heard in the UK, while her toddler sat on the bench drinking a can of coca cola and eating a packet of crisps.

My friend was nowhere to be seen. My phone was dead. I couldnt remember his phone number to call him from the phone booth and when I tried directory enquiries the number didnt work. Apparantly they have changed the number for 192.

I waited for about 40 minutes. He only lives a 7 minute walk from the bus station, but it was raining really hard. Still, I didnt think I could hang out in the bus station for much longer, so I took my chances in the rain, which I was sure was looking like it was going to lighten up at any minute. It didnt. I walked as fast as I could and by the time I got to his house I was drenched. I popped a quick note through the door to tell him I would be in the pub next door and burst my way into the pub, soggy and dripping. At least my hair wasnt a frizzy mess anymore. It was now a sodden tangle hanging limply down my back. To the barman's credit he didnt bat an eyelid. He did however ask me for some ID when I ordered my glass of wine. My old Cypriot ID card didnt do much to convince him of my age, but they let me have the wine anyway.

I sat down at a table facing the door and was leafing through the quality british newspaper that is the Daily Mail when my friend walked in with his pal and an explanation. Apparently it was my fault. Normal people dont take the bus! They take the train!! They had been waiting for me for ages - at the train station!! That will teach me to use the National Express. :-)

Anyway, it gave us something to have a good old chuckle about and after a hearty dinner of sausages and mash at a new restaurant and more than my fair share of wine I crawled into bed hoping for better weather the next day.

And, I was in luck. I woke up extremely early, suffering a little tiny bit from too much wine drinking, but very happy to be in Exeter and settled with a lovely cup of tea and a chat with Sarah. We took our time over a tentative piece of toast and showers and so on, and I tried to remember what I had done with my contact lenses when I had ripped them out of my eyes last night.

Feeling a bit brighter after a lovely hot shower, we donned light rain jackets (light summer showers were forecast for the day) and head off to get the train to Topsham. It was a glorious day really, lovely white fluffy clouds amongst a blue sky. Topsham is a very pretty village, and we took a casual stroll before stopping in a pub for a hearty hangover reducing pie and gravy, before catching the ferry up to the four locks (or it could be the three locks, or the two locks, I cant really remember). At the four locks we ordered a very nice half pint of smooth local lager and sat in the garden underneath the sun enjoying the view. The slightly alarming view of dark clouds heading our way quite quickly. Sarah was as quick as a cat and at the first drop of rain suggested we head into the pub. Almost as soon as we did the "light summer shower" (ready heavy torrential downpour) came down in full strength.

The rain passed and the rest of the day was beautifully sunny and I am keeping my fingers crossed for more of the same. I have been promised a cream tea tomorrow, so that is definatley something to look forward to!

Mamma mia! What a day! I woke up to the wonderful news that my dear friends had welcomed thier little boy into the world! With that happy thought running through my head I quickly (ish) got myself ready to head off on my next day of adventure. I bought myself a packaged sandwich from WHSmiths for breakfast. Man, I missed those packet sandwiches in Cyprus - so convenient! On the tube and my destination this morning was Warwick Avenue. Cue the now familiar confusion about directions and how to get to where I wanted to go. Now, the map of the Tube I believe is actually quite easy to follow, but somehow I managed to imagine links between lines that didn't exist and ended up having to catch an extra two trains to get back on track and get to Warwick Avenue.

I was going to follow the two hour walk suggested in my guide book along Regent's Canal. The book instructed me to take the left exit out of the tube station, which I did, like a good little tourist. But I started to doubt myself with all of these wrong turns I was taking. Did the book mean left as you come out of the tube station, or left as you were looking at the tube station, which would be right as you come out of the tube....???? To make sure I walked a little way in the other direction, found out the name of the road, studied my map in the book, swivelled the book around so that the orientation of the map lined up with the road I was standing in and where the tube station was... Yep, I had been right first time, it was left as you come out of the tube station! So, I started on my walk. There were some fine Victorian houses along the road, but the real treat was getting to Little Venice. Now this is a London I can get on board with. It is beautiful. I had no idea that London had such wonderful areas to walk along and just be taken up in.

The walk along the canal was spectacular, and I enjoyed it very much. That is, until it started to drizzle. That fine drizzle that only happens in England that makes my hair take on a life of its own (startling the poor locals who were out for an innocent run along the canal) and slowly seeps through your clothes. It was about this point that I started to think that there had better be a pub and a pint waiting for me at the end of this walk somewhere.

The drizzle held off, and after a slight detour (cross the bridge with London zoo to your right - so I walked underneath it. Then turned around and walked back. Hm, cross the bridge. That must mean go over the bridge, right? I go over the bridge, but cant find the left turn or the slope that the book is talking about. A kind local offers to help me, but I baffle her when I read the excerpt from my book and I can see that she is seriously regretting offering to help this particular tourist. I thank her for her time and walk off, crossing the road to check a road sign, crossing back again, going back over the bridge and then finally, I have found the path again) I enter Primrose Hill. Very pretty. Lots of people enjoying the park, and lots of people walking their dogs. Still very thirsty and on the look out for any sign of a beer selling establishment I walked to the top of the hill where my guide book promised me a good view of the city skyline. And by golly it did.

Before I left Cyprus, my good friend Wendy suggested to me in that manner that she does, that I sing a location apropriate song for every place that I visit. Not wanting to let Wendy down I decided this would be a great place to take my little movie of myself singing "London Bridge is falling down". There was one person in the area, but he seemed to be drinking in the view and playing with his dog so I was sure he wouldnt notice me singing away. I tried to combine a sweeping shot of the view with my song, but on playing it back realised that I had zoomed in so much to get the skyline that you couldnt see my face afterwards. The hill top was filling up, so I quickly re-set the zoom and sang my little ditty again. This time on playback I realised that you couldnt hear me... you could see my lips moving to the song, but no sound - apart from the wind blasting accross the top of the hill. Third time lucky, I sang as loud as I dare and did get a couple of strange looks from the various dog walkers, families and toursists that were now gathered on the top of the hill.

Chuffed with myself, I followed the guides instructions to go down the hill, and then, to my delight, the book mentioned a victorian pub called the Queens. Say no more, that will do me nicely. I popped in and had a lovely well deserved half pint of beer - not caring a hoot about the house over the road that apparantly had been the home of some comunist or other at some point in the past. The walk had so far taken be about three hours. The guide book obviously doesnt take into consideration the speed of an English-Cypriot unaccustomed to walking such distances, plus the various detours I had taken by mistake along the way. I still had a little bit to go though, so I finished off my drink and set off again. The walk ended up in Camden and it was certainly a sight to see. What an amazing place full of wonderful smelling food stalls and markets and shops. Its a good thing that I am on a budget and have only a small case with me, because I could have gone to town on those shops! I did discover that this was a part of London where I could claim to be truly unique! I seemed to be the only person not tattoed or pierced in at least ten places and not wearing doc martins!! In fact I got a bit jealous of the piercings, and thought crazily - lets get my tongue pierced. But then I thought that that would be a bit of a thilly thing to do tho dethided noth to do it after all.

On finishing my walk I decided to head back in the direction of Leicester square. I wanted to buy a book and thought I might be able to find that bookshop that I found yesterday. Now then, do you think I could find it again? No. I couldnt. I walked all the way from Leciester square and ended up in bloody Oxford Circus again, got straight back on the tube and headed back to Leicester Square to try again. This time I managed to find it (woo hoo) and popped in, very thankful for the airconditioning. I mooched about for 20 minutes or so and was surprised to see that the streets were all wet when I came out again. It rained for 20 minutes today, and I managed to miss it whilst enjoying browsing the book store! Cool

It was coming up time to go to the theatre, so I went to wagamammas for some noodles (ordered the wrong ones, they were too spicy and I didnt enjoy it very much - plus I just couldnt get the chop sticks to work today. I had walked so much it had started to affect my fingers!) I didnt hang about for too long, stopped by an icecream shop and then it was time for Mamma Mia!

Mamma Mia was FABULOUS!!! Everyone in the audience was up for a good time, apart from the poor narcoleptic a few seats down from me who kept on dozing off through the whole thing. When the first really popular rowdy song got going I heard this dreadful noise coming from somewhere nearby. Somebody who couldnt sing was trying to sing along to her favourite song. Really, there should be signs against this sort of behaviour. But I managed to tune it out and for the rest of the show I was totally absorbed. What an amazing two and a half hours of my life.

End of the show and it was back on the hot stinky tube to head back to the hotel. Apparantly (according to the Evening Standard - London's best read free newspaper dont you know) the tube people have reduced their budget for airconditioning by 25% for this year. Meaning that there just isnt any airconditioning in the tube at the moment. You just have to suffer. Arriving back at my hotel the concierge was a bit surprised to see me. Most guests here just stay for a few hours or overnight while waiting for an early flight, they dont usually get people staying for two or three nights. But here I am, my second night in London, I had a really, really great day and I am pooped, ready for a lovely deep sleep :-)

So, today - July 13th, my name day and the birthday of my brother in law, I started on my travelling adventure. I have successfully managed to pack just one piece of hand luggage to bring with me on this trip. It is stuffed to the brim, and I cheated a little bit by having my lap top out of the case, ready for inspection (it wont fit in there anyway) plus all of my liquids in a separate clear bag. I am not sure this tactic will work though outside of Cyprus so I may have to come up with a plan... the one I am brewing at the moment it to find a slightly bigger hand luggage case.

The flight was ok, I attempted to eat the plastic eggs and tomato that they served up, watched a bit of the movie before giving in to my body telling me that it needed to sleep. I had only managed to get about an hour and a half of sleep before getting ready to go to the airport - I was quite excited about my trip. Hopefully I didnt alarm the man on the otherside of the aisle with my mouth gaping open while I was sleeping - I'm pretty sure he was sleeping too so he wouldnt have noticed.

On landing at Heathrow I made my way to my hotel. I have decided to stay at the Yotel, I thought it sounded quite cute, and a fun way to start my trip. I had to get the heathrow express to take me from terminal 3 to 4, and as I was walking to catch the train, a local called over to me "oi lav, I wouldn't advoise leavin' your parspor' 'angin' out of yaw back pockit loike tha'". I was greatful to him for pointing out my rookie error and felt a bit daft - like a village girl out in the big city. That feeling was only to get worse when I ventured into London.

I got to the hotel and it certainly was very cute. They call it a cabin, and I imagine it is just what a cabin would be like on a ship. I will post pictures in due course. I wouldnt advise it for people who are much bigger than me though.... or anyone who is claustrophobic!

I tried to have another little nap, having only got a couple of hours sleep on the flight, but I was too excited to get on with things so I headed out into LANDAN!!!

First stop was Leicester square to pick up some half price tickets for some shows. There was a bit of a queue at the tkts stand so I went in search of a bookshop to find a guide book for London. Managed that, and then I wanted to find a local little cafe to have a bacon buttie, but I was too intimidated by the places that looked really local, so I went into a nice sterile non intimidating slug and lettuce instead.

Queued up for my ticket and got a ticket for Chicago for this evening, then quickly walked up the road and got a ticket for Mamma Mia for tomorrow night. The ticket clerk offered me a ticket on the right hand side of the theatre, meaning that most of the stage would be to my left. I asked if he had any tickets on the other side of the theatre, mentioning that I had a bit of a hearing problem, and he initially offered me another ticket, but then picking up on the deafness issue said he could give me a better ticket right in the middle for the same price! Score! I think that might be the first time that I have ever mentioned my hearing to anyone and been given a concession because of it!

I then wanted to buy a little rucksack to put my bits and pieces in and thats where things got a little bit more intimidating for me. I decided to head to Oxford Street, walking using the handy map in the guide book that I had bought. I discovered that my sense of direction is TERRIBLE!!!! I could not follow the map for love nor money, and if there was a possibility of taking a wrong turn, then, well, I took it!!! I walked all the way up New Oxford Street before I realised that I was going the wrong way, then up another road, then back along the road I had just come from before realising that the fourth and last option off the junction was the one I wanted. But once I got onto Oxford street I just wanted to get off again!!! And I started to realise the enormity of what I am trying to do. I am thinking of coming to live in this HUGE city with MILLIONS of people about the place, to try to find a job of some kind in the theatre world. I want to try to stand out, in this city of individuals. But I was the most un-individual person on the streets today!! There were people with funky glasses, people with green hair, or purple hair, or bright red hair, or all of the above. People wearing clothes that I would just feel like a pratt wearing. Me - I was in my trusty jeans, Nike trainers that I bought 5 years ago thinking that I might start running and I have been running so infrequently that they are still almost new to this day, a black tee shirt and a dark blue jacket (which by the way in a moment of madness I did consider not taking with me for this day out in London - luckily I realised my folly and grabbed it at the last minute). When I bought my little rucksack there was the option of buying a bright pink one - but I opted for the black one - so it wouldnt stand out so much...

Anyway, I was starting to flag and feeling like a very tiny little fishy in a very very big pond, so I thought an ideal solution would be a lovely glass of wine. I headed over to Covent Garden to check out the street acts who have so much confidence in their abilities that they just perform in the street and then demand anyone who stopped to watch to pay. I wonder if I will ever have that much confidence in my performance skills.

The first glass of wine went down very nicely, so I ordered a second, but then I could see a bit of a wine filled afternoon looming up in front of me, so I left the pub and went for a walk along the Thames. I had two hours until the musical started, so I thought considering my lousy sense of direction I ought to try to find the theatre. I was quite chuffed that i found it quite quickly, but then had to find a restaurant that I wouldnt be too shy to walk into and eat by myself. I hate eating at restaurants by myself. It is not fun. But then, what are you supposed to do.... not eat? I had spotted a wagamammas in the area earlier, but when I went off to try and find it I couldnt. I was a bit pooped with all this walking, us Cypriots are definately not used to it at all... so I saw a Pizza Express and thought that looked like a pretty safe bet. I ordered my Pizza and then popped down to the loo. As I came back up the stairs I heard one of the chefs call over to me.... Pizza for one eh??? I was so surprised and thought that I must have made it up in my head because I'm embarrased about it, and looked over to see if someone had really said that, and got the full effect of the slimy chef running his tongue over his lips at me oh so suggestively. "Thank you very much" I thought to myself "I pluck up the courage to go into a restaurant by myself, and this is the kind of attitude I get!!! Git!!" Lets just say I didnt leave a tip in that particular restaurant.

And then it was time to watch Chicago. I had a mixed experience watching the show. Of course I enjoyed it very much, but all the while I was thinking.... er... I want to do that???? I cant do that anywhere near as well as all of those people on stage. It occured to me that perhaps I will need to do some training to see if I can get anywhere close to that! And at the same time I was interested in the way that they had staged the show. The cast members would not go entirely off stage when they werent involved in the scene, but they would sit on chairs that were lined up on both sides of the stage, and watch the performance. But they would watch the performance as themselves, not as their characters, which I found quite off putting and spoiled my experience of the show. The band was actually on the stage the whole time, featured on a band stand that the rest of the cast would pop up on from time to time. At one point though the guitar/banjo player wasnt playing for that particular piece of music, and decided it would be a good time to inspect something going on on the bottom of his shoe! I was very surprised that these professional actors and performers couldnt hold it together for the duration of the show. I guess the director didnt think this would be an issue??

Overall though, I did enjoy the show and was quite happy on my little treck back to the tube station to get the train back to the hotel.

I really am quite tired, I have walked a lot today, which as you all know is not something I am in the habit of doing, but really looking forward to tomorrow. In fact, I have a two hour walking tour lined up for myself tomorrow, but after a well deserved lie in I think!!