Friday (still)

I found a picture of the cover of Dita Von Teese's book for you. Heh heh. Can you see why the boy in Barnes & Noble almost choked? Neither can I...

Friday

Back at work now. Harumph! At least I'm getting to totter around the office in my lovely new shoes. I did try to find a picture of them on line for you but I failed. Boo! They have been admired though, Suzie in the canteen threatened to steal them. Heh heh, a woman after my own heart... and my shoes it would seem! I can't blame her, I keep nipping into the loo to admire them in the mirror. Oh, they're gorgeous!

Anyhoo, back to Boston. Andy made an absolutely beautiful breakfast for me on Wednesday morning. It was pancakes again, with apple slices and maple syrup but he took the time to arrange the apple slices on the plate and stack the pancakes up. It seemed almost a shame to eat it... almost! *urp*

It's quite a trek to get from Brighton to the airport so we gave ourselves 2 hours to get there. Despite the D-line subway we were on inexplicably terminating a stop early we made it in good time and got me all checked in. I was worried the can of Manwich would put me over my baggage allowance weight but it was ok, I probably could have got a few more cans in there. My suitcase was fit to burst full of footwear though. Hee hee! We had a beer and shared a pizza and then it was time for me to join the huuawge queue to get through security and into the departure bit of the airport. I just had time to stock up on duty free booze and fags before boarding the flight.

I was quite chuffed because at check-in the nice lady gave me an aisle seat. However, this aisle seat turned out to be next to a tall American man wearing shell-suit like trousers. This meant that I had his uncomfortably warm thigh in uncomfortably close proximity to me for the whole flight. He bloody well hogged the arm rest as well. I had a big hairy nutsack of a bloke in front of me too. He immediately put his seat back as far as it would go (ie into my face!) and only moved it when told to by the stewardess at mealtimes and take off/landing. The movies on the way back were pish too. I was quite happy to see A Cock and Bull Story as one of the options but unfortunately the sound on that channel was knackered so the film was unwatchable. Gah! By the time they got around to bringing dinner around I was well cheesed off and the meal didn't cheer me up any. It was Airline Food. Yeuch! My annoyance lead to me trying to get to sleep as soon as possible though and the next 4 hours of the flight were happily spent dozing and listening to the radio. I don't think I drooled but I did fall asleep with the stopper of my travel pillow digging into my face for the first few hours. D'oh!

We got into Heathrow early at 4:45am (Gosh! I never realised such a thing was possible!) but it sucked because Costa coffee there didn't open until 6am. I decided in the end that coffee was probably a bad idea because I'd want to sleep when I got home. For some reason they failed to announce the boarding of my flight to Edinburgh until the gate was just about to close but I wasn't the last person on the plane so a few other confused travellers had been hanging around the departure lounge (a 5-minute scuttle away from the actual departure gate) as well. The flight to Edinburgh was fairly uneventful and also got in early. Go British Airways! I thought they had lost my luggage (With my shoes! My precious shoes!) but it came in on a different carousel because my origin was outside of the European Union. So I had my bags back and was heading for the airport bus at around 8am Thursday morning. The thought that I could have gone into work did cross my mind but I thought "Nah!" and headed for home. After a bit of pottering about I went for "40 winks" at around 11am... and woke up at 4pm. D'oh! I was back in my bed at 11pm though and slept right through to 7am this morning so the jet lag hasn't been bad so far... and tomorrow's the weekend when I sleep like a sloth anyway. Hoorah!

I haven't got any more photos to share with you at the moment so I've included a picture of a "hot dog". Heh heh.

Tuesday

D'oh! I had a feeling I was supposed to have gone to the Science Museum sooner. I missed the blimming Star Wars exhibition by 2 days. Whoops! Oh well, I've been having bucketloads of fun anyway and I got to go shoe shopping today instead. Yay! Happy Marj!

*doing the happy dance... in gorgeous shoes*

The day started inauspiciously when the shower, usually hot with pressure so good you feel like you've been beaten up by a hoard of fairies with PMS (a delightfully vigorous experience), turned lukewarm just as I finished lathering up with shampoo. On the plus side at least it wasn't stone cold so rinsing off wasn't as bad as it could have been. The weather had turned nasty too, it was peeing down outside and quite cold. (Again though, in the warm fuzzy afterglow of purchasing lovely shoes, I can say this made me feel right at home. Aaah, shoes!) Anyhoo, despite the universe seemingly giving me the cat's bum at every turn, we ventured out to head to the Science Museum. At the Subway station the wifey in the ticket booth thoroughly confused me by giving me change of a dollar instead of a token and then made me feel like a bloody fool because I didn't understand what the frilly heck was going on. Andy kind of hinted that was bloody typical of folk in this town. They're a lovely bunch these Bostonians!

We headed into China town for some comfort food and ended up in a Malaysian restaurant called Penang. We had beef satay (are you jealous Matthew?) and noodley soup. Andy's was a sort of green curry seafood affair with "the best damn prawns" he'd eaten in ages. I think he said there was squid in there too. I ordered a delicious red curry kind of soup with skinny and fat noodles and lots of dubious looking things I couldn't identify. I'm still woefully squeamish about some foods I'm afraid but the noodles and vegetable matter I could identify were more than enough for me. It was lovely and all washed down with green tea. Yum.

Anyhoo, then we waddled to the Science Museum and found that we'd missed the exhibition. Bugger. Never mind, the gift shop was still good. I felt too full of food to wander around the museum so we decided to head back in to town. That's when that fool Andy said he didn't mind going shopping with me... and he'd take me to Filene's Basement. Somehow I perked up. It could have been due to the fact that Filene's Basement is bargainlicious baby! It's one of those places where you have to rake to find good stuff but I almost immediately came across a pair of pink, yes pink, Converse Allstars. It's as if they were there waiting just for me. Hoorah! It was a sign. Cast off the gourd and follow the shoe!!!

That led to a whirlwind of retail activity for me. I'd been wanting to find a copy of Dita Von Teese's book but Andy was sceptical I'd find one in puritanical Boston. I did find a copy in Barnes & Noble and we got a really good chuckle over the guy at the cash register who choked when he caught sight of the back cover. The book is entitled "Burlesque/Fetish and the Art of the Teese" and the back cover is the fetish one. Hee hee hee hee!

Anyway, inspired by Miss Von Teese, I was on a mission to find some gorgeous shoes in this land of tax free shopping and consumerism. I didn't think it would be that hard but apparently the Bostonians puritanical bent even extends to their taste in shoes. It's tragic! I do feel for the women in this town. However, I found my shoes in Macy's. Somehow Andy must have used some magical man spell to end the shopping pain because I found them just after he pointed out some sale racks and said "Maybe your perfect pair will be in there?" and there they were. Gorgeous black heels with a blue piping detail. Oh my, I'm in love! I'm in raptures over these shoes. I haven't taken a photo of them for you but I really should have. I've packed them in my suitcase already though. Harumph!

After I had tried the shoes on, found they fit beautifully (Oh joy! Oh Rapture!) and bought them we decided to head for home, via the bit of Boston where the uber-rich live. It's a nice looking part of town, from what I could tell through the drizzle. The public library in Boston looks great as well. I really liked the architecture of the building, it was simple yet very aesthetically pleasing. Boston has a lot of interesting and beautiful looking buildings.

Well, I'm heading for home tomorrow so my bag's all packed and I'm going to go make the most of the rest of my time here ;o)

Nighty night

xx

P.S. (See picture of can above) I had to pick up a tin of this delicious looking substance for Barney. I almost fell over laughing when Andy pointed it out to me in the store.

Sunday

The weather was absolutely beautiful today, again. We had more pancakes, strawberries and maple syrup for breakfast then headed to the Aquarium to meet Andy's friend Zach and his girlfriend Laurie for an Amazing Imax Experience. Andy and I were early so we got a couple of green tea frappuccinos and sat on a bench watching the stupidly rich people on their stupidly expensive yachts. Sigh. I'm just jealous. The frappuccino was yummy though. We spotted a greasy spoon type van selling what I can only presume to be some sort of local delicacy - boneless chicken slush. Sounds delightful! We had a chuckle over it anyway :o)

When we met up with Zach and Laurie we decided to go for a wander around Little Italy before going to see the shark movie at the Imax cinema. After a bit of wandering around it was time for beer. Mmmm, Sunday afternoon beer in the sun. Lovely! Then we decided to head to a restaurant recommended by Andy's cousin. Apparently people drive up from New York to eat in this place and Andy's sister, who lived in Italy for a while, said it serves the best Italian food she'd ever tasted. Wow! We had to find the place. It's called Mauritzio's by the way, just in case you find yourself here and hungry. We found it but the flipping place was shut. Bah! So we went for some food in somewhere far inferior instead. Ho hum.

Then we went to the Imax to see the 3-D shark show. I have to admit I wasn't sure what to expect. I had vague memories of getting 3-D glasses free on the front of the Radio Times in the mid-80s for viewing Jaws or something and being underwhelmed by the experience. Everything was red and green, at the same time. It was weird. Well, 3-D technology has advanced in the last 20 years but it's still weird... in a really good way. It was blimming amazing in fact. There you are sitting in a cinema, but to your brain it looks like you're right in the middle of a school of little pink jelly fish and sharks are swimming about a foot in front of your face. Cor! The film in itself wasn't David Attenborough-y enough for my taste but it was a delight to watch nonetheless. Now if they could take that technology and apply it to the Blue Planet series we'd be cooking with gas!

Then it was time for another beer in the sun. Ah nice :o)

Now we're back in Brighton chillaxing and eating Almond M&Ms, which are pretty dang tasty by the way. Don't worry, I'll bring some back and I'll even try my best not to scoff them all.

So I got round to doing something touristy but still only took pictures for a cheap laugh. Ah well, why fight your natural instincts?

Oh, and if anyone's wondering what happened to Saturday we didn't leave the house at all. Tee hee!