JetSlag

Coming over you like a 10 pence tart. Ooh, what a cow!

Well, I made it home. Driving through blizzards on Wednesday night was slightly more than alarming as the road markings became unclear and vision grew desperately poor, but a late dinner at JoyFull (saba teshoku- mackerel set dinner- was to be my last official Japanese meal of 2005 made up for some of it. A few hours sleep at Fiona's and I was back in Efi sliding along icy roads to get to the airport where snow was causing trouble again. It appeared that there was no issue with the flights taking off (although if an announcement was made I wouldn't have understood it) and after sitting on the plane for an hour watching men with hoses rinse ice off the wings (I have no idea why in Japan water+ice doesn't = more ice) we finally took off. And Korean Air had kindly placed the three foriegners together- me, Tyler and Christiana. Poor Christiana was of flying and we spent much of the leg reassuring her, but it was good that we were able to. At Seoul they were cancelling flights back into Japan because of the weather.

From Korea the remainder of the journey was pretty event-free, although I managed to break ANOTHER suitcase in duty free (I knocked it into the display and the handle broke- d'oh!) and got my first whiff of public wee-cleaner (ie cheap bleach) in the stairwell to Heathrow car park. Oh! The joys of home... Thanks to Ma and Pa and the brother for picking me up. It was odd to see no snow anywhere around.

After getting to bed at around 10:30 I was up at 5 on Friday and out in Oxford street by 9:30, having my haircut and attempting to shop, and resisting the urge to screech "Ohayo Gozaimasu!!!" at everyone I saw. But as the phone ran out of juice and I ran out of steam I decided to head home, and was lay down watching my sole purchase (Scooby Doo dvd) and dozing off at three.

Christmas Eve was much better as I headed out early again and met Megan in London, having already bumped into my old French teacher when I got off the train. Oxford street was surprisingly empty, so we did our shopping and went fot a wander down Charing Cross Road, to (THE) Trafalgar Square for photos and insensitive comments about the statue on the fourth plinth, wandered further to see the Changing of the Guards at St James' Park (where we strolled and had tea and cake) and then crossed the river to the London Eye to meet Eugene and Yuko. After a drink in a nice riverside pub we headed our seperate ways, me wandering along the South Bank and heading back to Liverpool Street via St Pauls and London Wall. I am a tourist in my own town! Yay!

Well, I was supposed to be in the pub for Christmas Eve drinks, but after dinner and some hard exercise wrapping presents it was game over and I was asleep on the sofa, only to be woken up for midnight mass where the hymns got slower and I got more sulky and tired. Until it was time to go at which point I perked up and ended up awake till 3:30. And on Christmas day we were up at 8 for no particluar reason, but at noon we headed to brother's to see him, his missus, her Mother and the baby and had a lovely day of eating and gurgling and eating. And I passed out at 7:30. D'oh!

It became another late night anyway- 2am- and today I was awake at 7. So again it's been a family day of eating and gurgling as yesterday's crowd came round here. It's been fun and nice and sugar-filled, but I'm just getting ready to pass out again...

Merry Christmas!