March 18/19

Had an early breakfast of miso, cold tea, yoghurt and hot chips (oh yes, those quirky Japanese). Head off to the airport early for toy shopping. Unfortunately I don't manage to find much of interest except Pokemon and Studio Ghibli related toys, even though I scoured both the international, and after a short shuttle bus ride, domestic terminals.

Board the flight, my seat was crap, but YAY had its own TV. (Tip #2 - Window seats are overrated - it's a mission to pee and you can't readily get up and steal snacks). Was seated beside two potential 'new friend' candidates, but in the end they just ended up being boisterous, obnoxious Aussie chicks who befriended me at the start of the flight and then didn't speak much to me again. Didn't help that I couldn't find my passport and for the whole 14 hours suspected one had picked mine up by mistake. Watched Shark Tale, Ray, Criminal, and part of SkyRocket World of Tomorrow Future something or other and mused over the icey landscapes and complete straightness and uniformity of London from the air. (OK, so the window seat DOES have some advantages).

And then, here I am in London (with passport, I discovered). Entry was much easier than everyone had lead me to believe (I'm actually even surprised by the ease of it all) and Shane with his new short blonde hair (marvel) was there to meet me. Hooray!

London, surprisingly, is exactly as I expected it. Got my first tube, in rather fabulous weather to my new home in Earl's Court. This consists of a flat in a little townhouse style apartment block on a very quaint, pretty street. The flat is one room with a small bathroom, roughly 7m x 5m big, give or take (that's the whole apartment my friends, not just the toilet). The sleeping is bunk beds (I'm on top, Craig on bottom and Shane on a mattress on the floor). It's cramped but also homely. I'm exhausted but attempting to adapt to the time difference so Shane and I have some pizza (yes his home delivery take away diet is still intact) and watch Buffy (yay first episode ever, and Shane claims it's never been on TV before in his 2 years of living here - they must have heard I was coming.), a Dr Who special, Bo Selecta (this show is weird man), and some Viva La Bam on DVD.

I realise through my exhaustion that I am very happy and excited to be here and all the stress and worry was virtually for nothing. And now I've just jinxed myself haven't I...