Holiday Part 6 - Enjoying Myself... Finally

So after the drinking sessions, i think we're aware of what comes next, yeh?

... the hangover :P

Wednesday 7th July, the day of my first hangover lol, (it was also our last full day in Lanzarote)

I did notice it a bit, but it wasn't extremely bad, it was gone by lunch. Still not very pleasant tho.

My planned game of water polo was on at 2pm so I sat around the pool etc. until then and when i did finally head over i found out it wasn't on till 4, so i just hung out with Ross a bit.

At 4pm we just dove in and there was already a good dozen or so people waiting and the intsructor guy showed up, got out the nets and the ball and off it went.

To show what team you're in, you wear a blue or red water cap. I got a red and Ross got a blue.

John, the Liverpool fan also played and he didn't wear a cap coz he was bald and due to the sun, his head was quite red. So he's like "Im with the reds" and patted his head :P

Anyhoo, the blue team dominated coz they had on their team, the two tallest guys in the complex. Both of them about 6'4 lol

Now, as for Ross, he was a little taller than me, fe inches i would say, he must have been nearly 6 foot. He didn't have the long hair that is almost a requirement for what i look for in guys but there was one point playing in the water he crashed right into me and he felt so smooth lol.
Honestly, obviously the water but it took me quite by surprise and i was like "ooft" haha

Aaaaaanyway :)

After the water polo, we got a few drinks, my mum and sister came down to the pool and the rest of Ross' family showed up. We discussed where we would be going to watch Spain's semi-final match vs Germany.
We didn't have a clue so we walked down the sea front and just jumped into the first bar that looked like it had a good atmosphere.

The first half was quite flat so we headed further away for the 2nd half and we found this steak house loaded with Spanish people, they had horns and drums and everything. MASSIVE HD screen. We settled for that :)

Must have been about 70 mintues in and Spain scored, the place erupted! Vuvuzelas, drums, mass looting and pillage (jk) took place. It was mental. Happened again at the full time whistle.

We slowly made our way back and took in everything around us, people running around, waving flags, all sorts of madness. It was still pretty crazy back at the bar in the complex when we met up with everyone again. I was pretty hungry this time so it was suggested me and Ross go and get a Chinese.

Off to the sea front we headed again :P

Ross was quite a quiet person it seemed to me, only kinda spoke when spoken to and as yet, had not mentioned anything about girls. I was gonna intiate the ol' "Got a girlfriend?" question but i couldnt coz of all the fecking noise round about us. Damn Spaniards. I just eventually forgot about it and we got some food lol

Chinese, beer and a final game of cards saw me off to sleep that night. Needed a good sleep coz the next day of travelling was going to be a long'un.


It started off early enough. We didnt need to be gone till noon but we were up and packing at 7am. (My mum's doing of course)
We visited our favourite Scottish bar for the last time and had a big, hearty breakfast to set us up for the day ahead. Went down well as usual :)

We had about an hour left when we got back before the bus came a picked us up from the hotel to take us to the airport. I ran round the complex saying cheerio to everyone lol. Mum was stressing out in case we missed the bus :P

We didn't. and we made it to the airport no problem. This is the worst bit, the queuing at that airport is horrendous. Someone fainted in line and had to be carried away coz of the heat...

Got through the ever pleasant security and sat in another queue waiting for our plane, which was also delayed quite a bit. More queuing...

We did eventually take-off, now that I mention it and the flight back to London was actually pretty turbulent. Not very enjoyable but we made it back in one piece so i shouln't complain.

And i couldn't have been happier when we touched down, not home yet but back in Britain. Our uncle picked us up and we went back to their house (the same one as our cousin's birthday party) for a few nights before we got the bus back home.

I was so happy to be around family again and feeling more at home. Also they had wi-fi and there was a QI marathon on tv that night. It was exacly what i needed. I fell alseep in front of the tv, glad to be home... sorta.


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The next holiday post will be the last one, it's been quite a marathon in itself typing all this out but i do it all for you, my faithful followers.


Hugs,
Rowan

A Little Announcement...

Parhaps its a bit bigger than a "little" annoucnement.


Im taking a break from Blogger for a while, a week or two probably.

You see, my exam results will be arriving in 7 days and i am already quite worried about them and thinking about it a lot.

Combining that with all that's going on round here recently, and my current lack of sleep, i need a break.

I tried to stop the amount of emails flowing to me with my last post, coz it was getting too much for me, trying to reply and explain to everyone about things.

It didn't work though, these emails are still flying in by the bucket load.

Please don't feel agrieved or upset if you have sent me an email about it and now i'm complaining, it's nothing personal to any certain individual. It's just getting too much for me to handle right now.

I'm not sleeping well coz of everything, 4am has been my earliest night for the past 5 days and I need to fix that. A week or two away from here, i think, will fix that. I want to put everything out of my head just now and concentrate on the issues tht face me in my offline life.

I have wrote my final two holiday posts and have scheduled them to be published between now and this time next week. So even though im not here, you will still get some posts. Strange thought, eh?

As for moderating comments, i think i might disable them for now, so tht i dont have to monitor them and review them while im away...

I will post sometime next week about my exam results and i'll see where things go from there. I'll let you know in that post along with my results.

Lastly, I'm not abandoning blogger or anyone here, i will be back, i just need some time. I hope you guys understand.


Rowan





Unlike some, i do announce my sudden departure...

Holiday Part 5 - Life's a Beach

In light of all the drama round here at the moment, i'm continuing to post about my holiday :)

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This post begins on Sunday 4th July.

We got up, farted about for a bit and headed to our favourite, new Scottish bar for a good ol' British breakfast, which went down very well.

We took the bikes and worked off breakfast on our cycle to our favourite beach area of the island which was about 2 miles away.

We came across it last time we were in Lanzarote and if we ever go again, im sure we will return.

It's a nice little secluded place and doesn't get too busy  -

Bet i looked like a right perv taking that photo :P

We brought lilos with us and we rode the waves on them, that was the highlight for me, im not a big sandcastle fan. Also, laying around in the sun was awesome but had its consequences, i thought i had applied enough sun cream but obviously not as i found out afterwards.

Oh and I was left cursing my lack of knowledge in the Spanish language department when 4 boys (clearly Spanish) wearing just shorts showed up and started kicking a football around.

That irked me, need to stick in with my languages...

When it was time to leave i soon found where i was sunburnt :/

Get this, the tops of my feet are where i got it worst. My back had random red areas and so did my chest, leaving me looking like a red cow on later inspection.

Cycling back was ok, it hadnt affected me too badly yet but we got back to our apartment and i dived into the pool to try and cool the burns.

It was soothing for a while but i should never have agreed to cycle down to airport where you can watch planes fly over your head by only a handful of metres.

A special video for you -

Yes, that is me laughing ^__^

Well, ok, maybe the pain was worth it but the rest was bad... sorta... not really.

We went to an Italian restaraunt and got a MEGA spicy pizza. *licks lips*

Delicioso.

Oh, and i swear two of the waiters were gay! They kept looking at each other with a sly smile that said "i cant wait till we close up here tonight"

They were really hospitable too tho, so that was enjoyed immensely.

I hated having to leave, pushing myself as far as i could on the bike, through the pain on the tops of my feet. But strangely, when we got back to the apartment, i pretty much feel asleep right away... somehow.

The next two days were the worst of the holiday, and perhaps two of the worst of any holiday.

Monday consisted of doing nothing - I couldn't walk. I couldn't lie comfortably. I just had to sit in the shade and watch everyone else in the pool. I also started feeling very lonesome coz i still knew nobody around the place. The folks from Liverpool had gone home, so i didn't even have them to talk to.

Take it from me, sunburn can ruin a holiday.

So, when you're feeling sore and down in the dumps what do you do?

You drink.

And i did, but only coz it was free! Don't get too upset. I didn't get drunk that day... that happened the next day, on the Tuesday :D

It's the only time i've ever been drunk and i wasnt even proper drunk.

But Tuesday was still a bad *day*... day

Still feeling sore and lonely, i also lost some money and received some bad news when i braved the complex's computers. I just wanted to be home and nowhere else, regardless of the weather.

I trudged along to watch Uruguay vs Holland in the bar, mum got me a beer (the first of quite a few) and headed off for a while.

What do you do in a bar full of guys when there is football on? You talk about football! And luckily enough, the guy i plonked myself beside, at random, was a Liverpool fan! Woot \o/

John must have been in his 40's but he was lovely, he was hilarious and we had a great chat, barely any football was watched. But this is where my fortunes changed. At half time, an older guy and a boy my age sat down near us - they were obviosuly father and son -  but I didn't think much of it coz I was talking with John and a few of his friends (great names btw - Antoinito and Angelo)

However, slowly but surely we all got talking (about football) and found they were from a place in England called Coventry.

The second half started and John's mate Angelo ordered one too many beers by accident, he didnt even intend to get me one in the first place but i ended up with two :D

Then mum came back O_O

Angelo was rather worried lol but i finished one, i told mum the other was the same beer she got me earlier lmao

...and she believed it!!!

I finished it and she got me another!

That's when i started to feel it. Getting dizzy and not being able to focus properly. Walking from one end of the bar to the toilet was quite a challenge :P

But anyway, the father and son i was talking about earlier. The mum of the family came back and got talking to my mum and all of us ended up sitting in the bar way past the football. It was just great. Beer was flowing, so was the conversation, no pain in my feet, or back, or chest, and i got talking to someone my age for once!

He was called Ross, and his dad was Mark. Really nice people. We arranged to play water polo in the complex's main pool the next day. Apparently, it was on everyday, but due to sitting at our pool, i didn't know about this.

We said our goodbyes and i felt happy with how the evening went. The night was a complete opposite of my day. I knew people now!

And in that knowledge, i staggered off to the apartment, played some cards and feel right asleep, a happy *half*-drunk.

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Please don't criticise me for getting drunk :P (or half drunk)

It was once and it happened on holiday, it is not a regular occurance :)

Anyhoo, Queen poll is up, vote for your favourite track off "News of the World" It's multiple choice so my votes go to Sheer Heart Attack, Spread Your Wings, Get Down, Make Love, and All Dead, All Dead. I have to pick 4 coz the album is so good!

More to follow soon...


Hugs,
Rowan


And just coz i had sunburn, here is a little song called Sunburn, even though it has nothing to do with it.

JJ & DJ

Well, bugger me, it sure has been dramatic round here recently hasn't it?


...and not for the best either.


As I'm sure you are aware, JJ's blog has magically disappeared into the middle of the night for real this time (I remember posting about JJ threatning to close his blog before) and DJ has also closed his.

Now, I'm certain I speak for all of us when I say I am saddened by this twist of events but that's just one of the many things I feel right now.

You see, I don't receive many emails outwith notifications for blog comments but I seem to be the first port of call for many when something happens to JJ but now also DJ.

Fair enough, I say, naturally concerned and it's nice to see. However I've received numerous emails as of late asking what is going, if I know what is going, if the world is coming to an end...

It's not that I don't want to reply to each email individually but I feel it would just be easier to make a big post.


So what can I tell you?


Well, JJ has not been in contact with me for a few days so I don't know anything definite. It would appear to me that he is gone but for all I know he could show back up in comments or something.
However, my gut tells me he won't and I truthfully don't see his blog returning.
I've also not tried to contact him and truth be told, I don't really want to try either, I don't feel as if I would get a reply back.

As for DJ, well I have been in contact with him. He is ok. He is quite shaken up by everything though and that is probably why he has closed his blog. He didn't like the way things were going, so to stop that he closed his blog.
Who can argue with that?

Also, creepy comments were not a factor in why DJ left. Above is why he left.

DJ may return one day, that is his own decision but for the forseeable future he won't be around I don't think.


I don't really know what else to say, my head is swimming due to the ongoing events. I don't know all the answers and I don't see the answers being uncovered but if there's anything you can think of asking me or anything else you desparately want to know then ask in a comment and I will try to reply back in the comments section. So, subscribe to the comments bit.


Hugs,
Rowan


P.S I'm glad Billy Connolly seemed to go down quite well :)

P.P.S News of the World won the Queen album vote so my next poll will be "What is your favourite track off News of the World"

I can't really say I have a favourite but here is Spread Your Wings

Holiday Part 4 - Lanzarote

The first thing my mum sister and I did when we woke up on our first morning (Friday 2nd July) was try out the complex's food, which turned out to be ok. Nothing special. You wouldn't get anything special unless you deliberately went for a place that had great food.

So the food wasn't brilliant but I have to say the pools were, therefore we quickly rushed round to get some sunbeds before anyone could take them. Also by each pool there are pool tables (billiards, idk what some people call it) so mum and I played a game but the cues weren't proper cues... they were like rubber and gave me a bad rash. I also think they might have made me ill, coz i was a bit uneasy for the rest of the day (maybe it was the food|) but there you go.

I actually had myself a little siesta in our room and when I came back down, mum happened to be talking to some woman, who came from Liverpool, as did her husband and daughter who was my sister's age.

Still nobody my age around but i found out that the woman's husband, Greg, supported Liverpool so that was pretty win. He also wouldn't be the first Liverpool fan i met while staying there.

Both Greg and his wife recommended this place to eat out on the sea front so that evening we checked it out but instead came back and had dinner at the complex. Lol, fail.

Again, it was nothing special.


I found that one of the best things about the complex was the bar. Coz we went All Inclusive we got meals for free plus drinks from the bar cost nothing as well. *devilish grin*

But my joy was cut short coz adults are given blue wristbands to wear and under 18's are given green. They would only serve alcohol to those with blue bands :/

Not to say mum couldn't get as much beer for us as she wanted, and she did :D

And that evening we had a few beers and watched Uraguay vs Ghana in the bar.

I dunno what it is but i like the atmosphere of a bar when there is football on. All the "OOH" 's and "AAH" 's and "YAY" 's

I love it.

Can't remember the score of the match but Uraguay won and i seem to recall they didn't deserve to. Anyway, after the footy we returned to our room, played some Monkey (think i lost that night) and went to bed.

It was my turn for the double bed, my mum and sister had the sofa bed.

I've never liked double beds. If there are two people, yes, a double bed would be great, but i was only one and didn't enjoy the whole empty feeling. Idk (Need some hot guy IN the double bed =D)


I may not have had the best night's sleep but i was fighting fit the next day when mum and I went for a walk to the sea front (there was a junior club thingy that we dropped my sister off at) We were looking to hire bikes but before that i needed something to eat.

On the sea front, there are more pubs. bars and restaraunts than you can shake a stick at. But we eventually settled for a cosy little Scottish pub/restaraunt and I had a BLT, which btw was gorgeous. The owners were lovely too and we ended up promising to come back for dinner :P

Oh and we eventually hired some bikes, we got 2 days for the price of 1. People in Lanzarote are really nice, must be all that sunshine!

I actually didn't get any piccs of the bikes but mine was red, mum's was blue and had a little pully thing on the back that my sister could sit in, coz she can't properly ride a bike yet.

After getting these back to complex and chained up etc. we picked up my sister and rewarded ourselves with a beer and Argentina vs Germany back at the complex bar. I spied two cute guys who i think were brothers but coz the place was so busy i couldn't really get near them :/

Germany won this game, and it was quite funny coz there were some Germans in the bar but the whole place was virtually English - everyone was cheering on Argentina coz Germany eliminated England but the Germans had the last laugh.

Fufilling our promise, we then headed out to dinner at the Scottish bar and were treated to a lovely meal and fantastic hospitality. This place soon became our favourite and we had many more visits over the course of our stay.

We would have stayed there to watch Spain vs Paraguay tooo, but we wanted the atmosphere of the bar back at the complex, so off we tootled and watched Spain vs Paraguay.

Now, being in Spain while Spain were in the World Cup was brilliant. The atmosphere was electric, all the locals were singing and jumping around and getting hammered lol

The place erupted when Spain won, even all the British were going muy loco!

A little something interesting here. As the crowd slowly trickled out the bar, my mum, sister and I were just sitting around talking. Out the corner of my eye, i see the two cute boys from earlier and their parents sitting at another table.

^ That's the context.

The TV was still on in the background. The football was off and some dance music was now eminating from the speakers. Curiously i peered over at the TV and what is on it?

A gay pride something or rather lol

I froze. I wanted to watch it, but i couldn't so i tried to ignore it.

Out the corner of my eye again, i spotted the two brother's at their table... the younger of whom was staring intently at the television!

I was freaking out. I knew i had to do something but how could I in a still busyish bar?

I simply tried to catch his eye (the myth is if you concentrate on staring at someone, they will notice!) but to no avail. They eventually got up and left.

Cursing my luck, we followed suit not long after and returned to our room to play some cards. I tried to move the proceedings along as quickly as possible coz i wanted to see if i could catch the end of the programme but i couldn't find it, so I amused myself by watching a Billy Connolly DVD that I brought with me, and eventually drifted off to sleep, awaiting the next day to go to the beach :)


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I want to introduce Billy Connolly, for those of you who haven't heard of him and also for those of you that may have.

He is a Scottish comedian and in my opinion, the best comedian in the world. He is the only comedian that can leave me breathless, lying in tears and gasping for air. While watching the aforementioned DVD, i had to pause it coz I couldn't take anymore. I'm surprised i didn't keep the whole complex wake with my laughing.

The subjects he speaks about can be pretty rude. Usually about sex and stuff, but his mannerisms, his appearance, the way he acts... he could talk about having a glass of water and I would still find it hilarious.

Trying to find a decent video for those who haven't seen him before was difficult, but i chose this one, i hope you like it.





There's loads more videos of him on youtube if you like this. If you don't then... your loss, i suppose we all have different tastes :P

See y'all around


Hugs,
Rowan

Holiday Part 3 - Bit o' London and Some o' Lanzarote

Sorry for the delay on Part 3 here, just havent got round to it for some reason.

Let's revisit the previous days' events first :

• Cousin's 21st party
• England game
• Lauren leaving for home/taking pictures
• Finding out TCWSTT deleted the pictures

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From Monday 28th until Wednesday 30th my part of the family (5 of us) stayed at our aunt and uncle's house and it was pretty enjoyable.

The weather was great, lots of beer to be had, played some golf with my dad and brother which is worth mentioning.

Where we played golf was beside a bar my dad used to work in (the course and the bar were at one time a joint business but is no longer)

My dad, brother and I were looking forward to having a round of golf and then going to get some drinks from the bar but disaster struck, mainly for my dad, as we found the building was due to be demolished.

I knew my dad was quite upset by this, it also showed in his game coz he didnt play too well on the course.

You see, this building is really important to my dad coz he was living above it when he met my mum for the first time, would be nearly 20 years ago now, i think.

He didn't show much emotion but you could tell he was pretty unhappy to say the least at the site of the building. He took a few pictures of it and drove off saying nothing more than "It's a sad day when that bar goes bust"

Later he drank lots of whiskey...

He let me have some tho :P


Anyway, not much else happened while in London. We did book our last-minute holiday from there however, 1 day before we actually set off (my mum, sister and I) and we departed pretty early on the Thursday morning (1st July)

The journey was pretty unevenful too except my ears hurt like hell coz of the pressure, normally when coming into land. Any of you guys get that? Oh, its awful :/

So not long after we landed, we arrived at our hotel and the apartment was ok but coz we got this last minute deal rather cheap, who were we to complain about the standards?


Well we had a little moan but it really wasnt anything special. The toilets i didnt really like, the room only had one light so it was quite dark. The beds weren't too comfy either, and the complex's computers were, to say the least... shit lol. I just tried away from them and avoid hassle tbh.

Here are some pics of the apartment :

There were four pools in the whole complex we were staying in and our closest one was the quietest and probably best of them all :

(bit cloudy there)

The local shops also sold this beverage which you may recognise :

Doesn't tatse as good as you might think, Homer has crap tatse in beer :P

Due to being worn out after all our travelling we just had a lazy few hours, explored the complex, found there was FREE BEER on tap at the complex's bar and played some cards.

Games of cards became a nightime ritual, with the family game of Monkey being played at least 3 times a day, i would guess :P

These games also were played with a beer in hand as a little nightcap :P

We always called it a night after playing cards.

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The next post really goes into how Lanzarote itself actually was so watch this space :)

Sorry again for the delay on this post, next one should aarrive quicker.

Oh and, im not bothered too much about the comments, its just for posting about something like this (over a few separate posts) you really need to read all of it to get into it, if you know what i mean. I can't really tell who is reading if not many comment. But anyway, just as long as i know people are reading ^__^

Blah, couldnt quite phrase tht the way i wanted to and i can't really be bothered trying again :P


Hugs,
Rowan


P.S There's still a few hours to vote on the Queen poll. Go for it even if you don't like or know Queen very well lol

How Strange

I go from getting my most amount of comments ever on one post (18) to getting one of my lowest amounts on the next! (3)

lol

:S

What happened?

Did my "warning, this is a long post" put you off reading? :P

Could you not be bothered commenting?

Did you actually comment and something went wrong with Blogger instead? o_O

(I'm not complaining, just wondering...)


Blogland can be a strange and confusing place...

Holiday Part 2 - Family Reunion

Take heed, this is another long post :P


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Previous day revisited :

• Arrived in London
• Met some family
• Went to Thorpe Park
• Went to pub/restaraunt for dinner
• Lauren and her parents arrived
  
  
   Let's continue............

My cousin's 21st didn't actually begin until 4pm on what was Saturday 26th June so everyone staying at the hotel actually had quite a full day to themselves.

Me, well I went into the nearest, what you would call, town with my mum and my French aunt. I wanted to get some shorts, the longer kind with a sort of floral pattern on them because i think they look really good :D

(like these but it red) - lol, it says they're swimming shorts but they aren't :P

While i was there i also purchased The Beatles Rock Band, good times.

On our return, the mood at the hotel was quite frantic, what with about 15+ people getting ready to go out.

I just hopped in the shower, got changed and got away as soon as i could. Avoid hassle :P

My brother and I both sat in the lobby and slowly everyone came pouring down and we even had a game of cards there lol

But off we set to our cousin's house for the party. 3 cars full of us, another branch of cousins and one uncle had also arrived by this time so i think there were about 20 of us in total.

It was quite hilarious all parking up the street and gingerly creeping down the side path of the house (remember this was supposed to be a surprise) but it was kinda for nothing cause when we burst through the gate our cousin went, "I thought so!"

*facepalm*

The only people she didn't expect to see were our aunt and uncle from across the pond.

Anyhoo, after that failure, many pictures were taken, many things were chatted about, many drinks were drunk, many games of Monkey and Chinese Whispers were played and there was general all-round fun. It was really enjoyable.

Mum even let me have 2 beers. Generous.

... but i snuck a 3rd O__O

The festivites must have lasted until at least midnight i think and we finally said our goodbyes (although we would be returning the next day.)

I was quite annoyed coz the whole family was there and we didn't get a picture of all of us :/

(some folk were too drunk anyway so maybe tht was actually a smart move lol)

Now, you don't normally describe a take-away as funny but this is exactly what it was. We parked up outside and i was sitting next to Lauren in the backseat. I had been waiting for a moment to give her 3 cds and this seemed like the right time to do it, so i did ^__^

If you're curious, the cds were Black Holes and Revelations by Muse, a live album called HAARP, also by Muse and Puzzle by Biffy Clyro.

She seemed to like them so i was really pleased with that :)

But the funny part was my uncle went to take a picture of the front shop of the take away when a drunk guy stumbled out of it. He must have thought my uncle was taking a picture of him coz he came right up to the car and stared directly into it lmao

We were like "wut?"

And then he staggered off like nothing had happened. We were quite creeped out but at the same time it was hilarious.

Ahhhhh

We went back to the hotel, ate our meals while playing our favourite card game - Monkey - then hit the hay. This was the point that our French cousin, who i will also call TCWSTT(the cousin who sent the text)... sent the text to Lauren. I didn't know about this however, so i slept like a log.

Next Day

... we returned to our cousin's house and we watched England vs Germany lol

I will say one thing - oh dear

It was quite fun though. Unfortunately Lauren had to leave at half time and we still hadn't taken a decent picture for all you folks here!

So we're all "When should we take it? Where should we take it? How should we take it?" etc. etc.

Then we eventually asked TCWSTT to take one of us and one of my Muse necklace which Lauren bought for me.

Here it is :

I breathed a sigh of relief after we took it, coz to be honest, i thought we weren't going to end up getting anything.

Speaking of which, even after it was taken we still almost didn't get anything.

While the football was still on, TCWSTT was flicking through Lauren's camera. I didn't think anything of it, and i didn't know at the time that she had deleted the pictures we took. Why would i be suspicious of someone i love and trust to do such a thing?

I didn't find out till later of course, after Lauren left and i was quite sad when she did leave, i really enjoyed being with her.

But my state of mind was not to improve. Must have been about 7/8pm when i jumped on my ipod and found everything out.

It was quite an ordeal. I got really upset and locked myself in a bathroom, navigating my way (via ipod touch) through the mess which TCWSTT created.

The fact that TCWSTT was still around certainly didn't make things any easier. I couldn't bring myself to look at her or speak to her and i'm sure she clearly noticed this but i couldn't have cared less at the time. I just didn't want to be near her. I feigned illness and being cold for my lack of interaction.

We went back to the hotel for one last night and my brother and I got a cooler, different room coz my American aunt and uncle went home. It was good timing, i needed a less stuffy room, i needed to get some sleep and i knew that wouldn't be achieved sharing a room with 4 other people.

So, in more relaxing conditions i did get some sleep, not much though coz there was still too much swimming around my head for that.

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Of course, as you can see we did get the picture back (thanks to David for helping with that) but unfortunately we couldn't save the other two that were taken and they are now gone forever :/

My feelings about TCWSTT are very mixed, even now, 3 weeks after it happened.

I simply can't believe that a family member would betray their own family like that.

My mum did eventually find out what happened and she told me it was obvious to her that TCWSTT was jealous right from the off.

Yes, unbelievable though it may sound, she was jealous of the fact that i was spending time with a member of my own family.

So that provides a perfectly reasonable explanation for deleting the photos doesn't it?

The hell it does.

The saying goes, "forgive and forget."

I might be able to forgive... in time. I will never forget.

Next post will be in a few days.

Hugs,

Rowan

P.S Thanks for all the comments i got on my last post. It's actually the most i have received on a single post - 18. Cheers.

Not a Holiday Post, Thought I Would Share Some Stuff...

Be warned, this is quite a long post but i think it is of particular interest so i would be really pleased if you read it all. You don't have to of course tho, upto you :P


The first thing i want to share is this picture that David got drawn of myself, DJ and JJ.

He asked an artist in California to do it and i remember hearing about it a while ago and i forgot about it until i seen it not a few mins ago on JJ's page, so that was a nice surprise :)

Anyway, here it is :

JJ is the one closest, sitting on the rocks overlooking me and DJ in the water. I also appear to be chasing him :P

I think it's a really lovely picture and i want to say thank you to David :)

Maybe, one day (hopefully) the picture could become reality...

The next thing i want to share is unfortunately not as pleasant as the picture above.

This is something i saw someone posting about on a social network site i am on. I am friends with the person who posted this certain item, don't worry tho, she was condeming it.

It concerns a group of people called C.H.O.P.S

... *ahem*

Changing HomoSexuals to Ordinary People

:/

Maybe the best thing to do would be ignore this and things like it but i just couldn't because i actually found it quite laughable.

http://www.lovegodsway.org/

It's pathetic. Reading it wasn't nice but then there is this section on it called "Gay Bands" that parents must look out for to see if their kids are watching and i was laughing my ass off reading it. Here's the list of "Gay Bands" :

(oh btw, if over 3 of these bands are on your itunes etc. then you must seek help =P)

•Ween
•Lil'Wayne
•P!nK
•The Black Keys
•Coldplay - 1
•SlipKnot (wtf?) - 2
•RadioHead - 3 (oh no im screwed :O)
•Michael Jackson - 4
•Boredoms
•School of Seven Bells
•Jason Mraz
•Jonas Brothers
•Rilo Kiley
•Death Cab for Cutie
•Sarah McLachlan
•George Strait
•Cold War Kids
•Toby Keith
•P-Diddy
•Black People
•Vampire Weekend
•King Crimson
•Kate Bush
•Bob Dylan (wtf?) - 5
•Fleet Foxes
•Sigur Ros
•Twisted Sister
•The Spores
•Scissor Sisters (lol) - 6
•Turbonegro
•Rufus Wainwright
•Merzbau
•Ravi Shankar
•The Butchies
•Wilco
•Bjork
•Tech N9ne
•Ghostface Killah
•Bobby Conn
•Morton Subotnik
•Cole Porter
•The String Cheese Incident
•Eagles of Death Metal
•Polyphonic Spree
•The Faint
•Interpol - 7
•Twisted Sister
•Tegan and Sara
•Erasure
•The Grateful Dead
•Le Tigre
•Marilyn Manson (wtf?)
•The Gossip - 8
•The Magnetic Fields
•The Doors (WTF?) - 9
•Phish
•Queen (lulz) - 10
•The Strokes - 11
•Morrissey (huh?)
•Metallica (Seriously wtf?) - 12
•Judas Priest
•The Village People
•The Secret Handshake
•The Rolling Stones (come on now) - 13
•David Bowie - 14
•Frankie Goes to Hollywood - 15
•Man or Astroman
•Richard Cheese
•Jay-Z (is this really serious?)
•Depeche Mode - 16
•Kansas
•Ani DiFranco
•Fischerspooner
•John Mayer
•George Michael
•Angel Eyes
•Velvet Underground
•Madonna
•Elton John ( =P) - 17
•Barry Manilow
•Indigo Girls
•Melissa Etheridge
•Eminmen
•Nirvana (gtfo) - 18
•Boy George
•Jon Brion
•The Killers (*facepalm*) - 19
•Lou Reed - 20
•Lil' Wayne
•Motorhead (what?) - 21
•Jill Sobule
•Wilson Phillips
•DMX
•Wesley Willis
•Lisa Loeb
•Ted Nugent
•Dogstar
•Thirty Seconds to Mars
•Lil' Kim
•kd lang
•Frank Sinatra
•Hinder
•Nickleback - 22
•Justus Kohncke
•Bob Mould
•Clay Aiken
•Arcade Fire
•Bright Eyes
•Corinne Bailey Rae
•Audioslave
•Red Hot Chili Peppers - 23
•Panic at the Disco
•The Cure
•Spin Doctors
•The Deers
•Lindsey Lohan
•The Smiths
•Beck
•Tom Waits
•The Cramps
•Cannibal Corpse (this is a piss-take)
•Britney Spears
•Perfect Sin
•The Queers
•NoFx
•Soup Dragons
•Elton John (yeah, you already mentioned him)
 
 
I have 23 of them! There's no redemption for me!
 
But seriously, i couldn't not laugh at that inane drivel. I mean, Slipknot, Cannibal Corpse, Red Hot Chilli Peppers?
 
Queen, Scissor Sister and The Village People are understandable but honestly... come on!
 
I'm actually worried for those people and their questionable sanity. Their website suggests to me they have a bordeline personality disorder for crying out loud!
 
There's other mindless crap on their if you can bothered trawling through it. It's not a fun read but funny to see how... paranoid (?) some people are.
 
 
The worst thing about that was that i heard about it when i as at Steven's house last night. Yes, i went to his house and stayed last night...
 
I would have preferred not to, but i suppose i have to humour him. He has my Muse ticket and future iPhone after all :/
 
So yeh, i heard about CHOPS when i was on Steven's iPad *hides from David*. There wasn't much i could do, i just ignored it (as i did with Steven and his dad's usual prejudice comments) But it was fine after his dad went to bed, we both watched Kill Bill Vol.2, which btw is so epic! Then we watched The Punisher : War Zone.
 
Quite funny watching some Tarantino genius then some pointless gore-fest right after it.
 
Anyway, there is something else particularly significant i have to mention.
 
We headed to bed after the films and just lay talking etc. before actually going to sleep. You see, we were playing football with some friends before i even arrived at Steven's house so we were discussing that and the people who were there. Alan was there. This question came up from Steven :
 
"Do you think Alan is gay?"
 
(For those of you who don't remember, i have, for a while, wondered if one of my friends, Alan, is gay and also, i erm... quite have a crush on him =P)
 
After hearing the question, i froze.
 
"How?" i stammered
 
"I just think he might be"
 
"Why?"
 
"Well, he never talks about fit girls or anything, y'know?" then he went on to give examples.
 
But holy crap, i'm not the only person who thinks Alan might be gay :O
 
I dunno where to go from here. I actually wanted to discuss it more with Steven but i decided not to chance my luck.
 
I did chance my luck when the subject of Brighton arose, coz Steven has family near there we got talking about it.
 
I was looking on Google Maps and i went "Heh, there's Kemptown, aka Camptown"
 
Steven's dad : "Oh yeh, bloody Gay Pride Parade goes right through there"
 
Me : "No actually, it goes through Queen's Park" ... (fuck)
 
They both looked at me and i explained that i only knew coz my cousin lived in Brighton, which then brought more looks from them... "No, she has a boyfriend" i told them.
 
Then Steven said this, which was quite surprising "I don't care about bloody gays, just keep them the hell away from me... I don't mind Alan Carr but i hate how he acts, y'know?"
 
"The camp factor?"
 
"Yeh..."
 
That says to me that Steven simply dislikes the gay stereotype, which his dad has clearly forced him into thinking that all gay people are like that.
 
Ugh, stereotypes.
 
 
Anyhoo, i'll leave it there coz i know i've wrote a lot and it's probably a lot to digest. Congratulations if you made it this far! You get a hug for reading to this point :D
 
*hug for you*
 
Rowan
 
 
(P.S get more votes in on my Queen poll!!!)

Holiday Part 1 - Travelling to (and being in) London

3 weeks tomorrow is the day that my holiday started. That would be Thursday 24th June.

I'm not going to do a post covering each day coz then that would be about 18 posts lol. I will post a few days into one post, so some might be lengthy and some might not.

This post covers the first few days.

--------------------------------------------------------------

Day 1

I don't remember a great amount of detail about everything as this was almost three weeks ago now but travelling to Liverpool was really nothing amazing. We got in the car just after lunch and not long after we were there. That's it lol.

We planned to visit the Liverpool FC store when we got there but it was closed and i wasn't too happy about that :P

As everyone one of us were tired, an early meal was in order but it wasn't just any meal (well, i suppose it was) but there is a pizza place in Liverpool that my family *always* go to when we are there coz the pizza is simply amazing!

So we took our pizza back to our hotel (i say hotel, it was a basic Travelodge...) and we ate while watching some World Cup game on the tv, i've forgotten which.

Bed followed not long after.

Day 2

Early start on Friday morning... 4am.

Why so early?

2 reasons. We wanted to avoid traffic as much as possible and we were going to Thorpe Park (an amusement park which opens at about 9am)

Groggily, all 5 of us piled into the car and off we set. I don't normally sleep well in travelling vehicles of any sort but i got a little doze on the way to London :)

As early as it was appropriate, i text Lauren to tell her we were on our way :) (she would be arriving later that night)

I also got some glorious 20 minutes of wi-fi at a Starbucks when we stopped for a while.

Anyhoo, we got into London at about 8/9am and were greeted by our cousins who live in France, along with their parents and my aunt and uncle who live in California.

So, hugs and handshake all round lol

We checked in to our room etc but we didn't dilly-dally, we headed straight for Thorpe Park - 9 of us in total went ; 2 of my uncles, myself, my brother and sister, my dad and (what we call our cousins who live in France) The Frogs -  not that it mattered tho, the queue was still about an hour long. We didn't get in till about 11am...

Now. I ask the question, is it better to go on a big water ride at the start or at the end of the day?

I ask coz the water ride was the very first thing we done and my hair got destroyed!

My lovely straightened hair was a curly mess for the whole day :'(

Ho hum, i didn't actually care that much, just would have preferred to go on it at the end.

Right, i'm not a huge fan of crazy, scary, make-you-shit-yourself rides but i was dragged on this contraption called Stealth.

Yeh...

Little did i know it was Europe's fastest rollercoaster (0-80mph in 2 seconds) or that the queue was an hour long for a 10 second ride.

Anyway, needless to say, i was a nervous wreck for about an hour and my bladder almost killed me but that's another story.

I got the ol' butterflies in the stomach just before it was our turn to go on but when it was i just got on like any other ride. We took our seats, i was beside my Froggy uncle and a few seconds later... PHWOOSH!

... and 20 seconds later i was standing up again.

Here's a better idea for you :D

That's me screaming btw ;)

After that, we just kinda did a tour of the park, went on a bunch of other stuff and had a wonderful time.

Had a quick shower, tidy up etc. when we got back to the hotel and then everyone went to this pub/restaraunt in the evening.

I wasn't very hungry coz i knew that Lauren would arrive when we were there, it was just a matter of time. Every car that pulled into the pub i was like "Is it her!?" lol, even thought i had no idea what the car looked like :P

Must have been there for a good hour or so before Lauren and her parents did arrive and there were more hugs and handshakes when they did.

This was followed by general chit-chat and MONSTER desert!

They did not get finished...

Not long after, we left, we got the bum's rush. J/k.

I got in a car with Lauren, a French cousin of mine (who is known as "TCWSTT" on here) and Lauren's dad, who drove of course.

Biffy Clyro's "Only Revolutions" was in the cd player and so there it went. A bit of "singing" commenced and that was quite funny. There's also this thing in my uncle's car where you can connect your phone to the dashboard through bluetooth. We did, and the dashboard says the name of the person you are trying to call in my uncle's voice. So he called Lauren's mobile and he has her listed under "L Mob" and then you just here this thing from the dashboard blurt out "ELLLL MOBBBB!!!"

It's one of those "you have to be there" moments i suppose but i'm sure Lauren will know what i'm talking about.

Anyhoo, nothing much else happened worth speaking about. We returned to the hotel and went to our separate rooms (which, btw were waaaay too warm) and i had to share a bed with my brother. Why my mum didn't book two separate rooms, i'll never know but there you go.

Regardless of the warmth in the rooms, i fell asleep fairly quick, it was a long day and i knew i needed some decent slumber for meeting the rest of my family and the birthday party the next day.

--------------------------------------------------------------

It's a good thing i have all this to talk about or i probably wouldn't have much else interesting to say lol.

Erm... i got a new mini-fridge...?

Oh, actually there is someone i need to say thank you to. One who goes by the name of Chris Bright. I haven't seen you around here in months Chris but what you sent me at Christmas, i put into use yesterday and well... thanks a lot :)

Just remembered something else actually lol

The poll. Queen won with 53% of the votes. Other came in 2nd. Muse 3rd. Rage 4th. Wolfmother 5th. And Kasabian were last with no votes :(

Poor Kasabian. I'll just say one thing. I watched the highlights of their show at T in the Park and they were epic, so there! *blows raspberry*

Anyway, i thought Queen would win, so now i am going to do another poll :D

"What is your favourite Queen album?"

I'm going to leave this up till next Friday evening and you can select multiple albums if you like. (but don't be a tool and select all of them, just 2 or 3 will do)

Let's hope this one goes well, personally, my vote goes to "A Day at the Races"

What's yours?

Hugs,

Rowan

This is one of the songs that Lauren and I "sang" along to :P

Where To Start?

So much has happened over the past 2/3 weeks, i don't even know where to begin talking about it...

I'll cover some things for now i suppose


Lanzarote was hot (obviously =P)

My sister was annoying for nearly the whole trip. Not one day went past when she didn't cry about something not even worth crying about. I think she just likes whinging, it's rather irritating.

Family reunion was good of course apart from one dampner but let's just forget about that. I met Lauren and we still have a photo so i'm really happy with that.

I didn't get any awkward questions from uncles or cousins either :)

London was hot too, hottest day of the year yesterday and i just happened to be there lol

I'm not there any longer, got the overnight bus home last night. Needless to say, it wasn't very pleasant or comfortable and was quite lonely.

As was Lanzarote... for the most part. I met another guy 2 days before we were due to leave and i got on well with him. Before that was quite lonesome, i had a spell of a few days where i just wished i was home. One day was particularly awful, i recieved some bad news, lost some money, got sunburnt badly and all that on top of having no one else around.


Things picked up though when a met this other boy but i'll go into more detail later.

I don't know when i will start posting about it, i do plan to start from the start so there may be quite a few posts about the whle holiday but In the mean time, if you haven't already, please go and read my cousin's 3 posts about the family reunion and then when i post about it, it will all kind of link together.

I'm really tired and won't be staying up late at all tonight. I'm looking forward to watching the world cup final then going to bed. MY OWN BED!

But before that i need to round off this post and get out of the library (yes, it's still open after 7pm, it closes in 7 minutes O_O)

I'm in the library coz the internet on my computer doesn't work right now although it does for my ipod and xbox :S

Strange but hopefully it'll be up and running soon and i can get posting. That is if anyone round here cares or hasn't forgotten about me...

We'll see

Bye for now


P.S My poll still has a day left to go and has so far only received 24 votes. Lovely, don't think i'll be doing another one. Cheers 66 followers, you can add a last minute vote if you want but... whatever.

...Has Returned

Back from Lanzarote.

Currently in London.

Holiday was good.

Bit lonely.

Lots of sun.

Lots of beer.

Will post all soon.

Watch this space.