Barcelondon

In the short day I had left of Barcelona, I went out on my own - towards the Picasso Museum. I was hugely disappointed when there was a HUGE line to go inside so I didn't get to go at all. I quickly browsed through shops and got myself a handmade replica Picasso cat. It is so cute. 

Then I went to a bakery and got my mum and I brunch, 3 baked goods each. Then we checked out and headed to the airport. Barcelona airport is a mess, so we got off at the wrong stop. Lucky we were early. Then we checked in and went through customs, to only find out that the Tax Free office was at the OTHER terminal, outside. We had time so we decided to do it. We walked there, to only be told by the Tax Free Office that we can only do it in London. Strange, because we had been able to do it at all the other countries and what does England wanna do with Spanish's tax. I guess its the whole European deal. It is so confusing though because Britain isn't even a part of the Schengen deal. 

SO, we walked all the way back to our terminal, went through customs again and waited for the plane. Waited for the plane for 1 hour… then 2 hours.. then we finally got allowed to be on board the bus that takes us to the plane.. we waited in the bus for 30 minutes then they decided to call us out. OH there was a technical difficulty with the plane, YAY!

I got bored in mum's changing rooms...

So the grumpy passengers waited and waited. We finally got to fly but we were gonna be in London late. The flight was boring, I finished the 50 Shades Trilogy, boring. I picked up newspapers that were left on the Gatwick train to London city and read that this "mummy porn" novels like 50 Shades is becoming a trend and that there's another trilogy coming out that's exactly the same. What is this? Are ladies that desperate? The stories are pathetic and even the sex scenes are so repetitious. I didn't even read them. They were yawn inducing.

We finally got to London, checked into our hotel which was this stuffy apartment. I thought I'd make use of the kitchen so I headed out to the groceries to save us some dosh. London is crazy expensive especially with the Olympic mania going on. Our metro ticket costed like 6 dollars each ONE WAY. I usually even complain of 3 dollars one way but this was such a rip off.

I didn't buy this

I picked up some food, some bacon, eggs, tomato, yoghurt, orange juice for the morning too. We slept hot and stuffy. London was for once, warm.

I woke up in the morning and cooked up a storm. It was pretty delicious considering we had no condiments (including salt). We checked out and headed to Oxford Circus. We spent the whole day shopping and eating, we couldn't be bothered dealing with the crowds anywhere else and we did most of the attractions on our first visit anyway.

We were close to having to go back to the hotel for our bus to pick us up to the airport, then we saw people huddling on the side of the streets… NO WAY! THE TORCH WAS COMING!

I bought this

We saw this Coca Cola bus that was handing out limited edition London Olympic aluminium bottles so we lined up. Lucky we were around at the right time, we only waited ten minutes and after we got ours, the line was HUGE! Mum had her bag zipped open on the ESCALATOR down to the metro. So crazy, we don't keep anything in her bag anymore so we were just like, meh!

The Olympics must be bringing a pickpocket fiesta as well. Same thing as their government jacking up the prices too anyway. 

The Torch was on its way but we just missed it. We had to go catch the metro back to the hotel. When we got to the hotel, the man was already waiting for us. He was a little cranky. So we had no time to sort out our stuff, we just had to grab and go.

This driver was totally insane. His driving made me want to vomit. 

I won't spare you the boring details of flights but I spent about 30+ hours in planes and airports. I went from London > Bangkok > Taipei > Brisbane. London was about a 13 hour flight, one hour stop in Bangkok, 4 hour flight to Taipei, 2 hours stop in Taipei, 9 hour flight to Brisbane. 

My legs swell so much up on the plane, they hurt so much. I don't know how people sleep so well. I had a spoiled rich kid sit next to me and put her feet and arm in my area, also head on my shoulder. She would also slam her head against her chair in frustration every 5 minutes and it annoyed the shit out of me. And when she wanted to get out she would tap me and say, "Can I get out?"

Sometimes I would say, "What?" on purpose so I can give her another chance to say something like, "Can you please let me out so I can go to the toilet? THANK YOU!"

But to no prevail. She never had manners. I watched a bunch of Chinese movies because I watched all the English ones on my journey to Europe. We finally made it home.

Home sweet home. Post holiday blues. Jet lagged.

I'm also in a little pickle. It has nearly been a year since King's passing, its amazing how fast time goes when you're grieving too. His friends and family do a gathering every 2 months so it was going to be on 5th of August. I thought that was gonna be it, so I booked my flight down to Melbourne on the 8th so I can rehearse enough before my concert down there on the 16th (Yeah I haven't done any promoting yet).

People have asked me to sing at King's tribute that is scheduled to be on the 12th of August. I've never really sung for anyone. This would be my first time I would sing for anyone who cares for me. Real people. America was people I could run away from. And its even stranger because, from King's tragedy came the beauty of my confidence, music and passion. So I feel weird about it all. 

I know he would want me to do it but I also need to rehearse with my band in Melbourne before the concert.. so do I do the crazy epic journey of flying down to Melbourne, back up to Brisbane then flying back down to Melbourne for the concert?? I know I know the answer but its such a money drainer.